After the test results came out, Ruan Shiqing went to Garland's laboratory again and did a full set of strength tests.
The test results showed that, apart from his various body functions being superior to before, his strength had not increased much - according to Garland's guess, after he woke up from his coma, both his external appearance and internal functions had changed significantly compared to before, so his strength should have increased.
After all, if Ruan Shiqing and Ruan Jiao were related, they both had an inseparable relationship with the Zerg, and the Zerg were always known for their powerful strength.
However, Ruan Shiqing's strength test results were still the same as those of ancient humans. It was just that he used to be ranked in the middle and back, but now that his body functions have improved, he can move to the front, but there has been no fundamental change.
Ruan Shiqing was not surprised at all. He was more surprised that Ruan Jiao was related to him by blood.
Seeing that he was in doubt and uncertainty, Rong Heng remembered that he had not done anything important, and quickly told him all his speculations about Ruan Jiao's identity.
Ruan Shiqing fell into deep thought after he finished speaking.
Since waking up, he has been busy comforting Rong Heng and the cubs. Many things have not been sorted out yet, so naturally he has not mentioned the dream he had when he was in a coma. In the dream, he personally witnessed the queen insect laying two eggs. According to the insect race, those are king eggs.
According to Rong Heng, the queen of the Zerg has been dead for many years, and the current queen and most of the Zerg are artificial products. The genes of these artificial Zerg come from Ruan Jiao. And Ruan Jiao has been trapped by the Zerg for many years... He immediately thought of the king egg that was not hidden and was taken away by the Zerg.
The dead queen was the last queen of the Zerg. She completed her final evolution, took on a human form, accepted human consciousness, and tried to end the war that lasted for thousands of years, but she was eventually killed in a murder. When she was dying, she left behind two eggs.
If he and Ruan Jiao were related by blood, and the Zerg tentacles that grew on his forehead in the dream provided evidence, he, or the body he traveled through, might very well be a royal egg hidden by the Queen of Zerg.
However, in all the records of the Zerg, there has never been any mention of the queen giving birth to males.
The Zerg has a typical matriarchal social structure, with the queen being the supreme ruler who holds the right to reproduce, so the eggs laid by each queen must be female.
The information he now possesses is too missing. It seems that everything corresponds, but at the same time, it is contradictory and cannot be justified.
But in that dream, everything he saw was so real and reasonable. Whether it was the silence of the Blue Planet, the expansion and evolution of the Zerg, or the death of Queen Farah... It seemed nonsense, but many details just explained many current unexplainable situations.
Thinking of Queen Farah, Ruan Shiqing subconsciously glanced at Rong Heng.
When he mentioned his deceased mother, his expression was always nostalgic and sad, but never angry or hateful. Obviously, he did not know the truth about the queen's death on the front line. The cause of the queen's death announced by the empire was that she led the troops in a once-in-a-century insect swarm on the front line and died of exhaustion.
Ruan Shiqing couldn't confirm which was true and which was false, so he could only find a way to verify the authenticity of the dream and then tell him the truth.
He skipped the unrecorded part and only said vaguely: "When I was unconscious, I didn't seem to lose consciousness." He described the situation of being immersed in a boundless body of water: "At that time, tentacles like Ruan Jiao grew on my forehead."
Tentacles are a characteristic unique to the Zerg.
Garland seemed to have thought about something, and after a while he said: "What you described is very similar to the state of looking inward at the spiritual body. The subject of studying spiritual power in the empire is very unpopular, but I have read a lot of related books and research papers recently. A scholar once proposed a hypothesis that the essence of human beings is a spiritual body. The scholar compared the spiritual power in the human brain to a sea, also known as the "spiritual sea". The spiritual body is self-consciousness and the embodiment of the self. When a person looks inward at his own "spiritual sea", it is like "a person" immersed in the sea. The sea is endless, but "a person" is small. When "a person" can come and go freely in this sea, he has mastered spiritual power."
