Chapter 58 - 57: Underwater Insect Nest

Chapter 58: Chapter 57: Underwater Insect Nest

ROAR—

A low, majestic roar resounded from the No. 1 Insect Nest near the Qin Family Manor. The sound shook the area for miles around, forcing all beasts to submit.

The roar drew the gazes of many within the Qin Family Manor toward the Insect Nest. Given the nest’s close proximity, they were accustomed to hearing strange noises, but this was the first time they had encountered such an astonishingly overbearing presence.

"What happened? Did Yu breed another powerful War Beast?"

Inside the secret chamber, Qin Hu opened his eyes and looked toward the Insect Nest, feeling a sudden palpitation in his heart. Once the qi and blood in his body settled, Qin Hu swallowed a White Bone Regeneration Pill.

"This time, I must break through to the Qi and Blood Realm!" he thought.

With his current strength, he was of no help at all. For a father, this reality was undoubtedly harsh.

Closing his eyes, Qin Hu guided the qi and blood in his body to gather toward his heart. He might not be of any use in a battle, but at the very least, he needed to help Qin Yu stabilize the rear.

At this moment, three giant pythons were rapidly weaving through the jungle, slithering swiftly toward the lake in Snake Valley. Though called giant pythons, aside from their basic serpentine shape, the rest of their features closely resembled a Flood Dragon. They even had two ferocious long horns piercing through the skin on their heads.

Their entire bodies were covered in overlapping, snake-scale-like exoskeletons, with a row of sharp spikes of varying sizes running down their backs. Their bloodline genes came from the Ink Green Snake King—the Great Demon whose qi and blood was like a dragon, and who had nearly transformed into a Flood Dragon!

It was safe to say that among the Insect Swarm’s existing units, these three "Flood Dragons" had the highest potential. After weeding out some mutated genes and combining them with the Insect Swarm’s superior genetics, Qin Yu had discovered a major problem: a Tier One Insect Nest simply couldn’t breed their complete forms. Therefore, he had no choice but to settle for the next best thing.

Thus came the three Flood Dragons before him, each thirty-six meters long. If they were in their complete forms, Qin Yu estimated their sizes would at least double.

"Clad in Profound Iron and shaped like a Flood Dragon... let’s name them the ’Profound Flood Dragon’," Qin Yu thought to himself, finalizing the new unit’s name.

Although both the Profound Flood Dragon and the Profound Armor Barbarian Bear were heavy units, their roles were different. Besides being amphibious like the Blood Shadow Python, the Profound Flood Dragon’s greatest feature was its agility.

When the Profound Armor Barbarian Bear charged, it was as unstoppable as an ancient behemoth, making it much more suited for the plains. In complex jungle environments, there often wasn’t any room to charge.

The Profound Flood Dragon perfectly solved this problem, able to weave freely even through dense, complicated forests. Of course, the trade-off was that its defense was a tier weaker than that of the Profound Armor Barbarian Bear.

Half a day later.

The three Profound Flood Dragons plunged into the lake and began hunting for prey. Once in the water, their agility increased even further. More than a dozen Blood Shadow Pythons immediately followed after the Profound Flood Dragons arrived, fanning out to sweep the area with the dragons at the center.

As they ventured deeper into the lake, Qin Yu realized that the resources here were far more abundant than he had imagined. Large fish over a meter long were everywhere, swimming about in schools, and there was no shortage of massive, ferocious carnivorous fish either.

Soon enough, the Profound Flood Dragons spotted their first opponent. It wasn’t a fish, but a "crab" with a shell over six meters in diameter, resting on the lakebed like a gigantic bluestone! If one didn’t look closely, they wouldn’t even realize it was a Great Demon at the Qi and Blood Realm!

"A Cyan Crab?" Qin Yu murmured, looking over with some curiosity.

While drinking and chatting with the people from the Demon Suppression Bureau, Zhao Zhenshan and the others had told him a lot about Demon Fiends. To make slaying Demon Fiends easier, the Demon Suppression Bureau had compiled the Great Wei Demons and Monsters Record, which documented the appearances and weaknesses of over a thousand common Demon Fiends within the Great Wei territory. Before he left, Zhao Zhenshan had gifted him a copy.

