Chapter 643: Inventory

Inside the control room of the Yinfeng Starship, everyone fell silent as Elder Sifanqi spoke.

Luo Feng couldn’t help but recall the scene that had unfolded earlier on the capital planet. When the immortal-level Zerg hive and its massive swarm of immortal Zerg warriors appeared, the sheer energy unleashed by the warriors alone—nearly equivalent to ten thousand immortals unleashing their power simultaneously—had caused the entire planet to explode.

Destroying a planet is an extremely difficult feat.

A World Lord can cause mass extinction on a planet with a single strike, but that only wipes out life on its surface—the planet itself remains intact.

Even an Immortal Deity must gather all its strength for a single, focused strike to obliterate a planet.

But the number of immortal Zerg warriors was simply too vast. When they gathered together and released their energy at once, the result was this terrifying devastation.

“Just now, just now that attack destroyed an area with a diameter of millions of kilometers,” Luo Feng said gravely.

“It was indeed powerful,” Dylan murmured.

“Even with perfect coordination, it would be nearly impossible for thousands of Immortal Deities to simultaneously launch an attack so precisely focused on a single point. Any single mistake among thousands would ruin the entire effort. Even with the best possible coordination, it might succeed only once in a thousand or ten thousand attempts. But when it does succeed—thousands of immortal-level attacks converging on one point, triggering spatial turbulence—it becomes terrifying. Its power rivals that of a Cosmic Sovereign.”

Everyone nodded, still shaken.

“First, their minds are perfectly synchronized,” Elder Sifanqi said in a low voice. “Second, they fear death not at all. And third, under the control of the Zerg Queen, thousands of immortal Zerg warriors can execute attacks of incredible precision—attacks that even incorporate the Laws of the universe. For example, when they were chasing me earlier, they continuously sealed off space, preventing me from teleporting entirely.”

Teleportation is like a fish swimming through water.

When space itself is frozen and locked down, it’s as if the water has turned to ice—no movement is possible.

“They even understand attacks based on the Laws?” Kashna, the armored young warrior, exclaimed in shock.

“Of course,” the Ninth Army Commander said coldly. “The Zerg are one of the dominant species in the cosmos, rivaling humanity. They are among the most numerous species in the universe, and also among the rarest.”

“If we count all the mindless Zerg warriors, their numbers are limitless.”

“But if we exclude those and only count the intelligent, highly intelligent Zerg Queens, their numbers are limited indeed. Even the weakest adult Zerg Queen is a World Lord, capable of producing vast numbers of World Lord-level Zerg warriors.” The Ninth Army Commander continued, “Let alone the immortal-level Zerg Hives—encountering one of those, even a King-ranked Immortal must be cautious, or risk destruction.”

“The Zerg Queens possess immense intelligence and extraordinary computational abilities. They can multitask, controlling countless Zerg warriors simultaneously, and execute attacks with pinpoint accuracy. How terrifying is that?”

“The Zerg are among the most advanced species in the use of souls. Every Zerg Queen is a master of soul manipulation—that’s one of the reasons it’s so difficult to control a Zerg Queen through soul techniques.”

The Ninth Army Commander sneered. “Moreover, the most powerful beings within the Zerg—should even one of them arrive—they could easily dominate all of us with a single soul assault. None of us would escape.”

Kashna blinked. “So powerful?”

The others cast glances his way, and even the remaining seven Marquis-level Immortals of the Tawen Division flushed with shame.

Luo Feng looked at Kashna but said nothing.

The terrifying might of the Zerg was detailed in the inheritance memories of the Golden-Horned Giant Beast. A large portion of that inheritance was devoted to describing the Zerg, and even Luo Feng—who had only skimmed the basics—was deeply shaken.

The Zerg.

A species even the Golden-Horned Giant Beast feared and dared not provoke. Especially in their core territories, where their endless swarms of Zerg could sap the confidence of even the mightiest warriors.

“Why would a Zerg Hive come here? Why would it dare?” Luo Feng frowned. “Wouldn’t they fear that human elites would come and destroy the Hive? The powerful beings of the Virtual Universe Company could use their divine realms to teleport here quickly and hunt down the Hive. If the Hive used divine realm teleportation, we could pinpoint the Zerg Queen’s divine realm. Once that happens, the Zerg Queen would be doomed.”

“Your Highness,” the golden-armored elder spoke, his voice like steel clashing, “if Yaohai and Jeffries were controlled by soul manipulation, it was likely the work of that immortal-level Zerg Queen. When Yaohai and Jeffries died, the Zerg Queen would have known instantly. It immediately led an elite force through divine realm teleportation to launch a retaliatory strike.”

“And as for why they dared to come?”

