Invasion - Chapter 135
Chapter 135
Messy and colorful memory fragments rushed past like a torrent.
It was gradually no longer limited to her companions' mental worlds.
The mindscapes of more people appeared in the river-like mental stream.
They were memories of the many humans who had explored this place.
Many of them sentinels, some ordinary people, their mental worlds merged into the Queen of Mantis’s mind, forever trapped in this world.
Some of the images seemed incredibly old, like soldiers from hundreds of years ago. Some very recent, with familiar scenes of the White Tower and the capital appearing in the memories.
Those painful, sad, or happy and warm memories, formed vortexes in the long river.
In the depths of the vortexes, people were crying, some laughing madly, some tightly embracing their lovers…
All of it the joys and sorrows of life, bloody and real.
Lin Yuan would sometimes be drawn to those intense emotions, wanting to take a closer look, to take a step in that direction.
In the mental world, a single thought, and she would be pulled into that vortex.
Pulled into the long and complex mental world of a human.
In the river of swirling, multicolored vortexes, Lin Yuan’s steps were heavy, struggling to move forward.
She had once thought that the most powerful mental attack was using illusions, visual and auditory, to affect the enemy’s mental world, to trap them in terrifying hallucinations.
Now she realized that the most powerful mental attack wasn't illusion.
But reality.
What could most easily shake one’s heart, change one’s beliefs, were always those truths pulled from within.
Those pure loves, hatreds, resentments, and desires, like thin white hands, pulling at the giant Kraken walking in the river, like silk threads.
Lin Yuan felt a deep fear in her heart.
Countless lives trapped here, so much joy and sorrow, she walked through them.
The vibrant emotions stained her skin, seeped into her bones.
Making her taste all the emotions of the world, suffer all its pain.
But Lin Yuan was still walking. She walked very slowly, the tentacles bit by bit, peeling off the sticky threads from her body, slowly wriggling forward.
The Queen of Mantis stood in the colorful pavilion in the distance, watching her, her arms crossed.
She seemed very far away, and yet incredibly close.
The mental torrent gradually changed.
The human memory fragments gradually decreased, and what appeared near Lin Yuan now were scenes of the human world, as seen through the strange eyes of Deviants.
The images became grotesque, as if a cold and indifferent observer from above, recording the history of human changes.
From the invasion of Deviants, to humanity’s resistance.
From how humans, in the research institute of the underground city, nurtured the monster, extracted its blood, developing powerful human weapons—Sentinels and Guides.
The swirling river disappeared, Lin Yuan's feet on solid ground. She walked along the long, transparent corridor, a long scroll hanging on both sides.
The colors of the scroll were exceptionally vibrant, and the human figures were abstract, two-dimensional shapes.
The small, black human figures moved, raising their powerful weapons, fighting strange monsters.
Lin Yuan finally glimpsed the huge secret buried by history, a secret no one knew.
The reason for humanity's true and complete defeat.
After being injected with the blood of various Deviants, a large number of powerful warriors had appeared among humans.
Sentinels possessed incredibly strong physical qualities, and Guides could create powerful mental barriers.
The empire, having obtained these human weapons, launched an ambitious plan to reclaim their lands.
In the long scroll, the emperor of the empire, wearing his crown, blew the horn for a full-scale expedition.
In the sky, half-beast sentinels flew. Guides rode amidst the ranks of sentinels.
And further behind, teams pushing all sorts of powerful weapons.
Facing the limited number of monsters, the human army was unstoppable.
The people at that time, thinking that they had gained the power of gods, cheered in the image.
In the research institute, the black, small figures became even crazier, completely invested in the research of injecting humans with monster blood.
They didn’t know they had opened Pandora's Box.
Lin Yuan's footsteps slowed.
In the long scroll, the warriors, after long battles, gradually succumbed to berserking, turning into distorted Deviants.
The heroes who slew dragons eventually became dragons themselves.
The berserked sentinels became monsters, and turned to attack their own people.
The collapsed guides became incubators for eggs, becoming powerful Pillars, creating those strange contaminated zones where Deviants could live.
Humanity’s complete defeat began from that moment.
