Chapter 76 - 75: The Ultra-High Efficiency of the Mimic Fungal Mat

Chapter 76: Chapter 75: The Ultra-High Efficiency of the Mimic Fungal Mat

ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!

Roars echoed one after another through the jungle. They quickly converged, forming a massive procession that grew larger by the second.

One thousand, two thousand, three thousand...

When thousands of Insect Swarm units massed together, the visual impact was downright terrifying. Even the earth trembled beneath them.

In the sky, the cries of Thunder Rocs spread in all directions. Black Thorn Eagles and other flying units gathered into a dense, dark cloud, casting a giant shadow over the ground.

A sea of insects!

An ocean formed by the converging Insect Swarm!

The most terrifying aspect of the Insect Swarm was fully displayed here in the Wilderness Mountain Range.

Sitting cross-legged on the back of a Thunder Roc, Qin Yu looked down at the Insect Swarm below, a surge of heroic pride swelling in his heart.

Unstoppable!

At this moment, any Demon Fiend that dared to stand in the way of the Insect Swarm would be torn to absolute shreds. Even a Great Demon in the Qi Sea Realm would share the same fate.

The scale of the Insect Swarm grew like a snowball. As long as there were enough large beasts and Demon Fiends in the jungle, this snowball effect would only become increasingly astounding.

Every single day, the population of the Insect Swarm could double!

This caused the swarm’s size to reach staggering proportions in a very short time.

[Name: Dominator of the Insect Swarm.]

[Insect Hive Tier: Tier Two.]

[Life Energy Reserve: 12,234 / 100,000 points.]

[Hatchable Units (Tier Two): Poison Burst Insect (Energy: 100 points), Cockroach (Energy: 3,500 points, can be enhanced by integrating large amounts of metal), Profound Flood Dragon (Energy: 4,000 points, Profound Iron: 5 tons)...]

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

[Current Units: Tier Two units (Profound Flood Dragon, Thunder Roc, Cockroach, etc. (Regular units: 324)), Tier One units (Rapid Insect, Blood Shadow Python, Black Thorn Eagle, etc. Total: 24,830, Worker Insects: 3,200)]

[Simulation Project: Gu Insect deduction (42 types of Gu Insects), Cultivation Method Deduction (Core Technique "Spirit Snake Shadow Poison Scripture," Body Technique "Spiritual Snake Body Technique," Sword Skill "Wind-Splitting Seven Slashes"), Insect Swarm unit deduction (Rapid Insect, Cockroach, Profound Flood Dragon, Poison Burst Insect, Thunder Roc...), Mimic Fungal Mat deduction (3,492 types of plants collected)]

In just a few short days, the Insect Swarm’s population had skyrocketed to over twenty thousand!

This didn’t even include the ordinary snakes, insects, birds, and beasts acting as reconnaissance units. If those camouflaged scouts were factored in, the total number had already broken past the fifty thousand mark.

And the price for this growth was the near extinction of all large, medium, and small lifeforms—whether on land, in rivers, or in the sky—centered around the multiple Insect Nests!

Lifeforms, not just Demon Fiends! Ordinary beasts, fish, birds, and more were hunted down and dragged back to the Insect Nests, their flesh and blood nourishing the growth of the Insect Swarm.

Extinction-level expansion!

Through the systematic slaughter carried out by the Insect Swarm, their efficiency was unimaginably terrifying. And it was only getting more terrifying as their killing radius increased exponentially.

He pondered, "This kind of extinction-style slaughter allows the Insect Swarm to grow at maximum speed, but it will also easily provoke targeted retaliation from all local experts and factions. Once the Insect Swarm passes its weakest phase, there will be no need to expand this way anymore."

As the Thunder Roc soared through the sky, Qin Yu’s mind raced.

Ever since he learned about the power dynamics in the Wilderness Mountain Range from the Mountain Demon, he stopped restricting the Insect Swarm’s slaughter, allowing them to grow at the fastest possible rate.

The unknown was the most terrifying thing of all. When he had been ignorant of the potential dangers lurking in the Wilderness Mountain Range, Qin Yu hadn’t dared to go all out with his expansion. If he accidentally enraged some irresistible existence, it would have been too dangerous.

But now that he knew the risks and the general spheres of influence, his hanging heart finally settled.

This was also why he decided to let the Insect Swarm establish a second expansion point as soon as possible. At their current reproduction rate, the Wilderness Mountain Range wouldn’t last long before being entirely overrun by the swarm. This included the Flood Dragon, as well as the demon faction in the very core of the Wilderness Mountain Range, Three Immortals Mountain.

Given a period of stable growth, the Insect Swarm would reveal its most ferocious side, launching an overwhelming, higher-dimensional strike against the native Demon Fiends.

A crushing defeat brought about by civilization!

"Once this batch of Demon Fiends in the Wilderness Mountain Range is completely dealt with, we can slow down our development. The Insect Swarm’s growth method can also transition from extinction-level consumption to sustainable development," Qin Yu thought to himself.

Watching the massed swarm below that made the earth tremble, Qin Yu shifted his gaze toward Snake Valley. This once-barren valley, previously crawling with venomous snakes, and the area spanning over a dozen miles around it, had completely changed their appearance.

They were entirely covered by the Fungal Mat.

However, it wasn’t the kind of purple Fungal Mat that exuded a deathly, eerie aura. Instead, it was a lush, verdant jungle. Covered in all sorts of towering trees, flowers, grass, and vines, the area brimmed with vibrant life. Occasionally, birds and small animals could even be seen running and chirping within it.

If one didn’t look closely, they wouldn’t be able to spot the purple Fungal Mat hidden beneath the vegetation at all. It looked no different from an ordinary jungle.

