At the same time Qi Heng was returning to District 49, the Blue-Tailed Butterfly carrying out his orders fluttered across the nighttime wilderness.
After concealing its glow, it seemed to merge completely into the darkness.
Following the Overlord’s command, it entered the same mine entrance as the previous day. It sensed the aura the Overlord had left within the dark underground tunnels and eventually reached the abandoned Tunnel No. 1.
The Blue-Tailed Butterfly released a pulse of mental energy.
Hui Ge, which had previously connected with it inside the abandoned tunnel, immediately sensed the fluctuation. The enormous rock blocking the passage was shifted aside, exposing a gap wide enough for the butterfly to enter freely.
Among the one thousand Mining Worker Zerg, only Hui Ge was qualified to approach the Blue-Tailed Butterfly.
It moved closer and received its assignment from the butterfly.
Without hesitation, Hui Ge selected three hundred adult mining workers from those currently excavating ore and led them into the tunnel through which the Overlord had previously taken it.
Under the Blue-Tailed Butterfly’s guidance, they confirmed the direction in which they needed to dig.
Given the mining workers’ excavation speed and their total number, the subterranean route would inevitably twist and turn, but completing it would not take especially long.
After all, the command Hui Ge had received was:
Suspend ore excavation and prioritize opening this tunnel at full speed.
Within District 49, Qi Heng brushed aside Yan Ning’s questions with a few casual remarks.
He was not surprised that Yan Ning accepted his explanation.
It was obvious that Yan Ning’s trust in him had steadily increased over time. As long as the words came from Qi Heng, Yan Ning rarely even questioned them.
Precisely because of that, Qi Heng had noticed something unusual about Yan Ning over the past several days.
It was as though Yan Ning were faintly afraid that something was approaching.
Qi Heng was not someone who meddled in other people’s affairs.
That was clear from the fact that although he sympathized with the present Zerg’s suffering, he had not impulsively agreed to A0’s demands.
When emotion and reason came into conflict over unfamiliar Zerg who had merely aroused his sympathy, reason clearly held the advantage.
Had this happened when he first met Yan Ning, Qi Heng would not have asked even if he noticed something. At the time, Yan Ning had been no different from any other Zerg.
Now, however, Yan Ning was somewhat different from those strangers.
It was almost as though Qi Heng had gained half a younger brother. Inevitably, he paid him a little more attention and concern.
“Your mood has been unusual these past two days. What are you worried about?” Qi Heng asked with certainty.
Yan Ning’s heart jumped.
“N-nothing. I was only worried that… um, Lie Ke and the others might return.”
“Yan told me that they’ll handle it. We can leave the matter to them for now.”
Qi Heng had spent the entire day outside and had only recently returned after briefly informing Yan Ning where he was going. He had not yet told him what had happened with Yan’s group.
“That’s wonderful.”
Yan Ning visibly relaxed.
“Were you really worried about that? Nothing else?”
“What else would I have to worry about?”
Yan Ning quickly redirected the subject.
“If I’m worried about anything, it’s that you’re entering the wasteland with them tomorrow.”
He could not help sighing.
“Why do you have to join them? The wasteland is extremely dangerous.”
“So many Zerg enter and never come back. Brother Qi, could you please not go?”
“I already promised them.”
Qi Heng rarely broke his word.
Furthermore, this was hardly the first day he had known the wasteland was dangerous.
More than breaking his promise, Qi Heng wanted to know why Yan Ning had repeatedly tried to prevent him from entering the wasteland.
Yan Ning’s fear did not seem to have come from rumors.
It was more like he had personally experienced danger there, or perhaps something had happened that made him avoid the wasteland entirely.
Qi Heng was more inclined toward the latter possibility.
It was not that he looked down on Yan Ning.
Yan Ning simply did not seem strong enough to enter the wasteland and emerge unharmed.
His strength was far too poor.
Realizing that Qi Heng had already made his decision, Yan Ning hesitated, struggling to think of something else to say.
Finally, he forced out a sentence.
“Then you must be careful when you enter the wasteland. I know the hunting team’s captain is very powerful. Stay close to him once you go inside.”
Yan Ning sounded as though he knew Yan.
Qi Heng considered that.
“You mean Yan?”
Yan Ning nodded. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “Mm. My… my older brother once said he was very powerful. He’s one of the few Zerg capable of surviving safely in the wasteland.”
“I understand.”
“It’s late. Go to sleep.”
Qi Heng could tell that Yan Ning was concealing something, but he did not ask.
