Chapter 17: The Struggle
The Void Tree's warning appeared, and unlike previous times, the Void Tree Reputation to be deducted this time was additionally marked with "Massive."
Over such a long time, Su Xiao had developed a fairly deep understanding of the terms "Small," "Medium," "Large," and "Massive" in item descriptions and prompts. To put it in simpler terms, if you added up the previous units and multiplied by ten, that was roughly the minimum value of the "Massive" unit.
In other words, if he continued summoning Jila, the penalty for deducting Void Tree Reputation this time would be exceptionally severe. Su Xiao didn't care about this; his Void Tree Reputation had already become -??? due to the previous summons of Jila.
Su Xiao chose to continue the summoning. The Transcendent Primordial Sword at the center of the formation array shot straight upward, as if it had pierced some barrier for an instant, yet the stone ceiling above remained completely undamaged.
On this rocky ceiling, a small piece of fluorescent purple biological tissue appeared. Then, this fluorescent purple biological tissue rapidly proliferated, quickly growing into a large patch. It formed a spatial vortex while the claws of Demon Insect Race creatures extended out, forming downward steps beneath the spatial vortex.
A petite figure walked down the claw steps from within the spatial vortex. There were several smooth, pale purple carapace plates on either side of her neck, tightly pressed against her skin. Apart from that, at first glance, the creature Su Xiao had summoned looked no different from a human—it was Jila.
Pale purple mental tendrils spread out behind Jila, quite imposing. It was evident that Jila's strength was vastly different from before. However, her somewhat dazed expression clearly indicated she had been sleeping soundly in her nest and was suddenly summoned, leaving her a bit confused. This caused her to slip as she stepped down one of the claw steps, tumbling down the stairs. Finally, after her forehead intimately kissed the ground, Jila clutched her forehead with both hands, curled up on the floor.
"..."
Su Xiao lightly pressed his brow with one hand, constantly telling himself that this was his own creation. It didn't matter if she lacked imposing presence; as long as her abilities were strong enough.
Thinking this, Su Xiao noticed that the super homebody Jila had already hidden behind the hem of his long leather coat, still looking left and right. Clearly, responding to Su Xiao's summon was Jila's instinct, so even if she was in a dream, she could be summoned immediately. However, during the summoning process, Jila was still in a half-asleep, half-awake daze.
Jila raised her small hand, and over a dozen elite Mantis Armors crawled out from the fluorescent purple biological tissue on the ceiling. These Mantis Armors had two curved blade legs, followed by six armored legs, and at the rear were three tails resembling scorpion tails, each several meters long. However, compared to scorpion tails, the tail structure of the elite Mantis Armors was more flexible, somewhat resembling chitinous tentacles.
Moreover, the tips of these three chitinous tails were a ring of expandable barbed blades, usable for precision work such as cutting or connecting biological tissue. They could also secure heavy objects on their backs or drag heavy objects.
What was even more unique was that the carapaces of these dozen or so Mantis Armors were covered in a layer of fluorescent purple, a change brought about by absorbing the fluorescent purple biological tissue from the ceiling.
Don't underestimate this fluorescent purple biological tissue. When Jila was summoned to this world, because she was Su Xiao's summon under the certification of Reincarnation Paradise, the certification mechanism of Reincarnation Paradise generated this purple biological tissue with both the world's rule characteristics and Jila's cellular characteristics, serving as the medium for the teleportation portal.
This seemingly useless purple biological tissue possessed both the world's characteristics and Jila's cellular characteristics.
As an insect race overlord, as soon as Jila arrived in a new world, she would be regarded as an invader by that world, constantly being repelled. Fortunately, with the certification of Reincarnation Paradise, this repulsion was offset.
Although Jila's world repulsion reaction was resolved, the problem was that the insect nests she controlled and the insect races she cultivated did not have this certification. That is, the dozen or so elite Mantis Armors she summoned should have been repelled by this world.
Jila had the dozen or so Mantis Armors absorb this purple biological tissue, which had both the world's characteristics and her cellular characteristics. After that, these dozen or so Mantis Armors became her followers and would receive secondary certification from Reincarnation Paradise. This created a perfect "boundary crossing."
Even if the Beast Race and Sea Race of this world had means to detect high-danger races and world-destroying races, they would not detect Jila's arrival, because theoretically, she had not yet begun mass-producing insect nests in this world.
As for why Jila was so experienced, nothing else—practice makes perfect. Having accompanied Su Xiao to many Primordial Worlds, it was hard not to be skilled.
The dozen or so Mantis Armors began working, digging downward and decomposing the excavated soil, turning it into a fluid stone-like substance. The ends of their armored tails unfolded, then clamped onto [Active Crystals], absorbing the life energy within to cultivate the basic tissue of the insect nest. A few seconds later, a dark green biological tissue began to spread and expand.
