59: Chapter 59 Ant Fist Shrimp Man

The loss rate of the Peacock Mantis Shrimp path was far greater than he had anticipated; of the initial three thousand descendants, eighty percent leaned toward shrimp forms. They had thick shells and shrimp clubs, but were unable to live on land.

It wasn't until seven thousand descendants were born that Gu Han finally selected a satisfactory individual from among them.

It was an Ant-men nearly 1.6 meters tall.

Its head retained shrimp-like characteristics, with two compound eyes occupying the sides of its head, and its mandibles degenerated, resulting in a weak biting ability.

Its torso had an Ant-men structure, and its carapace displayed a colorful, iridescent black. Of its original four arms, the lower two were similar to Sapiens, while the upper two were thick and robust, with club-shaped ends that were usually folded and bent in front of its chest and abdomen.

At first glance, it looked as if it had two massive carapaces growing on its chest. Furthermore, it was capable of being amphibious on water and land, leaving Gu Han highly satisfied.

Soon, a Shield-Armored Ant-Men conducted an offense and defense experiment with this new type of Ant-men.

The Shield-Armored Ant-Men raised its shield-arm and lowered its body, blocking with the thick shield-armor in front of itself.

The new type of Ant-men steadily closed the distance to half a meter. Following a loud boom, the new type of Ant-men took a few steps back.

However, the Shield-Armored Ant-Men's entire body slid backward several meters, and a visible dent appeared on its shield-arm.

Gu Han raised an eyebrow and used his smart assistant to check the Shield-Armored Ant-Men's condition. "Slight bone fracture in the left shield-arm, carapace damaged, but recoverable."

Yet, the Shield-Armored Ant-Men did not get back up. Gu Han frowned and had the smart assistant perform another detailed check.

"The chest cavity has suffered an impact, resulting in internal organ damage. Immediate treatment is required!"

Gu Han couldn't help but gasp. He immediately arranged for other Ant-men to carry the Shield-Armored Ant-Men away for treatment.

If Teacher Qin Lin's Tier 2 Orcs were to take such an ordinary punch, they would probably explode on the spot, even if their bloodline went Berserk.

His bloodshot eyes, however, were filled with joy: It succeeded!

After enduring for three days, it had finally succeeded, and its power was even greater than he had imagined. One had to know that Tier 2 Orcs might not even be able to break through a Shield-Armored Ant-Men's defense, let alone severely injure one.

Since this fellow had a shrimp head after all, Gu Han named the new Ant-men: "Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man."

After that, he began to arrange for the mass Reproduction of Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man to serve as the main force.

Next were the Swift-Step Beetle and the Cannonball Locust.

Gu Han chose to use the Hidden-Armor Ant-Man as a base for synthesis.

The Hidden-Armor Ant-Man was small in size and could turn invisible, but its biggest problem was that its speed was not fast enough, leaving its charge and retreat capabilities weak.

The Swift-Step Beetle and the Cannonball Locust made up for exactly this shortcoming.

Ultimately, Gu Han decided to perform a multi-species chimerism on the Hidden-Armor Ant-Man, even adding the Ghost-Shuttle Dragonfly.

Some might ask, why not add the Peacock Mantis Shrimp as well?

It was possible, but unnecessary. The Hidden-Armor Ant-Man itself was extremely small, and adding a shrimp club would not deal effective damage; instead, it would only increase the difficulty of formation.

This kind of multi-species chimera ultimately took Gu Han two weeks—which was one hundred and forty years in the Divine Kingdom—to successfully crossbreed.

Their bodies remained small, but their legs became stronger and longer, with joints better suited for running and jumping. A pair of thin wings on their backs was folded inside another pair of elytral wings.

Their carapaces still retained the ability to turn invisible, though their body shapes were no longer humanoid. Fortunately, their brains were preserved, and their intelligence was passable.

While invisible, they could traverse complex terrain in a short time, rapidly jump and retreat after a stinger attack, and even fly at extreme speeds in case of an emergency.

Basically, the entire population of Hidden-Armor Ant-Man underwent iteration, becoming more suited for sneak attacks and reconnaissance.

The Black-Armored Ant-men were also all upgraded to flying types, filling the void of Gu Han's Divine Kingdom having no air force.

