Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 682

Chapter 680, Brainworm Tyrant Group

Chapter 680:

In the Empress Star Region, shrouded in dense Warp shadows, psionic power isn’t particularly effective.

Putting aside the Warp shadow’s suppressive effect on psionic energy, psionic power alone isn’t very effective in combat.

Against Zerg fleets, psionic power’s greatest benefit is lost. Gu Hang doesn’t need to tear through void shields—they don’t have any anyway.

Of course, psionic power can be used in other ways. But whether simply harnessing psionic power to generate lightning to bombard ships or using psionic fields to tear through them, the results are generally less than ideal. With Gu Hang’s abilities, he could indeed use psionic power to achieve feats equivalent to the power of Class X heavy artillery, but that would be uneconomical. The effort would be better spent firing a few more shots.

Alternatively, he could use psionic power to teleport large numbers of troops directly into enemy ships. However, this tactic wouldn’t be effective against a Zerg Hive Fleet. Unlike human ships, where they could be captured, Zerg bio-ships clearly held no potential or value.

Instead of seizing the ship, simply sending elite troops into the enemy vessel and wreaking havoc from within… yes, but a bit suicidal.

These bio-ships contain a certain amount of brooding tissue within them. Its primary function is to differentiate into tissue to replenish the bio-ship when it’s damaged—in other words, to restore health.

However, when necessary, it can also differentiate into soldier zerg, or even higher-level zerg, to defend against intruders within the bio-ship.

This is a very effective tactic. Throughout Imperial history, attempts to board Zerg ships generally end badly.

Even when successful, they are rare, and each attempt is disastrous.

While psychic power isn’t very effective against Zerg, it’s quite effective against human ships.

Once the void shields are torn apart, who can defeat the bio-ship in a head-on clash?

Furthermore, the shadow of the Warp often accompanies a hive fleet. When the Zerg needed to harness their psychic powers, they released the Warp Shadow over an area; when they lacked a psychic advantage, they would cover it, preventing the Humans or other races from using it.

This highlighted an unfairness.

In this battle, the Zerg possessed formidable psychic power. Four “Cerebrate Tyrants,” or Neurozoa, were present.

These four Neurozoa served as the Queen’s most formidable bodyguards for the southbound support fleet.

Naturally, this time, blanketing the battlefield with Warp Shadow was out of the question.

At the very outset of the naval battle, the four Neurozoa would attempt to rip through the Human ships’ void shields.

The Human fleet, spared this fate, was, of course, thanks to Gu Hang.

Gu Hang mobilized all members of the Stormcast Corps, simultaneously directing their psychic power towards the four Neurozoa.

In an instant, the Warp surged with an unparalleled, dazzling force. Powerful demons, who often enjoyed observing the brutal wars unfolding in the real world from within the subspace, reveling in the vastness of death and feasting on the souls of the fallen, were now fleeing frantically. Those who ran even slightly slower were captured and torn apart by the surging psychic energy.

Even a great demon-level being that had been sneaking by was so enticing, it took no notice of the situation and fled without

a second thought. It’s easy to imagine the terrifying confrontation between Gu Hang and these four neurozoa.

Just a few years ago, Gu Hang wouldn’t have been able to stand up to these four monsters.

Actually, he’s having a hard time holding on now.

Just think about it. Back then, when the Alliance was fighting the Alfonzo Cult and Sage Dubo traveled south to the Proud Claw star system, Gu Hang, alone against a single Neurozoan, only managed a draw, or perhaps a slight advantage.

While the psychic battle was evenly matched, Gu Hang possessed the ability to teleport Space Marines into enemy ships and rip the veil of reality, sending Einherjar from the Storm Kingdom into the enemy’s vessels. Furthermore

, after winning that battle, Gu Hang even “ate” a Neurozoan.

That was a major boost for Gu Hang’s Storm Kingdom, significantly increasing his psychic power.

Even so, suddenly having to fight four Neurozoans was too much pressure.

He had already maximized the power of the Storm Kingdom into the real universe; the Storm Mage Corps’s force of over twenty thousand psykers was the product of Gu Hang’s dedicated training over a long period of time. Not only did their numbers continue to grow, despite the clear losses from the war, but the quality of the Storm Mage Corps also grew stronger.

That was despite Gu Hang’s considerable investment of grace points.

Not only had he built Mage Academies directly on certain frontline planets, and even on ships, to train psychics at all times, but Gu Hang also selected hundreds, even thousands, of Storm Mages with promising potential and, through the Hero interface, initiated them one by one.

Those with the potential to become Heroes often saw their psychic power increase by a level; a very small number were even capable of multiple initiations.

In total, Gu Hang had invested nearly ten million grace points in the Mage Corps. Thirteen Storm Mages, with exceptional potential, had already been raised to Level 9 by Gu Hang.

In fact, Gu Hang’s own character level in the system was also Level 9. However, Gu Hang’s Level 9 mages had too many templates, especially the numerous bonuses granted by the Storm Kingdom, allowing him to achieve the strength of an Alpha-level psyker at his Level 9 system level. The Storm Kingdom’s arrival was even more formidable than the Alpha-level.

However, the Level 9 psykers Gu Hang had cultivated generally lacked Gu Hang’s additional templates and traits, much less the power provided by the Storm Kingdom.

Of these thirteen Level 9 mages, twelve reached the strength of A+-level psykers, while the other one even reached S-level.

These thirteen, dubbed “Grand Mages,” were Gu Hang’s greatest auxiliaries.

With their help, and the assistance of twenty thousand others, Gu Hang was able to withstand the four neurozoa.

However, this confrontation was not only extremely stressful but also somewhat unsustainable.

The primary reason was that under the immense pressure of such a powerful psychic confrontation, one of the Storm Mages would occasionally die with a blown head or be dragged away with severe injuries, bleeding profusely.

As the number of Storm Mages decreases, the forces Gu Hang can mobilize will decrease, and the number of headshots to the mages will increase… This is the beginning of a vicious cycle.

If this cannot be reversed, failure is imminent.

(End of this chapter)