Enormous spirit beast insects of all kinds were the first to emerge from one of the stone gates.
Qin Sang recognized them immediately—they were the same giant insect phantoms that had guarded the entrance to the place where she had first found Little Gold.
Back then, she had thought they were the souls of ancient insect ancestors. It was only after Grandpa Goose communicated with them that the phantoms had disappeared, allowing her to find Little Gold and collect quite a few energy crystals.
Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that one day, she would see living, colossal spirit beast insects.
“Oh my god! Sang Sang…”
Her parents had also seen the phantoms of these giant spirit beast insects before, and they wore the same look of shock as Qin Sang.
And the moment these giant spirit beast insects appeared, the monstrous interstellar Zerg rampaging across the globe all began converging toward them.
Qin Sang immediately shouted, “We need to find cover—now!”
This was clearly going to be an epic battle.
She wasn’t the only one who realized it—many others did too, and they quickly scrambled for shelter. The authorities also issued urgent alerts through every channel, telling everyone to run.
But no matter how fast human legs could carry them, they were no match for winged insect behemoths.
Before long, the nearest interstellar Zerg monsters had already engaged the spirit beast insects. Two equally colossal creatures—one wreathed in sinister black energy and grotesquely hideous, the other appearing normal and, despite being an insect, strangely reassuring to look at.
But regardless of their appearance, the sheer force of their collision sent enormous shockwaves that knocked over everyone nearby who hadn’t fled in time.
Just then, one of the interstellar Zerg monsters was sent flying, about to crash into the tallest building in Huashan City—which also housed the city’s largest underground human settlement.
If that monster hit, not only would the building collapse, but the underground settlement would also suffer catastrophic damage.
At that critical moment, the spirit beast insect emitted a faint glow. A massive energy shield materialized around the high-rise building.
A shield! An actual protective barrier!
The spirit beast insect had supernatural abilities! So the novels weren’t lying—spirit beasts really did have all kinds of powers. Qin Sang had previously thought that their contracted spirit beasts only had physical attacks, unlike the magical abilities depicted in fiction.
But now, here was proof. The giant spirit beast insects had abilities, which meant that their own contracted spirit beasts would eventually evolve to that level too.
The other spirit beast insects joined the fray. In an instant, the entire suburban area and surrounding cities were caught in the chaos.
Qin Sang and the others had taken shelter in an air-raid bunker, using a drone left outside to secretly observe the battle.
But Qin Sang couldn’t focus too much on the external fight—because inside her space, the golden light had finally faded.
Just as she thought she could finally see what had happened in the space, she froze.
Could anyone tell her—where had Grandpa Goose and that giant golden egg gone?
She quickly used her contract to ask the three little ones in her spirit beast space. They all said they had no idea. All they remembered was a flash of golden light and an enormous burst of energy that had knocked them unconscious. When they woke up, Grandpa Goose and the golden egg were gone.
Before she could even begin to search for them, someone nearby suddenly cried out, “My space is gone!”
Qin Sang turned to look at Xu Lin.
He gave a slight nod.
“Your storage space is gone too, right?”
Xu Lin nodded again.
Qin Sang quickly asked, “Are the supplies still there?”
Xu Lin: “Yes, but somehow they’ve all been transferred to the spirit beast space.”
The spirit beast space could store items, but it didn’t have preservation properties.
Her parents also reported that their storage spaces had vanished, and their supplies had been moved to their spirit beast spaces.
“Did they disappear when the golden light burst out?”
Qin Sang asked, but she could already confirm that the storage spaces had likely vanished at that moment. Everyone who had possessed a spatial storage had emitted a massive beam of light. The energy field from those beams was identical to that of the jade storage spaces.
But why had everyone else’s storage spaces disappeared while her Roasted Goose Space remained? Sure, her space was a family heirloom—but she had also emitted a golden beam at that time.
So what was the connection?
Still, Qin Sang was starting to piece things together.
Back then, no matter who it was, regardless of the size of the jade artifact they had blood-bonded with, every single person received a storage space of identical size and emitted the exact same energy field.
At the time, Qin Sang had thought it felt like the spaces were mass-produced. Now, it seemed that everything might have been pre-arranged all along!
The sudden disappearance of the storage spaces caused quite a stir among humans. But compared to the life-or-death struggle they were in, it suddenly didn’t seem all that important.
Before long, the dozen or so interstellar Zerg monsters were being taken down one by one. Everyone inside the bunker erupted in cheers.
But their joy didn’t even last a minute. A vortex appeared once again in the dark sky—and another wave of interstellar Zerg monsters emerged.
This time, there were more than twice as many.
Though no one knew exactly how powerful this new wave was, just by numbers alone, the spirit beast insects were already outmatched.
Soon, the tide of battle turned.
Humanity’s hearts grew heavy once more.
But Qin Sang’s gaze was fixed on the other two stone gates hovering in midair.
This time, the middle stone gate began to glow. Then, countless massive vines and roots poured out from the gate, lashing straight toward the interstellar Zerg monsters.
Their movements were swift and decisive, and the results left everyone utterly stunned.
“Indeed—mutated plants are the most powerful!”
After a long pause, someone in the bunker finally stammered.
