Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chen Ming watched as the Insect Race Fleet fought to the bitter end without retreating, until it was completely wiped out.

He watched the Mechanical Race Cruisers and lower-class ships follow them into oblivion during the Insect Race Fleet’s final struggle.

Then he ended his observation of that place.

What Chen Ming didn’t see was that, right after he stopped watching, a small cluster of brand-new jump fluctuations appeared within the Star System.

An unobservable creature arrived here via jump, and let out a cry that likewise could not be heard.

And those few Mechanical Race Mother Ships, which had originally planned to run a scan on the disintegrating Planet and the surrounding cosmic environment to see if any Insect Race individuals were still alive, immediately jumped away as if dodging the plague, leaving this place in a hurry.

Chen Ming’s consciousness returned to his main body.

After reviewing the battle that had just taken place, he suddenly felt a faint sense of regret.

He really had never fought such a lavish battle.

In fact, after exterminating the Mechanical Race’s lower-class fleet, the tens of thousands of remaining, undestroyed Insect Race Cruisers could have tried to retreat.

Staying behind to forcibly trade broadsides with the Mechanical Race’s three Mother Ships offered no chance of victory, they couldn’t even inflict damage.

It wasn’t that Chen Ming didn’t want to save costs; after all, Manufacturing tens of thousands of Insect Race Cruisers still takes at least dozens of minutes.

But in that situation just now, if the Insect Race Fleet wanted to retreat, it could only do so via jump—and jumping might instead lead to the Insect Hive Planet being discovered.

Jumping to other locations would at best delay the moment of death by a bit.

So these insects fighting on until the very end was actually the best ending for them.

Anyway, more can be produced afterward.

With the last Insect Race Cruiser destroyed, this surprise attack was thus completely over.

Chen Ming did not immediately focus too much on those Mechanical Race Mother Ships that had been marked by the blood or some biological tissue of the Insect Race, but instead turned his attention to the facility he had just sent away.

However, because the Mechanical Spiritual Energy creature-conversion facility had been fully installed inside the building and integrated with it,

it had not directly transported the facility onto the ship by his main body just now.

He had to make a few adjustments to the facility first, free up the original one-third of a unit, and then install the complete, brand-new facility in its place.

Of course, this didn’t require Chen Ming to personally do anything—the Extraordinary society, whose research scope had been expanding more and more recently, would help him finish the job.

While the facility was still being installed,

Chen Ming began to consider a new matter.

Namely, that such a large-scale deployment of an Insect Race Fleet was bound to be discovered by the Empire; it was fundamentally impossible to conceal.

There were absolutely reconnaissance fleets he didn’t know about roaming near the front line, and they would definitely see the appearance of the Insect Race Fleet.

Even if they truly didn’t see it, traces of such massive jump activity could not possibly be covered up.

Through the jump traces and the wreckage left behind from the battle, just a little investigation would be enough to discover the information contained in those remnants.

Once they have that information, they’ll realize that the appearance of the Insect Race and Chen Ming must have some kind of causal connection.

Not necessarily that Chen Ming has an extremely tight relationship with the Insect Race, but there is definitely a link.

So he had to think about how to handle the subsequent fallout.

What should he do?

Although after the Insect Queen completed this round of Evolution, Chen Ming felt he really had no need to keep over-concealing his own power,

the Insect Queen’s power is also part of his power, and now his shadow forces are even greater than his open ones.

But Chen Ming felt that wasn’t very ideal.

His Spiritual Energy alone is enough to make the Empire wary, and now suddenly an Insect Race has popped up.

At that point someone really would start wondering just what the hell he actually is.

So Chen Ming’s idea was to divert the blame onto An Wuping.

The fake body was made precisely for this.

He’ll just deny it when the time comes and that will be that.

After all, in everyone’s eyes, he himself is sitting in headquarters and could head back to the front line with Bai Quan at any moment—on what grounds would he be controlling the Insect Race?

Whether they believe it or not is up to them; if they believe, fine, if not, so be it—he’s right there.

It’s simply that An Wuping looks more suspicious.

Moreover, Chen Ming had already thought through An Wuping’s identity and background in advance, and had even revealed part of it to the Empire.

That’s enough to shift the contradictions away.

He just needed to take a few more actions.

Chen Ming pulled out his terminal and gave Bai Quan a call.

Bai Quan’s voice came through: ”There are still five days before we head to the front line. If that changes, I’ll let you know in advance.”

”...”

Chen Ming replied, ”I only asked you about that yesterday, how could I be calling you today to ask the same thing again?”

”Oh? Then what’s going on?”

”I’ve discovered something interesting on my side, and I think we need to hold another emergency meeting.”

”Another one?”

”We can skip the meeting; I’ll just tell you directly then.”

”Go ahead.”

”First off, this matter is important and concerns the front line.”

Chen Ming repeated in his head the lines he’d just prepared, then said, ”There are three things in total.”

”First, my fleet discovered a Planet, and the Planet is full of insects.”

Bai Quan immediately asked, ”A Planet full of insects? What kind of insects are on it?”

”Thorn Insect Race.”

Bai Quan wasn’t surprised by this result. The universe is vast; Planets full of insect-like creatures certainly exist. But the only insects that could weigh on Chen Ming’s mind would be the Thorn Insect Race.

Chen Ming also sent over a photo.

This photo was taken from space, back when the Insect Queen had not yet completed its Evolution and had not yet converted a large number of Insect Nests into Insect Race Cruisers.