Chapter 159: Former Overlords, Now Ants

At an average height of less than 1.3 meters, with arms as fine as hemp rods, they continuously mined from the canyon, extracting one blue raw stone after another, each far larger than themselves.

Then, under the constant swing of the Mantis Plane mantisfolk's Leather Whip, they used their four lean, hemp‑rod‑like arms to shakily lift massive raw stones several times their own size, stumbling westward toward the processing warehouse.

There, the raw stones mined by these locust‑like creatures will be processed into semi‑finished parts and sent to the front lines as metallic nutrients that reinforce the arm‑blade attribute of the Mantis Plane mantisfolk.

These four‑armed, locust‑resembling beings are an intelligent species known as the Thunderhorse Locust.

They belong to the lower races of the Mantis Plane, possess strong reproductive ability, and have even given rise to a civilization not inferior to the Mantis Plane mantisfolk.

But now they are constantly restrained in their population growth by the Mantis Plane mantisfolk and the Green Blade Bug Race.

The reason for this situation can only be said to be entirely self‑inflicted.

It is said that in the early days when the Mantis Plane was still part of the Micro World, it did not yet bear this name.

At that time, the Mantis Plane insect race was an inconspicuous middle‑rank group, neither high nor low.

The Thunderhorse Locust, however, was the plane's hegemon then; countless races depended on its breath, trembling in awe for survival.

Unfortunately, due to the Thunderhorse Locust's prolific reproduction and a yearly decline in the output of the plane's vital Chirei Purple Bamboo, supply could not meet demand.

This caused their numbers to shrink and led all subsequent Thunderhorse Locusts to suffer malnutrition.

To preserve their world‑dominant status, the Thunderhorse Locust clan then resolved to annihilate every race that could threaten them.

This mad act instantly ignited war across the Mantis Plane, a thousand‑year turmoil that ended with both sides mutually devastated.

After that war, the Thunderhorse Locust clan fell into decline, withdrew from the world stage, and even the surviving members of other high‑rank races that had been wiped out could scarcely regain their former glory.

The Mantis Plane clan, from that war onward, formally stepped onto the historical stage and has dominated the Mantis Plane for nearly a hundred thousand years.

Looking at the valley, these short, frail, dull‑eyed, malnourished Thunderhorse Locusts, who could have imagined the brilliance they once achieved!

Fulade, after his sigh, glanced at the stones they were hauling.

These blue ores are called Chirei Stones; the Chirei Purple Bamboo, a companion that sprouts from the Chirei vein, is also a valuable Magic Resource.

Especially for Dark World thunder‑attribute Magicians or other thunder‑aligned beings, they are rare and precious Magic Resources.

Moreover, these are extremely scarce magical minerals in the Dark World, and their rarity and value will only increase further.

At this moment in the valley, among the hundreds of native Mantis Plane dwellers, only the Level Two male mantisfolk stationed at the valley's center commands any attention; the Level One Life Tier mantisfolk scarcely notice their abnormality.

The infiltration encountered no further mishaps. Fulade easily induced the guards into unwitting hallucinations, packed all the stockpiled Chirei Stones here, and the group slipped away unnoticed toward the next resource site.

Just as Fulade and the various Dark World forces completed their successive actions, the front‑line command base on the Mantis Plane continent…

Endless smoke and flames pervade this place.

Countless black fluid creatures, mixed with myriad star‑realm races parasitized by the Variant Civilization, surge like a black torrent, overwhelming the front‑line's hardest Charstone, intent on drowning it in the flood.

Massive in build, generally three to four meters tall, crocodile‑shaped with a thick tail bearing sharp backward spines, they appear ferociously grotesque; their scarlet pupils blaze with excitement and greed, yearning for slaughter and flesh.

Their purple, elongated tongues, tipped with black flesh spikes and slick saliva, sweep over razor‑sharp fangs as they dive forward, massive arms clad in rough scales lashing toward the already shattered enemy line.

These crocodile‑like grotesques hail from an indigenous tribe of a Micro Plane within a known star‑region surrounding the Mantis Plane.

By now they have become puppets parasitized by the Variant Civilization, possessing not only formidable physiques but also mutable abilities.

Above the sky soar fire‑red monstrous birds with four wings and dense scales, originating from a now‑extinct low‑rank plane's interstellar wanderer tribe, also serving as hosts for the Variant Civilization.

Streams of fire serpents continuously spew downward; their muscular bodies wield hooked claws and long beaks lined with fine teeth, sweeping down and raising a rain of blood.

Among them are numerous host organisms strikingly similar to the Green Blade Bug Race.

From within the base, the various major races of the Mantis Plane continuously repel these Variant beings.

In brutal melee and fierce clashes, nearly a million of the Mantis Plane's major species, under the mantisfolk's leadership, fight desperately to defend this front‑line base.

This front‑most base, like a firmly driven nail, pierces the advance of the Variant Civilization, finally curbing its fiery onslaught.

This marks the fourth Variant Civilization strike this year, occurring on average every three months, steadily draining the base's living forces.

Currently, the southeast war zone of the Mantis Plane continent alone has amassed nearly two million combatants of at least intermediate Magic Apprentice strength.

The scale of the war is evident.

Beyond this main battle zone, there are two secondary zones of importance just below the southeast, each with combat forces already reaching a million.

Aside from the elderly and children, spanning dozens of generations and centuries of plane‑war history, the Mantis Plane has fully mobilized and exploited all available resources and living forces, joining this blood‑and‑flesh mill of a war.

It is like a wound‑up war machine, stretched to its limit.

War potential and societal resources have been compressed to the brink on the Mantis Plane; if no breakthrough arrives within a hundred years, their dwindling plane potential will be exhausted, and they will face imminent collapse with no chance of recovery.

(End of Chapter)