88: Chapter 88 The Terror and Impact of the Mass Expansion Strategy: Six-Tier Demigod
The spatial channel closed silently behind him, cutting off all the greedy, awestruck, or fearful gazes from the black market.
Su Chen stood on the wasteland of his own divine domain, the clamor of the outside world having faded away.
In the absolute silence, only his own heartbeat remained, heavy and powerful.
He opened his palm.
Twenty droplets emitting a brilliant golden light were floating quietly above his palm.
They were not physical entities but condensed states of pure energy and laws; inside each droplet, it felt as if a galaxy was being born and dying, releasing a gentle light and magnificent pressure that made one's soul tremble.
This was high-purity divine power.
It was the destination pursued by demigods, the fuel to ignite the divine fire, and the ladder leading to immortality.
Su Chen's fingertips trembled slightly from extreme excitement.
He felt as if he hadn't just completed a transaction, but had looted a divine kingdom; this mixture of guilt and satisfaction from returning with a full haul made his blood almost boil.
"System."
His consciousness pierced into the void like a thunderbolt.
"Open the Deity Shop!"
A magnificent interface, visible only to him and composed of countless streams of light data, unfolded before his eyes with a roar.
"Buy it for me!"
His voice was hoarse, carrying a kind of all-or-nothing madness.
"Buy everything out!"
"Third-rank [Zergling Reproduction God Card], one hundred copies!"
The moment his thought landed, a portion of his divine power reserves evaporated instantly; one hundred cards burning with dark golden runes appeared out of thin air, circling in the air while emitting bursts of insect-like shrieks, before transforming into one hundred streams of light that shot accurately into the dormant, mountain-like Hive in the distance.
Su Chen's movements did not pause for even a second.
"Second-rank [Vassal Race Reproduction God Card], one hundred copies!"
Another one hundred streams of light whistled away.
"High-rank biomass nutrient solution, fifty tons!"
Whoosh!
This time, it was no longer streams of data light.
A waterfall composed of viscous, emerald-green liquid exuding a rich aura of life appeared out of thin air in the sky above the Hive, like a celestial river flowing backward, pouring precisely into the massive biological cavity at the top of the Hive.
A massive amount of resources was squandered by him in just a few breaths.
Ten droplets of high-purity divine power were thus exhausted.
But the fanaticism in his eyes grew even more intense.
"Hive!"
Su Chen roared, his voice reaching the core of the Zerg Swarm's will.
"Operate at full power!"
"Hatch for me!"
Hum—!!
Responding to him was the violent wailing of the entire divine domain.
That silent mountain of flesh—the Hive—awakened; countless blood vessel-like structures on its surface suddenly lit up, emitting an eerie red light, and magnificent energy surged within them, causing the entire lair to begin pulsating rhythmically, with every contraction and expansion causing the earth to tremble.
On the wasteland surrounding the divine domain, the ground began to crack.
Countless huge, slime-covered, tumor-like insect eggs forcibly tore through the parched surface and broke through the soil.
One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand!
They were densely packed, extending from nearby to the end of his line of sight, forming a sea of eggs that constantly squirmed and expanded, endless to the eye.
Under the catalysis of the nutrient solution descending from the sky, these insect eggs rapidly expanded, hardened, and matured at a speed that defied the laws of life.
The slime on the surface was quickly absorbed, revealing translucent eggshells covered in blood vessels.
"Crack!"
The first crisp sound was faint, yet clear.
"Crack! Crack! Crack..."
As if the fuse of a gunpowder barrel had been lit, the dense sound of eggshells breaking instantly merged into one, coming from all directions and converging into a death symphony that made one's scalp tingle.
A ferocious claw was the first to pierce through the eggshell, followed immediately by a second, then a third.
Tens of thousands of [Dragon-Armored Zergling]s clad in dark red dragon-scale-like carapaces broke out of their shells, raising their heads to let out silent roars toward the sky, while spraying scorching acidic gas from their mouthparts.
In another area, the creatures rising from the broken eggs were completely different.
They had the lower bodies and limbs of insects, but their upper bodies displayed humanoid outlines, and they tightly gripped pale bone axes polished from the remains of some giant beast; these semi-insectoid warriors did not make a sound, and the moment they were born, they spontaneously formed into grim phalanxes, silently waiting for the Overlord's command.
This is the Zerg.
This is the art of spawn-rushing.
As long as there are enough resources, their legion expansion has no cooldown time and defies all logic.
Watching the legion below that had instantly doubled in size and whose aura intensity had soared by several levels, Su Chen's chest heaved violently.
His gaze fell upon the remaining ten droplets of high-purity divine power in his palm.
The next second, he opened his mouth and swallowed the ten droplets of supreme treasure that would make any demigod go crazy in one gulp.
"Boom!"
A violent energy that could not be described with words exploded deep within his divine soul.
That was not a warm current; that was ten thousand volcanoes erupting simultaneously!
His divine soul was burning.
His divinity was trembling.
The originally impregnable Fourth-Rank Silver-tier bottleneck could not even form a moment's resistance under the impact of that massive energy capable of tearing apart stars.
Like thin paper, it shattered instantly.
Fifth-Rank!
But this was only the beginning.
The magnificent torrent of divine power showed no signs of weakening, carrying his will as it rushed toward a higher-level barrier.
Sixth-Rank!
The sky of the divine domain completely transformed into an ocean of thunder at this moment.
Countless thick bolts of purple psionic energy tore through the clouds and struck down crazily; they did not land on the ground but instead wove into a massive electric net in mid-air, as if offering the most violent congratulations for the birth of a newly ascended powerhouse.
A long time later, when the thunder ceased, the aftershocks of the energy gradually subsided.
Su Chen slowly opened his eyes.
His pupils had completely transformed into a majestic and deep purple-gold, within which it seemed as if galaxies were rotating and universes were being born and dying.
Just standing there casually, the space around his body was undergoing slight, visible distortions, with light being refracted by an invisible force.
Sixth-Rank Demigod, achieved!
At this moment, he could clearly feel the vast, ocean-like divine power within his body; its density was ten times that of before!
This was a qualitative change, a rebirth.
A powerful feeling of truly controlling his own destiny filled every one of his thoughts.
Just then, his gaze narrowed slightly as he looked toward the distant horizon outside his divine domain.
There, a sinister black cloud exuding the aura of decay and Plague was slowly approaching.
"Corrupt Matriarch Spider?"
A grim and cold arc curled at the corners of Su Chen's mouth.
"Perfect, you'll serve as my first sacrifice."