Everyone had matters they did not wish to discuss. His relationship with Yan Ning was nowhere near close enough for him to interrogate the other Zerg about his past.
That remained true even though Qi Heng had already inferred the general situation from the information Yan Ning accidentally revealed.
Only after a long while did Qi Heng hear a quiet “Mm” from Yan Ning’s direction.
The house then fell silent.
Qi Heng casually folded his coat and used it as a pillow. When he lay down, he placed one arm behind his head.
He released his mental power and sensed the stellar energy flowing around him.
With every breath, stellar power was continuously drawn into his body. It formed a cycle within him before finally entering the Energy Sea located three cun below his navel.
Every civilization and species in this world possessed the potential to cultivate stellar power.
The methods differed between species, but they all ultimately reached the same destination.
Only someone capable of refining stellar power, opening all 365 acupoints, and establishing an Energy Sea could be called a Stellar Refiner.
Before establishing an Energy Sea, one could only be considered a trainee, unworthy of any formal rank.
The difficulty of opening the acupoints was determined at birth.
Some people possessed severely blocked acupoints. Even after exhausting all their strength, they could open only the narrowest gap through which stellar power could pass.
Others found opening their acupoints as effortless as eating and drinking.
The former were mediocre.
The latter were geniuses.
Was Qi Heng a genius?
Yes and no.
Unlike other Higher Zerg, who needed to laboriously open the 365 acupoints throughout their bodies before establishing an Energy Sea and gathering stellar power, the stellar energy Qi Heng attracted on his very first day of cultivation had automatically broken through his acupoints.
It had not merely opened a narrow path through which stellar power could flow.
It had completely cleared every obstruction in every acupoint.
The more completely a Stellar Refiner opened his acupoints, the faster he could gather stellar power and the more power he could absorb at the same level.
It could be said that the completeness of one’s opened acupoints represented the eventual upper limit of one’s cultivation.
Qi Heng’s condition was even more exaggerated than that of a so-called genius.
That first night, he had not experienced any of the pain supposedly caused by opening the acupoints.
He had simply completed a cycle of stellar power and established his Energy Sea.
This was entirely thanks to the Overlord.
Qi Heng understood that clearly.
Among tens of thousands of civilizations and intelligent life-forms numbering in the trillions, the Overlord was the only individual identified by the system as having been born with every acupoint already connected.
More than ten thousand years ago, the Overlord had already stood at the summit of all Stellar Refiners.
His strength had been unrivaled in that era, with no equal anywhere.
The Half-Step Star River displayed on the system interface meant that the Overlord’s former strength had already stepped beyond the known ranks of Stellar Refiners.
It stood far above the nine stellar-refinement levels established by the Stellar Council.
Viewed from this perspective, Tianjia Civilization had truly taken an excellent hand and played it into complete ruin.
Qi Heng could not even feel properly dissatisfied about it.
After all, he had abandoned the game, causing the Overlord to disappear mysteriously, and had agreed to allow the Commander to undergo Second Rebirth.
No matter how one examined it, part of the responsibility belonged to him.
This counted as crippling his own strength with his own hands.
The Civilization Simulator…
It would have been better if it truly had been only a game.
Had it merely been a game, Qi Heng would never have fallen into his present circumstances.
When a faint swelling pain emerged from his Energy Sea, Qi Heng stopped absorbing stellar power.
That sensation indicated that his Energy Sea had reached its current storage limit.
Using mental power to examine it internally, he could see faint white mist filling the entire Energy Sea.
Qi Heng directed the stellar power, which had taken the form of white mist, toward the black region surrounding the Energy Sea’s boundaries.
To expand the Energy Sea, he needed to control stellar power and continuously erode the surrounding darkness.
This process consumed mental power.
Every gain came with a loss.
Because Qi Heng was fusing with the Overlord, all the acupoints throughout his body were already completely connected.
However, that same fusion also made his Energy Sea somewhat different from that of an ordinary Stellar Refiner.
The maximum size of his Energy Sea did not depend on his strength.
It depended on his fusion progress.
According to A0, at fifty-percent first-stage fusion, Qi Heng’s Energy Sea could expand until it contained a maximum of one thousand units of white-quality stellar power.
Until his first-stage fusion reached one hundred percent, he would be unable to expand his Energy Sea beyond that limit, even if his strength otherwise fulfilled the requirements for advancing to Level Two.
An Energy Sea should naturally expand as one’s strength increased.
Now, however, Qi Heng’s fusion progress acted like a lock sealing the door to a higher limit.
