Chapter 180: Million‑Strong Insect Army

These 18 extreme‑level cultivation tasks, four of them are in secret realms under the Virtual Universe Company, and the other 14 are respectively secret realms of the Great Axe Battle Arena, the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance, the Cosmic Star River Bank, and the secret realms under the First Cosmic Bank.

Of the four extreme‑level cultivation tasks under the Virtual Universe Company, only one Demon Mountain lies in the Primordial Secret Realm, where a legacy of the Demon Sound Divine General is hidden.

The other three are all in the Primordial Secret Realm.

Xiao Yu only gave it a glance and felt no desire to explore.

The so‑called cultivation tasks ultimately exist to let core members of the Virtual Universe quickly boost their strength and increase opportunities to comprehend the laws.

The grant application for the divine crystals was approved in just half a month.

Afterwards the Virtual Universe Company sent people to take away 20,000 divine crystals.

A few days later, Gui Yi Zunzhe arrived at Manor No. 114 on the Wuchen Continent.

"Greetings, venerable Master!" Nick and the other guard servants bowed respectfully.

"Senior brother, it's been decades since we last met, and you still radiate brilliance!" Xiao Yu said, smiling at Gui Yi Zunzhe's bald head. "Little junior brother, you really have great destiny," Gui Yi Zunzhe replied, looking at Xiao Yu and smiling.

He instructed the servants to bring out some dishes and drinks.

"The Virtual Universe Company also conducted an assessment on this, and the result was about the same," Gui Yi Zunzhe said, continuing to taste the wine and dishes on the table.

"Senior brother, I've also been to Viska Star," Xiao Yu asked curiously.

After the meal, Gui Yi Zunzhe took out a Storage Ring, placed it in Xiao Yu's hand, and smiled: "This is a World Ring; inside are the five Star‑Eating Grass plants you need and the resources to cultivate them up to the ninth tier of Realm Lord Level, as well as 87,400,000 Mixed Yuan Units of Universe Crystals. There are too many items; only a World Ring can contain them."

"That was many years ago," Gui Yi Zunzhe recalled. "It is an ancient and mysterious planet, full of secrets; legend has it that in the early Primordial Universe, the Lord of the Universe fell onto that planet."

With a thought, the World Ring was absorbed into his internal world; the World Tree's World Force swept into the World Ring, expanding its internal space to 100 million kilometers in length, width, and height—far larger than a planet.

Gui Yi Zunzhe lifted a cup of purple wine, drank it in one gulp, and reflected, "Indeed, it tastes like memory!"

Star‑Eating Grass is a highly unusual plant life that grows in the cosmos; it originates on an ordinary mineral planet, and as it matures it automatically devours various metals, rocks, and the like on the planet. Typically, an ordinary mineral planet is sufficient for a single 'Star‑Eating Grass' to evolve to the Universe level, after which the mineral planet disintegrates, and the plant roots itself onto a massive rock and begins interstellar wandering.

"Senior brother, this manor of mine is your first visit; let's go inside and sit," Xiao Yu said, pulling Gui Yi Zunzhe into his residence within the Primordial Secret Realm.

Nearly 900 million Mixed Yuan Units of Universe Crystals, with a volume approaching 9 × 10¹⁴ cubic meters, roughly 900,000 cubic kilometers.

"Senior brother, these are all specialties from Viska Star; give them a try," Xiao Yu said, pointing at the bottles of wine and plates of dishes on the massive dining table.

"No problem." Although Xiao Yu's human body does not contain the World Force, his internal World Tree does.

"Hmm, I suppose these divine crystals are condensed from the blood and spiritual essence of Lord of the Universe‑level elites, refined under Viska Star's unique environment," Xiao Yu voiced his speculation.

He then took out five young Star‑Eating Grass seedlings, along with the supplies that filled the entire World Ring.

With a sweep of thought, he extracted all the Universe Crystals, piling them together like a small mountain.

During its wandering life, the Star‑Eating Grass may devour some exotic metals, rocks, vegetation, etc., gaining evolution.

