Once the exchange concluded, Xia Jin boarded her starship and departed from the territory of the Juxin Civilization.
After passing through a star gate and traveling for two months, the starship approached a Zerg base.
This was a Zerg structure built within a dense asteroid belt. From the outside, it appeared to be an ordinary asteroid, but once the "lid" was opened, the interior revealed a massive space for the Swarm.
Countless insects rested quietly inside, while a small number of elf bug girls spent their days playing games and living a pleasant life.
The events of the Star Martial Arts Tournament had not actually lasted very long, only a few months.
For cosmic civilizations, whose perception of time was ever expanding, a unit like a year would soon become a mere blink of an eye. During this period, the development of the Zerg had been quite limited.
Fortunately, the relationship between the Zerg and the Starsea Alliance had entered a temporary period of calm. However, diplomacy had been established between the two sides, and Dulu System 2 had been transformed into a major node for the Zerg's external communications, attracting tourists from various other planets.
To showcase the unique characteristics of the Zerg, Xia Jin specifically modified the surface of this planet.
Towering green trees rose from the ground, their height so immense and their leaves so large that they formed a continuous canopy. Combined with various grasslands and lakes, they blended perfectly with the urban environment.
Individuals from various civilizations landing here would feel as if they were on a planet covered in lush greenery.
Most importantly, all these plants were individuals produced from Zerg genes. Upon closer inspection, one could see the green leaves slowly undulating.
Oh, it turned out to be creep.
On every other planet, the Zerg's modifications were thorough. For instance, on a rocky planet with a barely tolerable environment, a large number of Zerg had landed and bred countless organ bugs. By now, the entire interior of the planet was a network of digestive bugs and Mouth Bugs. On the surface, countless Mouth Bugs were busy; after swallowing minerals and performing simple processing, they spat them into the adjacent digestive channels.
Incidentally, one end of some digestive bugs had also been fitted with a Mouth Bug.
The Swarm's speed in gathering resources had not slowed down, and they were currently attempting to explore in directions away from the Starsea Alliance.
Due to the Zerg's powerful adaptability, every stellar system they encountered had usable components. Even black holes provided significant energy through the radiation generated by their accretion disks.
Thus, without realizing it, wherever the Swarm ships passed, they would casually drop off Hives or queens to begin breeding. Consequently, scattered patches of creep would appear on any planet the Zerg could adapt to, or even directly in space.
Because the accumulation was happening so quickly, Xia Jin began to accelerate the reproduction speed of the common Swarm.
She was considering far more zergling variants than in the past, basic modifications for various other insects, and even changes to some structures of the Small Leviathan.
Brain Bug No. 1 was full of worry about this but could do nothing.
After all, Xia Jin had not brought out all the leviathans for modification; she was only using one or two for testing.
Still, for the current Zerg, such behavior was somewhat wasteful.
...
At the same time, within the Kawi Civilization.
Click!
The door opened, and a weary man walked in from outside.
“Welcome home, Master.” A robot maid stepped forward, taking his luggage before kneeling on the ground to help him change into slippers and then supporting him into the room.
Even in the advanced era of cosmic civilizations, their lifestyle still retained some traditions of the past.
The mistress of the house sat up lazily, glanced at the mechanical maid, and said casually, “Go aside and enter standby.”
“Yes!”
The maid carefully moved to the side, her eyes dimming as she stood there motionless.
“Transform.”
At the command, the interior decorations of the house rapidly shifted, changing from a normal domestic style to one with a very romantic feel.
The mistress showed a gentle smile, stepped forward, and said, “You must be tired. Let me give you a massage.”
“Sigh, don't go to so much trouble. We have robots for everything,” the man said, waving his hand to his wife. “What era is this? Just leave the housework to the machines.”
“Is that the same?” The mistress huffed. “It's like how raising a child yourself gives you a sense of reality. That's why I'm unwilling to use an extracorporeal embryo. Besides, with our current technology, having a child won't have any side effects.”
“That's still not good. The human body is inherently flawed. Technology is meant to avoid unnecessary pain; otherwise, why bother researching it? We've finally entered the era of socialized upbringing; we can't go backward.”
