11.13

A military tribunal formally indicted Osborne and Cecil for treason and malfeasance in office after a series of investigations, and the First and Second Legions, which were led by the two men, were announced to be disbanded, with their personnel merged into the Imperial Legion, which was under the command of Joshua.

Since the two were the strongest in the stars, when the capture was carried out, the Imperial Legion sent one of the strongest mecha units in combat to surround the two’s villa.

Joshua piloted his own silver-white super-mech and turned on the amplifier button to shout at the two men, warning them not to resist or he would level the Bernard and Matthew families.

The two most prominent families in the Empire were now synonymous with ‘shame’ and ‘betrayal’. Old Bernard and old Matthew aged a lot, and several juniors hated Osborne and Cecil so much that they were close to tying them up with their own hands and handing them over to the court.

Zhou Yunsheng stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, staring at the imposing white mecha not far away with a sneer. He had repeatedly scrutinized Joshua’s anomalies over the past few days, and had confirmed no doubt about his identity. The strength of mental power was inherently predetermined, and for S-class mental power to rise steeply to 3S, unless Joshua was occupied by a more powerful soul like himself.

The Bug Queen was able to command the entire Bug Race, the power of her spirit was evident, and it was after that great battle that Joshua changed precipitously.

What is wrong with this world that even the son of destiny can be replaced. However, it is not quite true to say that he was completely replaced, Joshua still accomplished all the missions he was supposed to accomplish, received the honors he was supposed to receive, and what’s more, he was even better than the original one.

In that case, fate hadn’t changed much. If he hadn’t dismantled himself, he probably would have lived as a human, and then quietly pinched the two very different races of humans and bugs and beasts in his hands, trying to realize the dream of every generation of empresses – to turn the entire starfield into a nest of its own desires.

Good calculation. Zhou Yunsheng raised his wine glass and touched the huge silver-white mech through the air, then walked over to the bedside and impatiently shouted, “Get up, it’s time for us to go to court.”

“How annoying!” Osborne opened his eyes and got out of bed, naked – and dressed. He walked over to the floor mirror, turned sideways to survey the few scratches on his back, and said in a reminiscent tone, “Darling, you were so passionate last night, I almost drove you crazy.”

Zhou Yunsheng threw a jacket over his head and opened his mouth with a smile, “Other people say that Osborne is upright and unselfish, serious and stereotypical, you should really let them see what kind of bear you are in private.”

“That was before, now Osborn is an incompetent coward, a sinner who betrayed the Empire and his comrades. No longer do I have to keep up appearances in front of them, thank goodness. From now on, darling, I’ll do whatever I want, the Empire was never my responsibility, you were.” He cupped his lover’s jaw and kissed his crimson lips.

Zhou Yunsheng clasped the back of his head and gave him a hot morning kiss.

When the heavily armed troops barged into the room, this was exactly what they saw. They almost couldn’t hold the particle guns in their hands, they all said that the two marshals had a deep and extraordinary affection, now they finally saw it, this is the time of the day, and they still don’t forget to make out.

“Let’s go.” Zhou Yunsheng patted his lover’s extremely resilient buttocks before extending his hands and taking the initiative to let these people put on handcuffs that could lock their mental and physical energy.

There was a gravity device installed on the handcuffs, with a maximum value of five hundred times the pressure, which was specifically used to deal with 3S level powerhouses, and after wearing it, not to mention the use of force, it was even a bit difficult to walk. Every step the two took would leave a deep footprint on the ground, even almost collapsing the stairs, causing the soldiers responsible for capturing them to be alarmed.

Seeing the handcuffed two, Joshua opened the cockpit and jumped down, walked to Osborne and lowered his voice to speak, “You once said that I have ambition but not the ability to match it, but look at this, I am now standing at the pinnacle of power while you guys have become prisoners. Osborne, I’ll prove you wrong with the facts, I, Joshua, will never be anyone’s vassal, but a powerhouse above all.”

He took two steps back and smiled with ambition.

Zhou Yunsheng stared back at him with a surprised gaze. From analyzing that passage just now, Joshua’s sanity had not been completely devoured by the Empress, his unwillingness and obsession had not disappeared. He was still him, yet he was also the Empress, they had completely fused.

It was no wonder that the Bug Queen had picked on him, because he had hidden too many lusts within him, and these lusts had led him to be easily seduced by the Queen, thus throwing the lives and deaths of his compatriots to the back of his mind. If he and Osborne hadn’t trampled on his pride, he probably wouldn’t have taken this path.

