Chương 717: Queen Xakira's Arrival.

It wasn't just Xakira who was startled by Liu Shu's simple declaration. Her subordinates, not lacking in the brain department at all, felt that Liu Shu's sentence was just too ridiculous. One of them looked at Xakira, and while he didn't say anything, there was a clear intent to wish that their Queen would ask about whatever Liu Shu meant. Queen Xakira hesitated. After all, poking her nose into the secrets of a party that you were trying to befriend was not wise.

'There will probably be other chances to learn about it. Not to mention, I will probably meet that girl, Xalis, soon and can ask her in more detail.' Therefore, Xakira smiled and nodded.

"I see. Your Big Sister, is it? Then, I must say that you are surrounded by talented individuals, Heavenly Willow. With our greetings done, I would like to ask for permission to land in your port." Liu Shu was not against it. After testing things around this time, she knew that she could probably defend against them without much devastation, even if they suddenly went crazy for some reason.

"I understand. Sadly, our spaceport has yet to be built. Therefore, I will have to ask for your ships to enter orbital rest." Liu Shu sighed slightly.

'How can I even make one of my babies into a spaceport? I just don't see the angle for it.' A spaceport needed to be extremely large, basically a second Moon. After all, even the smallest starships measured in the hundreds of meters in length. Mothership and merchant-type ships were even more exaggerated, each being comparable to a floating city in size. Therefore, for a spaceport not to be cluttered, Liu Shu would need to build a place a few hundred kilometers in radius.

'Even I have just reached those dimensions; pushing one of my babies to become that large feels quite impossible for now.' Queen Xakira was somewhat confused. After all, building a spaceport was not that hard. The most complicated thing was the amount of materials. However, for a multiplanetary World Tree, gathering a few tens of thousands of asteroids to gather metals of all qualities was but an afterthought, especially one of Liu Shu's strengths.

"Is that so?" Queen Xakira nodded.

"If that's the case, we will need to stop by the asteroid belt of your Solar System, Heavenly Willow. May we get permission to mine for a bit to gain some extra fuel to keep the ships in orbit? We won't take much, just 1 billion tons of materials or so. That should be enough to keep our ships in orbit for a few years." Liu Shu agreed easily. A billion tons didn't even scratch the number of asteroids in the belt.

'Eventually, I should start putting prices on all these things… No.' Liu Shu corrected herself.

'I should let my society deal with these things. What I need to do is suggest it so that they keep it in mind.' Therefore, as Queen Xakira made her way back, Liu Shu found Harmonixia and told her about it. Harmonixia was deeply entangled with the merchant sector's affairs. Therefore, she was the best to inform. She would know who to entrust this with. Harmonixia spoke softly.

"I heard that you had a battle?"

"Heard? From who?" Liu Shu was confused. Harmonixia chuckled.

"From Warlya." Warlya's voice spread in the room.

"They all felt your energy firing crazily. Therefore, they asked me about it. I saw no reason to hold back and spoke to them about it." Realization struck our big tree, and she hummed.

"I see. No problem at all. By the way, how was it, Warlya? The feeling of manipulating a moving humanoid figure."

"Not much different from controlling my <Avatar>."

"Eh?" Liu Shu was surprised.

"You have an Avatar? I want to see!" Warlya chuckled.

"My <Avatar> is in my stomach area." Liu Shu's senses moved over, and with Warlya's permission, she looked into her <Core Room>. There, an extremely elegant red-haired woman with exactly the same facial features as the manifestation sat calmly. Because the <Avatar> had not been in contact with anyone, it had no clothes at all. Liu Shu exclaimed, her tone praising.

"Whoa! Big Sister, your <Avatar> is so pretty!" Tall, slender, and perfectly muscular, and within her elegance and heroic demeanor, carrying the usual gentleness that all World Trees naturally manifested.

"Lian'er." A single word made both Warlya and Liu Shu freeze for a second. Looking back, Liu Shu felt a small chill. Harmonixia smiled, her eyes lacking any sort of smile and even looking somewhat gloomy.

"Are you looking at another woman?" This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Warlya gulped and decided to retreat from her presence. Even she, a World Tree Of War, felt intimidated by the current Harmonixia! Liu Shu had also somewhat forgotten the ridiculous level of obsessiveness each of her wives had because, let's be honest, there was no way for Liu Shu to interact with others besides family and enemies. So, she quite literally forgot.

"Ahem. How about you come to my <Core Room> and relax for a little bit?" The dangerous aura around Harmonixia disappeared, her face blooming in a sunny smile.

"Alright. Give me a few minutes to finish some things here." Warlya whispered to Liu Shu.

"Your wives are quite… unique." As if she had some sort of telepathy, Harmonixia blinked and smiled.

"Hm? Did you say something, Warlya?"

