Chapter 26 - 25: King of the Sky! Resource Problem

Chapter 26: Chapter 25: King of the Sky! Resource Problem

The night was deep, and a bright moon illuminated the earth. A thousand meters in the sky, a black bird of prey covered entirely in scale armor and sporting jagged bone spikes spread its wings. Its wings were raised into a shallow V-shape, the tips slightly turned up. The creature’s body remained almost completely still, relying only on the slight flutter of its wings to adjust its direction. This highly efficient method of flight required almost no energy and allowed the black raptor to glide without making a single sound.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, a glint of light flashed in the black raptor’s eyes. It tucked its wings tight against its body, extended its head, and went into a lightning-fast vertical dive like a black, living missile. In the split second before hitting the ground, it abruptly snapped its wings open to decelerate and thrust out its sharp talons, accurately snatching a colorful, thirty-foot-long python. At the very moment it grabbed the giant snake, the raptor’s steel-hook-like talons leveraged the momentum of the dive to instantly pierce through the python’s scale armor, utterly destroying its internal organs and Central Hub nerves.

However, this python was a Demon Fiend, after all! Its tenacious life force kept it from dying immediately. Instead, it viciously reared its head, attempting to bite into the horrific raptor’s body. Yet, when its serpentine eyes locked onto the bird of prey that had attacked it, the Snake Demon froze. What was this thing?

This raptor, boasting a wingspan of over twenty feet, resembled an eagle in its build—featuring a short, thick neck and a robust torso. But it completely lacked a bird’s feathers; instead, its entire body was encased in thick scale armor. Along its spine and at the joints of its scale armor, it was heavily studded with ferocious bone spikes. The beak on its head was like a blade of black jade, hooked and razor-sharp at the tip, and its mouth was packed full of fangs. Before the Snake Demon could even process this, its head was violently pecked apart by the fierce bird. Its brains burst out and were instantly chewed to pieces.

WHOOSH!

The ferocious black bird abruptly spread its wings, effortlessly carrying the massive, colorful python into the sky as it flew at top speed toward a nearby Insect Nest.

"Excellent!" Qin Yu, who was possessing the fierce black bird, couldn’t help but praise.

A killing machine! Like the Rapid Insect, this was a killing machine born entirely for combat. It lacked the fragile feathers of ordinary birds, having mutated to grow black scale armor instead. This was, in fact, the most typical exoskeleton modification of the Insect Swarm. Not only did it drastically increase its defense power, but it also ensured full combat effectiveness in complex environments like high humidity and low temperatures. Its offensive arsenal had also evolved from a mere beak and talons to its entire body acting as a deadly weapon. The bone spikes covering it were no mere decorations; they were lethal weapons meant for close-quarters combat. In an aerial dogfight, any part of its body could instantly turn into a weapon. Furthermore, its vision, speed, maneuverability, and load-bearing capacity had all been comprehensively enhanced—including the improved self-healing and digestive capabilities that came with its Insect Race transformation. If a Golden Eagle was a highly efficient predator born of nature, then this was a war weapon bred exclusively for slaughter! The two simply could not be compared.

"The new aerial unit shall be named the Black Thorn Eagle! Hatch more Black Thorn Eagles! Use No. 1 Insect Nest and No. 2 Insect Nest as the center to bring a two-hundred-kilometer radius under our rule!

"Hunt down all Demon Fiends and large wild beasts!

"The Black Thorn Eagles will explore further out to find other Demon’s Nests."

With a single command, the entire Insect Swarm immediately sprang into action. On the ground, the enhanced Rapid Insects moved like ghosts, embarking on a frenzied slaughter. With strength at the Bone Forging Realm, the Rapid Insects and Black Thorn Eagles were practically invincible within these mountains!

Indeed, the enhanced Black Thorn Eagles also possessed strength at the Bone Forging Realm. Only with sufficient power could they explore further out, which would in turn increase the chances of finding traces of the Snake Demon Li Tianyi. That Old Demon had used the Human Pill Technique to bewitch Demon Fiends and had even brought out a Blood Demon Sect statue in an attempt to perform a blood sacrifice. Qin Yu refused to believe that the man had only bewitched a single Demon Fiend! The deeper they searched into the other Demon’s Nests in the surrounding mountains, the higher the probability of discovering his tracks. However, the mountains were teeming with countless Demon Fiends and ferocious birds of prey. The Red-bellied Eagles were completely unable to penetrate deep into the territory, but the Black Thorn Eagles were different. Armed with Bone Forging Realm combat strength, they remained fearless even when diving deep into the mountain ranges.

