…A dream.
Qi Heng could tell with perfect clarity that he was inside a dream, no matter how real it felt.
After entering these dreams several times, he had already learned many of their rules.
For example, his movements were usually restricted. One dream rarely connected directly to the previous one, and not every dream contained useful information. Sometimes, it was nothing more than an immersive tour of the Overlord’s daily life.
Like now.
He was standing inside a pavilion in the Sacred Temple’s garden.
This was one of the places the “Overlord” visited most often. Qi Heng had become quite familiar with it, having come here many times in his dreams.
It was merely one garden within the Sacred Temple, yet it contained rare plants from countless alien worlds.
There was no telling how much effort and how many resources had been spent allowing flowers and plants that required completely different environments, climates, and temperatures to bloom together so exuberantly.
They blended together perfectly, vivid without becoming gaudy, displaying the most beautiful side of every flower.
Their sole purpose was to delight the Overlord whenever he came here to sit quietly and relax.
Seeing game data transformed into a real landscape made even Qi Heng think, How extravagant.
Every part of the Sacred Temple was exquisitely refined, magnificent, and imposing. It embodied the faith and reverence an entire civilization held toward the Overlord.
Qi Heng sat inside the pavilion, one hand resting on a table carved from white jade, wondering what this dream would show him.
Was the Overlord merely coming out to admire the flowers again because he had nothing else to do?
Qi Heng let his thoughts wander.
It was not impossible.
He remembered one dream in which the Overlord had sat in the garden for an entire day. Qi Heng had been forced to experience a full day of doing absolutely nothing except admiring flowers and drinking tea.
Even within the dream, he could feel how leisurely the Overlord had been.
All that was missing was someone being summoned to sing and dance for him.
Then again, it had actually been rather enjoyable.
So thought Qi Heng, who had been a corporate drone on Earth and now took daily tours of a mine after transmigrating.
At that moment, footsteps suddenly approached.
The visitor seemed afraid of disturbing him and deliberately softened each step.
Who could it be?
Qi Heng lowered his eyes in thought. Several Zerg who often accompanied the Overlord and had appeared in earlier dreams surfaced in his mind, but his body remained completely motionless.
Outside the pavilion, the newcomer stopped and bowed his head with humility and adoration.
“Your Majesty, it is time. Would you like to proceed to the Main Hall now?”
The person to whom he bowed had his back turned and gave no indication that he had even heard him.
Proceed where?
The moment the question arose in Qi Heng’s mind, his body moved.
He turned around and looked at the black-haired, black-eyed male Zerg before him.
This was the Zerg responsible for attending to and managing the Overlord’s daily life.
Qi Heng had seen him in an earlier dream. Back then, he had only just replaced his predecessor and begun serving beside the Overlord.
Now, his appearance was considerably more mature.
That meant the timeline of this dream had moved even farther forward than the previous one.
After experiencing so many dreams, Qi Heng had gradually pieced together a timeline unique to them.
A timeline spanning the eleven thousand years from the Overlord’s birth until his dormancy.
Before leaving the garden, Qi Heng reached into the flowerbed and broke off a blossom.
Before he could wonder why the Overlord had suddenly picked a flower this time, he handed it to the black-haired male Zerg walking two steps behind him.
The flower he had plucked was the most numerous variety in the garden. All the other alien plants combined barely equaled the number of these flowers.
It was a species that could grow only on the Tianjia Civilization’s homeworld.
Its blossoms were flawless white, with the faintest line of gold tracing every petal. It was revered as the incarnation of the Overlord and the symbol of the civilization.
According to Tianjia legend, the double-petaled Gold-Edged Snow Orchid would bloom only where the Overlord was present.
…
The Main Hall.
Qi Heng was no stranger to it.
He had appeared here during his first dream, and it had shown up frequently since then.
Usually, the Zerg below gathered for a meeting while he sat above, listened to reports, and occasionally offered a few remarks.
This time, however, something seemed different.
Qi Heng entered the Main Hall.
The male Zerg behind him announced solemnly:
“His Majesty has arrived.”
The Tianjia Civilization had no imperial family.
It had only one sovereign, His Majesty the Overlord.
He was the ruler of the entire civilization and the sole emperor of the empire established by the Zerg.
Qi Heng’s arrival drew the attention of the Zerg standing along both sides of the hall.
Each held an incomparably prestigious position within the empire. Yet before him, they all dropped to one knee and offered the “Overlord” their highest respect.
“May Your Majesty’s glory shine upon Tianjia forever. We shall eternally follow your will. Your will is the direction in which the empire advances.”
Qi Heng walked slowly down the central path without changing expression.
He climbed the steps and sat upon the throne reserved solely for the Overlord.
Looking down at the Zerg below, he felt no emotional disturbance whatsoever.
“Rise,” Qi Heng said in a low voice.
Who would have imagined that the first time he heard those words and faced such a scene, he had nearly dug a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment into the floor with embarrassment?
Now, after hearing it so often, he no longer cared.
He simply treated it as in-game NPC dialogue with an added voice pack.
The black-haired male Zerg, effectively the Overlord’s personal steward, remained on the step nearest to him.
In his arms, he held the Gold-Edged Snow Orchid that had just been picked, still beaded with dew.
Across from him stood a female Zerg carrying a cushion. Resting upon it was a butterfly with its pale blue wings folded together.
Qi Heng looked over the male and female Zerg rising below.
He leaned halfway against the throne, rested an elbow on the armrest, and lightly supported his chin with one hand.
There were nearly as many Zerg present as there would be at a grand assembly.
It seemed that everyone of importance had arrived.
The scene felt somewhat familiar.
Before Qi Heng could remember why, the black-haired male Zerg addressed the assembled Zerg:
“The ceremony shall begin.”