“I’m fully convinced now. Humanity will not fail!”
Qin Sang was also deeply impressed by the strength of these mutated plants. She couldn’t resist summoning Little Grass Seed and telling it to learn from its predecessors—stop whining all the time.
But the battle outside wasn’t one-sided. On the contrary, the mutated plants’ fierce attacks caused many interstellar Zerg to fall from the sky like the torrential rain they had endured before.
This time, the falling Zerg came in all sizes—and plenty of them were within the reach of ordinary humans.
So, one by one, people emerged from their underground shelters and began fighting the nearby Zerg.
As for the monster-sized, giant-class interstellar Zerg, they were still being handled by the spirit beasts that had emerged from the stone gates.
And so, the battle horn sounded!
Qin Sang summoned all three of her contracted spirit beasts to fight as well.
Sure enough, fighting side by side with them felt far more fulfilling. As she fought, she thought to herself how good it felt to be part of the battle to protect the planet—rather than just watching from the sidelines while others defended it.
After killing one interstellar Zerg, Qin Sang collected its energy core into her space. Since the biggest consumer of energy cores was currently missing, she could use a portion of them to trade for weapons and equipment she needed.
Then, she thought of Grandpa Goose and the giant golden egg again. Where were they now? Had the egg hatched?
Meanwhile, the Grandpa Goose and the giant golden egg that Qin Sang was worrying about were currently in a secret realm covered entirely in forests and grasslands. The stone gate connecting to this realm was the very same one that had remained silent and motionless all this time.
The spirit beasts living in this realm were all kinds of animals—from tiny mice to elephants the size of houses. In short, every animal you could see—or even couldn’t see—in the outside world could be found here.
“Is that Black Tortoise fellow awake yet? We summoned the stone gate, and he still hasn’t come out!”
“He’ll show up when the Mother of Zerg can no longer hold back. Let’s hope it works this time!”
“We’ve been planning for over ten thousand years. Blue Star absolutely cannot lose this time.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve run simulations countless times. Although a lot of things this time deviated far from the simulated outcomes, the way things are going now actually looks better than the best simulation!”
“Yes… humanity on Blue Star still has quite a few exceptional individuals.”
If Qin Sang had heard this conversation, she would have immediately recognized—both the voice that started it and the one that ended it—as none other than Grandpa Goose, whom she had known since childhood.
But that was just by voice. If she saw what Grandpa Goose looked like now, she definitely—absolutely—wouldn’t recognize him.
Of course, that secret would soon be revealed.
In the middle of battle, Qin Sang suddenly felt her ears tingle. She patted her head and continued commanding her three little spirit beasts in coordination. This time, their team was up against a mutated centipede over ten meters long.
And this scale of battle wasn’t unique to Qin Sang—countless humans were giving it their all, killing as many Zerg as possible to protect their planet.
The battle had reached a stalemate.
Given the forces being deployed from the three stone gates, it was possible that humanity could ultimately prevail.
In fact, the battle gradually started tilting in humanity’s favor. People finally caught a brief moment to breathe—to eat and drink and restore their strength.
“Should we head back to the village?”
Earlier, the fighting had kept them from returning. Now that a wave of Zerg had been cleared, the remaining combat power in the village was limited. They had set out prepared to die, but now they were worried about the elderly and children left behind.
“Let’s go! Back to the village!”
Qin Sang immediately responded. Fa Ge and the other patrol members quickly organized everyone. Together with people from other villages, they formed a battle formation and slowly withdrew toward the village while fighting along the way.
Qin Sang’s family and Xu Lin naturally followed.
To their surprise, the journey back went smoothly. They still encountered large Zerg, but nothing as terrifying as the giant monster-class ones.
As they approached the village, they saw that the elderly villagers had already come out to fight.
Seeing that, everyone charged in and joined the fray.
When Qin Sang realized she wasn’t needed at the moment, she turned her attention to the giant battles taking place in the sky.
The interstellar Zerg kept pouring in like an endless tide. And from the stone gates, spirit beast insects and spirit beast plants also flowed out without pause.
The third stone gate, however, remained completely silent.
Qin Sang was deeply fixated on that gate. She had a feeling that the missing Grandpa Goose and the giant golden egg were in there.
In the days that followed, the battle remained deadlocked. Sometimes it seemed like humanity and their spirit beasts had the upper hand; other times, the interstellar Zerg gained ground.
The main issue was that no matter how many humans there were, their numbers were finite. The Zerg, on the other hand, were truly inexhaustible.
Every time she saw that, Qin Sang couldn’t help but marvel at the terrifying reproductive power of the Zerg. Otherwise, how could they keep throwing in fresh forces? They had killed so many, yet they just kept coming.
“We still need to seal off the spatial passage!”
They didn’t fully understand the underlying principles, but they knew that when the sky shattered and turned pitch-black, countless Zerg had come pouring through that passage. So sealing it off—cutting off the source of the Zerg—was the real solution.
This wasn’t just Qin Sang’s thought; pretty much anyone with any insight had come to the same conclusion.
But how could the spatial passage be closed? This was nothing like the rift passages they’d dealt with before. This time, the spatial passage spanned the entire sky.
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