Chapter 79: Chapter 74: Sarcoma Space (Request for Subscription)_2
It was initially just an overly excited subconscious act, but after being stopped and reminded by Song Chi, Shen Qing quickly realized it and, together with Song Chi, opened the airship’s hatch to release a drone.
In the process of exploring the Alien Star Domain, at least 99% of Torch Warship captains would bring along one or two combat robots and reconnaissance drones.
Even without a network, these two could only be controlled and mobilized within the magnetic field range of the Torch Warship itself, but they were still the standard configuration for most Torch Warship captains exploring the Alien Star Domain.
After all, even though the magnetic field range of the Torch Warship itself was extremely limited, in many cases, the combat robots and drones could still play a significant role.
Take the current situation, for example.
The two drones disappeared one after another into the Spatial Veil, apparently less than a second apart, but the expressions on the faces of Song Chi and Shen Qing below showed starkly different changes.
After the drone controlled by Shen Qing entered the Spatial Veil, the image on the control screen in his hand suddenly turned pitch-black, completely losing connection with the Hornet-class drone.
It was different for Song Chi. After more than ten hours of buffering, the Brainwave Remote Control System had already completed the buffering process, and he had once again set a Brainwave Beacon on this drone. Therefore, even with the barrier of the Spatial Veil, he never lost sight from the perspective of the Hornet-class drone.
Inside the Qingfeng’s cockpit, Shen Qing’s gaze shifted to the communication screen on one side, but before he could ask about the drone, he saw the expression of horror on Song Chi’s projected face on the screen, an expression that comes only after witnessing great terror.
Based on his knowledge of Song Chi since childhood, it had to be something unimaginable in the space above the Spatial Veil that could have caused such a loss of composure.
Almost subconsciously, his hands moved quickly, controlling the Qingfeng to veer and swiftly retreat backward.
On the side, the Cang Qiong reacted even a fraction faster, and at the same time, Song Chi’s shout rang out from the communication screen:
“Retreat quickly!”
…
As for Song Chi, after the Hornet-class drone passed through the Spatial Veil and reached another space above, he saw from the drone’s perspective another space that was thousands of kilometers wide and long.
Different from the first layer, at the very center of this second layer was a cubic Crystal Box about ten meters wide, exuding dazzling white light that fully illuminated the entire second layer space.
It was because of this bright white light that Song Chi saw a sight he would never forget.
All over the second layer space were things like lumps of flesh, about a meter in height and numbering in the thousands, not only sticky and gooey but also faintly pulsating as if they all had life.
At the deepest part of the second layer space, Song Chi also saw a giant lump of flesh tens of meters tall with even more pronounced pulsations. Song Chi could even vaguely see through the fleshy wall the huge and bloated monster figure inside. Undoubtedly, all of these lumps of flesh were enveloped with unknown creatures in slumber.
But that was not the most horrifying part. Just as Song Chi was about to control the drone to quietly return, not wishing to disturb these dreadful lumps of flesh, he realized it was too late.
The few rounds of cannon fire previously emitted from the Cang Qiong and Qingfeng as they passed through the Spatial Veil had completely destroyed several lumps of flesh. At this moment, these lumps were violently shaking, and the monsters sleeping within were now awakened. As these few lumps continued to shake, all the lumps in the second layer space were being successively roused.
Crack, crack, crack!
When the first few lumps of flesh that were hit were completely torn apart, the creatures they were enveloping were fully revealed in the drone’s field of view.
“Damn it, it’s the Insect Race. This second layer is in hibernation with tens of thousands of the Insect Race, and there’s even a Queen Insect,”
As the Cang Qiong and Qingfeng pulled back hundreds of meters away, Song Chi didn’t wait for Shen Qing to ask and directly roared.
When Shen Qing heard the word “Insect Race,” his reaction was almost entirely the same as Song Chi’s, a deep fear flashed through his eyes, followed by his face darkening completely.
The Insect Race, a species of the Starry Sea as infamous as the Void Demon, insect plague, and the disaster of the void, these two were so notorious that they ranked among the top five calamities throughout the entire Shattered Starry Sea.
At this moment, Song Chi finally understood the full picture; he had been perplexed about one thing, what power could have caused a piece of the Starry Sea Floating Land to be so thoroughly devastated, to the point where it was almost entirely barren.
It wasn’t until now, with the emergence of these Insect Race members, that the answer almost perfectly clicked into place.
Unlike the Void Demon’s bloodlust and thirst for killing, the characteristic of the Insect Race was devouring, devouring anything with energy. No matter in which Star Domain these creatures appeared, the end result was always that the resources of the Star Domain would be consumed entirely, turning it into a completely barren land.
Other civilizations of the Starry Sea might plunder resources, but they plundered the resources themselves, not the environment that gave birth to those resources. However, the Insect Race was different; wherever they went, they consumed everything utterly, devastating the value of an entire Star Domain beyond recovery.
In their panic, both men were somewhat at a loss.
Although they were both from the First Torch Academy of Jiangyuan and had received orthodox Torch education, and knew a lot about the notorious Insect Race, all of this was after all something they had heard of or read about in books.
Facing it in person was completely different.
In the end, it was Song Chi, who had lived two lifetimes, who was the first to snap back to reality. While recalling various pieces of information about the Insect Race, he rapidly contacted Shen Qing through a communication projection.
“Big Qing, what do you say, fight or run?”
After his shout, Shen Qing also collected his thoughts and thought for a moment before replying.
“Can we roughly determine the number of those Insect Race members?”
“A conservative estimate puts them at over 30,000, plus there’s no telling if the Queen Insect can continue to lay eggs,” Song Chi replied quickly. It seemed that through the perspective of the drones, he had already reviewed all the information about the Insect Race above them, but his words were not yet finished; he added quickly:
“Of course, whether she can lay eggs or not isn’t important. There’s no excess energy supply in space above, otherwise, this group of Insect Race members wouldn’t have chosen to hibernate collectively. Without an energy supply, even if the eggs hatch, the larvae won’t be able to grow quickly, and they won’t pose a threat to us.”
At this point, Shen Qing interjected:
“So you’re saying, we need to deal with over 30,000 Insect Race members who have just woken up from hibernation and haven’t replenished their energy for a long time?”
As he spoke, Shen Qing’s message was quite clear, and a trace of eagerness appeared on his face.
Song Chi didn’t have much to say in response. He wasn’t too keen on taking action. Although the Insect Race members above were indeed very weak, there were still too many of them, and he did not want to take risks in battling them.
However, since Shen Qing was implying this, Song Chi couldn’t just outright refuse. After all, he could set a beacon and later return to this relic through the Zhu Tian Ruins Market. He only needed to wait until he was strong enough, then come back to clear these Insect Race members, and by that time, all the gains from these ruins would be his alone.
But to actually do that would undoubtedly be an act of a petty person, which he naturally didn’t want to commit.
If the person accompanying him were a complete stranger, or if he had discovered these ruins and brought Shen Qing to explore them together rather than the other way around, he would not hesitate and would choose to flee, waiting to return for a second exploration once he was powerful enough. But that wasn’t the case.
As for Shen Qing, who had fully trusted him and whom he had played with since they were kids, he couldn’t and didn’t want to do such a thing. This wasn’t about being sentimental; it was a matter of the principles and bottom line of a normal person.