【Energy conversion complete.】
【One hundred and fifty mining worker Zerg produced 1.5 metric tons of Obsidian Crystal over three days, which has been converted into approximately one hundred and fifty energy points. Current remaining energy: 330 points.】
Qi Heng used the system’s energy to cut the Black Crystal he had deliberately set aside into five-gram fragments.
He had only just slipped them into his pocket when he heard A1’s report, improving his already good mood even further.
The Obsidian Crystal extracted by the mining workers was almost one hundred percent pure. Combined with the increased conversion efficiency after the system’s upgrade, the result was tens of thousands of times more efficient than directly converting the raw ore he had mined himself.
Furthermore, the amount of energy the system obtained differed very little from its simulated calculations.
That meant his subsequent plans could continue.
How could Qi Heng not be pleased?
He had originally worried that even consuming the entire mineral vein would not replenish much energy.
Now he could finally relax.
With such a high conversion rate, he no longer needed to fear that the system would suddenly shut down from an energy shortage.
Of course, this was partly because Obsidian Crystal itself contained a moderately high level of energy.
Had he used an ordinary mineral deposit instead, the conversion rate probably would not have been nearly as good.
Calculated this way, converting and absorbing five hundred metric tons of Obsidian Crystal would completely fill the system’s present energy bar.
The system’s current maximum capacity was only fifty thousand energy points, far below what it had possessed at its peak.
Crossing between two different universes had not been simple for the system.
Aside from losing enormous quantities of data, it lacked enough energy to maintain most of its remaining functions. The technology tree and numerous functions Qi Heng had painstakingly upgraded before were now unusable and had to be reactivated individually.
Some functions required tremendous amounts of energy simply to restore, and continued operation would consume even more.
Had the system remained intact, Qi Heng probably would never have chosen such a cautious and restrained method of development.
“A1, consume another hundred energy points and create another batch of mining worker Zerg,” he ordered decisively.
【Yes.】
The system’s energy reserves immediately dropped by nearly one-third.
Then the scene from three days earlier repeated itself.
This time, a full three hundred larvae appeared.
The newly created larvae initially wandered around without understanding what they should do.
But once they received their orders, they quickly understood the purpose for which they had been created.
They scattered in every direction, searching for rock walls not already occupied by adult mining workers, and began instinctively feeding and excavating.
Qi Heng looked over the four hundred and fifty mining workers before him.
At their current mining speed, they would probably clear all the ore in the surrounding area within only a few days.
The tunnels here extended in every direction. If the workers accidentally dug into a passage occupied by other female Zerg, the situation would become difficult to contain.
The only solution was to excavate deeper into the mineral vein.
Female Zerg mined much more slowly than the mining workers.
As long as the workers carefully avoided the surrounding tunnels, they certainly would not be discovered in the near future.
Qi Heng revised his instructions.
Once the second group of larvae matured, fifty adult mining workers were to be separated from the others and assigned to transport ore from the excavation sites to his current location.
Using mining workers as transport units was somewhat wasteful, but there was no need to create specialized transport Zerg yet.
Qi Heng stared at the illuminated entry beneath the system panel’s [Primordial Zerg] category:
[Mining Worker Zerg: 450]
He sighed inwardly.
It would be much easier if a Commander were here.
A Commander could establish a mental network linking the lower-ranking Zerg. Qi Heng would then need only communicate with the Commander…
Forget it.
Even if a Commander were present, Qi Heng’s current mental power would not allow him to communicate over long distances.
He summoned a mining worker and ordered it to push aside the rocks.
Qi Heng took one final look at the excavated space, which had already begun to resemble a proper cavern.
The mining workers continued digging deeper according to his instructions.
Even while he remained there, they never stopped working, and pieces of ore were continuously extracted from the walls.
Qi Heng passed through the rubble that had once been several meters thick but had now been eaten down by the mining workers until only about one meter remained.
Once he returned to the abandoned tunnel, the opening behind him was rapidly sealed again.
Qi Heng calmly left the abandoned passage as though nothing unusual had happened, then turned toward another tunnel.
Although the passage had been abandoned for a long time and the rubble could not be removed through brute force by ordinary Zerg, Qi Heng still felt a lingering trace of concern.
No one except him could be allowed to discover the Primordial mining workers.
Not even other Zerg.
After investigating the slums over the past several days, Qi Heng seriously doubted whether the female Zerg living now would recognize the mining workers as former comrades who had once fought on the same side.
If they failed to recognize them and alerted the One-Horns above, the consequences would be obvious and severe.
The characteristics of the Primordial Zerg were far too distinctive.
Once exposed, they would inevitably attract the attention of the power controlling Tianyun Star.
The more terrifying their infamous reputation throughout interstellar civilization had been, the more civilizations wanted to eradicate them completely.
From the perspective of hostile civilizations, it would be better to kill the wrong target than allow even one to escape.
If necessary, they would not hesitate to destroy Tianyun Star itself.
No civilization wanted to witness the resurrection of the calamity.
Although the chance of exposure was small, now that Qi Heng had taken the first step of using the Primordial Zerg, he had to account for the danger of discovery.
He used the system to simulate several possible response plans.
Even so, he sincerely hoped that none of them would ever become necessary.
What did the Primordial Zerg look like when operating at full power, with their ferocity stat completely maxed out?
Even Qi Heng had seen it only once inside the [Chamber of Time].
For the safety of the universe, he had chosen to seal it away as a final trump card.
“I’m back.”
Before Qi Heng had even finished speaking after entering the house, the little Zerg waiting beside the door wrapped himself around his leg.
