Chapter 571

Inside the land insect.

"Dong... Dong..."

A faint, rhythmic thumping reverberated through the dim, seemingly endless tunnel.

The tunnel's diameter was at least several tens of kilometers; its walls were viscous and smooth, and upon close inspection one could easily see countless vein‑like patterns.

The tunnel's peripheral walls twitched briefly in time with the "Dong... Dong..." sounds, suggesting that this so‑called tunnel might be the respiratory tract—or perhaps the esophagus—of a gigantic creature.

And here is the interior of the Tai Luo Insect.

At this moment, Shengjilesi, still cloaked, and two hundred Holy Blood Guards activated noise‑nullifying levitation devices and flew deeper into the tunnel.

The pristine white wings that grant Shengjilesi flight without armor were also folded inward.

After all, the airflow generated by flapping wings is far more turbulent than the field fluctuations of a levitation device.

With the entire expeditionary force serving as bait, Shengjilesi and the Holy Blood Guards finally managed to infiltrate this place, seeking a target suitable for a decapitation mission.

Based on over a year of engagements with the Tyranid-like Insect Race, it is judged that any biological fleet, regardless of size, will have a leader‑level, lord‑level, or Tyrant‑class insect serving as commander, receiving the hive mind's will to control lower‑rank kin.

Leaders, lords, Tyrants, and the few queens possess a considerable degree of self‑awareness.

If they are successfully slain, the insect fleet can regenerate a replacement relatively quickly, but until the "regeneration" is complete, the fleet falls into chaos and disorder.

Therefore, during this window the Empire's forces can easily annihilate the headless swarm fleet.

Now, the three OriginalBodies are applying this tactic to the land insects, to confirm that the core of the insect contains a single brain, perhaps the leader of the entire Tai Luo Insect Race.

If they cut it down, they might permanently resolve the Tai Luo Insect Race and, secondly, turn the current battle around.

After flying for several minutes more, Shengjilesi and his group still encountered no obstacles.

The calmer it gets, the more abnormal it feels; this maxim is widely known among all Astate and throughout the Empire's forces.

Soon.

Their party emerged from the relatively "narrow" tunnel into an extremely vast chamber illuminated by dark red light.

Looking around, the walls were still composed of vascular, supple biological tissue, supported by numerous milky‑white and violet bones serving as load‑bearing pillars and irregular floor tiles.

Looking toward the opposite end of the tunnel, one could see a web‑like bone wall, through whose gaps the dark red glow of a red dwarf star—crucial to the Tai Luo Insect Race—bathed the entire chamber.

At the same time…

"Boom! Boom!"

Dense, faintly green‑glowing bio‑cannon batteries bombarded the OriginalBody and the Honor Guard from multiple angles.

The batteries, capable of destroying an Olympus Class shield, detonated outright, raising a thick haze and plasma‑like ripples.

But in an instant, a dark‑gold Spiritual Shock reversed the bio‑cannon's effects and bypassed the "after‑effect dissipation" step.

The party had already de‑cloaked, and Shengjilesi's wings fluttered slightly; it seemed the one who released the dark‑gold Spiritual Shock was this nearly flawless OriginalBody.

Moreover, the two hundred Holy Blood Guards beside Shengjilesi unfurled metallic wing‑like appendages, raising their parallel explosive arrows, molten and plasma cannons, aimed at the chamber's center.

Following their gaze, one could see numerous massive leader‑class warrior insects.

These creatures resembled, in appearance and size, the chief warrior that had heavily damaged the Trapper formation, but their crown‑shaped head armor was larger and more pronounced, their exoskeleton sharper, and adorned with many blood‑red glowing patterns.

In addition to two pairs of four massive, razor‑sharp bone blades that possess bio‑decomposition properties, they also bore a pair of roughly 1000 mm bio‑cannons resembling rough cigars, capable of firing bio‑cannon batteries with disintegration effects.

