Chapter 12: Summoning
The enhancement from the [Old Hunter] title was considerable. After Su Xiao advanced to Absolute Strength, although he still encountered Violators, their numbers had noticeably decreased. Correspondingly, the Violators he faced were increasingly difficult to kill, and some simply couldn't be killed at all—yes, that's right, Shenfu, I'm talking about you.
Therefore, obtaining [Hunter Gold Coins] by killing Violators was highly unstable. Now that the [Old Hunter] title had expanded its hunting range to include the Abyss system, that was a different matter entirely. After Su Xiao advanced to Absolute Strength, he had locked horns with the Abyss system.
Now wasn't the time to equip the Old Hunter title. He switched it to [Abyssal Shadow], then opened the newly appeared city list. The information on the base camp, Rain Soaked City, was laid out completely.
Overall, this was a fortress city with a small area, a sparse population, and poor resources. The entire city was shrouded by steel high walls. The metal, old-fashioned buildings were as kind and simple as the local customs—so simple that they had killed off 35 successive lords.
Su Xiao didn't care whether these residents supported him. The key point was that if these fierce Rain Soaked City residents really did rise up against him, and he wiped them all out, Rain Soaked City would no longer count as a territory. Losing the territory would naturally mean losing his lord status, and the Void Tree would certainly certify that.
He didn't believe that a small number of Rain Soaked City residents could be strong enough to kill off generations of lords. This must have started with an excessively brutal lord long ago, casting a shadow over these residents, leading them to attack en masse whenever a new lord showed any signs of trouble.
There must be leaders among these residents, along with lower-level managers. The result was that Rain Soaked City had two power systems. One was the lord system, which had strong war capabilities but needed the residents' support. The other was the resident leader faction, which lacked strong war capabilities but could nip lords in the bud. As long as there were no resources—specifically food—the lord couldn't develop the [Lord Core].
A lord without a half-orc legion under his command was no match for the leader faction. This also meant that few lords in Rain Soaked City lasted more than a month.
In previous years, there were still new lords who came to challenge themselves in the famous Rain Soaked City. Now, there were no such suicidal lords at all.
The relationship between lords and commoners was that lords had methods to produce "food," but given the environmental conditions of Lord Continent, any method was inseparable from the commoners' labor.
Su Xiao sat before the summoning array. He had determined Silver Queen's approximate coordinates. She wasn't in Eternal Light World, but in some unknown world. It seemed Silver Queen had returned to her homeland again. Last time she went back, her sister from the same mother queen had beaten her half to death. At the brink of life and death, she could only return to Eternal Light World to cling to Jila's thigh.
Although Jila was a homebody who liked eating potato chips when facing Su Xiao, when it came to other insect races, it wasn't just a matter of striking hard—it was about smashing their brains out.
Jila was very angry, but the consequences? Actually, there were none for now. Without the summoning of the [War Lord] title, Jila's insect race couldn't leave Eternal Light World. So, in the insect race network, she greeted Silver Queen's sister, roughly meaning: "You're very good. I'll remember you. When I can briefly leave Eternal Light World in the future, I'll come find you and visit your nest."
Silver Queen's sister, sensing this information through the insect race network, felt terrible. In the eyes of all insect races, Jila was a monster among monsters, so monstrous that they had tried to expel her from the insect race network. They had indeed done so, but later, feeling uneasy, the elders invited this little ancestor back.
The general meaning was: "Little ancestor, we're all insect races. When you can leave Eternal Light World someday and encounter other insect races, go easy on them. Who could be your opponent? At most, give them a beating. Don't drag out their queen to feed to Barbatos. We're all insect races, have a little sympathy."
Regarding the matter of dragging out other queens to feed Barbatos, Jila immediately denied it. This fully inherited Su Xiao's style—she could agree to conditions, but this matter wasn't done by her, and even if there was evidence, she wouldn't admit it.
