Chapter 89: Battle Against the Insect Race

Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.

North of the tectonic cliff where the Evil Eye Tower stands.

A massive army composed of countless insects, dense as locusts, covered the ground and advanced at extreme speed toward the location of the Evil Eye Tower.

Discovering the anomaly, the Earth-Will Evil Spirit decisively withdrew the Black Tide forces still ravaging the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range, constructed a wall of black fog centered on the Evil Eye Tower, and poised itself to welcome the sudden war.

Upon the Gao Ta, the Earth-Will Evil Spirit's expression appeared infinitely Solemn.

In his perception, the main body of the Insect Warriors was composed of semi-transparent crystals, displaying mottled colors under the Evil Moon's light; three pairs of wings as thin as cicada wings extended from both sides of their backs, covered in energy spirit runes; their eyes were a pair of rubies capable of changing color with the environment; through the semi-transparent shell, an organ beating like a heart could be seen in the midsection of their bodies, and with every contraction, the spirit runes on their bodies would light up.

Their lower limbs were four slender jointed legs, and on both sides of the tooth-filled mouthparts grew a pair of high-standing upper jaws shaped like scythes.

The insect swarm moved with extreme speed and in vast numbers; every Insect Warrior radiated an aura of coldness and slaughter.

Upon contacting the terrifying Black Tide controlled by the Earth-Will Evil Spirit, the spirit runes on the insects lit up, and they spewed elongated energy threads from their mouths; the Evil Entities of the Black Tide that made contact were instantly severed, then reabsorbed into the Black Tide.

The war between the Insect Tide and the Black Tide became intense the moment they touched.

Like two waves of different colors converging at their center, they engaged in bloody slaughter.

This scene also occurred under Qi Sheng's conscious surveillance.

The Guide, which had been observing the movements of the Evil Eye Tower, immediately conveyed the news to him upon discovering the situation.

Through the Guide's parsed information, Qi Sheng obtained detailed data on the Insect Warriors:

【Crystal-Winged Order (Combat Insect Race)】

Hunting Rank: 15

Parsed Information: Low-tier combat unit of the Combat Insect Race; possesses the racial talent of rapidly evolving by consuming matter; controlled by the "Low-tier Hive Mind" unit; each battle allows them to acquire pheromones by consuming targets (the Hive Mind can acquire pheromones through the Combat Insect Swarm, thereby adjusting the growth direction of newly spawned insects and evolving combat organs to counter opposing forces.)

……

"A new faction has appeared; quite interesting, daring to launch an offensive against the terrifying Black Tide."

On the Meng Yuan Chu Altar, images of the Insect Swarm clashing fiercely with the Black Tide floated in Qi Sheng's mind as he clicked his tongue in amazement.

Hearing these words, a thoughtful expression appeared on the surface of the Guide's water sphere:

【Indeed very strong; I suspect this faction named "Insect Race" likely pursued the Black Tide into the Monster World, rather than being forced into the Monster World after the world's collapse like most races, or coming for revenge after the world's collapse.】

"Have you made some new discovery?" Qi Sheng looked at the Guide and asked curiously.

Facing the question, the Guide's thought shifted in an instant; the image in Qi Sheng's mind zoomed in on the Combat Insect Swarm fighting the Black Tide Evil Entities, then the Guide manifested an arm pointing to a Crystal-Winged Order insect torn into fragments by an Evil Entity and explained:

【Boss, have you noticed that the state of the insects after death is somewhat abnormal?】

Upon hearing this, Qi Sheng's gaze swept over the Crystal-Winged Order remains turned into fragments, and he immediately realized the problem:

"The Black Tide seems unable to completely consume the flesh and blood fragments of the Crystal-Winged Order, able only to consume part of the body."

This discovery seemed truly incredible to Qi Sheng.

The most terrifying characteristic of the Black Tide is consuming to grow; this did not manifest during battles with players, but against other lifeforms it was practically unsolvable.

Yet the Black Tide's strongest characteristic did not fully manifest in the confrontation with the Insect Swarm.

Based on Qi Sheng's understanding of the Black Tide, normal development should be: Black Tide Evil Entities die, remerge into the black fog, and with minimal energy loss, generate new Black Tide Evil Entities to rejoin the battle; meanwhile, the Insect Warriors fighting the Evil Entities die, and their flesh and blood are also absorbed and digested by the black fog.

Ultimately, the Black Tide would grow rapidly like a rolling snowball with low losses.

