Chapter 176：Xenith Trilogy by Chani Lynn Feener

A row of shiny military medals were placed on a long table, the two most prominent medals undoubtedly belonged to Osborne and Cecil. The king pinned the medals on the two's chest, then allowed them to give a speech.

They commemorated the dead comrades and said that defending the Empire was their honor, the audience stood up in warm applause, then stared in amazement.

Osborne had suddenly hugged Cecil, his big hand covering the back of his head, then he gave him a solid kiss, before asking hoarsely, "Before departure, we promised each other that we would either come back alive or die together in the Zerg Nest. Now we're back alive, and I hope that we can use that unwavering pledge to walk hand in hand every day in the future. Cecil, are you willing?"

Holy shit, is this a proposal? The audience boiled at the scene, and the netizens watching the live broadcast on the Star Network also went crazy. A random person chanted 'together', followed by another call 'together', a flood of shouts soon drowned out the two people.

Old Matthew and Old Bernard's faces were very ugly, they ferociously glared at each other, then turned away, humph! All the stars wanted the two to bond, they couldn't say anything in objection.

Only the king's expression was somewhat subtle. If the First and Second Army bonded, they would certainly become the most powerful presence in the Empire, the status of the royal family would be even more precarious. But he obviously wouldn't reveal his thoughts, he only elegantly applauded.

After the kiss ended, Zhou Yun Sheng didn't give a reply, he just grabbed the back of the man's hair and fiercely bit his lips, his happy expression more dazzling than the sun.

This was no doubt a 'Yes'.

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Following the death of the Zerg Queen, the two Marshals bonded, they were praised as the most well matched couple in history, no matter where they went, they were inseparable, when Marshal Osborne looked at Marshal Cecil, his eyes were always filled with a faint smile and thick warmth.

Joshua also received honors, and he held a grand wedding with Kyle, becoming the Empire's second Prince Consort. The first prince was married to the Third Army Marshal's daughter, becoming the Third Army's helm, and he was made crown prince by the old king.

But soon, he and the princess were killed by Star Pirates while on a trip, plunging the Third Army into chaos. Joshua, who had not mastered the First Army as fate had decided, quickly conquered the Third Army and became one of the Five Grand Marshals of the Empire.

He was seriously injured in a battle, and woke up to sudden spiritual power growth to 3S level, and physique growth to 2S, becoming one of the strongest in the galaxy. He performed repeated outstanding military service, and his status quickly evened off with Osborne and Cecil.

At the same time, Kyle inherited the throne of the Lennon Empire, but he didn't show signs of suppressing the other powers.

Although fate had slightly deviated from its track, Joshua and Kyle, after all, were the sons of fate, they still managed to climb to the heights they should've reached. Zhou Yun Sheng often received news of Joshua and Kyle's achievements, and could only sigh at the obvious bias of the world's consciousness.

After only a year of leisure, a Lennon Empire scout brought back news that shocked the whole galaxy, the Zerg had birthed another Queen!

How can this be?!

The Zerg would birth a Queen every two or three hundred years, which was managed by the evolutionary laws of the Zerg. One lucky Zerg would become a Queen after thousands of evolutions and molting, the process was very long, and after it evolved to a certain extent, it would secrete a smell that seduced the males while simultaneously inhibiting the evolution of the females.

As the saying goes, no mountain can have two tigers, even the Zerg understood this. It took at least five or six decades to completely get rid of the effects of this scent that suppressed the evolution of the females.

So, it was impossible for the Zerg to birth another Queen so soon, at least in interstellar history, there had never been such an occurrence. But the scout had brought back an egg to confirm the credibility of the intelligence, it was accidentally left behind by a male during transport.

This Zerg egg was completely developed, and very fresh, after a special device scanned it, they discovered that it was produced last week, and it was covered with the unique smell of a Zerg Queen.

Another interstellar war that was about to break out ended early, and the human coalition forces swept the scouted planet to wipe out the eggs but found no traces of a Queen, just as they relaxed, thinking that the intelligence was incorrect, a Zerg Army robbed several human inhabited planets, taking away all the mineral resources.

It could be assumed that the resources would be used to feed a Queen. The Queen had evacuated before the coalition attacked, so its wisdom was probably higher than any previous Queen.

The coalition began to search for the Queen's trail, which was destined to be a protracted process. Joshua's Third Army successfully completed its every elimination task, in contrast, the First and Second Army often suffered Zerg ambushes and had heavy casualties.

Gradually, Joshua's prestige in the military began to prevail over Osborne and Cecil, and the army he led won the reputation as the 'most powerful fighting force'.

