Chapter 44: Full-Scale War
The insectoid troops marched swiftly all the way back to the valley base camp. As soon as they returned, Su Xiao ordered the remaining 1,900 Demon Beasts to patrol the surrounding area. Hunting had long since ceased; this was now a war phase.
Twelve giant Spore Tanks were dragged beside the insect nest. The fifth-stage nest was exceptionally formidable. It split open a massive gap and began devouring the biological tissue inside one of the giant Spore Tanks.
Bio-energy reserves skyrocketed. Su Xiao had Jila forcibly control the nest, ordering it to convert bio-energy while simultaneously cultivating Demon Beasts.
All the Stingers lay on the fungal carpet, dormant as they were converted into bio-energy. Stingers were fine for surprise attacks, but for a frontal war, Demon Beasts were the way to go.
Su Xiao was certain that attacking the first hive would trigger a full-scale counterattack from the Tiger Wasp faction. As one of the two major powers in this world, both the two Bee Queens and the Tiger Wasp Lord Tamisha would not be easy to deal with.
The Tiger Wasp faction’s army was about to descend. Su Xiao needed to have an insectoid force capable of blocking them before that happened.
The hundred-meter-tall insect nest was fully activated. As it swallowed the Spore Tanks, its internal egg-laying tissue also cultivated eggs for Demon Beasts.
Working in tandem with the cultivation pods, the egg-laying tissue could produce 1,950 adult Demon Beasts in two minutes. The mass production had begun. As for upgrading the nest’s rank, that was absolutely out of the question now.
When the nest evolved, it couldn’t convert bio-energy or cultivate insectoids. If it evolved now, when the Tiger Wasp faction struck, there would be insufficient combat insectoids to defend, and the nest would be torn apart by countless Tiger Wasps.
Demon Beasts surged out of the nest one after another, charging out of the valley. Inside the valley, tens of thousands of Worker Scorpions busied themselves, using a mixed secretion to dissolve the surrounding mountain walls.
Su Xiao wanted to open up the area. The valley was suitable for initially hiding the nest, but once open warfare began, if the enemy had high-powered explosives, the valley terrain would amplify their destructive force. He had often used such terrain to blow up enemies.
The ideal formation was for Demon Beasts to spread out in a ring around the perimeter, blocking Tiger Wasps attacking from all directions. Near the nest, defensive insectoid structures would be built—as many Sensing Towers, Killing Sentry Towers, and the like as possible. These insectoid structures were far more reliable than naturally formed valleys.
The bio-energy within the Worker Scorpions was fully activated. The first thing they dissolved was the rock ceiling above, followed by the surrounding mountain walls. In just over ten minutes, the area became open, and the distant plains were even visible.
The nest cultivated Demon Beasts at a rate of 1,950 every two minutes. Before long, a large number of Demon Beasts had gathered near the nest.
It was a race against time. Baha sent a message every 30 seconds—the Tiger Wasp faction still hadn’t moved.
Bubu Wang was also in action. After last night, he was no longer dazed and was now inside an enemy hive.
According to Bubu Wang’s intel, all the Tiger Eye Wasps in the Tiger Wasp faction had entered a massive pool deep beneath the hive. Once inside, they writhed in agony and, with a very low probability, forcibly evolved into Tiger Wasps.
Clearly, the dominant force of this world had been provoked. It had been too long since they lost a hive. The shattered hive made Tamisha and the two Bee Queens realize something was wrong.
The enemy was decisive. Without even detecting the nest, they considered the worst-case scenario, given that one hive had been blown up.
Given the number of Tiger Eye Wasps, even if the evolution rate into Tiger Wasps was less than 10%, the Tiger Wasp population could still reach millions, or even more.
Although most Tiger Wasps couldn’t fly, their movement speed was several times that of Tiger Eye Wasps, and their combat power was on an entirely different level.
An interesting scene unfolded: Su Xiao was mass-producing troops on his side, while Tamisha was doing the same on hers. Without even meeting, both sides had already assumed a posture of decisive battle.
Half an hour later, nearly 30,000 Demon Beasts had been cultivated. Unfortunately, no leader-class individuals emerged.
The surrounding mountains were leveled, and the fungal carpet spread, soon covering an area three kilometers in diameter.
A Tiger Eye Wasp flew in from afar. This one was special—it was only the size of a palm, a work of art compared to the ferocity of other Tiger Eye Wasps.
