Chapter 1240 - 347: Preparing for Next Time_4

But hasn’t the Zuo Jing Race been exterminated again?

Minister Hou thought of many things in an instant, but these were just his personal thoughts. Unless he obtained more evidence, he wouldn’t mention even a bit of it.

Minister Hou continued to ask An Wuping, "Then how is your Insect Race being controlled? Is it a Psychic?"

"It should be a Psychic or some kind of Spiritual Creature, but it’s not controlling my insects with Spiritual Energy."

"It’s those Black Mist substances; there’s a specific pheromone that targets the Insect Race, interfering with their judgment and guiding them."

"My Insect Queen has already obtained a pheromone sample, and I can send it back to the Empire as soon as possible."

Minister Hou nodded slightly, just about to say something more when a voice suddenly came from his body: "Contact Chen Ming directly and let him deliver it. He has the means."

Minister Hou was slightly taken aback, pulling out the terminal from the inner pocket of his clothes and placing it on the table between him and An Wuping.

An Wuping gestured slightly at the terminal on the table and asked, "This person is..."

The voice immediately came from the terminal: "Hello, An Wuping. I am Lu Han, the superior of Minister Hou Xian and the Minister of the Empire’s Psychic Population Management Department."

Upon hearing the introduction, Chen Ming immediately recalled the "Spiritual Ability Population Census Network" website he had used a few times before, which belonged to this department.

Although this Lu Han claimed to be a minister, there was evidently a significant gap between him and Minister Hou.

One was a Star Realm Level minister, while the other on the terminal’s end was an Imperial Level minister.

"Minister Lu, hello, hello, do you mean I should directly approach Chen Ming?"

"Yes, if you don’t mind, you could also help us by asking a few questions."

Although Minister Lu was inquiring, there was a strong element of command in his tone.

An Wuping subconsciously furrowed his brows, and Minister Hou, noticing this, quickly said, "Sorry for the trouble."

He was having a good conversation with An Wuping, so why did the higher-ups suddenly come to stir things up?

An Wuping, seeing this, didn’t say much more and faced the two of them, taking out his terminal.

Chen Ming was obviously not idle.

Before assigning tasks to An Wuping, he knew someone would come and contact him to confirm the situation outside.

So, while An Wuping and Minister Hou were still chatting, Chen Ming had already decided to contact Bai Quan.

And when Bai Quan answered Chen Ming’s call again, his tone was somewhat tense: "Something again?"

Recently, whenever Chen Ming called him, it was about something significant, causing Bai Quan to feel a bit on edge.

Especially since he was about to return to the front lines, there were loads of things going on, yet he couldn’t risk not answering Chen Ming’s calls, just in case it was something important.

Chen Ming promptly said, "This time it’s not major, but I found new movements from the Insect Race."

"Some insects wrapped in Black Mist suddenly attacked the Mechanical Race."

"Although it seems that they were ultimately wiped out by the Mechanical Race, there were traces suggesting the suspected deployment of the Destruction weapon from the Mechanical Race, but those Black Mist insects still left many eggs on nearby planets, and the Mechanical Race seems unable to clear them."

"I dispatched several ships to try contacting the Black Mist, but the entities within the mist seemingly didn’t want to engage and dismantled my ships."

"However, I managed to capture images of the things inside the Black Mist."

Chen Ming said, sending Bai Quan photographs of the Black Mist Prosthetic, currently a grotesque fusion of human, insect, and machine.

"I suspect this might be an experiment by Zuo Jing or the Mechanical Race itself. Zuo Jing is known for conducting human experiments, and the Mechanical Race has previous instances of transforming living beings into machines, so..."

"Wait a minute."

Before Chen Ming could finish, Bai Quan abruptly interrupted: "Don’t rush into nonsense yet, let me say a few words first."

"Go ahead."

"Do you remember I watched you put the Black Mist Spirit Ability User into the Hibernation Pod back then? This person looks quite similar to that Black Mist Spirit Ability User."

"Ah, this..."

Chen Ming was momentarily embarrassed, as he hadn’t recalled it before, but Bai Quan’s mention immediately brought back memories of the Black Mist Spirit Ability User’s assassination.

At that time, Bai Quan had only glimpsed the Black Mist Spirit Ability User, and the Black Mist Prosthetic had been deliberately made grotesque by Chen Ming, retaining only minimal identity details discernible upon close inspection.

Could Bai Quan really remember so clearly after all this time? Maybe it was a bluff.

So he reviewed the photos he sent multiple times and stubbornly said, "Doesn’t seem alike..."

Bai Quan, undeterred by Chen Ming’s interference, decisively stated, "What exactly are you planning? I don’t want to see you doing things like Zuo Jing. Human limits gradually lower, never cross that line."

Bai Quan’s tone was very serious, so Chen Ming could no longer respond casually.

He earnestly said, "I have no shame in anything I do, I only use the necessary means on the right people."

"I also won’t do anything harmful to the Empire and the Legion. In fact, what I’m doing is ultimately beneficial to both the Empire and the Legion."

"I just don’t want the Empire to find out more about my affairs; it benefits no one."

Bai Quan remained silent for a while, sighing before deciding to trust Chen Ming: "So this... neither human nor ghost thing..."

"Is merely a little experiment between me and An Wuping, indeed created using that Black Mist Spirit Ability User, first killed, then experimented."

"The purpose is twofold: one is to attract the attention of the Empire and the Mechanical Race, the other... is to inform the Empire of Zuo Jing’s existence."

Upon hearing this, Bai Quan immediately realized he might have stumbled upon a major issue and asked, "What do you mean? Isn’t Zuo Jing’s Mind Control Psychic dead?"