The Freedom Federation scouts found the Queen's trail, and they developed the same battle plan as before, but made Joshua the leader of the vanguard.

Zhou Yun Sheng and Osborne's First and Second Army were responsible for containing the southeast Zerg Army. They investigated the distribution of the army in advance and developed a well-thought-out combat plan, but during the battle, the Zerg Army's distribution switched into exactly the opposite positions of their investigations, so their weakest troops were hit with the most powerful group of Zerg, and the strong mech team led by Osborne and Zhou Yun Sheng rushed into an almost empty battlefield.

Because of this information error, a huge hole was torn into the coalition forces' line of defense. When their army was on the brink of annihilation, Joshua found the Queen and planted the bomb, then immediately ordered the coalition to withdraw.

Half an hour later, another nest planet blew up into dust, the survivors were ecstatic, but also extremely exhausted. The casualties were more severe than ever before, and almost three-fifths of the soldiers were sacrificed on the battlefield.

Back to their home planet, the coalition didn't hold a celebration banquet, instead, they liquidated the Marshals of the First and Second Army. They felt that the lives of so many soldiers were ruined because of Osborne and Cecil's mistakes, their crimes were extremely heinous.

Ordinary people were also incited, they demanded that the military court judge the two men, the cries were especially loud from those who had lost their loved ones in the war, they hated them to death.

The military court deprived the two of their authority and ordered them to not leave Empire Star, if the investigation turned up true, the death penalty was awaiting them.

Zhou Yun Sheng was sitting on the sofa, holding a tall glass of wine in his hand, gently shaking it with a contemplative expression. Their reconnaissance team had been personally led by him, no one knew the distribution of the Zerg better than him. Although they were wise, they weren't extremely intelligent, if they hadn't discovered the scouts, they had no reason to suddenly change their formation.

But they not only changed it, they also adjusted it so that their most powerful forces faced off against the weakest part of the collision, leading to a breakdown of the line of defense, as if they'd long known the army's battle plan and had developed countermeasures.

This was definitely not a coincidence, even worse, it meant that there was a traitor in the coalition. But which human being would sell their compatriots to benefit the Zerg? The human race had been fighting against the Zerg for thousands of years, they were repeatedly bought to the edge of extinction, it was impossible for someone with even a shred of humanity to do such a stupid thing.

There were two problems most worthy of scrutiny: What can they gain from betraying their countrymen? Second, how do they communicate with the Zerg?

Therefore, there could be no traitor among the human race, unless the traitor was a Zerg wearing human skin.

Joshua standing alone in the Zerg Nest palace, stroking the Queen, yet no Zerg came out to attack him; his sudden growth in spiritual strength and physique; his great successes in suppressing each Zerg encroachment.

He seemed to know the distribution of the Zerg like the back of his hand. He'd taken over all the troops except for the First and Second Army and was a supreme existence that could easily destroy the Empire…..His achievements had already gone beyond what fate had originally planned for him.

These strange occurrences were very clear, but Zhou Yun Sheng had been blinded by Joshua's already established glory, so he'd never noticed. This so-called newborn Queen, could it be Joshua? More precisely, he wasn't a new Queen, but the parasitic vassal of the original Zerg Queen?

The Zerg Queen could replicate all the genes and special abilities of every Zerg species, it could easily create a parasitic body.

Zhou Yun Sheng tapped his fingertips on the coffee table, he was 70% or 80% sure of his guess.

Osborne completed his training program for the day and walked in with hair slick with sweat.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He touched his lover's cheek and kissed him warmly. Death was not a terrible outcome to him, on the contrary, it was a gift to die together with Cecil.

So he still slept soundly and ate well, of course, his lustful demands were even more intense. At the moment, he was positioning his big hands around the boy's neck to gently massage it.

"Stop it." Zhou Yun Sheng shook off his hands, told him his speculations in detail, then asked, "What do you think we should do?"

"Naturally, we kill him." Osborne sneered. He was not afraid of death, but he hated being manipulated.

"Yes, we kill him, and we'll dig out the Queen from his body in front of the whole galaxy." Zhou Yun Sheng commended his lover with a kiss on his eyebrows, then he smiled, "If I guessed wrong, let's run away and become Star Pirates, I don't want to be executed on trumped-up charges." He couldn't kill Joshua, but his lover could, the man could easily integrate into the world without being excluded.

Osborne stroked his jaw, he felt that the plan to become Star Pirates was very good, there was no strict discipline, and he could be intimate with Cecil anytime he wanted.

"Baby, whether he's the Queen or not, I'll kill him for you, but I need some rewards." His ambiguous voice faded away under Zhou Yun Sheng's wild kisses.