Given that the insect race elders had the ability to "disconnect" and that Jila, having already conquered Eternal Light World, was usually quite bored, browsing the insect race network was very interesting. After emailing Su Xiao about this and receiving a reply to decide for herself, Jila agreed.
Why was Silver Queen's sister so uneasy? Because while she could indeed pin Silver Queen to the ground and beat her, facing Jila... not to mention anything else, Barbatos alone could destroy her insect race nest.
Moreover, Silver Queen's return to her homeland this time wasn't for conquest. Previously, she had exploded a world she controlled for storing World Force to repair her homeland and have a chance to seal the Insect Race Overlord, turning herself into an Origin Stone. If not for her strong survival ability, holding on until Su Xiao obtained [Origin Stone: Silver Queen], she would have sent herself off that time.
This time, Silver Queen returned to her homeland not to fight for territory, but truly to restore this mother planet she had nearly completely destroyed. Was Silver Queen no longer the cold and proud queen? Had she lost her edge? Yes. After witnessing the Demon Insect Race's clash with the World Devourer, Silver Queen suddenly felt that the Insect Race Overlord she had been desperately pursuing was so fragile before these monsters. Even if she became the Insect Race Overlord, so what?
Silver Queen began to reflect. What was she really pursuing? This contemplation suddenly made her understand that what she had always been chasing was nothing more than the insect race larva hiding in a nest less than a meter high, timidly peeking outside, watching the fragrant flowers and grass, the insects and birds dancing, and the deer grazing on tender grass covered with cool morning dew.
At that moment, Silver Queen knew what she had always been longing for. She had just been yearning to leave the nest and bathe in nature. However, as an insect race mother body, her instinctive nature would never allow her to do so. Only by developing, growing, and defeating her own kind could she have a brief sense of security.
Therefore, Silver Queen's goal became to return to her mother planet, establish a nest, and gradually repair the damaged environment. Unfortunately, as soon as she returned home, she was severely beaten by her former mortal enemy—her own sister. Given the insect race's almost nonexistent concept of familial affection, this beating was particularly brutal.
Su Xiao placed a contract at the center of the summoning array. Pressing one hand on it, the array activated.
Meanwhile, in the bedchamber of a mother nest, Silver Queen suddenly opened her eyes. Around her were a dozen restless elite combat insect races. Sensing the summoning force, impatience flickered in her eyes. She hated summoners, so she decisively terminated the summoning pull.
But the next second, Silver Queen realized something was wrong. If a normal summoning pull was like a thread, requiring the summoned party's cooperation to complete the summoning, then this time it was like a chain, firmly wrapped around her neck.
"Could it be..."
A person came to Silver Queen's mind—a terrifying human who seemed to gently stroke her neck but would twist off her head the next moment if she refused his request.
"Wait, wait!"
Before Silver Queen could finish speaking, she was forcibly dragged into the summoning array. The familiar spatial fluctuations and violent teleportation sensation confirmed that the summoner was indeed that human.
When the teleportation ended, Silver Queen collapsed to the ground. Her slender index finger, with silver-patterned nails, tremblingly pointed at Su Xiao as she gasped:
"You..."
Before she could finish, Baha interrupted: "Say hello? Yaha, Silver Queen, your manners have improved! Long time no see, have you changed from a cold queen to a lazy, elegant style?"
"You..."
"Say 'you all are well'? Ahahaha, you really have become elegant! Boss, look at Silver Queen, she's so excited her fingers are trembling. I say, it hasn't been that long, are you really that eager to see my boss? Could it be... you~"
Baha's gradually blooming mischievous grin shattered Silver Queen's already unstable mentality.
"Shameless..."
"You insist on seeing us no matter what? Oh my, how mushy."
"Shut up!"
"Alright, then negotiate with my boss."
Baha really shut up, but Su Xiao had already made a move to draw his blade. Negotiating with him meant physical negotiation.
Silver Queen paused. Compared to having that terrifying demon blade at her neck, being half-angry to death didn't seem so bad.
