Chapter 111 - 108: Spoils of War! A New Breeding Method for the Insect Swarm

Chapter 111: Chapter 108: Spoils of War! A New Breeding Method for the Insect Swarm

The Three-legged Fire Crow swooped down. Its powerful talons hooked onto the corpse of the Flood Dragon King, Ao Hua. Flapping its massive wings, it mobilized the surrounding Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, carrying the massive hundred-meter-long body toward the Shegu Mountain Range.

Meanwhile, the cleanup of the other two battlefields had also begun. The Insect Nest in the underwater Dragon Palace had started to hatch. This lake was incredibly vast, spanning over 180 kilometers in diameter. The remains of thousands of Demon Fiends and a massive number of Insect Race warriors were scattered everywhere. Given its excellent geographical location and the massive amount of corpses needing recovery, building an Insect Nest here was a natural choice.

At the former Mountain Demon Base, the Seven-Colored Spirit Deer that had been pierced through by Needle-spine Crawlers was transported up from underground. Over two thousand units were bustling about the devastated battlefield.

The slaughter here had been the most tragic. The corpses of the fallen Insect Race and Demon Fiends approached thirty thousand. Even the Insect Nest and Needle-spine Crawlers had been shattered. The only silver lining was that this battlefield was located on the Fungal Mat, meaning the vast majority of the corpses could be rapidly recovered.

"In four consecutive battles, we lost 17,800 Insect Swarm units, including 962 in the Qi and Blood Realm! The swarm’s remaining combat-ready units are down to just 40,000! Over 3,000 are severely injured, and 20,000 have minor injuries!" Qin Yu calculated silently from within the Shegu Mountain Range, tallying the swarm’s losses from this war.

Nearly a third of their forces had been wiped out!

The casualties among the high-tier units were exceptionally heavy. To halt the Mountain-Splitting Demon King’s berserk charge, Qin Yu had mobilized almost all his Qi and Blood Realm forces for a siege. More than half of the aerial mainstays—the Thunder Rocs and Four-winged Black Thorn Eagles—had perished. The Thorn Snakes were almost entirely annihilated. Hunting down the Flood Dragon King had resulted in equally massive losses.

However, it was all worth it.

Amidst the tragic battles, a large number of swarm units had successfully evolved and furthered their strength. Once the severely injured units began to recover, the number of Tier Two units in the swarm would hold steady at 2,300! Furthermore, over a dozen new strains had evolved. Even the Four-winged Black Thorn Eagle was a product of evolution from this great war.

Watching the Three-legged Fire Crow return with the Flood Dragon’s corpse, alongside the bodies of the Mountain-Splitting Demon King and the Seven-Colored Spirit Deer hauled back by several units working in tandem, Qin Yu felt exceptionally refreshed.

He thought, "With these Demon Fiend corpses, the Insect Swarm’s strength will recover rapidly. We’ll even gain four Qi Sea Realm combatants. The entire Wilderness Mountain Range will belong to the swarm!"

A meteoric rise!

In the four consecutive battles, the only true disadvantage they suffered was during the clash with the Blood Demon Sect members. Before his death, the strongest among them, Leader Xuan Jiu, transformed into an "aberrant creature." Not only did he slaughter a massive number of swarm units, but he also self-destructed at the end, leaving absolutely nothing behind.

Even so, the swarm still reaped considerable rewards.

The "Daoist Armor" worn by the other five members of the Xuan Nine Squad had been sent to the Insect Nest. The nest was currently analyzing them, attempting to crack their profound secrets to the best of its abilities.

Stepping out of the Cultivation Room, Qin Yu looked toward one side of the Shegu Mountain Range.

RUMBLE—

The corpse of the Flood Dragon landed heavily on the ground, emitting a violent boom.

A corpse a hundred meters long simply couldn’t be analyzed given the current size of the Insect Nest. A Tier Two Insect Nest was only twenty meters tall and covered a hundred square meters; it wasn’t even as large as the Flood Dragon. Naturally, it was impossible to place the corpse inside for analysis. The other Decomposition Chambers were even smaller.

Trying to use its corpse to nurture a powerful new Qi Sea Realm unit was completely impossible. Using conventional nurturing methods, even if the Flood Dragon’s body was coiled up, the required incubation egg would need to be tens of meters tall—far larger than a Tier Two Insect Nest! The efficiency of transferring Energy through the Fungal Mat was also too low, meaning the incubation process would take an eternity.

Faced with this situation, the Insect Swarm naturally had a solution.

The ground within the Shegu Mountain Range began to undergo a drastic transformation. The earth caved in across an area that had long been covered by the Fungal Mat. It was as if the ground itself had come alive. Massive amounts of dirt were piled to the side by the Fungal Mat’s tentacles, working in tandem with the Needle-spine Crawlers, Worker Insects, and some units specialized in earth manipulation.

