71: Chapter 71 Zerg Ruins, Wake-up Service

To unlock new hero buildings, the first step is still to upgrade the lords residence.

There are now exactly four days left until the second week of Arrival Night.

Although the upgrade requirements for a Rank 4 lords residence are more demanding than Rank 3, with the current resource production speed of the territory, upgrading the lords residence before Arrival Night will not be a problem.

There might be a slight shortage of 1000 units of iron ore, but a shortage of iron ore can be resolved by trading with the Lord of England; the price is not expensive, and for Su Yang, it is even somewhat cheap.

As for command points and time, they are simply not an issue.

With the current Imperial Armor Legion, a single sortie easily generates tens of thousands of command points.

Time can be handled by a high-Rank Heart of the Hive.

With the planning complete, Su Yang ordered all non-duty units to return to the barracks to rest.

They needed to recover their mental and physical strength to fully prepare for tomorrow's ruins crusade.

The ruins mission only has two outcomes: success or death; there is absolutely no room for error!

...

Early in the morning, before the mist in the dense forest had dissipated, the Imperial Armor Legion was already neatly lined up in front of the city gate.

30 Armored Elite Soldiers, 20 Armored Crossbowmen, 4 Great Qin Thousand-Mile Scouts, 3 Skyfire Guard mechs, and General Li Xin.

The full-strength Imperial Armor Legion was ready.

This was the strongest Expeditionary Force that Su Yang could field at the moment!

After inspecting the troops, Su Yang gave the order.

The heavy, metal-rimmed city gate slowly opened under the pull of the mechanical devices.

"All troops, advance!"

Boom— Boom— Boom—

The marching sounds of the Imperial Armor Legion echoed continuously in the dense forest, startling flocks of birds into flight.

Thick white steam mixed with the black smoke of gunpowder explosions, spraying into the sky.

Four Scouts were conducting reconnaissance on the flanks and in front of the formation.

Before new strategic supplies appear, scouting for enemy intelligence while accompanying the troops is their primary job.

Su Yang was positioned in the middle of the formation, moving forward at a steady pace with the troops.

To activate the ruins, the lord must be present in person; otherwise, he would not choose to come out.

Walking through the dense forest where paths had already been cleared, Su Yang could not help but recall the time when he first entered the Forbidden Ground.

At that time, he only had Armored Elite Warrior Chen Wu and Armored Elite Warrior Zhao Zhang by his side, and advancing through the dense forest was very difficult.

Now, he has an entire army by his side, and the roads they advance on are already cleared main thoroughfares.

The rapid development of the territory is evident from these small comparisons.

However, relying solely on walking is still somewhat lacking; if he could unlock transport vehicles, it would save a lot of time on the road.

As the destinations of the campaigns gradually move further away from the territory, the increasingly long distances will become a major problem.

Long distances not only consume a large amount of time and fuel, but also cause significant depletion of the soldiers' energy and morale.

For example, during yesterday's crusade against the third-generation Insect Swarm, the time spent on the road for the round trip was nearly 12 hours.

Without transport vehicles, future crusade times will only get longer and longer.

Unfortunately, Su Yang has not yet discovered a place where transport vehicles can be unlocked.

At present, the most promising place seems to be the Foundry.

Can the Foundry, which integrates mech and weapon modification, also undertake the construction of transport vehicles?

While he was pondering, intelligence from the Scouts arrived.

They were about to enter the ruins area ahead.

Putting aside the thoughts in his mind, Su Yang began to carefully observe the changes in the surroundings.

Upon entering the ruins area, the colorful plants in the dense forest gradually disappeared.

They were replaced by countless pillars covered in green moss.

The ground was also covered with green moss, no longer the grayish-brown humus soil.

This area seemed to have been affected by something, standing independent of the entire dense forest.

As they continued to go deeper, the arrangement of the moss-covered pillars around them gradually became more regular.

From afar, Su Yang saw a circular altar in the center pointed to by the pillars.

In front of the altar was a cave entrance, which was the ruins left by the Insect Swarm.

As long as one enters, it can trigger the ruins mission.

But...

Su Yang's thoughts suddenly flickered.

If he just triggered it directly like this, then what is the difference between having obtained the decryption card and not having obtained it?

Could it just be for a mission introduction?

The reason the decryption card is special is that the benefits it brings certainly go beyond that.

Su Yang looked at the lush ground, and in his mind, he suddenly recalled the description of this ruin provided by the decryption card.

[You have intruded into the Holy Land of the Tyranid Swarm; your ignorant actions have triggered a mechanism, waking up the guardians buried beneath this land.]

[Mission Objective: Kill the awakened Insect Swarm and destroy the Insect Swarm hive mother nest located underground.]

Guardians sleeping underground.

These Xenomorphs are lurking underground for some reason; as long as the lord enters the ruins, the mechanism will be triggered, and the Insect Swarm will emerge in full force.

If he just walked in and triggered the mechanism, and these insects burst out of the ground to surround him, then he would be finished.

If he were surrounded, the Skyfire Guard would definitely lose its effectiveness, and he would only be able to let General Li Xin and the Armored Soldiers fight it out head-on.

The Insect Swarm for the ruins mission is the highest-Rank third-generation Insect Swarm, which means the mother insect is Rank 10, even more powerful than the Rank 8 mother insect in the Salt Flats.

Losing artillery support and being surrounded by the enemy, the soldiers would also have to be distracted to protect him.

In that case, the outcome would really be hard to predict.

This ruin is completely a trap!

Su Yang's thoughts flickered; since he already knows the Insect Swarm is underground, why should he use the ruins mechanism to trigger the battle?

The creatures in the Forbidden Ground do not appear out of thin air; these Xenomorphs must be located underground, just as the decryption card information describes.

"Halt!"

Su Yang waved his hand to stop the entire troop.

The Imperial Armor Legion slowly stopped, and the Scouts also returned one after another.

"Your Majesty?" General Li Xin asked, confused.

"There is an ambush."

Su Yang said the three words concisely, and General Li Xin immediately gathered the troops to retreat from the ruins area according to the order.

Upon retreating to the maximum range of the Skyfire Guard artillery, Su Yang ordered them to stop again and had the Skyfire Guard set up the cannons.

Why must he use the mechanism to wake up the Insect Swarm when having the Skyfire Guard cannons in hand is not better than the mechanism?

"Fire!"

Boom——

With Su Yang's order, the Skyfire Guard fired into the sky.

He wanted to wipe out the Insect Swarm before entering the ruins!

A huge impact sound rang out, and a burning high-explosive shell shot into the sky.

Boom—

A while later, the high-explosive shell landed in the ruins area, shaking the earth and mountains.

After the huge explosion faded, the dense forest returned to silence.

Are they sleeping that soundly? Or is it that the bombing location was wrong?

Su Yang waved his hand, letting the Skyfire Guard reload.

This time, the target was the same as the last time.

Might as well go all the way.

Boom——

The high-explosive shell rose into the sky again, landing with a perfect arc into the deep pit blasted out previously.

Boom—

A strong sense of shock arrived, followed by a fine buzzing sound.

Su Yang's eyes flickered; with this power, let alone the Insect Swarm, even the dead could be scared awake!

... ...