Chapter 1 Deer Xiaoyao's Miscalculation

The second after being smug that she could witness history, Lu Xiaoyao and her brother were discovered by people on the starship.

Lu Xiaoyao's smile was simply too arrogant, her voice too loud and obvious.

So much so that a senior officer on break between shifts immediately noticed something was wrong.

Hu Mingli's expression was truly meaningful when he saw Lu Xiaoyao and Lu Gui on his starship.

Could you say he wasn't angry? No, he looked quite angry, actually.

But could you say he was in a bad mood?

Well, he was smiling, and his eyes weren't filled with rage.

For a moment, the siblings couldn't quite tell if Hu Mingli was in a good mood or not.

However, Lu Gui vaguely felt that Hu Mingli was looking at them as if they were a big piece of meat.

Was it his imagination?

"Alright, now that you're here, you have to listen to me and follow orders. Lu Gui, I remember you're with the Third Legion, right?"

Lu Xiaoyao was from his own legion, so it was easy to arrange things, but he really had a headache looking at Lu Gui, who had come with her.

If he remembered correctly, Lu Gui's identity had been pretty much exposed online not long ago, right?

He was also on the Zerg's list, and now he was here too. If something happened to Lu Gui on the battlefield, he really wouldn't know how to handle it.

"Is there a problem? I've already reported to my superior."

The Third Legion's pampering and indulgence towards Lu Gui was partly due to his grandfather.

"Well, the upcoming battle won't be in our Sixth Legion's jurisdiction. The Fifth Legion will definitely take action. Do you… want to get involved?"

Now that Lu Gui was here, Hu Mingli felt that he could bring in another wave of people to beat a dog when it's down. The more people, the better, and the harder they hit, the better.

It would be great if everything went according to Mei Qiu's plan.

Thinking of this, Hu Mingli's gaze towards Lu Gui became a little too obvious. He needed the name of Marshal Lu behind Lu Gui to secretly borrow another group of people from the Third Legion.

"So, are we really going to ambush the Zerg?"

Hu Mingli raised his eyebrows in surprise at Lu Gui's question. "How did you guess that, kid?"

"If it wasn't to ambush the Zerg, you wouldn't have used the excuse of escorting the Federation people back to detour around the Fourth Legion's guarded star area from the border, and then go to a place that isn't under our own legion's jurisdiction to fight.

Unless you received some news confirming that the Zerg would appear again, whether to pursue or ambush them, you must have received definite information from someone you trust to go to that place. Otherwise, you wouldn't have mobilized so many people.

If the Zerg haven't exposed their tracks yet, and you're just saying you're going to ambush them, then I think the person who could gain your trust so much is probably Minister Mei Qiu."

Lu Gui and his generation mostly referred to Mei Qiu as General Mei Qiu or Legion Commander Mei Qiu, but since Mei Qiu had returned to Hua Lan Star, Lu Gui would naturally change his address.

"Well, not bad. What you said makes sense." Hu Mingli nodded, but he didn't directly confirm the other party's guess.

"If the Zerg really choose to retreat, the place they are most likely to pass through is the border junction guarded by the Fourth and Fifth Legions."

Hu Mingli pointed to the star map on the light screen. It was the first time Lu Xiaoyao and the others had seen such a clear star map.

It was ten thousand times more detailed than the star maps they usually had access to. Countless wormholes, large and small, that they had never known about were displayed on this star map.

"These wormholes…"

Lu Gui was surprised by the distribution of these wormholes, and then he saw Hu Mingli's mouth reveal a mocking smile. "Clear, isn't it? This star map?"

Lu Xiaoyao nodded blankly. "It's so clear, much clearer than what we usually see."

"Yes, I only got such a clear star map not long ago."

The corners of Hu Mingli's mouth twitched into a sarcastic smile.

Lu Gui frowned when he saw this smile.

He understood what Hu Mingli meant. Even Hu Mingli had only obtained this star map not long ago, so you could see how important this star map was.

Since it was so important, how did the Zerg know about it?

Perhaps even earlier than they did?

Otherwise, there was no way to explain how they were able to deceive everyone and launch a surprise attack on the Cang Lan Star Region and Hua Lan Star.

Judging from their previous route, they knew the distribution of some wormholes in the empire like the back of their hand.

"I remember it was said that there was also a wormhole entrance outside our Cang Lan Star Region, right? Could the Zerg end up going that way?"

