At that very moment, the sun of the Yongmei Star System detected the presence of an unexpected visitor within its stellar domain through the radiance of its own light. In an instant, the sun's gaze locked onto Herta.
[Identity confirmation in progress... 83rd Seat of the Genius Society, friend of Miss Ruan Mei!]
[Authorization granted!]
"Welcome, Miss Herta, to the Yongmei Star System," the sun said, a wide smile spreading across its blazing face as it waved enthusiastically at The Herta.
The moment its voice fell, the sun immediately contacted Ruan Mei, who was in the middle of conducting a biological experiment, informing her that Miss Herta had arrived in this world.
"She's here? That's truly wonderful. Now I won't need to destroy the already over-propagated swarm myself."
Ruan Mei let out a long breath and lifted her head to gaze at a distant planet. Its surface, however, was nothing like that of an ordinary world. It was covered in densely packed black specks. Anyone with trypophobia would feel their heart race—or even faint outright—at the sight.
In truth, those black specks were not clouds.
They were insects. Countless insects.
At this very moment, the planet Ruan Mei had named the "True Sting Swarm Experimental Planet" already harbored nearly one hundred billion insects.
The skies, the atmosphere, the oceans, the land—everything had been devoured hollow by the swarm.
More critically, even after consuming an entire planet's worth of matter, the insects had not ceased reproducing. They continued to split and give birth without pause.
And their rate of division was astonishing. If Ruan Mei had not imposed restrictions, their numbers would have surged to trillions within a single system hour, and to twenty-four trillion within a single day.
Of course, although Ruan Mei had sprayed an inert biological insect-repellent agent around the swarm's surrounding regions—temporarily confining them to the True Sting Swarm Planet—they still yearned to reproduce.
Even after consuming an entire planet's material reserves, they could still draw energy from the Path of Propagation itself, using it to reproduce, split, and give birth.
That was precisely why Ruan Mei had earlier resolved that if Herta arrived any later, she would destroy the swarm planet.
If Herta were even slightly delayed, the True Sting Swarm Experimental Planet would risk spiraling out of control.
As Ruan Mei pondered this, she stepped forward, her long legs carrying her lightly as her high heels clicked against the ground.
In an instant, the soft and adorable cloud-shaped battleship flew over without delay, escorting Ruan Mei into the air and bringing her before Herta.
The next moment, the hatch of the Ruanruan opened, and Ruan Mei spoke.
"Come in. I'll take you to the True Sting Swarm Planet."
"Alright."
Herta gave a small nod and rode her Herta Magic Wand into the Ruanruan.
Rumble rumble rumble...
The Ruanruan's engines roared. Before long, it arrived above the True Sting Swarm Planet. In that instant, the entire insect-formed planet began to stir violently.
The reason was simple. The intelligent insects within the swarm knew very well that it was this very cloud that had sprayed the special agent, trapping them within this narrow world and preventing them from venturing into the vast outer cosmos to devour more resources and reproduce even more of their kind.
The cloud was the enemy!
The swarm surged. Their glands expelled vast quantities of poisonous mist—an extremely potent toxin capable of felling all life on a planet.
Ruan Mei showed no change in expression at the sight. She merely moved her lips slightly.
"Ruanruan, activate combat mode."
Whirr whirr whirr...
In an instant, the Ruanruan transformed from a soft, adorable cloud into its combat form—a gaseous planet.
Its form was towering and terrifying.
Across its massive body, countless storms raged.
In combat mode, Ruanruan simply swung a single punch, and the poisonous mist was blown back into the True Sting swarm. In that instant, over a billion insects perished.
Of course, in the very next moment, the corpses of the fallen insects were devoured by their companions, who then reproduced and split into even more insects.
In the blink of an eye, the swarm's numbers were restored—and their frenzy intensified.
Ruan Mei, however, paid it no mind. Instead, she turned her head and looked at Herta.
"If you have any experiments to conduct, do them now. If these insects draw any more energy from the Path of Propagation, things will truly spiral out of control."
"Alright." "Alright."
Herta nodded slightly. Raising her hand, she utilized micro-wormhole transfer technology to retrieve a seed from the void. Streams of countless lights flowed across its surface, making it appear extraordinarily mysterious.