"I need a Heart of Nature, one that can take effect in a Ninth Rank world and gradually heal the natural environment. That's my payment. If you can't produce it immediately, you can give it later, but you can't break your promise."
Silver Queen chose to name her price directly.
"Oh? So you agree to cooperate just like that? We haven't even told you what we need your help with."
Hearing Baha's words, Silver Queen didn't look at it but stared at Su Xiao and said, "Do I... have a choice?"
Baha said, "Of course you do. Silver Queen, do you think in our hearts we're the kind of people who would force you to cooperate?"
Hearing this, Silver Queen was visibly stunned. This threw her off balance. She said suspiciously, "Aren't you?"
"Definitely not. Look at what you're saying. If you disagree, we'll send you back using my boss's newly developed, upgraded version of the Law-Destroying Teleportation Array."
Baha emphasized the words "newly developed," "upgraded version," and "Law-Destroying Teleportation Array," making Silver Queen's back feel chilly.
Seeing this, Su Xiao poured a cup of Elemental Brew, handed it to Silver Queen, and took one for himself, saying, "I won't force you to cooperate with me."
"I'm voluntary!"
Silver Queen's tone suddenly became resolute, clearly moved by the power of the upgraded Law-Destroying Teleportation Array... ahem, by friendship.
"Since I'm already on this pirate ship, tell me, where is this?"
Silver Queen's sitting posture became elegant. She rested one elbow on the armrest of the crystal chair, took a small sip of the fine wine, and a slight smile appeared on her face.
"Lord Continent, a world certified by the Paradise faction. You probably haven't heard of it."
"Cough, cough, cough~"
Silver Queen choked. She stared at Baha and asked, "Where is this?"
"Lord Continent. What's wrong?"
"Send me back. Use the Law-Destroying Teleportation Array."
Silver Queen made to stand up, showing an attitude of fleeing overnight. But before she could get up, a long sword in its sheath pressed down on her shoulder. Under the effect of the scabbard, she could only obediently sit back down.
Seeing Silver Queen's attitude, Baha deliberately squinted one eye and asked, "So, you know about Lord Continent?"
"I do."
"Tell me about it."
"In your Paradise terms, if our insect race's war capability is 7 out of 10—your daughter Jila excluded—if we're 7, then the lords are between 9 and 10. This vast world, second only to the Transcendent Primordial World, is the territory of the Crimson Lord. He is the Supreme Lord here, the overlord of the endless half-orc legions. The insect race is a biological entity, a war entity, but the half-orc legions are pure weapons."
Speaking to this point, a deep fear flickered in Silver Queen's eyes, clearly indicating that she had clashed with some lords at her peak.
"Are the lords that strong?"
Baha tried to pry for more information. Silver Queen didn't hide it and said directly, "The lords have a biological pinnacle creation called the [Lord Core]. This is also one of the peak creations of the Eternal Light World's High Lords."
Hearing this, Baha's expression turned serious. The High Lords of Eternal Light World were powerful beings who, during the First Era, acted as warmongers against the Sun God Clan and Ancient Wyverns. They were one of the three Transcendents of the First Era.
"Bai Ye, forgive my frankness. I'm very glad you think so highly of me, believing I have the ability to fight the lords to the death. Cooperating with you, although the process... is hard to describe, I was indeed one of the winners last time. But facing the lords, my insect race is no match."
"No, you can."
"I... I can't."
"You can."
"I..."
Silver Queen was about to emphasize again when she found Su Xiao's right hand already resting on the end of the sword hilt. She forced a smile and said, "Then, I guess I can."
Silver Queen's eyes were helpless. She felt she couldn't, but the Law Destroyer opposite her was about to put a sword to her neck, telling her she could. This wasn't how you encouraged someone!
"Alright, let's assume I can. But where do we establish the nest? Also, the combat insect race genes in my inventory are less than one percent of your daughter's strength. By the way, why not let your daughter casually give me a combat insect race gene? I'm not expecting a Demon Flame Dragon; a Demon Beast would do."