Just as he thought of this, Zhou Yunsheng sneered again. What do you mean by trampling on his self-respect? If he really had pride, he wouldn’t have done those things. In the final analysis, he could only be blamed for having too much selfishness. In the original trajectory of fate, he didn’t need to give a lot, and whatever he wanted, Osborne and Kyle would take the initiative to send up, so he could be kind, cheerful, and selfless.

But without the silent dedication and attentive assistance of these two people, he would have to rely on himself. However, he came from a mediocre background, his strength was nothing compared to a group of alpha, naturally, he had a rough time everywhere, plus Cecil, who was also an omega but whose ability exceeded his by hundreds of times, as a comparison, it was natural that he would become resentful and obsessive.

He wanted to get stronger, he wanted to surpass Cecil, and it all happened that way, it’s called the butterfly effect.

As the culprit who had instigated all of this, Zhou Yunsheng smiled with amusement. He took two steps closer to Joshua, horrifying the soldiers who raised the particle guns in their hands in unison.

“Relax, I just wanted to have a word with my original schoolmate.” He smiled and waved his hand, leaning over to Joshua’s ear and whispering, “Those who are manipulated by lust-are puppets, not strong men, and in my eyes, you’re weak as hell.”

Joshua was instantly murderous, returning the stare with an icy glare.

“Just talk, why are you leaning so close.” Osborne yanked his lover back to his side and looked at Joshua with the same murderous intent.

——————-

The two were, after all, Imperial Marshals and top powerhouses, and the cells they lived in were neat and bright. But Osborne was furious as soon as he entered, simply because the men had kept him and Cecil separate. His crimson eyes and fierce expression frightened the prison officials, and the two were given a double room that night.

“Are you still trying to get them to get you a king room? Hmm?” Zhou Yunsheng teased as he sat cross-legged on the one meter wide cot.

Osborne sat beside him, not comfortable embracing his lover due to the gravity cuffs on his hands, and could only move over to kiss his cheek and laugh, “That won’t be necessary, sleeping in a small narrow bed like this is just right, I’ll lie on the bottom and you’ll lie on top of me.”

Zhou Yunsheng opened his mouth and hooked the tip of his tongue, kissing back passionately.

The prison officer would come over every hour to check on them, and found that the two were always getting tired of the bed, either kissing or chatting, and living a more comfortable life, so he couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh: to commit a crime like that and still have no sense of guilt at all, these two were already hopeless!

The next day, the long trial began, with the prosecution presenting a dozen charges, including treason and malfeasance in office, and if the verdicts were upheld, the two men would be put to death. Among those who attended the court were various marshals and members of the royal family, the most conspicuous belonging to old Bernard and old Matthew.

The two sat in silence in the center, leaving a circle of seats empty around them. Apparently, no one in the empire wanted to be associated with them anymore, including those subordinates who had once been loyal to them.

The judge announced the start of the trial, and the prosecution immediately took out a thick pile of documents and began to count down the crimes committed by the two men on the battlefield, and in order to show fairness, the trial was broadcast live in its entirety on the Star Network.

Osborne and Zhou Yunsheng did not hire a lawyer, and at this juncture, no lawyer dared to defend them. Due to their blunders that caused millions of soldiers to die on the battlefield, the families of these soldiers had threatened to tear anyone to pieces who dared to defend the two.

The prosecution had to confront the two men for each charge.

Osborne looked down and played with his lover’s fingertips in a rather careless manner. Zhou Yunsheng, on the other hand, raised one eyebrow and stared at the prosecutors with a mocking expression, and would snort a couple times when he heard ridiculous bits and pieces.

“I plead not guilty.” It was a phrase he had repeated a dozen times.

The prosecutors looked at him indifferently, as if to say that even if you don’t plead guilty, the judge will still execute you. Two heroic figures, now long lost their reputation, no one will sympathize with them, at first there were people who defended them, seeing their performance in the courtroom are also silent.

How can they not feel the slightest bit of guilt after indirectly killing so many people?

“I do not plead guilty, I demand to be confronted in court with the commander at the time, Joshua Lennon.” Zhou Yunsheng said in a loud voice.

The judge looked toward Wang Fu, who was sitting in the gallery.

Joshua hesitated for a few seconds, thinking about the fact that both of them wore gravity rings with five hundred times the pressure on their hands and feet, so they couldn’t even move, not to mention attacking, before he gracefully stood up and said, “I’m willing to confront the two marshals.”

The enraged masses on StarNet taunted, “Wang Fu is too graceful, how do they deserve to be called marshals, they are the sinners of all the stars! They almost got us all killed!”

“Cecil, please say what you have to say.” Joshua walked over to the witness stand closer to the two men.

Zhou Yunsheng clicked on the amplification button on the stage and spoke slowly, word by word, “I would like to say that the success or failure of this war is not controlled by the humans, but by the Queen of the Insects, and we are just the scapegoats that it has pushed out. Right now, it is among us.”

