"Perhaps our offense was too fierce," Lu Siya tried to explain.
"First, we were bombarded by the railway guns. Then, my grandpa and the others quickly rushed into the monsters' nest. They didn't give the mastermind much time to react, so it didn't have the time to destroy its own brain."
"This brings us to a new question. Why is the defense in Hidden Fog so weak? In fact, there weren't any decent battles in the final lair in the depths of the sinkhole. It's as if the mastermind was disheartened and gave up on fighting back," Meng Chao said.
"Yes, when we explored Hidden Fog, we fell into the illusion created by the super abnormal beast known as the Wisdom Tree and experienced a rather thrilling adventure. But this level and scale of adventure is still too shabby for the final battle of the Monster War, which has lasted for half a century. It's too unbecoming of the monster civilization.
"Could it be that the monster civilization's fighting potential has long since been used up, and even when it's struggling before death, it can only struggle to this extent?
"It's not like that!
"We discovered a lot of evidence in Hidden Fog. The green algae have terrifying cloning and mobility abilities, and they can gather together to form a green tide that envelops the humans' war machines to form terrifying green giants!
"There are a lot of immature ultimate Apocalyptic Beasts. As long as we shift the resources used to nurture half of them to the other half, we could have nurtured a few mature Apocalyptic Beasts with explosive fighting strength!
"In fact, we don't even need to do anything complicated. All we need to do is have the remnants of the monster horde scattered throughout Monster Mountain Range retreat to Hidden Fog and hide them in the cracks underground. Then, why can't we last for half a month and deal a lot of damage to the humans?
"Forget about half a month, even if the monsters were a little more powerful and lasted for twenty-four hours, wouldn't that have been enough for the mastermind to destroy the microbrain that contains a lot of its secrets?"
Lu Siya found herself speechless.
As his thoughts became excited, his face gradually turned from pale to red.
But Lu Siya's face turned from red to stark white.
"We have a blood feud that won't end until one of us dies!"
Meng Chao, who was immersed in the pleasure of having his thoughts cut through like a hot knife through butter, did not notice Lu Siya's change. He swung his fists. "When humans ran into a monster horde and ran out of food, they knew that they were going to die. They would rather die than give their precious flesh and blood to the monsters.
"Since the mastermind has intelligence that surpasses that of humans, why would it give its living brain to humans in perfect condition?
"You should know that billions of years ago, it was the 'mother', a powerful existence that could compete with the primordial civilization. In its eyes, the people of today on Earth should be a relatively low-level creature, no different from ants.
"It's already depressing enough to lose to a bunch of low-grade creatures in the battle for survival, but now, these ants are going to take away their brains, slice them up, and study them as they please. They're going to steal their memories. To the mastermind of the monsters, this is an ending that's one hundred times more humiliating than complete destruction!
"In any case, if I were the monster mastermind, I could think of more than one hundred ways to destroy myself. I definitely wouldn't let the humans take my brain and dig out all my memories!"
"… Makes sense."
Lu Siya could only say, "So, what's your conclusion?"
"My conclusion is …" Meng Chao sucked in a deep breath.
Meng Chao sucked in a deep breath and stared at the endless lightning bolts in the sky. His words were like thunder, and he enunciated each word clearly. "There's a possibility that the so-called victory of the Monster War was something the mastermind of the monsters guided us step by step. It intentionally lost to us.
"Similarly, the microbrains that seem to contain a lot of ancient secrets and the origins of the monster civilization aren't the spoils of war we obtained. Instead, they're a gift given to us by the monster mastermind — a gift like the Trojan Horse!"
Lu Siya shook her head slightly.
She smiled in resignation.
"What kind of joke is this?"
She tried her best to control the faint tremor in her voice. "It's possible to feign defeat in a small-scale battle or even intentionally lose a battle, but how is it possible to intentionally lose the entire war and lose all its army, nest, resources, and brain?"
"Under normal circumstances, it's indeed impossible."
Meng Chao's voice was as sharp as a razor. "There's only one possibility. Unless the mastermind of the monster used its outstanding intellect and powerful calculative abilities to deduce the ending of the Monster War and discovered that no matter what it did, it would definitely die.
"Big Sis Ya, let me ask you a question. When do you think the monster civilization will go from prosperity to decline and walk down the path of defeat?"
"The pitched battle at the borders of Dragon City a year ago?"
Lu Siya thought about it for a while before she shook her head. "No, it's already too late. It should be the northern offense, which is when we stopped the Red Radiance Jade tsunami from erupting under Raging Waves. From then on, as long as Dragon City doesn't make any fatal mistakes, the monster civilization won't stand a chance."
"That's right. The northern offense is indeed very crucial."
