Devouring Stars: Master of Evolution

Chapter 219 The Swarm 30 Years Later

The core space of the malevolent energy vortex.

Three flesh-and-blood chambers, each about five kilometers in diameter, floated in the air, each containing a humanoid experimental subject about one kilometer tall.

Their bodies are connected to fleshy tentacles, which are adjusting the genes within them.

Countless strange patterns appeared on the bodies of the three test subjects, shining with light.

Qin Mu's expression was serious, and he dared not be careless in the slightest.

"Bang—"

Suddenly, the chest cavity of the rightmost test subject ruptured, and a lot of blood flowed out.

Qin Mu's expression remained unchanged as he continued operating the device.

Inside the flesh-and-blood chamber, dark green liquid continuously poured into the experimental body, repairing its shattered form.

Even so, the experimental subject continued to collapse and dissolve itself.

Three days later, the flesh and blood of the massive experimental subject, which was a kilometer tall, disappeared, its bones shattered, and it turned into a pool of black liquid.

Qin Mu remained indifferent as he continued to adjust and operate the equipment.

"Dual-talent experimental subject No. 1022 failed to be debugged. The experimental subject's genes conflicted and collapsed. It has automatically dissolved."

The swarm of insects coldly recorded the experimental data.

However, the next moment, the body of the experimental subject in the middle suddenly burst into flames, and the experimental subject roared continuously amidst the flames.

Countless flames surged from within him, enveloping him and seemingly transforming him into a giant flaming egg.

Under the burning flames, even the flesh and blood chambers were completely incinerated.

Unfortunately, fine cracks eventually appeared on the giant flaming egg, and it exploded with a deafening roar.

"Test subject number 1023 failed to be debugged. Genetic conflict occurred. The fusion of the talent 'Rebirth' failed!"

The swarm's cold voice rang out once more.

Qin Mu's expression remained calm, focusing all his energy on the last test subject.

Fortunately, all the fleshy tentacles on the last test subject retracted, and nothing unexpected happened.

"Experimental subject No. 1024 has been successfully debugged. Its genes are initially stable and it can survive for a hundred years."

The gene multiplier reached 40, and the talent—Enhancement—was successfully acquired!

At the lab bench, Qin Mu's solemn expression relaxed, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

"It's a success."

Qin Mu looked at the only surviving test subject in front of him, a hint of excitement in his eyes.

After thirty years of research, he finally stabilized the genes of the experimental subject that had incorporated many bloodlines.

Not only did the genes stabilize, but he also successfully endowed the test subject with a talent!

Talent Enhancement: The Golden Horned Beast's combat talent has a simple and direct effect, instantly doubling its strength upon activation.

Whether it's physical strength or spiritual strength!

"Subject No. 1024 has now fused with 80 Blood Crystals. After activating the power of Blood Crystals, it can achieve 3200 times the genetic potential!"

If I use the enhancement talent again, I can instantly reach 6400!

Qin Mu's eyes burned with fervor. This level of genetic multiplication, once reaching the World Lord level, would be comparable to a Marquis Immortal without any secret techniques or treasures.

If we could give him some suitable secret techniques or treasures...

It's not impossible for it to rival the title of King and achieve immortality.

"Unfortunately, the other two test subjects failed."

Rebirth from the ashes!

The life-saving talent of the Flame Star Beast is the talent that Qin Mu has studied the most in the past thirty years.

Compared to talent enhancement, Qin Mu values ​​rebirth even more.

The effect of rebirth is even more miraculous. If you die or are severely injured in battle, you can be reborn through the energy accumulated in your body!

After its rebirth, its injuries will be fully healed, and it will also evolve and transform, becoming even more powerful.

There are two options for rebirth: one is to rebirth on the spot and continue fighting, and the other is to choose a place you have marked in advance to rebirth.

What Qin Mu was witnessing was not rebirth, but the evolutionary transformation during a nirvana rebirth.

If this talent can be solidified into the experimental subject, then the evolutionary transformation and gene fusion during the rebirth will reach a new level!

For the swarm, temporary combat strength is not the most important thing; evolution is.

As for the dual-talent experiment, it actually involves two talents: Talent Enhancement and Rebirth.

Although it was regrettable, Qin Mu also knew that it was already quite remarkable that thirty years had allowed the experimental subject's genes to stabilize and acquire a talent.

Moreover, the fusion of the Nirvana Rebirth talent is already quite advanced; it's just that there are still some problems in the final step. Qin Mu believes that as long as he has a little more time, he will definitely be able to overcome them.

"The golden light in this malevolent space is no longer very effective against the insect swarm; it's time to leave."

Looking at the familiar surroundings, Qin Mu felt a surge of emotion.

In the past thirty years, apart from occasionally logging into the virtual universe to listen to lectures by immortal kings and cosmic venerables, he has hardly ever gone out.

Qin Mu's body twisted and disappeared.

The next moment, his body appeared in the primordial core world.

Towering pyramid-shaped hives, reaching heights of 190 kilometers, teem with countless Zerg units, while some colossal behemoths, some reaching 90 kilometers in size, lie within them.

Thirty years have passed, and the swarm's strength has improved again, reaching the ninth level of the Domain Lord level.

However, it would take about a hundred years to reach the level of a World Lord.

Qin Mu's gaze fell on the body of one of the larger golden-horned behemoths.

On the body of this golden-horned behemoth, the right hoof, left hoof, back, abdomen, tail, hind hooves, a pair of scaled wings, and head—ten areas in total—were depicted with images of the beast god's roar.

To obtain the Beast God's Roar image, one hundred need to be fused together.