Qi Heng looked down.
Yan Le clung to his leg and attempted to climb upward while rapidly fluttering the tiny wings on his back in an effort to fly.
Qi Heng swept a long arm around him and lifted him directly into his embrace.
Once picked up, the child nestled softly against Qi Heng’s chest, tilted his head back, and planted a wet kiss against his neck.
The little Zerg had somehow learned on his own to express affection through kisses.
He especially enjoyed doing so to Qi Heng, accompanying each kiss with babbling sounds.
Qi Heng pinched the child’s cheek.
He did not dislike the sensation, but he still said:
“Didn’t I tell you not to wait beside the door? The wind is strong at night.”
The child could not speak yet.
Yan Ning answered for him, his voice carrying a hint of laughter.
“Before the sun even set, he started crawling toward the door. I couldn’t stop him.”
Zerg children developed more quickly after birth than human infants.
Although Yan Le still could not walk, he could already crawl very quickly.
To keep him from dirtying his clothing while crawling everywhere, Yan Ning had simply moved the nest that had once held his egg beside the entrance.
The soft, sweet-smelling child was affectionate without being troublesome.
This came as a surprise to Qi Heng, who had previously only ever engaged in “cloud child-rearing.”
He had never expected a real child to be so well behaved.
Although Yan Le had hatched only a few days earlier, his obedient, affectionate, and clingy nature had already earned him special attention from Qi Heng.
Strictly speaking, Qi Heng had grown even closer to him than to Yan Ning, whom he had met earlier.
After dinner, Qi Heng played with the child beside the fading firelight.
He took out a fragment of Black Crystal and held it beside Yan Le’s mouth as though offering him a piece of candy.
He did not allow the child to swallow it immediately, instead letting him hold it between his teeth and gradually grind it down.
Yan Le’s eyes widened.
It was as though he instinctively sensed that the crystal was beneficial to him.
Even though biting through it was extremely difficult, he refused to release it.
“Mwuah… mm-mm.”
The child made a soft, pleading whine.
Qi Heng had intended to give it to him from the beginning.
Consuming certain minerals during infancy benefited the bodies of higher Zerg.
This was ordinarily something Yan Ning, as the child’s female father, should have handled.
But Yan Ning clearly knew nothing about it.
Since Qi Heng had happened to encounter a mineral suitable for feeding the child that day, secretly bringing a little back cost him almost no effort.
Qi Heng released his hold.
Yan Le kept the fragment in his mouth for quite some time.
Finally, after Qi Heng poked his cheek, he reluctantly swallowed it.
“Be good. You may have one each day.”
Qi Heng laughed softly and produced another fragment in his hand as though performing a magic trick.
He even deliberately waved it before Yan Le’s eyes.
The child’s large eyes instantly transformed into puppy-dog eyes.
He stared at the fragment without blinking, his entire expression clearly saying:
I want it.
Qi Heng knew the child could not understand his words yet.
That did not matter.
He put the fragment away.
The mineral could not be consumed in excess. The dosage had to be strictly controlled.
“It’s time for you to sleep.”
Qi Heng handed Yan Le to Yan Ning, then took out the Starstone lying beside his bed.
That night, he intended to try cultivating stellar power.
Stellar power was a form of energy drifting freely throughout the universe.
It could be sensed, captured, and absorbed, and there were many different cultivation methods.
Qi Heng chose the simplest one.
He would directly use his mental power to sense the stellar energy scattered through the air, capture it, draw it toward his body, and then merge it into himself.
The Overlord’s body had already awakened and drawn in stellar power in the past, making the process far easier this time.
Furthermore, after his mental power advanced to Level 1, he could capture a much greater quantity of stellar energy.
Once it entered his body, it began tempering his physical form at tremendous speed.
While cultivating, Qi Heng failed to notice that the moment stellar power began tempering his body, the fusion process also accelerated.
The following morning, Qi Heng’s daily routine began with opening the system interface and examining his physical condition.
He had stopped cultivating after midnight the night before.
As expected, he had spent the remaining half of the night wandering through dreams, seeing fragments of Tianyun Star’s past.
The moment he opened his personal attributes page, he immediately noticed that his fusion progress had increased by three percent.
That was even more than the previous increase.
Was it because he had cultivated stellar power for the first time yesterday?
Qi Heng removed the Starstone from his pocket.
It was now completely filled with stellar power.
After scanning it, the system reported that it contained approximately thirty-two points of stellar power.
The Starstone itself was too low in quality.
Even if Qi Heng wanted to store more inside it, the stone could not contain any additional power.
Calling the forces behind Tianyun Star heartless capitalists who would “pluck feathers from a passing goose” would practically be praising them.
Even an empty Starstone shell had to be purchased with points.
When turning it back in, the compensation also differed depending on whether the Zerg chose to “leave the Starstone behind” or “submit only the stellar power.”
Qi Heng considered the matter briefly before deciding to give the Starstone to Yan Ning.
For one thing, he did not have time to visit the exchange shop himself.
For another, it would lessen some of Yan Ning’s burden.
And they could exchange it for meat to improve their meals.
After more than a week of eating nothing but vegetables, Qi Heng felt as though his face was about to turn the same blue-green color as blue cassava.
He considered that once the mining workers’ operation stabilized, he should be able to spare some time to capture edible animals in the wilderness.
When Yan Ning considered how difficult it was to replenish a Starstone with stellar power, he instinctively attempted to refuse.
“I can’t accept this…”
- 云养崽 – “cloud child-rearing” is Chinese internet slang for enjoying, following, or emotionally caring for children or pets from a distance without personally raising them.
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