In less than half a day, a massive pit over two hundred meters long and wide, and more than fifty meters deep, appeared in the ground.

The surrounding Fungal Mat Organization rapidly spread over it, followed by the injection of a vast amount of high-concentration Energy liquid. The inner walls of the giant pit, composed entirely of churning flesh and blood, began to undulate.

The mutilated, hundred-meter-long corpse of the Flood Dragon was thrown inside, followed by the bodies of the Mountain-Splitting Demon King and the Seven-Colored Spirit Deer. Countless dense tentacles sprouted from the pit’s perimeter, burrowing into the three corpses to begin analyzing their life gene maps.

This was a Nurturing Pool!

When the Insect Swarm slaughtered their way through the cosmos, they naturally encountered many lifeforms of colossal size. At such times, relying solely on the mother nest for analysis was insufficient. It wasn’t that the Insect Nest couldn’t be correspondingly scaled up; rather, it just wasn’t necessary.

To analyze super-sized units and rapidly incubate a sea of Insect Race warriors, the nest designed a special nurturing organ. Built directly upon the Fungal Mat, it used biological tissue to form an ultra-large decomposition and Nurturing Pool. Just like the one right before his eyes.

The high-purity Energy liquid contained within the Nurturing Pool could perfectly supply the Energy required to analyze and reincarnate the Flood Dragon King, while also simultaneously mass-producing other Insect Race units. When larvae evolved, they could also absorb this Energy, allowing hundreds or even thousands of units to be incubated at once, drastically improving overall efficiency.

According to the swarm’s inherited memories, once they grew powerful enough, their incubation methods would gradually shift from the initial Fungal Mat and larvae to a "Sea of Origin." For instance, they could transform a lake or even an ocean into an incubation ground for the swarm, capable of hatching millions or even billions of units at a time, forming an ultra-massive insect sea.

Some super-giant units, such as the Biological Battleships known as Leviathans, were at least five to six hundred meters long. The larger ones spanned dozens or even hundreds of kilometers. Behemoths of that scale could only be nurtured in a Sea of Origin.

He thought, "With the resources harvested from this battle, I can finally cultivate a Nurturing Pool. This will drastically speed up troop production and analysis.

"However, this means a single Insect Nest in the Shegu Mountain Range won’t be enough. I’ll need to nurture two more nests to serve as analysis and incubation hubs. From now on, the Shegu Mountain Range will be the swarm’s R&D center. I’ll also need to dispatch forces to take over the Three Immortals Mountain."

Watching the three corpses of the Qi Sea Realm Demon Kings sink into the high-concentration essence liquid, Qin Yu let out a sigh of relief. The Energy contained within this single Nurturing Pool alone had cost roughly a million points of Energy! If his harvest from these past few battles hadn’t been so substantial, how could he have dared to be so extravagant?

Across the four consecutive battles, the Flesh and Blood Resources were primarily harvested from the underwater Dragon Palace and the Mountain Demon Tribe battlefields. These two clashes alone had yielded approximately 20,000 slain Demon Fiends! Among them, the more than five thousand massive aquatic Demon Fiends had been almost entirely wiped out.

The vast majority of Demon Fiends were larger than Rapid Insects. This included no shortage of large units like savage bulls and giant bears, and the aquatic Demon Fiends were generally even larger than their terrestrial counterparts.

By a rough estimate, a single Demon Fiend corpse yielded at least three to four hundred points of Energy. The corpses of Qi and Blood Realm Great Demons contained even more. Recycling all these corpse resources would provide at least ten million points of Energy!

And this wasn’t even counting the recycling of the fallen swarm units.

He thought, "While the Energy yield is high, the consumption is equally massive! The injured Insect Race warriors need resources to recover, and I’ll need to nurture a new batch of combat units to replenish the ranks.

"The three Qi Sea Realm Great Demon corpses require analysis and incubation.

"The Mimic Fungal Mat plan can fully commence. I’ll have the Fungal Mat cover the entire Wilderness Mountain Range!"

Qin Yu felt a surge of exhilaration. He watched as the intact units within the swarm began placing Insect Nests toward the Three Immortals Mountain and over a dozen surrounding nodes. Using these nests as epicenters, the Mimic Fungal Mat could rapidly expand until it all seamlessly connected. Once all the nodes were completed, the entire Wilderness Mountain Range would be entirely under the swarm’s control. They could then heavily exploit all sorts of mineral resources, precious medicinal herbs, and more.

He mused, "Things must be pretty lively over in Bishui City right now! I’ve slaughtered another Blood Demon Sect squad. I wonder how they’ll react?"