Chapter 1918

Around seven in the evening, the roars of various beasts rose and fell within the forest; compared to the birdsong of daytime, the symphony of the nighttime jungle changed, becoming frog croaks.

The insect nest emitted a faint green glow, the light not strong but sufficient to illuminate the surrounding area.

Two mantis-armored insects ran out from between the trees, their tail hooks sinking into the flesh of their prey, dragging the prey swiftly through the forest.

Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, Bah, and Am were responsible for finding beasts and beating them half to death; afterward, the transport work was handed to the mantis-armored insects, although doing so carried the risk of losing them, but the efficiency was higher, making it worth the risk.

Two mantis-armored insects dragged in two beasts weighing at least four tons each; this was already the tenth batch.

The mantis-armored insects used the claw blades on their forelimbs to dissect the beasts' corpses, taking out chunks of fresh meat and transporting them to near the insect nest; the five-meter-high nest split open a huge fissure, and the mantis-armored insects threw the fresh meat inside, after which the fissure closed.

After consuming flesh and blood, the insect nest could convert it into bio-energy, but the current problem was that the nest's conversion speed was not fast, after all, the nest's height was only five meters at present.

The larger the insect nest's volume, the faster its flesh-and-blood consumption speed; and increasing the nest's volume required consuming bio-energy.

Su Xiao glanced at the nearby pile of dozens of beast carcasses, the result of Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, Am, and Bah's three hours of effort, yet the insect nest's consumption speed was too slow.

Su Xiao checked the insect nest's information.

【Insect Nest (belonging to Jila).】

【Rank: First Rank (out of five ranks, this rank determined by this world's power system).】

【Bio-energy Reserve: 215/2000 points.】

……

After continuously consuming for three hours, only 215 points of bio-energy were obtained; this efficiency made Su Xiao frown.

"Jila."

"Hmm."

Jila's voice came from within the insect nest; at this moment she was lazily lying on the biological tissue, fullness making her somewhat drowsy.

Su Xiao issued an order, commanding Jila to expand the insect nest's volume; under the influence of demonic power, Jila's loyalty had already surpassed the 50-point threshold, so she immediately began expanding the nest's volume.

Emerald-green light surged within the insect nest, the meridians on its surface rising, the entire nest throbbing like a heart as it expanded.

In just about half an hour, the insect nest rose from five meters to eight meters in height, its stored bio-energy completely depleted; however, at this point the meridians on the nest had become much denser, and the whole structure was much sturdier.

The four mantis-armored insects near the insect nest immediately used their tail hooks to grab fresh meat and move forward, throwing the fresh meat into the fissure that had opened on the nest's surface.

After the insect nest's height increased from five to eight meters, its bio-energy conversion efficiency increased by at least threefold; upon discovering this, Su Xiao gave Jila another order, starting from now, all obtained bio-energy would be used to increase the insect nest's volume.

The four mantis-armored insects busied themselves; the beast carcasses on the nearby open ground rapidly diminished, and as for the discarded bones, pelts, etc., they were buried by the mantis-armored insects at a distance; the insect race looked frightening, but in reality they were very clean creatures—this was not cleanliness obsession, but to avoid bacterial proliferation and infection, reducing evolutionary risk.

When only two beast carcasses remained on the open ground, the insect nest stopped absorbing bio-energy and instead began storing the obtained bio-energy.

At this moment the insect nest was a full ten meters high, its surface dark green, with some positions showing shining carapace; perhaps upon advancing to higher rank, the insect nest could evolve biological armor to protect itself.

Ten meters high was the limit for a first-rank insect nest; its flesh-and-blood consumption speed had increased by at least tenfold or more; the beasts hunted by Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang and Bah's team could no longer supply the nest's consumption—this thing's appetite was growing ever larger, and due to the volume increase, the amount of flesh-and-blood consumed in a single gulp had also increased substantially, with conversion speed rising tenfold or more.

After some observation, Su Xiao figured out the pattern: if the insect nest consumed ordinary beasts, each ton of flesh-and-blood yielded 10 points of bio-energy; if not for the fact that beasts in this world were relatively large, Su Xiao would truly have struggled to find enough flesh-and-blood for the nest to consume; however, the stronger the beasts consumed, the more bio-energy obtained, and it was not solely calculated by tonnage.