Only by opening that lock could he continue expanding his Energy Sea.
For the time being, this restriction remained distant.
Qi Heng’s current Energy Sea could hold only ninety units of stellar power.
Even that was the result of continuously cultivating and expanding it every night.
When he had first begun cultivating, its capacity had been a pitiful thirty units.
Every night afterward, Qi Heng used mental power to control the stellar power he absorbed and expand the Energy Sea.
Once both his mental and stellar power were exhausted, he meditated to restore them.
He repeated the cycle several times each night until he could no longer continue.
This cultivation method not only expanded the Energy Sea, but also increased his mental power.
Every time he exhausted and restored his mental power, the number displayed in that category on the system interface increased slightly.
This night was destined to be no different from every previous night he had spent immersed in cultivation.
Qi Heng did not work so hard because he was naturally diligent.
Beyond increasing his chances of survival when he encountered danger, his greatest reason was his desire to maintain as much control as possible over the direction in which unexpected events developed.
That was entirely due to his personality.
As an ordinary human on Earth, few things in his life had ever exceeded his expectations.
In this unfamiliar world, where no one knew what tomorrow might bring, far too many unexpected events could occur.
Qi Heng could not tolerate that.
Call him excessively controlling, overly intelligent and prone to overthinking, or someone needlessly worried that the sky might fall.
He simply believed that only personal strength would allow him to calmly confront every accident beyond his predictions.
Naturally, he could rely on the system.
The system was his greatest source of confidence while surviving in this unfamiliar world.
However, Qi Heng had never intended to become useless the moment the system was unavailable.
The system was an auxiliary tool.
That had been true when this was a game, and it remained true now.
However, the system’s functions were too powerful.
Its intelligent AIs were capable of independent analysis and calculation.
If Qi Heng relied on the system to resolve every problem, the inevitable result would be the loss of his own ability to think.
Therefore, he understood that between himself and the system, he needed to remain the dominant party.
In addition to avoiding excessive reliance on it, he also needed strength that belonged entirely to him.
Without energy, the system could do nothing.
If its energy was fully exhausted, it would even shut down.
Who knew whether such an accident might occur in the future?
If the system ran out of energy while Qi Heng encountered a danger he lacked the strength to resolve, there was no telling what kind of ending awaited him.
Qi Heng divided his attention and searched through the system database while cultivating.
The database had once contained the complete history of an entire civilization developing from nothing.
It was unimaginably vast.
Even after seventy to eighty percent of it was destroyed, the surviving information remained as extensive as an ocean of smoke.
Cultivating stellar and mental power was only one method of increasing strength.
There were others.
For example, Stellar Refiners used Stellar Combat Techniques to wield stellar power, while Psycho-Spiritual Artsmanipulated mental power to interfere with the physical world.
Unfortunately, most of those records were incomplete.
Even with the system searching on his behalf, Qi Heng found it difficult to obtain what he wanted.
Many techniques consisted of only half a manual. Some preserved the later sections but lacked the beginning, while others contained only theoretical descriptions without any route explaining how stellar power should circulate.
At present, Qi Heng had successfully learned only one auxiliary combat technique: [Swiftstride].
By gathering stellar power in his legs, he could increase his running speed.
It was not that Qi Heng did not want to attempt other complete Stellar Combat Techniques.
The total stellar power he currently possessed simply did not permit it.
With only ninety units, he could attempt only Level-0 Stellar Combat Techniques.
Even then, his meager supply could not sustain such a technique for very long.
The following morning, beneath a misty blue sky, Qi Heng stood with both hands in his pockets at the entrance connecting District 49 to the wilderness.
The hunting team’s female Zerg arrived together.
They immediately spotted the black-haired female Zerg waiting by the entrance.
“Qi Heng, you arrived early.”
Mo Nan greeted him while holding a sharpened bone knife roughly as long as an adult’s forearm.
“I came early because I didn’t want to be late.”
Qi Heng smiled.
The period between the morning star’s first appearance and full daylight was an extremely vague measurement of time.
The female Zerg of District 49 had only a hazy concept of exact time.
When they agreed to meet at daybreak, daybreak was all they meant.
Qi Heng’s gaze swept across the eight female Zerg before him.
Every one of them carried a weapon identical to Mo Nan’s.
Yan tossed Qi Heng the extra bone knife in his hand.
“Know how to use one?”
Qi Heng caught it and tested its weight with a few small movements.
“I can try.”
Hunting required a suitable weapon.
He certainly could not use his Obsidian Crystal throwing knives in front of Yan and the others.