Silver Queen's eyes lit up, but Su Xiao's next words left her confused.
"The combat effectiveness of the insect race you cultivate isn't important."
"Combat effectiveness isn't important? Then what is?!"
"Meat quality."
"Huh?"
Silver Queen was completely dumbfounded. She certainly hadn't expected that Su Xiao was now a lord, possessing [Lord Aura] and [Lord Core].
[Lord Aura] had a similar effect to the previous version of the [War Lord] title. It couldn't be upgraded yet, requiring [Concentrated Soul], which currently had no acquisition method. The [Lord Core], used for troop production, required "food."
Su Xiao never just followed the prompts' instructions. In this world, there were two methods to produce "food": farming by commoners and catalysis. Farming involved planting a living plant called "Devourer" on "Decayed Soil."
"Decayed Soil" was soil buried beneath massive amounts of enemy legion corpses or corrupted beast herds. Through special catalysis, this soil decayed while carrying tainted life energy. Using the living plant "Devourer," this tainted life energy was absorbed and filtered. The branches of the "Devourer" would produce gelatinous life-property substances, which were the "food" needed by the [Lord Core] in this world.
The other method, catalysis, involved converting and transforming energy with similar properties into life energy. For example, wood-type energy promoted grass and trees, grass and tree properties transformed into flesh and blood, and flesh and blood mutated into life. By directly doing this quickly through a formula factory without the medium of plants/animals, once life energy was obtained, the subsequent steps were similar to farming "Devourer."
Lords needed "food," and commoners needed shelter. Lord Continent was vast, but the entire western region was occupied by corrupted beast herds, whose numbers were endless. This was the main fertilizer for producing "food."
The north was the territory of the undead and dead souls, the south was the Dark Spreading Zone, where any who dared to enter would be torn apart by the dark creatures inside. The central and eastern regions were the territories occupied by the lords.
Among the corrupted beast herds, undead, and dark creatures, the greatest threat to the commoners of various races was undoubtedly the corrupted beast herds. Logically, with the lords' powerful war capabilities, they had the ability to fight to the death and destroy the corrupted beast herds. But the key was, if they did so, how long could they, who relied on commoners to provide war energy, survive after destroying the corrupted beast herds?
It was precisely because of the occasional harassment by the corrupted beast herds that one could see how fierce the customs of Rain Soaked City were. Without a lord, this place had continued to exist for so many years.
Su Xiao's plan was that now that he had a lord identity, he should make good use of it. With the Demon Insect Race, playing the "lord game" from scratch with other teams would be too clumsy.
So-called "food" was nothing more than flesh and blood containing a large amount of life energy. According to this world's "food" production method, each unit of "food" contained about 2.6 Nira of life energy (Nira: Alchemy unit, usually used to summarize the content of life energy or reverse-flow energy per standard unit).
Since this world's "food" was man-made, Su Xiao was confident he could produce better. Don't forget, the [Bio-Energy Crystal] used by the Demon Insect Race was one of the higher-grade life energies. The [Lord Core] wasn't unable to digest this energy; it was that the two systems were different, causing the [Lord Core] to have indigestion.
Each unit of [Bio-Energy Crystal] contained 320 Nira of life energy. The purpose of summoning Silver Queen here was already clear. Silver Queen didn't need to mass-produce combat insect races. She needed to use her own nest gene bank to create an insect race that grew quickly, had stable flesh and blood structure, and contained a large amount of life energy in its flesh. Even better, to reduce costs, this insect race unit didn't even need to add consciousness seeds.
This saved a lot of bio-energy crystal expenses. Remember, for every insect race cultivated, 30% of the cultivation cost was used to transform into consciousness seeds, ensuring that the insect race, once mature, could work independently or follow mental commands to fight.