This theory is just a hypothesis, which has never been verified by anyone and was even once dismissed as a fallacy. The scholar who once proposed the "spiritual sea" theory not only did not receive recognition, but also suffered a lot of ridicule and attacks, and finally died in poverty.
In the past six months, Garland has read a lot of research works on mental power in order to explore Ruan Jiao's abnormality and the reason for Ruan Shiqing's coma. In addition, with Ruan Jiao as a living example, he has gained a lot of insights.
He felt that the "sea of spirit" theory might not be nonsense, and now Ruan Shiqing's words further strengthened his thinking.
After a moment's silence, he suggested, "Do you want to go and see the Zerg captives? If my guess is correct, the Zerg captives should have some reaction to you."
He had been stuck in a dead end before, but now Ruan Shiqing's words pointed him in a new direction - the Zerg are indeed powerful, but the direction of their ultimate evolution may not be physical strength, but spiritual strength.
For example, the anthropomorphic Zerg, such as Ruan Jiao.
The closer they are to a complete human form, the stronger their spiritual power will be; but correspondingly, their physical strength will be weakened. But this does not mean that they have become weaker. For example, the status of the anthropomorphic Zerg is quite high among the Zerg, and after training, Ruan Jiao can even make those hostile Zerg captives surrender.
Thinking of the Falling Star vines that had grown wildly in the repair shop a few days ago, Garland thought that Ruan Shiqing could verify it with the captured Zerg.
But before Ruan Shiqing could answer, Rong Heng became nervous: "No!"
His face was gloomy, his body was tense, and he subconsciously held down Ruan Shiqing's arm.
Ruan Shiqing fell into a coma a few days ago because of the dead newborn queen. Now he has just woken up, what if he is attacked by the Zerg again... He becomes irritable and restless as soon as he thinks about this possibility.
Ruan Shiqing could feel how strong the force was that was pressing down on his arm, and he understood the concerns in Rong Heng's mind.
But he did have a lot of guesses that needed to be verified, and after a little research, he had made a decision.
He pressed the other person's tense arm with his backhand, and Ruan Shiqing's slender fingers flexibly moved down along the slightly tense muscle lines, finally overlapping on the back of the hand where blue veins were bulging. He inserted his fingers into the gaps between the fingers, and interlocked his ten fingers.
He used all his strength to hold the other's hand tightly, letting him feel his determination: "You go with me, I will be careful and there will be no more accidents."
Rong Heng looked at him for a moment, and finally had to compromise.
But he was unwilling to do so. When he went to the prison where the Zerg were held, he glared at Garland fiercely.
Garland pretended not to notice.
The prison for the Zerg was built under the arsenal. In addition to the three humanoid Zergs captured at the beginning, many more prisoners were taken later as the rescue operations increased. From the highest-level humanoid Zerg to the lowest-level ordinary Zerg, all were detained in the prison, and only the minimum survival needs were guaranteed every day to supply the Garland Institute.
The lower the level of the Zerg, the more likely they are to be stationed on the periphery.
When Ruan Shiqing and his party entered, they heard hissing roars and crashing sounds. These low-level Zerg had low IQs, and without the command and dispatch of higher-level Zergs, they seemed stupid and only knew how to use brute force.
When they passed by, the Zerg had just drunk a nutrient and regained some strength, and began banging on the prison railings again.
The entire underground prison was filled with the sound of banging and was very noisy.
Ruan Shiqing frowned subconsciously.
Then the lower-level Zerg stopped attacking and retreated to the corner of the prison in fear, with their sharp limbs retracted in their shells, their abdomens pressed against the ground, and they didn't even dare to raise the tentacles on their heads.
Seeing this, Garland raised his eyebrows and looked at Ruan Shiqing: "When Ruan Jiao came before, this situation would not have happened. What did you do?"
Ruan Jiao is still young after all. Although he can make these low-level Zerg surrender through learning and training, it is not as easy as it is now. The Zerg's surrendering posture is far from being as docile as it is now.
Ruan Shiqing shook his head, somewhat puzzled: "I didn't do it."
While talking, they continued to move forward.
