When the Emperor Star was mentioned, an inescapable sorrow appeared in Roderick's eyes.

Among the messy silver hair, the antennae drooped slightly.

The change in mood was so sudden that Han Ling's smile froze on his lips.

He couldn't help but reach out and brush Roderick's hair back, frowning as he asked:

"What's wrong? Why are you suddenly feeling so unwell? Did something I said upset you?"

Han Ling still remembers Roderick's behavior when they first met; he was the epitome of a cynical scoundrel.

At that time, Roderick even considered trading a bag of nutritional supplements for the chance for the two of them to take a bath together.

Because of Roderick, he was very curious about the sub-female's body structure.

Roderick shook his head, lowered his eyelashes, rested his head on Han Ling's shoulder, and slowly began to recount the story of Emperor Star.

"To talk about my mission, I have to start with the Three Blood Potion."

Lord Han Ling, are you aware that the newly formed Zerg need to be injected with the Triple Blood Potion?

First blood, second blood, third blood.

These three injections, once administered, can stimulate the potential of the Zerglings during their growth period, allowing them to grow new muscles.

At one year old, an injection of first-grade blood resulted in the growth of first-grade muscles.

At two years old, after receiving a Level 2 blood injection, Level 2 muscles developed.

The final injection, a level-three blood injection, will significantly increase the strength of the larvae's bones and muscles.

In interstellar space, only muscles in their third state can allow the interstellar Zerg to dominate the universe and become the strongest beings in the cosmos.

Han Ling nodded slowly upon hearing about the three-blood potion:

“I know, I’ve looked it up. The source of the Three Blood Potion is the blood of the Shovel Clan.”

Roderick smiled slightly, a hint of bitterness in his eyes:

"Your Excellency is so intelligent, you should have already guessed what's going on with Emperor Star, right?"

I actually spent six years in the capital city of Orize.

Planet Aphrodite, the planet of male insects.

Capital planet, Orize.

Royal Planet, Emperor Planet.

When Han Ling heard that Roderick had spent six years on the capital planet, his heart ached slightly.

His guess was right.

Emperor Star is not a good place.

A shovel tribe that can produce powerful blood will inevitably live in a place full of competition and crisis.

In Han Ling's view, the Emperor Star where the Shovel Clan lived was actually like a Gu Gu, a place used to raise Gu.

Skip the preliminary selection process and directly select the most suitable blood source from among the seeded players to strengthen the entire Zerg race.

If the Yao Clan's defining characteristic is their love-obsessed nature...

The characteristics of the Zerg are that they are fierce and very united.

Sometimes, unity means that someone has to make a sacrifice.

As the strongest of the Zerg, the Stag Clan certainly bears a heavy responsibility.

Thinking of this, Han Ling reached out and hugged Roderick. Although Roderick was very big, Han Ling still wanted to give him some belated support.

Roderick's voice became a little hoarse as he slowly began to speak:

"The royal status of the Stag Clan was established when the Zerg left their home planet and entered the space age."

At that time, the Zerg had just left their homeworld, surrounded by powerful enemies. For every step the Zerg took, they had to defeat three enemies.

In order to unite the Zerg forces, a leader was needed to guide them. At this time, the strongest Stag Clan was elected.

Even with the leadership of the shovel tribe, the barrel theory persisted.

The strongest are very strong, while the weakest struggle to even breathe after entering space.

There are tens of millions of insectoid species, and the ant species alone has thousands of small, weak sub-branches.

Even among the Shovel Tribe, there is the Tabija, known as the shame of the Shovel Tribe. They are practically cannon killers; even the slightest attack can take their lives.

Faced with such a severe reality, the Zerg at that time had only one choice: to abandon the integrity of their biological nature, retain only the races with the strongest Zerg capabilities, and enter the interstellar age.

Those weaker races might perish along with their home planet in its explosion.

But no one can make this decision; no one can decide it.

At this critical moment of life and death, the Zerg's medical level broke through one after another.

The most useless race, yet with the clearest minds.

They developed a prototype of the Three Blood Potion, which could use the blood of the strong to modify bones.

This is a great plan.

Because of the existence of the Triple Blood Potion, the Zerg biological race has been preserved very well.

And after that, everyone became a martial god.

However, this medicine has a major drawback: it is not hereditary.

In other words, each new generation of Zerg needs to be re-injected with serum, and their powerful abilities cannot be inherited from the previous generation's genetic selection.

