Humanity’s Great Sage

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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.