The imprisoned Zergs on both sides of the corridor retreated to the corners of the prison and showed gestures of submission.
The further they went in, the smarter and lower-ranking the imprisoned Zerg became. Unlike the lower-level Zerg, they were all tense, and some even couldn't wait to stick their heads out to take a look. After scanning back and forth, a pair of red reptiles looked at Ruan Shiqing.
There were no more banging sounds in the prison, but instead, there were repeated "hissing" sounds.
That was a sound unique to the Zerg, like the irregular scratching of nails on rough paper. Ruan Shiqing didn't understand it before, and needed Ruan Jiao to translate it.
But this time, he clearly saw their conversation.
"I smell a familiar scent."
"It's the Queen of Insects."
"The Queen of Insects died a long time ago. There hasn't been one in many years."
"Why is it a male..."
"Perfect anthropomorphism, he is more perfect than the Queen of Insects. Did he sneak into the human world?"
The sound of chaotic conversations flooded into his ears. Ruan Shiqing silently scanned the cells on both sides and memorized every Zerg that mentioned the Queen.
At the end of the corridor is an independent cell.
"The one we're holding here is number 4, the lowest-level Zerg we've caught so far. His genes are different from those artificial Zergs. I guess he's one of the few natural Zergs born from the Queen." Garland numbered each Zerg so that he could record their data.
Ruan Shiqing looked through the gap in the fence and found that the person in the prison was an adult male. He was thin, with sickly pale skin, and wore a white shirt and trousers. At first glance, he looked no different from a human being.
Rong Heng saw his confusion and explained, "He seems to have evolved more completely than other anthropomorphic insects. When he transforms into an insect, he looks half human and half insect."
He caught this Zerg during a rescue.
The evolved anthropomorphic Zerg are very cunning. They disguise themselves as ordinary humans and hide among the rescued survivors. They issue orders through the Zerg's unique mental waves and command other Zerg to fight.
That rescue operation was extremely difficult, and the casualties on both the rescue team and the rescued planet were difficult to estimate.
The enemy was mixed in with the survivors and was familiar with all the conditions inside the planet. With the enemy in the dark and us in the light, the rescue operation lasted for nearly a month before it was completed.
If Rong Heng had not seen anthropomorphic Zerg disguised as humans before, he would have been cautious and ordered people to secretly monitor the suspicious object, and almost let this cunning Zerg escape.
Later, they finally caught the Zerg, and when they were escorting him back to planet b3024, they encountered a flood of Zerg. The low-level Zerg were fearless and charged at their warships again and again, probably to rescue the Zerg.
Rong Hengyi judged that the status of this Zerg was quite high.
However, he was obviously more cunning than other anthropomorphic Zerg, and after several tortures, not much useful information was obtained.
Ruan Shiqing stared at the Zerg through a door.
He always felt that this Zerg gave him a very familiar feeling, but after carefully looking at him, he was sure that he had never seen him before. In other words, in the dream, no Zerg was half human, half insect.
Ruan Shiqing frowned and searched for a while, not wanting to miss any clues, and asked, "Are there any photos of him turning into a Zerg?"
Garland didn't have it, so he retrieved the stored image from the intelligent brain and showed it to him.
Ruan Shiqing flipped through the photos one by one, and finally his eyes fixed on one of them, his expression became solemn - in the photo, the man looked like an insect from the waist down, with three pairs of limbs extending from his spine behind, and his naked body was covered with strange patterns, but the most eye-catching thing was the red conch-like pattern on his chest.
He had seen this pattern before—in a dream.
When the Queen Worm broke out of the egg in human form, countless Zergs bowed down in worship. Among them, the Zerg that was closest to the Queen Worm and was the largest had a red conch pattern on its chest and abdomen when it stood up.
But it was clearly still in the form of Zerg at that time and had not evolved.
Ruan Shiqing's eyes darkened, he suppressed all his emotions, looked at No. 4, and said lightly: "I have seen you."
The Zerg looked up at him for a moment, his pupils shrank, but he didn't speak.
