Rise of the Zerg in the World of Gods

"I can't take it anymore!" In a sealed room, Li Yan carelessly threw off her interstellar exploration suit.

"I miss my son!" Her voice was choked with tears.

"I haven't hugged him for three years. The last time we met was when he just entered junior high, and now he's already in high school. If he hadn't become a seed this time, we wouldn't even have had this phone call."

Xu Zhen took off his disguise exploration suit and just held her, saying nothing.

"We were told that we only needed to serve here for ten years, but after ten years it became three more, and after three years it became five more. When will it end? My son is already so grown up. Will he have graduated from university the next time we see him?"

Li Yan grumbled dissatisfied.

After repeated retirement applications were rejected, she had accumulated a bellyful of resentment, which finally burst out after talking to her son.

"This is the nature of our work," Xu Zhen said after hesitating for a long time, unable to come up with any words of comfort.

"I know!" Li Yan fiercely pinched the soft flesh at his waist, rotating it 360 degrees.

"It's the Pioneer Corps, everything has to be kept secret. My poor son, so young, having to live alone. When he was little, we at least had annual family visits, but after he turned ten, even that stopped. He was just a little pudding then, and now he's so grown up, he doesn't even want to be close to me anymore!"

Xu Zhen was in pain but didn't dare show it, afraid of upsetting his wife further.

"I don't care. After this time is up, no one can stop me from retiring!" Li Yan stood up, wiping tears from the corner of her eye, and spoke forcefully.

"To hell with the Pioneers. I haven't gained anything from expanding territories, and now even those nobodies can bully my son. I don't care about any aristocratic families or clans."

"Mm, I'll do as you say. After this service is over, we'll retire. We've been here for fifteen years, it should be enough," Xu Zhen nodded. Thinking of his son being bullied when he wasn't by his side, a cold light flashed in his eyes.

He was very happy when he learned that his son had applied to become a seed, but he was very angry when he found out that his son had been bullied when his Divine Realm had just opened. As a result, during this war with the alien races, he went overboard and killed a High God from an alien race.

Although he had vented his anger, the matter wasn't over.

"Isn't that Xiang family in interstellar transport? Let's teach them a lesson. Let's leave it at that, after all, it didn't cause too serious consequences."

"That's just interest!" Li Yan dissatisfied, punched his chest.

"What do you mean it didn't cause serious consequences? No one can bully my precious baby."

"Alright, alright, I'll do as you say," The commanding Pioneer Corps commander, when facing his wife, was as docile as a kitten.

"This time we'll teach them a lesson, consider it interest. In the future, we'll let our son decide how to handle it."

It was just the Xiang family. Although they had considerable influence in Tianhai and even extended their reach into interstellar space, to Xu Zhen they were just small fry.

If his identity as the Pioneer Corps commander didn't need to be kept secret, how could he have allowed others to bully his son?

"Those people protecting my son are all useless!" Li Yan was very angry thinking about how her son was bullied even with people protecting him.

"Those people... let's replace them," Xu Zhen also frowned, thinking about how those people had failed to act.

Although they had warned the Xiang family afterwards, it was too late. It was only because their son had the ability to overcome the crisis. What if he hadn't?

"Also, Xu Zhen, shouldn't you explain to me why the Angel's Heart I left for my baby is gone? Why is Luo Luo's starting creature a reptile?" Li Yan put her hands on her hips, looking at her husband with a somewhat cold tone.

"Well, starting with an angel was a bit too exaggerated," Xu Zhen quickly smiled appeasingly.

"Think about it, Luo Luo is at an age full of vigor. If you give him an angel start, what if he can't control himself? Although angels are powerful at the start, the tallest trees catch the most wind. Angels might also bring him trouble. Look at those powerful families, whose initial creature starts at Gold tier?"

"That's true. If the initial creature is too powerful, what if Luo Luo becomes a spoiled rich kid?" Li Yan nodded, muttering to herself.

"I didn't think it through. I was thinking that since we haven't been by Luo Luo's side for so many years, I wanted to find an angel to keep him warm in bed and protect him for me. Hmm, husband did the right thing. We can't let beauty tempt our son."

Xu Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

Thinking about how his wife had prepared an Angel's Heart, intending to forcibly change their son's initial creature, he was startled.

