Chapter 459: Energy Loss
"Your Highness..."
"Your Highness, Your Highness?"
Hearing the call in her ear, Anuo groggily woke up from her dream. She grabbed Mingxiao's hand and mumbled, "So sleepy, let me sleep a little longer."
"Your Highness, it's already noon. You've slept for more than twelve hours. You need to get up, move around, and eat something."
Mingxiao helped Anuo sit up from the bed and took the handkerchief handed to her by the maid to wipe her face.
Anuo leaned on Mingxiao's shoulder, still too sleepy to keep her eyes open.
Seeing her like this, Mingxiao couldn't bear to make her get up, so he said, "Your Highness, shall we eat something before we go back to sleep?"
Anuo nodded wearily, and Mingxiao picked her up and sat her down on the dining table.
After the maids had placed all the food on the table, Anno had already fallen asleep on the table.
Seeing her like this, Mingxiao's face was full of worry. In the past, the little princess would also be more sleepy because of the core's self-repair, but they would arrange a reasonable time for her. As long as she slept for ten to twelve hours, her mental state would be at its best.
It won't happen that way—sleeping for half a day and still feeling very sleepy.
Normally, four or five hours of sleep is enough for the Zerg, but the little princess's situation is special. However, as long as she gets enough sleep, she will be fine. Right now, she is not getting enough sleep at all.
Queen Seville and Augustus had specifically instructed them to let her sleep and wake up at certain times. So for the past few days, he had been forcibly waking the little princess up. At first, it was fine; once the little princess was awakened, she would recover after a while. But now, when he wakes her up, she immediately falls asleep again.
This situation made Mingxiao increasingly uneasy.
He couldn't contact Prince Sitar and the others on his own initiative. He wanted to ask King Feixing, but as long as the little prince was asleep, King Feixing's core would also go into hibernation. King Feixing would only wake up when the little prince was in danger.
Mingxiao didn't call Anuo again. He carried her back to bed and stayed with her for another two or three hours before watching her wake up.
Anno was still clearly not very energetic. He sat up and lay down on the bed. After a while, he got up and took a cold bath in the pool to feel refreshed.
Mingxiao watched Anuo sitting at the dining table eating, then ladled a bowl of soup and placed it in front of her. "Your Highness, are you feeling unwell?"
Anuo shook her head: "No, I just feel sleepy."
She grabbed a piece of meat and stuffed it into her mouth, her cheeks bulging as she ate: "And I feel like I get hungry faster now."
Mingxiao wiped the grease from her mouth with a pained expression, "Your Highness, eat slowly. Eating too fast will make it hard to digest."
After Anuo had almost finished eating, Mingxiao leaned closer to her and whispered, "Your Highness, is it a problem with your core energy?"
Anuo took a sip of soup and looked towards the courtyard. The courtyard was in full bloom, and the rich fragrance of the flowers made her feel as if she could smell them even in her dreams.
After a long silence, she said to Mingxiao, "It is this golden palace."
Mingxiao: "What?"
Anno pointed to the courtyard and asked, "Those flowers don't need soil, water, or even sunlight. How do they grow?"
Mingxiao said, "It's energy. All the facilities in the City of Heaven, as well as their daily needs, use energy."
Anno nodded: "That's right, it's energy."
"Such a large city, comparable in size to the capital of Tianyun Star, with millions of people, requires energy to maintain everything, consuming a huge amount of energy. Their star system is different from our Zerg. We Zerg are born from energy, and our planet is a huge energy stone. Energy is everywhere, so there is no worry about energy at all."
"They have not adapted to this pure energy conversion for long enough to make good use of the energy, unlike us who can convert every bit of energy cleanly. If we have a 99% energy conversion rate, they only have 40% at most, which is nearly half of the energy loss."
Mingxiao quickly caught up with Anuo's thinking and pondered, "The inability to properly convert energy, with a loss rate of more than half, will place a huge burden on them. Moreover, the mining and purification process of this energy stone is a huge undertaking. Based on the information I have collected in Tianzhi City during this period, considering the current population, labor force, and technological level of Tianzhi City, the energy stones mined are simply insufficient to support the consumption of Tianzhi City."
Anno nodded: "Their energy stones are indeed insufficient to cover their expenses. Fei Xing told me that the Lyca people only started using these energy stones in the last few hundred years. It is very likely that before the decline of the Lyca system, they obtained them through trade with the outside world."
Mingxiao said, "I have seen different energy stones in some places, including those from the Casa Galaxy, the Landno Galaxy, and even those from our Zerg."
Anno poked a roly-poly toy on the table with his finger. "So this further proves that they can't mine their energy stones entirely on their own; technology and transportation are major problems."
Mingxiao looked at her and asked, "Then... what direct connection does this have with Your Highness's core?"
Anno paused, then said to Mingxiao, "One of my cores was once able to supply the fire seed of the Northern River Star System with energy for three hundred years."
Mingxiao immediately understood and stood up in surprise.
"They...they actually want to?!"