But Ruan Shiqing inexplicably sensed his hostility and a hint of fear.
This feeling was inexplicable, but he did feel it. He looked at Ruan Jiao and saw the cub that had grabbed the corner of Rong Heng's clothes, staring at him vigilantly with wide eyes, obviously aware of the other party's ill intentions.
He narrowed his eyes, and this time he did not ask, but said in a firm tone: "It seems that you recognize who I am."
When he said this, his expression had just the right amount of sarcasm.
The Zerg who had kept silent finally spoke, speaking fluent interstellar language: "She hid you very well. It seems that you have now obtained all the inherited memories." If it weren't for the inherited memories, it would be impossible to recognize him.
Ruan Shiqing extracted a lot of information from his words.
First, it is indeed the Zerg in the dream;
2. Dreams are not just dreams, but inherited memories.
Ruan Shiqing quickly reviewed the information he had analyzed and continued to ask questions calmly, "She had anticipated your betrayal and made preparations."
Number 4 showed an expression of "as expected". He turned his gaze to Ruan Jiao and said with gritted teeth, "She deliberately left a defective queen egg for us, but hid you well. No wonder we have spent countless efforts over the years and still cannot cultivate a real queen insect."
The reproductive rights of the entire race are controlled by the Queen of Worms. However, ever since the Queen of Worms completed her transformation into human form and sneaked into the Galactic Empire several times, she no longer determines the future of the entire race and lays eggs with them as she did before.
They even began to have wild ideas, wanting to make peace with humans and coexist peacefully in exchange for the "Heavenly Stone" that would promote the evolution of their tribe.
However, the "Heavenly Stone" is extremely important to the evolution of the tribe. How can we hand over the tribe's lifeline to the hands of aliens
This idea is too naive!
Rather than being constrained by others, it is better to completely occupy this star field. Then the entire ethnic group can make further progress.
Originally, their plan was perfect. They forced the Queen Insect into a desperate situation. She would definitely lay a royal egg when she was on the verge of death. As long as they brought back the royal egg and bred the next Queen Insect, everything would remain the same.
But I didn’t expect that the royal egg I brought back was a male!
Without the Queen, the population dwindled with the war, so they had to find a way to artificially breed a new Queen.
The genes extracted from the queen eggs have great defects in the queens they breed. The eggs they lay are weaker and they will die completely after only three egg-layings.
The reproduction of the Zerg has fallen into an unprecedented crisis.
It's not that they didn't suspect that there was something wrong with this royal egg, but the queen insect can only lay one royal egg at a time, so even though they had a suspicion, they couldn't confirm it.
Now the appearance of Ruan Shiqing made him confirm that they had fallen into the trap of the Queen Insect.
She deliberately left behind a defective royal egg, but hid the royal egg that inherited everything.
And now, this grown-up king egg, like its mother, is close to humans.
The Zerg let out an angry hiss and pounced forward, stretching out the limbs on its back suddenly, trying to attack Ruan Shiqing.
Rong Heng, who was guarding on the side, suddenly alerted himself, took a step forward, caught the sharp limb with his bare hands, and chopped down with his other hand like a knife, breaking the opponent's limb.
Three pairs of limbs were cut off one after another, and the severely injured Zerg fell to the ground. The human's eyes gradually turned to the Zerg's resurrection, staring at Ruan Shiqing with hatred.
Ruan Shiqing stared at him for a moment, thinking that he would not be able to get any more information out of him today, so he turned around and left.
Just ask Garland not to let him die easily.
After getting on the elevator and getting away from the insect race, Rong Heng, who had not said a word, finally spoke: "Were you playing a guessing game with that insect just now?"
Jia Lan and Ruan Jiao were obviously very confused. Three pairs of eyes looked at him in unison, waiting for him to explain.
Ruan Shiqing sighed slightly: "I'll talk to you guys in detail when I get back."
With the confirmation of No. 4's words, he was basically certain that the fragmented fragments in that "dream" were all real.
That is the memory passed down by successive generations of insect queens.