However, due to their massive size and fierce combat power, incubating them required far more energy than the Rapid Insects. It took two hundred points of energy to breed just one—a full four times the cost of a Rapid Insect. But it was absolutely worth it. The mutated Black Thorn Eagles would completely dominate this stretch of sky, granting the Insect Swarm an absolute advantage. With their size and strength, a Black Thorn Eagle could easily bear his weight and carry him into the wind. Combined with his astonishing archery, the two of them would form a perfect aerial killing platform. Even against a Great Demon at the Qi and Blood Realm, he was confident he could hunt it down without taking a single scratch! Even when facing the Snake Demon Li Tianyi, who was at the Qi and Blood Like Dragon Realm, the Insect Swarm would still hold a certain edge. No matter if someone had Qi and Blood like a Dragon, they still couldn’t fly! Walking on air was the exclusive privilege of experts at the Qi Sea Realm who could commune with the Power of Heaven and Earth!

"I wonder what kind of surprise that giant bear will bring me once its analysis is complete?" Qin Yu thought. Amidst his joy, he shifted his gaze toward the direction of the Qin Family Manor. There, the No. 1 Insect Nest was currently analyzing an even more massive Bear Demon. Once the analysis was successful, the Insect Swarm’s combat system would be preliminarily complete. Ground assault, heavy units, as well as aerial reconnaissance and combat units—everything would be in place.

But soon, Qin Yu began to feel a headache coming on. He had originally thought that the Insect Swarm would be swimming in wealth after the great battle, yet in the blink of an eye, he found himself back in the awkward predicament of having insufficient energy. After gathering all the flesh and blood from the Demon Fiends and wild beasts, the Insect Swarm had gained a total of nearly nine thousand energy points. With that much energy, he could have bred 360 of the pre-enhancement Rapid Insects! But after the enhancement, that number was slashed in half! As for the Black Thorn Eagles, that number had to be halved once more. Furthermore, this energy also had to be spent on analyzing the Golden Eagle and the giant bear, upgrading and supplementing the Insect Nests, incubating a portion of Worker Insects, and setting aside reserves for the Insect Swarm’s active energy pool. The actual resources available for combat units hovered at only around five thousand points. The activities of the Insect Swarm inherently consumed energy as well. The daily upkeep for hundreds of Insect Race warriors was a staggering figure. It was manageable now, but as the swarm grew larger in the future, this would become a massive problem. Fortunately, the Insect Swarm was constantly hunting and expanding, reaping an endless supply of wild beast and Demon Fiend flesh.

"If the Insect Swarm is to grow stronger, it needs to analyze even more Demon Fiend gene pools to enrich its foundation. The energy required for this is just too massive.

"Accumulating ten thousand points to upgrade to a Tier Two Insect Nest is no small figure, either.

"I also need to elevate my own strength to the Qi and Blood Realm," Qin Yu pondered.

The stronger he became, the more he had to consider! Upgrading the Insect Nest didn’t just require a sufficient amount of energy; it also required Qin Yu, as the Dominator of the Insect Swarm, to achieve a breakthrough first before the nest could complete its subsequent elevation. He was the true core of the Insect Swarm.

"I’ll head into the mountains for real combat tomorrow. Although training at home can improve my strength, it falls far short when compared to actual life-and-death battles," Qin Yu decided.

Having made up his mind, he finally fell into a deep sleep.

Early the next morning.

Qin Yu had just woken up when he received some good news.

"Yu, breeding your War Beasts requires a massive amount of flesh and blood, so I mobilized the Qin Family’s resources to collect a batch within Cyan Peak County. We’ve gathered about a hundred domestic pigs, along with over two thousand various poultry and the like.

"I don’t know if that’s enough?

"The second batch is still being purchased, so that will take some time," Qin Hu said with a smile as he looked at Qin Yu. As the head of the four major families in Cyan Peak County, the power the Qin Family could unleash when they stopped hiding their strength was truly astonishing.

"That’s enough! But the more, the better!" Qin Yu said, pleasantly surprised.

Qin Hu had known from the very beginning that the Insect Swarm required vast quantities of flesh and blood, and he strongly supported it. It was just that the battle had come too quickly, leaving them absolutely no time beforehand. Upon returning, Qin Hu had started gathering resources for Qin Yu while simultaneously collecting intelligence. With this, the development speed of the Insect Swarm would be even faster!

"Have all of this transported over to the Qin Family Manor. I’ll dispatch the Rapid Insects to receive it. As long as the Insect Swarm is large enough, I won’t fear that Snake Demon Li Tianyi or the Blood Demon Sect!" Qin Yu declared.

"Alright, I’ll have the men get to it right away," Qin Hu replied.

The father and son both possessed decisive and resolute personalities; neither dragged their feet when it came to getting things done.

"Father, there’s another matter I want to discuss with you. I plan to head into the mountains to hunt Demon Fiends and improve my strength. We need to become stronger," Qin Yu added.