Anno shook his head: "It's not that I want to, it's that I've already started doing it. This golden palace is a huge energy converter that supplies these celestial beings on the upper level. Haven't you noticed that since I came, more and more celestial beings have been coming to the golden palace?"
Mingxiao grabbed Anuo's hand urgently, "Your Highness, let's get out of here right away!"
Anno pulled him back to sit down. "However you want to get out, it doesn't matter if you go out of the Golden Palace. The City of Heaven is filled with a certain energy, which can draw out my core energy. It doesn't matter where you go."
"What should we do? His Highness Sitar has been unable to contact them for so long."
Mingxiao's anxiety reached its peak. Just thinking about the little prince being in such a dangerous situation made him want to kill all these celestial beings.
Anno looked at the flowers in the courtyard and said softly, "No rush, it will be soon."
When Fei Jue arrived in the evening, he saw Anuo practicing her sword in the courtyard. She was wearing simple belted lantern pants, her long hair was tied into a high ponytail, and she was barefoot, fighting against her companion Mingxiao.
Both of them launched fierce attacks, each move clean and efficient.
Mingxiao did not hold back because she was his princess; on the contrary, every move he made was a killing blow.
He stood aside and watched quietly for a while. Finally, Mingxiao knocked Anuo to the ground, but Anuo's knife was pointed straight at his throat.
The two players were evenly matched.
After the battle ended, Mingxiao quickly helped Anuo up and brushed off non-existent dust from her body.
Fei Jue walked up to them, leaned against a pillar and looked at them. "When I was very young, I heard that the Zerg race in the interstellar space was extremely powerful and almost invincible. Few people dared to provoke the Zerg. After seeing your battle, I know that the rumors are true."
At this point, Fei Jue stared at Anuo and said, "But your skills seem different from those of your familiar? You look somewhat like Ling Jiu and the others."
Anuo took the water Mingxiao handed her, drank a sip, and said to Feijue, "You mean to say I'm a self-taught amateur, right?"
Fei Jue smiled and shrugged.
"I am indeed a self-taught practitioner. My techniques were initially designed solely for killing, to kill any creature that stood in my way."
Fei Jue was somewhat surprised. Anuo was the most noble queen insect of the insect race. Her importance was not just an empty title. She represented the continuation of the insect race. But judging from her tone, she seemed to have had some bad experiences, even those that threatened her life.
"It seems Your Highness has experienced something quite extraordinary. Perhaps I could have the honor of hearing about it?"
Fei Jue finished speaking with a smile, and Ming Xiao coldly replied to him, "You didn't."
Anno couldn't help but smile. She coughed lightly and said to Fei Jue, "There's nothing to say. It's just that during our training outside, we Zerg people have a bad temper. We never show mercy to those who anger us."
After she finished speaking, Mingxiao looked at her with a pained expression.
Seeing that she was unwilling to talk, Fei Jue didn't continue the topic and took out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back and handed it to her.
Anno raised an eyebrow. "I already have enough flowers in my courtyard."
“This is different.” Fei Jue walked up to her. “These are flowers grown from soil, not from energy.”
Anno's gaze fell on the bouquet of flowers, which looked like the daisies she had seen on Earth. They were white, yellow, and purple, not as colorful as the flowers in the courtyard, but they had a natural vitality. The petals were covered with water droplets and had a faint fragrance.
Seeing these flowers brought a moment of relief to her spirits, which had been stifled for many days in the Golden Palace.
She reached out and took the flowers. "These flowers are very beautiful."
Fei Jue smiled and looked at her intently, "Like you."
Anno looked up at him and said, "You all have a natural, vigorous vitality, beautiful, wild, and unrestrained."
Mingxiao silently rolled his eyes at him. Anuo smiled, handed the flowers to Mingxiao, and told him to put them in a vase.
“I’ve seen some footage of the Lyca people in the past few days. Back then, you lived on the ground, living with all things and being close to nature. You are similar to us Zerg in one way: you can communicate with other creatures. That’s why your biotechnology is so advanced and you apply it to all kinds of technology.”
"But nowadays, I rarely see any living things other than the Lyca people. Where have all the small animals and plants gone?"
Fei Jue and An Nuo walked out side by side and stopped at the edge of the empty platform.
"As you can see, the City of Heaven is not suitable for the growth of natural plants. Because of the war, the planet Vala is also not suitable for plant growth, and many creatures have become extinct as a result."
Why don't you give it a try?
Anno said to Feijue, "A long time ago, when I lived on a certain planet, I saw an animated video of that planet. The animation also told a story called Sky City."
Anno gazed down at the dense city below, the twilight bathing her in a breathtaking glow.
Fei Jue turned to look at her and listened to her say, "A line from the female protagonist really impressed me. She said: 'Roots must be planted in the soil, live with the wind, spend the winter with the seeds, and sing the praises of spring with the birds. No matter how amazing your weapons are, no matter how many pitiful robots you have, you can't survive if you leave the land.'"
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