"First, a seventh-level exotic beast is far weaker in combat than a divine spirit of an intelligent race at the same level. An exotic beast that has just completed its seventh evolution, no matter how strong, is still limited in its power. Second, the Divine Dice contains powerful god-tier wondrous items that our Nian Race left behind, prepared especially for us.

"Multiple legendary-level experts, with the help of those god-tier wondrous items, are fully capable of hunting a newly evolved seventh-level exotic beast.

"Even on the off chance—a one-in-a-thousand probability—that we’re no match for the beast, we can still use the Divine Dice to send a signal to the mother star and request reinforcements."

Su Ze nodded. "So the Divine Dice also functions as an interstellar communicator. In that case, once you get the seventh-level extract, do you plan on cultivating a true Blue Star Human into a god, or one of the pseudo-humans whose bodies have been taken over by your Nian Race divine spirits?"

Mu Wang answered without hesitation, "Of course we’d cultivate a Blue Star nati—I mean, a Blue Star Human. First, we have no desire to be hunted ourselves. Second, the souls of different Intelligent Races are unique. Even though we of the Nian Race have possessed many from the Blue Star Human Race, we are still fundamentally different.

"Even if someone were to hunt us thinking we were Blue Star Humans, they wouldn’t be able to absorb as much Origin Gene as they would from the Evolutionary Material of a true human divine spirit. It would be more like getting an adulterated, inferior product. Of course, this doesn’t really affect us. We evolve just the same; it’s merely a change of bodies. All of us here have died in battle once before. Just getting a chance to live again is a rare blessing."

Su Ze nodded and asked, "Then what does the future hold for you Nian Race divine spirits who’ve possessed human bodies? Are you just going to be cooped up on Blue Star forever? Never becoming gods, never leaving the planet, just serving as the Nian Race’s sheepdogs here?"

Mu Wang mulled it over for a moment before saying, "To be honest, even I don’t know the answer to that. I only woke up a little over twenty years ago. It’s possible that those like Jiang Pingle and the Pope, who’ve been awake for centuries, have a clearer understanding of our race’s plans.

"All I know is that once we are close to successfully cultivating a human divine spirit, we’ll send a signal to the mother star through the Divine Dice. When that happens, the mother star will send people to come and collect the human god. Perhaps then, some of us might get the chance to return to the Nian Race’s Mother Star with those experts."

Su Ze bluntly pointed out, "But even if you’re still alive by then, an opportunity like that won’t be coming your way."

Mu Wang didn’t argue. Blue Star still needed "sheepdogs." It was impossible for them to take all the Nian Race members resurrected from the Divine Dice back to the Nian Race’s Mother Star. If anyone was going, it would surely be the "veteran employees" like Jiang Pingle and the Pope.

If he wanted to return to the mother star, he’d have to wait for more Nian Race divine spirits to be resurrected from the Divine Dice to take his place.

Mu Wang said, "Actually, you could say we just got unlucky. Our Nian Race is always searching the universe for hundreds of planets like Blue Star, deploying hundreds or thousands of Divine Dice. What these planets all have in common is that they’re inhabited by Intelligent Races with extremely low evolutionary levels. But they’re almost always common races found throughout the universe, not like your Blue Star Human Race, which is unique.

"After we’re reborn in a host body, we use any means necessary to plunder the planet’s resources. Once we’ve completed our sixth evolution, we just wait for one of our race’s ships to come pick us up. As for what happens to the planet—whether its resources are depleted or not—we couldn’t care less.

"It’s nothing like here on Blue Star, where our hands are tied. Here, we have to make sure the Blue Star Human Race doesn’t go extinct and even ensure that you thrive."

"Your Nian Race is really just a swarm of pests, laying your eggs and plundering wherever you go," Su Ze scoffed.

It was precisely the special nature of the Human Race that had saved Blue Star from being completely ravaged by these pests. But it had also turned the Blue Star Human Race into little more than livestock being raised by the Nian Race.

But at least Su Ze had confirmed one thing: the Blue Star Human Race was in no danger of extinction. In fact, with the Nian Race’s covert support, they would continue to develop and grow ever stronger.

After all, when you raise livestock, you fatten them up before the slaughter.

’A blessing in disguise, I suppose...’ he thought, a moment of grim humor in the midst of his despair.

The biggest problem, however, was that if he ever became a god, he would be "shipped off."

If he didn’t want to be slaughtered, he had two choices: either escape Blue Star before becoming a god, or just give up entirely, never become a god, and live out his life as livestock.

’I’m probably the fastest-growing livestock on this farm,’ Su Ze mused self-deprecatingly.

The truth was devastating. It seemed as if all their struggles were meaningless.

Even if they managed to defeat the so-called Alien Party, what then?

As long as they couldn’t escape this planet, their fate was to be harvested by the Nian Race sooner or later.

But Su Ze didn’t lose heart. He believed there was always a glimmer of hope. He already had two potential avenues that might help him leave Blue Star.

One was the Mother Tree. She was from outer space to begin with and even had a spaceship. The only problem was that without a god-level expert to pilot it, the ship could only make short-range flights.

But if he could find a way to revive the Mother Tree’s master, the divine spirit from the Tree Spirit Race, he should be able to leave Blue Star.

The other avenue was the mysterious inheritance. It was highly probable that the legendary Lin Hua had used that very inheritance to leave Blue Star.

But he would have to explore the inheritance to find out the specifics.

Su Ze hadn’t yet collected the four puzzle pieces that acted as the key, and he also felt his own strength was still lacking. For these reasons, he had no immediate plans to explore the mysterious inheritance.

’My next goals are, first, to keep an eye out for any way to heal the Mother Tree’s master, and second, to collect the puzzle pieces that serve as the key to the inheritance. And of course, I can’t let my own strength fall behind...’ Su Ze thought to himself.