Chapter 940. Silent Effects of Voswot.

Chapter 940: Chapter 940. Silent Effects of Voswot.

While Liu Shu checked on her people who had made contact with the <Astraelis>, she received news from her information network. After so long, the people she sent out of her Solar System over a century ago to expand have become a powerful information network. They reconnected with Virelya, one of the Golden Sap Empire’s top information chiefs, and created a well-organized information exchange system.

The news she received was that the Nexus had to give up over 10 Solar Systems to reorganize and create a defensive line against the Covenant.

This came as a surprise. From what Liu Shu knew, the Nexus was the one usually on the offensive. The top combatants were roughly equal, but the Nexus had the advantage because of its deeper backing.

What she didn’t expect was that Danlier had single-handedly blasted the frontline open with skills she had never used before and even managed to heavily injure the two Nexus leaders, nearly killing one of them.

Although they escaped, her show of strength turned the attention of many in their direction. Liu Shu had a sense of why Danlier had hidden her strength for so long, only to reveal it suddenly.

’She wants to catch my attention and show her value.’

After what Zaros told her, Danlier wanted to be absorbed by them peacefully. If so, this was the perfect way to show her own worth. ’I can’t lie. Crushing the Nexus’s strongest fighters single-handedly is a very compelling show of strength.’

Even without that, Liu Shu had already decided to accept Balaya as her first Aunty World Tree! Why? Because she was petty. Even if she met older ones later, she would call them Big Sister unless they were annoying to convince.

’Hmph! That will teach her!’

"Lady Heavenly Willow, there is good and bad news."

Liu Shu looked toward one of the biological lab centers in an outer Solar System world and asked. "What’s wrong?"

"As you expected, there were a few individuals who had been infected by some of the parasites. They are silent parasites and not as strong as the one you captured. Still, they do exist."

Liu Shu silently groaned. With parasites like these, unearthing one meant ten others were already hiding somewhere else.

"The good news is that we’ve managed to create a detection system through analyzing their particular biological wavelengths. Using a mix of Life Aether Mana and Soul Anima Energy, we can detect them much more easily than we expected. We even tested with the strong variant Lady Heavenly Willow captured, and it couldn’t hide from our tests."

"...Already?"

The researcher smiled confidently. "That’s right. Thanks to the new Biological Computers and other AI Assistants developed to help detect patterns in Ternary Essence wavelengths, we’ve managed to distinguish their biological blueprint and even created a method to single it out. We still need to move to tests among many species, including World Trees and Life Trees, but we are on the right path."

Liu Shu was still doubtful. "If it were this easy, the Globular Star Cluster Empires would not have had such big trouble with it, right?"

The researcher agreed. "We thought so as well. However, isn’t it strange that the Globular Star Cluster Empires fighting on the front lines haven’t fallen to the infection? If it were incredibly difficult to detect, then their tens of thousands of worlds would’ve long fallen. Parasitism of this type spreads exponentially. It takes a short time to go from one to one thousand, and even less time to go from one thousand to one billion."

Liu Shu could get behind that thought process, but she warned. "These parasites are intelligent. They are not brainless. So, they might be showing you what they want you to know. Continue investigating. Also, make sure to create situations where it escapes, but it is still within our control. When you do that, remember to ask for the military’s help. Also, publish what you’ve learned for the other labs to learn from it."

The people inside nodded. The Golden Sap Empire had a very information-sharing-centered culture in the scientific community, something Liu Shu made sure to hammer down in the initial days.

Teachers spread out the culture, and those who didn’t were scorned and isolated. Also, stealing ideas without giving the proper recognition was deeply frowned upon, almost more than trying to monopolize information.

All of this created a very open scientific community where people fought to get their ideas out.

Naturally, there were cases when someone published something, thinking it was an original idea, only to find it was something someone else had already discovered and shared. In these cases, nobody jumped to judge quickly.

Everyone understood that the Endless Library’s shelves were enormous, and expecting everyone to know everything was ignorant. So, when someone noticed, they would notice the author and, if the author thought their study brought something new, create a debate that lasted from a week to a month.

The scientific community called this the <Week of Truth>.

Liu Shu found that ritual was both funny and interesting. Like everything in the world, it had advantages and disadvantages.

Sometimes, perfectly valid new theories couldn’t be properly proven, so the author had to rewrite everything and present it again later with stronger arguments.

Other times, the presenter was so eloquent that they convinced those involved to rename already discovered theories.

Nevertheless, neither case was in the 0.01%, and you could even bring it to the justice system.

To summarize, cases where a scientist’s idea was unjustly ostracized were so rare that they were documented and listed as a reminder that it could happen.

So, the lab published their idea extensively, and others quickly picked it up. Many different brains worked in many different places, and newer ideas, fact-checked by experts in different fields, began to take past ideas and refine them.

***

A man was walking down the street when he noticed several officers going around with strange devices. The man’s eyes secretly flashed as he silently glanced at his device and turned around.

