# Chapter 51: The Insect Race's Strongest Combat Power
The full moon hung high, and a jellyfish-like creature floated in the sky, emitting a faint glow in the night. This was a split body of the insect race building: Lurker, capable of sensing and disrupting spatial fluctuations.
The entire insect nest had a coverage radius of three kilometers in diameter, forming a circle at the edges. The base camp, the insect nest, was located at the center, surrounded by various insect race buildings.
Groups of Demon Beasts guarded the edges of the fungal carpet, while all the Leviathans waited behind the mother nest, ready for action.
Inside a wooden shed near the mother nest, Su Xiao chewed on dried meat. The insect race had no "chef" class; these dried meats were something he had made himself back in the trial zone.
Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were all nearby. As for Beini, she was temporarily out of contact—no one knew where that cat was at the moment.
Su Xiao closed the insect nest's data. After two wars, the nest had developed. Although the number of Demon Beasts hadn't reached the point of flattening everything, it had formed a considerable scale.
With the biological energy gained from the previous battle, the number of Demon Beasts had reached 300,000, Leviathans numbered 270, and as for Demon Flame Dragons, there were still 12. Maintaining their activity required a large amount of biological energy daily. Raising too many was unsustainable unless war broke out with enemies.
Not just Demon Flame Dragons, but Demon Beasts and Leviathans were the same. Daily movement or combat consumed biological energy. They stored some biological energy internally, but once that was depleted, they needed to replenish it through the fungal carpet.
The larger the population, the more biological energy was consumed daily. Maintaining the current insect race forces, even without fighting enemies, required a significant amount of biological energy each day.
As soon as the battle stopped, Su Xiao felt that biological energy was insufficient. At present, the nest stored 4.2 million points of biological energy. If used to cultivate Demon Beasts, it could produce 8,400 of them. Compared to the existing 300,000, adding over 8,000 more was just icing on the cake.
For the next two days, Su Xiao wouldn't go after the Tiger Bee Clan, even if they had already allied with the Dia Tribe.
With the current scale of the insect race forces, charging directly into the territories of those two factions was a very unwise move. Without the nest to replenish Demon Beast numbers, if the Demon Beast forces were surrounded, they would inevitably be completely annihilated.
Fighting a positional battle near the nest made the insect race nearly invincible. Going out to fight was a different story. Therefore, Su Xiao wasn't worried about the two sides uniting and launching a frontal war. He was worried that those two sides would chicken out.
For the insect race, as long as there were numerous enemies, their own numbers weren't a problem. Moreover, Jila had already advanced to the Seventh Rank. Starting a war now would only increase the number of combat insect units.
The competition for the trial zone had become especially important. Su Xiao's main purpose in coming to this world wasn't to go to war with the Tiger Bee Clan and the Dia Tribe, but to obtain resources and become stronger.
Su Xiao had taken the risk of being expelled from this world by the Void Tree to summon Jila. The main reason was that Naji Ga's people were developing local forces. If Su Xiao hadn't summoned the insect race, he might soon have been besieged by the Dia Tribe or the Tiger Bee Clan.
Rather than being besieged, Su Xiao chose to take the initiative. Now that the nest had developed to a certain scale, it was time to start reaping the benefits.
Tomorrow would be the sixth day of the survival trial. The purple supply crate would be dropped on the seventh day. Before the purple supply crate was dropped, Su Xiao had to first seize the trial zone.
The method to seize the trial zone was simple: block the entrance and then let a certain number of insect units enter the trial zone. But how to block was the key.
Once the Tiger Bee Clan and the Dia Tribe discovered that a group of insect units had left the nest, they would likely take the opportunity to annihilate this insect force.
Currently, the territories of the three sides formed a triangular standoff. The Death Forest was located diagonally behind the Tiger Bee faction.
Su Xiao planned to start from his own territory, establish a defensive line behind the Tiger Bee faction, cut off the possible attack route from the Tiger Bee faction and the Dia Tribe, and then go straight to the Death Forest.
Even if this defensive line was attacked and on the verge of being breached, the insect forces' defensive line could contract into a C-shape and eventually retreat back into their own territory.
Before that, Su Xiao planned to develop the insect race's high-end combat power. The Demon Beast Leader still needed some time to grow. The Demon Flame Dragon was a better choice.
The Demon Flame Dragon had no leader individuals. This wasn't because the nest couldn't produce them, but because of the world rank limitation. Therefore, Demon Flame Dragons could at most reach the Elite rank.
That was enough. The probability of an Elite individual being born was much higher than that of a Leader rank, roughly 1.5% to 2.7%.
