Chapter 255: Dark Forest, Tsukuyomi
Woosh!
Three black lights shot out, piercing the heads of the three giant bugs instantly. After struggling for a while, these three insects—powerful galactic lifeforms—stopped moving.
“That was a Soul Attack just now!” Leoux said softly. “By annihilating their souls and letting them die on the spot will allow us to preserve their bodies perfectly!”
“How thoughtful of you!” Ling Jiu let out a sigh of relief. Although it was not the first time he saw Leoux kill a galactic lifeform, he was still shocked every time he witnessed it.
These bugs were galactic lifeforms — a much more terrifying existence than stellar lifeforms, yet their souls were annihilated with just one blow. Leoux was indeed super scary!
“I will keep the bodies of these three giant bugs for you first. If you want to devour them, just let me know!” said Leoux while he was putting the three giant bugs away.
And at last, Leoux had also brought in the Insectoid Queen, who was still struggling to no avail. Earlier on, Ling Jiu did not feel much when he was watching the creature from the battleship. But now, as he was in close contact with it, he could really feel how powerful it was.
The extreme terror and domineering pressure exuded by the Insectoid Queen overwhelmed him, leaving him almost out of breath. At the same time, from the bottom of his heart, he felt horrified and powerless.
When standing before the Insectoid Queen, the powerlessness and fear he felt were similar to the feelings when he had encountered a Class 8 Direbeast—the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon—for the first time.
This was truly the distance between levels!
Had it not been that the Insectoid Queen could not move while being held in mid-air, Ling Jiu would have had the urge to run away.
“Why should I fear it? It is my prisoner now. So it should be the one who fears me!”
Ling Jiu then took a deep breath and said, “Leoux, you mentioned before that I should enslave it. What should I do?”
Leoux did not answer the question. He asked Ling Jiu instead, “9527 gave you the Emessian warrior’s six-piece set when you passed the test, right?”
Ling Jiu was surprised. “You mean… I should use the war beast chip?”
“Not bad!” Leoux nodded as he praised Ling Jiu. “I do know a lot of secret techniques of soul control, but the difference in levels between you and the Insectoid Queen is too big.”
“So, no matter how powerful the soul control techniques are, you won’t be able to bypass the gap of strength to enslave the Insectoid Queen. Therefore, the war beast chip is the only option!”
Ling Jiu nodded silently.
“Once the war beast chip is implanted into the Insectoid Queen, it will be in your hands completely. In other words, you will hold over it the power of life and death!”
Leoux smiled and continued, “Of course, if you have enough fun and no longer want it, you can bring it to a bigger place to sell it!”
“A Galactic-Class Insectoid Queen can fetch a high price. After selling it, you can afford all the training resources you need to be a galactic lifeform!”
Ling Jiu shook his head. “To trade such lifeform as a commodity, it is too—”
“In the universe, everything can be traded.” Leoux shook its head and said, “Even apex races like the Flame Astral Behemoth and Saiyan Golden Ape are sold as commodities in black markets. And this Insectoid Queen is merely a galactic lifeform.”
“I see. The universe is crueler than I thought!” Ling Jiu frowned.
“So, practice cultivation harder.” Leoux said, “It is lucky for a living planet like Earth to sit at the remote corner of the universe — the location rarely visited by extraterrestrial beings from advanced civilizations. Thanks to that, you Earthlings can develop your civilization steadily.”
“But once they locate planet Earth, all of you will be doomed!”
“Planet Earth is definitely a natural treasure, especially when there are many wormholes connected in the solar system. It will certainly attract many extraterrestrial beings.”
“What will happen if Earth is discovered?” Ling Jiu quickly asked.
“What else can happen?” Leoux said indifferently, “At best, they will only turn Earth into their territory, enslave and sell Earthlings to other places.”
“At worst, they will wipe out all Earthlings, take over the planet, and sell it!”
“Learn from the history. For instance, the fate of those Native Americans after Columbus discovered America. But of course, under normal circumstances, the result can only be worse than that!”
Ling Jiu clenched his fists.
What had happened to the Native Americans after Columbus discovered America?
One word, massacre!
Before Columbus’ arrival to America, there were a total of 80 million Native Americans living in the continent, but how many are left now?
They were nearly wiped out!
In the universe, all human beings, regardless of different ethnicity, belong to the same race: the human race.
Even human beings treat one another with cruelty. So what kind of treatment should we expect from extraterrestrial beings?
Ling Jiu dared not to imagine!
“If you don’t want similar tragedy to fall on your kind, you must practice cultivation hard. The stronger you are, the safer the Earth!”
Leoux added, “When you attain the state of the pinnacle of life in the universe, not only that Earth will be absolutely safe, it will also become a holy place in the universe!”
“And, when you become the strongest in the universe, the entire universe will be your hunting ground!”
“Hunting ground…” Ling Jiu murmured.
“Work hard, Ling Jiu!” Leoux continued to motivate him, “Your talent is not bad. And with my assistance, there is still a certain hope that you will become one of the strongest in the universe!”
“I will!” Ling Jiu took a deep breath. “I will return to Whitehole 2 to practice cultivation once this matter is solved. My strength is still too weak, but I can’t always rely on you.”
“I’m glad that you know it.” Leoux nodded.
“All right!”
As Ling Jiu landed his gaze on the Insectoid Queen, he took out the war beast chip he got from 9527. Although it was known as a “chip”, it was actually a pair of earrings: one main earring and one sub-earing.