It was not until the latter half of the night that Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang and Bah returned; the beasts in the surrounding area had already been cleared out by them, and to hunt more beasts, one would have to go to relatively distant areas.

Su Xiao checked the insect nest's information; the nest's stored bio-energy had reached: 670/2000 points.

Having successfully passed the initial stage, it was time to start considering the troop-production issue; the mantis-armored insects were laborers, needed for transporting prey, processing prey, and maintaining the insect nest, among other tasks.

As for the combat insect race's stingers, Su Xiao was temporarily unclear about this thing's capabilities, but one point could be confirmed: the stingers absolutely had predatory ability, and this was very likely the insect nest's early hunters.

Su Xiao ordered Jila to cultivate four mantis-armored insects (consuming 48 points of bio-energy) and fifteen stingers (consuming 600 points of bio-energy).

As soon as Su Xiao issued the order, the 'oviposition tissue' inside the insect nest began working; that is, within just a few minutes, the oviposition tissue successfully cultivated nineteen eggs, among which four were semi-transparent and fifteen were light green.

The mantis-armored insects inside the insect nest placed the nineteen eggs into the 'nurturing sacs', and hatching and parturition began.

The insect race's troop-production capability was strong, but it had a fatal weakness: lower-rank insect races had short lifespans; the mantis-armored insects had only a one-month lifespan, while stingers were somewhat better, with three months.

In Su Xiao's view, this was more than sufficient, as the war mission lasted only one month; no matter what, a winner could be determined within one month.

Time was precious, so Su Xiao had to let the insect nest develop as quickly as possible; to develop quickly, merely storing bio-energy was unwise; more lower-rank insect races would allow hunting more wild animals, and the bio-energy acquisition speed would also increase exponentially.

The first-rank insect nest did not disappoint Su Xiao; that is, within five minutes, nineteen insect races crawled out from the 'nurturing sacs'; among them, four mantis-armored insects shook off the transparent fluid on their bodies and then ran outside the nest to busy themselves, beginning to fulfill their mission from the moment of birth—this was also one of the aspects that made the insect race chilling.

The remaining fifteen stingers remained on standby in place; the stingers' body size was somewhat larger than that of the mantis-armored insects; they had four chitinous legs, a huge abdomen, resembling a spider entirely covered in carapace; they had no sharp claws or teeth, their mouths were tubular in shape, and on their backs, like a porcupine, they grew numerous sharp spines.

Name: Stinger

Health: 100%

Bio-energy: 5/5

Strength: 47

Agility: 56

Stamina: 41

Intelligence: 10

Charm: Lower-rank insect races have no charm attribute.

Skill 1, Biological Toxin (Passive, lv. 15): Attack carries 30 points of toxic attribute damage, 15% chance to cause biological paralysis; this toxin effect can stack up to five layers, and upon reaching five layers, paralysis is guaranteed to trigger (unless the target is immune to this effect).

Skill 2, Spine Injection (Active, lv. 18): Stingers can transfer the spines on their backs into the cylindrical cavity within, and accumulate high pressure in the abdominal sac cavity, thereby injecting the spines from the mouth, capable of attacking enemies 0.5 to 150 meters away, with a piercing effect.

……

As Su Xiao had guessed, the stingers were indeed hunters; their melee capability was average, but they excelled at concealment and searching.

Su Xiao divided the fifteen stingers into five teams, three per team, and assigned each team a mantis-armored insect for transporting prey.

Whether stingers or mantis-armored insects, they were not perpetual motion machines; they likewise needed to eat, but because during their cultivation, overly strong digestive organs were not cultivated, if they directly consumed flesh-and-blood, the energy conversion rate would be very low.

However, when near the insect nest, Jila could use the nest to inject bio-energy into them; one point of bio-energy was enough for them to remain active for a long time; Su Xiao felt this method of supplementation was similar to charging.

The insect-race squads set out; Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, Bah, and Am rested for a moment, then also went out to seek prey.

The initial-scale insect-race mini-legion had been formed; afterward, the task was to accumulate bio-energy, allowing Jila to advance in rank……m.