But as he did, a hand landed on his shoulder. "You are temporarily arrested. Please comply."

When the man turned back, he noticed the soldier looked at him with cold eyes and had something in his hand. "Please do not become aggressive. You won’t be hurt."

The man’s eyes glanced at him up and down, and then he extended his arm. Sadly for him, the soldier in front of him was a Level 230 soldier.

The soldier didn’t even move as a wave of Wind Aether Mana severed his arm, followed by three sleeping spells from support soldiers behind him. The soldier ignored the man and threw a capsule at the arm; it exploded into a sphere of Spatial Aether Mana, causing the arm to disappear and leaving only the capsule behind.

"Threat captured. It is the last one in this city."

"Understood. Four cities left, and three wild zones. Be careful and quarantine entry to the city until done."

"I will proceed with protocol."

Liu Shu was not staying still. She was also cleaning up all of her worlds. Thankfully, not that long had passed, so the parasites were all removable.

’It seems that there are various phases to their parasitism. For now, the deepest phase we’ve seen is the third phase, and this happened to a low-level person who had been with a relatively high-level parasite inside them.’

Liu Shu glanced at the people in quarantine. "The first stage is the <Seeded> stage. A living Voswot has entered the host but has not established comprehensive control. The host may remain unaware."

An insectkin woman sat in a room, her face confused as her antennae twitched nervously. She had good food in front of her, but instead of calming the insectkin, it felt like her last supper.

Liu Shu extended her root and used a purification spell. Her voice was gentle. "Don’t worry. You are all under my direct care. Some annoying little thing is inside you, and I am here to take it out of you."

The insectkin’s antennae straightened, showing extreme surprise. "H-H-Heavenly Willow!?"

Liu Shu laughed as her roots gently tapped her body here and there. "That’s me. Relax. It will be over in just... a... second."

A root pierced through the woman’s shoulder and then moved out. The insectkin froze, expecting pain, but nothing came.

Liu Shu had pierced her spiritually, killing the parasite cluster.

Then, while the insectkin was frozen, Liu Shu summoned over 50 small roots, each no thicker than a chopstick, and... stabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstabstab.

"Alright, done. Thank you, dear. You are free to go."

They treated these people gently because they were still themselves, unaware of anything. The next ones, though...

Liu Shu’s gaze moved to the second room. "Leashed individuals. The parasite has established a controlling connection, but the host remains substantially intact. The problem is that the parasite can control some subconscious thoughts and even actions. For example, increasing lust to get close to someone of the other gender, or going into crowds when there is a parasite ready to leave the body."

These were the worst type because they looked outwardly indistinguishable from the first type, but their behavior was almost as dangerous as the next-stage infection.

The method to help these was exactly the same as the first kind. So Liu Shu quickly took care of it. Only, instead of fifty roots, she needed over 100 to kill them all precisely and quickly.

"As for the latest kind... Integrated. The parasite and host have become deeply interconnected across body and energy pathways. The host’s mind is suppressed or allowed to function selectively."

Liu Shu glanced at the Sylvan sitting in the room while looking around with cold, calculating eyes. Liu Shu hummed as she spoke to her. "I wonder, parasite. How much can you bring back to your Hive when you reach up to this point? I didn’t really see any skills related to communication in you."

The Sylvan glanced at the roots around her and spoke coldly. "You are challenging us with your actions."

Liu Shu laughed softly. "Should I just let you conquer us?"

"Naturally." The Sylvan answered with an almost robotic tone. "Joining us won’t change you. You retain yourselves. The only different thing is that your souls become interconnected with ours. You become a higher being, a stronger individual, a wiser creature."

Liu Shu chuckled. "Interesting. It seems as if you are trying to imitate us, World Trees. So... You are buying time, right?"

The Sylvan stopped talking. Liu Shu manifested her roots and spoke. "You... are still not in total control. Let’s see..."

Liu Shu channeled her energy, monstrous Anima Energy tightening up around the Sylvan’s soul. She could immediately see the entire underlying structure of the true parasitism. ’Oh~? So, to reach your final state, you create a poison bug jar-style situation in her soul.’

The few thousand small parasites killed and devoured each other. The objective seemed to be leaving only one behind and using the host’s soul to adapt to the body and fully naturalize it.

Once that happened, it seems that the parasite itself would go through a mini <Ascension>. Something beyond levels. And complete the parasitism.

’Wow. No wonder the Globular Star Cluster Empires are having trouble. Let’s call the final and fourth phase... Hollowed. Once at that point, sadly, it’s the same as the death of the individual.’

Liu Shu poured her energies into the Sylvan’s soul and destroyed all of them, healing her back up to speed almost instantly. It hurt for the Sylvan, but in the end, Liu Shu saved her.

’Alright. Time to create a new type of <Lignified> structure to take care of these things easily... It will take a while, and I must make sure that they are not unique and able to be planted in all worlds and moons.’