By the time they realized it was impossible to control the situation, the sentinel and guide genes had already been etched into human bloodlines, irreversible.
Lin Yuan unknowingly reached the end of the scroll, her feet on that small pavilion.
The Queen of Mantis, waiting there, pointed at the end of the scroll and said to Lin Yuan,
"I was born during that era, back then, I witnessed with my own eyes how humanity began to destroy itself from within."
Looking along her finger, at the end of the scroll, the human territories had shrunk into a small area.
But those small black figures were still fighting each other, vying for resources.
The crowned king and the princes and princesses fought for the throne, pushing each other's warriors into the contaminated zones that represented death.
Now, looking at it from outside, the actions of those little figures seemed incredibly absurd and ridiculous.
But that was humanity’s history.
Standing next to Lin Yuan, the Deviant in the formal dress covered her mouth and sighed,
"I couldn't understand it at all back then, why would this human race self-destruct?"
"In the later years, I collected many books on human history, and learned that this is their racial characteristic," she spread her hand elegantly. "Although I still don’t understand, I can only respect it.”
"Only, by the time we realized it, the number of humans had already decreased to the point of near extinction, incredibly terrifying, such a large race had once existed on this planet," she touched the green gemstone on her chest. "So, to protect humanity, we had no choice but to implement a plan."
When she said this, the world suddenly became very quiet. The small figures in the scroll were still waving their weapons.
Outside the painting, the wind blew across the vast flower sea, stirring colorful waves.
Lin Yuan shivered. She thought of the term she had heard before.
Farming humans.
The Queen of Mantis quietly stood beside Lin Yuan, her posture elegant, imitating human behavior, while twisted monster limbs extended from beneath her skirt.
Lin Yuan, at that moment, received a large amount of mental information from the Queen of Mantis, that information, entering her mind, merged with what she already knew.
The strange, inexplicable things of this world, at this moment, made sense.
When humanity was on the verge of extinction, the monsters started farming humans.
This was an unbelievable truth.
Back then, to prevent humanity’s extinction, the adult, powerful Deviants had each contributed a bone, using their giant bones to create the White Tower.
That White Tower, worshipped by humans today as a sacred place.
The sanctuary, the Eden praised by humans, actually a fence for monsters to keep humans.
The White Tower, formed from the bones of powerful deviants, could warn and deter all young, ignorant Deviants from approaching.
Don't come close, don't invade, don't eat without permission.
Within this fence was their farm, the place where they farmed humans. This was why Deviants never invaded the areas around the White Tower.
Not even touching the areas near outposts, where there were holy bricks from the White Tower.
But what was the price of humanity being farmed? Lin Yuan shuddered.
"Farm humans? Why?" Lin Yuan asked.
"We are a fragile race," the Mantis beside her said. "It’s very difficult for us to survive and reproduce, unlike the other creatures on this planet who have a strong reproductive ability."
Deviants were humanity's nightmare, their deadliest enemy.
With incredibly strong life forces, hard to kill, they could parasitize human bodies, invade minds, and they could even create and hatch those distorted, independent contaminated zones.
They were almost invincible enemies.
Lin Yuan hadn't expected that they would consider themselves a fragile race.
As if hearing her thoughts, the Mantis turned around, and the red lips beneath her black veil curved into a smile.
"What are you thinking about? The meaning of life lies in reproduction, not in battle."
At this moment, the Queen, her slender waist swaying, her back to the beautiful flower sea, behind her, the flowers blooming brightly, countless small insects flying and chasing their mates.
Even though the sunlight scorched the earth here every day, these tenacious lives could always find ways to continue their species.
"The Mantises, to reproduce, will even devour their male partners on their wedding night. Flowers, to reproduce, can bloom such beautiful petals,"
"And our race, can only continue by parasitizing other life forms. We are a fragile species."
The Queen of Mantis, with her back to the flourishing flower sea, her thin figure looking slightly melancholic,
"It’s very difficult for us to reproduce, the birth of an egg requires harsh conditions, and the hatching process requires a long time and a continuous supply of mental energy.”
In this mental world, the Queen raised her hand and pointed at the sky.
The stars in the sky disappeared. And Lin Yuan, through the sky, saw the scene of the outside, real world.