Ling Jiu threw the sub-earing at the Insectoid Queen after putting on the main earring on one of his ears. The moment the earring touched the Insectoid Queen, it suddenly turned into a stream of liquid and sank into the creature’s body.
Beep, beep, beep…
There was a series of beeping sounds emanating from Ling Jiu’s main earring. The sound went deep inside his ear.
After that, as Ling Jiu felt a trance, his consciousness was drawn into a virtual dimension.
This blood-red dimension was the size of a football field. There was nothing else around here except for a big black sphere standing at the center.
The Insectoid Queen was restrained on the big black sphere, just like when the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox was sealed inside Kushina.[1]
“Dear Master, welcome to the war beast chip’s virtual dimension!”
A soft voice sounded, “This dimension is completely under Master’s control. Everything — including material and mass — is subject to your deployment.”
“No matter how long the time passes here, it is just a moment in reality.”
Listening to the explanation from this voice, Ling Jiu slowly understood what a so-called war beast chip’s virtual dimension was and how it would help a user control a war beast.
The principle was actually quite simple. This virtual dimension functioned like the dimension in Uchiha Itachi’s Tsukuyomi[2]. Inside this dimension, the user could torture the war beast wantonly and eventually drive it to the point of complete mental breakdown. The beast would give in and become obedient. As for what kind of torture a user would use, it was all up to the person.
No matter how long the time passed here, it was just a split second in reality.
“Gosh, this war beast chip is terrifyingly powerful!” Ling Jiu let out a praise. He then came before the Insectoid Queen, which was also inspecting this strange dimension. There was a glint of panic flashed in its eyes.
However, when it saw Ling Jiu was approaching, its eyes turned ferocious. “You low-life human, release me!”
“Haha!” Ling Jiu shook his head.
As he stretched out his hand, numerous floating steel needles suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the virtual dimension. With just a thought, the steel needles suddenly shot out.
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
The steel needles pierced into the Insectoid Queen and left it with numerous holes, blood seeping from its wounds. The Insectoid Queen screamed in agony.
Ling Jiu stopped the torture. “You have two choices, surrender or die!”
Upon hearing this, the Insectoid Queen roared hysterically like a cat with its tail trampled on.
“Why should I, the great and noble Queen of the Insectoid clan, surrender to a weak human like you? D*mn you, human…”
“Your death is near, and you still want to act tough!”
Ling Jiu snapped his fingers gently after letting out a cold snort. Suddenly, raging flames lit up around the Insectoid Queen, instantly engulfing and burning it frantically.
“Ahhhhhh!”
The Insectoid Queen was indeed defiant. But when Ling Jiu brought out Qing Dynasty’s Ten Great Tortures, [3]the dignified Insectoid Queen no longer could endure…and collapsed.
“Su-Su-Surrender… I, the Queen, su-su-surrender!”
“The Queen?” Ling Jiu raised his eyebrows.
“I-I-I surrender!” The Insectoid Queen immediately changed its words.
“This is how a slave should act!” Ling Jiu nodded in satisfaction and said nonchalantly, “If you don’t want to endure another round of Qing Dynasty’s Ten Great Tortures in the future, just behave! The war chip is in your body, and you are at my mercy for the rest of your life!”
“I know you are a smart bug. You should know well what to do!”
“Un-Understood!” The Insectoid Queen replied to him feebly.
“Good!”
After returning to reality, Ling Jiu found that the Insectoid Queen’s mental state did not look good.
Every suffering it underwent in the virtual dimension had also affected it in reality. Its current condition was not much better than the state when it was in the virtual dimension.
“Done?” Leoux gave Ling Jiu a delightful smile.
“Done!” Ling Jiu smiled faintly. “The war beast chip is really badass. I can’t believe that you guys were able to develop such a badass torture device.”
From Ling Jiu’s perspective, the war beast chip was a torture device — a brutal torture instrument.
It directly pulled a war beast’s consciousness into a virtual dimension to allow its user to ravage and torture the war beast in Tsukuyomi style endlessly. And when both returned to reality, only a split second had passed.
No other torture device can compare to this.
“The higher the level of your civilization, the closer you become your so-called gods. In fact, there is no difference between immortal divine-level civilization and almighty God!”
Leoux smiled faintly. “In a divine-level civilization, you can easily bend the laws of the universe and create something in a void out of nothing. Everything will be a piece of cake!”
“Things like war beast chips will be just for ordinary daily use!”
“I see.”
Ling Jiu shook his head. A divine-level civilization was so out-of-reach. It was completely beyond his understanding. There were too many things he needed to learn.
“Next, it’s time to think about where to house it!” Leoux looked at the Insectoid Queen. “It is necessary to ensure that this Insectoid Queen will continue to expand its clan, but at the same time, the expansion must not hinder the development of earthlings.”
“Right, we have to think carefully!” Ling Jiu rubbed his temples. “Leoux, any good suggestions?”
“The best place to house the Insectoid Queen is near a white cave.” Leoux said, “But since the white hole where Whitehole-2 is located is connected to your solar system through a wormhole, it must be reserved for your kind.”
“So, we have to find a new white hole for it, and this white hole can’t be too far away from us, lest the Insectoid army gets out of control!”
Ling Jiu repeatedly nodded in agreement.
[1] Naruto reference https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Kushina_Uzumaki?file=Kurama_sealed_within_Kushina.png
[2] Naruto reference https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Tsukuyomi