Translator: TheBrokenPen
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
The fighting had never once stopped since it began. Once the insectoids sensed any discharge of Spiritual Power because of the fighting, they would immediately stampede toward where the discharge was coming from. It was always just a matter of how many of them.
Unless someone could destroy any insectoids they stumbled upon with just one blow to prevent emitting enough fluctuation of Spiritual Power to alert the rest of the colony.
But that was simply just impossible.
At the same time, Lu Ye was leading a charge that barreled through the insectoid horde with He Xiyin providing him cover, making straight for the insectoid nest cavern. He only had one foot inside the chamber when the insectoids, in a stalwart rally of their kind, managed to force him back outside.
What Lu Ye did manage to see was that the cavern was a very spacious and wide underground chamber. In fact, he surmised that it was even bigger than the square outside the outpost’s Sanctum of Providence. But it was too dark for Lu Ye to get a proper look.
But he did manage to catch sight of strange and grotesque walls of raw flesh all around the whole chamber as far as he could. There was an infinite number of sacs dangling from the ceiling and one after another, they burst open to reveal fresh additions to the ranks of the insectoid horde.
“This is the nest!” Lu Ye mused.
The sheer repugnant hideousness of the place was enough to make one vomit; the whole place was reminiscent of the bowels of a colossal demon’s stomach. A warren of innumerable abominations waiting to grow and hatch and a cesspit of horrors biding its time to unleash hell upon the entirety of the Battlefield.
Insectoids were a unique type of creature, as Li Baxian told him. Once an insectoid hatches from its egg sac, it would, like the rest of the colony, fall into a collective and destructive rampage to devour everything and anything with life. Part of what they consumed would go to further facilitate their growth and another part would be siphoned back to the nest where it would be used to nurture more insectoid hatchlings.
That demonstrated the close bond between the nest and the individual insectoid—a symbiotic relationship that mutually benefited both sides. In fact, it was because of this bond that a hypothesis was once formed: a nest of insectoids like this, if left unfettered, would take only ten years before its number and power grew strong enough to overrun and lay waste to the whole Battlefield, ousting humans to become to new dominant species of this dimension.
An insectoid horde that would engulf the entire Battlefield whole and would snuff out all life from this dimension—hardly anyone could envision such a horrifying scene.
But something like this would never happen, for every sect and order in the Battlefield would immediately march forth to nip the insectoid scourge in its bud before it’s too late.
At the moment, with the perimeter extermination complete, the Crimson Blood Sect side had basically contained the threat of the insectoid infestation. Without being able to destroy and consume anything, the insectoid horde would not be able to further grow and multiply. All that was left to do was to keep cutting down their numbers until the nest had fully used up its life and energy. Then the battle would be won.
That was the standard course of action that many sects and orders in the Battlefield employed against insectoid attacks given their extensive experience in meeting the threat.
Naturally, casualties came hand-in-hand with skirmishes like this, even if it were sects and orders of the central regions of the Battlefield. Unlike the outer ring areas, insectoid infestations at the center were far more difficult to handle. Lu Ye had encountered inside the Rift of Illusions insectoid monsters before that could almost fully render themselves invisible. They could creep up on any unsuspecting prey and deal a sudden and fatal one-hit-kill attack.
And these were the kinds of insectoid monsters that the sects and orders of the Battlefield’s central areas would have to fight against. Fortunately enough for the Crimson Blood Sect, this must be a certain machination intended by the Heavens to prevent weaker factions from incurring catastrophic losses.
Still, given enough time, the infestation here would eventually produce insectoids of the same ability and deadliness.
Another important thing that Lu Ye was explicitly warned about, was to prevent any dead bodies of Cultivators from falling into the hands of the insectoids. Consuming the corpse of a Cultivator would mean a great boon to the insectoid nest and the resultant hatchlings produced would be far greater and deadlier than before.
With only one passage leading straight to the nest cavern cleared and Lu Ye holding down the enemies on his own, there was little to be feared.
The rest would only need to clear away the rest of the passages and force the insectoids back into the nest cavern. That way, the insectoid threat could be contained inside and no longer endangered anything outside.
Aware that some passages could do with a bit of help, Lu Ye sent Chen Yu and Yi Yi to aid the other squads.
He alone would be enough to hold this point.
He stood there. Alone.
But he did not idle around. He sent forth his hiltless dagger, using Telekinesis to harass the insectoids and luring them into the passage where he could easily make short work of them.
Knowing that the nest cavern must house a huge number of insectoids, Lu Ye was not foolhardy enough to gamble his own safety. In fact, he could sense a threatening presence within the darkness that pervaded the nest cavern. There must be something dangerous and deadly enough that he would be a fool to flippantly challenge.
It did not take long for the passage to fill up with dead carcasses of the insectoids. Lu Ye was able to divert some of his attention to stowing away the carcasses at first. But as he got busier killing and killing, he began to just ignore the carcasses.
That was when he realized something was amiss. Despite the never-ending streams of insectoids swarming at him, which he could easily cut down, the number of carcasses never seemed to drop or increase.
That was when he saw insectoids dragging the carcasses of their dead back inside the nest cavern.
Without any other ideas, he crammed whatever he could inside his Storage Bag while he kept the slaughter going on.
After what seemed like hours, the rest of the tunnels had all been cleared and the underground network of tunnels had all been fully mapped. The disorienting number of twists, bends, and intersections ultimately formed nine main tunnels that led straight to the nest cavern.
That did not come without its price. The casualties had been piling up during the extermination and at least a dozen men were dead, including a whole squad that had been wiped out because of their unfortunate encounter with a Seventh-Order insectoid.
At their present strength, only squads with Sixth-Orders stand a chance against Seventh-Order insectoids. Any other squad would only be dead meat in the face of such odds.
