161: Chapter 161: The [Formless Calamity Insect] is born!

Murderous intent lurked everywhere in the Divine Realm.

Flesh and blood piled up like mountains; every inch of land was a stage for the struggle between life and death.

Hundreds of millions of living beings were locked in internal strife, and even the peripheral members of the once-arrogant Violent Demon Clan felt tangible pressure.

Only the Extreme North was an exception.

The environment here was extremely harsh, with black-gray Hellfire clinging to the scorched earth, burning year-round without extinguishing.

Dozens of Platinum Rank Calamity Fire Spirits, standing dozens of meters tall, had most of their bodies submerged in the magma lake.

The bone halos behind them rotated slowly, absorbing the telluric energy surging from deep underground.

A slightly smaller Fire Spirit emerged from the bottom of the magma, swung an arm condensed from flames, and smashed a fist into its companion's head.

The struck Fire Spirit backhanded a Hellfire whip, and the two rolled and wrestled in the magma lake, kicking up towering waves of fire.

Tired of fighting, they lay flat again, letting the magma wash over their chests.

This was the daily life of the Fire Spirit race.

They had no interest in territorial expansion and scoffed at the status of overlord.

The environment of the Extreme North meant other races could not set foot there.

They only needed to stay in the volcanoes, bathe, sleep, and spar with each other, and their strength would naturally increase with the passing of time.

"Roar." A Platinum Peak Fire Spirit lay on the edge of a volcano, looking toward the distant New Continent.

It was hungry.

To be precise, it missed that kind of pure fuel.

A hundred years ago, that group of black-armored bugs had rushed into the Extreme North to die like they were insane.

The flesh and blood inside the bugs were ignited by the Hellfire, turning into top-tier energy that fed back to them.

That period was a breeding frenzy for the Fire Spirit race, with hundreds of new Fire Spirits breaking out of the magma every day.

But in these hundred years, the bugs had never come again.

Losing this batch of takeout fuel, the birth rate of the Fire Spirits was knocked back to its original state.

A full hundred years had passed, and less than fifty thousand new Fire Spirits had been bred in the depths of the magma.

The total number of the entire race barely maintained at just over eighty thousand.

Although all members were Platinum Rank or higher, their combat power was terrifying.

But the stagnation in numbers made the Fire Spirits, who had experienced the thrill of mass-producing troops, feel a sense of emptiness.

They had even considered taking the initiative to go to the New Continent to catch some bugs to burn.

But the arrogance and laziness in their bones made them disdain leaving the Extreme North to hunt on the filthy wasteland.

At the same time, in the deepest part of the New Continent's underground. The Zerg main nest.

The Zerg Queen, as massive as a mountain, was undergoing a long and painful metamorphosis.

Over the past one hundred and twenty years, Worker Insects had dragged the corpses of sky Demon Vultures and ocean Bone Fish into the main nest.

The Zerg Queen swallowed the flesh and blood of these mutated creatures into her belly, dismantling the genetic fragments within them.

The Void wings of the Demon Vultures, the Extremely Heavy Water of the Bone Fish, the resonance poison sacs of bats, the Mimicry trait...

Countless complex and conflicting traits were reorganized within the Zerg Queen's body.

The Zerg Queen's egg sac undulated at a high frequency.

It was conducting a huge gamble, a genetic remodeling that abandoned the Zerg's traditional heritage.

"Pfft!"

The dark purple egg sac contracted, and a pure white insect egg rolled to the feet of the Dominator.

The Dominator lowered its head, and the kingly antennae on its head reached out to touch the surface of the egg.

There was no hard black crystal shell, no sharp bone sickle forelimbs.

It couldn't even feel the standard Zerg [Void Oscillation] or [Pain Link].

Inside this insect egg, there was only a mass of pure, soft white fluid.

Crack.

The egg cracked open.

A pure white larva less than half a meter long crawled out.

It was sleek all over, and its aura was so weak that it wasn't even as strong as a Black Iron Rank.

But in the Dominator's unchanging compound eyes, an astonishing light erupted.

This larva was named by the Dominator: [Mimicry Calamity Bug]

It abandoned all defenses and all means of attack.