"What is that?" Ruan Mei asked curiously.
"A chakra seed. It requires sufficient life force to grow," Herta replied before tossing the seed into the densely packed True Sting swarm.
"Food!"
"If we eat it, we will undergo tremendous growth!"
"Kill kill kill! Eat eat eat!"
The frenzied swarm lunged forward, opening their jagged, fang-filled maws, preparing to swallow the chakra seed in a single gulp.
Herta acted as well. With a gentle wave of her Herta Magic Wand, a barrage composed of Herta Magic Cannon projectiles materialized. Vast in number, they blasted toward the swarm from sharp angles and multiple directions.
The swarm did not suffer heavy losses from the barrage alone. The crucial point, however, was that Herta's wand could continuously draw energy from the Path of Erudition, unleashing wave after wave of attacks without end.
As a result, the swarm's numbers began to decline.
At the same time, with large portions of the swarm dying, countless corpses brimming with energy and life force accumulated around the God Tree seed. At last, the divine tree seed reacted.
It began to sprout, extending countless tendrils that wrapped around one insect after another.
Glub glub...
The life force within each insect was drained dry. The God Tree seed sprouted more shoots, continuously absorbing the insects' vitality to strengthen itself.
Soon, the God Tree seed completed its evolution from seed form and grew leaves.
The patterns upon its leaves began to glow, continuously absorbing one insect corpse after another.
With that, the God Tree absorbed even more life force and grew even faster.
This scene was witnessed by many highly intelligent insects within the swarm, who emitted anxious, chirping sounds.
"Damn it! In the past, we insects were always the ones devouring others. Since when have we been devoured in return—by a mere seed?!"
"Wait... Could this plant be something humans developed specifically to counter the swarm?!"
"Humans are despicable!!"
One True Sting insect after another cried out. The ocean of insects surged forward, crushing toward the tiny sapling that continued devouring their life force.
Hiss hiss hiss!
The insects' frenzy intensified. With their aggression maxed out, they began launching suicidal assaults against the God Tree.
Herta noticed this immediately.
She raised her wand high, and in an instant Parvati's ice crystal magic unfolded. Boundless freezing Honkai energy and frigid currents surged into the swarm, instantly freezing the insects that were recklessly charging toward the God Tree without regard for their lives.
Almost at the same moment, the God Tree absorbed sufficient life force and completed another round of growth and evolution.
It became a small tree.
And upon becoming a small tree, it instinctively mastered the Wood Dragon Technique without instruction.
From its trunk extended countless wooden dragons. Those wooden dragons frantically tore into the insect corpses slain by Herta, extracting life force from their bodies.
Herta slaughtered.
The divine tree extracted life force.
The cycle continued.
In the end, the True Sting Swarm Planet began shrinking at a rate visible to the naked eye. Herta's killing efficiency had surpassed the insects' rate of reproduction.
Several system hours later, the God Tree had grown into a towering giant, standing within the cosmos. Beneath its tens of billions of roots were insect after insect wrapped tightly in their grasp.
At that very moment, those roots were still trembling and writhing... The God Tree was extracting life force from the corpses without pause.
Finally, after gathering enough vitality, a fruit grew upon the divine tree.
The fruit emitted a strange fragrance. The moment it appeared, anyone who caught its scent found their mouths watering.
After inhaling the aroma, a trace of inquiry flashed through Ruan Mei's eyes.
"What exactly is the fruit borne by that tree?"
"A chakra fruit," Herta replied. "Anyone who consumes it will obtain chakra energy, and their body will be transformed. They will be able to extract chakra directly from their cells."
"Extract energy from cells?" Ruan Mei frowned slightly. "How much energy can human cells possibly contain? How could that compare to drawing energy from a Path?"
"True. So extracting chakra isn't the key," Herta said calmly. "The real point is that whoever eats the fruit will gain a lifespan exceeding a thousand years."
"Is it a divine tree of Abundance?" A look of astonishment appeared on Ruan Mei's face. "Herta, where did you obtain a miracle of Abundance? During the time we were apart, did you perhaps encounter the Sanctus Medicus Themself wandering the cosmos?"
