112 Picking Up Corpses
According to what No.1 said, the insect tribes’ classes were divided according to the strength of their leaders.
A commander-tier leader made the tribe an advanced insect tribe. When an insect king appeared in the tribe, the insect tribe would collectively become a kingly one.
After Ning Shi became the captain, the soldier answered all his questions without a doubt. Ning Shi continued to ask, “No.1, how many insect reproduction methods are there, and what are they like?”
“Captain, there are three main ways for the insect tribes to reproduce. The first is biological reproduction, which is the responsibility of the insect queen. The second is fission reproduction, which is done by the existing insects undergoing fission and thus increasing the number of insects. The last one is energy reproduction, which uses the energy of crystals through different media to reproduce. The war insects and the azure insects reproduce through energy reproduction, relying on the energy of the black crystals.”
“All three methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but the genetic information tells me that no matter what kind of reproduction method it is, it will ultimately require energy. Therefore, energy reproduction is the most advanced and powerful reproduction method.”
Ning Shi’s insect head nodded in agreement.
In his opinion, the insect tribes’ reproduction methods must be constantly evolving. The method of biological reproduction by the insect queen should be more traditional and backward.
On the other hand, fission sounded terrifying. After all, as long as the base number was large enough, the number of insects produced through fission would definitely be shocking. That being said, this method should not be able to guarantee individual combat power.
These were all Ning Shi’s conjectures. Specific information could only be known after coming into contact with the relevant tribes.
“No.1, other than reproduction, is there any other use for the black crystals? Are there any other resources on the continent besides the black crystals?”
“Captain, my genetic information tells me that black crystals must be used for reproduction. Other than black crystals, there are white crystals, red crystals, purple crystals, and rainbow crystals on the continent. My genetic information tells me that those crystals are treasures. If you encounter those crystals, you have to report to the captain. I don’t know their specific use.”
Ning Shi guessed that the black crystals must have other uses. The insect commander had said before that it would devour the black crystal and evolve into the insect king.
It was just that the relevant information on this had been erased from the war insect soldiers’ genetic information.
It was a pity that Ning Shi had only obtained part of the captain’s abilities and position when he had devoured it. He did not inherit its genetic information.
Otherwise, with the captain’s level, he might have known more information.
Ning Shi wanted to ask a few more questions, but he received instructions from a lieutenant in his mind.
“Captain 3514, meet up at the entrance of the Black Crystal Forest 10 miles to the east. After we’ve gathered, we’ll launch a frontal attack on the azure insects’ base camp. All are forbidden to retreat even one step.”
Ning Shi put away his questions and led the war insect soldiers to the gathering point.
At this moment, the entrance of the Black Crystal Forest was densely packed with war insects.
The entire sky had turned pitch black.
Ning Shi made a conservative estimate that the number of war insects had definitely exceeded tens of millions.
Thinking back to the video of the war insects attacking the border of the Yunmeng Kingdom, tens of thousands of war insects had almost made the border fall, and they had paid a heavy price to kill the war insects.
If tens of millions of war insects charged at the world boundary together, they would most definitely not be able to defend the boundary.
And, this was only one of the insect groups in the war insect tribe.
Ning Shi finally understood the terrifying strength of the insect world.
“So maybe it’s a small group of insects that attacked Saturn, not a unified action of the insect world?”
Ning Shi was getting increasingly puzzled about the cause of the insect disaster.
But now was not the time to investigate, because a head-on battle was about to begin.
As cannon fodder, the soldiers and captains would hold back the main force of the azure insects on the battlefield and help the insect commander’s troops create an opportunity for a surprise attack.
“Battle! Battle! Battle!”
The overwhelming number of war insects flew toward the nest of the azure insect.
When they got close to the nest, the swarm of azure insects was sardined on the ground as they launched their attacks at the sky.
Mind storm, illusion creation, spiritual control… A series of skills were cast.
With that, some of the war insects were killed, some were trapped in illusions and danced on the spot, while some were controlled and attacked their teammates crazily.
The casualties of the war insects were great, but not a single insect retreated. They still bravely charged forward.
Finally, a war insect broke through the blockade and rushed into the group of azure insects, killing a row of them in one go.
Slowly, there were casualties among the azure insects.
Many of the azure insects had used up their spiritual power and became useless insects, which were then killed by the war insects.
The battle was getting increasingly intense. Although the azure insects had the upper hand, they could not win immediately.
In contrast, although the war insects had more casualties, their endurance and recovery abilities were stronger. Furthermore, as the battle went on, the azure insects’ spiritual power was being drained.
The war insects were fighting more with less, but the more they fought, the more courageous they became, and they gradually gained the advantage.
Seeing this situation, the commander of the azure insects had no choice but to send out the soldiers in the nest to reinforce the main battlefield.
With the help of the soldiers from the nest, the azure insects gained complete control of the battlefield, and the casualties of the war insects increased.
