18: Chapter 18 The Class System in the World of Gods and the Divine Dream of the Insect Swarm
The battle ended.
Blackwater Valley returned to its deathly silence.
The two Attendant Monks, hanging high on bone spikes, let out meaningless gurgling sounds from their throats, their cloudy eyes reflecting the bleak sky. Life force was draining from their broken bodies, drop by drop.
The stench of putrid mud mixed with warm blood, emitting a nauseating odor.
The Zerg Swarm was silently executing its ancient instincts.
Large Drones dragged the corpses of the Attendant Monks and Tyrant Leeches, their heavy carapaces scraping a rustling sound on the muddy ground. Some newly hatched larvae greedily pounced on the shattered flesh, converting all organic matter on the battlefield into the purest biomass energy.
The four bone wings on Sarah's back had retracted, the deadly psionic energy glow on their edges gradually fading, returning to their stark white bone color. She stood silently beside Su Chen, like a perfect sculpture of slaughter, oblivious to the surrounding blood and chaos.
Su Chen's consciousness, the supreme will that commanded the entire race, flowed calmly through the Nid Hive Network, without a single ripple.
He was not in a hurry to order a retreat.
His form hovered in mid-air, his gaze piercing through the murky air, past the continuous swamps, and towards the distant horizon.
There, was the phantom of a city.
It seemed to be composed of pure light, magnificent, solemn, and sacred. Ten thousand rays of golden light emanated from the city's outline, dyeing the clouds at the edge of the sky a brilliant gold, forming the sharpest and most ironic contrast with the dirty, dead valley below.
City of Deities.
A concept imprinted deep within the souls of all intelligent life.
"Sarah, and my children."
Su Chen's voice, not through air vibration, but through a more fundamental, direct way, through the mental network, instantly descended into the deepest consciousness of every Zerg unit.
The voice was cold, vast, devoid of any emotion, yet it contained unquestionable authority.
"Do you see it?"
This simple question was like an invisible command.
In an instant, all the clamor in Blackwater Valley vanished.
Drones transporting corpses stopped, larvae gnawing on flesh raised their heads, and Corrupted Wyverns circling in the air adjusted their direction.
Thousands of compound eyes, whether simple or complex in structure, all turned in unison towards the golden city projection on the horizon at this moment.
In their vision, only that city remained.
"In this world, strength is the only truth."
Su Chen's will continued to reverberate through the network, each syllable transforming into the deepest imprint, etched into the Zerg Swarm's genetic sequence.
"Like those things just now."
His thoughts pointed to the several Attendant Monk corpses, clad in Divine Power Armor, that were being dragged away.
"Fourth-tier. In those so-called Mortal Kingdoms, they are powerhouses, nobles, existences capable of determining the rise and fall of a city."
"But in the eyes of true deities, what are they?"
"Slightly stronger, slightly smarter rats. That's all."
Su Chen's voice became serious, cold, with the precision of dissecting prey.
"Demigods have nine turns, each turn an insurmountable chasm."
"A First-Turn Demigod merely gains the qualification to enter this hunting game. They possess a negligible divinity, capable of leveraging a trace of law, and thus mistakenly believe they have transcended the mundane."
"But they are still prey."
"Only by reaching the Ninth Turn, igniting an undying divine fire within their bodies, integrating their souls with the laws, and then, with the divine fire as the core, expanding a domain of their own in the endless Star Realm—raising a Divine Kingdom."
"Only then can they be called 'True Gods'."
"Only then can they gain the qualification to overlook the chessboard and manipulate the fate of all living beings."
Su Chen's voice paused.
The entire Nid Hive Network fell into absolute silence, as if digesting and comprehending the cruelest truth about this world revealed by these words.
An indescribable heat began to surge through the bio-currents of every Zerg unit.
In Su Chen's eyes, there was no reflection of the golden divine city; instead, two points of flame, deeper and greedier than black holes, burned.
That was the flame of ambition.
"And what we must do..."
His will transformed into an all-sweeping torrent, washing over the souls of the entire Zerg Swarm.
"Is to take this world, these so-called laws, and those high and mighty deities, every single one of them..."
"Turn them into our evolutionary nourishment!"
"One day, we will flatten that divine city, use the bones of deities as its foundation, use their Divine Kingdoms as our breeding ground, and transform it..."
"Into the supreme nest of the Zerg!"
These words were no longer commands, no longer teachings.
They were a lightning bolt of spirit, a genetic catalyst injected into the deepest part of the entire race's soul.
They ignited the most primitive, purest instinct hidden in every cell.
Devour.
Evolve.
"Hiss—!!!"
The nearest Steel-Fanged Ant suddenly raised its ferocious, steel-cutting mandibles and let out a piercing shriek that could burst eardrums!
This spark instantly ignited the entire powder keg.
"Roar—!!!"
The earth trembled.
Thousands of Steel-Fanged Ants, Zerglings, Banelings... they unleashed deafening roars with their most primitive vocal organs.
The sky quivered.
The circling Corrupted Wyverns and Mutalisk swarms no longer suppressed their ferocity; they spewed corrosive acid and energy spines, weaving a destructive barrage in the air.
Even Queen of Blades Sarah, who had just undergone an extreme assassination, her deep purple pupils erupted with terrifying light, and her retracted bone wings uncontrollably spread open, humming with a desire for battle.
That was not cheering.
That was not a response.
That was the roar of hunger.
That was an endless desire to devour the entire world, the entire universe!
The collective will of the Zerg, above this bloody mire, condensed and sublimated to an unprecedented peak.
They did not need illusory love and peace.
They did not need grandiose reasons and excuses.
They only needed a goal, a direction, a being that could lead them to gnaw at stars, devour gods, and drag the entire universe into their evolutionary sequence—
A Overlord!