The nest began cultivating Demon Flame Dragons. Each egg-laying tissue could produce a Demon Flame Dragon egg in three minutes. After the egg entered the cultivation sac, it took about seven minutes to become an adult. With three egg-laying tissues and cultivation sacs working simultaneously, that meant 3 Demon Flame Dragons every 10 minutes, or 18 per hour.
There was still some time until dawn. With the remaining 4.2 million biological energy, Su Xiao chose to cultivate 17 Demon Flame Dragons. This would bring the total number of Demon Flame Dragons to 29.
In less than an hour, a total of 29 Demon Flame Dragons were prostrate on the fungal carpet. Seeing these mountain-sized behemoths gathered together was inevitably awe-inspiring.
As soon as the 29 Demon Flame Dragons gathered, they were absorbed by the fungal carpet and converted back into biological energy. Even if they were converted immediately after being cultivated, each one lost 6,000 points of biological energy.
The birth of an Elite individual was due to a life-quality mutation reaction during the cultivation process. This was something the insect race couldn't control or simulate. If luck was bad, they had to rely on quantity.
One by one, Demon Flame Dragons were born, then decomposed and absorbed by the fungal carpet. This process continued in a cycle, waiting only for the appearance of an Elite individual.
Time passed quickly. When the nest cultivated Demon Flame Dragons for the 193rd time, a "life-quality mutation reaction" occurred inside the cultivation sac.
A claw several times larger than an ordinary Demon Flame Dragon's extended from the crack in the nest. Sparks drifted out. The Elite Demon Flame Dragon was born.
"ROAR!!"
A thunderous roar echoed as the Elite Demon Flame Dragon spread its wings. On its lower abdomen and wings, magma-like patterns covered the surface.
Name: Demon Flame Dragon: Barbatos
Category: War Creature
Existence Time: 129 Natural Days (Seventh Rank nest, maximum load of 1 such combat unit.)
Health: 100%
Biological Energy: 72,500/72,500 points
Strength: 185 (True Attribute)
Agility: 175 (True Attribute)
Stamina: 186 (True Attribute)
Intelligence: 157 (True Attribute)
Charm: Insect race has no Charm attribute.
Skill 1, Upper Insect Race (Passive, LV.75): Health +81,000 points, immune to all Seventh Rank control effects, fire and corrosion damage reduced by 37.2%.
Skill 2, Evil Dragon Gene (Passive, Lv.72): Health +25,000 points, physical defense +159 points.
Skill 3, Life Conversion (Active, Lv.54): Can consume biological energy to restore its own health.
Skill 4, Dragon Flame (Active, Lv.70): Can consume biological energy to spew dragon flame. Damage intensity is determined by the biological energy consumed and the enemy's Stamina attribute. Deals 7x or more damage to building-type units.
Hint: If burned by this dragon flame for more than 2 seconds, the target will suffer a continuous internal burning effect, dealing 5.7% of lost health as defense-ignoring damage per second. The burning effect lasts 10 seconds.
Skill 5, Demon: Dragon Flame (Passive, X): Dragon flame damage rank +1.
Skill 6, Life Burn (Passive, X): If an enemy suffers dragon flame burns, the healing effect they receive is reduced by 67%. After leaving the dragon flame range, this effect lasts for 23 to 70 seconds.
Skill 7, Sky Demon (Passive, Lv.65): Flight speed increased by 52%, wing defense increased by 56 points.
Skill 8, Dragon Claw (Passive, Lv.73): When attacking with claws, an additional 327 points of True Damage are inflicted.
Skill 9, Demon: Purgatory (Ultimate Ability, Lv.23): Demon Flame Dragon: Barbatos immediately consumes over 90% of its biological energy, turning the surrounding one kilometer into a "Fire Purgatory." All targets within the Fire Purgatory suffer 470 points of True Fire Damage per second + (Stamina difference × 8.5) burning damage + 850 points of incineration damage.
Hint: The Fire Purgatory lasts for 12 seconds, and the flames have extremely strong adhesion and continuous burning properties.
After reviewing the data on Demon Flame Dragon: Barbatos, Su Xiao felt that this creature could solo most Seventh Rank bosses, except for those in the top tier of the Seventh Rank.
Su Xiao wasn't surprised by Barbatos's strength. This was the single strongest insect unit of the Seventh Rank nest. In fact, the nest couldn't even support a second Barbatos, because it might cause Barbatos to go out of control. Everything had its limits—the nest was like this, and so was Jila, who controlled it.
With the high-end combat power prepared, the nest cultivated 11 more Demon Flame Dragons. After that, 3.21 million points of biological energy remained. This biological energy would be used to cultivate a low-rank insect unit to break through the Death Forest.