Chapter 69 - 68: Emergence of the Insect Swarm, Insect Race Resource System

Chapter 69: Chapter 68: Emergence of the Insect Swarm, Insect Race Resource System

The development of the Insect Swarm snowballed.

With the massive amount of flesh and blood in Snake Valley as a foundation, the Insect Swarm broke through to Tier Two. They swept through the Demon’s Nests—both large and small—as well as ordinary wild beasts within a radius of hundreds of miles. This caused the Insect Swarm’s numbers to skyrocket at an astonishing rate.

Even if they clashed head-on with the Mountain Demons, Qin Yu had a great chance of winning. However, he didn’t let it go to his head and order his army to bear down on them directly. Because the Mountain Demon Tribe wasn’t the only presence in the Wilderness Mountain Range.

He had learned from Inspector Liu of the Blood Demon Sect that after investigating the cause of Li Tianyi’s death, they planned to enter the Wilderness Mountain Range to recruit unknown Demon Fiends.

Recruit?

Or perhaps a "dragon"?

Qin Yu looked toward Golden Scale Lake. On the vast lake, which spanned tens of kilometers in diameter, monstrous waves would occasionally surge. The winding body of the Profound Flood Dragon could faintly be seen.

In the stories and legends circulating in Cyan Peak County, the Wilderness Mountain Range stretched on endlessly, with countless Demon Fiends lurking within. And among them, dragons existed.

Dragons truly existed in this world. In fact, there were many of them.

There was even a dragon in the Bishui River. The humans living along the riverbanks frequently offered sacrifices to the Dragon God. This was something even the Demon Suppression Bureau couldn’t forbid. Moreover, dragons were lustful by nature and loved mating with different creatures. This resulted in "dragons" lurking in many places among the mountains, rivers, and lands of this world.

However, most were Flood Dragons with impure bloodlines. In the Great Wei Demons and Monsters Record, there were dozens of types of Flood Dragons, Python Dragons, and Fish Dragons recorded.

"Are there dragons in this area too?"

Qin Yu’s gaze deepened. If there were dragons, they were likely lurking in these rivers and great marshes, evading the detection of the Black Thorn Eagles. This was also why he didn’t dare let the Insect Swarm start an all-out war with the Mountain Demons right away.

The Insect Swarm’s battlefield wasn’t limited to a single location. Instead, they were advancing on both land and river simultaneously.

But even if there was a dragon, it couldn’t possibly be a True Dragon. An entity of that caliber wasn’t something a mere Inspector from the Blood Demon Sect’s Bishui City branch could contact. At most, it was a Flood Dragon with an impure bloodline!

But even a Flood Dragon... As long as it was called a dragon, its strength was usually terrifying. The weakest among them would be in the Qi Sea Realm, possessing the ability to manipulate Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.

The dark green serpent Li Tianyi had tamed, which hadn’t yet succeeded in becoming a Flood Dragon, was already at the peak of Qi and Blood like a Dragon. It only needed to take one more step to transform from a snake into a Flood Dragon! A single step to reach the heavens!

If the Insect Swarm and the Mountain Demon Tribe were locked in slaughter and that Flood Dragon suddenly charged out at a critical moment, it would be extremely dangerous.

"Find it! Kill it!"

A dangerous glint flashed through Qin Yu’s eyes. So what if it was a Flood Dragon? Once dead, it would be nothing more than a pile of rotting meat!

He looked toward the churning Golden Scale Lake and immersed his consciousness into the Insect Swarm’s Mind Network. The information for the entire Insect Swarm appeared before his eyes.

[Name: Dominator of the Insect Swarm.]

[Insect Hive Tier: Tier Two.]

[Life Energy Reserve: 8,240/100,000 points.]

[Hatchable Units (Tier Two): Poison Burst Insect (Energy: 100 points), Cockroach (Energy: 3,500 points, can merge with a massive amount of metal to Enhance), Profound Flood Dragon (Energy: 4,000 points, Profound Iron: 5 tons), Profound Armor Cyan Ao (Energy: 4,000 points).]

[Hatchable Units (Tier One): Rapid Insect... Folded.]

