Chapter 147: Chapter 141: Several Insects Suitable for Human Cultivation

Unless you were fighting Insect-men, in which case you left no survivors, you had to act with extreme caution. A single slip-up could lead to utter annihilation.

Lena sighed.

"This is indeed a problem. Our only option is to see if we can thoroughly study Lord Taman’s Insect Master notes and then try to improve upon them. For now, we can only follow his methods to cultivate our insect swarms."

"It’s the only way," Han Ning sighed in agreement.

"Let me continue, then." Lena cleared her throat, took a sip of water, and said, "The three low-level insect types I mentioned have different diets and habitat requirements, but there is a way to accelerate their growth."

"That would be Insect Crystals—pale green Crystal Stones that form inside insects of Entry Level and above. When an insect dies, the Insect Crystal extracted from its body can be fed to a relatively weaker insect to accelerate its growth. Of course, it won’t grow to the full strength of the deceased insect; some Energy is lost in the process."

"So that’s what Insect Crystals are for!" Han Ning realized.

’From Lena’s description, Insect Crystals sounded more like a catalyst,’ he thought.

"Oh, right. The fireflies held by those three Insect-men we captured—the Flowing Flame Fireflies—are a type of insect somewhat stronger than the Silver Thorn Damselfly. They’re roughly equivalent to an insect of medium combat power among the Yinsaike Race. We could try raising those few Flowing Flame Fireflies using the Yinsaike method."

Lü Xiuning said, "There are only five of them, right? Is there a queen?"

"No, so they can’t reproduce."

Lena shook her head and continued,

"Besides the three lowest-level insect types, there are also some non-combat insects—some so small they don’t even count as Soul Beasts—that I believe could be very helpful to us."

Before anyone could ask questions, Lena clicked the mouse. Hand-drawn images of several small insects appeared on the projector screen.

She explained:

"I’ve also selected three types of insects."

"The first is called the Gold-Eating Insect. They are small insects that live near mineral veins, only about the size of a palm. Don’t let their size fool you; they can swallow ores containing various metals. Through a complex biological system, these mixed metals are somehow refined into relatively pure elemental metals and excreted as waste."

"The Yinsaike People, or other Insect-men, deliberately cultivate these insects and collect their excretions to forge different kinds of metal tools."

"Oh? Interesting!"

Upon hearing the description of the Gold-Eating Insect, everyone present, whether they were combat personnel or logistics staff, showed great interest.

In terms of miraculous abilities, the three insects commonly used by the Yinsaike People didn’t have nearly the same impact on the crowd as the Gold-Eating Insect.

"The second type, I’ve roughly translated as the Crude Oil Rubber Insect. They resemble the rubber insects from our Blue Star. They usually like to feed on the rotting corpses of Soul Beasts. And like the Gold-Eating Insect, the substance excreted by the Crude Oil Rubber Insect has properties similar to crude oil."

"This insect is only briefly described in the notes. The Insect-men typically ignite its excretions for illumination or as a heat source for cooking and warmth."

"To be honest, I’m not certain if the Crude Oil Rubber Insect’s excretion is actual crude oil. I’m just inferring that its properties are similar based on Lord Taman’s descriptions."

"Crude oil?!"

Hearing this, the crowd couldn’t help but exchange glances.

The importance of crude oil was self-evident. After refining, it could be converted into various fuel products.

Although refining crude oil is a technical task, at least they would have the raw material. The refining process could be studied and developed over time.

Even simple distillation could yield gasoline, kerosene, and diesel.

"There’s one more insect, which I’ve named the Electric Fire Cannon Insect. They are more like combat-type Soul Beasts, with a power ceiling that can just barely reach the Extraordinary Level. The reason I’m mentioning them is that the Yinsaike People rarely cultivate them."

"The reason they are cultivated so little is that they are rare, and the resources needed to raise them are scarce."

"To cultivate them, you need lightning—that is, electrical energy."

"I mentioned earlier that Insect Crystals can accelerate an insect’s growth, but they cannot speed up the recovery of their Spiritual Energy. An insect that has reached its power limit cannot increase its reserves of attribute-based Spiritual Energy, no matter how many Insect Crystals it consumes."