Under Gu Han's intervention and an abundant food supply, the Ant-man Race experienced an unprecedented population explosion.

The queen ants produced tirelessly, and the new generation of main combat units quickly took shape.

The Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man and Shield-Armored Ant-Men became the absolute core of the Divine Kingdom's army.

These two major unit types perfectly complemented each other in offense and defense. Not only did they sweep through everything on land, but because the Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man integrated aquatic creature genes, they even possessed extremely strong underwater combat capabilities, becoming a true amphibious legion.

In the sky, tens of thousands of flying Black-Armored Ant-men blotted out the sun.

Gu Han had custom-made delicate light shortbows and spears for them.

This air force was no longer responsible for close-quarters melee combat, but only for high-frequency fire suppression and poison arrow coverage from the air.

Once the legion was formed, the plains and snowy fields combined could no longer accommodate all the Ant-men. The underground was nearly hollowed out, and there was absolutely no room left to live, so Gu Han issued a divine oracle to expand their territory.

Not counting the Fine Black Ant-men, the combat-type Ant-men numbered nearly three hundred thousand. They split into two torrents, surging toward the Divine Kingdom's oceans and deserts respectively, preparing for a formal assault.

The Ocean Region.

The Sea Prisoners, which had caused no small amount of trouble for the initial experimental Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man, were about to face a catastrophic disaster.

A massive Sea Prisoner floated and sank in the seawater, waving its numerous tentacles to entangle the Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man at the front of the formation.

The Black-Armored Ant-men in the air provided long-range arrow support to suppress the tentacles, while the rest of the Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man took this opportunity to avoid the tentacles and close in on its transparent, crown-shaped head.

Sparks flew everywhere in the sea, resembling underwater explosions.

Even though the Sea Prisoner's crown-shaped head was soft and did not easily take force, it was still ruptured by the high temperatures and shockwaves. Its massive body was pushed over a dozen meters away like a tattered sack by the residual force, all its tentacles twitching and flailing, seemingly out of control.

After a short while, the Sea Prisoner's massive body floated on the surface of the sea. Its body was tattered, with some areas slightly charred, having already lost all signs of life.

This kind of soft-bodied, multi-legged creature could also release paralyzing toxins. If it weren't for the cavitation effect produced by the Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man's strikes—where their high-speed limbs rapidly compressed the water to form vacuum bubbles, which then collapsed to release high temperatures and shockwaves—

ordinary physical attacks would have been completely useless against this soft-bodied creature. Thus, the Sea Prisoner, which was originally thought to be the most difficult natural enemy, was ultimately conquered by the Ant-man Race.

The Desert Region on the other side was equally devoid of suspense.

The sandworms hidden beneath the sand layer that loved to launch sneak attacks could not even break through the Shield-Armored Ant-Men's defenses; the moment they popped their heads out, they were hammered into mincemeat by the swarm of Ant-Fist Shrimp-Man.

The Ant-man Race rapidly expanded their territory. Except for the high-temperature volcanic region, the rest of the entire Divine Kingdom had been completely conquered by the Ant-men.

Gu Han looked down as the Ant-man Race expanded their territory. The new generation of Ant-men was indeed powerful; the natural enemies that might have caused them to suffer immensely in the past were now completely no match for them. However, his brow remained furrowed.

The overall strength of the Ant-men was indeed powerful, representing a step up to a new level, and they could even sweep through Tier 2 extraordinary creatures without any pressure.

Yet, there was still no sign of breaking through to the extraordinary level within the race.

He cast his gaze upon the divine building, the [blessing of the sacrificer]. After this period of large-scale reproduction of the Fine Black Ant-men and generations of sacrifices:

[Rank E Divine Building: blessing of the sacrificer]

[Current probability of breaking through to the next extraordinary tier: 0.10215698%]

[Blessed Race: Ant-man Race]

"There's already a 0.1% breakthrough rate boost, yet there's still no movement. Is the Ant-man Race really not cut out for this?"

Gu Han massaged his temples, feeling somewhat anxious about his gains and losses.

If they could not step into the extraordinary realm, it would mean that all of Gu Han's massive investments in the Ant-man Race would go down the drain.