But in the battle, when Black Tide Evil Entities killed Insect Warriors, they could only absorb part of the flesh and blood, unable to achieve perfect consumption.

"These insects have evolved a body structure that resists Black Tide consumption."

【Exactly; these Insect Warriors, or rather the Hive Mind behind them, clearly are not fighting the Black Tide for the first time; they must have collected enough pheromones during high-frequency battles to evolve resistance tissues aimed at countering the Black Tide, namely the Crystal-Winged Order's crystal-like body structure. This substance is at least difficult for low-tier Black Tide to digest, so they can only consume part of the energy.】

【There is another point, Boss, have you noticed? The Insect Warriors spray atomized energy particles during battle, which can prevent the black fog from consuming the energy scattered when Evil Entities die, delaying the speed at which the Black Tide regenerates Evil Entities. Thus, this batch of Insect Warriors has evolved two counter-organs specifically against the Black Tide.】

"Quite interesting; pull the view back and take a look."

As soon as Qi Sheng finished speaking, the Guide began carrying his consciousness through the insect swarm covering the mountains and fields, entering the new region north of the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.

This area is named in the parsed information: Phantom Swamp.

The speed of the view's advance constantly increased, finally hovering before a creature as massive as a small hill.

Parsed information then floated into view.

【Insect Hive Mind (Low-tier Hive Mind)】:

Hunting Rank: Level 103

Target Introduction: Command unit within the Insect Race's social ecosystem; possesses four racial talents: consuming matter, rapid reproduction, pheromone analysis, and reconstructing life tissues.

……

Above the Insect Hive Mind, Qi Sheng also discovered a tiny fissure; this was a spatial rift that was about to close.

What could be confirmed was that the Insect Hive Mind had just arrived here via aerial drop.

What could not be determined was whether this low-tier Insect Hive Mind came specifically for the Black Tide or for resources, but after arriving in this area, it coincidentally sensed the Black Tide's aura and proactively launched an offensive against the Black Tide.

He did not ponder this question further; the reason did not matter.

Both the Insect Race and the Black Tide would be enemies of the player legion.

He could see the insects near the Hive Mind frantically chopping down nearby vegetation and stones, transporting all matter to the Hive Mind for smelting and digestion.

The degree of destruction this faction inflicted on the environment and resources was no less than that of the Mechanical Overlord; furthermore, the ultimate Hive Mind controlling the Insect Race behind the scenes might possess strength surpassing the Mechanical Overlord.

【Fortunately, the Hunting Rank of the arriving Insect Hive Mind is not particularly high; otherwise, the current player legion would face great difficulty dealing with it.】

Qi Sheng nodded upon hearing this.

The arrival of the Insect Race was, in his view, a good thing.

Matching the players' strength level, it could be used to boost the players' combat power.

In terms of the ability to consume and evolve, players would only be stronger than the Insect Race and the Black Tide.

At this moment, the view pulled back; the fierce war between the Black Tide and the Insect Swarm continued, during which the Black Tide's strength kept rising by consuming parts of the Insect Warriors' bodies.

Through analysis, it could be discovered that the Insect Race was like an experience pack for the Black Tide's growth, causing the Black Tide's strength to constantly rise.

But this was not important.

The key point is that the insect swarm's front line is advancing, and the Hei Chao Xie Sui's resistance cannot stop the insect warriors' steady push forward.

This made Qi Sheng realize the true purpose of the insect swarm's intelligence core.

The high-intelligence main brain must know that the terrifying Hei Chao gains strength through consumption during war, so it never intended to engage in a long, grueling war of attrition with the Hei Chao; its core objective has always been the Hei Chao's core: the Xie Yan Gao Ta.

This can be understood as a rapid-push tactic employed by the insect swarm's intelligence core.

As long as the Xie Yan Gao Ta is leveled, the Hei Chao's influence will be drastically weakened.

This is also why the insect swarm's intelligence core allows the Hei Chao to continue gaining strength through consumption during the war.

Atop the Xie Yan Gao Ta, Di Nian Xie Ling's expression was grim.

The terrifying Hei Chao he controlled kept growing stronger in battle against the insect warriors, yet he also saw through the insects' true intent.

Facing the constantly retreating front line, he ordered the Hei Chao to launch multiple counterattacks, but all were crushed by the frenzied insect tide.

If this trend continues, the insect army will advance to the Xie Yan Gao Ta.

If the Gao Ta is destroyed, he will lose the underlying domain node, and his control over the Hei Chao will be drastically weakened.