But in reality, whether it was the flora or the fauna running through it, everything was nurtured and hatched by the Insect Swarm.

The Mimic Fungal Mat!

Qin Yu had invested a massive amount of resources to analyze native plants and absorb their genes, and he had already achieved initial results.

The Insect Swarm could actually digest vegetation and even extract nutrients from the soil, converting them into Energy. The Fungal Mat was the product of this capability. It could draw nutrients from the earth as well as harvest energy from sunlight.

It was just that this method was relatively slow, far inferior to the speed of absorbing biological flesh and blood. This was especially true when the Insect Nest was low in tier and small in scale.

But as the Insect Swarm’s scale grew larger and their territory expanded, the situation began to change.

Whether in an ordinary world or a supernatural one, the sun was the primary driving force of the ecosystem. Energy depleted drastically as it flowed through the food chain. Therefore, the biomass and quantity of plants—the producers—were always the largest, while apex predators were inevitably the rarest.

Take an example. A forest spanning ten kilometers could theoretically produce enough energy in a day to support the daily consumption of roughly 250,000 deer, or about 9,000 wolves.

Of course, this was an absolute limit.

An ecosystem was a complex network with multiple pathways for energy flow. Not all the energy fixed by plants was eaten by animals; most of it was used for their own growth or broken down by decomposers. Animal populations were constrained by various factors such as water sources, habitats, competition, and diseases, so they could never reach this theoretical maximum. Moreover, during the flow of energy, the conversion rate at each stage would never exceed ten percent!

The energy the Insect Swarm obtained from hunting creatures for their flesh and blood was only a tiny fraction compared to the total energy harvested by plants.

The Insect Swarm’s Fungal Mat essentially bypassed the conversion process when obtaining energy. It allowed for maximum energy acquisition directly. And the Fungal Mat was the most perfect form of this. When completely covering the ground, it could absorb all the energy contained in the sunlight and convert it into the energy the Insect Swarm needed with extreme efficiency, reaching a near-limit state.

Through the Swarm’s memories and the early testing of the spawned Fungal Mat, Qin Yu found his answers. Under ideal conditions, a Fungal Mat spanning ten kilometers could collect 10,000 points of energy every single day! That meant a Fungal Mat spanning a thousand kilometers could collect 100 million points of energy daily.

This was an incredibly exaggerated figure. Of course, in reality, various factors would cause this number to decrease significantly. But no matter how much it dropped, it remained an astonishing amount.

Especially since Qin Yu had to camouflage it as ordinary flora, which further lowered efficiency. Plus, growing flowers, plants, and trees on the Fungal Mat consumed a massive amount of energy on its own. In the early stages, there wouldn’t be much energy feedback. The Insect Swarm even needed to invest energy to supply the Fungal Mat’s growth.

But regardless, unless Qin Yu maintained an extinction-style expansion, as the Insect Swarm’s scale increased, its primary energy source was bound to shift from flesh and blood to the Fungal Mat!

He marveled, "It’s not just ordinary energy. The heavens and earth in this world contain special Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, which ordinary plants struggle to absorb. But Plant Demon Fiends can."

Qin Yu looked down.

The scale of the advancing Insect Swarm had already reached five thousand units. And right in front of them, a fog-shrouded jungle dramatically appeared!

This was the only Plant Demon Fiend the Insect Swarm had discovered so far—the Bloodsucking Vine!

The Insect Swarm had suffered heavy losses trying to explore this area, yet they had never managed to conquer it. Before going to war with the Mountain Demon, Qin Yu had intended to leave it alone. But once flattened, this Bloodsucking Vine could be integrated into the Insect Swarm’s gene pool. Perhaps it could allow the swarm to directly draw energy from the heavens and earth, elevating their energy-absorption efficiency to a whole new level.

RUMBLE—

The massive commotion caused by the stampeding Insect Swarm threw the entire forest into turmoil. Thorny vines burst from the soil, the longest among them easily stretching hundreds of meters.

"Heh, just as I thought!" Qin Yu chuckled coldly from the sky as he watched the jungle seem to come alive. "The number of Bloodsucking Vines in this jungle is staggering. For it to grow such incredible vines, this jungle is probably far from simple."

"Attack!"

Qin Yu’s voice echoed through the Insect Swarm network.

It was not a mindless, savage charge. Twelve Cockroaches in the swarm marched to the very front of the formation. Highly toxic, potent acid sprayed from their mouths, raining down like a torrential downpour.

SIZZLE! SIZZLE! SIZZLE!

The sound of vines corroding filled the air. The wildly thrashing Bloodsucking Vines trembled, letting out beast-like shrieks. Vines rapidly extended forward, attempting to strangle the Cockroaches.

WHOOSH—

Two vibrant, fiery-red tigers, each standing twenty feet tall, charged out. They opened their maws and unleashed torrents of scorching flames.

Bloodsucking Vines feared fire!

The sky-filling vines were reduced to charcoal, falling powerlessly from the air.

The ground quaked as subterranean Bloodsucking Vines tried to burst out. But before they could get close to the swarm, several massive Escape Armor Scorpions and other subterranean units burrowed underground.

The subterranean noises vanished instantly.

The advantage of ranged attacks and elemental counters left the overwhelming tide of Bloodsucking Vines utterly defenseless. They had no choice but to endure the Cockroaches’ relentless assault.

The onslaught forced nearly all the Bloodsucking Vines to reveal themselves. At the center of the mountain, a super Bloodsucking Vine, a staggering eight hundred meters tall with twelve main vines, finally emerged!

Only then did the main force of the Insect Swarm finally make its move!

Surging forward like an unstoppable tide, they crushed everything in their path.