The starship landed on the desolate planet H2978.
“Chen Yueli” transformed into his beast form and rushed forward at the first opportunity, with Luo Yan close behind.
The two of them stood guard outside the starship. The moment the hatch opened a narrow crack, “Chen Yueli” darted inside.
He went straight into Yunyang’s arms and rolled around playfully in her embrace for quite a while before finally touching down and transforming into human form.
“Mistress, welcome home.”
The second “Chen Yueli” said those words, he was recalled into his original body.
It wasn’t that Chen Yueli was jealous even of his own clone. Maintaining the clone with his supernatural ability without a break had simply consumed too much energy.
Qin Mo promptly handed him an eighth-level insect core.
After absorbing the core, Chen Yueli’s depleted energy was finally replenished.
By then, the hatch had opened completely.
Luo Yan had already straightened his clothes. The instant he saw Yunyang, he bowed at the waist.
“Welcome back, Lady Yunyang.”
Chen Yueli hurried to Yunyang’s right side and reminded her in a low voice, “Mistress, Her Majesty the Empress previously instructed him to remain here with my clone and wait for you to return.”
Yunyang understood. With a faint smile, she nodded toward Luo Yan.
“Thank you for your hard work, Chief Executive Luo Yan.”
Lady Yunyang actually remembered him!
Luo Yan felt a little thrilled, but quickly composed himself and said solemnly, “It was no trouble. It was my honor to wait here for you.”
“The news of your safe return to the Federation has already been reported to Her Majesty the Empress. Her Majesty is currently on her way here. You may rest in the travel cabin for a while.”
The clone could not use a spatial bracelet, so the travel cabin naturally belonged to Luo Yan.
Yunyang had no intention of taking over Luo Yan’s cabin. She had her beast husbands set up another travel cabin, then went inside to wash up and change clothes.
Several of her beast husbands also found rooms to freshen up.
During the past few days aboard the starship, they and their mistress had worked without sleep or rest, so naturally, they were all looking rather disheveled.
While soaking in the bath, Yunyang turned on her optical computer. At last, it had a signal.
Although Si Zhao had suppressed news of her disappearance, quite a few people knew what had happened. During this time, they had all been trying to contact her.
The moment the optical computer regained its signal, the messages she had missed earlier began popping up one after another, so rapidly that Yunyang’s eyes started to blur.
She opened the group chat with her close girlfriends first and reported that she was safe.
After that, she privately informed Si Zhao that she had returned, then sent a group message to all the friends who had tried to contact her.
As for the messages she had attempted to send while in the extraterrestrial star system, they had not been sent automatically after the signal was restored. Too much time had passed.
That was a relief to Yunyang. She had only sent them to see whether the messages would go through, and what she had written was extremely… nonsensical.
If those messages had actually been delivered, she probably would have received a whole row of question marks in response.
Yunyang deleted the old messages in bulk. By the time she finished, twenty minutes had passed.
She temporarily shut off the optical computer, got up to take a quick shower, and changed into a light-blue, waist-cinching dress paired with a simple pair of white sneakers.
After changing, she tidied her hair before finally leaving the room.
Planet H2978 was not particularly close to Central Star. Even at full speed, it would take half a day to reach them.
Before Si Zhao arrived, Yunyang took the opportunity to log on to the Star Network and check the major events that had occurred in the Federation during her absence.
The aftermath of the war had been dealt with before Star Dawn Day, and there was already little discussion of the war on the Star Network.
Still, from the military’s previous announcements, Yunyang learned that although the insect race had been utterly defeated, the female insect beside the Insect Mother had managed to escape by sheer luck.
If nothing unexpected happened, it would become the new Insect Mother.
Female insects had a slow growth cycle and needed at least two or three years before they could lay eggs. Moreover, very few insects remained. Even with a new Insect Mother, the insect race would have no way to recover its former numbers in the short term, and therefore could not threaten the Federation.
The other news was all positive as well, but none of it fell within Yunyang’s sphere of concern, so she merely skimmed through it.
Meanwhile, He Youchuan piloted the starship at full speed and finally reached planet H2978 five hours later.
The moment the starship landed, before it had even stabilized, someone opened the hatch.
Si Zhao, You Lu, and Chu Zhiwei were the first to step out.
Luo Yan had sent them the exact coordinates, and the three of them immediately spotted the deployed travel cabin, as well as Yunyang sitting outside it.
“Yangyang!”
You Lu rushed forward and pulled Yunyang to her feet, carefully inspecting her from head to toe.
Si Zhao and Chu Zhiwei were only a step behind, but they too immediately checked whether Yunyang had been injured.
After confirming that Yunyang had only lost a little weight and was otherwise unchanged, the three of them finally let out a collective sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness you’re all right. Thank goodness.”
Seeing the concern in their eyes, Yunyang felt warmth spread through her heart.
There was still something she needed to tell Si Zhao about the extraterrestrial star system, so she first invited the three of them into the travel cabin.
The cabin was spacious, but it would still feel cramped with too many people inside. As a result, only He Youchuan, Yu Wenxu, and Gu Yun followed them in. The other imperial husbands and beast husbands remained outside.
All nine of Yunyang’s beast husbands stayed by her side, along with Nuo Xiao, the snow owl.
Once they had taken their seats in the living room, Yunyang immediately brought up what had happened in the extraterrestrial star system.
“Sister Zhaozhao, I discovered other beastmen in the extraterrestrial star system. They may be the descendants of the explorers who ventured there more than two thousand years ago.”
Pei Wenye gave Nuo Xiao a timely nudge.
Nuo Xiao looked somewhat flustered.
He knew nothing about the Federation, and he had never experienced being scrutinized by so many ladies at once.
He had no idea what he was supposed to say.
Fortunately, Yunyang had already explained everything on his behalf.
After listening to Yunyang’s description of those beastmen, Si Zhao nodded solemnly.
“Yangyang, your guess is correct. They are indeed beastmen from the Federation.”
“I’ll arrange for people to bring them back to the Federation, but I’ll need the help of your beast husbands.”
A barrier stretched between the Federation and the extraterrestrial star system. Si Zhao had previously assigned people to study it, but they had never found a way to break through it.
The beastmen in the extraterrestrial star system had already waited for far too long. Si Zhao could not bear to make them wait any longer.
She planned to work with Pei Wenye and use their spatial abilities to bring all the beastmen from the extraterrestrial star system back.
The Federation had plenty of undeveloped planets, more than enough for them to settle down and build new lives.
Pei Wenye took the initiative to offer his help and stay behind.
As Nuo Xiao had come from the extraterrestrial star system, he was also left on planet H2978.
Yunyang left everything that followed entirely in Si Zhao’s hands. She returned to Central Star with You Lu, Chu Zhiwei, and the remaining beast husbands.
The three close friends had been out of touch for far too long, so they spent the entire night chatting in Yunyang’s villa.
The group of beast husbands who had been neglected could only helplessly stand guard nearby.
It was not until dawn that You Lu and Chu Zhiwei, who had chatted throughout the night, reluctantly said goodbye to Yunyang.
The two of them had not rested at all after finishing their work at the purification tower the previous day, and they were simply too exhausted to continue.
Yunyang felt a little tired as well. After seeing her two close friends off, she turned to look at her several beast husbands.
She decided to randomly choose one of them to accompany her to rest.