Thus, they are elite units—variants of chief warrior insects whose combat power matches or exceeds that of the Honor Guard—and each possesses a degree of independent thought, making them relatively rare within the Tai Luo Insect Race.

Before Shengjilesi and his companions stood at least five hundred leader‑class insects; pulse scans yielded the precise count of 517.

Regarding this.

Even Shengjilesi, with his helmet unfolded, wore a faint frown.

Because leader‑class insects represent the highest combat power of a large‑scale swarm fleet.

The Honor Guard cannot afford complacency before them; they must remain hyper‑vigilant, lest a slip leads to an instant kill by a leader‑class.

As for the protection offered by their father?

As veteran Astate Holy Blood Angels, they never considered that; from the moment they entered the corps, it was to share their father's burden, not to increase it.

The being capable of gathering so many leader‑class insects and being guarded by swarms sat cross‑legged on a tic‑tac‑toe‑shaped stepped platform, its form resembling a...

"toad".

Its body was overly plump and bulky, with irregular writhing tentacles and a coat of unevenly sized violet exoskeleton plates, giving the overall appearance of a gigantic toad stitched together from various species.

Ancient and sluggish.

That was the opponent's first impression of Shengjilesi and the Holy Blood Guards.

More importantly, the toad waved one of its limbs—an arm magnified many times beyond a human's, with a six‑fingered structure—signaling the nearby leaders to cease fire.

Immediately after, it fixed its uneven, bubble‑like eyes on the top and sides of its head upon Shengjilesi, and, using an unknown organ, spoke:

"Human."

But as soon as the toad uttered a word, a dark‑gold Spiritual Energy arrow, traveling at near‑light speed, cut it off.

Boom!!

The arrow hit the toad with perfect accuracy.

In an instant, dark‑gold radiance filled the vast chamber.

Even though the Tai Luo Insect Race heavily suppresses Spiritual Energy, the burst of this Spiritual Energy arrow was comparable to a galactic‑scale Spiritual Shock.

Yet after the radiance faded, the toad and all leader‑class insects suffered no damage; Shengjilesi, wielding a hunting bow, had already anticipated this.

If a single arrow could settle it, their expeditionary force would have avoided the bloodiest battle the Astate have suffered since the Empire's founding.

Shengjilesi merely used the arrow to test the waters, to gauge the opponent's strength.

Without concealment, he lowered his left hand, signaling the Holy Blood Guards to act opportunistically, then flapped his rear wings while flying toward the toad, saying without apology:

"My rash attack earlier was truly regrettable; please continue."

"."

That toad, though aware that humans are often 'despicable' and favor surprise attacks without warning, knows that knowledge differs vastly from personal experience.

Fortunately, the toad didn't overthink anything; it merely fell silent a moment, then continued to let the resonant words of response ripple throughout the space again:

"Human, I... we know your origins: you are the tenth son of the Human Sovereign, and also the OriginalBody of the Sanguine Angel."

"This also gives you sufficient qualification to negotiate with me... us."

"Negotiation? Trade?" Shengjilesi retorted: "Before that, I need to know where you and your race truly come from, and why you recklessly devour everything."

In theory, the Human Empire could never negotiate or trade with an insectoid civilization, and if his father were here, he would likely have slain that toad outright.

But Shengjilesi needed more time to analyze and observe the toad's weakness, to deliver a killing blow, avoid mistakes—after all, he couldn't waste the opportunity his two brothers had fought for.

Moreover, they indeed needed all information about the Tai Luo Insect Race.

"Want to learn more about us?" but that toad instantly saw through Shengjilesi's thoughts, yet shifted tone and said:

"Heh... but we aren't that stingy; this request can still be satisfied for you—consider it frank disclosure before negotiations."

You named us after a planet as Tai Luo, but in fact we should be called the 'Unique Ancients (theOldOnes).'

"The Unique Ancients..." Shengjilesi's brow twitched slightly; he always felt the other party might be related to some long-extinct races his father had mentioned in the Zero Three Universe.