An elderly female Zerg stepped forward and bowed.
“Under His Majesty’s witness, the oath that is formed shall pass loyalty into the bloodline…”
The dreams were no longer as blurry as they had been at first.
Furthermore, only a limited number of Zerg were important enough to appear before the Overlord.
With his excellent memory, Qi Heng recognized the elderly female Zerg below.
He was the Imperial Chief Consul.
His status was second only to the Overlord’s, and he was the true head of the empire’s civil administration, responsible for handling imperial documents and drafting policy.
Hearing his words, Qi Heng roughly understood what was happening.
The empire’s leadership was changing again.
“Your Majesty, allow me to introduce the successor who will become the next Imperial Chief Consul after I leave office.”
The Tianjia Civilization’s supreme ruler was the Overlord.
Beneath him, the empire was truly kept running by two equal-ranking officials: the Imperial Chief Consul, who led the civil administration, and the Grand Marshal, who led the military.
The latter differed from the former, however.
The Grand Marshal was not only the empire’s highest military authority but also the Commander of the Primordial Zerg.
It was fundamentally uninvolved in any task requiring serious thought, and its position had not changed hands in ten thousand years.
Ordinary Zerg, no matter how long-lived, could not live as long as the Overlord.
For that reason, an Imperial Chief Consul normally served a term of two thousand years.
In practice, however, the preparations for succession and the selection of a replacement usually began after around fifteen hundred years.
Only the most outstanding Zerg were worthy of becoming Imperial Chief Consul and offering all their loyalty to the Overlord and the empire.
Candidates were filtered through layer after layer of selection.
Before the process ended, others could challenge them, resulting in repeated elimination until only the most exceptional remained.
The Zerg who ultimately survived the process and became Imperial Chief Consul were always the finest of their era.
They would create a new age of prosperity and drive the civilization toward another peak.
The Imperial Chief Consul and the seven First-Rank Imperial Consuls beneath him were generally replaced together.
Whenever this occurred, all of them swore loyalty to the Overlord.
During the oath ceremony, they established a special connection with him.
They called it an “Oath.”
Qi Heng preferred to call it adding each other as friends.
After all, within the game, the Oath’s function was simply to create a two-way chatroom between them and the Overlord.
Whenever necessary, the Overlord could issue orders to them directly.
Combined with the Overlord’s spatial talent and overwhelmingly powerful mental power, they could communicate across the sea of stars without difficulty.
The only limitation was that the number of connections could not exceed nine.
Therefore, whenever the current officials received this “honor,” the previous group would be deleted from the Overlord’s friend list.
Under normal circumstances, of course, the chatroom operated in only one direction.
Unless something extremely important occurred, they would never dare disturb the Overlord on their own initiative.
Once Qi Heng understood what this dream was showing him, he returned his attention to the ceremony.
He wanted to see who the next Imperial Chief Consul would be.
At some point, a tall young man dressed in the empire’s black military uniform had appeared beneath the steps.
His silver hair had been divided into two simple braids along the sides and tied into a high ponytail. The remaining strands fell straight and smooth to his waist.
His features were delicate and refined.
His strikingly handsome appearance was unforgettable, making it difficult to look away.
Those eyes are beautiful.
The thought arose involuntarily when Qi Heng saw the young man’s cobalt-blue eyes.
“Come forward.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Qi Heng knew that he had become distracted and missed part of the “plot.”
He also understood that the events unfolding now were outside his control.
Everything he witnessed in these dreams had already happened in the past.
He could only observe and could not interfere.
The young man climbed the stairs one step at a time.
At last, he knelt on one knee before Qi Heng and placed an almost reverent kiss upon his fingertips.
“Greetings, Your Majesty.”
It was only a dream, yet Qi Heng instinctively felt something strange.
He told himself that this was simply part of the ceremony.
He should relax and not take it too seriously.
It was only a kiss.
During the Overlord’s existence of more than ten thousand years, this could hardly have been the first time someone had treated him this way.
Qi Heng knew where the strange feeling came from.
It was the appearance of the female Zerg before him that made him uncomfortable.
Or, more accurately, made him feel deeply awkward.
There was no other reason.
He looked far too much like the mistake Qi Heng had made in the game during his reckless youth, a mistake he regretted bitterly.
More frighteningly, perhaps, possibly, and probably…
This Zerg was that very “mistake.”
Qi Heng heard himself laugh softly.
His gaze remained fixed on the young man’s face.
The distance between them was so small that Qi Heng could have lifted the female Zerg’s chin merely by extending one hand.
Within those eyes, he saw his own reflection.
During the Tianjia Civilization’s early years, the Overlord had always worn a mask to prevent his true appearance from being exposed and targeted by other civilizations.
The face reflected in the young man’s eyes revealed only a smooth chin and lips pressed into a straight line.
Because of this, Qi Heng had entered these dreams many times without ever seeing what the Overlord truly looked like beneath the mask.
“Your name.”
Qi Heng heard his own voice.
The words immediately caused his heart to rise into his throat.
For someone like him, a devoted face-con who had heavily optimized the appearance of an entire species, asking the name of someone with such a face was entirely reasonable.
But for certain personal reasons, all Qi Heng wanted now was for the “Overlord” to shut his mouth.
Stop.
Don’t ask.
He truly did not want confirmation of the other Zerg’s identity.
Even less did he want to discover whether this was the person he suspected.
Qi Heng’s silent attempts to stop him had no effect on the Overlord.
He could only watch helplessly as the young female Zerg smiled at him.
Every line of his brows and eyes revealed his happiness at having the Overlord personally ask for his name.
“My name is Chu Xiu.”
The young man’s clear, gentle voice entered his ears.
To Qi Heng, however, it struck like a bolt of lightning.
He had known his premonition was correct.
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