Lu Xiaoyao suddenly worried about Qi Lan Star again.

"Do you think I can't control that wormhole by now?"

Now it was Hu Mingli's turn to be amused.

Not only the wormhole that Lu Xiaoyao mentioned that had existed under his nose for so long that he didn't even know about it, but also—

"Were you bad at geography in school?"

"Huh?"

Hu Mingli caught the guilty look in Lu Xiaoyao's eyes when he asked.

"The direction of Hua Lan Star and the location of the Cang Lan Star Region are poles apart. There's no way the Zerg could retreat there…"

Lu Gui facepalmed. Lu Xiaoyao didn't understand, but how could he not hear it?

…

Mingmei didn't yet know what her brothers' plans were.

However, she could tell that her brothers were going to make the Zerg suffer a big loss this time.

Mingmei thought to herself, since the Queen Zerg wanted to use the Zerg nucleus to attack her, why wouldn't she go along with it?

She might as well just let it explode.

However, before detonating it, Mingmei wanted to send these Zerg nuclei into the Zerg army. She had already witnessed the power of a "dud" Queen Zerg self-explosion on Qi Lan Star.

She also wanted to see the self-explosion of a Zerg nucleus that hadn't been suppressed.

But this place was too small and cramped.

Mingmei carefully calculated the current area. Once it exploded, she wouldn't be able to escape and would be finished with the Zerg.

"Achen, let's go help my mother and the others."

Hearing Mingmei's proposal, Mu Chen was stunned. Hadn't they agreed to help Mei Qiu deal with the Queen Zerg?

Why did Mingmei suddenly change her mind at this time?

"The Zerg nucleus carried by my mecha makes the Queen Zerg want to move my Zerg nucleus as soon as I get close to her. I think it's better for me to stay away from her."

Mei Qiu and Ming Qi both agreed with Mingmei's words with both hands.

Mei Qiu even suggested that Mu Chen take Mingmei out and ignore these things. Anyway, they didn't need her.

Mingmei's mouth twitched when she heard this.

So many Zerg, and you want four people to solve it? What a joke!

How would they explain it to the outside world?

Their whole family would probably go down in interstellar history, and the question of their family's fighting power would probably be frantically researched for hundreds of years.

"Don't worry, Second Brother, we will definitely help you solve the peripheral conflicts."

Ignoring Mei Qiu's previous suggestion, Mingmei assured him, and then she and Mu Chen retreated.

Mingmei and Mu Chen's departure did indeed attract the attention of some of the Zerg.

However, Mu Chen soon discovered a problem. Mingmei didn't rush out directly, but kept directing him to shuttle back and forth through the Zerg.

They fought from this end to that end, and from that end to this end.

The two of them relied on their crazy, provocative actions inside the Zerg army to successfully attract firepower. Gradually, without Mei Qiu and the Queen Zerg knowing, the encirclement formed by the Zerg became larger and larger.

But this made the Hua Lan Star soldiers who were attacking the Zerg on the outermost periphery suffer.

"This is outrageous. Why are they rushing outward the more we fight them? It doesn't look like they are trying to escape and retreat…"

"Tell me about it! If they didn't retreat no matter how we fought, we could have rushed in and maybe even seen how the Minister is doing now? But these guys, are they marking their territory?"

"It's really鬼了, how are they getting more 'bloated' the bigger they get?" (No suitable English equivalent. "Guile" is a transliteration for 鬼了.)

Just when the Hua Lan Star soldiers were chattering away, a clear female voice suddenly came from their communication channel.

"Please retreat as soon as possible, Hua Lan Star soldiers deployed on the periphery. Retreat and take cover. Please evacuate the Hua Lan Star personnel from ten airspace ranges."

"Who's speaking?"

At this time, the outer command finally came in handy. Mingmei had just entered their communication channel through guigui and heard them chatting and she even wondered if she had entered some kind of菜市场, but she hadn't. (菜市场-cài shì chǎng means wet market, open-air market in Chinese).

When she spoke, the entire channel was quiet for a moment. Mingmei had even prepared to put soundproof cotton in her ears, but fortunately only one person spoke.

"I'm Mingmei, Minister Mei Qiu's sister. My brother is currently fighting the Queen Zerg in the center. Right now, we need you to retreat temporarily to avoid danger."

"Is the Minister planning to self-destruct and die with the Zerg?"

Mingmei: ???