The toad, however, didn't care what Shengjilesi was pondering, and continued speaking: "The Unique Ancients is not a self-designation; it is actually an honorific for the races and civilizations we created and refined."

In terms of years you humans can comprehend, it was roughly ten billion years ago...

Next.

The toad told Shengjilesi everything about what it, or rather they, were before, during, and after becoming the insect race.

First, they were indeed a group that ought to have vanished in the historical river of the Zero Three Universe, but due to betrayal, deceit, and similar ordeals, they were nearly exterminated.

Combined with the 'Unique Ancients'...

If Sui Bian were present, he might understand this much more clearly than Shengjilesi, for this is precisely the background-level race in Warhammer 40k that the Human Empire could comprehend from its past life when isotopes were drawn into the main universe—

The Ancients.

Of course, Shengjilesi doesn't know these, and the Zero Three Universe also differs considerably from Warhammer 40k, especially regarding entities like the Zero Three Emperor who peered into past and future, even calculating and controlling the entire universe.

The toad said the singularity explosion in the Zero Three Universe occurred 16 billion years ago, which is quite similar to that of the main universe.

Moreover, in the first six billion years, the universe rapidly expanded, temperature steadily dropped, and all matter began to randomly disperse, clump, and merge.

Gradually, galaxies, local galaxy groups, superclusters, and other cosmic structures began to appear, but at that time the universe was still unsuitable for life.

After all, at the instant of the singularity big bang, the universe's temperature was infinite; for the next few hundred million years, the average temperature remained around ten thousand degrees, until it dropped below zero four billion years ago, then to minus two hundred degrees five point five billion years ago, eventually stabilizing around -272°C.

By then, the Milky Way had already formed, and they were born within it, belonging to the earliest batch of intelligent life in the entire universe.

Their home star system is a red dwarf, and moreover an extremely unstable red dwarf; according to humanity's various mathematical models, given their environment, life could not possibly have arisen.

But the ancestors of the Ancients managed to endure, granting them and all life on their homeworld extraordinarily robust physiques—

From birth, they possessed physical qualities far surpassing those of Astartes, and lifespans approaching infinity.

More importantly, the Ancients dislike internal strife; they are keen on elevating their mental realm and are also very interested in the origin of the universe.

Thus.

After the first ten billion years following the singularity explosion, they were the first to realize that all things have souls, and that, upon death in the material universe, the souls of beings like them still journey to the so-called Sea of Souls.

At the same time, their progress in developing Spiritual Energy far outpaced that of physical science; by the time they left their home star and star system, they had already mastered how to enter the Sea of Souls at will.

Furthermore, in the interstice between the Sea of Souls and the material universe, they began constructing conduits to facilitate interstellar travel, akin to humanity's highway 'netways'.

As they traversed between the galaxy and the universe, they discovered many planets that could have nurtured life, but due to a stellar flare, or an accidental asteroid or meteor strike, they ultimately lost the chance to flourish, leading them to conceive an idea similar to that of a steward civilization.

To manage, create, and improve the origins of all things between the galaxy and the universe.

The Ancients may not have pushed physical technology to its ultimate limit, but they were already the ceiling of that era; more importantly, under their governance the Sea of Souls was extremely tranquil, to the point of being aptly called a rear garden.

Furthermore, any planet within the Milky Way that had a chance to give rise to life, or already had life, received their visit.

This included Terra.

But at that time the Solar System had only just formed less than a hundred million years ago, with all planets in a chaotic state, which is why the Ancients passed it over.

(Note: The Zero Three Universe is not consistent with 40k; otherwise there would not be the anomalous Zero Three Emperor, and in this book humanity is not a creation of the Ancients.)

Until they encountered a race only a billion years younger than them...

One that likewise survived in extreme environments, with an endless yearning for health, longevity, and immortality, and also possessed considerably advanced physical technology, yet was extremely short-lived—

"The Death-Fearful."

(End of Chapter)