Unless you were fighting Insect-n, in which case you left no survivors, you had to act with extre caution. A single slip-up could lead to utter annihilation.
Lena sighed.
"This is indeed a problem. Our only option is to see if we can thoroughly study Lord Taman’s Insect Master notes and then try to improve upon them. For now, we can only follow his thods to cultivate our insect swarms."
"It’s the only way," Han Ning sighed in agreent.
"Let continue, then." Lena cleared her throat, took a sip of water, and said, "The three low-level insect types I ntioned have different diets and habitat requirents, but there is a way to accelerate their growth."
"That would be Insect Crystals—pale green Crystal Stones that form inside insects of Entry Level and above. When an insect dies, the Insect Crystal extracted from its body can be fed to a relatively weaker insect to accelerate its growth. Of course, it won’t grow to the full strength of the deceased insect; so Energy is lost in the process."
"So that’s what Insect Crystals are for!" Han Ning realized.
’From Lena’s description, Insect Crystals sounded more like a catalyst,’ he thought.
"Oh, right. The fireflies held by those three Insect-n we captured—the Flowing Fla Fireflies—are a type of insect sowhat stronger than the Silver Thorn Damselfly. They’re roughly equivalent to an insect of dium combat power among the Yinsaike Race. We could try raising those few Flowing Fla Fireflies using the Yinsaike thod."
Lü Xiuning said, "There are only five of them, right? Is there a queen?"
"No, so they can’t reproduce."
Lena shook her head and continued,
"Besides the three lowest-level insect types, there are also so non-combat insects—so so small they don’t even count as Soul Beasts—that I believe could be very helpful to us."
Before anyone could ask questions, Lena clicked the mouse. Hand-drawn images of several small insects appeared on the projector screen.
She explained:
"I’ve also selected three types of insects."
"The first is called the Gold-Eating Insect. They are small insects that live near mineral veins, only about the size of a palm. Don’t let their size fool you; they can swallow ores containing various tals. Through a complex biological system, these mixed tals are sohow refined into relatively pure elental tals and excreted as waste."
"The Yinsaike People, or other Insect-n, deliberately cultivate these insects and collect their excretions to forge different kinds of tal tools."
"Oh? Interesting!"
Upon hearing the description of the Gold-Eating Insect, everyone present, whether they were combat personnel or logistics staff, showed great interest.
In terms of miraculous abilities, the three insects commonly used by the Yinsaike People didn’t have nearly the sa impact on the crowd as the Gold-Eating Insect.
"The second type, I’ve roughly translated as the Crude Oil Rubber Insect. They resemble the rubber insects from our Blue Star. They usually like to feed on the rotting corpses of Soul Beasts. And like the Gold-Eating Insect, the substance excreted by the Crude Oil Rubber Insect has properties similar to crude oil."
"This insect is only briefly described in the notes. The Insect-n typically ignite its excretions for illumination or as a heat source for cooking and warmth."
"To be honest, I’m not certain if the Crude Oil Rubber Insect’s excretion is actual crude oil. I’m just inferring that its properties are similar based on Lord Taman’s descriptions."
"Crude oil?!"
Hearing this, the crowd couldn’t help but exchange glances.
The importance of crude oil was self-evident. After refining, it could be converted into various fuel products.
Although refining crude oil is a technical task, at least they would have the raw material. The refining process could be studied and developed over ti.
Even simple distillation could yield gasoline, kerosene, and diesel.
"There’s one more insect, which I’ve nad the Electric Fire Cannon Insect. They are more like combat-type Soul Beasts, with a power ceiling that can just barely reach the Extraordinary Level. The reason I’m ntioning them is that the Yinsaike People rarely cultivate them."
"The reason they are cultivated so little is that they are rare, and the resources needed to raise them are scarce."
"To cultivate them, you need lightning—that is, electrical energy."
"I ntioned earlier that Insect Crystals can accelerate an insect’s growth, but they cannot speed up the recovery of their Spiritual Energy. An insect that has reached its power limit cannot increase its reserves of attribute-based Spiritual Energy, no matter how many Insect Crystals it consus."