"Of course not. Even if I applied Fortune Glue every single day to increase my luck... I wouldn't be fortunate enough to meet an Aeon in person." Herta paused slightly before continuing, "In fact, the God Tree is something I researched myself."
Ruan Mei could not help but sigh in admiration.
"In that case, you possess the potential to step onto the Path of Abundance as well."
Herta smiled faintly.
"That potential isn't mine alone. After all, I planted a long-lived God Tree. And you, Ruan Mei, have enlightened lifeless objects into living beings one after another. Such a method of turning decay into miracle is abundant enough."
Ruan Mei did not refute her. Instead, she said, "So once you consume the chakra fruit, you'll achieve longevity... which means you won't need me to perform genetic modification on you anymore."
There was a faint trace of regret in her voice when she spoke the latter half of that sentence.
Herta did not respond. Instead, she fixed her gaze upon the God Tree, placed her wand beneath her feet, and prepared to fly over to pluck the fruit and swallow it whole.
However, at that very moment, the star rails within the Yongmei Star System suddenly began to tremble.
In the next instant, an enormous battleship appeared. Carved upon its prow was a gigantic wolf head.
It was clearly a Borisin warship.
At the same time, a terrifying battle planet emerged as well.
The demonic star—World-Devouring Rahu.
?!
Herta immediately performed an appraisal. After finishing, her brows knitted tightly.
"The Borisin? Why would World-Devouring Rahu appear here? Something's wrong..."
Ruan Mei turned her head, looking toward the Borisin fleet in the distant sea of stars—and toward the demonic star.
"It seems you've been followed, Herta. Or perhaps information about your development of the chakra—divine tree of Abundance seed has leaked."
"The information about the God Tree couldn't have leaked. I only conceived of synthesizing it after speaking with you."
As Herta spoke, she suddenly realized something.
She quickly took out a bottle from the satchel she carried. Inside the bottle was the blood of the Abundance Emanator, Shuhu.
Could it be this?
With that thought, Herta shook the bottle violently.
"Was this your doing?"
"Of course it was me," came Shuhu's malicious voice from within the bottle. "Herta, I must thank you. Thank you for allowing my blood to leave that person's body, freeing me from the state of suppression."
"To properly express my gratitude, I've mobilized the Borisin fleet—as well as the demonic star I once created, World-Devouring Rahu."
Shuhu burst into manic laughter.
Herta's expression, however, remained calm.
"You think the Borisin fleet and World-Devouring Rahu alone are enough to deal with me?"
"Of course not. I've already learned from you that you have a genius companion—an Emanator of Erudition. So I've also secretly contacted the Lord Ravager of Destruction—Celenova. Her army is on its way!"
The instant Shuhu's voice fell, the star rails within the Yongmei Star System began to shake violently once more.
Countless monsters of the Antimatter Legion descended upon this world. They sang the hymn of Destruction belonging to the Antimatter Legion—a demonic melody of annihilation.
The moment it resounded, numerous meteoroids within the Yongmei Star System shattered apart.
At last, Herta's brows furrowed deeply.
"You have ties with Lord Ravager Celenova as well?"
"Naturally. My network isn't to be underestimated."
Though Shuhu spoke with immense confidence, in truth even Shuhu did not understand why the Lord Ravager Celenova had agreed to aid in waging war against a genius.
...
On the other side, within the Borisin fleet, countless Borisin gazed at the colossal God Tree upon the True Sting Swarm Planet—and at the fruit hanging from its branches. Excitement and fervor filled their eyes.
"A miracle of Abundance—it's a miracle of Abundance!"
"Lord Shuhu did not lie. Where He is, there truly exists a miracle of Abundance."
"I can smell the aura of longevity. If we eat that fruit, we will live for a very, very long time."
"Charge!"
Streams of radiant exhaust erupted from the rear of the Borisin warships as they accelerated toward the True Sting Swarm Planet.
Meanwhile, beside the Borisin fleet, the enormous demonic star—World-Devouring Rahu—was equally excited.
It had already sensed its master's presence.
It would go there and revive its master!
Boom boom boom!
The massive living planet accelerated as well, hurtling toward the True Sting Swarm Planet.