In exchange for a unique and Heaven-Defying function: [All-Things Adaptation].

This was a genetic container that theoretically had no upper limit.

From birth, the Mimicry Calamity Bug was a blank slate.

When it grew to the Silver Rank, as long as it could endure the baptism of a foreign race's power without dying.

Its genes would permanently adapt to this power and solidify it as its own instinct.

For example, adapting to the Fire Spirit's Hellfire, it could transform into a Hellfire Bug and control Hellfire.

When it broke through to the Gold Tier, its life level jumped, and it could initiate a second adaptation.

Incorporating another completely different power into its body, perfectly overlapping with the first power.

The higher the Realm, the more racial heritage it could contain.

Theoretically, as long as their life level was high enough, they could contain all the Law powers within the Divine Realm.

The forty thousand Dominator Bugs of the Zerg received the news of the [Mimicry Calamity Bug]'s birth through the mental network, and the entire Zerg swarm fell into a frenzy.

The deadlock could finally be broken.

The war between the Zerg and the Sea and Sky Races had fallen into a quagmire.

Both sides had been fighting for a full hundred years.

You copied my Void Oscillation, I learned your high-pressure heavy water.

Everyone had figured out the other's trump cards clearly.

You released poison, I grew anti-poison glands. You released infrasound, I evolved a Soul barrier.

Both sides had developed extremely strong resistance to each other's attacks.

On the current battlefield, millions of bugs and millions of Demon Vultures collided.

Fighting for three days and three nights, the casualty numbers were not even one-tenth of what they used to be.

The fighting was painless and ineffective.

To break this deadlock, a brand new, destructive power had to be introduced.

The war had become a meaningless drain.

The Zerg needed a higher-dimensional power to crush the Sea and Sky Races.

The Fire Spirits of the Extreme North were the best target.

The ten-million-level suicide mission a hundred years ago had not successfully extracted anti-fire genes.

Because the Fire Spirits' power was too tyrannical, erasing them directly from the Soul level, not even leaving a complete corpse for the bugs.

But now, with this absolutely blank "paper," everything was possible.

The Zerg Queen received the order, her body erupting with vibrant life.

It stopped hatching regular unit types like Blade Insects and Heavy Armor Beetles, pouring all resources into the new branch.

The breeding ratio was nine to one.

The entire underground network of the New Continent was filled with pure white insect eggs.

Fed by ample flesh and blood resources, the growth speed of the Mimicry-type insects was extremely fast.

In just a few short years, the first batch of five million larvae reached maturity.

Successfully crossing Black Iron and Bronze, they stepped into the high-level Silver Rank.

Their body length skyrocketed to three meters, still pure white all over, soft and boneless.

The Dominator Bugs issued the expulsion order.

The underground passages opened wide.

A million high-level Silver Rank Mimicry Calamity Bugs, herded by ten million Soldier Insects, surged out of the ground.

Crossing the wasteland, crossing the Styx.

The swarm of bugs ignored the Sea and Sky Races along the way, charging straight toward the scorched earth covered in toxic smoke.

The edge of the Extreme North.

A few Fire Spirits napping opened their eye sockets. They felt the shaking of the earth.

Turning their heads, they looked toward the south.

A white sea of bugs spread on the horizon, endless at a glance.

The Fire Spirits were stunned.

Then, the bone halos erupted with dazzling light.

Ecstasy.

Fuel! A massive amount of fuel!

They didn't know why this group of bugs had turned white, nor did they care why this group of bugs didn't emit energy fluctuations.

In their eyes, as long as it was a bug, as long as it could be burned, it was good stuff.

"Burn!"

A Platinum Rank Fire Spirit let out a roar.

The Extreme North ignited.

Hundreds of Fire Spirits rushed out of the volcanoes, taking large strides into the edge of the scorched earth.

They raised their arms, black-gray Hellfire condensing in their palms, turning into whips of flame.

"Snap!"

The whips were swung.

The Mimicry Calamity Bug swarm dove headlong into the scorched earth of the Extreme North.

The Hellfire whips swept across.