This sentence was so informative that many people who had heard but did not understand could not help but look at each other. Only Joshua’s face changed drastically. He stood up and wanted to leave, but Osborne, who had remained silent, violently shattered the gravity rings on his wrists and ankles, circled around behind him with lightning speed, and choked his fragile neck.

The soldiers present pulled out their particle guns but did not dare to move, fearing that they would injure Wang Fu.

Zhou Yunsheng slowly and methodically shattered the gravity ring and walked over to Joshua, picking up his chin for a closer look. The sharp mental power that belonged solely to the Queen of the Insect Race was like steel needles frantically attacking towards him, but they were all blocked one by one.

“Kill him.” Zhou Yunsheng lightly opened his lips.

Then in full view of all, Osborne literally struck Joshua through the heart. His bright eyes darkened and his limbs drooped helplessly.

“No!” Kyle hissed in grief from the gallery. All of Interstellar was subdued by the two men’s deranged behavior.

But it doesn’t end there, Cecil actually tried to break Joshua’s skull, they are literally not human, they are demons! They should be thrown into a black hole and twisted to pieces!

The netizens, outraged, stood up and pounded the tabletop, only to fall back down on weak legs. A translucent, globular object with an appearance eerily similar to a human brain was seen burrowing out of Joshua’s cracked skull and swooping down on the face of an alpha soldier.

It stretched out its sharp mouthparts, chiseled a hole in the soldier’s forehead, twisted its soft, boneless body to squeeze in, and quickly took over the soldier’s brain.

The soldier began to shoot wildly at Osborne and Cecil against the bloody hole in his forehead, not caring about the prosecutor and judge behind him. Zhou Yunsheng dodged the dense bullets and ghostly floated behind the soldier, dryly breaking his neck, prying open the skull once again to force the spherical object out, and confining it with a cage created by his spiritual power.

Osborne immediately applied a layer of spiritual power on the periphery of the cage as well, so that even if the Bug Queen’s spiritual power was high, she wouldn’t be able to break through the confinement of the two 3S-level powerhouses.

It was held up in midair by the spiritual power, and a humming sound came out of its mouth; its appearance was exactly like a human brain, but its skin was transparent, and countless yellowish insect eggs were wrapped inside. Without a doubt, it was an insect beast.

“See? The armies of mankind are commanded by just such a monster; it wants us to fail and we will fail, it wants us to win and we will win. It controls four-fifths of the Empire’s forces and plays with the lives of its soldiers. You, on the other hand, are putting two innocent people on trial, so we are adamant that we won’t plead guilty!” Zhou Yunsheng opened his mouth with a cold smile.

Without waiting for him to finish, Kyle in the gallery suddenly leapt into mid-air, his rapidly expanding body bursting through his expensive gown, and when he landed in front of the two men he was suddenly transformed into a hideous-looking bug beast. It sprayed venom, and its bone whip-like tail swept violently towards the two of them, trying to save the Queen, and the several marshals sitting around him also suddenly turned into high-level bug beasts, quickly attacking towards the two of them.

However, after all these years of cultivation, the strength of the two had long since reached a level unimaginable to ordinary people, and the fact that they usually didn’t show it also caused Joshua to seriously underestimate them, thinking that he could trap them with a few gravity rings.

Zhou Yunsheng blew out the head of a bug beast with a single punch, whirled around, kicked the bug beast that attacked his back dozens of meters, and crashed heavily into the wall turning into a field of debris. On the other side, Osborne had also extremely viciously torn apart several bug beasts, and was pulling off the rags hanging on them to wipe his palms.

Zhou Yunsheng walked over to the corpses of several bug beasts and opened his mouth with a cold smile, “The king, the supreme marshal of the empire, the marshal of the third army corps, the marshal of the fourth army corps, the marshal of the fifth army corps, the captain of the royal self-defense force, the general of the mecha force, all of these are the empire’s most talented people, but it turns out that they have long since been turned into bug beasts. Is our empire the Lenon Empire or the Bug Beast Empire?”

The people on the scene had their heads in the clouds and were looking at him with dumbfounded gazes.

“I declare that from now on, the Lennon Empire will enter a state of war, and all those who have come into contact with Joshua Lennon will be required to undergo a full physical examination to confirm their human identity. If the Free Federation or the Barlow Republic conducts a sting on our country at this time, according to the interstellar convention signed in 6789, we have the power to use the ultimate weapon on both countries.” Zhou Yunsheng spoke slowly facing the camera before pointing at a soldier and ordering, “Go get a transparent energy shield over here, then notify the Empire’s highest laboratory to prepare to receive the Bug Queen’s experimental body.”