Given Jila's current insect race tier, the initial insect nest was a hundred meters tall. This time, it wasn't about hollowing out the underground to build the nest; rather, this massive hundred-meter-tall insect nest grew as if underground, its outer walls in contact with the soil, even possessing a certain degree of camouflage. As long as no one dug down to this spot and hit the massive insect nest, it would be difficult to discover its existence.
The entrance to this insect nest was on the wall of the second underground floor of the ancient castle. After entering, there was a downward spiral staircase. Descending to a certain depth, one entered the main passage, which connected to various branch passages, making the insect nest extensive.
Currently, all branch passages were closed, and the main passage directly extended to the front of Jila's sleeping nest. Don't think this insect nest lacked defensive measures. Once it entered a defensive state, all entrances and exits would close, its volume would shrink by 30%, its defense would increase by two tiers, and its health points would be as high as over two million.
This wasn't exaggerated. The insect race was a war race. As a protective measure for the mother queen, the insect nest would inevitably be the strongest defense the entire insect race could evolve. If the mother queen lived, everything existed; if the mother queen died, the insect race would immediately wither. This was the extreme yet powerful insect race.
The insect nest was not yet completed. Although there were only a dozen or so Mantis Armors, don't underestimate their work efficiency. By noon at the latest, they would have established the insect nest.
Given the situation in this world, Su Xiao didn't plan to have Jila mass-produce troops, so the lower the profile, the better. Don't forget that the Twilight City fiefdom had six legions. As long as he obtained a large amount of gold coins and the food resources needed for the expedition, Su Xiao could dispatch these six legions to the main battlefield.
With the "Command Potential" abilities of Ergin, Harvey, and others, Su Xiao didn't need to go to the main battlefield himself. He only needed to wear the War Lord title, and then Ergin, Harvey, and others could use "Command Potential" to receive 100% of the title's enhancement themselves while also applying part of the title's effects to the Beast Race soldiers under their command.
The Beast Race legions of the Twilight City fiefdom had always been fierce. If they were further enhanced by the War Lord title, they would quickly become the main force of the Beast Race faction on the main battlefield.
Therefore, Jila's development in this world didn't require mass-producing troops. It only required that the six Beast Race legions under their command carry fungal carpets. After engaging the enemy, they would deploy the fungal carpets, which would absorb the soul energy left behind by the dead enemies. This soul energy, now imbued with some insect race characteristics, would be stored.
Then, using teleportation arrays, the gathered legions would be teleported back to the lord's manor in Twilight City, ultimately absorbed by the insect tide and converted into "Evolution Points."
As long as there were enough "Evolution Points," Jila could rapidly grow and even become the strongest insect race. This would give them some confidence when going to the Eternal Light World.
Furthermore, if the fungal carpets developed well and could provide certain benefits to allied units above, then not only would the six legions of Twilight City deploy the carpets in battle, but other lords' Beast Race legions would also be willing to carry fungal carpets and deploy them after engaging the Sea Race.
The more Beast Race legions used the fungal carpets, the more soul energy they could obtain, which meant more "Evolution Points."
As for biological energy, although it could also be absorbed and stored opportunistically, the risk of doing so was too great. The high-ranking Beast Race members were not fools. The fluctuations produced by absorbing biological energy were more than a hundred times stronger than those from absorbing soul energy.
Absorbing soul energy could be explained as the fungal carpets absorbing an appropriate amount of energy to maintain vitality. If they said this, the high-ranking Beast Race members would at most be half-convinced and wouldn't say much. However, once biological energy was absorbed, it was certain that apart from the six legions under their command, no other lord would allow their legions to use the fungal carpets.
Moreover, the seven major families of the Beast Race would come to investigate the fungal carpets. With even a slight misstep, they might discover Jila. This was a Transcendent Primordial World, the territory of the Beast Race. Never underestimate the dominant forces of a Transcendent World, or you would pay an extremely painful price.
Whether it was the Beast King or the seven major families, except when facing Original Sin Objects where they made compromises, they would never yield an inch at other times. And constantly threatening with Original Sin Objects—if such a thing happened a second time, both sides would inevitably fight to the death.
Furthermore, Su Xiao had never thought of tricking other lords into using the fungal carpets. More accurately, he would have Ergin, Harvey, and other legion commanders under his command strictly guard the secret of the fungal carpets.
Such a conspicuous thing as the fungal carpets, even if carefully kept secret, would be discovered by other Beast Race legions within a short time. At that point, the lords of those legions would learn of this through various channels.