Several Demon Beasts leaped up, about to smash it with their long tails, but Su Xiao’s mental command stopped them. He could control insectoids too, but his limit was a dozen or so. Everyone had their expertise; when it came to insectoid control, no one could match Jila.
The Tiger Eye Wasp flew in front of Su Xiao and burst with a bang, turning into black-gold light particles. A blurry figure appeared, its form human-like, but its features unclear.
“Ohoho, that figure~”
Baha landed on Amu’s shoulder. It had tracked this Tiger Eye Wasp back.
“Are you… Kukulin Bai Ye?”
A commanding female voice came through. There was no need to guess who it belonged to—Tiger Wasp Lord Tamisha.
“Yes.”
“Let the war begin, human.”
“Fine.”
The moment Su Xiao finished speaking, the light mist before him dissipated. Tiger Wasp Lord Tamisha didn’t ask why Su Xiao attacked the hive or his purpose—it was meaningless.
The nest continued mass-producing. When the number of Demon Beasts reached 40,000, production stopped.
On the fungal carpet a dozen meters from the nest, several Worker Scorpions were busy. Their bodies gradually dissolved, and a large amount of bio-energy flowed through the carpet to this spot.
Dark green biological tissue surged, and a cylindrical insectoid structure rose from the ground, stopping only when it reached over 50 meters tall.
The biological tissue cylinder was covered in veins, and a translucent sphere appeared at its top. The insectoid structure, Sensing Tower, was successfully built.
A wave spread out, detecting all biological fluctuations within a 25-kilometer radius. Intelligence was the key to victory.
Six Killing Sentry Towers were distributed within a hundred meters around the perimeter. Besides these, there were Insectoid Guardians—cone-shaped insectoid structures that didn’t react to living beings but would activate instantly if energy-based attacks approached.
Over a dozen types of defensive or offensive insectoid structures were built. The nest was never afraid of being exposed to enemy sight—after all, a fifth-stage nest was no fragile thing.
Su Xiao checked the remaining bio-energy: 569,000/570,000. He continued cultivating Demon Beasts, aiming to push their numbers past 50,000.
Rumble~
The ground trembled. From an aerial view, countless Tiger Wasps surged from all directions across the open area—a pitch-black, endless sea with no visible boundary.
Within two kilometers of the nest, over 40,000 Demon Beasts formed a circular defense line. Behind them were twelve Leviathans spread out.
A giant beast charged through the mass of Tiger Wasps, with Bee Queen Caro standing on its back. She was looking down, and if one saw her expression, they’d notice she was smiling. Naturally warlike, she craved battle, but no enemy had appeared for a long time.
“Kill them all.”
Bee Queen Caro pointed forward with one hand, and the Tiger Wasps near her roared in unison.
Behind Bee Queen Caro, Ice Jue strode forward with high morale. He had received a “War-Type Hidden Quest.” He had only heard of such war hidden quests before—their trigger conditions were extremely harsh, but the rewards were naturally tempting.
“Kill!”
Ice Jue roared, but in the next moment, he saw a sky full of living missiles. A crisis instinct that made his hair stand on end suddenly hit him, and his heartbeat slowed for a beat.
After a deafening explosion, Ice Jue struggled to crawl out of a pile of Tiger Wasp corpses. Just one exchange had stunned him.
“Roar!”
The Demon Beasts forming the circular line bellowed and lunged at the charging Tiger Wasps. Blood splattered, and shattered carapaces flew everywhere.
The current Demon Beasts were not at their peak. When the nest evolved to the sixth stage, the Demon Beasts completed their fourth genetic evolution, and their numbers exceeded 100,000, benefiting from the War Lord’s boost—that was when the Demon Beast army would become a war insectoid force that drove enemies to despair.
Chaos erupted instantly. A flying type of Tiger Wasp dove from high altitude toward the nest, but before they could get close, the Killing Sentry Towers blasted them to pieces, and they fell onto the fungal carpet below.
Bee Queen Caro hadn’t yet noticed a fatal flaw: the Tiger Wasps she commanded were fighting the Demon Beast forces on the fungal carpet. Her lack of knowledge about insectoids meant she was about to suffer a major loss.
Such a brave move was indeed a first for Su Xiao. As soon as the battle began, the fungal carpet started decomposing the corpses of Demon Beasts and Tiger Wasps. The bio-energy stored in the nest instantly maxed out, and the cultivation of Demon Beasts never stopped.
It might not be long before Bee Queen Caro was astonished to find that the enemy’s numbers were actually increasing the more she killed.