“My guess is that the Zerg Queen did not teleport using its own divine realm, but through the divine realm of a controlled Immortal Deity. That way, even if pursued by powerful human beings, the Zerg Queen could escape with the Hive, leading its Zerg warriors through rapid teleportation. The coordinates humans would track would only lead to the divine realm of the controlled Immortal Deity—posing no real threat to the Zerg Queen itself. Using the controlled Immortal’s divine realm as a stepping stone, the Zerg Queen can safely retreat to the core territories of the Zerg. Naturally, no human power dares to follow too deeply.”

Luo Feng nodded thoughtfully, then asked, “But surely this can’t go unanswered? Will humanity just let them kill like this?”

“Of course there’s danger,” the golden-armored elder said with a smile. “The powerful beings of humanity have scattered countless coordinates across human space. The moment a threat like a Zerg Hive appears at any of those locations, those beings will teleport instantly to that point, overwhelming the Hive with superior force and annihilating it.”

“Of course!”

“Killing the Hive may be difficult, but even if we can’t kill the Queen, we can certainly destroy many of its immortal Zerg warriors. After all, producing immortal-level Zerg warriors is no easy task.” The elder shook his head with a faint smile. “That Hive brought a large portion of its forces with it.”

…

After a long silence, the atmosphere in the control room finally began to ease slightly. As a ‘high-end deterrent force,’ the immortal-level Zerg Hive was not a topic anyone wished to dwell on. Facing such a being, even the strongest among humanity—likely only King-ranked Immortal Deities—could hope to resist.

“Ninth Army Commander, what’s the status of our casualties?” Luo Feng turned to the Ninth Army Commander.

“I’m currently using the Virtual Universe Network to contact the Immortal Deities controlling the other thirty interstellar warships,” the Ninth Army Commander replied, his voice hoarse, his expression grim. “The situation isn’t fully confirmed yet. Please wait a moment while I gather the reports. I’ll brief you as soon as I have the full details.” With that, he closed his eyes.

A short while later, he opened them again.

“How bad is it?” Luo Feng pressed.

“It’s severe,” the Ninth Army Commander said, his face dark with fury. “When the Zerg Hive and its immortal army arrived via divine realm teleportation, their wild energy release destroyed the capital planet entirely. It killed countless warriors who were on missions at the time—Cosmic-level warriors, Domain Lords, and even a few World Lords.”

Luo Feng fell silent.

That initial explosion had not only killed countless warriors but also billions of innocent civilians.

Over ten billion lives lost in an instant.

“Then came the Zerg army’s coordinated attack, which triggered a spatial storm and a massive explosion spanning millions of kilometers. Even the few World Lords who survived the first wave—those who were outside their ships—were certainly killed in the second.”

“Even those who were aboard the warships at the start or managed to escape to them during the attack,” the Ninth Army Commander continued with a shake of his head, “were still caught in that second wave of spatial turbulence and material explosion. Ordinary Immortal Deities would have perished. Even if they were inside the ships, the sheer force of the shockwave reduced all the Cosmic-level warriors inside to pulp, killing them instantly. The Domain Lords were severely injured, but their life cores remained intact.”

“All thirty warships successfully fled into space without pursuit.”

“The Zerg Hive likely focused on hunting us—the commanding officers.”

He paused.

“The final tally is in.”

“Of the thirty warships, only 28 Immortal Deities, 1923 World Lords, 5990 Domain Lords, and zero Cosmic-level warriors survived.”

The numbers hung heavily in the air.

A devastating loss.

Originally, the thirty warships carried 30 Immortal Deities, 3000 World Lords, 30,000 Domain Lords, and 300,000 Cosmic-level warriors.

But after the attack, every single Cosmic-level warrior was dead—whether they had been inside the ships or not. The shockwaves from the spatial and material explosions had turned them all to pulp.

The World Lords had mostly survived because they were rarely involved in direct combat and had remained aboard the ships, so more than half remained.

The Domain Lords had been leading attacks and were mostly wiped out, leaving only about a fifth.

And every single Cosmic-level warrior was gone.

“Why did two Immortal Deities die?” Dylan asked beside him.

“According to survivors, when the thirty warships were above the capital planet, many Cosmic-level warriors went to hunt targets. Two Immortal Deities also left their ships,” the Ninth Army Commander sighed. “The Zerg Hive arrived, and since our command group had the most powerful beings, it immediately targeted those two Immortals.”

Everyone nodded.

The command group indeed possessed the most formidable forces—the Ninth Army Commander, the seven Marquis-level Immortals of the Tawen Division, Longchier, Dylan, and the King-ranked Sifanqi. Even if the Zerg Hive had deployed its entire army, it would have required sacrificing countless warriors to annihilate them all. A sudden soul assault on Luo Feng’s team was utterly implausible.

“This mission…” Luo Feng gave a bitter smile.

“Ninth Army Commander,” Luo Feng suddenly remembered the other seventy divisions and asked urgently, “what happened to the other seventy divisions of the Ninth Army? What were their results?”