In other words, once Silver Queen's nest was formed, she wasn't mass-producing troops; she was mass-producing food. The resulting large amount of food would first be used to upgrade the [Lord Core] from E-rank to SSS. After that, it still wasn't about mass-producing troops. Since this was already inhumane, go all the way. Besides its rank, the [Lord Core] also had a talent tree.
By supplying enough "food" to the [Lord Core], under the Void Tree's certification, talent points could be obtained to upgrade various passive abilities on the [Lord Core]'s talent tree. Su Xiao's goal was to max out this talent tree as well, and only then start mass-producing troops.
This plan had one biggest problem: where to get the [Bio-Energy Crystals] needed for Silver Queen's development and troop production? The answer was Eternal Light World. As the guardian of Eternal Light World, Jila's nest absorbed the excess World Force of Eternal Light World. This was how the Void Tree had certified it back then.
These World Forces would be converted by the Demon Insect Race nest into [Bio-Energy Crystals], and they would be the purest, most top-grade [Bio-Energy Crystals].
Jila had already stockpiled a massive amount of [Bio-Energy Crystals], just waiting for Su Xiao's signal to use the Law-Destroying Teleportation Array he left behind to send them to him in batches. Would the Void Tree interfere? The answer was no. In its judgment, Jila was Su Xiao's permanent summon, and this was assistance from a permanent summon.
Even if there was some interference, it wouldn't be a direct interruption or prevention. It would most likely be a deduction of Void Tree Reputation. As the saying goes, as long as your Void Tree Reputation is low enough, you're invincible against such penalties.
A more intuitive analogy: if this round of conflict was like using gold coins to upgrade everything, then Hao Tao, Tailide, Kaien, Shenfu, and others were either developing their starting positions or had already prepared, with a large sum of gold coins in hand. Su Xiao's actions above were like cheating—he had turned on a nearly infinite gold coin cheat. Within a few days of starting, he was ready to max out the [Lord Core]'s rank and talent tree.
As for where to locate the nest base camp, naturally not on the surface. Building it around this hidden shelter was a good idea, both hiding the nest underground and making this shelter with the [Skill Upgrade Pod] safer.
Furthermore, once the nest was built, a large number of worker scorpions could be cultivated to dig out enough space several kilometers underground, or even deeper, to facilitate hiding the legion's combat power when the [Lord Core] later mass-produced troops.
Silver Queen raised her hand. The pendant on her neck dissolved into a stream of life energy. She released the pulsating embryo egg in her hand. After absorbing the life energy, the embryo egg grew wildly in size. Soon, the first worker scorpion was born. The starting point of the nest began with a single worker scorpion.
The worker scorpion ran out of the few dozen square meter hidden shelter, dug into the surrounding soil, and decided to build the nest above the shelter. This way, as the nest expanded downward, it would envelop the shelter below.
Su Xiao hadn't forgotten that there was a leader faction within Rain Soaked City. His response to this faction was simple. The insect race excelled at cultivation and accelerated growth. Among the genes Silver Queen had collected, there were four types: [Arc Horn Buffalo], [Grey Bristle Wild Boar], [Ink Feather Crown], and [Silver Scale Dolphin Fish].
These four types, originating from natural ecological chains in different worlds, were animals that Silver Queen had found to have the best meat quality, so she naturally kept their genes. In essence, the above four were beef, pork, poultry, and fish.
Although the nest used accelerated methods to produce these, the problem was that using such outrageous energy as [Bio-Energy Crystals] for cultivation meant the meat quality and nutrition were unquestionable. Moreover, since these were ordinary individuals cultivated without consciousness, the cost was even lower.
Furthermore, in the diet of Rain Soaked City's commoners, coarse grains made up the majority, and wild vegetables were rare. To have a means of self-preservation, a small number of residents directly ate the [Lord Core]'s "food," resulting in very short lifespans.
After completing meat production, subsequent work like slaughtering, disassembling, and transporting would be handled by worker scorpions. Cultivating a single worker scorpion required only a very small amount of [Bio-Energy Crystals].
