Xavier slowly raised his upper body and stood up—if it were Lin Xi from back then, he would be very surprised by Xavier's transformation.
Although Xavier's appearance on the Apollo was already terrifying, compared to her current form, the previous "Star Butterfly" was as delicate and adorable as some kind of exquisite and cute pet insect.
From the day he was thrown from the Sun God in the explosion, barely clinging to life, Xavier has undergone three painful transformations on this completely unfamiliar planet. Now, he is more than twice his former size, and the fragile, human-like skin that evolved due to his attachment to Lin Xi has completely shed from his skin. In its place is an incredibly hard, silver carapace that gleams with a cold light, almost like metal.
In fact, Xavier no longer has any human characteristics.
It completely returned to its original form, or rather... it returned to the form it was meant to be.
The forelegs, which stand upright like folding knives, have long and thick coxae with edges as sharp as the finest alloy blades. A layer of bluish iridescent thorns covers both sides of the femurs, and that beautiful color actually comes from the deadly toxins it ingests from its food.
Meanwhile, these evolved forelimbs allow Xavier to easily tear his enemies into tiny pieces.
Covering Xavier's robust body were hard elytra, which looked more like armor than wings. It must be admitted that the attack by the mechanical warriors inside the Apollo had indeed severely affected Xavier; even after so much time, during its transformation, it subconsciously armed itself into a walking armored warrior. This special carapace was harder than most metals.
Sometimes Xavier would gaze at his now-evolved limbs and briefly recall the scenes from when he was still inside the Apollo.
If it were in its current form, it should be able to easily take down those mechanical warriors, right?
Xavier was quite certain of this, but it rarely thought about it, because it would cause an unbearable pain inside its body, which was covered by thick, hard breastplate.
...If I were the strong and ferocious version of myself now, would I not have been abandoned?
Would that mean Lin Xi wouldn't leave him on this strange planet?
However, such thoughts would still occasionally and inevitably creep into its mind.
Thinking of this, Xavier involuntarily turned his head to look at the incredibly beautiful sky outside the cave.
So much time has passed, but every time Xavier sees this bright sky made up of vibrant colors, he still feels that invisible, cold hand cruelly kneading his non-existent, soft heart.
Lin Xi...
When Xavier realized it, he found himself unconsciously repeating the name softly.
Hiss—
Xavier let out a furious screech, and at the same time, an uncontrollable wave of self-loathing surged within him.
It quickly turned its head, took a few more steps into the cave, and then hid its now enormous and ferocious body in the shadows of the cave.
However, during this process, its overly rough movements caused it to accidentally knock over the debris piled up inside the cave.
Accompanied by a series of crackling sounds, the mountain of debris slid down like an avalanche, scattering all over the ground.
Xavier: "..."
If Lin Xi were here, he would definitely recognize these old, broken items that had Xavier standing there, seething with anger. Yes, that's right, these items were all collected by Xavier from the ruins of the Sun God.
Among them were a large number of glittering metal parts, some of which were still intact, but most of them were small fragments that had fallen around the spaceship during the explosion. This was Xavier's instinctive hobby; he couldn't control his urge to collect these things.
However, apart from the metal fragments... the other things completely violated the instincts of the King Mushroom.
It contained a vast collection of books, toys, and a wide variety of personal portable entertainment devices, along with their accompanying storage media.
Logically speaking, Xavier should not have any extra interest in these products of human culture and entertainment.
But the reality was that Xavier involuntarily collected those things. He was indeed a remarkably intelligent insect; his time with Lin Xi had allowed him to figure out how to use these gadgets, and he meticulously studied everything the crew had left behind in the ruins of the Sun God. With the help of some intelligent tools, Xavier became the first ever Alien Queen Insect to have thoroughly read a large number of novels and watched a vast number of movies.
Compared to the innocent and naive monster insect it once was, it now knows most of the common sense about love in the human world, but this has not made it happy.
At first, it thought it could find the reason why Lin Xi abandoned it among these human creations, but now... it finds that Lin Xi abandoning it seems to be a natural thing.
After all, Lin Xi always believed that she was human, while it... no matter how much it tried to mimic another male human, it could not change its true nature.
It, Xavier, is just a monster.
Even the tenderness it initially received from Lin Xi was a luxurious gift.
It and Lin Xi...
Thinking of this, Xavier trembled violently, and that feeling of panic, that even manic feeling, returned.
It could barely breathe. Its elytra were throbbing, and its sharp claws were involuntarily digging deep into the hard rock.
etc--
Just then, Xavier suddenly realized something was wrong.
He suddenly tensed the two thin, long tentacles on the top of his head.
The sharp thorns on its body stood upright.
Something's not quite right.
Xavier belatedly realized this.
It sensed a primal, instinctive drive burning within its body like a raging fire.
"Lin Xi?"
That was a call from the Mother of the Others.
Xavier involuntarily stretched out his sharp forelimbs, revealing the skin on the inside of his forelimbs, which was now turning a bright purplish-red, reflecting his emotions.
After carefully experiencing his physical condition, Xavier was overwhelmed by an inexplicable emotion.
Is that its illusion, or does it really exist?
