Illusion

As soon as Lu Heng finished speaking, the countless insect eggs around them seemed to be forcibly propelled by some invisible force, their shells trembling violently and emitting a faint "crackling" sound.

Immediately afterwards, more than twenty Black Iron Tier Insect Armor Warrior struggled out of their eggs. But their condition was clearly wrong—their carapaces were limp and stuck to their bodies, as if they were not fully formed. They could not even stand steadily, yet they had already charged towards Lu Heng.

Lu Heng stared at the queen Insect Queen directly in front of him, his tone calm. "You controlled it?"

The Insect Queen did not answer; she simply stared coldly at him with her compound eyes.

Lu Heng didn't waste any more words. With a flick of his wrist, he retracted the Kiss of Greed into his spatial storage, along with his gun, replacing it with a knife. He intended to chop these unfinished products to pieces one by one in front of the Insect Queen.

With the first slash, the Insect Armor Warrior's shell was sliced open like wet paper, splattering juices everywhere. The second slash, the third slash... the kill went exceptionally smoothly, the blade encountering almost no resistance.

But the more he killed, the more uneasy Lu Heng felt.

Everything went too smoothly.

Although these Insect Armor Warrior weren't hardened yet, they were still Black Iron Tier. Even if they were only half-finished products, they shouldn't have offered no respectable resistance. Moreover, the surrounding environment... seemed to have changed.

He suddenly roused his mental energy, and the scene before him abruptly distorted.

Lu Heng's pupils contracted—he had unknowingly found himself standing right next to the Insect Queen's mouth.

phantom.

The Insect Queen's massive maw was snapping down at him, a stench assaulting his nostrils. Lu Heng raised his sword to block, the blade wedging into the Insect Queen's upper mandible with a piercing scraping sound. The Insect Queen cried out in pain, but though her body was immobilized, her sharp pincers snapped open, lunging straight at Lu Heng—

The pliers struck the blade with a sharp, piercing sound.

Lu Heng's hand went numb, and the entire Bone-Shaving Knife was flung away. He was also thrown backward by the force, crashing heavily into the rock wall, a dull pain shooting through his back.

The Insect Queen let out a hoarse roar, and with a sudden flick of her head, the Bone-Shaving Knife she had been biting snapped in two with a "crack."

Lu Heng stared at the broken knife on the ground, his eyes turning completely cold.

The bone knife was broken; it was my only one, and you broke it even more.

He no longer held back; the Blood Taisui surged from his body, instantly transforming into countless Mycelium that spread outwards.

The newly hatched Insect Armor Warrior hadn't even gotten a foothold before their ankles were entangled by Mycelium. They struggled and screamed, but the Mycelium had already seeped into the gaps in their shells and begun to parasitize them.

Insect Queen watched her offspring, whom she had painstakingly bred, being controlled and rebelling by the Mycelium, a clear emotion—anger—revealed for the first time in her compound eyes.

It suddenly turned its head and stared intently at Lu Heng.

The next second, an invisible mental shock rushed straight into Lu Heng's mind.

Lu Heng was prepared, and his mental energy instantly condensed into a shield, which withstood the attack. The two mental energies collided in the air, producing a faint buzzing sound.

The Insect Queen was Silver Tier Insect, while Lu Heng was only Bronze Tier Insect, a significant difference in rank. However, the quality of Lu Heng's Mental Energy was far superior to that of the Insect Queen.

The exchange intensified, and Lu Heng's expression suddenly changed—

A faint blue light shone from the depths of his pupils, carrying the sharp texture unique to the power of stars, like an invisible knife, piercing straight towards the core of the Insect Queen's spirit.

The Insect Queen's mental attack crumbled completely before the blue light.

It tried to retreat, but Lu Heng's mental power had already locked it in place, giving it no chance to breathe.

A few seconds later, the Insect Queen let out a shrill cry, her massive body trembled violently, and her mental defenses completely collapsed.

The Insect Queen collapsed to the ground.

The light in its compound eyes dimmed slightly, but did not go out completely. It was panting, its massive body trembling slightly, as if it had exhausted all its strength.

Lu Heng stood still, staring at it with icy eyes.

But in the next second, the Insect Queen's compound eyes suddenly lit up—not with fear, but with a near-mad determination.

It struggled to maintain its limp body, then abruptly turned its head, its sharp pincers curving towards itself in an eerie arc—

"Click."

The pliers clamped down hard on his abdomen.

Without a roar or a struggle, the Insect Queen seemed oblivious to the pain. With her last ounce of strength, she compressed and concentrated all the life force within her body, squeezing out an egg from the wound torn open by the pincers.

The egg fell to the ground with a dull thud.

The Insect Queen's body completely lost its vitality, its massive form crashed to the ground, and the light in its compound eyes quickly dimmed.

Lu Heng stared at the egg, his brows furrowing.

Something's not right.

The eggs that were forcibly hatched before had soft shells, as if they weren't fully developed. But this egg was different—its surface was covered with a hard shell, gleaming with a metallic sheen, clearly indicating that it had been gestating inside the Insect Queen for a long time.

It was as if... it had been waiting for this moment.

Lu Heng raised his hand, activating the scanning function of the Wristband.

[Scanning...]

[Target: Insect Eggs (Special)]

[Source: Remnants of a previous generation of Insect Queen]

[Note: To prevent replacement and ensure the continuation of the species, the previous Insect Queen seals a fully developed Insect Queen inside the current Insect Queen, isolating it with her life force for development. When the current Insect Queen dies, the seal is broken, Insect Queen automatically hatch.]

Lu Heng's eyes turned cold.

It's not a juvenile, it's an adult.

The Insect Queen had sealed another Insect Queen of equal rank within her body, suppressing and isolating it with her own life force to prevent it from replacing her. Now, Lu Heng had forced the Queen Insect Queen to release it.

In the few seconds it took him to read the information, cracks began to appear on the egg's shell.

"Click... click click..."

The cracks are becoming more numerous and larger.

Something is about to come out.

Lu Heng did not back down.

He stood still, his gaze fixed on the cracking egg, the Blood Taisui churning in his palm, ready to strike at any moment.

·Click--"

With a final, crisp crack, the eggshell shattered completely.

What crawled out of it was not a larva, but a complete adult Insect Queen.

Its appearance was somewhat similar to the queen Insect Queen had just died, but it was significantly larger, and its carapace was a deep, dark gold color with a metallic sheen. Its compound eyes did not have the naivety of a newly hatched creature, but instead exuded an innate majesty and coldness.

It stood up, its six legs firmly planted on the ground without trembling. It glanced at the Insect Queen's corpse on the ground, then looked at Lu Heng and let out a low hiss.

There was no fear in that voice, only pure, primal hostility.