Starting with Gold tier, it would have scared him to death.

It's not that it couldn't be done this way, but doing so would mean giving up many things, like the competition for seed status.

That's why he secretly intercepted the item.

"It's your father's 150th birthday celebration this time. Are you going back?" After calming down, Li Yan looked at Xu Zhen.

"Yes," Xu Zhen answered after a moment of silence.

"If you want to go, you go. I'm not going!" Li Yan turned away dissatisfied.

"Your whole family looks down on us. They all think you're just a smelly soldier with no prospects. My son has been alone for so many years, and no one has gone to see him. He probably thinks he has no relatives. I'm not going to see people who give me the cold shoulder!"

Xu Zhen sighed and said nothing.

When he had insisted on being with Li Yan, his family didn't agree. This had always been a knot in Li Yan's heart, and the old man was also very opinionated because he hadn't married the childhood sweetheart arranged by him and his old friend.

Caught in the middle, he was also very troubled.

Staying in the military all these years was also, to some extent, avoiding the old man.

He could avoid going back at other times, but not going back for the 150th birthday celebration would be inexcusable.

"I don't want to deal with you!" Li Yan frowned, directly shaking off Xu Zhen's hand and ran out.

Xu Zhen shook his head but didn't chase after her. She probably went to God's Domain to vent her frustrations on alien races.

It was better to let her cool off than to keep it bottled up.

Thinking about how his son had become a four-star seed without relying on anyone's help, Xu Zhen couldn't help but smile.

"Better than your old man!"

"What are you thinking about, looking so happy?" A middle-aged man walked over and slapped him on the shoulder.

"What's up with your wife? I saw her go to the combat room."

When Li Yan was angry or in a bad mood, she would go to the combat room to enter God's Domain and cause trouble for alien races. Everyone was used to it.

"It's nothing. She misses our son and is in a bad mood," Xu Zhen explained.

"Son?" The middle-aged man was stunned.

"Oh right, your son should be in high school now, right? Ah, my daughter is in university now, but I can't go back to see her."

"Yeah, my son just became a seed student, and I can't go back to see him either," Xu Zhen sighed.

"Wow, that's impressive!" The middle-aged man was surprised.

Being able to become a seed was no small feat, whether in big cities or small towns.

As the chief of staff of the Pioneer Corps, he naturally had his own Divine Kingdom in God's Domain.

The Pioneer Corps was originally humanity's divine army, composed entirely of Gods, and could be said to be humanity's strongest external force.

"It's alright, he's better than me!" Although he said this, the smile on Xu Zhen's face had already betrayed him.

"Come on, just laugh if you want to," Wu Chenglin laughed and scolded.

Having worked together for over a decade, the relationship between the two was naturally not simple. Fighting side by side for so long, going through life and death situations together, they were brothers in all but blood.

"When are you going to let my nephew meet my daughter? Maybe they'll hit it off!"

"Cut it out, be careful or Yanzi will come after you!" Xu Zhen brought up his wife.

"Why would sister-in-law come after me? My daughter is so beautiful, she's a rare flower. Are you saying she's not good enough for your son?" Wu Chenglin raised his chin.

"My son is only fifteen this year. He's the apple of my wife's eye. Are you sure you want to introduce your daughter?" Xu Zhen looked at him with a suspicious gaze.

"Ah?" Wu Chenglin was dumbfounded.

"Fifteen years old? That is quite young indeed!"

His daughter was twenty years old, in university. The age gap was indeed quite large.

"Alright, enough joking. Tell me, you didn't come here just to chat, did you?" Xu Zhen became serious.

The information about their children was confidential. Except for themselves, others didn't know. So talks of introducing daughters and such were just jokes between comrades.

"About the previous matter," Wu Chenglin also put away his joking expression when talking about serious business.

"Killing a High God is not a small matter, especially what happened afterwards."

"Uh..." Mentioning this, Xu Zhen felt a bit embarrassed.

To be honest, the Red Eye civilization was quite unfortunate.

They just happened to encounter Xu Zhen when he was in a bad mood, so he accidentally killed one of their High Gods.

Because of this, they wanted revenge.

