Ever since Akivili disappeared and the Astral Express vanished with THEM, Aha had never again encountered such an entertaining group of people.
As for the Tavern?
Aha didn't think those Fools were entertaining.
Aha merely thought they were absurd.
After all, their ultimate goal was to turn Aha into the joke, rather than find jokes for Aha to enjoy.
Aha:The Fools don't find fun for Aha and even treat Aha as the fun. Fools bad.
Aha:The geniuses find fun for Aha. Geniuses good.
Therefore, Aha decided to give these entertaining colleagues—fellow geniuses—a little help while finding some new entertainment for THEMSELF.
Aha would simply help THEIR genius colleagues speed up their research progress by just a tiny little bit.
For example—
Making Screwllum aware of the concept of the Collective.
Aha:Fight~ Fight~ Hurry up and start tearing into Xipe~ Aha wants to watch the fun~
Or perhaps giving Ruan Mei's experiment one final push.
Her attempt to cultivate and replicate an Emanator of Propagation had reached the final threshold, yet that last step was something she might never have crossed even if she devoted her entire life to it.
So Aha decided to kick her straight across.
And thus—
Within Fuli's own territory, a genuine Skaracabaz was about to be born.
This time, Fuli finally stopped indulging Aha's absurd pursuit of entertainment.
THEY issued an oracle, ordering Shi and Mana to deal with the insect first.
Meanwhile, on Ruan Mei's side—
"The experiment..."
Ruan Mei's eyes widened.
"The experiment succeeded!!!"
"This... this is real!"
"A complete Emanator of Propagation without any defects!"
"An Emanator of Propagation born after the fall of the Aeon of Propagation!"
Even with Ruan Mei's normally muted emotions, remaining calm at this moment was impossible.
Moments earlier, the screeching of insects and the frantic beating of wings had echoed from the distance.
Ruan Mei saw the flesh and carapace being carried by the swarm.
She immediately recognized them.
They were fragments of the Aeon of Propagation's flesh.
Yet for one brief moment—
Ruan Mei hesitated.
She didn't know whether she should stop what was happening.
Allowing the swarm and the flesh of Propagation to act according to their own instincts would clearly introduce a new variable into her experiment.
If she stopped them, however, the outcome had already been determined.
In only a few minutes, the artificial Skaracabaz would collapse under its own instability.
For the sake of a new possibility—
Ruan Mei hesitated.
And because of that moment of hesitation, she lost her chance to intervene.
The instant the flesh of the Aeon of Propagation touched the Emanator of Propagation: Skaracabaz (Synthetic)—
Skaracabaz released an agonized shriek.
Its enormous body twisted violently.
Its wings thrashed in pain.
The sheer force of its scream was enough to fracture a planet.
Fortunately, this was Shanjian Heaven.
There was no ordinary physical matter here.
Aside from Ruan Mei and the insect swarm, there were no physical life-forms nearby either.
The swarm wasn't so fortunate.
The piercing shriek instantly blasted every insect around it into bloody mist.
Then—
A Memory Bubble flew over from the Floating Light Sea.
It merged into the crumbling body of the now-abnormal Skaracabaz (Synthetic).
This Emanator of Propagation, personally cultivated by Ruan Mei, finally stabilized its own existence by drawing upon the memories of the genuine, long-dead Skaracabaz preserved by the Garden of Recollection.
Skaracabaz shrieked again.
But this time—
There was no agony in its cry.
Only savage ferocity.
As its screech resounded through the surroundings, the cracks covering its body rapidly healed.
Even the bloody mist scattered throughout the air transformed into insect after insect, rebuilding the swarm.
Emanator of Propagation—Skaracabaz.
After countless ages—
The Swarm King had once again descended upon the universe in its full glory.
As one of the jaws of the Imperator Insectorum, it would once more display the vicious edge of the fallen Swarm Emperor.
The unexpected success had arrived so suddenly that Ruan Mei could no longer care about anything else.
She excitedly began recording every piece of relevant data.
Ruan Mei lightly tapped several plum blossoms.
Their petals drifted through the air.
Immediately, the surrounding insects began slaughtering one another.