’Han Ning knew this was due to the issue of Elental Affinity. The Insect Masters must have understood the concept of Elental Affinity, but they wouldn’t waste precious Soul Beast Crystal Stones on short-lived Soul Beasts.’
’There were losses during Energy transfer between Soul Crystals and in Elental Affinity. To brute-force a super-powerful Soul Beast, you would have to consu a massive amount of Soul Beast Crystal Stones.’
"Electrical energy is a precious resource for the Insect-n, and Soul Beasts that command lightning are mostly rare species. This has led to the Electric Fire Cannon Insect being overlooked. Even Lord Taman only briefly ntioned their cultivation thod."
At this point, so people had already guessed what Lena was getting at.
Han Ning’s expression grew excited.
"Lady Lenna, are you saying that since we humans can generate electricity, it ans we can cultivate a batch of Electric Fire Cannon Insects, using the power we generate to raise them?"
Lena smiled slightly. "Exactly. For now, we can only generate power with diesel. But the Insect Continent has no shortage of rivers. Let’s not even talk about sothing as far-off as building hydroelectric power stations. For now, cultivating a large number of Crude Oil Rubber Insects, refining a large amount of diesel, and then using generators to power and feed the Electric Fire Cannon Insects is also an excellent option."
’An Electric Fire Cannon Insect can just barely grow to the Extraordinary Level, so let’s consider them Extraordinary I creatures. If we could really cultivate 100 Extraordinary I Electric Fire Cannon Insects, we would stand a fighting chance even against an Insect Master with three Extraordinary Limit insects!’
’Even if it’s the lowest level of Insect Master, it at least gives everyone a glimr of hope for survival!’
"Gold-Eating Insect... Crude Oil Rubber Insect... Electric Fire Cannon Insect..." Dean Wu repeated the nas of the three insects, his tightly knitted brow gradually relaxing.
After a pause, Lena said:
"Dean Wu, should I continue on to the higher-level insects? I think building the facilities required to cultivate them would be quite troubleso, and it seems we don’t have a use for them at the mont."
Dean Wu thought for a mont, then said, "No need for now. Is there any information about Spiritual Power Potions?"
"Yes." Lena flipped a few pages forward in her presentation, and the screen displayed hand-drawn images of a dozen or so plants and Soul Beast tissues.
"The Yinsaike Race calls this type of Spiritual Power Potion ’Concentration Liquid.’ It’s made from 18 ingredients through various grinding and roasting thods. The side effects are relatively minor; it just gives the user a severe headache for three days after taking it."
"To go from an Insect-man with Spiritual Power Talent to having Tier One Spiritual Power, one only needs to take five marked doses of Concentration Liquid—provided their brain can withstand the shock of the side effects. Among the Yinsaike Race, this item is exclusive to Insect Masters. Besides using it themselves, they generally dilute it to reward their Insect Servants or gift it to promising juniors."
"However... the sources of the materials for Concentration Liquid are quite complex. So require venturing deep into dangerous areas, making them very difficult to collect."
"I speculate that the liquid we obtained from the first Insect-man was just a half-finished product. It’s a good thing no one took it, or it could have had unforeseeable consequences," Lena said, a hint of lingering fear in her voice.
Of all the information Lena had provided, only the Concentration Liquid could significantly help Han Ning improve. He couldn’t help but ask:
"Lady Lenna, when you say ’dangerous areas,’ what are you referring to?"
"Not all the insects on the Insect Continent are under the control of the Ancestral Insect Master. Furthermore, nearly 20% of the creatures here are not insects at all. Among them are existences that even the Ancestral Insect Master finds daunting, or even terrifying."
"They command all sorts of extraordinary and bizarre abilities, dominating their own territories. These places are considered Forbidden Lands by the Insect Masters."
"Before I talk about these dangerous areas, I have to ntion the types of Soul Beast Attributes discovered by the Yinsaike Race’s Insect Masters."
Lena took another large gulp of water, moistening her throat.
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