Chapter 176 The Tide of Insects Attacks
Bai Shan's brow furrowed slightly as he pondered and said, "The position of the alternative space rift is near the medicine factory, but the Corpse Demon Worms have most likely already moved from their original location."
"Whether it's the instinct of the Corpse Demon Worms or the consciousness of Zhao Shijie after the Fusion, there's a strong desire to breed and invade, and he will definitely look for more monsters to parasitise and breed more worm offspring. Moreover, that Giant Rock Ghoul will definitely not let them stay in one place easily."
"This is a bit tricky."
Su Han considered the situation in the eastern district of the city, where the mystic fog was dense, and even the Radiance of the Lamp Tree would not allow for a large-scale attack and search for their whereabouts.
The northern district was his current focus. Diverting people there would not only compromise security here, but the mobilization of too many personnel would also result in significant losses.
"Uncle Bai, in the next two days, you and Meiyu should connect and take note of some situations in the eastern district. I'll need it later."
"Sure, no problem."
Bai Shan agreed without hesitation; he could see that Su Han was planning for the future.
After talking with Bai Shan for a while, Bai Qilan and Bai Shan left first, partly to coordinate with Yan Meiyu and partly to procure some items for Bai Shan.
Having considered the current situation, Su Han decided to postpone action for a few days. He had to go to the eastern district eventually, as he wouldn't pass up on ready Third Order monsters.
However, the current Fusion progress of the spiritual energy mining at the Mother Nest Ancient Tree had only reached 76%. Rashly interrupting this progress in order to initiate a new Fusion was not an option for him.
He wasn't one to waste resources, so a delay of a few days wasn't an issue.
....
As scheduled, the first shift change took place at the alternative space rift camp. Zhu Xiong, Guo Gang, and Zhao Yimin led their teams back.
Meanwhile, Ye Kailing and Gan Xinglei led four hundred members of the patrol and search teams to take up positions at the camp by the alternative space rift.
As the shift change began, the station near the space rift, as usual, suffered monster attacks.
Although the Tree Domain Camp continuously dispatched search teams to sweep the surrounding areas, this accounted for less than one-fifth of the entire northern district.
The monsters, lurking in the fog, numbered far beyond ten thousand; conservatively, their numbers could be ten times that, only scattered and not so apparent.
As long as the alternative space rift exists, the spread of spiritual energy widens by a margin, attracting more monsters.
With the advancement of the apocalypse, monsters also reduce their numbers over time due to conflicts over clans and territories, which is relatively good news.
However, as the combats unfold, the remaining monsters become increasingly strong, forming their own ecology and breeding more monsters.
Not long after Ye Kailing had just been stationed, she was attacked by a massive number of Tentacle-faced Monsters and also found traces of the Clawed Giant, whose strength had reached the Second Order standard.
Clearly, a large group of Tentacle-faced Monsters had discovered this place rich in spiritual energy, and there were no small numbers of them.
Tentacle-faced Monsters have a very special ecology, with higher-ranking monsters using Tentacle Worms for parasitic Fusion, breeding Tentacle-faced Monsters with other monsters, especially humans.
Then, through Fusion and Devouring among individuals, they evolve into even stronger beings, namely the Clawed Giant.
This was the conclusion drawn by Bai Qilan after she had captured both Tentacle-faced Monsters and Clawed Giants.
Unexpectedly, they had once again encountered an even larger group, with thousands of Tentacle and Clawed Giants attacking the station near the alternative space rift.
Fortunately, Ye Kailing and her team had the experience to respond, with crossbow arrows firing incessantly, and the Second-Rank Apostles and the resident beasts, the Centipede-mouthed Blood Toad and the Winged Tiger Demon, began to snipe the Second-grade Monsters among them.
The battle was tense but without peril, as a large number of Tentacle-faced Monsters were slain, their corpses then transported back to the loop area, accumulating under the roots of the Mother Nest Ancient Tree.
With the transportation of the corpses there, as well as the spiritual energy mining crystals produced every day from the alternative space rift,
The Mother Nest Ancient Tree continued its Fusion with the spiritual energy crystals, inching the progress upwards until the Fusion was finally complete after several days.
[LV1 Spiritual Energy Mining Crystal Fusion complete, Mother Nest Ancient Tree obtains skill: Crystal Mine Fruit]
The successful Fusion energy surged into the body of the Mother Nest Ancient Tree, whose already massive body began to slowly swell further, inching closer to 90 meters.
The bark became even more resilient, the vines even sturdier, and the Ancient Tree's body even more terrifying.
Although there was no breakthrough in order rank, it was undeniable that each Fusion served as a storage of power for the Mother Nest Ancient Tree.
After this Fusion, the range covered by the vines correspondingly expanded, reaching 3500 meters.
"Crystal Mine Fruit, huh," Su Han perceived this newly emerged skill, his eyes flickered, and he quickly understood the skill's function.
It transformed the absorbed spiritual energy into high-purity crystallized fruits, making the Mother Nest Ancient Tree itself a new vein of minerals.
"This further strengthens the power-conversion capacity of the Mother Nest Ancient Tree. Apart from the alternative space rift, we now have an additional source of spiritual energy crystals. This is indeed good news."
The Ancient Tree Crystals were already a byproduct of the Mother Nest Ancient Tree's conversion of spiritual energy, turning spiritual energy into special crystals governed by specific rules, dispelling fog and promoting crop growth.
Now, the Crystal Mine Fruit is another byproduct of that conversion capability, and it is more direct.
It's known that spiritual energy mining speeds up the cultivation of Angel Envoys, and the Crystal Mine Fruit possesses similar capabilities.
