Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 582

Chapter 580, Eat

the Neurozoa. Stuffing the Neurozoa into the Storm Kingdom was originally just a temporary measure for Gu Hang to transport and confine the dangerous beast.

However, he made an unexpected discovery.

After completing the confinement, he boarded the Raging Owl and continued his journey.

But just one day later, he sensed unexpected changes within his Storm Kingdom.

He immediately interrupted a meeting he was currently holding, retreated to his secret chamber, and then opened a warp rift and entered the Storm Kingdom.

Today, his Storm Kingdom is no longer what it once was under the control of the primordial god, the Original Raging Owl. While the dark, cloud-covered, low-pressure sky remains the same, and the gray, blue, and black earth evokes a heavy, oppressive feeling, the Storm Kingdom’s appearance is far from desolate.

This is largely due to the tireless work of the many heroic spirits over the years. They have profoundly transformed this barren land, constructing numerous man-made structures.

A city has already stood within Gu Hang’s Storm Kingdom.

The two most central areas of this city are where Gu Hang killed the Great Unclean One, Govaga, and spent a considerable amount of time digesting him. It’s been remodeled into an altar. While its practical significance is minimal, it holds a strong symbolic meaning for the Heroic Spirits.

The second key area is the Black Box Factory.

This place holds far greater practical significance.

When Gu Hang captured the Neurozoan, it was thrown upon the altar. It’s the perfect place to imprison this monster.

Twenty-three massive steel spikes have been driven into its body, pinning it firmly to the ground. Thick chains connect these spikes, completely binding it.

Even if the Neurozoan could still exert its psychic powers normally, disarming it would be difficult, especially since its psychic powers are completely suppressed. These chains, coupled with the terrifying power of thunder and lightning, trap its psychic powers within its body, preventing it from breaking free. It

‘s practically foolproof.

However, the current situation was somewhat different.

Points of light continuously emerged from the bound neurozoan, floating in the air before gradually dissipating.

The neurozoan was being dissolved.

Gu Hang was somewhat amazed.

How had all this happened?

He hadn’t taken any initiative.

Yet, what was happening to the neurozoan at this moment was very similar to the scene when the Great Unclean One was “absorbed” by the Storm Kingdom after he had defeated Gowaga within the Kingdom.

Its body was disintegrating, that’s for sure; the disintegrated parts transformed into pure power, which was absorbed by the Kingdom.

And then, Gu Hang could sense that the power of the entire Storm Kingdom was indeed rapidly increasing!

Honestly, this kind of growth was something Gu Hang hadn’t felt in a long time.

The Storm Kingdom had indeed been growing, that’s for sure. This was primarily due to the expansion of the Alliance, the expansion of the Alliance system, and the deep-rooted influence of Gu Hang as Governor—at least in some of the Alliance’s core areas.

Faith has an impact on the Warp.

Gu Hang was the ruler of the Storm Kingdom. The “faith” of the hundreds of billions of people under the Alliance’s rule became the source of its growth.

However, the sentiments of those under the Alliance toward Gu Hang were not genuine faith.

Furthermore, Gu Hang was unwilling to truly promote his beliefs.

The state religion was not a place for idleness; this would be tantamount to treason. Furthermore, it would significantly undermine the foundation of his rule and spark widespread internal rebellion.

Iron Rage Stone’s rebellion also espoused the slogan “Purge the Imperial Court,” claiming that the high-ranking officials of Holy Terra were mere slavish figures, completely incapable of properly carrying out the Emperor’s will.

Even a truly ambitious man like Humphrey Paul wouldn’t dare to utter slogans like “False Emperor” like those Chaos traitors. And that

‘s even more so for Gu Hang.

Beyond this practical factor, given Gu Hang’s understanding of the Warp, widespread, religious worship wasn’t a good thing.

That would undoubtedly significantly increase the power of the Kingdom of Storms, effectively strengthening the psychic powers Gu Hang could manipulate and utilize.

However, the problem lies in the fact that this faith not only brings power but also influence.

The will of the believers, their thoughts and wishes, and their negative emotions would infect Gu Hang, the master of the Kingdom. This contagion would be a long, slow process. Gu Hang’s mindset would change, and ultimately, his personal will would be gradually dissipated and replaced.

Ultimately, when the entire process is complete, the Gu Hang who exists in this world would no longer be the Gu Hang of today, but a Gu Hang who serves solely as the Alliance Governor.

In other words, he would become a Warp-created creature.

He was wary of this.

Therefore, despite the Alliance’s growing power and the increasing “faith” of its citizens, the overall magnitude remained modest. Compared to the significant surge it experienced after absorbing Govaga, the Storm Kingdom’s power has only increased by perhaps 5% at most.

In short, not a significant increase.

However, if the current situation continues, after completely absorbing this neurozoan, the Storm Kingdom’s growth will likely be no less than that of absorbing the Great Unclean One, Govaga.

This means that Gu Hang’s Storm Kingdom will experience a significant increase of over 30%!

Gu Hang estimated that by then, he would be able to control psychic powers equivalent to Alpha-level psychic energy. If he fully exerted his power to tear open the subspace rift and allow the Storm Kingdom’s power to descend, then he would have needed no other means to defeat Du Bo’s neurozoan psychic power in the initial psychic confrontation during the Battle of Bowen.

The Storm Kingdom’s strengthening and increased psychic power were undoubtedly a truly astonishing event.

After all, since his personal level reached Level 9 on the system’s dashboard, he had been unable to rise any further, having reached a plateau in his power growth. His subsequent growth was solely due to absorbing Govaga, the Great Unclean One, which nearly doubled the Storm Kingdom’s power.

This time, consuming the neuron protozoa resulted in a 30% increase.