"N-Not at all, Madam." Liu Shu decided to escape and deal with the woman later with her <Avatar>. Instead, she focused on the two people who would be leading the welcoming of Queen Xakira. Ignatia, who was lazily sprawled in her bed at the heart of her Ant Empire, felt a root climb up her arm and "lick" her face.

"Mommy! I need your help." Ignatia turned her face and planted her luscious lips on the root.

"Baby, can't you see that Mommy is currently laying eggs?" Liu Shu was so preoccupied that she had not noticed.

"No wonder there are so many sisters skittering around your room! They are all carrying more little sisters!" Ignatia chuckled lazily and pleasantly. For her, laying eggs was a particularly pleasant activity. If she could, Ignatia could probably spend almost the entirety of her day laying eggs and never get tired. With a hint of sensuality in her voice, Ignatia asked Liu Shu.

"So, what is wrong, baby?"

"Hehe, your voice is really pretty, Mommy." Liu Shu giggled, and then spoke about Queen Xakira. Ignatia listened silently, asking a few more questions.

"Hm…. We might not get along as well as you are expecting, baby."

"Hm? Why not?"

"My Ant Colony, while it has some independence, usually falls into the Hive Mind-Type of civilizations. Usually, we ants don't really get along with anything that's not an ant."

"Mommy is different!" Hearing the confident tone in her baby's voice, Ignatia naturally agreed, raining little kisses on Liu Shu's roots.

"Of course I am different. I am your Mom, aren't I, my pretty girl?" Liu Shu's roots coiled around her slightly tighter, making sure she didn't bother her egg-laying. If she hurt one of her little sisters, Liu Shu would feel extremely guilty!

"So… Are hornets not the same?"

"No. A Hornet Queen is constantly challenged by her brethren. If a stronger female hornet appears and challenges the Queen, they can kill her to usurp the throne. Of course, such a thing is rare, but it is not impossible to happen. The fact that Queen Xakira has kept her reign for so long speaks vastly of her personal capabilities."

"Wow." Liu Shu felt admiration brewing for the Hornet Queen. Challenged by half of the entire species constantly, and yet managing to stay on top? That was an incredibly potent achievement. Ignatia chuckled at Liu Shu's exclamation.

"I bet she has some sort of <Title> like <Millennial Hornet Queen> or something like that, among many others."

"But… even if you two don't really get along at first, that's not the case in the long run, right?" Liu Shu commented.

"After all, Mommy is the best Ant Queen in the Universe! There is no way other Queens will dislike Mommy!" This level of blind faith and love made Ignatia feel fuzzy and delighted. She just wanted to hug her baby girl and squeeze her while giving her all the love in the world. She made do with Liu Shu's roots, hugging them tightly.

"How can my baby be so cute! I love you to death, Liu Shu!" The roots wiggled happily. After spending some mother-daughter bonding time, Ignatia spoke softly.

"Your guess is right. Therefore, you also need to help Mommy a little bit in the presentation, alright, baby? Insectkin from non-Hive species absolutely abhor those from Hive species." Ignatia paused and explained with an example.

"Put it this way: if you were to learn of the existence of a World Tree that mind-controlled hundreds of other World Trees, how would you feel? Change World Tree to human as well. That's how Queen Xakira will feel about me at first sight." Liu Shu felt enlightened.

"I see… I need to be careful in the future, then. I might encounter something similar." Ignatia felt amused and thought to herself.

'Honestly, Liu Shu would probably feel like a Hive Type World Tree for those unaware, right? Hehe, as expected of my baby. She is so similar to Mommy!' Of course, she didn't say it because she didn't want to make Liu Shu feel upset or strange. Queen Xakira still had a few days before she arrived, so Ignatia made sure to open her schedule for her arrival and waited in front of the portals for the Insectkin leaders. Zerrek and Rhex appeared with Xalis.

They came to act as witnesses and ensure that Queen Xakira wouldn't feel that Xalis's opinions were too biased or exaggerated. Xakira's fleet stopped on the outer orbit, and soon, a few small ships left from the <Mothership> and other battleships. An army of nearly 10, 000 individuals, with over 1, 000 <Sixth Energy Cycles>, arrived at Ceperet. Feeling the numbers, Liu Shu was surprised.

'To think that this is not even Xakira's entire army. She truly is the leader of a powerful force, isn't she?' However, as Liu Shu was surprised, so were they. When their ships descended, they saw the gargantuan World Tree easily from the edge of space. Liu Shu's body, appearing like a pillar that could hold up the sky by herself, made Xakira and the others feel a sense of pressure. They had not expected the size of a World Tree that had yet to go interstellar to be so gigantic and imposing.

They all saw the enormous World Tree's head move toward them, her profound and bright green eyes sweeping all of them. In that second, the pressure of Liu Shu's existence seemed to manifest around them, forcing most to hold their breaths. Queen Xakira mumbled to herself.

"What an impressive World Tree. She truly is exceptional."