Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 2360 - 2362: Continuing the Expansion
Feng Jun casually probed the Storage Bag with his Divine Sense and couldn’t help but say, "This is at least sixty percent... You’ve taken too little."
"It’s enough," Yi Jue shook her head, "I already took advantage of the first pick; you also need to build rapport while handling the aftermath."
Feng Jun did not argue with her but put away the Storage Bag instead, though he expressed, "I can’t let you exhaust your Spiritual Energy in vain, this won’t be repeated; otherwise, there won’t be a third time... I’m serious."
Actually, he and Yi Jue had similar temperaments, both disliking taking advantage of others casually, let alone a teammate they had a tacit understanding with?
Yi Jue, however, expressed dissatisfaction, "You also consumed Spiritual Energy, and besides, a debt of gratitude is even more difficult to repay than a debt of Spirit Stone."
"As I said, my situation is an exception," Feng Jun replied seriously, "I believe the premise of cooperation should be fair distribution; there is a saying in the Mortal Realm, ’clear accounts between brothers’; that way, the collaboration can last longer."
Yi Jue was silent for a while before nodding, "Alright, this won’t be repeated... Wait a bit, let me sense and check if there are any camps nearby."
This extreme environment also affected her Divine Sense. Although this was just interference from worldly elements, she could enhance the strength of her Divine Sense to counter it, but she also had to guard against being discovered by the Insect Race or the Human Race.
When Feng Jun noticed that her Divine Sense range had a radius of only sixty to seventy Li and that she was probing cautiously, he couldn’t help but speak, "Why don’t I do it instead? My exploration radius can reach a hundred Li and it’s hardly detectable."
Yi Jue glanced at him and shook her head slowly, "Don’t underestimate the humans here; they have weapons to counter Divine Sense. If I encounter them, it’s not much of a problem, but for you, it could be dangerous."
"I know," Feng Jun nodded indifferently, "My exploration method isn’t Divine Sense, just consider... consider it as if I’m performing a deduction."
Yi Jue raised her brow and suddenly asked, "Could it be that... you’ve refined the Speculator?"
"Speculator?" Feng Jun shook his head upon hearing this, "I haven’t had the time to refine it, and I have an idea; I want to repair it first, then refine it... Huh, Speculator? Sun-Mirroring?"
He suddenly fell into contemplation and nodded after a while, "I’ll try again."
The exploration range of the Sun-Mirroring Glass was ten thousand Li, even in its broken state. Feng Jun felt that his Five Rings wouldn’t be inferior to it, so could it really only deduce living beings within a hundred Li?
Anyway, the functions of the Five Rings hadn’t been fully discovered, so it wouldn’t hurt to try. Thus, he activated a Substitute Soul Puppet.
The test results were indeed good. The detection range for nearby living creatures was indeed one hundred Li, but when he placed the Substitute Soul Puppet at the edge a hundred Li away, it could continue to explore another hundred Li forward.
The efficiency of this exploration wasn’t very high, as a significant portion of the exploration area overlapped, but the advantage was that it could continue almost indefinitely beyond a hundred Li—if not for the usage time limit of the Substitute Soul Puppet.
After Feng Jun had explored up to eight hundred Li ahead, the time limit for the Substitute Soul Puppet was reached, and he luckily discovered an Insect Race camp, but before reaching this camp, he would also encounter some scattered Insect Race squads.
Some of these squads were larger, some smaller, just sentries and patrol units clearing out mobile Human Race combat strength. The largest Insect Race squad had about five to six hundred members and was even led by a member of the Golden Core.
With such combat strength, a Human Race squad of the same size would hardly be able to resist. If these insects encountered a squad they couldn’t handle, they could still seek assistance from the two camps.
Feng Jun nodded thoughtfully, "I thought so; with so many in the Golden Core in this camp, it makes sense that it’s a combat support center."
"Combat support center?" Yi Jue frowned doubtfully, and after listening to his explanation, she nodded, "That’s roughly what it is, but I’m more curious... do you have to use a Substitute Soul Puppet for the deduction?"
"No worries, I still have four Substitute Soul Puppets," Feng Jun responded offhandedly, "Someone knew I liked Substitute Soul Puppets, so they sent them to me..."
"Indeed, you don’t have to worry about what you need," Yi Jue nodded. Feng Jun’s popularity in Tianqin wasn’t far from hers, but she didn’t harbor any jealousy—given their relationship, the stronger Feng Jun was, the more she benefited.
In fact, what she wondered was, "Should we kill these scattered Insect Race or bypass them?"
She was genuinely unwilling to deal with such small fry, so bypassing seemed more appropriate. After all, no one would assume she was avoiding a fight.
"Kill them," Feng Jun stated earnestly, "War is never isolated, and with these guys wandering around, not only can they relay messages quickly, but they can also effectively control the Mining Star; we need to deprive them of their eyes and ears."
Yi Jue nodded, "Alright, I’ll follow your lead."
