Insect Race

Biodata

Ranks and Varieties

The Insect Race includes numerous types whose strength is commonly compared with human cultivation realms. Size is a useful, though imperfect, guide: Qi Refining insectoids are generally three to four meters long, while Foundation Establishment insectoids grow larger 72.

Biology and Behavior

• Feeding and essence — Insectoids devour living things and can refine consumed energies into essence. Fewer than one in ten Servant Insects yield essence, while Qi Refining insectoids do so consistently 35 50 59.
• Senses and movement — Insects can detect exposed living auras. Some use wind-disaster conditions to fly briefly; Locust squads exploit the wind to enter defended areas 44 50 146.
• Hierarchy — Ordinary insectoids largely follow instinct and orders, showing little fear of death. Attacks on Blessed Lands typically begin with Fetal Movement and Qi Refining waves before Foundation Establishment insects engage 146 148.
• Numbers — Queen insects produce insectoids in batches, giving the race a major numerical advantage. High-ranking leaders can treat even Golden Core insects as expendable 149 236.
• Resources — Some insectoids consume minerals as well as living things, removing rare forging materials from the lands outside Blessed Lands 146.

Invasions and Blessed Lands

Insectoids have descended with wind disasters for three thousand years, forcing inhabitants to shelter in Blessed Lands. Spirit roots protect the people within, while those people defend the roots from insectoid attacks. Insectoid corpses and essence can, in turn, nourish spirit roots and support Blessed Land growth 46 155 197.

Wind disasters open insect holes through which swarms emerge. These holes usually form high in the storm layer; destroying an entrance does not permanently close it, as another can open elsewhere 292 352. The Human, Yao, and Water races all face the Insect Race and unite against it despite their own disputes 225 267 281.

Sheng Zhenzhong states that powers beyond the heavens permit the invasions because dead insectoids nourish the world, while the insectoids benefit from prolonged wind disasters and can devour the world’s origin. He describes the opposing forces as being kept in a relative balance 236.

Major Conflicts

• Ox Ridge Settlement — Servant Insects entered during the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster and hunted residents exposed in their cellars 44 45 50.
• Pan Valley — Successive Locust and Armored Sickle attacks brought thousands of insects against its defenders. Later, Cricket Insects threatened the valley with corrosive pollution 144 148 157.
• Targeted strikes — Pan Valley’s potential placed it on the insectoids’ kill list; Sheng Zhenzhong warned that its destruction could justify heavy losses among their own forces 236.
• Eastern Region assaults — In one invasion, ten small Human Race Blessed Lands were breached in less than three days. Mu Qingcheng subsequently killed three King Insects and gravely wounded two, prompting nearby insectoids to retreat 321 322.
• Mysterious land — High-ranking insectoids gathered around the reborn warrior Tagus, whose former sixth-level strength had surpassed the Spirit Transmutation Realm. After rebirth, Tagus ordered them to gather beings for him to devour while he recovered 276 277.