A bone knife was better than nothing.
As far as Qi Heng remembered, there seemed to be no weapon the Overlord could not use.
Whether Qi Heng himself could truly wield it remained to be tested.
The group ran quickly toward the wasteland, slowing only when they approached its outer edge.
Before entering, Yan said, “Today, we’re hunting Sawtooth Beasts and some smaller prey.”
“If we’re fortunate, we should be able to leave the wasteland before sunset.”
“You’ve entered the wasteland before, so you should already understand how dangerous it is. I won’t waste time with unnecessary explanations.”
“Once we’re inside, you need to remain careful about everything.”
Qi Heng, whose previous journey into the wasteland had gone smoothly because of good luck and the system’s assistance, fell silent.
“I’ve only entered the wasteland once.”
His words immediately drew the other female Zerg’s attention.
Under their incredulous gazes, Qi Heng continued without changing expression.
“Luck played a major role last time. Contrary to what you seem to believe, I possess no real survival experience inside the wasteland.”
He needed to make his ignorance clear from the beginning.
Concealing it would only mislead Yan and the others when they made decisions.
None of them had expected Qi Heng to be entirely inexperienced.
For a moment, Yan, Mo Nan, and the others all fell silent.
They exchanged looks before finally turning toward Yan, their captain.
Yan returned to his senses and waved dismissively.
“Why are all of you looking at me?”
“If he doesn’t know, then he doesn’t know. It isn’t a serious problem.”
“If it’s you, I’m sure you’ll learn how to survive inside the wasteland very quickly.”
Qi Heng did not know where Yan found such confidence in him.
Strictly speaking, this was only their second meeting.
“Regardless, I’ll need to trouble all of you,” Qi Heng said.
Mo Nan grinned.
“Don’t say that. You taught us plenty yesterday.”
“If you feel bad about it, teach us a few more moves when you have the opportunity. How does that sound?”
When Mo Nan finished speaking, Qi Heng noticed that every female Zerg, including Yan, was looking at him without concealing their anticipation.
“Of course.”
Qi Heng smiled and agreed.
He regarded it as an early investment in them.
“There’s only one condition. You need to keep it secret.”
“I don’t want too many Zerg learning about the techniques I know.”
His true concern was not that he treasured his skills too much to share them.
He simply did not want unnecessary attention.
The moment they heard that he was willing to teach them, Mo Nan and the others excitedly promised, “No problem. We absolutely won’t spread them.”
Did Qi Heng trust them?
Complete trust was impossible.
He had only decided to continue teaching because his observations the previous day suggested that these female Zerg were reasonably reliable.
In any case, the techniques were merely basic fighting skills.
Even if they spread, there was little reason to care.
That said, Qi Heng would still prepare a contingency plan.
He was accustomed to assuming the worst and making preparations in two directions.
Only Yan watched him with a complicated expression and said nothing.
“All right. We can discuss this after we return.”
“It’s nearly time. We should go inside.”
Yan changed the subject.
Qi Heng entered the wasteland with them.
He was highly interested in the Sawtooth Beast Yan had mentioned.
It required several female Zerg working together to hunt, so it could not be easy to confront.
Qi Heng was equally interested in observing how Yan and the others hunted.
Naturally, the system would need to monitor and analyze their performance throughout the process.
Only then could he determine whether they possessed enough potential to be worth cultivating.
If the results of Yan’s group working together failed to meet his requirements, joining them would only carry Qi Heng farther from his own objectives.
Qi Heng intended to use Yan and the others to accomplish his goals, but he would not exploit them without giving anything in return.
The principle that one needed to pay something to obtain something had remained unchanged since ancient times.
As long as Yan’s group was not so hopeless that nothing could be done with them, Qi Heng was confident that he could completely transform them into what he needed.
At the same time, he would ensure that what they gained far exceeded what they contributed.
After all, this was supposed to benefit both sides.
Qi Heng’s gaze briefly passed over Yan, who was leading the group.
His expression remained calm.
He hoped they would not disappoint him.
Ahead of them, Yan lowered his voice and softened his footsteps.
“The Sawtooth Beasts’ territory is still some distance away. Once we arrive, we’ll first search for traces they’ve left behind…”
Qi Heng knew that the explanation was intended for him, the newcomer who had joined midway.
“What does a Sawtooth Beast look like? Is it enormous?”
He asked the brown-haired female Zerg walking beside him with clear interest.
Qi Heng searched his memory for the other Zerg’s name.
He seemed to be called Luo Shen.
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