Ultimately, the farce that had unfolded within the administrative building of the Lanli Research Institute concluded with a delirious Hill being dragged away by enforcement robots.
As he was hauled off, the blonde, blue-eyed Omega had already lost consciousness. His face was a distorted, ashen mask; were it not for his faint breathing, he would have looked like a corpse. In this state, Hill inexplicably brought to mind a single image: a hollow, dead husk.
With Hill gone, the spectacle finally reached its end.
Having seen enough, Feng Zhixi checked the time. He had no intention of lingering. Standing up slowly, he gathered his "trophy" and gave the old Director a brief nod before walking out as if no one else were there, completely ignoring the sour expressions of the remaining executives.
The old Director, the only one treated with any modicum of respect, could only think: *This troublesome kid really did come here just to give me a headache!*
While the Director dealt with his mounting frustrations in the conference room, Feng Zhixi paused slightly as he stepped out of the Lanli Research Institute. He looked toward the left, where a deep black hovercar was parked outside the main gates.
Under the sunlight, the hovercar hovered quietly, its dark surface shimmering with a faint golden reflection that lent the understated exterior a sense of refined luxury.
At the sight of the car, the corners of Feng Zhixi’s mouth curled upward. Before he could even walk over, the hovercar performed a graceful tail-flick and touched down. The door opened, and a young Alpha stepped out.
Standing by the door, Ji Yeran looked at the Omega standing against the light. The youth, with his black hair and dark eyes, had skin so pale it seemed translucent. Bathed in the pale gold of the sun, his eyes sparkling like starlight, he looked impossibly beautiful—so much so that Ji Yeran felt a sudden, sharp pang of possessiveness.
When the thought surfaced in his heart, Ji Yeran didn't find it surprising at all. Following his intuition, he walked toward the youth step by step.
"Guess what I caught?" Feng Zhixi asked with a smile as the Alpha approached. His eyes were bright, filled with the joy of a successful harvest.
"A monster?" Ji Yeran answered, naturally taking the Omega’s hand. Their fingers intertwined, the scent of green plums mingling with the aroma of strong liquor as their pheromones blended together.
"Correct." Feng Zhixi smiled and held up his "trophy" for Ji Yeran to see.
It was a black spider, its body stiff and bound in layer upon layer of black silk, looking for all the world like a ball of black yarn.
"A ball of yarn?" Ji Yeran frowned in confusion. A black yarn ball? What was this?
"This ball should be able to solve our problems," Feng Zhixi said.
***
"This is a Star Insect!"
When the pink light ball—the one they had pinned their hopes on—saw the black yarn ball Feng Zhixi produced, its voice turned shrill with shock. "How can there be a Star Insect here?!"
Upon seeing the fist-sized spider, the little light ball nearly exploded. Its surrounding halo grew brighter and brighter, radiating a sense of extreme vigilance.
This was a nearly mature adult, and judging by its size, it was a mother. It could enter the secondary hatching stage at any moment. If it successfully hatched its eggs, the consequences would be catastrophic.
"Star Insect? What is a Star Insect?" Feng Zhixi looked at the spider, which was rendered immobile by the black threads. He had a feeling that the questions that had long puzzled him were about to be answered.
Soon, from the mouth of this supposedly polymathic Xixi Tribe nursery teacher, Feng Zhixi learned everything there was to know about this spider—or rather, the Star Insect.
Star Insects were a parasitic species hidden within high-dimensional space. Under the interference of the powerful energy strings in high-dimensional space, these insects remained in a dormant state. As eggs, they were completely harmless.
However, once these dormant eggs left high-dimensional space and were no longer suppressed by those powerful energy strings, they would be activated. The activated eggs would begin to hatch, and their method of maturation was both primitive and cruel.
"Brain parasitism?" Feng Zhixi looked at the little light ball, repeating its words.
"Yes." The pink ball floating in the air circled the black yarn ball repeatedly as it patiently answered the "cub's" question.
These Star Insects would choose a suitable host and parasitize the organism's brain. The energy they needed to hatch, reproduce, and grow their colony all came from the biological host itself. The more greedy, the more longing, and the more full of desire the host was, the more biological energy the insects would obtain, allowing them to hatch secondary eggs even faster.
Thus, these naturally ferocious Star Insects would stimulate the latent desires hidden deep within a creature's heart. Like a patient hunter, they would lure their prey into a trap step by step, until the prey became a willing puppet—a vessel for the hatching and reproduction of their race.
In fact, in ancient legends, people had given them another, more famous name: "Devils."
"Devils?" Feng Zhixi studied the black yarn ball. The stiff spider inside looked exceptionally hideous. According to the light ball, this mother insect had already reached adulthood and could hatch eggs at any time.
Once the Star Insect truly hatched its secondary eggs, the host was no longer themselves. The terrifying thing about these insects was that upon reaching maturity, they would bore completely into the core of the host's brain, turning the host into a puppet and a petri dish for their eggs.
Furthermore, the eggs from this secondary hatching would be transmitted from the mother's host to others, one after another.
The Star Insect's inherent greed and reproductive instinct would drive it to constantly manipulate the host to serve the propagation of its species until the entire population was infected, reduced entirely to vessels for the Star Insects' reproduction.
"Therefore, for the sake of universal peace, whenever these bugs are discovered, they must be exterminated!" As the light ball spoke, its glow intensified, as if it were recalling the past when all the races of the universe united to wipe out the Star Insects. Although those were merely images from its inherited memory, the thought still made the little ball tremble with excitement.
Back in the day, the Xixi Tribe had been the main force against the Star Insects. Using energy string cages to catch them was just too cool! ~o(≧口≦)o
Only after the light ball finally calmed down did it think of another question: *Wait, any biological being that touches a Star Insect's physical body will be infected. The only way to capture them is by using an energy string cage. How did the cub catch it?*
As this question dawned on it, the light ball finally realized something. The black threads wrapped around the spider... those were energy strings!
When did the cub learn how to weave an energy string cage?! The light ball was stunned.
Faced with the ball's confusion, Feng Zhixi reached out, bypassed the threads wrapped around the light ball's surface, and poked the little seed nestled inside. He asked with genuine confusion, "Is it that hard? Isn't it just like the yarn ball wrapped around the little seed? I learned it after seeing it once."
The light ball, which was essentially a seed wrapped in a yarn ball: "?!"
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 星虫 | Star Insect | A parasitic species from high-dimensional space that feeds on host desires. |
| 能量弦牢笼 | Energy String Cage | A specialized containment technique used to capture Star Insects. |
| 溪族 | Xixi Tribe | An ancient race (likely the MC's origin) known for fighting Star Insects. |
| 保育师 | Nursery Teacher | The role of the pink light ball/system entity within the Xixi Tribe. |
| 二次孵化 | Secondary Hatching | The stage where a Star Insect reproduces within a host, leading to mass infection. |
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Starry Rebirth: The Warden and the Outlaw’s Interstellar Revenge | Chapter 92 | The Parasitic Star Insect | Novela.app | Novela.app