This means that the total number of Blood Crystals it fused reached... 1000!

This is already the limit, and the Golden Horned Beast's massive body can be enhanced by doubling its strength with each fusion.

A 20-fold increase means that the golden-horned behemoth's gene multiplier has reached 200.

This is another research project of Qin Mu, which uses Blood Crystal to strengthen every part of the Starry Sky Beast to the limit.

"Simply relying on Blood Crystals for enhancement has reached its limit for improving the Golden Horned Beast; it can no longer be fused together."

The next step is to increase its gene count; a mere tenfold increase is a bit weak.

Compared to the current humanoid experimental subjects, the Golden Horned Beast's body is far too large, reaching 90 kilometers in length, while the humanoid experimental subjects are only 1000 meters long.

"Compared to the fusion of various genes into the human body, the fusion of genes based on the Golden Horned Beast is more difficult to improve."

Fortunately, the research has yielded results.

Qin Mu closed his eyes and descended to another place through the swarm's consciousness.

Chaotic star field, within a space storm.

A flesh-and-blood planet with a diameter of nearly 1 kilometers floats within it.

After hundreds of years of modification and optimization, and the consumption of countless resources, its size has actually become smaller than before.

In contrast, this Zerg hive fortress has been completely transformed into flesh and blood, with the planetary debris that was previously used for support having been completely expelled from its body.

The surface of the insect hive fortress is composed of honeycomb structures.

Some of these honeycomb-shaped caves are over a hundred miles in diameter, allowing even giant beasts like the Golden Horned Beast to enter easily, while others are only a dozen meters in diameter, allowing only small worker insects to enter.

On this enormous planet of flesh and blood, a closer look reveals that its carapace-like surface is covered with densely packed patterns.

These patterns encompass all the peak bloodline star beasts, as well as eight powerful bloodline star beasts, the Demon Slayer Clan, the Rock Giants, the Metal Lifeforms, and other powerful creatures.

In some experimental areas, some patterns can even be seen that are extremely similar to the blood-red patterns that appear after fusing with Blood Crystal.

With a diameter of tens of thousands of kilometers, the insect hive fortress was large enough for Qin Mu to draw and combine freely on it.

Once a region experiences genetic breakdown and dissolution, that section is cut off and discarded.

The Qinmu insect hive fortress uses a modular design, so a problem in one part will not affect the whole.

This insect hive fortress is highly experimental in nature.

Within this Zerg hive fortress, you can see thousands of vent-like structures.

The powerful energy ejected from these nozzles propelled the Zerg hive fortress forward at an ever-increasing speed.

"Based on the prototype of the Queen Mother's Nest, a World Lord-level mother, and incorporating the superhuman genes of the Zerg Queen Mother, including billions of outstanding genes from numerous peak-bloodline star behemoths, the Zerg's true fortress is finally taking shape."

Feeling the immense vitality of this colossal fortress, Qin Mu nodded in satisfaction.

This is a Zerg hive fortress that he has spent over a hundred years building. Although it has only barely taken shape today, Qin Mu believes that when it appears on the battlefield, it will definitely be the strongest support for the Zerg swarm.

Unlike in the past, it can now be considered a Zerg unit, a unit as large as a planet.

"If the Zerg hive fortress were moved to an extra-domain battlefield, its massive size would allow it to be disguised as a special life form."

A thought popped into Qin Mu's head, but he quickly suppressed it.

Consciousness entered the Zerg hive fortress, and in the flesh-and-blood chamber, which spanned nearly 300 kilometers, a strange cosmic behemoth was immersed in a dark green liquid.

This colossal creature actually has two heads.

One of the heads is that of a Golden Horned Beast, while the other is that of a Fiery Star Beast!

Its body belongs to the Golden Horned Beast, resembling an enormous lion, but it has two pairs of wings on its back.

One of the pairs of fiery red wings clearly belonged to the Flame Star Beast.

"Over the years, although I have devoted most of my energy to the research of the perfect divine body, I have not given up the research of the swarm unit."

Based on the Golden Horned Beast, it successfully fused with the genes of the Flame Star Beast, and the gene multiplication reached 30 times.

Unfortunately, it's not very stable yet. This two-headed star behemoth can only survive for a maximum of three years, but three years is barely enough as a combat unit.

The fusion of other peak-bloodline star beasts has failed, but with continued research, success will eventually be achieved.

Gazing at this two-headed star beast, in terms of strength, it was even more powerful than the Perfect Divine Body.

Because its body is too large, it also has two special talents.

It is not the original devouring, strengthening, or clone talents of the Golden Horned Beast.

For swarm units, the Devour and Split talents are not very useful.

Because the swarm itself is a whole, once the level of the mother hive is increased, it can be enhanced by the power of the mother hive.

And clones are even more obvious.

Therefore, its life-saving talent was replaced by Qin Mu with Nirvana Rebirth!

"Perhaps I was too hasty in pursuing the fusion of the ten fundamental laws from the beginning, and there was no need to maintain human form."

Sensing the immense power of this two-headed star beast, a thought popped into Qin Mu's mind.

Compared to the perfect divine body experimental subject, this two-headed starry sky behemoth only fused two peak bloodline behemoths, yet its gene multiplier also reached 30 times.

"However, there is no conflict. As a Zerg combat unit, the Two-Headed Starry Sky Behemoth pursues strength and combat power."

The perfect divine body, however, is my application of gene fusion and my understanding of the laws.

His consciousness circulated through the swarm of insects, and then Qin Mu opened his eyes in his inner world.

"Staying in the Blood Luo World is no longer of much use; it's about time to leave."

(End of this chapter)