Only then did she turn toward the Memokeepers who had been miserably cooperating with her "research" this entire time.
"Your part of the 'experiment' is over now."
"If you don't want to end up inside an insect's stomach, I suggest you leave as quickly as possible."
"After all..."
Ruan Mei smiled faintly.
"I probably won't have time to protect you in a moment~"
The instant she finished speaking, the Memokeepers turned to flee without the slightest hesitation.
"Don't forget to take the others with you."
Ruan Mei reminded them to collect the Memokeepers whose emotions and minds she had manipulated—the ones who were still obediently carrying out salvage work for her.
By now, Skaracabaz's prolonged shriek had ended.
It looked at the swarm tearing itself apart.
Then it looked down at Ruan Mei.
An insect might not possess much intelligence.
But it still had instincts.
Its wings spread.
Boom—!
Skaracabaz took flight.
The furious beating of its wings generated violent shockwaves.
Swarm spores scattered through the air alongside hallucinogenic powder shed from its wings.
None of it had any effect on Ruan Mei.
Skaracabaz dove.
Its enormous body descended toward her with terrifying speed, jaws opening wide as it attempted to tear her apart.
Then—
Just as those razor-sharp mandibles were about to touch Ruan Mei—
It froze.
After all...
Ruan Mei had personally adjusted its genes from beginning to end.
She had personally designed its entire cultivation process.
And as a genius who possessed little sense of security and trusted virtually nothing other than herself—
How could Ruan Mei possibly create something without leaving herself a means to restrain it?
Even inside the Simulated Universe, she had casually left behind an insignificant little backup clone that eventually became the Trailblazer's personal serving of Ruan Mei.
How could a genius like that possibly neglect to install countermeasures in her own creation?
Ruan Mei reached out.
Her hand gently stroked Skaracabaz's body.
Her expression was almost entranced.
To her, Skaracabaz wasn't ugly in the slightest.
On the contrary—
Its body possessed another kind of beauty.
The beauty of Life.
"What a fascinating body..."
"And these unique genes~"
"So this is the true genetic arrangement of an Emanator of Propagation—Skaracabaz."
"It's actually quite different from what I predicted."
"No wonder I kept failing."
The true genetic structure of Skaracabaz differed enormously from the model Ruan Mei had reconstructed based on the few fragments available to her.
Yet she felt no disappointment.
Only delight.
After all—
What could possibly be more exciting than the unknown?
It wasn't as though Ruan Mei lacked biological samples originating from the Aeon of Propagation.
In the past, she had already tried incorporating fragments of the Aeon of Propagation's divine remains into the synthetic Skaracabaz specimens she cultivated, hoping to purify and perfect their genetic composition.
Obviously—
She had failed.
Without exception, every experimental specimen rapidly collapsed.
That was precisely why Ruan Mei found the creature before her so utterly fascinating.
A bold possibility emerged in her mind.
"Every Emanator of Propagation was personally birthed by Tayzzyronth, the Aeon of Propagation..."
"Then could I use an Emanator as an intermediary..."
"To reconstruct the genetic structure belonging to the Aeon of Propagation itself?"
Ruan Mei possessed fragments of Tayzzyronth's divine remains.
They had been given to her by that blond man with the difficult-to-pronounce name who claimed to be a merchant.
In exchange, she had agreed to cooperate with them on certain matters.
So Ruan Mei had never lacked genetic samples from the Aeon of Propagation.
But possessing an already-existing sample and reconstructing the same thing personally from the bottom up were two entirely different concepts.
Truthfully, she had possessed those divine remains for quite some time.
Yet her research into them could hardly even be considered to have passed the introductory stage.
Their structure was simply incomprehensible to her.
The technological gap was too vast.
It was like teaching a primitive human how to make fire by rubbing sticks together—
Then handing them the blueprints for a planet-destroying starship and asking them to understand its principles before building one from scratch.
For the first time, Ruan Mei had truly encountered the limits of her own intellect.
This was different from the simple research she usually conducted.
Only research like this—
Research that confronted her with something she genuinely could not understand—
Could keep her from feeling that familiar emptiness.