Ning Shi looked around. All the soldiers around him had died. He didn’t want to be in the limelight, so he pretended to have been inflicted by the mind storm and fell into the pile of war insects.
He knew that the war insects had won this battle.
Since the azure insects had sent out the soldiers that were supposed to guard their nest, the defense of the nest was thus empty, and it would definitely not be able to withstand the surprise attack of the war insect commander.
If the war insects won, he would not have to worry about being devoured by the insect commander.
Thinking of this, Ning Shi was relieved. He hid in the pile of corpses and secretly made a move on the corpses.
[You have devoured the corpse of a war insect soldier. Body size +0.1cm, defense slightly increased.]
[You have devoured the corpse of a war insect soldier. Body size +0.1cm, spiritual power slightly increased.]
…
[You have devoured the corpse of a war insect captain. Body size +0.5cm, speed slightly increased.]
[You have devoured 200 war insect corpses. Devour skill has been upgraded to Tier 3.]
[Devour, Tier 3: You can devour the corpses of insect soldiers, captains, and lieutenants to strengthen your war insect body. Your devouring speed has increased greatly. Note: This skill can only be used when you have transformed into a war insect]
There were no war insect lieutenant corpses on the main battlefield. However, Ning Shi did not think too much about it and continued to devour.
After the Devour skill had been raised to Tier 3, the devouring speed was extremely fast. Once Ning Shi’s sharp spikes touched the insect corpse, it would disappear.
[You have devoured the corpse of a war insect soldier. Body size +0.1cm, spiritual power slightly increased.]
[You have devoured the corpse of a war insect captain. Body size +0.5cm, defense slightly increased.]
…
The feeling of picking up corpses was too good. He could devour and become stronger without limit.
Ning Shi was intoxicated by the pleasure of devouring and forgot the time.
His insect body grew longer and longer.
[You have devoured 2000 war insect corpses. Devour skill has been upgraded to Tier 4.]
When the game system sent the hint of the skill upgrade, Ning Shi’s body length had reached about 2.5 meters.
He sensed that the strength of his war insect body had increased, and his speed was now so fast that it was as if he was teleporting.
After upgrading the Devour skill to Tier 4, Ning Shi’s spike could release suction force and suck the insect corpses over. He could devour multiple war insect corpses at once and his speed was even faster.
At this moment, an intense battle had broken out in the azure insect nest.
Countless roars sounded from the nest, and the earth trembled. The wind blew over, scattering the corpses of the war insects.
The war insects on the main battlefield were all dead, and the victorious azure insects rushed back to their nest to help.
No insects had the energy to care about Ning Shi.
Ning Shi didn’t try to hide and directly activated his Devour ability.
With that, his one-foot-long spike was like a magnet, attracting the corpses of the war insects around him.
[You have devoured the corpse of a war insect soldier…]
After devouring another few thousand war insects, a system hint came.
[Your body length has reached five meters, reaching the genetic limit of the insect warrior captain. Please devour a lieutenant. You can only continue to devour after obtaining the lieutenant gene.]
Ning Shi felt his strength. Judging from the combat power of the war insect, his body might be stronger than the war insect generals.
To help him build a good foundation, the game system reduced the growth rate of his war insect body according to the ratio of 1:5.
If calculated in this way, the body strength of Ning Shi’s current war insect form was equivalent to a war insect general with a body length of 25 meters.
Of course, this was only speculation. Without using the insight technique, Ning Shi could not determine the combat power comparison.
That being said, he was most definitely now stronger than a war insect lieutenant. As such, it shouldn’t be difficult to find an opportunity to kill a lieutenant and devour its corpse.
He saw that the commotion in the azure insect nest was getting smaller, so he swept through the battlefield and put hundreds of thousands of dead war insects into his backpack.
Ning Shi did not collect the rest of the corpses.
One reason was that if he collected too much, he might not be able to devour all of them in a short time. The other reason was that he didn’t want to arouse the war insect commander’s suspicion.
Ning Shi could feel that the insect commander’s intelligence was very high.
The corpses of the war insects were valuable. Thus, the insect commander would definitely come to deal with them after the victory. If the difference in numbers was too big, it would arouse the commander’s suspicion.
There were at least 50 million war insect corpses at the scene. The absence of hundreds of thousands of them would not attract the attention of the insect commander.
Ning Shi thought for a moment, then used his transformation ability to change his 5-meter-long body to the 13-cm body he had been before the battle.
This way, he was just a lucky insect that had survived the battlefield.
Faced with the azure insects which were also an advanced insect tribe and could counter them, the war insects still managed to win.
Ning Shi estimated in his heart that the combat power of the war insect tribe should not be any inferior to that of the kingly insect tribes. The reason why it dropped to become an advanced insect tribe was probably due to the lack of the insect king.
Only by hiding in a powerful tribe could he obtain more information and more resources.
Furthermore, the Devour skill that he had also required the genes and corpses of the war insects.
As such, Ning Shi wanted to continue hiding in this war insect tribe.
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