Even if Rain Soaked City had not just 50,000 commoners but 5 million or 50 million, Su Xiao had ways to lift them from a state of food scarcity to eating three meals a day, each meal different.
Rain Soaked City had year-round rainfall. Coupled with the neighboring territory's "Decayed Soil Zone," the surface water was turbid and even toxic. Even after natural filtration through the earth, the groundwater remained highly unstable, with a strange taste and mild toxicity.
A strange taste and mild toxicity didn't matter, as long as there was sufficient groundwater. Bubu Wang had learned many technologies from the Bana Dwarf Clan. Water purification devices were a major category. Bubu Wang had studied very seriously back then, waiting for a chance to enter a mission world where his storage space was sealed, so he could assemble a water purification device from scrap materials and become the MVP.
Unfortunately, this opportunity never came. Bubu Wang had been a bit frustrated before, wanting to show off in front of Su Xiao, but his learning had been in vain.
As it turned out, no knowledge is ever wasted. This time, it was Bubu Wang's turn to shine. This canine was drawing up a design plan. He intended to build a purification device with a daily filtration capacity sufficient to supply 30,000 to 450,000 people, with a drinking safety level of A+. S-level was unnecessary; that would be pursuing luxury, requiring the addition of various trace elements.
Additionally, Bubu Wang had noticed upon arrival that the large steam device in the city center was very old. It would be scrapped in a few more years, and its steam transmission power was particularly unstable. The city center was so hot you'd want to soak in ice water, while the city edges were as cold as a refrigerator's fresh-keeping zone. This steam device needed renovation and modification, plus the addition of an intelligent temperature control device.
Su Xiao didn't plan to fight to the death with this city's leader faction. Ample food, clean fresh water, and warm shelter—after he provided these, essentially for free, as long as the leader faction didn't want to experience Rain Soaked City's simple and honest customs, they wouldn't oppose him. No, the leader faction definitely wasn't a group with strong power desires. Most of them consumed the [Lord Core]'s "food," sacrificing their lifespans to gain strength and protect Rain Soaked City.
Under these circumstances, with a city lord like Su Xiao arriving, the situation would be that they would be particularly worried about something happening to him.
The problem was that another part of Su Xiao's plan was to personally challenge any lord's legion. This risk wasn't low, but it was necessary to max out [Azure Shadow King]. The [Law-Destroying Talent: Shadow Hunt] couldn't be triggered through his own legions.
At that time, the likely scenario would be that Fenny and the high-level members of the leader faction would be worried sick. The former would think, "My super powerful team leader is going to solo the enemy legion, what do I do?" The latter would think, "Our city lord is going to solo the enemy legion, what do we do? Urgent!"
At this moment, in a two-story building in the southern district of Rain Soaked City, a torrential rain was falling outside. The hall's lighting was dim. Insufficient power supply caused the dim yellow lights to flicker off occasionally for a few seconds.
The few people present were dressed differently. The leader was a woman with a braid, a scar on the lower right side of her cheek, and facial details hard to discern. She sat on the sofa wearing an overcoat. A flash of lightning made her dark red pupils even fiercer.
"Chief, another lord has arrived. Should we make a move directly..."
A burly man with a cigar between his fingers and erosion marks covering his face spoke.
"No rush. Let's see what kind of lord he is. After all, we can't hold out much longer. We need someone to guard this city drowned by rain and sewage."
The female chief spoke, raised her hand, and stubbed out the cigarette between her fingers. It could be seen that the exposed bones of her lower arm were not large. Coupled with her physical exhaustion, she was somewhat thin. But as a leader, she couldn't show weakness, so she compensated with her clothing.
"Then we ignore him?"
The tall, thin, one-eyed man standing behind the sofa spoke.
"No, we'll... scheme against him. Rain Soaked City desperately needs a kind lord."
The female chief got up from the single sofa and walked out. The other core members followed. Little did she know that the lord who had arrived this time could be described as very "kind"... a very... complicated kindness?