Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Very soon, Chen Ming cast his gaze upon those mother ships stained with the blood of Insect Race units.

The gray-green blood was a mark left by the Insect Race’s fleet, which fought desperately to penetrate the shields of the Main Ship.

Like everything else controlled by Chen Ming, the Insect Race blood can provide him with vision upon his will, and it can also mark the position of the mother ships.

He could even use this Insect Race blood to transport the Dusk core, originally belonging to the mechanical construct, over there.

The implications of this are self-evident.

However, so far, the Insect Race blood has only infected four mother ships.

It is less than half of the number of mother ships Chen Ming estimated the Mechanical Race possesses.

If he acts prematurely, Chen Ming feels he might lose out on things he could have obtained.

Moreover, he hasn’t detected the Mechanical Race fleet reinforcements that should have appeared.

The three Main Ships previously used by the Mechanical Race to ambush him, and the other following fleets, don’t seem like external reinforcements.

Perhaps it’s because he acted too quickly, and with the Insect Race fleet being too large, the Mechanical Race reinforcements didn’t rush out upon sensing something was wrong.

Therefore, since the external Mechanical Race hasn’t been exposed yet, there’s no need for Chen Ming to be in such a rush to control those mother ships.

The value of four compared to ten is self-explanatory.

He continues to observe stealthily.

Just after finishing the sweep of the Insect Race fleet.

The four mother ships, for some reason, initiated their teleportation engines again, dispersing to arrive within four different Star Systems inside the Mechanical Race Star Realm.

Chen Ming speculates they are likely heading for maintenance.

Although not severely damaged, after destroying over a hundred thousand Insect Race Cruisers, they must have consumed a lot of battle supplies. Maintenance is a necessary process.

However, the situation is somewhat different from what Chen Ming previously thought.

They did not teleport again or enter superspace to return to the giant shipyard.

Instead, each found a planet in the Star System they had teleported to and landed on that planet.

Through the Insect Race blood residues on the mother ships, Chen Ming could see that all the planets where the mother ships landed had one thing in common: they were covered with massive Mechanical Race buildings that looked very similar in appearance.

They resembled factories.

The mother ships landed right in the center of these factory-like structures on the planet’s surface.

Each of these similar colonial architectural complexes on different planets left a large area vacant.

Just enough to accommodate the docking of a mother ship.

And right after the mother ship landed.

Logistics Mechanical Race units immediately swarmed in from all directions to repair the hull and replenish supplies.

It seems these places are specifically designed maintenance centers for mother ships, doubling as factories when the mother ships don’t require maintenance.

The entire Star Realm should have many places scattered with such buildings, allowing mother ships to land and maintain at any time without having to return to the giant shipyard for repairs.

Chen Ming felt a bit of regret.

If they went directly back to the giant shipyard, he could have celebrated.

But this situation is still passable to him, as such a place still holds value, being, after all, a factory that can carry out Main Ship repairs. It should also preserve some technology related to the Main Ships.

After having completed his study of Cruiser technology not long ago, Chen Ming has begun advancing to higher levels.

Therefore, the technology in this factory is also valuable to him.

Once confirming there were no devices nearby capable of detecting Spiritual Energy Fluctuation, Chen Ming sent some iron atoms aboard the mother ship using spiritual energy.

These iron atoms went completely unnoticed.

Some moved effortlessly towards the underground.

And as those iron atoms reached the deep underground, Chen Ming continued using spiritual energy to send a few insect eggs down there as well.

The Insect Queen immediately took over the insect eggs and began a new cycle of hatching and breeding.

Since the Insect Race’s flesh can transport the iron atoms onto the Main Ship under Chen Ming’s spiritual energy influence.

Similarly, under the same conditions, metal can also transport the Insect Race’s flesh here.

This operation, which bypassed all Mechanical Race reconnaissance, will soon bring him unimaginable advantages over the Mechanical Race.

The remaining iron atoms then dispersed to various corners of the maintenance center.

Chen Ming plans to find an opportunity later to control the maintenance center and its entire colonial area under it.

However, he intends not to control the four mother ships directly, nor the Mechanical Race units in the facilities.

Mainly because whatever Mechanical Race units he controls would turn into aberrant individuals, easily detected by the Mechanical Race.

Anyway, now that the iron atoms are left on the planet, and the insect eggs are developing underground.

Unless the Mechanical Race can inspect every inch of the planet and every atom, it’s impossible to erase his influence.

Unable to eliminate his influence, the mother ship and this Mechanical Race colony will eventually be his.

Moreover, for Chen Ming, the importance of Mechanical Race mother ships is immensely high.

Since he is unlikely to contact the two giant shipyards of the Mechanical Race in the short term.

Controlling these maintenance centers also serves as a substitute; controlling the maintenance center provides more opportunities to access more Mechanical Race warships, more Mechanical Race mother ships.

Holding back will lead to more significant gains.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the mother ships need to dock for repairs; mother ships that don’t dock for repairs cannot be influenced by Chen Ming through the maintenance center.