The starship slowly approached the edge of the Tumorafi asteroid belt. The view screens displayed a haze of jagged rock layers. Where once the belt had gleamed with seas of crystalline stone, now only dull, fractured fragments remained, as if the entire field had been hollowed out of life.
Gu Qing’s expression remained calm as he ordered, “Deploy the hummingbird reconnaissance drones. Full-spectrum scan.”
Dozens of agile drones launched from the ship’s belly, slipping into the fissured terrain like silver specks. Each one’s feed flickered across the holo-screens surrounding the command bridge.
What appeared was a grotesque, desolate landscape—
Cracked rock layers writhed with monsters of every shape:
Some crawled low like terrestrial lizards, scales reflecting a dark red sheen;
Some were human-sized floating eyeball creatures, their pupils etched with strange glyphs;
And countless low-tier mobs—spider-like, slender serpentine, or worm-shaped—clung to leftover crystals, gnawing on the detritus.
“These… where are these new species coming from?” Rain furrowed his brow, knuckles whitening on the control console. “The numbers and types far exceed previous reconnaissance records.”
On the screens, several flower-shaped monsters slowly turned, as if noticing the drones. They quivered as though “thinking.” Then, in an instant, their cores split open and emitted an imperceptible wave—
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The feeds all went black.
“All drones lost signal! What’s happening?!” Rain sprang up.
Ace drew a sharp breath, his crimson eyes flickering uneasily.
Gu Qing’s gaze was cold, his voice low. “They’ve evolved.”
He closed his eyes, silver streams of consciousness spilling out, sweeping the asteroid belt with precision.
After a few moments, he opened his eyes. “The monsters are concentrated in two major zones. Their numbers are dense, probing deeper into the belt, seemingly… searching for a purer energy source in the same direction.”
Gu Qing stood on the bridge, eyes fixed on the jagged belt ahead. Despite the starship’s formidable firepower, the environment demanded caution.
“The crystal structures inside the belt are unusually fragile,” he explained evenly. “Excessive bombardment could trigger chain collapses, irreversibly damaging the veins. That would not only cut off our energy supply but could destabilize the geology, endangering the entire mining zone.”
He continued, “We must reserve the ship’s firepower for more urgent threats. The terrain is complex and the enemy unpredictable; indiscriminate bombardment cannot achieve precision. Ground forces, supported by drones and mechs, must conduct careful sweep-and-clear operations.”
Rain nodded. “That’s why we can’t rely solely on long-range firepower. We must penetrate enemy lines ourselves to understand the situation and prevent further monster spread.”
Gu Qing swiftly deployed his plan, leaving a few aboard the ship for contingencies. The rest of the troops were split into three groups: he would lead the main strike, Ace and Rain would flank from either side. Boarding their mechs, they leapt from the open bay like falling stars, descending toward the jagged ground below.
Inside his mech cockpit, Ace’s palms were slick with sweat. He had never truly faced battle, never confronted monsters like these. The surrounding screens flickered, alarms blared, his heartbeat racing. But then, he saw the brilliant figure ahead—Gu Qing’s mech gleamed like freshly fallen snow, sword drawn as lightning. Each strike precise and lethal, monsters falling in bloody retreat.
That calm decisiveness was like an anchor on the battlefield, a god of slaughter walking among them.
“I came here to help Gu Qing…” Ace whispered to himself.
As the units advanced, his resolve solidified; his mind and body synchronized with the rhythm of battle.
Hours of fierce combat followed. They cut through wave after wave of monsters, finally securing a temporary staging area. Soldiers sat among rubble and mechs, sipping nutrient fluids, discussing the battle in hushed tones.
“Did you see that strike by Blue Dai? Split it from head to tail and still saved the medics trapped underneath.”
“My monster was nearly draining my psychic energy, and he caught it barehanded, then countered—insane.”
“Feels like we’re watching a god of war demonstration…”
Ace remained silent, nutrient fluid in hand unopened. His eyes traveled past the group, fixed on Gu Qing.
Gu Qing sat atop a massive boulder, a holographic battlefield map hovering before him. His fingers danced over the controls with speed and precision. Calm, untouched by blood, as if the chaos of battle had never touched him.
Rain and a few others approached, half teasing, half earnest. “Brother, you’re really strong. No wonder you’re Blue Dai’s sibling. Are all your brothers this incredible?”
Ace didn’t respond. He only watched Gu Qing’s back, asking quietly, “Has he always been like this? Leading everyone, slaying monsters…”
“Yes! Every time we survived, it was because of him.”
“No matter the danger, he’s always at the front.”
“And so calm! When we were shaking in our boots, he was slicing three monsters with one sword while saving people at the same time.”
Rain and the others rambled, admiration clear in their tone. Ace felt a sudden tightness in his chest, Gu Qing feeling impossibly distant.
He realized he knew almost nothing about this insectoid—where it came from, why it was so strong. Gu Qing seemed never to lose, whether on the battlefield or in negotiation, an incomprehensible existence, distant and dazzling, yet profoundly affecting all around him.
—And he wanted to be close to that insectoid.
—No, he yearned to become that insectoid.
Meanwhile, deep in Ace’s mind—
“Hey, hey, Gu Qing, tell me!”
The silver-white little spirit spun around, bumping into the edge of the mindscape.
“Did you see that? Ace didn’t even falter! He cut down so many monsters! Isn’t his growth insane?”
Gu Qing smiled faintly, rare warmth in his voice. “…He’s really grown a lot.”
“That’s not growth, that’s evolution!” the spirit shouted. “Did you secretly teach him some cheat? Did he eat some secret fruit? I didn’t notice anything!”
“He did it on his own,” Gu Qing said calmly, his gaze falling softly toward the figure watching him quietly from afar.