The swarm
Lu Heng stood inside the Shelter, organizing his equipment piece by piece. Having just finished a night of deep meditation, he was refreshed and his condition had stabilized. He stretched his shoulders and neck, his bones making very faint cracking sounds, confirming that his body and mind were both at their peak before preparing to set off.
I ate something quick and easy, then, thinking about what it looked like outside, I decided to go out and take a look.
He raised his hand and pushed open the stone door.
As soon as a crack appeared in the door, a sweet, fishy smell wafted in.
Swarms of mutated insects, drawn by the scent of life, rushed in, slamming against the stone door with a series of crackling sounds, their tiny segments scraping together. The Blood Armor on their bodies responded instantly, and several slender, resilient Mycelial Tendrils out, blocking the entrance. In a flash, the Mycelium intertwined and wove together, transforming into a simple barrier, a thick curtain-like screen.
This barrier posed no obstacle to Lu Heng; he could pass through it directly. However, once the small insects bumped into it, they would be firmly entangled by the Mycelium, their thin legs flailing futilely in the air, their mouthparts opening and closing with a faint clicking sound.
Lu Heng looked up and gazed outside the Shelter.
The surrounding environment had completely changed. The trees were no longer green; their leaves had been almost entirely devoured, and the small branches had all been bitten off and cleaned. The bare, withered Withered Branch stretched towards the gray sky, like countless thin fingers pointing to the heavens. The ground showed signs of being dug up, with humus and insect droppings mixed together, making it soft to walk on. The field of vision was filled with wriggling Insect Swarm, their grayish-white, dark green, and translucent shadows layered upon each other, stretching from underfoot to the horizon. The entire forest seemed to have come alive, slowly wriggling.
Lu Heng's gaze swept over the Insect Swarm, and memories from his previous life automatically flooded back—the names and characteristics of the three types of insects were crystal clear.
[Grey Carapace Insect: Front-line unit of Insect Tide. Its body is covered with a grayish-white keratinous carapace, resistant to ordinary slashing, and it relies on its sheer numbers to ram and bite its prey.]
[Rotleaf Bug: These are polluting insects that feed on vegetation. Their abdominal glands secrete a mildly corrosive fluid, which adheres to vegetation and water sources as they gnaw on it, making them a major source of tree death and pond pollution.]
[Flying Stinger: An aerial harassment and reconnaissance unit. It has translucent membranous wings and a venomous stinger on its tail. A single bite causes only mild paralysis. It is responsible for detecting the scent of living creatures and guiding the direction of the Insect Swarm.]
Lu Heng withdrew his gaze, his eyes darkening.
Three types of insects, each with a clear division of labor: the flying ones scout and lead the way, the Grey Carapace Insect charge head-on, and the Rotleaf Bug gnaw and pollute. This is not a mindless, rampant, mutated Aberrant; it is a well-organized hunting system. Reconnaissance, attrition, and pollution logistics are all linked together. Without a commander behind the scenes, such coordination would be impossible.
He crouched down, picked up a bit of the dead insect from the ground with his fingertips, rubbed it, and then brought it closer to smell it. The astringent smell of the corrosive fluid was faint, but it was definitely there— the Rotleaf Bug had been active in this forest for longer than he had imagined. This Insect Tide seemed to have been going on for some time, but he had been hiding in the world of the Lakeside Base and had missed the prelude to the Insect Swarm's encirclement.
A faint buzzing sound came from overhead, and several Flying Stinger hovered around the entrance of the Shelter, their compound eyes flashing a dark red light. They did not approach the Mycelium barrier, but hung in the distance, like a few fleeting punctuation marks.
Lu Heng did not rush to summon his sword. He turned his gaze to the pond in the Shelter, where the water was murky and dark, continuously polluted by the toxins carried by the Insect Swarm.
He channeled his mental energy to issue commands.
The Blood Taisui attached to the body split off several thick Mycelium, which plunged straight into the pond's surface, spreading a net-like Mycelium across the entire area. Pollutants and small insects that had fallen into the water were all devoured and absorbed by the Mycelium. The turbid water cleared up at a visible speed, and the corpses of Rotleaf Bug that had sunk to the bottom of the pond were dragged into the Mycelium, leaving not even a trace behind.
After dealing with the pond, Lu Heng ordered the Blood Taisui to separate a few Mycelium and replenish them on the barrier at the entrance to reinforce the defenses and prevent the Insect Swarm from rushing into the Shelter through the gaps.
The Blood Taisui conveyed a vague message: these Insect Swarm before it were its natural prey. Spreading out and devouring massive numbers of low-level creatures was simply its instinct.
Lu Heng stepped into the Insect Tide.
Smelling the scent of life, wave after wave of mutated insects rushed toward him, eager to devour his flesh. The Mycelium extending outwards from the Blood Taisui was like an invisible net, ensnaring and absorbing any insects that approached. The shells of the Grey Carapace Insect cracked under the strangulation of the Mycelium, while the Rotleaf Bug, still spurting pale green fluid from their abdomens as they were entangled, hissed as they splashed onto the Mycelium, yet failed to even penetrate its surface. The Flying Stinger swooped down, their venomous stingers piercing the Mycelium without leaving a trace, instead being dragged into the net by their wings.
The Origin Energy contained in a single insect is negligible, pitifully small.
However, the Insect Swarm is infinite in number, and its small numbers accumulate into a continuous stream of nutrients to supply the Blood Armor.
The emotion conveyed by the Blood Taisui was excitement—the instinctive frenzy of a predator facing a field of prey. The Mycelium expanded outward at an increasingly rapid pace, even without Lu Heng's active prompting, it was actively hunting on its own, like a net that was being cast ever wider, greedily reaping the swarming Insect Swarm. A subtle feeling of fullness came from beneath its armor, and the color of the Blood Armor deepened a shade, from dark red to deep black.
As Lu Heng moved forward, he used his senses to detect any other life forms.
The Mycelium spread out, forming a large net that continuously devoured the Insect Swarm. The small insects accumulated energy little by little, and sensed that the Blood Taisui Tai Sui was not keeping up with the consumption, yet it continued to hunt them down. Lu Heng had to replenish the Blood Taisui's energy to maintain a delicate balance.
Lu Heng was somewhat speechless. He walked slowly through the forest, not fast, taking each step steadily. He didn't summon the Bone-Shaving Knife —it wasn't even necessary to use the blade against these creatures that didn't even have a level.
After walking for about half an hour, Lu Heng noticed something was wrong.
He stopped and looked back at the way he had come.
The Insect Swarm doesn't charge randomly.
They surged in rhythmically from the northeast, as if driven by something, one after another, regardless of the cost. The trajectory of the Flying Stinger hovering overhead also changed—no longer circling around him, but all facing northeast, like invisible threads pulling the entire Insect Tide in that direction. He squatted down to carefully observe the ground; the traces left by the Insect Swarm were layered upon each other, new traces overlapping old ones, with almost no deviation in direction, all pushing from northeast to southwest.
Lu Heng straightened up and turned his gaze to the northeast, where the great river was.
The Mycelium was still excitedly harvesting, and the Blood Taisui urged it on with lingering enthusiasm, as if saying: Over there, there's more over there.
Lu Heng clenched his empty hand— the Bone-Shaving Knife was still in the Spatial Interlayer, unsummoned.
He stared at the northeast for a few seconds, then started walking towards the direction from which the Insect Swarm was coming.