"Chief, there's news from the alternative space rift: an insect swarm attacked, but Captain Ye repelled them," reported a guard to Su Han, who had just completed a Fusion on his end.
He frowned and asked the guard in front of him, "What's the situation?"
"There are only three hundred monsters in the horde, with no Second Order monsters, but Captain Ye is sure they came from the eastern district of the city. The bodies have been transported back and quarantined in North Plaza."
North Plaza was one of the entry and exit points of the belt area's northern gate and was completely isolated by high walls erected by Zhang Dahai and his team.
Any large-scale entries of materials, personnel, or monster corpses needed to be stopped here for inspection.
In essence, it was the Weng City of the belt area.
In the post-apocalyptic world, no one knew what sort of ecology these monsters had. It was better to be safe than sorry; if some monsters carried special viruses, or were not completely dead, and broke into the city, it could result in a large number of casualties, which was unacceptable to them.
As a result, Yan Meiyu, Bai Qilan, Zhu Xiong, and Gan Xinglei had jointly established such a standard procedure, with similar Weng City structures set up at major entry and exit points.
"I'll go take a look."
Su Han left the Summer Garden Mall and then rode on a Vine Giant Rat, quickly approaching the Weng City of North Plaza.
The Weng City was constructed of concrete, bricks, and reinforced steel, with walls about three meters high and about one meter wide, encircling the entire plaza. There were two metal gates: one was the entry gate for the belt area, and the other was an inner gate on the inside.
The three-meter wall wasn't considered very high, as it was even shorter than some monsters, but the wall was overgrown with climbing vines, and the patrol team's defense made it rather secure.
"Leader!"
Upon seeing Su Han's arrival, the guard greeted him immediately.
Su Han nodded, then climbed onto the wall of the Weng City. Bai Qilan had arrived here before him, accompanied by Bai Shan in his white lab coat.
They were studying the monsters inside, with Angel Envoys summoned at their sides for protection.
Su Han jumped down and saw the monster corpses piled up in small heaps, clearly identifiable as arthropods by their exoskeletons. But looking closely, some of the bodies also had features of flesh corpses, humans, and other monsters.
"How does it look?"
"They are Corpse Demon Worms from the eastern district—with distinct worm-like mouthparts and arthropod exoskeletons.
More than half are human bodies that have been modified, with the rest originating from flesh corpses, crawlers, and Spider Monsters," Bai Qilan reported to Su Han, and Bai Shan, adjusting his glasses, added, "This might be his probing, but he probably doesn't know about the presence of the main Tree Domain Camp, or else he wouldn't just attack over there."
"I haven't gone to find him, but he came looking for trouble first," Su Han said with a cold laugh; Zhao Shijie, or rather, the Corpse Demon Worm, certainly had guts.
"His terrifying breeding desire will drive him to constantly attack other humans and even monsters. Knowing the existence of the Tree Domain Camp, his reaction is quite normal," Bai Shan continued. "I've checked; these bodies don't contain worm eggs, and the modifications are recent, so they're not a threat."
"Have the reserves come to deal with these bodies. I'll take the Mother Nest Ancient Tree out for a while. Strengthen the defense here in the Tree Domain."
"You're going to the eastern district?"
"Yes."
The eastern district was one of Su Han's plans, but the expedition had been postponed for a few days due to the Fusion with the Mother Nest Ancient Tree.
Now, not long after the Fusion was complete, the Corpse Demon Worm's horde probed once more, which was a good opportunity to draw out that damned creature and finish the Fusion.
"Do you want to take someone with you? Old Zhu just had a rest, so he should be able to get moving," Bai Qilan suggested, thinking of aiding Su Han, but he shook his head and said, "No need; we're not going there to conquer territory but to hunt creatures. More people mean no supplies. Take this and study it; try to come up with the human body enhancers as soon as possible."
As he spoke, a vine extended over, presenting a light purple Crystal in front of Bai Qilan.
"Spiritual Energy mine?"
Bai Qilan examined it closely and immediately denied, "No, this is a new ability of the Mother Nest Ancient Tree?"
"Mhm," Su Han nodded, "the Crystal Mine Fruit, also a type of Spiritual Energy Crystal, but its strength is unknown, as are most of its characteristics. Do a test on it, and try to accelerate the research process as much as possible."
"Alright," Bai Qilan took the Crystal Mine Fruit and agreed to the task.
Su Han didn't want others to join the hunt because people wouldn't be much help in a large-scale hunt. If he could develop the human body enhancers himself, then increasing everyone's strength would naturally help him more.
Bai Shan was eager to see what the Crystal Mine Fruit was.
But the old fellow was tactful enough not to interject at that moment, knowing that he would have his share in the research in due time.
Light radiated from the Book of Blood Spirit in Su Han's hand. The Blood-winged Alligator Dragon appeared above the plaza, while the Mother Nest Ancient Tree in the center of the camp was enveloped in red light. Numerous tribesmen were swiftly summoned and returned to the tree's pouch.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
Su Han frowned slightly, if not for the Corpse Demon Worm's maternal creature trait, the Mother Nest Ancient Tree would have been more suitable. He would not easily use the Mother Nest Ancient Tree for excursions.
Without it, many Vine Giant Rats and Blood-winged Tigers at the camp here would be unusable.
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Fortunately, there had always been residents of the territory under contract, such as the Vine Giant Rats tribe, so the camp would not become paralyzed in any aspects; it wasn't a big problem.
After about ten minutes, once everyone was recalled, the Mother Nest Ancient Tree entered the Book of Blood Spirit, and Su Han rode the Blood-winged Alligator Dragon, heading directly for the eastern district.