Star‑Eating Grass, touted as the toughest aggressive plant life, the "toughest" here refers to certain plant lives that humans can trade; yet the cosmos still harbors some exceptionally powerful singular specimens.

Star‑Eating Grass differs from Mo Yun Vine; Mo Yun Vine excels at defense, while Star‑Eating Grass excels at offense, using a single attack method called "Entangling Kill".

The five Star‑Eating Grass seedlings cost 1,500,000 Mixed Yuan Units.

All Star‑Eating Grass seedlings are identical, but depending on cultivation methods they can evolve into Ten‑Vine, Hundred‑Vine, Three‑Hundred‑Vine, Five‑Hundred‑Vine, or Thousand‑Vine varieties.

For example, when a Five‑Hundred‑Vine Star‑Eating Grass ascends to Immortal, its strength equals that of a Seal Marquis, whereas a Thousand‑Vine Star‑Eating Grass reaching Immortal possesses the pinnacle strength of a Seal King.

Xiao Yu spent 4,500,000 Mixed Yuan Units to cultivate all five seedlings into Thousand‑Vine Realm Lord Level Star‑Eating Grass.

The expense is far from small, and to upgrade these Thousand‑Vine Star‑Eating Grass to Immortal Level would likely require several hundred billion Mixed Yuan Units.

"Junior junior, when do you plan to advance your realm?" Gui Yi Zunzhe asked.

"I'll advance before the Primordial Secret Realm's Universe‑level qualification battle," Xiao Yu laughed, "Why would senior brother ask that?"

"Let me remind you, once you reach Domain Lord Level, the Virtual Universe Company will directly appoint you as a Seal Frontier Official and, following its usual practice, dispatch you to the Qian Wu Universe Country as an Inspection Envoy," Gui Yi Zunzhe said with a smile. "At that time, you will face not only various challenges and trials from internal human forces, but also possible attacks from strong individuals of the Alien Tribe who have pre‑emptively ambushed you."

……

Within the vast internal world.

Suddenly five more Star‑Eating Grass seedlings appeared; with the three Xingchen idle, Xiao Yu assigned the three of them to keep watch, with Wu acting as supervisor.

Now Xiao Yu deployed 100,000 divine crystals, instantly gaining nearly 1,000,000,000 Mixed Yuan Units of Universe Crystals, becoming exceedingly generous.

A World Tree clone directly transferred out 20,000 Realm Lord Peak Insect Race corpse units.

The World Tree clone summoned Irina to its side and laughed, "Irina, here are 20,000 Realm Lord Peak Insect Race corpse units; they're yours, use them all to cultivate Insect Race monarchs. You must at least produce a million Tiger Shell Insect Tribe monarchs; the rest is up to you."

Under normal circumstances, 100 Realm Lord Peak Insect Race corpse units can cultivate one million ordinary Realm Lord Peak Insect Race, and those of higher quality can yield 1.8 to 2 million.

And for those purchased by Gui Yi Zunzhe, no one dares to cheat with subpar ones.

Twenty thousand Realm Lord Peak Insect Race corpse units, if used to cultivate ordinary Realm Lord Peak Insect Race, can total even over 300 million individuals.

However, the number of Insect Race warriors that the Insect Queen Irina can control is actually limited; for example, if she wants each subordinate warrior to be able to execute law‑based attacks, the maximum is ten thousand! That's the limit—once the number exceeds ten thousand, she cannot have every warrior perform law attacks.

As the numbers increase, control becomes increasingly coarse.

When it reaches one million, the queen can at most have countless warriors launch a collective attack, retreat collectively, and so on, but cannot execute refined attacks.

If the number exceeds one million, Irina cannot even make all the warriors attack a single point collectively.

Of course, the number cultivated and the number participating in battle are not the same.

"Long live the master!" Irina instantly became excited, having no mind to further contemplate the Hun Dun Tablet Illusory Shadow, "These Insect Race corpse units are all excellent; they should be able to cultivate a million Hunting Mantis monarchs, a million Tiger Shell Insect Tribe monarchs, and a million Edge‑Shadow Insect Race monarchs."

"Approximately how long will it take to cultivate them?" Xiao Yu asked with a smile.

(End of Chapter)