Chapter 105

Chapter 105

Wawen was also wolfing down his food. He used to find Timothy's eating habits embarrassing, but now he had no time to mock him.

It was truly delicious—how could food be this good?!

Before, Little Lu... no, he should respectfully address him as Mr. Lu.

Mr. Lu's cooking was already amazing, but with authentic seasonings and rare ingredients, the flavors became even more incredible!

Damn, he had wasted so many years of his life before this!

Wawen couldn't help but wonder: if market-sold ingredients were already this delicious, then the imperial family's exclusive ingredients must produce dishes so divine they'd make one swallow their own tongue!

With this thought, Wawen only sped up his chopsticks, chewing the meat slices with fervor. They had to expand their influence quickly—those delicious ingredients couldn’t be left to the royal leeches!

After Ximeno returned and filled them in, and following another meal in the canteen, the remaining suspicions about space pirates on the ship were completely put to rest.

The food on the ship was truly exquisite, just a notch below the head chefs of "Sea and Sky." With such outstanding culinary skills, the crew couldn’t possibly be space pirates.

With cooking this good, winning male insects over would be effortless. Who would be foolish enough to abandon a bright future to join space pirates?

Unless they were total morons.

...

As the ship traveled back, Lu Cian stayed busy.

To produce knockoff "Love Pearls," they needed to purchase large quantities of high-quality jade.

However, in the eyes of the insect race, both high and low-quality jade were just worthless stones.

Though worthless, to monopolize the market later, they needed to acquire at least 60% of the high-quality jade available.

This was a massive business venture, involving a fortune. To prevent shady dealers from passing off inferior goods, Lu Cian also needed the male insects' help—using their names to make purchases on the Starnet.

As thanks, and to back up his earlier story about buying so many Harper Clan members, Lu Cian offered the Harper Clan some suggestions. They were happy to perform dances.

Lu Cian couldn’t dance, but he'd seen it all.

Human lifespans were short, but they pushed boundaries in all fields. Compared to the military, strength-based, or even raunchy dances of the insect race’s females, male insects occasionally preferred something lighter—simple, catchy internet dance trends.

Some male insects bobbed their heads while nibbling on snacks from the side tables, clearly into it.

"This is awesome! Everyone, dance along! The music, the steps, the atmosphere—it’s perfect!"

When Lu Cian entered, he saw Ximeno getting his buddies pumped to join the dancers.

The vibe was indeed lively, resembling a rich kids' rager.

After a round of dancing, Ximeno spotted Lu Cian and tried to pull him in, but Lu Cian refused.

Ximeno, feeling a bit worn out, sat down for some juice and snacks to rest.

Gesturing for Lu Cian to join him, Ximeno said, "This banquet might be small and the guest list short, but it’s so wildly different!"

Lu Cian raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What’s novel about it?"

He remembered male insects hosting banquets with dancing too—though they usually preferred watching female insects dance.

Ximeno immediately retorted, "How could it be the same?!"

Lu Cian: "How is it different?"

Wiping his hands, Ximeno explained, "In the past, during... workouts, I’d feel happy in the moment, but afterward, I’d be exhausted—both physically and mentally. For days, I’d feel weird."

Getting excited, he continued, "But this time is different! Even though my legs are a bit sore after dancing, after resting a while, I feel like I could go again! The more I move, the more energized I get!"

At first, Lu Cian didn’t understand, feeling a bit lost—until it clicked, leaving him speechless.

Two-bug action was indeed a form of exercise. No argument there.

But banquets weren’t just about two-bug action—they were orgy situations. No matter how well-endowed a male insect was, overdoing it... would still drain them.

Marrying so many female insects was already draining enough, yet they still hunted for more at banquets...

Truly, male insects were insatiable. No wonder the seduction kits he sold were so popular.

To be fair, Lu Cian did care about male insects' sustainable development. He’d instructed Joseph and the others to include performance enhancers in the flirting products. Otherwise, if male insects treated them like daily meals, disaster was inevitable.

Lu Cian laughed it off, not answering Ximeno’s question.

The more he spoke, the more mistakes he might make. If Ximeno asked about past banquets and he couldn’t answer, his cover might be blown.

At this point, Lu Cian had forgotten—he was posing as an underage male, who, by logic, shouldn’t have been involved in multi-insect activities. He could’ve just played the virgin card.

Lu Cian smiled. "If you like it, dance more. It gets you hyped and strengthens the body."

As a new song started, the dance steps got even crazier. Ximeno eagerly rejoined the crowd, calling back, "You sound just like my empress consort!"