Since then, this issue has been a major research focus in insect-based medicine.

But tens of thousands of years have passed, and still no results have been achieved.

Han Ling sighed, somewhat marveling at the greatness of the Zerg.

How many things must a race go through to carve out a bloody path from its inherently flawed biological nature?

Han Ling continued:

"The power of the Three Blood Potion cannot be inherited, but the enemies facing the Zerg are becoming increasingly powerful."

So, has the competitive selection process for the shovel tribe begun?

Roderick nodded:

"That's right, the selection process for the Stag Clan has begun. The blood source for each generation of the Three Blood Potion must be the strongest member of the Stag Clan. This is the only way to make the Zerg stronger."

And so, step by step, the Zerg have come to where they are today, becoming the rulers of a star system.

The overlord, radiating authority without anger, brought nearly ten thousand years of peace to the Zerg, with no enemy daring to invade again.

Tens of thousands of years is a long time; life might have gone extinct several times over. Yet, it's also a short time; how many light-years can a star travel?

But in those tens of thousands of years, the Zerg have transformed themselves from a home planet on the verge of exploding into a dominant force possessing tens of thousands of star systems.

Some Earth-like planets don't even have names; instead, they are named after junk planets with numbers.

This is such an outrageous act.

But who can truly understand the sacrifices and hardships the Zerg have endured over these tens of thousands of years?

After Roderick calmed down a bit, he continued:

"Emperor Star is a huge testing ground."

It was near an asteroid belt filled with interstellar debris, where interstellar rifts and black holes were constantly being created.

And the interstellar beasts seem to emerge endlessly from the dark matter plane of the black hole.

Interstellar beasts, interstellar rifts, and meteorite fragments that streak across the sky can all be fatal to the Zerg.

However, the young of the Shovel Clan are not so vulnerable, because the Shovel Clan are born with an S+ genetic level.

Therefore, training on Emperor Star became a daily routine for the Stag Clan.

In the competition, becoming the strongest is also the ultimate goal of our trials.

At 18, I won first place. Afterwards, I left the Imperial Planet and entered the capital planet Orizer to begin the blood-purging process.

Six years later, I returned to Emperor Planet, defeated all the Stagfolk, and then left.

Han Ling stroked Roderick's silver-white hair, imagining what Roderick would look like in battle, and felt a surge of excitement. He asked curiously:

"Why did you leave Emperor Star? What reason do you have to leave? Why are you working so hard, forcing yourself to become the strongest?"

In Han Ling's view, the most important thing is life, not pursuing the strongest.

Roderick paused, seemingly surprised that Han Ling would ask such a question. After a moment's thought, he smiled and replied:

"At that time, I was actually in despair. Because I knew that the Zerg were doomed."

The Zerg's gender imbalance is not related to any external factors.

All of this stems from problems within the Zerg themselves.

The newborn Zerg are too weak; the females are slightly stronger and have a chance to be born.

After the female insect is born, it immediately injects a primary blood source and can survive.

But the males are the ones whose weaker genes are about to be eliminated.

The report from the fertility center states that even with artificial intervention, the embryo will still differentiate into a female during embryonic differentiation.

Because male worm embryos cannot survive in interstellar space.

That's what I was thinking at the time; I was very pessimistic. I felt the Zerg were doomed, and I couldn't let my limited life be wasted in this pointless competition. I wanted to leave Monarch and see the magnificent universe the Zerg had conquered.

As Roderick spoke, he regained a little energy.

He continued:

"Therefore, I must defeat all the Stags and leave Emperor Planet."

And then I did it.

When I left Emperor Planet, it was the marshal of the Third Protection Legion who came to pick me up.

He said that now that I've left the planet, I can take on some missions.

These are tasks that only I can do.

Over thousands of years, the eight legions have made contact with many interstellar races, hoping to break through the bloodline restrictions of the Zerg and restore gender balance.

Some of these races were in awe of the Zerg's power, while others became greedy.

The marshal of the Third Protective Legion wanted to use me to intimidate these foreign races.

Without starting a war, crush some of the delusions of these races.

Through his recommendation, I joined the First Exploration Legion.

The First Exploration Legion is stationed at the edge of the star field, making this the best choice for them.

"As long as I demonstrate my strength, I will definitely have a place among the female soldiers who will be in contact with these races in the future."

When it comes to his own abilities, Roderick is not modest at all, because he is telling the truth.