But with the passages all basically cleared, the outcome was more or less decided. So long as they could hold all nine passages and prevent the escape of any insectoids, the battle was as good as won.
But it wouldn’t be easy. The tunnels were only as wide as three men standing abreast. With close to seven hundred men, the narrow passages weren’t in their favor at all. Those in the front would be overwhelmed by the insectoids while those in the back could only watch with their hands tied.
Therefore, it was imperative to fight their way out of the passages and secure the open area just outside so that more men could get out of the passages and fan out, thus fully taking advantage of their superior numbers.
But at the same time, Lu Ye was wary of the unknown threat that still prowled in the darkness ahead. There had to be an Eighth-Order insectoid inside there somewhere, he guessed.
And if this threat could not be handled properly, the tables could very well turn against them.
If it were only one or two Eighth-Order insectoids, Lu Ye would hardly feel so worried. But he feared the worst, that an entire cadre of them could be lurking unseen inside.
Which was exactly the reason why insectoid infestations were regarded as a cataclysmic disaster: because people died whenever insectoids attacked. It was not about strength or power; even a Cultivator as formidable as Li Baxian could be killed if he were not careful enough.
Now, Lu Ye was grateful enough to know that the stronger an insectoid was, the more sensitive it would be to the traces of Spiritual Power in the atmosphere and light.
If only he could make use of this information…
He could still hear the din of fighting coming from the rest of the nine tunnels. But the narrow width of the tunnels limited the scope of the fighting and it allowed for Cultivators to take turns dealing with the insectoids. .
Lu Ye pressed a finger on his Battlefield Imprint and sent a message to everyone. “Status check!”
Replies poured in at once.
Yi Yi responded, “Ready.”
Chen Yu’s reply said, “Ready and waiting.”
He Xiyin’s was a playfully snide one that said, “If I’m dead, Brother Lu Ye, please get Sister Hua Ci to take care of my body or I’ll come back and haunt you.”
Zhu Wenbo replied, “Awaiting orders, Brother Lu Ye.”
Yin Haoran answered, “Anytime, Brother Lu Ye.”
Luo Qisheng returned, “All clear right here.”
Gu Yang replied, “We are ready.”
Kong Niu’s one said, “All good here!”
[Very good], Lu Ye mused. [Everyone is ready.]
Kong Niu was the only Fifth-Order out of everyone who responded; the rest of them being Sixth-Orders at least. With them leading the charge from all nine tunnels, it would be easier especially since the bulk of the defensive pressure from the insectoids would be divided to every side equally.
As for Kong Niu, Lu Ye had sent more men to help shore up his side of the offense with more than a hundred men under his command.
But no plans survived first contact with the enemy. Lu Ye would have to depend on his abilities to help mitigate any unforeseen circumstances.
“I’m a Medical Cultivator, Lu Ye. Should I not be at the rear to help tend to the wounded?”
Hua Ci’s demure and gentle voice rang from over his shoulder.
Lu Ye had Hua Ci reassigned here to help him. He was aware of her aversion to bugs; he had seen firsthand how she was so frightened of one during the Battle Royal of the Legates, even though it was only a mechanical one. The prospect of having to go face to face with an unruly drove of bugs was enough to make her squirm and shift uneasily with her hair standing on ends.
There were two types of bugs that she hated the most: those with no legs and those with too many legs.
But Lu Ye had little choice. His best people—Yi Yi and Kong Niu included—numbered up to only eight and there were nine tunnels to hold.
The Crimson Blood Sect really could do with additional manpower.
Hence, Lu Ye had little choice but to rope in Hua Ci. She might be a Medical Cultivator, but she was still a Sixth-Order. Holding the passage should be simple enough for her, even though she might not be able to deploy those poisonous mushrooms of hers in this situation.
Lu Ye swiveled around to look at her and their eyes met.
“Take heart!”
“Huh?!” Hua Ci gasped incredulously.
“It begins now!”
Before she could even demand an explanation, Lu Ye turned back around and crouched. With a hand on the hilt of Inviolable hooked to his waist, he launched himself forward in a backwash of force and air, shooting forward like an arrow released. The metallic flash of a drawn Inviolable zipped straight for the opening of the tunnel with several insectoids crumbling to the ground, dismembered and maimed.
“CHARGE!” A deafening battle cry resounded as one after another, Cultivators poured out of Lu Ye’s tunnels on cue, joining him in the attempt to secure the forward expanse just outside the tunnel entrances. The eruption of clamor and violence took the entire nest by storm, rousing the whole cavern enough that cascades of incessant buzzing filled the air as grotesque insectoids all rushed forth to meet them.
High-tier Cultivators all rushed forward to form up the battlelines forming an arching semicircle with the rest of the low-tier comrades just behind them, firing what spells and talismans they could to their hearts’ content and felling one insectoid after another without being endangered.
Those in the rest of the other eight tunnels punched through the insectoid defenses in unison, maintaining the same semicircle formation as Lu Ye’s with the best Cultivators holding up the frontlines.
The battle was slowly nearing its conclusion.
A voice echoed in the air, “Those who are hurt or weaker than the rest, collect the carcasses! We don’t want the insectoids coming back to collect their dead!”
It was out of crucial necessity. The nest could absorb life and energy from insectoids and their dead carcasses and use those as sustenance to conceive new hatchlings.
And the ability stemmed from the morbid walls and ceilings of flesh that could extract life and energy and funnel it to the nest as part of a biological system.
Hence the need to quickly collect the insectoid carcasses or the life and energy still contained within the dead insectoids would be drawn away by the walls and ceilings.
That was what the insectoid monsters were doing: dragging the carcasses of their dead kin back inside the nest so that the nest could feed and produce new offspring.