The victor was infuriated, lowering its body and letting out deep growls, ready to charge through in one go. However, atop the cliff above the canyon, one giant bug after another appeared, including Giant Ghast Claws, Blazing Mammoth Bugs, and colossal armored insects...

It suddenly turned its head; in the canyon behind it, a large expanse of black insects surged out.

The victor was filled with despair, but the ferocious nature within it was also ignited. Without any hesitation, it let out a roar and sprinted with all its might, scaling the slanting cliffside. In the blink of an eye, it reached the mountain peak on the side of the canyon where a Giant Ghast Claw was roaring and raising its huge claw. But the victor, reaching there first, sprang up into the air and with swift strokes of its claws, the Giant Ghast Claw screamed as it tumbled down.

This was the victor. Although it had not possessed the gene chain of a super lifeform for long, it had already made an essential leap for itself.

The Insect Race had no concept of fear, especially after the Empress had adjusted and evolved the insect soldiers. It had removed such emotions as much as possible.

The insects swarmed over the hills and fields, unhesitatingly pouncing toward the victor.

On a gentle slope on the other side of the canyon, there was a moving "Troop Nest Beetle." If Chen Gu were here, he would be surprised, for this one, only a few dozen meters tall, resembled the one he had burnt to death outside the "Roaring Mecha Regiment" battlefield.

However, the tentacles beneath this one were not for delving underground to absorb nutrients and energy, but for movement.

This Troop Nest Beetle, with multiple compound eyes growing around its body, transmitted every movement on the battlefield in real-time to the giant bubble flyers in the Star Sea. The giant bubble flyers acted merely as relays, sending information back to the Empress.

Humans were vastly different in their vision from the Insect Race. Such imagery, if seen by humans, would cause nausea, vomiting, and dizziness within a few seconds.

But as the Insect Queen observed the entire battle, commands were issued and sent to the moving "Troop Nest Beetle." The direction of the battle became much more convenient than before.

This had been an aspect of battlefield command that the Alien Insect Race had always wanted to improve. After the last battle with the "Roaring Mecha Regiment," they had finally settled on this improvement plan.

Upon receiving the Empress's order, the insects surrounded the victor at all costs. The victor roared and fought fiercely. The insect carapace that could withstand human energy weapons shattered like toasted bread crusts under its assault...

But even a fierce tiger is no match for a pack of wolves; the Insect Race outnumbered the victor too greatly. After several dozen minutes of combat, the victor had caused substantial losses to the Insect Race. However, it had also accumulated more and more wounds, and its movement began to slow.

Far behind the lines, the Alien Insect Queen excitedly witnessed this scene from within its lair. It let out excited shrieks, urging its warriors to push harder, determined to kill the victor and bring it back.

To the Alien Insect Queen, every strong gene chain was the most precious "jewel" in the Star Sea.

What it enjoyed most was using these jewels to adorn its future "children."

This was an instinctive behavior that even the Alien Insect Queen could not suppress.

Another several dozen minutes passed, and the victor was struggling to hold on. A group of slender, large insects stealthily appeared on one side of the mountaintop. Their shape somewhat resembled spitting bugs but were dozens of times larger; they belonged to a rarely seen category of the Insect Race: the Armor-Piercing Arrow Bug.

They could shoot giant insect spikes, each 8-10 meters in length, with both piercing and explosive power.

This had been the battle tactic the Empress had personally set before the combat began: to allow the ordinary insect soldiers to wear down the victor first, then deliver a fatal blow with the Armor-Piercing Arrow Bug.

Because as long as the victor wasn't wounded, its speed made it almost impossible for the Armor-Piercing Arrow Bug to hit it.

Now, the moment had come.

THWIP THWIP THWIP—

Giant arrow-shaped insect spikes pierced through the air. The victor, sensing danger through its primal instincts, did not bother with the Giant Ghast Claws swarming it and leaped violently to one side. Its body was left with three deep gashes from the claws of the Giant Ghast Claws, but it managed to dodge the Armor-Piercing Arrow Bug's spray this time.

However, there were too many Armor-Piercing Arrow Bugs, and hundreds sprayed their spikes simultaneously. The victor rolled awkwardly on the ground to evade most of the arrow spikes. Even so, two still struck its body.

They penetrated its metallic body and exploded violently.

The victor was blasted half a meter off the ground by the explosion and then fell back to the ground in agony, unable to move for a moment.

Back in the great nest, the Empress let out an involuntary, excited shriek: It was about to get hold of that gene chain!

After planning for so long, success was finally at hand. Once this battle was over, its children's evolutionary level would be far ahead of all the other empresses'!

It kept issuing orders urgently: "Kill it, kill it for me, my children, bring its corpse back to me!"

Before the order had made it through, the Armor-Piercing Arrow Bugs had already launched the third salvo of spikes.

The victor struggled to its feet, its intense will to survive driving it to try and drag its battered body away from this deadly attack. But it was too grievously wounded. It only swayed a few times and managed to move just over a meter—nowhere near enough to escape the fatal assault.

The Insect Queen had already started fantasizing about how it would expand its power after obtaining that gene chain and how it would lead its powerful offspring to roam the entire Star Sea.

But just at this moment, next to the victor, a patch of inconspicuous pale blue energy ripples appeared. Suddenly, a person materialized from within; that person placed a hand on the victor, and then the ripples of energy quickly became clear and intense.

With an inward surge, in a whoosh, both the person and the colossal victor disappeared.

THUD THUD THUD...

Almost, but not quite, the arrow spikes shot through empty space, hitting the ground in a series of explosions, leaving craters everywhere.

In the nest, the Empress had been ready to cheer and even thought about how to celebrate, but everything had shockingly come to a halt.

It was as if... a novel was reaching its climax, and the author suddenly, in a fit of malice, cut the story short!

The Empress was stunned for a good while before it let out an angry scream that shook the entire nest. The Insect Race cowering within trembled, keeping their distance for fear of becoming the target of the Empress's wrath.

And the warriors on the battlefield were confused: What happened? Where was our prey?

They were about to win the Empress's reward; how could the prey disappear at the final moment?!

The furious command of the Empress came: "Find it! You must find my prey for me! No matter who interferes, kill them, kill them all!"

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