The Reaper directly changed the Consciousness Field impact to a targeted impact, but the Insect King did not back down at all. Hu Yu knew that the Consciousness Field impact was useful for low-level insects, but it was far from enough to deal with the Insect King. Even if the Consciousness Field impact weapon of the Fish Horse Star Civilization was used, it probably would not have much effect on the Insect King.
The Insect King swung its sharp foreleg, its immense power propelling it to 0.5 times the speed of light in a fraction of a second. It slammed into the Reaper's Fourth Reversed State Armor, and the result shocked Hu Yu once again: the Reaper's Fourth Reversed State Armor was actually pierced through.
Hu Yu then understood why the fleets of the Great Star Region Civilization were struggling so much against the Zerg swarm. The speed and power of their attacks had exceeded the limits of biological beings. Just as Mr. Daozi had said, the Zerg's use of energy surpassed that of almost all civilizations; they could make the most of every bit of energy.
The Reaper was pierced but did not lose its fighting ability. However, Reaper could not break free from the clutches of the Insect King. Shockwaves from the spatial cannons struck the Insect King Insect King close range, causing it to sway unsteadily, but without any signs of injury.
A layer of energy seemed to permeate the area around the Insect King's body, preventing the effects of the spatial rupture from truly reaching Insect King body as it was blocked by this energy.
The Insect King continued its attack on the Reaper, Reaper with holes and exploded within seconds. The Insect King then pounced on a nearby Fish Horse Star Civilization warship. It was merely venting its anger. After destroying tens of thousands of Reaper and Fish Horse Star Civilization warships, the Insect King jumped directly into the fourth dimension and returned to the center of the Insect Swarm.
This time, the Insect King directly led tens of thousands of low-level insects into the fourth dimension. Once the fourth dimension appeared within the low-level insects' bodies, the Insect King sealed it off with energy and then drove the low-level insects back to the three-dimensional universe in large numbers. These low-level insects also possessed considerable intelligence; they knew what returning to the three-dimensional universe meant, but they dared not disobey the Insect King's orders. Disobeying the Insect King would only lead to certain death, and a very gruesome one at that, so a quick death was preferable.
The lower-level insects not only save time and effort in carrying the fourth dimension, but are also far larger than the four-dimensional hypersphere created by the Insect King. These lower-level insects are also tens or hundreds of kilometers long, which is much larger than the Insect King's hypersphere.
Low-level insects descended upon the three-dimensional universe, and the fourth dimension began to fall directly within their bodies. The low-level insects became the first victims, but the cannon fodder Insect King didn't care at all. A large number of low-level insects descended carrying dimensions, which was far greater than the attack range and power of the Insect King's four-dimensional hypersphere.
Moreover, this time the Insect King did not target the Fish Horse Star Civilization fleet or the Reaper fleet, but instead chose to land at the location where the civilization's warships were most concentrated. This was the Hydra Civilization's fleet. Although the Hydra Civilization's fleet was also resisting the swarm, they always carefully hid in the rear, and the warships were all clustered together to avoid being divided and eaten. Even under the Insect King's four-dimensional hypersphere attack, they did not scatter, because the attack range of the four-dimensional hypersphere was very limited and the Hydra Civilization did not take it seriously.
The dense formation of warships was indeed effective in preventing attacks from the swarm, but now the Insect King regarded it as the most suitable fleet for attack. Tens of thousands of low-level Zerg simultaneously descended upon the Hydra Civilization's fleet, instantly engulfing over five billion Hydra Civilization warships. This made the Hydra Civilization's leader furious, slamming his fist on the table repeatedly. Meanwhile, the Reaper collected all the battlefield information and transmitted it back to the fleet.
The repeated dimensional reduction attacks made Hu Yu even more certain that dimensional reduction attacks were not just energy shocks. Last time, when the Reaper were taken into the fourth dimension by the Demon Scorpion Civilization fleet and exploded, Hu Yu did not feel the abnormality of the dimensional reduction attack because the target of the attack was only the Mechanical Civilization's combined giant ship and some low-level insects. This time, the target of the dimensional reduction attack became the Reaper, and Hu Yu realized that dimensional reduction attacks were definitely not just as simple as energy shocks.
Academician Zeng was busy researching spatial collapse and didn't have time to study dimensional reduction attacks. Hu Yu had to hand over the relevant information to Academician Zhou Xiaohua. Academician Zhou also had a deep understanding of dimensions. Although Academician Zhou was also busy researching four-dimensional positioning, Hu Yu still asked him to pause for a while. The fleet urgently needed to improve its attack power to fight the swarm. Four-dimensional positioning had been studied for tens of thousands of years and couldn't be broken through in the short term. It would be better to study dimensional reduction attacks, which might provide an opportunity to find four-dimensional positioning. Academician Zhou agreed with this.
From leading the swarm into the fourth dimension to the swarm's attack on the Hydra Civilization's fleet, only ten minutes passed. Ten minutes later, the second wave of lower-level swarms, driven by the Insect King, descended. This time, the target was not the Hydra Civilization. After the first dimensional reduction attack, none of the fleets dared to gather together, so the swarm had to choose a relatively dense area of airspace to descend on the lower-level swarms. This time, the results were significantly smaller, with less than one hundred million warships destroyed.
After attacking back and forth several times, the Insect King stopped again. It began to get anxious. This time, the Insect Emperor had ordered it to do something that was about to fail. If it weren't for this opportunity, its cannon fodder would only amount to tens of thousands of units of insect swarms. Although the other Insect King were of lower rank than it, all the insects were usually widely distributed in the fourth dimension, so it would be very difficult for them to have more subordinates.
The insect swarm is strictly hierarchical, not by rules but by the natural law of survival of the fittest. However, all insects unconditionally obey the Insect Emperor, not only because the Insect Emperor is the highest-ranking insect, but also because of the Insect Emperor's innate imperial power. The Insect King is terrified just thinking about the consequences of failing to obey the Insect Emperor's orders; it will become food for the First-Tier Mother Insect and perish under the slow nibbling of the First-Tier Mother Insect.
In over 30 years, the Zerg swarm had advanced less than 500 light-years, and now it had completely stopped advancing. The fleets of the Fish Horse Star Civilization and the Reaper fleet had completely surrounded the Zerg swarm like a pocket, leaving it with no other direction of advance but to retreat. The once invincible Zerg swarm had actually been halted by these 120 billion civilization warships, something the Insect King had never expected.
After much deliberation, the Insect King commanded the swarm to shrink, simultaneously moving higher-ranking insects to the outside. The swarm continued to shrink until every single insect inside was tightly packed together, with higher-ranking insects on the outside and lower-ranking insects on the inside, forming a dense swarm the size of tens of thousands of Sun.