Han Ling ruffled his hair and couldn't help but laugh:

“Roderick, you know what? You’re giving off that vibe of ‘I haven’t been the boss for years.’”

Roderick gave a shy smile: "That sentence suits me perfectly."

After explaining his mission, Roderick then spoke of his family.

He said:

"Many of the Shovel Clan's offspring are bred directly by the breeding centers."

So I have no relatives.

Only the female father who raised us.

I am the strongest in the intergalactic realm, therefore I am the Crown Prince. After the old emperor passes away, I will be the new emperor.

The second prince is not actually related to me by blood. Because I have always defeated him, he can only be the second-in-command for all time.

During our training on Emperor Star, aside from being attacked in the asteroid belt, we could rest in the library to sleep or read.

Therefore, we all love learning and enjoy reading ancient books because learning doesn't cause pain.

Roderick recounted his childhood, which he found unremarkable and boring, filled with the constant back and forth between activity and stillness that consumed most of his time.

But Han Ling listened with great interest.

After Roderick finished speaking, Han Ling smiled and said:

"Your childhood is quite interesting, don't you want to hear mine? I was the one who had a really miserable childhood."

In fact, I have been silent in the river of time for tens of thousands of years.

Over the past ten thousand years, I have witnessed the rise and fall of other races through the long river of time, but I have never truly experienced what life is.

The river of time is a history, and I can only find some interesting fragments from it.

For example, what becomes history must be something that carries the memories of a generation; some are vernacular novels, and some are songs.

Sometimes it's a special symbol, sometimes it's the image of a great person.

I prefer reading vernacular novels; they're very interesting.

Roderick looked at Han Ling, his dark gray eyes filled with adoration.

"So, Mr. Han Ling, you've become a novelist, is that right?"

Han Ling touched his nose:

"There are still some differences. Actually, my dream is to become... but the review process wouldn't allow it. So I had to settle for second best."

However, Roderick, don't look at me with such adoration, or I won't be able to resist.

Roderick's gaze was intense and direct, his tendrils trembling restlessly amidst his silvery-white hair. He couldn't help but ask:

"Would you like to take a bath together, sir?"

Han Ling blushed instantly upon hearing this.

Roderick's silvery-white hair draped over his neck, making Han Ling's heart itch.

He thought of the two of them's experience in the small hotel.

Han Ling curled the corners of his lips and smiled:

"Then you have to give me a bag of nutritional supplements, I'm really malnourished."

Roderick clearly recalled their previous interactions, and his smile widened.

"I'll give you a 5000-credit nutritional supplement every day. Stop picking up trash and just come with me to take a bath."

Han Ling nodded eagerly:

"Alright, alright, I was too young to appreciate your expertise and mistook the trash can for a treasure. Boss, I don't want to pick up trash anymore."

——————————

Please think about it yourself.

——————————

One day later.

At dawn, the starlight shone on the First Exploration Legion's base.

A noise came from the quiet room.

Roderick opened the door, looking refreshed, and walked out of the house dressed neatly.

Her silver hair was neatly combed back without a single strand out of place.

The dark blue combat uniform accentuated the smooth lines of his muscles.

He wore a pheromone-suppressing ring around his neck again.

Even with this device on, the moment he appeared, James, who was just waking up from a dream a hundred meters away, could still smell the strong scent of male pheromones.

James's eyes widened. Without even putting on his shoes or changing his clothes, he pushed open the door, still in his pajamas and barefoot, and ran towards Roderick.

James shouted:

"Ugh! You filthy bug, you finally came out! Ugh! Do you know how I've been these past seven days?!"

Upon hearing his friend's accusation, Roderick merely curled the corners of his lips into a slight, teasing smile:

"How many dreams have you had in all these days?"

Upon hearing this, James's lips twitched, his face contorted, and he continued his frenzied shouting:

"Ugh! You piece of shit! You're still showing off! I'm so fed up with this life where I can only dream! Ugh!"

Roderick lifted his shirt and wiped his hands.

Some faint red marks can be seen on the abdominal muscles.

Roderick suppressed a laugh and deliberately said:

"As the only female military insect on this planet who spends the night with a male insect, I have the right to boast, don't I?"

James, with his sharp eyes, noticed the marks on Roderick's abs and his eyes lit up with greed.

He cursed:

"Damn it! You bastard! If I were you, I wouldn't even wear my combat uniform when I go to the training ground! I'd show all the female soldiers what a real battle is like!"