She looked up and saw that in the real world outside the mindscape, her companions had already awakened and were fighting Deviants.
Lin Yuan could even see herself, her eyes closed, standing there motionless, protected by the Sentinels.
The ground in front of the sentinels cracked open, and two deviants were slowly emerging from the earth.
These two deviants were very special. They weren't huge, and didn't have fangs or claws, other than their expressionless faces, from their appearance to their physical structure, they were almost exactly like normal humans.
One male, one female, they had identical faces, their expressions blank.
Lin Yuan remembered the incomplete shells of these two Deviants that she had seen by the castle gate when she entered.
At that time, their shells had still been very large, a little grotesque. Now, these two that had emerged from the ground looked exactly like humans in every way.
When they came in, on the outskirts of the castle, Lin Yuan had seen countless shed exoskeletons of deviants, a fusion of various creatures, including these two.
It was very strange, as if someone had tried to create different life forms, making them repeatedly evolve and transform.
"Because I envied your way of reproduction, I’ve done many experiments over these years," the Mantis Queen said.
"I’ve fused many creatures with strong reproductive abilities, letting them simulate the life of humans. Unfortunately, they all failed."
Lin Yuan thought for a moment. "But, I’ve seen Deviant families before, they get married, they even take care of their young.” She had even met a small Deviant who had devoured his mother, he had seemed like that mother’s child.
"That’s just a simple imitation of the human world, we don’t have the ability to reproduce independently, we can parasitize, we can infect, but without a host, we can't reproduce.”
"Look at these two, I even spent a lot of effort making them completely according to the physiological structure of humans, even gave them genders, male and female, but in the end, they can’t reproduce like you.”
Through the curtain of the sky, Lin Yuan saw the two Deviants.
From their appearance, their movements, even their attack methods, they were no different from humans.
The male humanoid Deviant was walking towards the sentinels.
He wasn’t very tall, his body rather thin, yet he suddenly unleashed a fierce kick, sending the giant panda before him flying, the kick so fast it was just a blur.
Du Yuanyuan’s giant panda was sent flying by that single kick, its round body crashing into a stone pillar in the hall, the thick pillar snapping with a loud crack.
The chubby roly-poly rolled on the ground a few times, then, getting up angrily, with a roar, charged towards the guy who had kicked it, its four limbs moving.
Midway, a dark figure, as fast as lightning, descended from the sky, a blade in hand, as if it was going to cut the rolling panda in half.
It was the other, female Deviant, her movements as fast as a ghost's, she launched a surprise attack from above, and the round panda couldn't react in time.
Fortunately, Ni Ji moved, intercepting her with his red blade, their blades clashing, a sharp, ear-piercing sound in the air.
Then they separated.
The female deviant jumped back to her original spot, her expression cold, and licked the blood on her blade.
Ni Ji knelt on one knee, his face raised, a red bloodstain on his beautiful face.
On the other side, the male Deviant, having kicked the panda away, unleashed a series of flying kicks, taking down Rachel at lightning speed. His fingers, mercilessly, reached for Rachel’s eyes.
Yun Luo's unicorn charged in just in time, pulling Rachel away from his claws, but even so, three red claw marks were left on Rachel’s face.
The two Deviants, their faces identical, stood back-to-back, one licking her blade, the other moving his blood-stained fingers.
The Sentinels’ expressions turned grim. They formed a protective stance, carefully guarding Lin Yuan, who had her eyes closed, and Nicole, who had just woken up.
Nicole, her brows furrowed, said, "This isn’t good, they almost have no mental fluctuations, they’re very hard to affect."
The two small, human-like Deviants looked deceptively harmless, yet incredibly powerful.
Just moments after appearing, they had easily injured Roly-Poly, Ni Ji, and Rachel.
In the mindscape, the Queen of Mantis didn't even bother watching the battle. She lifted her skirt, sat down in the pavilion, and started playing with two butterflies in the flowers nearby.
"Just two useless, defective products, no matter how I tried to make them mate, they never successfully produced any offspring, they’ve truly disappointed me, in my eyes, they’re not even as cute as these two insects," she said, "I might as well just let them sleep underground, out of sight, out of mind."
