Mother of Insects

Chapter Twenty-Two

It's the "Covenant."

Lin Xi thought.

When the "Covenant" was activated, all the ship's energy will be directly cut off until this damn energy black hole reaches a stable period, and then secondary energy will re-supply——

The life-support device fixed to Lin Xi's bedside was directly connected to the energy system of the living cabin.

When he handed over the star butterfly egg case to Lin Xi for temporary safekeeping, Ando Shizuo thought that he'd be taking it back soon. He didn't redesign an energy circuit for the egg case's life-support system to prevent emergency situations like this from being risks.

"Damn, damn, damn!"

Lin Xi rushed over and restarted the device, but probably because of the weak power from the secondary energy but the damn machine was as silent, dim, and as indifferent as a corpse.

Through the transparent petri dish, Lin Xi could clearly see that the egg case of the star butterfly was in a very bad state. The tentacles that once made him feel calm and curious had turned into an opaque grey-white colour. The way they floated in the culture fluid was also weird, looking stiff and lifeless, almost like pieces of hard plastic.

And the egg case itself wasn't much better. It became wrinkled and the colour became very turbid.

"Oh no......"

Lin Xi stared at the most fully developed "No. 1" in the egg case. It almost looked like it was about to become a complete larvae, but now it was solidified in the turbid mucous-like film.

The eyes that were originally shone like rubies also dimmed, turning into two small grey-black spots.

And its wings...

God, this was the first time Lin Xi saw the wings of a young star butterfly. They were thin and transparent, as delicate as silk, with some round spots dotting it.

For some reason, Lin Xi felt that under normal conditions, those spots should glow with beautiful and soft iridescent light, like top-quality pearls.

But now, the damn life-support device has stopped functioning, those spots looked as frightening as mildew.

Lin Xi felt an indescribable distress.

He had always thought that he wouldn't be too emotionally invested in an insect egg— the kind that hadn't even developed successfully yet.

He thought that he was just looking at these little guys casually every day, and adding some nutrients to it step by step according to the prompts, and that was it.

But when he saw that the egg case that he had been caring for had been suffocated in the broken life-support machine, he was hit by an unprecedented wave of pain.

At the moment when Lin Xi thought that the egg case had completely lost its activity, "No. 1" trembled very weakly.

The pair of small black dots turned a dim red again for a short period of time.

It turned its head sideways and moved its body slightly in Lin Xi's direction.

At that moment, Lin Xi actually had a ridiculous feeling; he felt that the insect could understand his human emotions and that it was looking at him.

However, the weak movement of "No. 1" seems to be a last-ditch effort of the star butterfly (and if this continues, it'll be the last star butterfly in the known universe).

It kept that movement frozen in place, the redness in its eyes was fading away little by little, it was as if this was also representing its vitality.

"No—"