Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

”An Wuping definitely withheld and lied about some things today, but he shared a lot of content with sufficient information, enough to see that he has completely different ideas from Chen Ming.”

”Moreover, from how he unhesitatingly disclosed Chen Ming’s information, it’s clear that his sense of belonging to the Empire is much stronger than his personal connection to Chen Ming.”

”We can try to bring him into the fold.”

The person on the other end of the terminal said, ”Okay, you continue to follow up, further confirm his relationship with Chen Ming, and if necessary, make indirect contact with Chen Ming’s side.”

”Chen Ming has encountered too many things after returning to the Empire, likely already unable to change his mind, but An Wuping doesn’t seem to be like this person, don’t push him onto the wrong path.”

”Also, raise his Psychic level, that scale of the Insect Race fleet is already enough to qualify as level 6.”

”Don’t use any means of force or treat killing An Wuping as a final measure.”

”The Insect Race has a hive mind, I suspect that even if An Wuping’s physical body dies, his consciousness will still exist within the hive mind.”

”Understood.”

Minister Hou immediately agreed.

Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something and hesitated just as he was about to speak, eventually deciding not to mention what he had thought.

Just then, the doorbell of the room he was in suddenly rang.

He immediately connected the room’s surveillance and found that An Wuping had returned to the door.

An Wuping waved at the surveillance camera at the door and said, ”Something came up, let’s chat again.”

The voice in the terminal immediately sounded: ”Don’t hang up the phone.”

Minister Hou put away the terminal, placed it in a hidden spot, stood up, and opened the compartment door.

”What’s up?”

”Something just happened, some of the Insect Race broke free from the Insect Queen’s control and headed towards the Mechanical Race’s territory.”

They had just discussed this matter and hadn’t expected it to actually occur so quickly.

Minister Hou was momentarily stunned.

And An Wuping’s previous cooperative attitude left him with almost no doubts, immediately inviting Chen Ming to come back inside to sit, and this time he did not close the door.

”Tell me the details.”

An Wuping cleared his throat and said, ”Just now...”

Just now, An Wuping had received messages from Liang Fei and Li Wei to chat with Minister Hou.

Chen Ming knew the time had come, so he had begun to split part of his consciousness to control An Wuping and chat with Minister Hou,

and directed part of his consciousness to a Black Mist Prosthetic residing on an Insect Race warship.

At this moment, the Black Mist Prosthetic had undergone a drastic transformation compared to its previous normal human appearance, becoming a real monster.

Although it still maintained a humanoid form, some features belonging to the Insect Race and Mechanical Race were already chaotically distorted on what seemed to be a humanoid body.

Of course, this wasn’t true distortion, but a deliberate design by Chen Ming to appear as a failed experimental subject.

The functionality was perfect; it was simply unsightly.

And after Chen Ming transferred his consciousness to the Black Mist Prosthetic.

The Black Mist Prosthetic immediately released a large amount of black mist, starting from the cruiser it was located on, expanding to cover more Insect Race cruisers nearby.

Almost engulfing a third of the total number of Insect Race warships residing in orbit.

Though the Insect Race fleet had halved after some reorganization by the Insect Queen, the number was still terrifying.

Normally, the Black Mist Prosthetic wouldn’t have this ability.

But because the Black Mist Core had no place to be used temporarily, Chen Ming just inserted it into the Black Mist Prosthetic, utilizing his own spiritual power to mobilize the black mist’s spiritual energy, the effect became immediately apparent.

And once the black mist had covered a third of the Insect Race, a special pheromone emerged abruptly within the black mist, affecting all Insect Race units.

Some chaos occurred within the Insect Race fleet, then it detached from the main force, heading towards the edge of the Star System.

It was as if the pheromone was guiding them in a particular direction.

Of course, Chen Ming was actually controlling it.

He now needed the Insect Race fleet to manifest the situation as if the Black Mist Prosthetic had used special means to control these Insects and carried out subsequent actions.

The Insect Queen had prepared a fleet specifically left for the Black Mist Prosthetic.

And what the Black Mist needed to do was simple.

Create some commotion.

Preferably a big commotion, one that could be seen by everyone and all Mechanical Race entities.

The Insect Race fleet covered by the black mist quickly arrived at the edge of the Star System, entered superspace, and began heading in a straight line toward the Empire.

If not for making some detours, this fleet covered by the black mist would soon have a direct encounter with a portion of the Mechanical Race’s Star Zone.

Of course, it’s not the resource-rich Nebula Region targeted by Chen Ming.

But another region belonging to the border, where almost every Star System had a large number of defensive facilities deployed.

As a tough piece to conquer or destroy without sufficient benefit, Chen Ming wouldn’t be foolish enough to waste effort on this area.

However, if used to attract attention from both the Empire and the Mechanical Race, this place is perfect.