’Han Ning knew this was due to the issue of Elemental Affinity. The Insect Masters must have understood the concept of Elemental Affinity, but they wouldn’t waste precious Soul Beast Crystal Stones on short-lived Soul Beasts.’

’There were losses during Energy transfer between Soul Crystals and in Elemental Affinity. To brute-force a super-powerful Soul Beast, you would have to consume a massive amount of Soul Beast Crystal Stones.’

"Electrical energy is a precious resource for the Insect-men, and Soul Beasts that command lightning are mostly rare species. This has led to the Electric Fire Cannon Insect being overlooked. Even Lord Taman only briefly mentioned their cultivation method."

At this point, some people had already guessed what Lena was getting at.

Han Ning’s expression grew excited.

"Lady Lenna, are you saying that since we humans can generate electricity, it means we can cultivate a batch of Electric Fire Cannon Insects, using the power we generate to raise them?"

Lena smiled slightly. "Exactly. For now, we can only generate power with diesel. But the Insect Continent has no shortage of rivers. Let’s not even talk about something as far-off as building hydroelectric power stations. For now, cultivating a large number of Crude Oil Rubber Insects, refining a large amount of diesel, and then using generators to power and feed the Electric Fire Cannon Insects is also an excellent option."

’An Electric Fire Cannon Insect can just barely grow to the Extraordinary Level, so let’s consider them Extraordinary I creatures. If we could really cultivate 100 Extraordinary I Electric Fire Cannon Insects, we would stand a fighting chance even against an Insect Master with three Extraordinary Limit insects!’

’Even if it’s the lowest level of Insect Master, it at least gives everyone a glimmer of hope for survival!’

"Gold-Eating Insect... Crude Oil Rubber Insect... Electric Fire Cannon Insect..." Dean Wu repeated the names of the three insects, his tightly knitted brow gradually relaxing.

After a pause, Lena said:

"Dean Wu, should I continue on to the higher-level insects? I think building the facilities required to cultivate them would be quite troublesome, and it seems we don’t have a use for them at the moment."

Dean Wu thought for a moment, then said, "No need for now. Is there any information about Spiritual Power Potions?"

"Yes." Lena flipped a few pages forward in her presentation, and the screen displayed hand-drawn images of a dozen or so plants and Soul Beast tissues.

"The Yinsaike Race calls this type of Spiritual Power Potion ’Concentration Liquid.’ It’s made from 18 ingredients through various grinding and roasting methods. The side effects are relatively minor; it just gives the user a severe headache for three days after taking it."

"To go from an Insect-man with Spiritual Power Talent to having Tier One Spiritual Power, one only needs to take five marked doses of Concentration Liquid—provided their brain can withstand the shock of the side effects. Among the Yinsaike Race, this item is exclusive to Insect Masters. Besides using it themselves, they generally dilute it to reward their Insect Servants or gift it to promising juniors."

"However... the sources of the materials for Concentration Liquid are quite complex. Some require venturing deep into dangerous areas, making them very difficult to collect."

"I speculate that the liquid we obtained from the first Insect-man was just a half-finished product. It’s a good thing no one took it, or it could have had unforeseeable consequences," Lena said, a hint of lingering fear in her voice.

Of all the information Lena had provided, only the Concentration Liquid could significantly help Han Ning improve. He couldn’t help but ask:

"Lady Lenna, when you say ’dangerous areas,’ what are you referring to?"

"Not all the insects on the Insect Continent are under the control of the Ancestral Insect Master. Furthermore, nearly 20% of the creatures here are not insects at all. Among them are existences that even the Ancestral Insect Master finds daunting, or even terrifying."

"They command all sorts of extraordinary and bizarre abilities, dominating their own territories. These places are considered Forbidden Lands by the Insect Masters."

"Before I talk about these dangerous areas, I have to mention the types of Soul Beast Attributes discovered by the Yinsaike Race’s Insect Masters."

Lena took another large gulp of water, moistening her throat.