Then, reclaiming it would be difficult.

"Xie Yan, what exactly are these creatures?"

In response to the question, the Xie Yan floating behind Di Nian Xie Ling split open a fissure, remained silent for a long while, then spoke:

"According to intelligence shared by other nodes, this force is called the Battle Insect Clan, one of the most troublesome powerful factions our race has ever fought, having clashed with our warriors across multiple worlds, severely hindering our race's speed of devouring the world."

"Multiple worlds?" Di Nian Xie Ling was startled.

"Correct, multiple worlds. The Battle Insect Clan's strength is far more terrifying than you imagine. They possess the innate ability to collect pheromones and obtain information on target capabilities, and can evolve organs capable of countering enemy species' abilities by reconstructing their offspring's life structure. This is a destruction-level faction remarkably similar to ours. During our invasions of other worlds, we have repeatedly discovered that the Battle Insect Clan had already begun consuming that world."

The Xie Yan's explanation made Di Nian Xie Ling realize the severity of the situation:

"So the obvious slowdown in the Hei Chao's backlash, and its inability to fully consume the corpses of dead insects, is due to the insects' capability traits."

"Precisely. In some worlds, the insects have evolved bodily structures to counter our devouring and backlash. Though they cannot completely negate the Hei Chao's properties, they can effectively reduce the pressure the Hei Chao imposes on them."

Here, the Xie Yan shifted Di Nian Xie Ling's macro perspective to a single Jing Chi Mu engaged in battle.

"A body constructed of crystal structure, spewing slow energy… these are combat abilities created specifically to counter our Hei Chao's properties. If I'm not mistaken, this batch of insects entered the Monster World deliberately, following our warriors' footsteps—perhaps even chasing us into the Monster World."

"Chasing us?" Di Nian Xie Ling froze, seeming incredulous.

"Correct. Our race's process of devouring worlds ends with the world's annihilation, after which participating warriors are reassigned to different worlds. But the insects are different: their combat desire is extremely high; for them, 'end' means zero life remains."

"What's the difference?" Di Nian Xie Ling asked, puzzled.

"Vastly different. For example, after our Hei Chao completely devoured the Zi Yu World, many powerful lifeforms in Zi Yu escaped to other worlds by tearing open space. We ignored them and had no interest in wasting time on meaningless pursuit—devouring the world is our ultimate goal; expending extra strength on pursuit is considered extremely foolish by our race."

"But the Battle Insect Clan is different. They devour all life. If they discover life escaping from a devoured world to another, they will unhesitatingly launch cross-world pursuit."

"In our past conflicts with the Battle Insect Clan in other worlds, similar events occurred. Our Hei Chao completely devoured a world and chose to ignore the insects' entanglement. But the insects refused to let our warriors depart, launching continuous pursuit—until we ultimately exterminated them all in another world."

"It's certain that the queen behind the Battle Insect Clan is extremely intelligent, possessing a very high wisdom tier—but their bloodthirsty instincts often drive them to act foolishly."

"Now, the insects have followed our footsteps into the Monster World. To fully devour this world, we face a new challenge. I hope the supreme being behind the insects has not descended—if he has, our race's progress in devouring the Monster World will be severely hindered."

The Xie Yan's explanation sent a chill through Di Nian Xie Ling's scalp.

The existence of Di Zhao, the Monster World's creator who could rival "My Lord," had already filled him with disbelief.

Now, yet another new faction—the Battle Insect Clan—had emerged, waging war against the terrifying Hei Chao across multiple worlds.

"This world… is too terrifying."

"I was born in the Monster World and have never visited other worlds conquered by our race. But according to intelligence shared by other nodes, the difficulty of conquering this world far exceeds those visited by other nodes' Xie Yan—it could rightly be called the strongest. Every faction here is extremely troublesome. This is why our race has never been able to devour the Monster World."

Here, the Xie Yan paused:

"Analyzing the current situation, our race's progress in devouring the Monster World is already severely restricted, advancing slower and slower. Perhaps we must deploy new forces from the Main World and other worlds into the Monster World."

Hearing the Xie Yan's explanation, Di Nian Xie Ling's doubts deepened:

"If this world is so important, why didn't we send warriors from the Main World when we first discovered it?"

In response, the Xie Yan fell silent and began reading information transmitted from other nodes.

After a long while, the Xie Yan spoke:

"In fact, upon first entering this world, our race realized it could not be easily devoured, so we immediately dispatched demonic god-level forces from the Main World to fight."