“You're wrong. I don't like this era. Relationships between people are completely unstable. I'm constantly worried that you'll abandon me.” The woman pouted, looking somewhat resentful.
“Don't worry, I won't.”
The man put his arm around his wife's waist and sat on a nearby water sofa.
In the interstellar era, the Kawi Civilization had officially abolished marriage, and women no longer had to give birth. In fact, raising offspring was completely prohibited by law. This was exactly why the mistress was carrying this child in secret.
According to the regulations of the Kawi Civilization, no one was allowed to have offspring. After reaching adulthood, they had to hand over their sperm and egg cells to the relevant departments.
The departments would raise the children through extracorporeal cultivation technology.
Once grown, the children did not belong to them as offspring.
In this modern era, everyone was free. Parents were viewed as a shackle, so all humans were born without parents.
Total liberation was promoted between individuals, and it was encouraged to undergo voluntary sterilization after handing over genetic cells. Anyone's romance was completely free; a person could have any number of partners and was allowed to actively share their partners. Performing such acts in public was legal and protected.
Undoubtedly, when these policies were first implemented, they were seen as a betrayal of ethics and morality. But the new generation used absolute support to defeat the opposition of the older generation. Their ideas were seen as progressive, while traditional thoughts were viewed as obsolete.
Twenty years ago, the Kawi Civilization's new version of the law added a new regulation, allowing interspecies romance and romance with nonliving entities.
After the new law was promulgated, a large number of Kawi people celebrated. Some even kissed their temporary earthworm husbands in the street to express support for the arrival of the new era.
And tomorrow, there was about to be a new, even more advanced version of the legal code. This law stipulated that Kawi people could change their genetic information through gene editing and were allowed to change their species while still being considered individuals of the Kawi Civilization. For the sake of equality, low level organisms were also allowed to be edited into Kawi people.
The progress that people had increasingly pursued since the planetary era was perfectly realized at this moment. But while countless Kawi people cheered, traditional extreme conservatism practitioners like this couple felt immense pain. In this era, pure love was seen as an anomaly, and even pure feelings between humans were viewed as conservative and unprogressive.
As an abnormal couple, they were already considered ancient people by society, and their child would receive no protection after birth. This was because, according to Kawi law, for the sake of individual equality, everyone must be prohibited from procreating.
It was said that the authorities were also considering a new law to prohibit heterosexual romance. If two people of different genders insisted on being in a relationship, one of them would have to change to the other's gender. This was because inequality existed between different genders, making it an act of extreme oppression.
However, after public consultation, this law still faced opposition. Because one person changing gender was clearly also an expression of inequality, both would have to change. Therefore, the authorities were considering changing the law to require both partners in a relationship to undergo surgery to reach a genderless status to achieve justice and equality. Only in this way could oppression be avoided and a beautiful Kawi society be realized.
“I really can't take it anymore.” At the thought of such things, the woman covered her face with her hands and wept bitterly.
“Alright, stop crying. According to the law, if a wife cries, the husband must cry for the same amount of time, otherwise I am oppressing you.”
“Oppression my foot. According to these damn laws, raising a child should be a death sentence.” The woman sighed. “Our son... can he still be born?”
The husband shrugged.
He turned his head to look out the window and then patted his stomach.
“Actually... I'm also carrying a child.”
“Huh?” The wife turned her head in shock. “Whose is it?”
“According to the current laws, lovers cannot raise their own children, so our child is not allowed to be born. But there is one way that is actually feasible: using the child's genes and merging them with mine to give birth to one. That is to say... I and my unborn baby will together produce an offspring, and that offspring has been transplanted into my stomach. In terms of identity, my son is simultaneously my wife and also the grandchild of both you and me. Legally, they do not belong to us as offspring. The laws haven't prohibited raising offspring with offspring yet.”
The wife's eyes lit up upon hearing this. “That actually works?”
“Heh, just exploiting a loophole. After all, there are regulations.”
The wife did not know that this new child was actually infiltrated by the Zerg, and her husband was also an individual transformed from a certain Zerg.
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