[Current Units: Tier Two Units (Cockroaches x6, Profound Flood Dragons x3, Poison Burst Insects x30, Profound Armor Cyan Aos x3); Tier One Units (Rapid Insects, Blood Shadow Pythons, Black Thorn Eagles, etc., totaling 4,492; Worker Insects: 1,200)]

The number of combat units had already surpassed four thousand!

When gathered together, they could already form a small-scale sea of insects. Moreover, the weakest among these Insect Swarm units was at the Peak of Bone Forging, and the number of Tier Two combat units was springing up like mushrooms after rain.

More than half of this figure consisted of the underwater Insect Swarm!

Qin Yu looked toward the bottom of Golden Scale Lake, where an Insect Swarm had already been successfully birthed. In the gloomy depths of the water, gestating insect eggs littered the area around the ten-meter-tall Insect Nest. Every now and then, one would hatch from its egg.

Among them, apart from the Blood Shadow Pythons, two other species stood out. One was an underwater unit about four meters long. It retained six long barbels but was entirely covered in tough Scale Armor, with sharp spikes running down its back. Its head remained massive, but it looked far more ferocious. When it swam, its gaping maw revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth that could easily tear enemies to shreds.

Its genetic prototype was none other than the Six-Bearded Catfish!

After the Insect Swarm analyzed its genes and fused them with their own, this ferocious underwater fish became the Swarm’s first aquatic combat unit—the Sharp-toothed Catfish! Its strength had impressively reached the Peak of the Bone Forging Realm.

Sharp-toothed Catfishes roamed toward the depths of the lake in packs. Upon spotting prey, they would swiftly strike, biting and tearing it into pieces. When they swarmed together, even a Qi and Blood Great Demon would be no match for them.

The other species was a High Tier unit evolved from the Cyan Crab prototype—the Profound Armor Cyan Ao. Its carapace was nearly three zhang wide, its body was increasingly massive, and it had lost obvious vulnerabilities like a navel and prominent eyes.

In terms of pure size, the Profound Armor Cyan Ao was already the largest in the Insect Swarm!

The strength contained within its massive pair of pincers was something even the body of a Profound Flood Dragon couldn’t withstand; it would be forcefully snapped in two. Furthermore, the Profound Armor Cyan Ao possessed the Water Control Ability. It could fight underwater and also come ashore to serve as a siege unit.

The combination of the Sharp-toothed Catfish and the Profound Armor Cyan Ao formed the Basic foundation of the Insect Swarm’s underwater units. Coupled with the Blood Shadow Pythons and the Profound Flood Dragons, they were an unstoppable killing force within Golden Scale Lake.

Qin Yu directed his gaze to an underwater battlefield. Led by a Profound Armor Cyan Ao, over thirty Sharp-toothed Catfishes had surrounded a group of Scale Armor-clad Demon Fiends, relentlessly slaughtering and devouring them.

Defend?

How could Demon Fiends born in a mere lake possibly fend off the Insect Swarm army? Golden Scale Lake had originally been the hunting ground for the Snake Demons of the Shegu Mountain Range. The truly powerful Demon Fiends generally didn’t stay here. After all, Li Tianyi’s dark green serpent was a Qi and Blood like a Dragon entity that was on the verge of turning into a Flood Dragon. With such a massive serpent present, no one but a Qi Sea Great Demon could be a match for the Snake Demons in the Shegu Mountain Range.

Once the majority of the underwater Demon Fiends were wiped out, a portion of the Sharp-toothed Catfishes began advancing along the river, heading deeper into the Wilderness Mountain Range. Guided by the reconnaissance of the Black Thorn Eagles in the sky, the Insect Swarm followed the river and discovered several large lakes. The largest one was nearly one hundred and eighty kilometers wide at its maximum. It was vastly larger than Golden Scale Lake.

However, it was quite far from Golden Scale Lake. The straight-line distance was over a thousand kilometers. Given that the river wasn’t straight but wound its way through the mountains, the actual distance was even further.

"If a Flood Dragon is lurking about, it’s most likely hiding in these rivers and lakes. I’ll let the Insect Swarm explore first to get a general idea of the strength within. Only then will the Insect Swarm begin its large-scale massacre."