While the neuron protozoa were undoubtedly doomed, further use and research would be impossible. However, if Gu Hang were to choose, he would definitely choose to enhance himself.

In his opinion, the value of being “eaten” by him was definitely far greater than simply serving as research material.

Despite the clear improvement in his strength, Gu Hang couldn’t help but feel curious. How did this all happen?

Why?

Gu Hang couldn’t immediately understand it.

The Great Demon was absorbed because it possessed the “subspace essence.”

Pure psychic energy and Warp energy are of little significance to the Storm Kingdom. The energy within the Warp is practically limitless, but wielding it lacks “authority.”

The Storm Kingdom owes its existence to the accidental Warp transformation of a primordial deity. Its ability to devour Govaga stems from the fact that the great demon possessed “Warp Essence,” or, to put it in a metaphorical way, possessed a higher level of authority. Devouring Govaga was a merging of two “authorities.”

So is the same with the Neurozoa?

That’s not impossible.

At the level of the Neurozoa, it’s impossible to access such vast psychic power without possessing Warp Essence.

However, how do the Void Zerg achieve this?

Their manipulation of Warp power is intriguing.

However, this also gives Gu Hang an idea.

From this perspective, if Gu Hang wants to safely grow his own personal power in the future, rather than relying on “faith” to replace his personal will, then actively hunting down beings with powerful psychic powers would be an effective approach.

After all, psykers below Alpha level, or other entities wielding psychic powers, are essentially “conduits.” But as it stands, those above Alpha level might possess some kind of Warp essence.

It’s a possible avenue,

but on second thought, it’s difficult.

Archdemon? Neurozoa? Alpha-level psykers?

Hunt them all?

It’d be hard to even find a single one alive!

…

Gu Hang didn’t dwell on improving his personal strength.

Another crucial task before him was to quickly seize the escaped Emperor-class battleship of the Alfonzo Cult.

Not many small and medium-sized vessels had followed the Emperor-class battleship into the Vinci-Vuci line, but the primary targets, besides the Emperor-class, were the three Serpent-class battlecruisers.

The Emperor-class wasn’t the stunted Nemesis-class. While its speed wasn’t as fast as a battlecruiser, it was certainly fast among battleships.

In other words, almost every metric of the Emperor-class battleships ranks among the best of their kind.

Furthermore, the Alliance had first arrived to deal with the predecessor of the Iron Horse, giving the Emperor-class more time to escape.

But there was still ample time for pursuit.

After all, the Wenqi-Wuqi line was vast, and normally, two or three months was a reasonable stretch.

The pursuing fleet was significantly streamlined.

Not even a single Retribution-class battleship could be relied upon, let alone the recently captured Iron Horse, which still needed repairs. The Fire Nova, which had fully served as the battleline’s mainstay in the previous naval battle, also had some damage and needed repairs.

Let’s just go and get that repaired, and not participate in the pursuit.

Anyway, it couldn’t make a run.

The Zhuge-class was decent, a bit slower than the Emperor, so it could just follow behind.

The main force of the pursuit was still the three battlecruisers in relatively good condition.

Especially the Raging Owl, the only surviving operational Holy Grail-class battlecruiser. Its speed was even faster than the two Dragon Snake-class battlecruisers, Yunluo and Ronglin!

The only ones capable of keeping up with this Holy Grail-class were a handful of Alliance-built strike cruisers and the entire Blood Shark fleet.

Overall, the Blood Sharks weren’t exactly poor.

They were just short on conventional equipment, but they had plenty of good stuff.

Otherwise, how could they have acquired a battle barge capable of keeping up with the Holy Grail-class?

In terms of overall quality, Gu Hang felt that the Blood Sharks’ flagship, the Ghost Shark, might be as good as the Emperor-class.

It was truly enviable… no, truly enviable.

After 23 standard Terran days, the fastest pursuit group, the Raging Owl and the Ghost Shark, caught up with the enemy fleet.

The enemy fleet’s head-on combat capability was far superior to that of the Alliance and the Blood Sharks. The firepower of a single Emperor-class battlecruiser was equal to that of the Raging Owl and the Ghost Shark combined.

However, upon discovering the Alliance ships, they only thought of running.

It was the Raging Owl and the Ghost Shark, clearly at a disadvantage, who launched an active attack.

Of course, it wasn’t a full-scale offensive, merely an attempt to delay them.

Especially after pursuing them to the jump point, they launched a constant harassment attack, slowing their progress through the Astral Tunnel.

Relying on their agility and speed, Alfonzo’s remaining fleet was practically powerless against them.

Even if they gritted their teeth and tried to seize the opportunity before the Alliance’s main battleships arrived, they wouldn’t have had the chance.

The two speedboats wouldn’t stand a chance against the Emperor-class.

And if they pursued, not only would the Emperor be outmatched, but even the three Dragon Snakes wouldn’t be able to catch up.

Both were battlecruisers, but the Holy Grail was more expensive than the Dragon Snake, had a thinner skin, but was also faster.

Furthermore, they didn’t have the courage to actually break away from the Emperor’s cover and catch up.

Gu Hang’s blatant display of strength and presence was intimidating.

In fact, Gu Hang’s energy consumption was very high during the Battle of Bowang. He supported hundreds of thousands of heroic spirits, fought across the starry sea to fight on enemy ships; engaged in psychic confrontation with neurozoa; and then continuously tore through the void shields of enemy ships, even ships of the War Ark and Retribution-class battleship.

However, after eating that neurozoa, Gu Hang was greatly replenished.

If those enemy dragon snakes had the courage to break away from the Emperor class and come up, it would have saved trouble.

Then, under the harassment of the Alliance’s speedboats, the speed of Alfonzo’s escape fleet was greatly slowed down.

This allowed the Alliance’s subsequent ships to finally catch up.

(End of this chapter)