Chapter 24: Arrangement
That evening, Su Xiao arrived at the captured third-stage insect nest. The mother entity of this nest was named Mistlight.
The Mistlight insect tide was a full sixty meters tall, a nest that had developed to the mid-third stage.
Behind the nest was a cliff face, with steep precipices on both sides. The terrain around the entire nest formed a U-shape, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only one entrance.
This kind of terrain was beneficial for early-stage development, but in the later stages, forest terrain was actually better, as groundwater was more abundant there.
The insect race was not some kind of mystical creature; they merely had a higher stage of life. In reality, they also needed to replenish biological energy and moisture—both were indispensable, unless it was a nest that had developed to the fifth stage, which could break free from the constraints of these basic resources.
Around the Mistlight nest, a kind of white fluffy moss was laid down. This biological carpet could reduce the biological energy consumption of lower-ranked insectoids. For a normally developing nest, this was a very good ability.
Near the Mistlight nest, there were at least several hundred basic insectoids. They had little combat power, most being Mantis Armor types, with a few advanced basic insectoids. Inside them, 519 Demon Beasts were on standby, all awaiting orders.
Su Xiao walked toward the nest. As he approached, those low-combat-power basic insectoids actually lunged at him.
Su Xiao kicked the large cloth sack in his hand, and the charging basic insectoids immediately became confused.
"If you dare to control them again, I'll peel your shell off."
Su Xiao spoke into the opening of the large cloth sack, from which came a vague, disdainful snort.
Su Xiao entered the nest. The layout here was different from the base camp nest; it was almost entirely filled with various nest organs, leaving only a few dozen square meters of activity space.
The ceiling and walls were covered in mucus. Su Xiao threw the large cloth sack to the ground, and Bubu Wang stood guard at the entrance.
Opening the large cloth sack, inside was a tightly bound insect queen. Seeing this insect queen, Su Xiao frowned slightly, because the way she was tied up was a bit...
He didn't need to think about who had tied her up—it was definitely that idiot Baha. Bubu Wang and Amu didn't have that kind of twisted thinking.
An injection gun appeared in Su Xiao's hand. He stabbed it into the side of the neck of this insect queen named Mistlight, piercing through the gaps in her carapace.
Mistlight's body shape was similar to an adult female human, her entire carapace a light black color, with the carapace on her head not yet shed.
Su Xiao pulled the rag out of Mistlight's mouth. Mistlight tilted her head and bit toward Su Xiao's hand.
Bang!
Mistlight's head was knocked askew, and combined with the drug's effect, the things before her eyes began to blur.
"Hehehe..."
Mistlight actually started laughing. This was the hallucinogenic effect of the agent. Considering she was an insect queen, Su Xiao had increased the dosage.
"I am willing... to submit to you."
Lying on the ground, Mistlight felt her consciousness begin to fade. Her insect instincts were constantly warning her that she was about to encounter something very terrible.
Su Xiao didn't speak. He rolled up his sleeves, took out a spray can, and began to disinfect his hands.
The bright moon hung high. The basic insectoids near the Mistlight nest were extremely agitated. Sometimes they would suddenly run in circles around the nest, and sometimes they would even attack the Demon Beasts.
When the sky began to lighten at dawn, the lower-ranked insectoids of the Mistlight nest quieted down. In fact, third-stage combat insectoids even began to emerge from the nest.
At 6:00 AM, the 519 Demon Beasts withdrew. They had completed their guard duty. Afterwards, they just needed to take a detour, avoid the territory of the Sun Tribe, and return to the base camp. The appearance of the Demon Beasts could not be exposed.
At 7:00 AM, Amu and Baha completed another round of hunting, obtaining a total of 210,000 biological energy.
This biological energy was converted into 210 Life Stones (Medium), which Amu stored in the adventure group's storage space. Su Xiao retrieved them from the adventure group's storage space and had the controlled insect queen, Mistlight, absorb these Life Stones.