A sharp glint flashed in Qin Yu’s eyes.

The Insect Swarm’s numbers were constantly refreshing, causing this already rolling snowball to grow larger and larger. And this was only the case because Qin Yu had poured a significant portion of his resources into analysis and research for the Swarm’s development.

That was right! This was also a massive expense.

The existing units in the Insect Swarm were far more diverse than just a handful. The Rapid Insects, Blood Shadow Pythons, Profound Armor Barbarian Bears, Profound Flood Dragons, Cockroaches, and Poison Burst Insects were merely the Swarm’s main combat units, not the entirety of it.

For example, when the Mountain-Splitting Tiger that Qin Yu had personally slain was dragged into the Insect Nest, its fate wasn’t to be immediately broken down into Energy. Instead, its genes were first analyzed and recorded into the Insect Swarm’s gene pool.

This was true for the Fierce Mountain Tiger, as well as any other entity not yet present in the Swarm, be it a Demon Fiend or an ordinary wild beast. For the Insect Swarm to evolve, it needed to collect a massive amount of superior genes. Evolution required a Basic foundation. Powerful units among them, like the Mountain-Splitting Tiger, would be fused with the Swarm’s genetics to mutate into even stronger combat units.

The Profound Flood Dragon was currently one of the Swarm’s main forces. But that might not always be the case in the future. If a far superior unit emerged, it could be phased out. Take the Profound Armor Barbarian Bear, for instance. Because its own genes weren’t outstanding enough and its role overlapped with the Cockroaches, it was already facing this problem.

Evolution and elimination. This was the eternal theme of the Insect Swarm. And this process required consuming a massive amount of Energy, whether for analysis or fusion.

Aside from combat units, Qin Yu was also analyzing a vast amount of local flora. This was a crucial part of his upcoming strategy.

Thinking of this, Qin Yu looked toward the Shegu Mountain Range. In the area covered by the Fungal Mat, a good amount of flowers and grasses had already grown out. There were weeds a foot long, as well as towering trees over a dozen zhang high. They made a corner of the Snake Valley’s edge look lush and green, with many Worker Insects scuttling through it.

There was nothing special about these plants. They were identical to the flora found in nature. The only irregularity was that they were growing on the Fungal Mat. Their coverage transformed what should have been a dark purple landscape into an area bursting with vitality. That eerie purple Fungal Mat was no longer glaringly obvious.

"I’ll have the Fungal Mat expand, consume the original vegetation in the mountains and forests, and then replace it with the Swarm’s own flora until it entirely blankets this land. The Fungal Mat and the vegetation growing on it can also provide the Insect Swarm with an astonishing amount of Energy. Then the Insect Swarm will no longer have to worry about Energy!"

A bright light shone in Qin Yu’s eyes. Relying purely on devouring lives and flesh to grow had no future. No matter how much life there was in the Wilderness Mountain Range, the Insect Swarm would quickly eat it all. What he wanted was sustainable development. As long as the great sun remained in the sky, the Insect Swarm wouldn’t need to stress over resources. These plants would serve as the Swarm’s resource producers.

Of course, this process wouldn’t be fast.

Analyzing the vegetation required Energy, and cultivating it required Energy too. The Insect Race had a very high rate of resource utilization, but it was impossible for there to be zero loss. The disparity in Energy consumed during the conversion process was also staggering.

In fact, Qin Yu had considered another issue. That was to use the Insect Swarm to cultivate precious medicinal herbs, such as thousand-year-old ginseng, and sell them to earn massive resources. However, after putting it into practice, he found it unfeasible for now.

This was because these precious medicinal herbs weren’t just simple flora. They contained a certain kind of special Energy within them. In the terms of this world, they absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, as well as the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi. This was what gave these Mountain Treasure Medicines their various special abilities.

"Time is on the Swarm’s side! The first Gu Insect from the Ten Thousand Poison Gu Refining Scripture, the Heart-devouring Mother and Child Gu, is nearly finished gestating. For the Insect Swarm, the Gu Insect system will be a fresh supplementation of strength!"