The Insect Race patrolling on occupied lands were actually highly vigilant and had exceptionally strong senses. They could be described as elite squads among the Insect Race, but unfortunately, this time they encountered a user with BUG-level abilities.
One was capable of quietly and stealthily investigating, a true "pro," and the other was a Nascent Soul Peak who made moves without revealing identity.
Regardless, Yi Jue attacked stealthily all the way. Eventually, she didn’t even bother to release her Divine Sense for detection. She simply acted based on the direction and distance Feng Jun mentioned.
At this point, these Insect Race creatures were truly in trouble. The first time, one of the Insect Tribe luckily released half of an alert, but later on, most of the Insects didn’t even realize what happened, and they were taken out without a clue.
Feng Jun and Yi Jue made their way to the second military camp, easily pushing through and once again ambushing the Insect Tribe there.
Approximately an hour later, Feng Jun returned, and Yi Jue had a new discovery, "Didn’t even melt the ice this time?"
"It’s not a big deal," Feng Jun casually replied, thinking to himself that it’s so cold in Outer Space, it’s frozen solid, "If you find it hard to separate, then the next camp is mine."
Yi Jue wasn’t a pretentious person, nodded in agreement, "Alright, the next military camp is yours. What you gain depends on luck."
Then, Feng Jun used the Substitute Soul Puppet once again to locate another Insect Tribe camp.
This time, he was quite lucky. The camp had a diameter of about 1.5 kilometers, and he couldn’t help but secretly feel fortunate: Thankfully, it’s in Outer Space; if it were in the Sahara Desert, people might think it’s an earthquake!
Yi Jue watched with intense interest, "Your luck is really something else."
She’s not stingy, but even the most magnanimous people might compare a bit when it comes to luck.
However, having exceptional luck isn’t absolutely a good thing. Looking at the fourth military camp, Yi Jue was a bit dumbfounded, "So large?"
According to the agreement, the fourth camp should be hers to take, but this camp was actually shell-shaped, half-oval, with a diameter of over 10 kilometers on the ground. The arched structure’s highest point was slightly over three kilometers.
The camp was home to over forty thousand Insect Race, maintaining a constant state of entry and exit, meaning its full capacity exceeded fifty thousand. Among them were nearly a hundred Golden Core Insect Tribe, and notably, there were two Nascent Soul Bug Race members.
One Nascent Soul Bug Race was inside the camp, and the other was about ten miles from the camp.
The Nascent Soul Bug outside the camp was beetle-like, clearly unaffected by the environment. At the moment, it seemed to be resting inside a shell, but it was evident it was responsible for supporting the entire camp.
So Yi Jue was directly dumbfounded, and worse, Feng Jun told her this camp wasn’t temporary but built by the Insect Tribe like a nest, and based on analysis, they aimed to establish it as a semi-permanent camp.
Yi Jue wasn’t afraid of dealing with the two Nascent Souls, but this type of nest structure troubled her, coupled with the Nascent Soul factor, it would be quite challenging to take this place down, "Mainly to avoid alerting anyone, otherwise... should we go back for a break?"
Winning was possible, but annihilating the opponents completely would be difficult. She decided to restore her Spiritual Energy fully, then deliver a brutal strike, even if it meant using seventy to eighty percent of her Spiritual Energy, she wouldn’t let any Insect Tribe escape.
Yi Jue was rather independent in her actions, but when cooperation was needed, she absolutely considered the bigger picture.
Feng Jun also agreed with her idea, but disagreed with her suggestion, "Going back to rest would take a long time, and if the news about us wiping out three military camps gets out, it would be much harder to find such an opportunity again."
Yi Jue nodded, "There’s that too. What do you suggest?"
"Switch to another camp," Feng Jun proposed a new plan, "Eliminate two or three more camps, then go back to rest. As for whether we can repeat this strategy next time, that depends on their response."
Yi Jue pondered a moment, then looked up at the sky, "Ren Tu True Sage, what do you think?"
Ren Tu True Sage’s Divine Sense was extremely strong, and he was quite attentive to Yi Jue’s situation, combined with Feng Jun being a key aspect of their safe departure, he was very focused on them heading to Mining Star, checking frequently.
After several checks, he suddenly realized that these two had actually developed a new method to deal with the Insect Tribe, couldn’t help but secretly admire: The youngsters nowadays are indeed remarkable, capable of thinking of such ideas.
He watched with eager eyes, but was too embarrassed to directly step in and steal the younger generation’s opportunity, not wanting to lose face.
Now that Yi Jue used her Divine Sense to ask, he finally had the chance to state his intentions, "If you’re worried, I can help you defeat this camp. Please let Feng Xiaoyou handle it as usual. Mainly, this way, we can swiftly eliminate the Insect Tribe’s ground forces."
After a pause, he added, "I only want the Nascent Soul and Golden Core Insect Tribe, completely disregarding the Out-dust Insect Tribe."
Upon hearing this, Yi Jue couldn’t help but murmur inwardly, "I’m not interested in the Out-dust Insect Tribe either, alright?"