Xuan Qing’s spirit vessel landed steadily on a small asteroid near the Zerg Nest.
Through the now-transparent dome of the spirit vessel, the players could see with their own eyes just how magnificent the Zerg Nest truly was. Its structure was complex and densely interwoven. If they hadn’t already started channeling spiritual energy into their bodies, and their souls hadn’t grown a bit tougher, just catching a glimpse from afar could have made them faint on the spot.
Even so, the players all felt slightly dizzy and faint. Damn, we already knew how insignificant we were.
Add the academic pressure looming over them, and their mood quickly shifted from excitement to solemnity.
Qin Jingzhou rolled a transparent transmission sphere about a thousand meters in diameter in his palms. With a simple localization teleport, he casually stuffed all the emotionally shaken players right into the giant orb.
Looking at the various expressions on the players’ faces inside the sphere, he patiently explained, “You all still have jobs to do in a moment. I can't have you suffocating to death.” With that, he waved at Xuan Qing.
Xuan Qing transformed into wolf form, just as before. He hooked his paws around his dad’s shoulders and, without needing any instructions, deftly used his giant tail, longer than his own body, to hook onto the handle reserved on the transmission sphere…
So, with Qin Jingzhou and Ling Jing flying side by side through the stars, Xuan Qing lay on his father’s back, tail dragging the huge sphere behind them… together, they marched straight toward the Zerg Nest in broad daylight.
Truth be told, low-level Zerg are mindless cannon fodder, while mid-level Zerg have intelligence similar to regular humans. High-level Zerg possess mental faculties spanning from Golden Core stage to Nascent Soul stage. For a Zerg Nest of moderate size—like the one Qin Jingzhou intended to capture—the number of high-level Zerg was close to a thousand, there were nearly ten million mid-level Zerg, and the low-level Zerg numbered into the billions.
Earlier, the players were farther away and could only make out the Mars-sized exterior of the nest. Up close, though… many of them instantly broke out in goosebumps.
There was no helping it. Zerg were ugly in a way that defied human aesthetics, utterly bizarre. At this moment, the Zerg had already discovered Qin Jingzhou’s party and were quickly gathering, swarming, or rather, flooding forward in overwhelming waves.
Even Ling Jing couldn’t help but suck in a breath. “Staring at them too long will drop your sanity score…” She shuddered her shoulders and rubbed her wrists. “It’s not just their ugliness—they even come with a maddening effect. It’s absolutely disgusting!”
Even Xiao Ling, who had reached early Nascent Soul stage, couldn’t help but curse. The players inside the transparent orb, now able to see the Zerg “up close and personal,” felt not only dizzy and faint but now violently nauseous as well.
Wanwan had a sudden flash of inspiration and shouted, “Look at my big brother’s tail!”
At her words, the players immediately fixed their gazes on Xuan Qing’s giant tail, and sure enough, the discomfort faded by more than half.
At first glance, Xuan Qing appeared to be a purely white giant wolf, but in truth he was a silvery-white one. As his health improved, the long silver fur that had nearly all shed before had gradually grown back. The silver and white fur formed three mysterious spiritual runes on his body, granting augmented strength, defense, and mental clarity.
As luck would have it, the clarity-inducing rune just happened to be distributed over his hindquarters and tail…
Again, Xuan Qing couldn’t help but praise his cheap little sister. “She really is quite impressive.”
Ling Jing also slid behind Qin Jingzhou and glanced at the now mostly recovered players in the sphere. “She really is.”
Qin Jingzhou ruffled his son’s furry face. “Don’t underestimate her. That little girl’s talisman-making talent is even above yours.”
Xuan Qing nudged his dad’s shoulder. “Whimper.” How could he not hear the subtext? Dad was saying that only in talisman-making did his cheap little sister surpass him.
On their end, the conversation was lighthearted, but commanding hundreds of thousands of Zerg, the high-level commander Zerg hesitated. It couldn’t tell clearly what the situation was, but the fact that the enemy remained fearless and unflinching meant they must be confident.
It issued an order via the Zerg’s all-encompassing mental network, directing its main forces to prepare in formation and sending the vanguard to test the waters. As for itself, it remained in the deepest rank of its guards, waiting to judge the next move based on the initial outcome.
Qin Jingzhou eyed the tens of thousands of “mixed bugs” charging toward them and casually condensed a Spiritual Sword in his hand. Without any display of power, he simply slammed it straight into the surging Zerg army.
The commander Zerg’s gaze sharpened. That Spiritual Sword burst into a tiny spark of flame among the swarm, just a pinpoint, then immediately died out. The sword vanished at the same time.
Yet, as the sword disappeared, so did the mental link to tens of thousands of its subordinates.
What it witnessed next would become an unforgettable memory. One by one, tens of thousands of Zerg began rapidly melting away in the starry sky, until… nothing was left.
It snapped to its senses and immediately issued an order: Retreat!
After all, Zerg above mid-level are intelligent lifeforms, well acquainted with the logic that if you can’t win, you run.
But whether it could actually escape would depend on whether Qin Jingzhou allowed it.
While the players were still stunned, Qin Jingzhou nonchalantly condensed another seemingly ordinary Spiritual Sword and thrust it in the direction of the Zerg commander.
