Ever since Akivili disappeared and the Astral Express vanished, Aha had never again encountered a group this entertaining.
As for the Masked Fools Tavern?
Aha did not consider those fools entertaining.
To Aha, they were simply... absurd.
Their ultimate goal was to turn Aha into the joke itself, rather than finding jokes for Aha.
So Aha concluded:
"If they do not bring Aha fun, and instead make Aha the fun—fools bad."
"If they bring Aha fun—geniuses good."
Thus, Aha decided to help these amusing colleagues—the geniuses—a little.
And at the same time, seek fresh entertainment.
He planned to accelerate their research progress just a tiny bit.
For example—
Letting Screwllum discover the concept of the Swarm / Cluster.
Aha gleefully anticipated:
"Fight! Fight! Hurry and start tearing into Xipe! Aha wants to watch the show!"
Another example—
Ruan Mei had spent her entire life attempting to replicate a Propagation Envoy, yet remained one step short of success.
Aha simply gave that final push.
He kicked the door open.
And inside Fuli's domain, he created a real Star-Shattering Swarm King.
This time, Fuli did not remain passive.
For once, He did not tolerate Aha's chaotic amusement.
Instead, He issued a divine oracle—
Ordering Shi and Mana to eliminate the insect immediately.
Meanwhile, on Ruan Mei's side...
Ruan Mei suddenly cried out:
"The experiment! The experiment succeeded!"
"This... this is real!"
"A complete, flawless Propagation Envoy!"
"A Propagation Envoy born after the death of the Aeon of Propagation!"
Even though Ruan Mei's emotions were normally muted, she could no longer remain calm.
Moments earlier, she had heard the screeching of insects and the thunder of beating wings in the distance.
She saw flesh and carapace being carried by the swarm.
She recognized it instantly—
The flesh of Tayzzyronth.
For a brief moment—
She hesitated.
Should she stop it?
If she allowed the swarm and the divine flesh to act naturally, the experiment might evolve in unexpected ways.
But if she stopped them—
The Artificial Star-Shattering Swarm King would collapse in a few minutes, just like every previous attempt.
For the sake of new possibilities, Ruan Mei hesitated.
And because of that hesitation—
It was already too late.
The instant the flesh of the Propagation Aeon touched the Artificial Swarm King—Skaracabaz—
The monster screamed in agony.
Its body writhed violently.
Its wings beat madly.
The sound was powerful enough to shatter planets.
Fortunately, this was Sanjian Heaven, where no physical celestial bodies existed.
Only Ruan Mei and the insects were present.
The surrounding swarms were instantly pulverized into clouds of blood by the terrifying scream.
At that moment—
A memory bubble flew out from the Sea of Floating Light and merged into the collapsing body of the artificial Swarm King.
The creature Ruan Mei had cultivated—
A Propagation Envoy—
Finally stabilized its existence by absorbing the memories of the true Star-Shattering Swarm King preserved within the Garden of Recollection.
The monster shrieked again.
But this time—
The cry no longer carried pain.
It carried ferocity.
Its shattered body regenerated.
The drifting blood mist transformed into countless newborn insects.
The Star-Shattering Swarm King—Skaracabaz had returned.
After countless ages—
It once again appeared in the world at full power.
As the Jaws of the Insect Emperor, it would once more display the terrifying might of the swarm.
This unexpected success delighted Ruan Mei.
She immediately began recording every piece of data.
With a flick of her fingers, several plum blossom petals drifted through the air.
The insects began slaughtering one another.
Then she drove away the few Remembrancers who had reluctantly assisted her research.
Ruan Mei said calmly:
"Your experiment is over."
"If you do not wish to be devoured by insects, you should leave quickly."
"Because soon... I will have no time to worry about you."
The Remembrancers fled at once.
Ruan Mei added:
"Do not forget to take those Remembrancers with you."
She meant the ones whose emotions she had manipulated earlier—the ones still doing salvage work under her control.
The Swarm King finished its long scream.
It looked at the self-cannibalizing swarm.
Then it lowered its gaze toward Ruan Mei below.
Even if insects lacked intelligence—
They still possessed instinct.
It beat its wings and dove downward.
The rapid wingbeats created violent shockwaves.
Along with them spread swarm spores and hallucinogenic wing powder.
None of it affected Ruan Mei.
The Swarm King lunged, intending to tear her apart.
Just as its jaws were about to reach her—
It suddenly froze.
After all—
Ruan Mei had personally designed every strand of its genome.
As a genius who trusted nothing except herself—
She always prepared countermeasures.
Even within the Simulated Universe, she had hidden backup slices.
How could she create a lifeform without a means of control?
Ruan Mei reached out and gently stroked the Swarm King's body.
To her, it was not ugly.
Instead, it possessed the unique beauty of life itself.
"How fascinating..."
"That body..."
"And those unique genes."
"So this is the true genetic structure of a Propagation Envoy—the Star-Shattering Swarm King."
"It differs greatly from all my previous assumptions."
"No wonder every earlier attempt failed."
The genuine Swarm King's genetic structure was completely unlike the forms she had extrapolated from fragments.
Yet Ruan Mei felt no disappointment.
Only delight.
After all—
Nothing is more exciting than the unknown.
In truth, Ruan Mei already possessed samples from the Propagation Aeon.
She had once attempted to fuse fragments of Tayzzyronth's divine corpse into her artificial Swarm Kings in order to purify their genes.
Every experiment failed.
All samples rapidly collapsed.
That was why she was now so fascinated.
She boldly formed a new hypothesis:
"Propagation Envoys are directly born from the Aeon of Propagation, Tayzzyronth."
"So... could I reconstruct the genetic structure of the Aeon itself through this?"
Ruan Mei possessed divine fragments once given to her by a blond man claiming to be a merchant.
In exchange, she had agreed to cooperate with them.
She did not lack Propagation samples.
But there was a fundamental difference between:
Using ready-made samples,
and
Reconstructing the lifeform from scratch with her own hands.
In truth—
Even after obtaining those divine corpse fragments long ago, Ruan Mei had barely begun understanding them.
Their structure was utterly incomprehensible.
The technological gap was simply too vast.
It was like teaching a primitive human how to make fire—
Then handing them the blueprint of a planet-destroying battleship and asking them to recreate it.
For the first time, Ruan Mei felt the limits of her intelligence.
But unlike ordinary research—
This kind of challenge did not make her feel empty.
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