Chapter 259: Chapter 252 Blood Repository Mosquito and Phantom Jumping Spider_i
“Talking about it is simple, it’s about using multiple bugs to form an army formation. Just like how our human armies deploy troops and formations on the battlefield. However, utilizing insect formations is much more enigmatic and unpredictable. To give the simplest example, a combination of ground-crawling poisonous bugs and flying insects can create a basic insect formation. The ground bugs take the lead in attacking, while the flying insects are responsible for distracting the enemy’s attention.”
Master He Shan gave a general introduction to the insect formation.
Qin Niu had firsthand experience in his fight with Old Master Huang, witnessing the power of combining two or more different kinds of bugs in an attack.
So this was the insect formation.
“Master He, what do we do now?”
A guard asked for instructions.
They clustered around He Shan, each one on high alert.
“Where is the scout team?”
“Here at your command!”
A scout team of more than ten members stepped forward.
“Reconnaissance!”
Master He Shan stared ahead and uttered two chilling words.
The thirteen members of the scout team rapidly assumed a fan formation as they moved forward, releasing their respective bugs to scout the situation ahead.
Some released ground-crawling spiders, mole crickets, scorpions, and weevils, while others released flying moths and fireflies. Qin Niu even spotted a steel-winged wild bee.
But now these insects had been tamed and cultivated by the insect masters.
Since it was night, many insects were unable to see in the dark.
Moths were one of the few flying insects that possessed night vision.
These insect masters, chosen for the scout team, were all skilled.
Having them conduct nighttime reconnaissance would prove very effective.
However, after they sent out their insects, they disappeared without a trace, without any response.
And they did not return.
Shortly after, a member of the scout team began to shudder violently and let out a muffled groan.
One by one, several people turned pale and frequently let out pained noises.
This indicated that the bugs they had sent out had probably encountered misfortune.
“Master He, the situation ahead is unclear, our bugs sent to scout the enemy have all been harmed.”
“You all rest first.”
Master He Shan’s face was composed, and he didn’t get angry due to the failure of his subordinates’ reconnaissance.
After a while, he extended his right hand, palm facing up, at chest level.
Qin Niu was puzzled when he saw Master He Shan take off a bamboo tube from his waist with his left hand and open the lid.
“Buddy, you’ve worked hard, get inside!”
He said to his palm.
Qin Niu, squinting in the light of the torches, finally noticed several tiny black dots on the palm of Master He Shan’s right hand.
They were fleas.
He hadn’t expected that the most inconspicuous little bugs would be the key to Master He Shan discovering the enemy’s situation.
The size of fleas was even smaller than a sesame seed, hard to see in daylight, let alone at night.
This made Qin Niu realize that every insect has its unique abilities and uses.
“We’ll go around from that side.”
Master He Shan had already spurred his majestic lion steed and was quickly heading towards a small path to the left.
There were many roads to Luoshui Town.
There’s no need to stick to the main road.
Qin Niu followed closely behind Master He Shan, experiencing his first real battle.
An invisible sense of danger loomed over the entire battlefield at all times.
This made him both nervous and a little excited.
Perhaps every man is a beast, facing the test of blood and fire, what ignites is the frenzy of war.
The real cowards who shrink back are very few.
“Be careful! There’s an ambush here too!”
Master He Shan alerted everyone.
The enemy had set up an ambush to prevent the Black Tiger Gang’s army from entering Luoshui Town, aiming to prevent their sneak attack from being exposed and to stop their retreat from being cut off.
“Choose to breakthrough here, fight our way into Luoshui Town.”
Master He Shan appeared extremely calm.
The main force of the Insect Master camp stayed behind to annihilate the numerous Labor Armor.
However, Master He Shan led his personal guard directly into the strategic locations guarded by the enemy.
The battle between both sides had officially commenced.
The contest between Insect Masters could very well determine the outcome of today’s war.
Master He Shan, riding a lion, charged straight ahead.
Knowing full well that there was an ambush ahead, he still recklessly charged in.
Qin Niu frowned slightly, military orders were as heavy as mountains; he was now just a common soldier, other than following Master He Shan in the charge, he had no other options.
They had barely charged forward two hundred meters when numerous poisonous insects crawled out from all around, attacking them.
There was a large number of blood-sucking poisonous mosquitoes in the air.
The ground was home to a type of very agile gray spider.
With slender legs and bodies about half the size of a fingernail, their crawling speed was amazingly fast.
Not only could they shoot webs to attack positions two to three meters high, but they were also skilled jumpers.
Their fangs looked chilling to behold.
Being bitten by them would definitely not lead to anything good.
“It seems the path we’ve taken is guarded by Elder Jiu Yin’s fourth disciple, Zhu Zhu. These spiders are called Phantom Jumping Spiders, the weakest are Grade Three, and the strongest can reach Grade Five and above. Their venom has a strong paralyzing effect, and if bitten, one must immediately take a Detoxification Pill.”
Elder He Shan warned his personal guards.
“Qin Niu, catch! This is a Detoxification Pill, take one at a time. You can take up to three a day; keep them in case you are bitten by a poisonous creature. Because there’s a limit on how many you can take, you must avoid getting bitten.”
Master He Shan tossed a small green porcelain bottle to Qin Niu.
He caught it with his hand.
Just as Qin Niu caught the bottle, over a dozen poisonous mosquitoes swarmed toward him.
“Be careful, these poisonous mosquitoes are the notorious Blood Storage Mosquitoes. If they bite you, you won’t feel pain or itchiness and won’t notice anything, but you’ll bleed uncontrollably.”
As Elder He Shan warned him, he himself was attacked by a large swarm of Blood Storage Mosquitoes and Phantom Jumping Spiders.
He was so busy that he had no way to help Qin Niu.
The Insect Masters of the Nine Insect Gang, leveraging their unique geographical advantage, had each cultivated a large number of poisonous insects.
They had both quantity and quality, and each one was unusually venomous.
This was the true direction for Insect Master evolution.
An Insect Master could contend against thousands of troops.
The Blood Storage Mosquitoes appeared slightly larger than common house mosquitoes, with an overall black-gray color, and only their legs had a small amount of white pattern.
In great numbers, they hummed as they attacked the Insect Masters of the Black Tiger Gang.
With attacks from Phantom Jumping Spiders below and Blood Storage Mosquitoes above, everyone was thrown into disarray.
Qin Niu remained very calm.
As long as these Blood Storage Mosquitoes landed on him, they immediately became food for the Termites.
No matter how many came, the Termites could eliminate them.
As for the ground-based Phantom Jumping Spiders, he had commanded his Poisonous Jaw Ants to mimic their scent and become ‘one of their own.’ They did not attack Qin Niu or his steed.
The Poisonous Jaw Soldier Ants had already become so formidable just by advancing to Grade Three.
If they were to advance to Grade Four, or even Grade Five, their abilities could become even more heavenly.
He was indeed looking forward to their evolution.
Through this insect battle, Qin Niu even realized that simply cultivating Termites well might suffice for him to easily handle the vast majority of insects.
In his future development in insect control, he would be very deliberate, preferring not to covet quantity, but to specialize in a few types.
Green Silk Worms for monitoring enemies, Bees for making honey, Corpse Bees and Green Demon Bees merging to be used mainly for aerial combat, and Termites for ground combat and planting.
The value of insect species lies in their quality, not their quantity.
With these insects, he currently had more than enough.
In the future, unless he encountered particularly exceptional species, he would not easily tame new insect pets.
Energy, time, and resources are all limited; as long as he could cultivate these insects well, they would be stronger than anything else.