Chapter 22

Chapter 22

“Young Clan Leader, let’s create some chaos to distract the royal family. If we delay any longer, I fear the prison will detect our presence. If that happens, today’s operation will be a complete failure!”

Nair Inan, hidden in the darkness, nodded upon hearing this. “Very well.”

The group of insects tossed timed light bombs into areas where no innocents would be harmed, then quickly departed.

To avoid drawing attention, they wore inconspicuous black protective suits and stuck to narrow, unnoticed alleys.

After walking for over half an hour, they spotted their spacecraft concealed in the sky. The insects unfurled their wings and flew directly aboard.

Inside the spacecraft, waiting crew members quickly opened the hatch. Once everyone was inside, they immediately sealed the door and sped away from Planet Larenha.

Only when the spacecraft was steadily cruising through space did the insects begin conversing with their Young Clan Leader.

Franche, the most skilled in mechanics, had already picked up his tools to dismantle the inhibition ring around Nair Inan’s neck.

“Young Clan Leader, my apologies for the intrusion.”

Nair Inan didn’t mind, simply tilting his head.

Franche, despite his hulking and seemingly simple-minded appearance, worked with remarkable precision.

The tiny tools in his hands seemed to possess a life of their own, moving deftly and fluidly across the narrow inhibition ring—less like dismantling and more like a performance.

Once the inhibition ring was finally removed, the performance concluded.

“Franche’s skills are truly exceptional. If they discover the Young Clan Leader has been rescued and then trace the locator on the inhibition ring, it would be disastrous,” Wawen praised from the side.

Although they were already far enough from Planet Larenha and had activated a signal jammer, there was no guarantee the locator wouldn’t be detected.

Moreover, no one knew if the inhibition ring contained a dangerous self-destruct device.

The removed inhibition ring was tossed directly into a waste shredder and ejected into space, becoming just another piece of drifting space debris.

With the dangerous item disposed of, all eyes turned to Nair Inan. Wawen then noticed the long, strip-like object on the Young Clan Leader’s back, which he seemed to have been carrying himself without letting others touch it.

“Young Clan Leader, who is this insect?”

Seeing his subordinates’ gazes shift to Lu Cian, Nair Inan explained, “He’s a friend I made in prison.”

The insects’ gazes grew even more astonished. They hadn’t expected their Young Clan Leader to make friends.

Then, they quickly realized: their Young Clan Leader wasn’t that old—why couldn’t he make friends?

“Young Clan Leader, is your new friend very capable?” Wawen asked, not out of malice, but pure curiosity.

Given the commotion they had caused without waking him, this insect’s abilities must be quite ordinary. Wawen couldn’t help but wonder what special quality this insect possessed to earn the Young Clan Leader’s favor.

Nair Inan opened his mouth, wanting to say that this insect was useless, extremely weak, couldn’t even partially transform, and was even deformed.

But saying such things would sound like deliberate disparagement, which didn’t align with his usual temperament.

Nair Inan thought for a moment, then said, “His cooking is excellent.”

The insects were all shocked, because an insect skilled in cooking was likely either a noble or an exceptionally talented commoner.

Wawen inquired, “Young Clan Leader, is he a noble?”

An excellent commoner female would certainly not be like this male insect, completely lacking in vigilance.

As for why good cooking skills implied nobility—ordinary insect citizens might not understand, but they knew that culinary arts were largely monopolized by the nobles on the homeworld.

In truth, the insect race’s cooking and culinary techniques were quite refined, but this was only relative to the nobility.

Because female insects learned cooking to better serve male insects.

Good cooking was one of the means by which noble female insects pleased male insects, so they naturally monopolized this skill.

In insect society, lower-class female insects had no way to learn culinary skills; only by being admitted to higher academies could they study cooking.

But in reality, many female insects, after being admitted to higher academies, discovered that this course was an elective that required fierce competition to enroll in.

And securing a spot in a course was also a new form of unspoken rule.

Many nobles would receive information earlier than commoner insects, such as when a class was available, when they could enroll, and how to secure a spot faster.

Even if noble female insects couldn’t secure a spot, they could hire highly skilled chefs to teach them.

Their starting point was already superior to that of ordinary female insects, so culinary arts did not become widespread among ordinary female insects.

Not only that, but ordinary female insects had no access to various seasonings that could improve the taste of food.

If they secretly studied cooking and made food that was just moderately good, it was fine. But if it was exceptionally delicious, and a noble discovered it, they could be sued in court for “stealing noble secrets.”

Nobles were just that domineering.

As for Nair Inan, as the Young Clan Leader of the Shelley Clan, and also a noble, he could have attended a higher academy to learn cooking. But at that time, he had just undergone his first evolution, and later his clan was continuously attacked by outsiders. The Shelley Clan was branded as traitors, and he was forced to endure several years of fugitive life, with no time to learn cooking techniques.

