Book 10: Chapter 19: The World in Motion (1)

The first ten Insectoid born looked a lot like humans. They walked upright on two legs, with short upper limbs and long lower limbs. Their heads had all the facial features, with eyes that were as clear as purple crystals. Where humans had ears on the sides of their heads, these creatures had two long, thin feelers on their foreheads that moved around freely, which seemed to be how they heard.

Their arms and legs were long and slender. A human’s hands had become five sharp, sickle-like claws on each. Their thighs were especially thick and strong, with backward-bending knees, and their elbows could twist all the way around. Their chests were broad and their backs wide, but their waists were as thin as thread. The proportions looked very strange together.

Still, with this body shape, plus the shiny, metal-like exoskeleton armor covering their chests and bellies, they had a very fierce and powerful look about them.

One of the ten Insectoids, who seemed to be the leader, raised his arm. He tilted his head and looked at his hand, which was like a sharp blade. The two sharp pincer-teeth near his mouth twitched, and he spat a dark green gob of spit onto the ground.

“Yuck, it’s the replacement mode!” he said.

“Lord Gan Luo, what is replacement mode?” another Insectoid asked as he walked up from behind, sounding confused.

“Black, you just reached the Second Order not long ago. You haven’t experienced a world that requires the Apostle’s replacement ability. In short, it’s a very troublesome combat rule… Something’s coming, I’ll explain later!” Gan Luo suddenly waved his hand cautiously and turned to look at a giant moth flying toward them through the air.

These two Apostles were actually old acquaintances of Qin Lun. They were Gan Luo and Black, members of the Chaos Alliance. Black was the top-tier Assassin Qin Lun had met during the Metropolis Domination War. Back then, Black was only at the peak of the First Order, but now he had advanced to the Second Order.

During the early stages of the Metropolis Domination War, Black was the only person Qin Lun did not dare to challenge. Even though both were at the First Order, their strength was very different. Black could completely overpower Qin Lun. As for now, it was hard to say, because after Qin Lun’s Demon Transformation, he was almost at the peak of the Second Order.

As for “Skinny Bear” Gan Luo, he had once visited Qin Lun’s Villa to try to recruit him. It was only because Kelly stepped in that the matter was dropped. Gan Luo had not only reached the High Rank, with strength similar to Kelly’s, but he was also a deputy leader of the Chaos Team.

Gan Luo’s main role as a deputy leader was similar to Robin’s. He was specifically in charge of recruiting and guiding promising newcomers. Of course, compared to Robin’s gentle and warm style, Gan Luo was more forceful and dominant.

The moth flying toward the Apostles was as huge as a mountain. But when it flew up to Gan Luo, it immediately crouched down on the ground, its whole body trembling, seeming extremely scared. If not for the simple command from the Insectoid Mother in its mind, it would never have dared to come close to Gan Luo alone.

What Gan Luo, Black, and the others did not know yet was that the bodies they had taken over were not ordinary Insectoids. They were the royal clan of the Insectoids—the Mantis clan. And Gan Luo had actually been reborn as the Mantis King.

“Noble Mantis King, the Insectoid Mother awaits you!” A simple, childish, milky thought-voice, like that of a young child, sounded in Gan Luo’s mind. It came from the Mountain Moth.

“Let’s go, take a look!” Gan Luo’s eyes flickered, and he called out to the other companions who had gathered to climb onto the moth’s back.

“These Insectoid bodies are so disgusting. My Lord, do we have to go? I’ll just wait here for you!” said one of the Insectoids, who had clear female features. She was a charming female Apostle. She looked at her own body and the moth’s body with dislike and stamped her foot.

“Yuck! Even with me joining the team, Star Void only delayed its arrival by ten natural days. It seems the strength of that Lost team isn’t weak!” Gan Luo ignored the female companion’s whining. He checked the prompt message in his Soul Sigil, and the two feelers on his forehead trembled slightly, showing he was somewhat surprised.

“My Lord, a delay of ten natural days is quite a lot, isn’t it? If the Lost team arrived that much earlier, they must have already built up some plot advantage!” Black asked cautiously.

“This Quest World is different. I’ve experienced several space battles. In worlds where the plot expands into outer space, what can be done in ten natural days sometimes equals just a few hours of travel.” Gan Luo looked deeply at the starry sky above. “Black, do you know what this means? It means that, according to Star Void’s calculations, our team’s strength and the Lost team’s strength are actually very close.”

“Did Lost also send High-Rank members into this world?” Black was startled and muttered.

“Yuck, impossible! Even if they brought in a High-Rank team from another city, the Order Front would still be short on people. Lost wouldn’t assign a High-Rank Apostle to a promising team.” Gan Luo spat habitually, opened the pincer-teeth at the corner of his mouth, and showed a slightly excited, ferocious expression.

“That Apostle team must have one or two Second Order members who Star Void rates extremely highly. Maybe even before they truly advanced, Star Void already saw them as High-Rank Apostles.”

“That can’t be, right?” The female Apostle who disliked the Insectoid body had been listening to their conversation. She couldn’t help but cut in this time.

Black, however, stayed silent this time, because he knew it was possible. Just like him—when he was in the early stages, Star Void had always rated him as Second Order. However, Apostles undergo a qualitative change with each order they advance. Apostles who receive such evaluations are extremely rare; saying they are as rare as phoenix feathers would not be an exaggeration.