The Great Wei Demons and Monsters Record stated: "The Cyan Crab: Its shell is a dark, stony blue-black, rendering it indistinguishable from underwater reefs when lying in wait. Its massive pincers are as large as bushels, possessing the might to sever currents and crush boulders when they open and close. Three inches below its navel lies a soft gap, which is its fatal weakness."

While the book wasn’t worth much money, it was crucial to Qin Yu, greatly clarifying his understanding of various Demon Fiends.

Instead of rushing in for the kill, one of the Blood Shadow Pythons swam casually, loitering around the Cyan Crab as if by accident.

A moment later.

The Cyan Crab, which had been resting quietly on the lakebed, shifted slightly like a rock. Its bluestone-like body split open, revealing a pair of ridiculously oversized pincers. The giant pincers pushed against the ground, propping up its entire body. The rest of its form, previously buried in the silt, also rose, exposing its massive frame.

But in that very instant, the wandering Blood Shadow Python suddenly lunged, sinking its fangs into a protrusion on the Cyan Crab’s shell—its eye.

Caught off guard, the Cyan Crab shuddered. Its massive pincer clamped onto the Blood Shadow Python and yanked, trying to tear it off. Yet, even as its body was snapped into two pieces, the Blood Shadow Python never released its fangs. All the lethal venom stored in its venom glands was pumped through its fangs in one go, causing large patches of the Cyan Crab’s shell to corrode and rot. The enormous body thrashed and rolled underwater as the potent venom invaded its system through its eye.

Only then did the Profound Flood Dragons loitering nearby finally make their move. The three behemoths closed in.

Spotting the enemies mid-roll, the Cyan Crab endured the agony and channeled its internal power, forming a halo of cyan-gray light around its body. Its massive pincer cleaved through the water currents, snapping toward one of the Profound Flood Dragons.

The Profound Flood Dragon’s thirty-six-meter-long body traced a nimble arc through the water, wrapping itself around the Cyan Crab as its cavernous maw opened wide to reveal vicious fangs.

CRACK! CRACK!

The Profound Flood Dragon’s Profound Iron exoskeleton tightly constricted the Cyan Crab’s body. Its muscles and bones contracted forcefully as its fang-filled jaws bit down on the crab’s other eye.

Under the crushing pressure, the Cyan Crab’s shell creaked loudly, and the light around its body flickered erratically. The Cyan Crab wildly swung its giant pincers, clamping onto the Profound Flood Dragon. The Profound Iron exoskeleton cracked, and scarlet blood oozed out. A massive underwater current swirled around them, boosting the Cyan Crab’s strength to an even more terrifying degree, as if aiming to snap the Profound Flood Dragon cleanly in half.

But the other two Profound Flood Dragons flanking them sprang into action. They bit down on the giant pincers and viciously yanked them outward.

Taking advantage of the opening, the dozen or so Blood Shadow Pythons tunneled into the crab’s vulnerable abdomen, frantically tearing at the flesh and injecting venom.

SNAP—

The protective energy around the Cyan Crab’s body completely dissipated. Starting from its two giant pincers, its entire body was violently torn apart, reduced to a mangled, dismembered corpse.

The Insect Swarm never fought alone.

"The Profound Flood Dragon’s strength is astonishing. Much like the Profound Armor Barbarian Bear, it can suppress a Demon Fiend that has just broken through to the Qi and Blood Realm.

"With this, the foundational underwater combat power of the Insect Swarm has been established.

"I can build an underwater Insect Nest.

"Then I’ll breed more aquatic combat units and purge this lake of its Demon Fiends.

"After that, I can expand outward along the river. Advancing, I can spread my influence over Bishui City and even more than half of the Ling State. Retreating, I can dive deep into the Vast Mountains.

"Eventually, I can even enter the Endless Ocean," Qin Yu noted, watching this scene with utmost satisfaction.

The Insect Race possessed an incredible adaptability, capable of surviving in the vast majority of harsh environments. Naturally, this included underwater habitats.

After the three Profound Flood Dragons descended and cleared out a relatively flat area in the lake, a Worker Insect began diving to the lakebed under heavy escort, ready to pupate into the Insect Swarm’s fifth Insect Nest.

A purple Fungal Mat rapidly began to spread through the water.