Therefore, Nair Inan’s cooking skills were not just lacking; they were abysmal.

Lu Cian’s extraordinary culinary skills had also made Nair Inan wary and curious.

After all, this was a unique skill of noble female insects, a skill that even wealth couldn’t guarantee. Yet, a stowaway from a barren planet could master it proficiently, which naturally raised suspicions about his identity.

But Nair Inan believed he had some ability to discern insects, and during their time together, he hadn’t found any deception in Lu Cian.

If the other party was truly deceiving him, Nair Inan would certainly doubt Lu Cian’s identity and motives.

Lu Cian showed no flaws, and Nair Inan was inclined to believe that his deceased father and brother, as he claimed, might have been noble criminals who had escaped.

And perhaps because Nair Inan had paid so much attention to Lu Cian, this insect seemed to occupy a special place in his heart.

Hearing Wawen’s doubts about Lu Cian’s identity, Nair Inan shook his head: “No, he used to live on a barren planet.”

The insects looked at each other, all seeing the shock in each other’s eyes.

They hadn’t expected there to be a noble insect worse off than them, reduced to scavenging on a barren planet.

A barren planet, euphemistically called an undeveloped planet, was privately known among all insects as a garbage planet.

A wanted female insect, unless her abilities were exceptionally poor, would not hide on a garbage planet.

A garbage planet was called such because all its resources were depleted, it had no mining value, and its environment was extremely harsh.

With such a poor environment, female insects of average strength could not live there, unable to withstand the planet’s extreme weather: high temperatures and severe cold, acid rain and acid fog, sandstorms, cosmic radiation, and geomagnetic storms.

The insects willing to hide and survive on a garbage planet were tough insects, probably wanted by the entire insect race, and had no other choice but to hide there.

The insects’ gazes towards Lu Cian were instantly filled with sympathy.

“Alright, tell me about this operation,” Nair Inan redirected their attention.

Damon quickly stepped forward to report: “Since the Young Clan Leader’s predicament… we had only recently arrived on this planet and had just received news of you. Our preparations were insufficient; we initially thought we could only scout the area and return to make thorough preparations before proceeding further. We never imagined we would actually rescue you.”

Damon had some suspicions about the underlying reasons, but lacking concrete evidence, he didn’t voice them.

Wawen likewise grumbled, “It’s strange how smoothly this operation went. Is Larenha Prison understaffed? They didn’t even notice insects sneaking in through the ventilation shafts—absolutely derelict!”

“We left too quickly. We should have given the head of Larenha Prison a little gift to show him how incompetent his subordinates are! Such incompetent subordinates shouldn’t be sent out to embarrass the insect race!”

Damon gave him a speechless glance, inwardly despising him. This Wawen always called Franche foolish and stupid, yet he himself wasn’t any smarter.

Damon glanced at the Young Clan Leader’s expression before speaking: “It’s not that the warden misjudged his insects, nor that the prison guards are useless. It’s possible the warden simply opened the door for us.”

Nair Inan nodded approvingly upon hearing this.

Damon knew he had guessed correctly and received praise from the Young Clan Leader, his face beaming with pride.

Seeing this, Wawen pouted. Once again, Damon had stolen the spotlight!

He had forgotten that the warden of Larenha Prison had once been saved by their clan leader, owing the Shelley Clan a debt of gratitude, which he naturally had to repay.

However, while the warden wanted to repay the debt, he was still a citizen of the Empire. As long as he wished to remain in the Empire, he would not attempt to secretly release Nair Inan or fake his death—such treasonous acts.

The Young Clan Leader had to be rescued by their own efforts; the other party could at most turn a blind eye.

In fact, the task of guarding Nair Inan was not under the jurisdiction of the Larenha Prison warden.

Larenha Prison merely served as his place of confinement, where the proud Shelley Clan Young Leader was subjected to mental and physical torment, forced to mine like an ordinary prisoner, and denied food if he failed to meet fixed quotas.

For a clan leader, this was truly a great humiliation.

The insect guarding Nair Inan was actually hidden in the shadows.

However, as time passed, the Insect Emperor somewhat forgot about this insect, and the subordinates also became lax.

Those guards were initially vigilant, but after more than half a year, not only did no insects attempt a prison break, but Nair Inan himself seemed to have adopted a resigned attitude.

The once aloof and proud Young Leader of the Shelley Clan had now become a convict ringleader, his shattered image making everyone believe he was no longer a threat.

The military female assigned to guard him was originally a formidable character. Had she been present, even if Nair Inan could escape, he would have suffered severe injuries or had to leave some subordinates behind to get away.

Coincidentally, this military female had a male consort and was completely infatuated with him.

Two days prior, she had taken a week’s leave to spend time with her male consort.