Lin Yuan finally understood why humans became targets to be farmed by Deviants.
Deviants, although powerful, hard to defeat,
But from a different perspective, they were actually dependent on humans for their survival.
They needed to parasitize humans to live, their eggs needed to absorb large amounts of mental power to hatch into stable Contaminated Zones.
The contaminated zone where Xun Hua was located, because of Xun Hua’s will, very few humans entered it, and even after four hundred years, it hadn't fully hatched.
So that's how it was.
That's why things like “farming humans” happened.
The Queen of Mantis looked at Lin Yuan. "You seem strange. I mean, you’re very… special."
Her voice was calm and peaceful, just like most of their kind, not much emotion in her tone.
"When you came in, I felt you were very similar to us."
"You have an ancient, pure bloodline. You should be a rational and calm being. I thought, after knowing the truth, you would quickly see reality, become a good companion to me."
"But along the way, you seem…" the Mantis’s voice hesitated slightly. "You seem very much like a pure human, emotionally rich.”
"You seem to have those emotions that only humans possess.”
"Really?" Lin Yuan lifted a tentacle, and wriggling, came to the edge of the pavilion, and sat down, "I'm very happy to hear that."
"Happy? You feel happy?"
"Yes, happy. An emotion. An emotion unique to humans," Lin Yuan glanced at her. "Are you perhaps… envious of me?"
While the Queen of Mantis read her, Lin Yuan was also reading this Queen's thoughts.
She vaguely knew what confused her, what it was she longed for.
She wasn't as she seemed, with sadness, regret, and other such emotions.
In fact, when she made those expressions and gestures, there wasn’t a single ripple in her heart.
It was just like she said, a simple imitation of human behavior.
She felt very similar to the Majesty in the White Tower, yet also very different.
And this difference, it was perhaps an opportunity for Lin Yuan, an opportunity for all of them.
"Envious?" The Queen tilted her head.
"Yes, envious. Another emotion unique to humans, however, you probably can't experience it,” Lin Yuan’s tone carried a hint of amusement.
As if she had finally found the right person, and could show off the skills she had so painstakingly learned.
As if this wasn't a dangerous battlefield, a mental trap where she could be forever lost. As if there weren’t sentinels outside, fighting desperately, protecting her body, fighting against the endless stream of monsters. She seemed at ease, with plenty of time, willing to stay and chat with a senior.
"Not only do I know what envy and happiness are, I also know what love is, what lust is, what sadness is, what friendship is… these are complex emotions, not things one can understand just from words.”
“I spent a lot of time, transforming myself from an emotionless Kraken into a being who can experience a wide range of emotions, it's very interesting."
"Interesting?" The Mantis Queen’s voice held a hint of confusion. "I’ve always thought that sentimentality is humanity’s greatest weakness. Unstable emotions, that’s why they’re dying out."
"Perhaps they’re weaknesses," Lin Yuan said. "But that's also humanity's greatest strength, with these, we can know who we are, where we are, where we are going, only then can we become truly independent individuals. Sadly, this isn't something you can understand."
"Humanity’s greatest strength?" The Mantis Queen murmured, she had lived for hundreds of years, and there were many questions she pondered.
Lin Yuan's simple words had struck a chord in her.
"You farm humans, yet the number of humans is decreasing. You imitate humans, yet you don’t truly understand them. You rely on human mental power, yet you’re also suppressing the human mental world."
"Powerful guides have become very rare these years, haven't they?”
"You can’t understand why humans are self-destructing. I also don’t quite understand you all. Aren't you also watching, as you and humans, head towards destruction together?”
A confused look appeared on the Queen of Mantis's face.
After a moment, she came back to her senses, and smiled.
"You’re actually trying to influence me in my own mindscape?"
"Not really, I’m just stating facts," Lin Yuan spread her hands, imitating the Queen, “The truth is always the most convincing.”
"You’re very special, very bold, to actually try and influence my thinking, to negotiate with me, in a place like this," the Queen of Mantis said, “I’ve lived for so long, and I’ve only seen one human like you, four hundred years ago.”
"But she seems to have changed, at least now, she no longer gives me the feeling of a human."
It's probably the queen
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