Lu Cian quickly changed the subject. "Actually, I need to discuss something with you—about purchasing jade..."

Ximeno waved him off. "You got it! Go talk to my empress consort!"

Without waiting for a reply, he bolted back to the dance floor.

Watching the hyped-up bugs, Lu Cian wasn’t sure whether to laugh at their naivety or hate his own cunning.

Naivety was good, though. Lu Cian rubbed his fingertips. The insect race had coddled these guys for the sake of survival, and now, by some twist of fate, they’d boarded his ship to oppose the empire.

What goes around...

In his heart, Lu Cian could only apologize to them.

...

Using the male insects' connections, Lu Cian acquired tons of high-quality raw jade, instructing sellers to deliver them to a planet along their return route.

During their stop on that ordinary planet, they spent time processing the jade, mass-producing and dumping their first batch of "Love Pearls" to establish the Annan brand’s reputation before gradually marketing the jade’s value.

Additionally, their hemp nettle supply was running low, necessitating a trip to Hemp Nettle Star for a fresh harvest. Fortunately, their advance team hadn’t all returned to the new starzone—some remained outside to assist. Otherwise, their ship wouldn’t have had enough space.

Finally, they were heading home!

But before that, they had some cleanup.

Before re-entering the new starzone, they’d pass through a special meteorite magnetic field. The male insects' wrist-coms and protective devices would detect anomalies and trigger alarms.

This protection system was highly intelligent—friendly to male insects, but a nightmare for enemies. If a male insect’s life was threatened, the alarm would transmit a signal in advance. Even if the male died or the device was destroyed, the alarm would stubbornly keep working, sending the signal back to the MPA.

The Male Protection Association received the signal and, for the safety of the male consorts, gained the authority to bypass hierarchy. They could even hijack the male consorts' neural links, forcing the feed to activate to view the transmitted footage.

So far, the rogue bugs of the insect-kind had yet to find a reliable method to abduct or kill male consorts without triggering the protective mechanisms.

But Lu Cian was truly ridiculously lucky. Their spacecraft carried a member of the Lam Tribe, renowned for their brilliant intellect.

Preparations had begun long before they planned to abduct those male consorts.

Timothy's combat skills were poor, but his technical abilities far surpassed those of Fletcher and Nair Inan.

Previously, the rescued female slaves had their suppression rings melted off with a dissolving solution. Later, the suppression rings on the female insects were all disabled.

This was entirely thanks to Timothy's exceptional skills.

Thus, taking down all the male consorts' guards was effortless—no violence was even necessary. They were quietly slipped suppression rings onto them unnoticed, ready to activate on command.

These suppression rings weren’t designed to punish female insects with electric shocks but rather to suppress their overpowering psychic and physical abilities. If a female insect attempted to resist, the ring would release an anesthetic to knock them out instantly.

Beyond that, the high-powered tracking and auto-alert systems on the male consorts' neural links were also bypassed.

Timothy had spent the entire journey researching and finally managed to block the signals of these functions while simulating the male consorts' neural link signals, rerouting them to a barren planet.

These male consorts had already told their families they’d be traveling, stating they wouldn’t return for at least a year or more. Unless their elders summoned them back for urgent matters, no one would probably miss them.

The spacecraft smoothly navigated into the asteroid field. This time, it wasn’t Nair Inan piloting, and with the enhanced cloaking tech and improved spacecraft performance, they could detect dangers from much farther away, calculating and evading oncoming asteroids.

When the main screen showed them entering uncharted space—one not marked on any star chart—all the newly arrived female insects were stunned.

The male consorts, however, felt nothing. Coddled as they’d always been, they had no need to understand star charts, nor could they read them.

But seeing their empress consorts and concubines—every single one—displaying expressions of shock, some even bolting toward the display in awe, the male consorts couldn’t help but glance at the display, wondering what was so extraordinary about those lights.

Yet, after looking, the male consorts were disappointed. Just some glowing orbs of varying sizes—no different from the occasional star charts they’d seen before.

Could it be that the mineral resources on these planets were exceptionally rare?

Even so, that shouldn’t justify ignoring their male consorts in favor of staring at resource planets, right?

After all, no matter how precious the insect race’s mineral resources were, none could compare to the value of male consorts!

One male consort grabbed his empress consort, who had unconsciously stepped forward, his expression darkening as he demanded, "What do you think you're doing?"

How dare she ignore him to gape at some stupid star map?

Clearly, he had been too lenient with her lately, allowing her to disregard his authority!