Instantly, the commander and hundreds of thousands of its subordinates met the same fate as the vanguard.
He made sure to explain to the players, “The Zerg are the enemies of civilization because every living thing is considered food, and every dead thing is material for their nests. Other than fleeing when they can’t win, they will never coexist with any advanced intelligent life forms.” He smiled. “When you reach the Foundation Establishment stage, these will be your practice targets.”
Ling Jing added, “More important than fighting power is willpower. You should all know what your home world is due to face after the spiritual energy recovery—Zerg’s confusion abilities are the strongest. If you can withstand Zerg attacks, then the spiritual skills high civilizations use to invade won’t trouble you either.” She pointed to herself. “I’m not good at fighting, but I am skilled at logistics and farming, yet I’ve also reached the level where I can roam the stars under my own power.”
The players glanced from Qin Jingzhou, who had wiped out over a hundred thousand Zerg with nothing but a sword, to Ling Jing, who stood calmly at his side all the while, and seemed to realize something. One by one, they responded seriously, “Thank you for your teaching.”
Qin Jingzhou gave them a moment to digest, and Xuan Qing allowed the players to keep staring at his tail.
Half an hour later, Qin Jingzhou set off again to clear out the Zerg Nest.
Inside the nest, the Zerg Nest Queen already realized she faced a tough opponent. With hundreds of thousands of her brood wiped out in a matter of minutes, by the time Qin Jingzhou arrived, she was already in full battle mode.
In a middle-sized Zerg Nest, the queen’s power was roughly equivalent to early Divine Transformation Stage. Normally, it would take a top expert in legendary battle armor, teamed up with a large fleet, to handle an opponent like this.
Looking at the dense crowd of high-level Zerg, all at Nascent Soul stage, and the queen’s bodyguards, even Xuan Qing couldn’t help but twitch his ears. He knew his dad was powerful, but exactly how powerful—he really had no idea.
This time, Qin Jingzhou intended to make a lastingly strong impression. With a casual wave, ordinary-looking Spiritual Swords appeared one after another behind him, their numbers rising ever higher.
Deep inside the nest, the queen cursed, “Human, what is it you want?” The players, struck by the Zerg Queen’s piercing psychic scream, began to bleed from eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, collapsing or falling prone inside the orb, even though Qin Jingzhou had strengthened its defenses.
Even Ling Jing was a little dazed by the queen’s shockwave; Xuan Qing instinctively loosened his grip, nearly sliding off his father’s back.
Qin Jingzhou could tell it was time—if he didn’t deal with the queen now, Ling Jing and the others might suffer some truly hard-to-heal injuries.
With a flick of his hand, tens of thousands of Spiritual Swords vanished, reappearing to stab into the Zerg Nest in unison.
Sparks flickered, and the Zerg Queen could only scream “No—!” before she and over a billion of her children were spectacularly cremated.
Ling Jing stared at the fire burning on the nest, half-real and half-illusory, for a long time before turning to Qin Jingzhou. “Is that… true fire?”
Qin Jingzhou nodded. “Good eye. That’s Supreme Yin true fire. It’s especially effective against beings with strong souls but relatively weak bodies.”
Ling Jing watched the body of a high-level Zerg—one on her own level—gradually dissolve in the flames, and fell into silence.
Qin Jingzhou added, “If we’d used any other true fire, we’d still have had to clean up afterward. But Supreme Yin true fire, with its inherent cycle of rebirth, takes care of everything.”
Ling Jing exclaimed inwardly: Damn, just how many kinds of true fire do you own and use so skillfully?
No matter what storms raged inside Ling Jing, Supreme Yin true fire dutifully burned every last Zerg, finally shrinking to a tiny, flickering flame that returned to Qin Jingzhou’s fingertip.
For the first time, feeling the energy contained in true fire at such close range, even previously clingy Xuan Qing instinctively pulled his head back.
Qin Jingzhou put away the flame. “Let’s go see what loot we have.”
Zerg Nests were always built atop Spirit Veins. Even if nothing else remained inside, just the Spirit Vein alone made Qin Jingzhou’s trip worthwhile.
Still, a vein of this level didn’t really appeal to him. And since he lived by the principle “a gentleman makes his fortune righteously,” he laid a simple Spirit Gathering Formation, then placed his son Xuan Qing at the formation node.
“You’ll recover much faster by guarding the Spirit Vein. Absorb as much as you can—Dad is watching over you.”
Xuan Qing was always happy to spend his dad’s money, but an entire Spirit Vein… That was like Dad handing him several million, or even tens of millions, in pocket money—he dared to take it and spend it. But suddenly splurging several billion that Dad had earned? He couldn’t bring himself to go that far!
So he struggled to stand up. If he didn’t move, the fountain of pure spiritual energy from the Spirit Vein just surged wildly into his meridians with no mercy.
Qin Jingzhou flicked his son on the forehead. “Sit still.”
Ling Jing blinked. “Xiao Qing, do you really look down on your dad’s money-making ability that much? If he tells you to sit, just sit. Don’t be ungrateful.” She deliberately rapped Xuan Qing’s big paw. “Besides, you used your own spirit vessel this time. The Mainland won’t be able to hide it, will they? I think your convalescence is coming to an end.”
Xuan Qing: …Oh, true.
His ears and tail drooped at once.