After such a long time, the close spiritual connection between it and the Insect Mother... and Lin Xi was rekindled once again.
But Lin Xi clearly abandoned it, left this planet, and returned to Earth, right?!
Has he returned here once again?
Was he looking for him?
Xavier forced herself not to think too much; she had had enough of heartbreak.
Even so, it still couldn't help but walk out of the cave.
Without needing any location or observation, the moment it stepped out of the cave, it faced directly into the distance.
It knew that this was the place where the Apollo crashed and fell to its death, and at the same time, the summons from Lin Xi were projected from that direction.
Xavier stood frozen on the cliff for a moment, his instincts as a King Insect driving him to rush headlong in that direction, but on the other hand, his soul told him not to have too much hope, not to have any strange fantasies. Lin Xi had clearly already…
However, just as Xavier was trying to convince himself, the emotions of the Mother of the Others clearly permeated him through the connection between their minds.
fear.
weak.
They desperately need protection.
"Whoosh..."
A loud sound of wings spreading suddenly rang out.
Even though it had suppressed its physical instincts deep within its soul, Xavier found that in the end, it still couldn't resist the powerful drive of instinct and emotion.
It suddenly spread out its thick and powerful elytra.
The heavy, plate-like carapace opened at an angle, revealing translucent membranous wings vibrating rapidly beneath.
Immediately afterwards, Xavier leaped off the high cliff.
Like some kind of large spacecraft, it hurtled straight toward the wreckage of the Helios at an astonishing speed, creating a violent shockwave in its wake. Countless twisted, brightly colored trees slowly collapsed in the sudden gust of wind, revealing the alien creatures that had been hiding in the dense forest, too afraid to move because of Xavier's aura.
...
Lin Xi was having another dream.
This dream was bizarre and strange, with a kind of exquisite and bizarre feeling that cannot be described in words.
In his dream, he seemed to have transformed into something strange...
Lin Xi wasn't sure if she could use the word "thing" to describe Him.
He is more like some kind of spiritual entity or...soul.
From the very beginning of the universe, He has existed in this world, and every long period of time, under certain circumstances, He will completely transform His original form and become something else.
Sometimes, He is a bizarrely shaped humanoid being; other times, He is a monster with a ferocious appearance. He endlessly traverses countless timelines and experiences countless unimaginable worlds and lives. Of course, all the emotions that arise in different beings eventually melt into the most primal instinct—reproduction.
Lin Xi could only watch as "himself" expanded and multiplied endlessly in countless universes, eventually devouring all matter in the entire universe. Sometimes, He would be destroyed by other primordial beings. That might be His death, but Lin Xi knew that death merely returned Him to that unchanging, primordial form.
And so, in this strange dream, Lin Xi endlessly repeats her destiny within time and space.
After dreaming for so long, Lin Xi sometimes couldn't even tell whether he was dreaming or had actually experienced so many worlds...
This dream is endless, as if it could continue to the end of the universe.
In the final dream, Lin Xi, who was mentally exhausted, found himself back in his original identity—an ordinary botany teaching assistant on Earth. Due to a series of coincidences, he boarded a spaceship called the Sun God and headed to a distant alien planet inhabited by madmen and monsters.
Lin Xi thought he could see Bryce and Alisa again in this dream, since they were the people he missed the most. But he didn't expect that what he kept dreaming about in this dream was a butterfly.
Or, to be more precise, it was an alien creature resembling a butterfly.
The "butterfly" fluttered its soft, beautiful wings, as radiant as clouds, and danced gracefully towards him.
Its appearance seemed familiar, and a sense of sadness, which she couldn't explain, slowly welled up in Lin Xi's heart.
In his dream, Lin Xi stared blankly at the butterfly dancing in the air—he didn't even notice that everything surrounding him, including the greenhouse and the Sun God, was slowly blurring, slowly melting, and finally turning into a chaotic gray mist.
Please remember it.
Suddenly, Lin Xi heard a voice.
His mind seemed to clear up a bit.
Lin Xi suddenly turned around and looked behind him, only to find that at some point, another person had appeared in his dream.
"Who are you?"
Lin Xi couldn't help but tremble at the sight of the man who suddenly appeared in her dream, his condition so terrible.
The man stood there, unusually thin, like a living corpse. He gave Lin Xi a strange sense of familiarity (of course, many things in this dream felt familiar to him). The man was firmly fixed among countless wires, his eyes were empty, and his body was covered with signs of decay.
At this moment, he was staring straight at Lin Xi.
What are you saying?
Lin Xi couldn't help but ask.
He had a vague feeling that what he was experiencing now might not just be a dream, but rather...
"One must not succumb to emptiness, nor to instinct."
The terrifying man spoke to him, word by word.
"Once you lose your individual consciousness, this long, dark fate will begin a new cycle, endless and never-ending. It's so tragic, so terrifying... Don't give up... even if it's just for yourself..."
"Wait, what are you talking about?"
Lin Xi couldn't help but press for an answer.
However, the man seemed not to hear Lin Xi's words. He mechanically repeated his previous words, then slowly turned around and staggered into the thick fog.