Meng Chao suddenly changed the topic and said, "But what if I tell you that even if we didn't stop the Red Radiance Jade tsunami, even if the Red Dragon Army was completely wiped out in the northern offense, even if Dragon City suffered a devastating blow and couldn't recover for a few years, we would still win the Monster War?"
Lu Siya was stunned. "What?"
"Humans are an incredibly resilient race. We didn't rely on luck or the hard work of a few lone heroes to survive until this day in the Other World. I believe that even if we suffered a crushing defeat in the northern offense, we wouldn't be unable to recover and sink into oblivion. Instead, in the face of an even more terrifying threat to our survival, we would erupt with even greater courage and fighting strength," Meng Chao said seriously.
"The monster's mastermind woke up too late. It was badly injured during the ancient war, and it has been asleep for billions of years, so it lost too much of its strength. No matter how much it stretches out its tentacles and snatches resources, it's impossible for it to recover more than 10% of its living cells and turn back into the terrifying mother body it once was.
"Both of them are evolving at a mad pace.
"During the long and bloody battles, they become stronger.
"But with spirit energy cultivation, runic symbol machines, and gene modification technology, humans' evolution speed is faster than that of the monster civilization.
"No matter what, we will win the war of survival in the end.
"Even if we win a pyrrhic victory where we have to sacrifice eight hundred of our own to kill one thousand of our enemies, to the destroyed mastermind, no matter how badly humans are injured, it's meaningless.
"Ever since humans won the northern offense, at the latest, when the pitched battle at the borders of Dragon City ended, the mastermind should know very well that it was definitely going to die.
"Since it was going to die either way, why wouldn't it be possible for it to intentionally lose a war that it was definitely going to lose in exchange for a chance to fight back when it was going to die?"
Lu Siya asked hesitantly. "How else do you think the mastermind will fight back when it's going to die?"
"I don't know," Meng Chao said.
"Perhaps it still managed to escape and abandoned most of its body, leaving only a small portion of its living cells, and used a method we don't know to flee?" Meng Chao asked. "Perhaps it still managed to escape.
"That's impossible."
Lu Siya shook her head. "The entire monster nest is a huge ancient creature. The mastermind's calculation and fighting strength rely on the operation of its entire body. If a small portion of its active cells is separated from its body, even if it can survive, its calculation and fighting strength will plummet one hundred times. It'll be like a tiger that has lost its home, and it won't even be as good as a normal monster."
"But at the very least, it's still alive," Meng Chao said.
"As long as it's alive, there's hope. Being alive is everything."
"You have a really rich imagination," Lu Siya said with a deep frown.
Lu Siya frowned. "Do you really think that a normal ancient beast's flesh can leave its body and live on its own?"
"You do need a lot of imagination when you're an investigator, don't you think? Perhaps it's not normal flesh, but … "Meng Chao paused for a moment and sucked in a deep breath.
Meng Chao paused for a moment and sucked in a deep breath. "Instead, it's a microbrain."
"Microbrain?"
Lu Siya's pupils shrank, and she let out a bark of laughter. "Didn't the mastermind's microbrain end up as our spoils of war?"
"That's right. One of the microbrains has indeed ended up as our spoils of war, but who said that there's only one microbrain in the mastermind?"
Meng Chao said. "The monster civilization's brain is divided into a gigantic brain that takes up hundreds of meters. It's in charge of thinking at the level of execution, and a microbrain that is smaller than a fist and is connected together in a formation. It's in charge of thinking at the level of decision-making.
"During the ancient war, when the mother was at its peak, it had hundreds of microbrains. They formed a microbrain matrix to carry out highly complicated analyses and decisions, which was why it could fight against the ancients."
"But those microbrains were all destroyed," Lu Siya said.
"They were all destroyed by the ancients' space-based orbital weapons. Only one microbrain was left, and it was hidden underground. That's why it survived."
"Who said that? Who made us come to this conclusion that there's only one microbrain left, and it's completely under the humans' control?"
A fearful smile appeared on Meng Chao's face. "The microbrain said it. The microbrain told us that it's the only one left."
Lu Siya sank into silence again.
Meng Chao was silent for a long time as well. He listened carefully to the sounds of a mountain torrent crashing down rocks, breaking trees, and filling up ravines.
"I think we've already found the reason why the monster civilization didn't destroy its brain and even gave us a perfectly intact microbrain as a gift."
Meng Chao's voice sounded like it came from the depths of an ice cave that had been frozen for ten thousand years. "What if there's another microbrain?
"What if there's another microbrain when we discover it and analyze it?
"Countless elites in Dragon City are going into the ruins to train madly.
"The major forces of power in Dragon City are fighting over the monster civilization's legacy, and they're fighting against each other.
"What if there's another microbrain lurking in the depths of Ruins No. 2 and staring at us coldly?"
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