Soon, a type of combat insectoid with a black-blue carapace, resembling a spider in appearance, was cultivated. This was the Putes, with mid-to-upper comprehensive abilities. Each one cost 130 biological energy to cultivate, a full 70 less than the Demon Beasts.
When the cultivation was complete, 1,615 Putes were entrenched near the nest. It seemed like a lot, but it still didn't meet Su Xiao's satisfaction.
The home base camp had 2,700 Demon Beasts. Su Xiao gave Jila a remote order to leave 700 Demon Beasts to guard the base camp, while the remaining 2,000 Demon Beasts were split into two groups to continue competing for resources.
At 10:05 AM, Amu and Baha at the base camp completed a second hunt. This time, more Demon Beasts were deployed, obtaining a total of 250,000 biological energy.
Su Xiao still didn't use this biological energy to develop Demon Beasts. Instead, he cultivated the Putes at the Mistlight nest, adding 1,923 new Putes, bringing the total number of Putes to 3,538. This number was already astonishing.
At 12:00 PM, Bubu Wang left the Mistlight nest and moved toward the area where the Sun Tribe was located.
At 1:00 PM, the combat insectoids, the Putes, from the Mistlight nest began to go out hunting, targeting the second-stage insect nests in the surrounding area of the Sun Tribe.
3,538 Putes were a catastrophic disaster for second-stage insectoids. For a third-stage nest to cultivate this number of combat insectoids was simply reckless.
It seemed like the Mistlight nest was the result of painstaking management. In reality, without the pure Life Stones that Bubu Wang had stolen, the Jila insect race would have only developed to this level in four days. That initial capital was far too important.
Cultivating 3,538 Putes seemed wasteful, far less efficient than cultivating Demon Beasts. In reality, even if used to cultivate Demon Beasts, it would only produce about 2,300. Adding the 2,700 Demon Beasts at the base camp, this was indeed a very strong force, but it was not enough to completely crush the Three Paradise Alliance. Instead, it would stimulate them, making them fight to the death in a desperate counterattack.
Su Xiao's real desired outcome was for his own Demon Beast count to exceed ten thousand, no, even exceed twenty thousand, or even thirty thousand, to crush them with minimal risk, leaving the Three Paradise Alliance no chance to counterattack.
Inside the nest, Su Xiao's right arm was wearing a huge mechanical arm guard, connected to at least several hundred wires. The other ends of all the wires were linked to a consciousness transmission device.
Based on previous experiments, Su Xiao felt that the consciousness transmission device was no longer needed, even though it had been crafted using a large amount of materials.
Jila's loyalty had already reached 98 points. She had also shown considerable talent in controlling large numbers of insectoids.
As for the consciousness transmission device, it was a contingency plan Su Xiao had left in place, in case Jila became uncontrollable. From the current situation, it was no longer very necessary. The Demon Power had completely integrated into Jila's body, which was a more secure means of control.
At this moment, three Soul Crystals (Complete) were embedded in this consciousness transmission device, used to dominate the actions of the Reorganization Queen, Mistlight.
Mistlight lay expressionless inside the consciousness transmission device, with thousands of hair-thin wires penetrating her torso, brain, and other areas.
Now, Su Xiao could forcibly control every move of the insect queen, Mistlight, and could even manipulate her lower-ranked insectoid individuals through her. However, this forced control consumed a lot of energy. Even with Su Xiao's constitution, it was somewhat difficult to bear, which was why the three Soul Crystals (Complete) were needed to supply pure soul energy.
The 3,538 Putes would hunt in the surrounding area, trying to recoup the investment. This area was too far from the base camp. Under normal circumstances, the Demon Beast forces would not come here to hunt.
Moreover, the 3,538 Putes were not cannon fodder. If the Three Paradise Alliance wanted to destroy the Mistlight nest, they would have to pay a bloody price. It was absolutely impossible to do so without cost. The consumption of the enemy's numbers would be an advantage for Su Xiao's side in the future.
If the "victory" wasn't difficult enough, how could the Three Paradise Alliance believe that they had already destroyed Su Xiao's insectoid army?