The soldier immediately returned to his senses and hurriedly ran away with a military salute. The remaining soldiers looked at the two with awe.

Death wasn’t the most terrifying thing, what was terrifying was a life that was worse than death. The Bug Queen obviously knew what would await her when she went to the lab, and her mouth let out a sharp hissing sound, which was wrapped in a raging spiritual power that gave everyone at the scene a splitting headache.

Zhou Yunsheng and Osborne immediately released their mental power to suppress it, and the pressure like a vast universe made the Bug Queen quiet down and shiver.

Things shifted too quickly for everyone to react, and it wasn’t until the two men led the soldiers to straighten out the scene that the audience on the Star Network gasped as if they were waking up from a dream.

How on earth did those bug beasts get mixed up amongst the humans? They were in control of the Lenon Empire, and all they had to do to exterminate humanity was to provoke a war between the three major powers. If not for Osborne and Marshal Cecil discovering their plot in time, humanity would have faced extinction.

It was too terrifying! Just the thought that bug beasts could even disguise themselves as humans made everyone shudder. Those who hated Osborne and Cecil were so ashamed that they published letters of apology on StarNet and said that they would support the two unconditionally.

They knew that the empire was now in a cataclysmic mess, and only two people could quell the disaster.

The prestige of the royal family had fallen to the bottom, and it was they who were the first to receive a body check, followed by the people in the military. Zhou Yunsheng and Osborne took control of the military department as fast as they could, while killing several bug beasts that were intent on avenging the Queen’s death.

Zhou Yunsheng had to marvel at the Queen’s ambition. It was surprisingly able to lay eggs in human bodies, allowing the larvae to slowly hatch and replace the host. The ones it selected were all important and powerful people, and by controlling them, it would control the empire, and in the long run, both humans and bugs and beasts would be under its rule.

Zhou Yunsheng stood in front of the detector and watched as the people in the military were examined one by one. The bug beasts were able to use human skin and bones to hide their outer appearance, but as long as they stood under a see-through light source, their inner hidden essence would be exposed. The soldiers who had already passed the inspection aimed their guns at these people, and as soon as they found an abnormality, they would shoot each other into a sieve without mercy.

Of course there are bugbeasts that have escaped, and anyone missing for more than four hours is wanted on an interstellar basis. The Republic of Balor and the Free Federation are very active with the Lennon Empire, and they too fear such bugbeasts that can turn into humans entering their realms.

Luckily, the Queen had no interest in ordinary soldiers, which prevented a greater disaster. Now that the generals of the other legions had been killed, several armies naturally followed the orders of Osborne and Marshal Cecil.

The two were subjected to a detector in front of all the interstellar people and proved their human identities. When asked how they discovered the Queen’s true identity, they simply replied, “As long as your spiritual power is higher than the Queen’s.”

The world knew that the Bug Queen’s mental powers were so ridiculously high that no human powerhouse had ever surpassed them, yet now that was history. The anxious Imperial populace settled down and held the two Marshals in high esteem before vigorously bashing the Imperial family on StarNet, as fifty percent of the Royal Family was parasitized by Bug Beasts.

It was not their fault, but the image of the royal family was irreparable, and their demand for another king was rejected by the people, who proposed the abolition of the royal family and the change of the system of government to a democratic republic, also known as a presidential system.

There is no doubt that the people want the first president to be between Osborne and Cecil.

“To be president or not?” Osborne embraced his lover from behind, his palms running over his firm abs.

“Not being a proper person, it’s exhausting.” Zhou Yunsheng slowly and methodically savored the wine and asked rhetorically, “Do you want to be?”

“I want to be a star burglar, we agreed on that a long time ago.” Osborne cupped his lover’s jaw and emphasized the word.

“Alright then, let’s go be star pirates.” Zhou Yunsheng drank the red wine in his glass and crossed it to Osborne in small sips.

Old Matthew and Old Bernard were furious to find that the two brats had left home without even leaving a note. They had to announce the news to the outside world, and the populace howled in dismay, believing that the previous trial had broken the two men’s hearts, causing them to be extremely disillusioned with the Empire before they left.

They had given everything for the empire and the empire rewarded them with the death penalty, something no one could bear. Some people were heartbroken for them, while others accused them of being irresponsible, but no matter what the outside world said, they no longer cared.

In the end, the royal family retained their noble status after all, but lost their power. The Lenon Empire’s system of government changed from a monarchical dictatorship to a constitutional monarchy, with power in the hands of more people, which was an improvement.

At the same time, a star pirate group called ‘Destruction’ came out of nowhere, and in just a few years became an existence equal in strength to the Lenon Empire, the Barlow Republic, and the Free Federation.