…

While Gan Luo and the others went deep into the Insectoid planet to meet the Insectoid Mother, another group of visitors from beyond the stars was also heading toward the Scorpius Galaxy in outer space, near the second spiral arm.

In the dark space, a floating creature that looked like a cloud, with mysterious starlight flickering inside it from time to time, was drifting leisurely through the starry sky. This beautiful creature, which appeared misty and vast like a nebula, was the natural enemy of all planetary life—Jannamer.

Inside this Jannamer, there were countless sparkling, grain-like particles. Though they looked very tiny from the outside, in reality, the small ones were dozens of meters in diameter, and the large ones were comparable in size to the Advancing.

The detectors the Gith had placed at the edge of the Scorpius Galaxy gave them some initial reconnaissance data. But since these detectors were simple products that were launched and then left alone, they couldn’t provide detailed information.

This Jannamer was not a juvenile scouting creature, as the Gith had originally thought. It was a mature adult!

Deep inside the vast, misty interior of the Jannamer, the surface of one small particle suddenly sparkled with bright starlight. Its shape quickly changed into that of a human girl, except the private areas of her body were covered by a set of female warrior leather armor.

Aside from her huge size—she was dozens of meters tall—this human girl looked almost exactly like an Earth human. With a childlike face and large breasts, her round, chubby face made her look like another acquaintance of Qin Lun—the nurse Little Lian, who had entered the Shattered Starry Sky with him.

“Sister Hu Fei, look, I can change my shape freely now!” Little Lian flew a circle around another glowing object beside her and said with a laugh.

Hearing Little Lian’s words, that glowing object also quickly transformed into the shape of a human female. Her appearance was even more stunningly beautiful, with an innate cool and aloof temperament. She smiled as she looked at her companion.

“Alright, alright, I get it. Stop showing off!” The beauty beside Little Lian was indeed another old acquaintance whom Qin Lun had once tricked—the beautiful doctor Hu Fei from Area 91 of the Earth Federation.

Hu Fei’s expression showed some helplessness. They had been in the Gospel World for about three days now. Little Lian was the last among their companions to master shape-shifting. But that wasn’t surprising. The Apostle class Little Lian was about to change to was not a combat type, but a support type, not skilled in fighting.

Looking at Little Lian’s somewhat chubby, baby-faced cheeks, Hu Fei couldn’t help but smile knowingly. Ever since they reunited in the Devil’s Horn and joined the large team Divine Light from Tyrant City, Little Lian had shown even greater Apostle talent than Hu Fei.

This talent wasn’t in fighting, but in medical support abilities. Originally, the Divine Light team had recruited Little Lian and Lin Feng mostly as a favor to Hu Fei. Besides, Little Lian and Lin Feng’s temperaments were quite suitable for a large team like Divine Light, which leaned toward the Order faction.

However, during the trial period in the newcomer team, because Little Lian had the protection of her teammates and didn’t have to fight on the front lines, she gradually revealed medical talents that hadn’t shown in the Devil’s Horn.

Actually, that wasn’t strange. Little Lian and Hu Fei’s original jobs were nurse and doctor. Especially the kind-hearted Little Lian, who was most suited for nursing.

In fact, when Hu Fei first joined the Divine Light team, the Leader of the newcomer team had hoped Hu Fei would become a medic. But after being thrown into a zombie horde by Qin Lun and suffering great psychological trauma, the beautiful doctor firmly refused to continue in life-saving work. She became a completely cold, violent woman. If not for their different personalities, she would have been almost another version of Kelly.

Seeing that the two beauties in the team had turned into human forms, the other members of the Divine Light newcomer team also began to transform one after another.

As Descendant Apostles of the Jannamer, they were very satisfied with the mimicry ability it possessed. However, the Jannamer was, after all, different from planetary life. The time spent inside it was very boring. Aside from their own companions, there was no one else to talk to.

“What are you talking about?” Wolf, who had taken on the form of a Sun Elf, walked over to the two of them with a smile.

“Nothing! My Lord, why did you bring us specifically into this strange Quest World?” Hu Fei said coolly, though a hint of curiosity showed in her beautiful phoenix eyes.

“Haha, you all know about the invasion of the Superstring Space into the Star Void, which caused some unrest in Tyrant City, right?” Wolf raised his pure white eyebrows and said with a laugh, “Actually, it’s not just Tyrant City. The other Apostle Cities in the Shattered Starry Sky were also affected. This time we entered the Gospel World mainly to recruit people.

We received news that the Order faction in a certain Apostle City had a major incident. The original large team could no longer control the situation. This time, entering the Gospel World is to recruit a newcomer team Leader whom our team has been in contact with, and the promising newcomers in her team.”

Wolf looked at the companions who had gathered around. He paused, then looked at Hu Fei and Little Lian and smiled. “Actually, you two are very familiar with this Apostle City. The Apostle we want to recruit is called Robin, from the Lost team of the Devil’s Horn’s Order Alliance. She is also a beautiful lady!”

“The Devil’s Horn?!” Hu Fei and Little Lian’s expressions changed slightly, as if remembering something. A complicated look appeared on their faces.