235: Queen of the Swarm

Half an hour later, Qin Shilei and An Qian arrived at the insect swarm outside the city again.

As soon as they jumped off Xiaoqiang's back to the ground, the surrounding insects immediately waved their two sharp forelimbs and surrounded them.

Boom!

The enormous Xiaojin made a shocking appearance, scaring away many of the surrounding insects.

"An Qian, try to let go of those Silver Beetles."

Qin Shilei said as he rushed towards the Scythe Beetles.

The insects controlled by Xiaojin were like docile lambs, allowing Qin Shilei and An Qian to slaughter them.

For these insects that were only at the Bronze Realm, Qin Shilei could easily sever their heads with his sharp Blood Soul, without needing to use various combat skills at all.

He would only summon his Phantom to help kill monsters when its cooldown time was up.

An Qian also used her sharp Heavenly Phoenix Sword to slay the insects, occasionally unleashing her Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix technique in areas where the insects were very dense.

Half an hour later, within a radius of several hundred meters, the ground was covered with insect corpses.

An Qian said, "Shi Lei, give me your Qiankun Ring."

"Here." Qin Shilei took off his Qiankun Ring and handed it over.

After An Qian took the ring, she quickly moved around.

Immediately, the treasure chests, ability orbs, and crystals were automatically picked up by the Qiankun Ring.

Then she operated the Qiankun Ring again, transforming into a blur and flashing around.

The corpses of the insects on the ground were also collected into the Qiankun Ring.

Insect meat was much more valuable than zombie corpses and could not be discarded as casually as zombies.

For three consecutive days, during the day, Qin Shilei and An Qian went to slaughter insects, and at night, they sent Xiaojin back to the Insect World to guard the Insect Valley.

With Xiaojin's help, their efficiency in killing insects was even higher than their efficiency in killing zombies in the previous days.

They gained a massive amount of crystals every day, and the treasure chests made An Qian numb from opening them.

With the massive amount of crystals, Qin Shilei finally advanced to Silver Nine-star, and his experience also exceeded one-third, about to reach Silver Peak.

As they were about to go kill insects again, Zhang Xiaoli caught up.

"Qin Ge, my Jin Ya is almost fully recovered. Let's try using insects to kill zombies."

Qin Shilei nodded, "Okay, let's go."

The three quickly arrived at the place where insects roamed. Zhang Xiaoli had her pet Jin Ya control thousands of insects first, then they marched towards the nearest zombie gathering point.

After half a day of travel, they finally reached a small town full of zombies.

Like a swarm of locusts, the insect army swept from one end of the town to the other in just over ten minutes.

Zhang Xiaoli, however, said with a bitter face, "It seems my insect army is indeed not very practical."

Qin Shilei smiled, "Actually, it's still useful. When dealing with a zombie tide, it can quickly and effectively eliminate the active forces of the zombies."

As he spoke, he flipped over a zombie, only to find that the crystals in the zombie's head were still being devoured by the insects as usual.

Out of several thousand zombies in the entire town, they only harvested a mere few hundred crystals; most of the crystals were dug out and eaten by the insects.

He didn't know if Jin Ya didn't understand Zhang Xiaoli's meaning, or if Jin Ya couldn't control the insects well enough to prevent her subordinates from secretly eating the crystals.

It only took over ten minutes for the insects to kill the zombies, but it took Qin Shilei and the others more than half an hour to dig out the crystals.

In short, relying on the insect army to earn crystals was not a good idea for top experts like Qin Shilei and the others.

An Qian comforted her, "Zhang Xiaoli, an army values quality over quantity. If you let Jin Ya only control Silver Beetles, you might get unexpected gains."

Zhang Xiaoli's eyes lit up, and she agreed, "Okay, let's go pick out all the Silver Beetles from the insects right now."

The three returned to the place where the insects roamed again.

Qin Shilei said, "While we slay the Scythe Beetles, let Jin Ya control the Silver Beetles."

Zhang Xiaoli was a little worried, "If we kill her subjects right in front of Jin Ya, will it cause her loyalty to drop, leading her to defect?"

Qin Shilei smiled, "I promise it won't. Jin Ya is absolutely loyal to you."

In the past few days, he had brushed four good traits on Jin Ya, one of which was 'Loyal to the End'.

Loyal to the End (Red): Once a master is recognized, there will be no betrayal.

While Qin Shilei and the others selected suitable elite subordinates for Jin Ya, they also advanced deeper into the insect swarm.

Another three days passed.

Jin Ya had already gathered one hundred sixty-eight Silver Beetles and four to five hundred Bronze Nine-star Scythe Beetles.

Zhang Xiaoli was now sitting on Jin Ya's back, surrounded by imposing Silver Beetles and Scythe Beetles, like an Insect Queen.

With a single command, the swarm of insects charged, unstoppable in their path!

Even if the enemies ahead were also insects, the loyal Jin Ya showed no mercy, leading her powerful subordinates to cut down her master's enemies.

The struggling Qin Shilei followed behind, continuously splitting open the insects' heads and digging out crystals.

When controlling a small number of insects, Jin Ya could indeed ensure that her subordinates would not secretly eat the spoils of war.

After indulging in her role as an Insect Queen, Zhang Xiaoli also ran back to Qin Shilei's side with an excited face to help dig out crystals.

She complained, "These insects are good in every way, except they're too stupid. They don't even help their master dig out crystals."

Qin Shilei laughed, "It's not that they can't dig out crystals; it's just that once they dig them out, they'll immediately devour them."

Zhang Xiaoli then asked, "Qin Ge, what should we do when we return to Hope City? Once Jin Ya is put away, those Silver Beetles will probably immediately rebel and eat their boss's master."

Qin Shilei pondered for a moment and then said, "In the future, we won't need those Scythe Beetles. We'll only keep the Silver Beetles, and you shouldn't put Jin Ya into your pet space. With Jin Ya around, those Silver Beetles definitely won't rebel."

Zhang Xiaoli frowned and said, "That's the only way. I just feel it would be too much of a pity to let go or kill these Silver Beetles."

Although always carrying one or two hundred large insects was indeed inconvenient, the strength of the Silver Beetles made her unable to part with them.

From then on, a peculiar and startling scene appeared in Hope City.

A Gold Beetle, five to six meters tall, always walked through the streets and alleys with a large group of slightly smaller Silver Beetles.

Zhang Xiaoli also earned the title of Insect Queen because of this.

After testing the power of the Silver Beetle swarm, Qin Shilei and the others continued to push deeper into the insect swarm, arriving in front of a plaza in Liu Hua County, a small county town.

Liu Hua County is nearly four hundred kilometers from Hope City, and it has now become a world of insects.

The insects in this plaza were so dense that there was barely any room to step.

An Qian pointed to a light gate ahead and said in surprise, "Why is this Space Rift so big?"

In the middle of the plaza, two to three meters above the ground, a five to six-meter-wide Space Rift appeared suspended there.

An endless stream of Scythe Beetles and Gold Beetles continuously emerged from the Space Rift and then dispersed in all directions.