Post-Battle Gains

Regardless of whether Moka believed it or not, the reality was clear. His highly anticipated Divine Shield was shattered by the self-destruction of the Acid Bugs.

Not only that, the corrosive acid left by the Acid Bugs after their explosion had scorched the ground black.

The lizardmen, facing the splashing acid, suffered heavy losses. Many were corroded to death, and even their armor was pitted and scarred.

"How... could this be..."

Moka couldn't believe the outcome. Not only was the Divine Shield destroyed, but most of his troops were also either dead or severely injured.

In a desperate situation, Moka quickly used faith power to heal the injured. Although this consumed a large amount of faith power, it was better than having his divine realm breached.

"A futile struggle," Xu Luo shook his head.

After the defensive line broke, using faith power to accelerate the lizardmen's recovery was futile. It might temporarily slow down the Zerg's advance but wouldn't change the outcome.

Under the effect of berserk, the lizardmen charged fearlessly, but the Acid Bugs' suicidal attacks resulted in increasing casualties.

Once the berserk effect ended, the lizardmen finally broke down and fled in all directions. No matter how angrily Moka commanded them to fight, it was useless.

This illustrated a common problem faced by deities.

Many believers only had superficial faith. The next level was shallow believers, followed by devout believers, fanatic believers, and then holy spirits.

Only fanatic believers were willing to die for their deity.

Devout believers, while pious, could waver in their faith when facing life and death.

This was the downside of being a deity.

Xu Luo was fortunate that Zerg faith was constant, always at the fanatic level, ready to die for him.

After the enemy formation broke, the Mantis Bugs no longer hid behind the Beetles but pursued and killed the fleeing lizardmen, decimating the opponent's forces.

Moka closed his eyes in pain.

He knew he was finished.

Losing the early development in the World of Gods and losing his divine realm meant that although his family's influence could allow him to start over, he would be far behind others in development time. The future was now uncertain.

With the lizardmen warriors gone, the remaining lizardmen had no resistance against the Zerg, who were like wolves among sheep.

Soon, the Zerg reached the center of the divine realm, arriving at the core.

Moka had already lost control over his divine realm and could only watch helplessly.

"Destroy it!"

Xu Luo commanded through his link with his believers, ordering the Zerg to destroy the divine realm core, thus completely conquering the realm and stripping Moka of his divine status.

With no defenses left, the divine realm couldn't withstand the Zerg's assault and was completely destroyed within a minute.

 [You have destroyed the divine realm core and achieved the Destroyer of Divine Realms accomplishment!]

 [Destroying the divine realm core has granted you the talent "Survival Instinct"!]

 [Destroying the divine realm core has condensed the terrain card "Forest"!]

 [Destroying the divine realm core has condensed the terrain card "Hills"!]

 [Destroying the divine realm core has condensed the terrain card "Plains"!]

 [Destroying the divine realm core has allowed you to conquer the current divine realm and gain a damaged divine realm!]

Three terrain cards, a talent, a title, and a damaged divine realm! These were the spoils of Xu Luo's invasion. Although he had paid a hefty price, the gains were worth it.

Not to mention, three terrain cards would cost between twenty to thirty thousand each in a legitimate store. If they were resource-rich or large, they would be even more expensive!

So, the three cards alone were worth at least sixty thousand.

The damaged divine realm could be integrated into his own, compensating for the shrinkage caused by the mayflies' harvesting.

Moreover, although he hadn't obtained new genes, he had gained a talent that could be fused with the Queen, allowing all future Zerg to have this talent.

Upon integrating the damaged divine realm, Xu Luo's realm expanded from its original thousand square kilometers—reduced to around eight hundred due to harvesting—to about two thousand square kilometers. Moka's realm had been heavily invested in, so it was much larger than Xu Luo's.

"This will last for a while."

Xu Luo breathed a sigh of relief. He had feared the mayflies would consume his realm completely.

The original realm had been resource-poor. Now, although it still mostly appeared as a barren wasteland, it was slightly more vibrant with the new terrain cards: Forest, Hills, and Plains.

However, due to the lack of a complete ecosystem, these resources were not renewable and would deplete over time.

Despite most of the realm still being barren, it was an improvement, and Xu Luo felt relieved.

The invasion had cost Moka all his remaining faith power, but the gains were satisfying for Xu Luo.

The mayflies had also decomposed the lizardmen corpses and harvested the divine realm, gathering a large number of evolution points, greatly easing the Zerg's consumption demands.

However, Xu Luo had also suffered significant losses.

He lost over twelve hundred Beetles, six hundred Mantis Bugs, and thirty-six hundred Acid Bugs!

This meant his previous investments were largely wasted, and his daily faith power income would decrease significantly for some time.

However, gaining a divine realm made it worthwhile.

Expanding a divine realm using faith power alone would cost a fortune.

Moreover, he had gained a valuable title.

The title reduced the suppression he faced when invading other divine realms by 10%.

Fighting on enemy turf meant facing their divine realm's suppression.

After calculating the losses, Xu Luo fused the new talent with the Queen, granting the Zerg their first talent:

 Limb Regeneration!

Evolving from the "Survival Instinct" talent, the Zerg could regenerate lost limbs like a lizard's tail, provided they consumed evolution points.

This invasion taught Xu Luo about the strength of his forces.

Strong, yes, but reliant on numbers.

However, they weren't as formidable as he had hoped.

The Zerg couldn't use equipment, and despite their high tiers, they struggled against the well-armed but lower-tier lizardmen. Their individual strength was a significant drawback.

This was the Zerg's weakness. They had high ranks but lacked skills and talents.

"I need to collect more talents and skills!"

Xu Luo resolved.