"Demonic god-level?" Di Nian Xie Ling was startled, quickly pressing:

"So where are the demonic gods? Where did they go?" At the mention of "demonic gods," Di Nian Xie Ling's tone grew reverent—this was genuine respect.

"Without exception, all died in battle."

At that moment, Di Nian Xie Ling's gaze went blank; his consciousness controlling the Hei Chao slackened for several seconds.

Fortunately, he snapped back to awareness and resumed controlling the Hei Chao, then turned to look at the Xie Yan:

"All dead?"

"I can answer you definitively: all died, without exception."

Di Nian Xie Ling's eyes glowed red as he suppressed his surging emotions and asked in a low voice:

"I want to know the specifics of the war."

"I did not participate in the battle, nor did any other nodes I can connect with. None provided detailed information on the war's progression. I only know that all auxiliary nodes and our warriors who took part in that cataclysmic battle perished… and our opponent was a rule-level deity of the Monster World. We lost. No warrior returned. And that rule-level deity of the Monster World vanished afterward, never appearing in the last several millennia."

The information provided by the Xie Yan chilled Di Nian Xie Ling to the bone.

As a commander-level warrior, he had participated in two minor-world battles and believed he had seen many powerful lifeforms.

But in the Monster World, what he considered "powerful" could be called childish and laughable.

With his commander-level strength, augmented by the Xie Yan's Hei Chao, he could not even seize a single region, crushed and held back by the Player Clan, who kept multiplying endlessly.

He had thought it was bad luck—that he had landed in a region already blocked by another invading faction, stalling his expansion.

He never imagined that the broader expanse of the Monster World held even more unimaginable opponents.

The Player Clan he encountered didn't even count as a threat—at least, no other nodes' Xie Yan had ever clashed with them, proving the Player Clan was merely a minor faction that had invaded only this region, never appearing on the larger battlefield.

Recalling the Xie Yan's words—that the Hei Chao's core-level warriors who came to the Monster World, the demonic gods, had all perished—

He couldn't imagine the intensity of that battle.

Perhaps the residual shockwaves alone could easily crush countless Quantum Mini-Worlds.

"Focus on the fight, don't overthink—your growth has only just begun; don't fall here."

Hearing the Evil Eye's reminder, Di Nian Xie Ling forced himself into a state of focus and began manipulating the Black Tide to counterattack the insect swarm's still-advancing front.

The brutal slaughter continued as insect warriors carved their path forward by sacrificing their lives.

To halt the insect warriors' advance, Di Nian Xie Ling was forced to withdraw Black Tide forces from other directions and concentrate all combat power on the main front before the Evil Eye Tower.

Faced with the threat of the Evil Eye Tower being dismantled, Di Nian Xie Ling, as commander, even considered joining the battle himself.

But his idea was blocked by the Evil Eye, which stated that command-type warriors must not engage in combat unless absolutely desperate—it would severely weaken the Black Tide's combat effectiveness and plunge its offense into chaos and disorder.

……

On the other side.

Having eavesdropped on Di Nian Xie Ling's conversation with the Evil Eye, Qi Sheng turned to look at the guidance hovering beside him:

"A great battle against the Demon Gods? Is that true?"

【Of course. I remember telling you about that scene right after you inherited Beneath Di Zhao's primordial essence.】

"Back then, when I first arrived in the Monster World, I was young and didn't like attending class—I didn't pay attention and forgot… Tell me the details now."

【The situation was this: a bunch of big-shot elders in the terrifying Black Tide, who controlled world-level rules, picked up giant cleavers and swore they'd chop us four brothers to death. Could we just sit there and take it? When we heard that news, we four brothers were furious—we grabbed our axes and prepared to strike back. I charged ahead first, swung my blade, and you know what? I cut down two Demon Gods in one swing. I turned to see my brother Yan Ming unleash a single move, "Gazing at the Moon in the Well," and cut down two more. Then I looked at my sister Chao Wei—she swung two massive iron hammers with terrifying force, keeping the entire group of Demon God elders at bay. That battle raged until heaven darkened and earth dimmed, the sun and moon lost their light—I nearly collapsed from exhaustion, never in my life had I been this tired… But we couldn't back down. Those bastards were fighting to the death, threatening to tear apart our home. We couldn't show fear, could we? We had to fight them to the end…】

In the guidance's simplified, easy-to-understand retelling, Qi Sheng felt his temple veins throb.

(End of Chapter)