Chapter 187

 The moment the chubby bug cried out in pain, all of the surrounding Inca bugs looked over. Lin could feel that their emotions were filled with confusion, as well as … shock?

Did they notice that the fat bug was being invaded? That was indeed possible, the fat bug was probably transmitting its own information to the outside world.

Lin quickly ordered the Penetrators to travel through the fat bug's blood vessels. They charged into the fat bug's brain as fast as they could, but before that, Lin was stopped by an army.

This fat bug's immune system seemed to be different.

This army was made up of a bunch of white cells, they stood in front of the Penetrators and the fat bug's brain, intending to defend the most important part of the creature with their lives.

It was a good effort, but it was meaningless.

The Penetrators charged towards the group of white cells, using the liquid they sprayed out from their heads, they easily disintegrated tens of thousands of white cells. They couldn't stop the Penetrators for even a second. As they drilled into the fat bug's brain, Lin quickly consumed its brain cells and began to create Brain Readers.

Brain cells were the best nutrients. As the Penetrators consumed the brain cells, they connected themselves to form a large circle in the middle. As the Brain Readers were being created, Lin ordered some of the Penetrators to sever the fat bug's nerves. This way, she would be able to take control of the fat bug very quickly.

While Lin was thinking that, several exploding Inca bugs suddenly leapt out from the Inca swarm and charged towards the fat bug that was still screaming …

After the explosion, the fat bug and Lin's army inside its body were reduced to dust by the high temperature. At the same time, the Penetrator that the Inca swarm didn't manage to kill was also destroyed.

This method was quite decisive. The Inca swarm probably thought that the fat bug had been infected with a virus. Furthermore, it was the Penetrator that spread the virus to them. This was to prevent the virus from spreading.

But it was already too late. Lin had already observed the fat bug's internal organs, if she had the chance, she would definitely study them further.

In short, unlike Lin, they didn't observe and imitate a creature's structure. Instead, they extracted a few cells from the creature and used a series of complicated methods to obtain the creature's unique ability.

Compared to Lin's learning method, this ability had both advantages and disadvantages. For example, the Inca swarm only needed a few cells, but Lin needed the entire creature. However, Lin only needed to see herself to create the creature. No matter how far the distance was, the Inca insects still needed to transport the information of the cells back and forth, so there was a possibility of errors.

Furthermore, there was a chance that she would be invaded and infected. Overall, Lin felt that she had more advantages, but Lin also believed that there was no harm in learning another ability.

In that case, the final secret of the Inca insect swarm had been unraveled. It was time to end everything!

Lin's army began to push forward. Countless ferns were crushed under the powerful cones. While clearing a path for Lin's army through the forest, the fallen ferns would be chewed and devoured by the 'Wood Grinders' that followed behind the Crushers. This was a heavy soldier with countless blade-like fangs. It could chew wood and store it in its body, which would be useful in future battles. As for the seeds, Lin would keep them so that she could restore this forest in the future.

The Inca swarm began to move after blasting the infected insects into pieces. They had more than ten gigantic Earth Shatterers as the vanguard and uprooted the forest to open up a path for the army behind them.

Both sides no longer had any intention of hiding or playing any tricks. Both Lin and the Inca swarm knew that only a decisive battle would determine which race would become the ruler of this underground world.

The distance between the two armies that were 200 kilometers apart began to close. Both sides were advancing at their fastest speed, and Lin predicted that it wouldn't take long for them to meet.

Ferns were relatively fragile plants that could be easily knocked down. If it was a Twisted Tree, it would take a lot longer. Even the Earth Shatterers would have a hard time knocking down a mature Twisted Tree. If they were on the surface, it would probably take another 10 days or so before the battle could begin.

But here … one day or so was more than enough.

As day and night switched places again, the two armies began to close in on each other.

When the two armies were about 3 kilometers apart, they both stopped in unison. In between them was a dense forest of ferns, as well as three gigantic Homegrown Trees that stood between the two armies. Each Homegrown Tree was 500 meters apart, forming a horizontal line.

Lin had checked the three Homegrown Trees with Flyers and Shapeshifters. They were all hollowed out, and there were no Inca swarm, so there was no need to worry about being ambushed.

Now that both armies had stopped in their tracks … should they attack first or later? Lin was slightly hesitant on this point.

At that moment, the Inca swarm moved first.

The Earth Shatterers in front of the army lowered their bodies, and a few Sandblast Worms climbed onto their backs …

With powerful hydraulic systems and sturdy carapaces, the Earth Shatterers stood up with the Sandblast Worms on their backs. This made the Sandblast Worms' bellies even higher than the forest.

Were they planning to use long-range attacks? That would indeed increase their range, but Lin had a question. The Sandblast Worms needed to continuously swallow soil or sand in their mouths in order to fire continuously. If they carried them on their backs, there would only be enough space for one attack.

Bang!

With a loud bang, more than 10 Sandblast Worms opened their bellies, and gigantic balls of sand shot out.

These Sandblast Worms didn't just stand tall, their ejector system had also been greatly improved. The gigantic balls of sand flew through the forest between the two armies, and some of them crashed into the Homegrown Trees along the way, creating loud booms.

These balls of sand were as sturdy as rocks, and their impact peeled off a large piece of the Homegrown Tree's outer bark.

There were even more balls of sand that flew a full three kilometers and landed right in front of Lin's army, knocking down large amounts of fern trees. The furthest ball of sand that flew was only a few meters away from the Sandblast Worm at the front of Lin's army.

Lin didn't dodge. The moment the Sandblast Worms shot out the ball of sand, Lin had already calculated where they would land.

But this wasn't the end. The balls of sand that landed in front of Lin's army emitted a strange smell. Lin discovered that these balls of sand were covered in a layer of viscous liquid. Lin slightly dissected the liquid and discovered that there were large amounts of viruses in the liquid. These viruses were abundant in the air around the balls of sand, probably sputtered out by the Sandblast Worms. Plus, the forest was very humid, so the viruses easily permeated the air.

So that's how it is. Using viruses as a tactic?

But these things … How could they be useful? Only a battle between multiple cells could determine victory and defeat! Floating astronomy.