"Hey, wait a minute, tell me, what's going on here? What's happening to me?"
Lin Xi rushed over instinctively.
Lin Xi regretted it the moment she entered the thick fog.
That layer of fog was not the ordinary fog that Lin Xi thought it was, but something else... something that Lin Xi couldn't describe. It was wet and sticky, with a unique temperature and smell. Its presence made Lin Xi feel familiar and comfortable, but at the same time, she felt an instinctive disgust and fear.
"Don't let it defeat you, remember your heart, remember everything you love..."
Lin Xi heard the man mutter to himself again.
In the thick fog, the man's figure appeared and disappeared intermittently, as if he were about to be melted away by the fog. Several times, Lin Xi even thought that he and the man would be lost in the thick, damp fog, but in the end, he still managed to pass through the fog.
However, the moment Lin Xi passed through the fog, she involuntarily stopped in her tracks.
He frowned as he looked at the scene before him.
Then he shuddered at what he had seen and heard.
He saw himself with his own eyes.
Although the shadow in front of him was now very different from his current appearance.
Lin Xi had thought that his deformed body was terrifying enough, but compared to the figure he was seeing now, he could almost be considered a normal person.
"Oh heavens..."
Lin Xi covered his mouth; he almost vomited.
It was an enormous, swollen, and constantly writhing deformed body, from which round insect eggs were continuously expelled, piling up in a sticky mass at its tail. Some of the eggs pushed to the outermost edge began to slowly wriggle shortly after being produced, their outer skins becoming transparent and wrinkled, and tiny, familiar white shadows emerged from them.
What disgusted Lin Xi even more was that he was tightly embracing another body in his arms.
What they did completely exceeded any ethical or moral norms, or common sense, that Lin Xi, as a human being, knew.
Lin Xi wanted to look away, but he was as if hypnotized and could only freeze there motionless.
He didn't know when it happened, but the man standing beside him had disappeared. Lin Xi himself was slowly merging with the figure he didn't even dare to look at.
Oh...don't do that, I'm just dreaming, I'm just dreaming...although I'm scared and disgusted right now, I know it's a dream.
Lin Xi kept telling herself this amidst extreme fear.
We must not give up...
Lin Xi could almost hear the words that man had said to him again.
I can't give up. I absolutely cannot let myself become that pathetic creature. I still have things to do, I still need...
Just as Lin Xi was about to lose consciousness, he suddenly remembered the little butterfly he had seen before.
The beautiful, soft wings danced in the air, and Lin Xi felt a surge of warmth as she looked at the little insect.
A scene suddenly flashed into Lin Xi's mind—he dreamt that he was kneeling weakly in front of a large metal door, facing the other side of the door, screaming in agony…
"I will come back, I will come back to find you..."
The moment Lin Xi woke up, he found himself repeatedly shouting the same sentence.
The vivid nightmare quickly dissipated from his mind like mist, but Lin Xi could never forget the terrifying feeling it brought him.
He sat there blankly in the pitch-black cave for a long time before he finally came to his senses.
Then, Lin Xi found himself still in the cave he had seen before losing consciousness, even in the exact same spot. The only difference was that the fleshy sac that had previously trapped him was now dry and just a layer of soft, damp flesh. This fleshy membrane was piled up on a platform made of metal fragments and various strange stones and pieces of wood, and Lin Xi was now carefully placed in the middle of this pile of fleshy membrane.
Lin Xi held his breath and checked his body, finding himself exactly the same as before he lost consciousness, completely unharmed. He couldn't help but frown, remembering the last thing he saw before losing consciousness—the monster had charged at him menacingly.
But now he is not only unharmed, but also...
Just then, a familiar rustling sound interrupted Lin Xi's thoughts. He abruptly looked up at a certain spot in the darkness. Thankfully, his mutated eyesight allowed him to see everything clearly even in such darkness.
Similarly, he could also clearly see the two tentacles.
Thin, feather-like white tentacles swayed back and forth along the edge of a huge rock.
Lin Xi still remembered that the monster that had scared him to the point of losing consciousness also seemed to have a pair of tentacles like that.
Lin Xi silently watched the two swaying tentacles.
In such a bizarre and chaotic situation, he should have been terrified of the strangely shaped monster, but inexplicably after experiencing that dream, he found that his fear of the monster seemed to have lessened, and he even remembered the butterfly he saw in his dream—a tender feeling that rose unexpectedly in his heart.
"I see you." Lin Xi took a deep breath, then shouted stiffly at the other side of the rock.
In his words, he said he saw the tentacle suddenly stand up.
It's strange, why does he have a sense of familiarity? Lin Xi stared at the monster's savings and thought to himself.
Slowly, slowly, connecting with the white monster he had seen earlier, he gently peeked his body out from behind the rock.
Lin Xi stared at him for a long time, feeling puzzled. He didn't know why he had been so afraid of such a monster before. After all, judging from the trembling he was showing now, it seemed that he was afraid of him, not Lin Xi. Thinking of this, Lin Xi couldn't help but turn his head to look at his current body, and then he frowned in disgust.
"Who are you?"
Lin Xi looked at the monster and then asked.
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