But they didn't expect to hit a iron plate. Ying Yingluo was a tough nut to crack. She not only took their attack but immediately retaliated.

Losing one High God was already a huge loss, not to mention several other Low Gods and Intermediate Gods who also died.

More importantly, tens of thousands of Divine Realms were destroyed at once, and countless Divine Realms were damaged. The cost to repair would be an astronomical figure.

This was unacceptable for anyone.

Losing so many Divine Realms meant that potential Gods that might have emerged from them were also lost.

Ying Yingluo had become a God, and a True God at that. Now everyone on the Continent of the Gods was on edge.

Ordinary Demi-Gods becoming Gods could stay on the Continent of the Gods for a thousand years, until they became True Gods or the thousand years passed, before ascending to the Star Realm.

Ying Yingluo only had a hundred years to stay on the Continent of the Gods.

But as the only True God, in these hundred years, she could continuously develop her strength. Except for some veteran Gods, other Gods were no match for her. Given her style of doing things, alien races naturally wouldn't dare to provoke her.

Otherwise, if she stayed for a few more decades, accumulated enough strength, and then pulled off something like this at the end, at that time, a True God fighting against Gods would really be bullying!

Ying Yingluo couldn't be messed with, and Xu Zhen was the commander of the Pioneer Corps. After calculating, it seemed only he was somewhat approachable.

Therefore, friction began to appear between the Red Eye civilization and the human Pioneers.

"What did the higher-ups say?" Xu Zhen asked noncommittally.

"The higher-ups' meaning is that local conflicts are acceptable, but large-scale wars cannot break out," Wu Chenglin said with a serious expression.

"We've been in the spotlight enough, made enough noise, and should quiet down a bit. Moreover, it's almost time for the All Races Conference to begin. We can't act recklessly."

"I understand," Xu Zhen nodded. He wasn't a reckless person either.

"The most urgent task now is to compete for more God's Domain slots!"

"Good that you understand," Wu Chenglin nodded.

"The All Races Conference is an opportunity for civilizations like ours to stand out. The slots we compete for relate to the next ten years, so we can't be careless!"

The slots for God's Domain were fixed.

Powerful civilizations could seize a large number of slots, while weak ones naturally had few, or even none.

It might seem like every high school student in humanity had one, as if everyone had access.

But that wasn't the case.

Humanity didn't have many slots. Most were bought at high prices from alien races.

This was why everyone almost only had one chance, and once their Divine Realm was destroyed, there were no more chances.

While some alien races could start over after their Divine Realms were destroyed.

Because alien races had more slots, while humanity's were limited, they could only use them sparingly.

If they could obtain more slots at the All Races Conference, it would mean humanity could reduce a lot of expenses in other areas.

Xu Zhen's expression became solemn.

Wasn't it for more slots that the Pioneers sometimes made bets with alien races?

Even exchanging food for slots, or money, tightening their belts to cultivate humanity's own Main God.

Only Main Gods could participate in making the rules.

Now they could only follow rules made by others.

At the God level, humanity actually held a huge advantage.

Because of the large population, there were many powerful beings, and they were more united and cooperative.

But there were fewer at the True God level.

In the several hundred years of reality, over 90,000 humans had become True Gods, but now only a few hundred remained.

The rest had all died.

This was the suppression of humanity by alien races.

Now all humans were holding onto a grudge, wanting to cultivate a Main God.

Only by having their own Main God could they be tough when facing sovereignty issues in interstellar space, instead of having to concede time and time again.

The All Races Conference was about to begin, and everything had to give way to it.

Xu Zhen felt regretful in his heart. If only the All Races Conference could come a few years later.

His son had just become a four-star seed. In a few years, he would have had the strength to represent the human camp in the expedition.

Regardless of his strength, at least he could have made an appearance.

Unfortunately, he had only opened his Divine Realm a few months ago, and now he wouldn't be able to catch this opportunity.

After setting the main tone, Xu Zhen and Wu Chenglin began to discuss how to deal with alien provocations, what areas they could give a little ground on, and which ones they couldn't yield an inch.

By clarifying these things in advance, they would know how to act and what attitude to take when facing alien races.

This was a bit like border conflicts. Although it wasn't in reality, it couldn't be handled casually.

One misstep could lead to disputes between civilizations.