By then, the hundred or so lords would undoubtedly develop a strong interest in these fungal carpets that could enhance Beast Race warriors. They would send people to investigate, or even secretly steal a piece of fungal carpet during the chaos of battle.
Some straightforward lords would simply approach Su Xiao, offering gold coins or resources in exchange for some fungal carpets. At this point, Su Xiao would refuse on the spot.
Then, the group of lords would feel that this guy was keeping such a good thing for himself. Everyone was a lord, all enemies of the Sea Race, all in the same boat. No, they had to go to the Beast King to reason things out.
Ultimately, under the Beast King's mediation and the intense pressure from all the lords, Su Xiao would be "forced" to share the fungal carpets with all the lords.
Most intelligent beings had a characteristic: when they found a treasure or someone suddenly gave them a treasure, after the initial brief surprise, they would start to worry.
For example, whether this treasure had any harm, otherwise why was it thrown by the roadside? Or whether this treasure would bring bad luck, otherwise why would someone with whom they had only a casual relationship give them this treasure?
In the end, filled with doubts, they would use the treasure with extreme caution.
Conversely, if it was a treasure obtained through all means, even unscrupulous methods, then not only would there be no caution, but they would even hold it in their arms while sleeping. Why be cautious? If this thing were harmful, would the guy who originally owned it have fought so desperately to keep it?
That's right, Su Xiao wanted the group of lords to struggle for the fungal carpets. The more Beast Race legions under the lords used the fungal carpets, the more "Evolution Points" they could obtain.
As long as there were enough "Evolution Points," Jila could use them to raise the insect race tier. That was what Su Xiao wanted. Raising the insect race tier was essentially a comprehensive permanent improvement in all aspects of the insect race.
Su Xiao checked Jila's information. Indeed, the improvements in various aspects were not small. Just then, he received a prompt.
[Prompt: Due to the "Insect Race Overlord" ability of this permanent summon, the Evolution Points corresponding to this ability will receive further certification.]
[Certification complete. You can open the corresponding list to allocate these Evolution Points.]
...
Su Xiao quickly found the option for Summon: Insect Race in his mark list. After opening it, the list appeared before him.
[Demon Insect Race.]
Existing Evolution Points: 12 points.
Race Level: Lv.70 (Each consumption of 10 Evolution Points can increase the race level by 1 level).
Overlord (Jila): Lv.70 (Each consumption of 3 Evolution Points can increase the Overlord's growth by 1 level. This characteristic will increase along with the "Race Level" improvement).
Insect Nest: Lv.63 (Each consumption of 3 Evolution Points can increase the Insect Nest level by 1 level. This characteristic will increase along with the "Race Level" improvement).
Gene Pool: Lv.34 (Each consumption of 5 Evolution Points can increase the Gene Pool level by 1 level. This characteristic will increase along with the "Race Level" improvement).
...
The main list only had four characteristics that could be improved. From a comprehensive improvement perspective, raising the "Race Level" would bring the greatest benefits. As for the three below, Overlord growth meant improving Jila's personal strength. The Insect Nest needed no further explanation—it was the troop production capability, the insect race building tier, and the strength of all insect race units.
The last one, the Gene Pool, was quite interesting. This was an improvement option certified by Paradise. As far as Jila herself was concerned, no matter how she did it, she couldn't fabricate out of thin air or construct new combat insect race genes. However, in Reincarnation Paradise's records, there were massive amounts of insect race genes.
After certification, as long as the "Gene Pool" ability was raised, Jila could unlock new insect race unit genes through Reincarnation Paradise's certification via the insect nest, thereby cultivating stronger combat insect races.
Whether developing the Overlord's strength alone, or the Insect Nest and Gene Pool, it wasn't very wise. Raising the "Race Level" to allow the other three levels to increase together was the most stable development method.
Su Xiao scrolled down the list and soon found the fungal carpet in the branch list below.
[Fungal Carpet: Lv.20 (Each consumption of 1 Evolution Point can increase the Fungal Carpet level by 1 level).]
The existing 12 Evolution Points were accumulated by Jila over a long time. In the previous world, the fungal carpet couldn't be raised after reaching Lv.20. Now that they were in the Wind Sea Continent, there was an opportunity for further improvement. Su Xiao wasn't surprised by this. He had seen similar situations several times. For a race like the Demon Insect Race, being restricted by the world they were in was perfectly normal.
Su Xiao tried to use "Evolution Points" to raise the fungal carpet. In the list before him, a semi-transparent plus sign appeared behind the fungal carpet ability. After consuming 1 Evolution Point, a prompt appeared.
[Fungal Carpet has been raised to Lv.21. Please choose one of the following options as the improvement benefit.]