The tens of thousands of Mimicry Source Bugs charging in the front were instantly engulfed by the black-gray flames.

Flesh and blood were ignited, Souls were incinerated.

Tens of thousands of Mimicry Calamity Bugs didn't even make a struggling motion before turning into sky-filling fly ash.

Pure life Origin flowed along the Hellfire into the Fire Spirits' bodies.

"Comfortable!"

The Fire Spirits let out sounds of satisfaction.

They swung their whips, turning patch after patch of the pale insect sea into ashes.

On the first day, one million Mimicry Source Bugs were wiped out.

On the second day, the Zerg main nest dispatched another two million Mimicry Calamity Bugs to continue the charge.

Completely wiped out.

The third day, the fourth day.

The Fire Spirits were almost intoxicated from absorbing the fuel.

The Hellfire on their bodies surged, their auras climbing steadily.

A few Fire Spirits stuck at high-level Platinum, using this massive energy, broke through directly to Platinum Peak, and even reached half-step Diamond.

They felt that this group of white bugs was the most perfect gift bestowed upon them by the Creator.

The slaughter continued until the fifth day.

The scorched earth of the Extreme North was covered with a thick layer of white ash.

A Fire Spirit swung its whip at a group of Mimicry Calamity Bugs in front.

The flames exploded, and the swarm was engulfed.

The Fire Spirit closed its eyes, preparing to welcome the feedback of the Origin.

One second passed, two seconds passed.

No Origin flowed in.

The Fire Spirit opened its eye sockets and looked at the sea of fire ahead.

In the black-gray Hellfire, there was a slightly larger Mimicry Calamity Bug that had not turned into fly ash.

It lay on the ground, its pure white shell covered in cracks.

The Hellfire drilled into its body along the cracks, destroying its flesh and blood.

Its limbs were burned off, its mouthparts were melted.

But it didn't die.

The "All-Things Adaptation" gene within it was forcibly activated to its limit under the burning of the Hellfire.

The pale flesh and blood alternated crazily between carbonization and Rebirth.

With every Rebirth, the new cells became tainted with a trace of Hellfire's aura.

"Click, click, click..."

The broken shell of that Mimicry Source Bug began to fall off.

Replacing it was a layer of brand-new dark crimson armor.

On the surface of the armor, patterns similar to the Fire Spirits' bone halos appeared. The back bulged, growing two organs resembling volcanic craters.

"Whoosh—"

Black-gray sparks sprayed out from them.

It stood up.

A low-level Gold Tier aura erupted; it was no longer a pale, blank slate.

It had absorbed the properties of Hellfire, completing a leap in its life level.

[Hellfire Source Bug].

The Fire Spirit was stunned.

It looked at this dark crimson bug bathing in the Hellfire, a flash of astonishment in its hollow eye sockets.

Before the Fire Spirit could react.

The Hellfire Source Bug opened its brand-new mouthparts and took a forceful breath.

The surrounding burning Hellfire was actually forcibly swallowed into its belly, turning into energy to nourish itself.

The Fire Spirit's Hellfire had become ineffective against it.

Not only that.

The antennae on top of this Hellfire Source Bug lit up with a faint glow.

It turned its genetic map, which had successfully adapted to the Hellfire, into a mental signal.

Piercing through the Void Realm, it transmitted back to the Zerg Queen deep underground.

Inside the Zerg nest.

The Zerg Queen, receiving the signal, let out a high-pitched cry.

The egg sac within her trembled, beginning to adjust the underlying architecture of the next batch of Mimicry Source Bugs based on this genetic map.

The Extreme North.

The Fire Spirit stomped and crushed that newly evolved Hellfire Source Bug.

A Gold Tier bug, even if it had adapted to Hellfire, was still vulnerable in front of the power of a Platinum Rank Fire Spirit.

The Fire Spirit did not take this small episode to heart.

It continued to swing its whip, slaughtering the pale sea of bugs rushing up behind it.

The sixth day.

The Fire Spirits realized something was wrong.

The whips were swung down.

The Mimicry Calamity Bugs surviving in the sea of fire were no longer just one.

But ten, a hundred.

They rolled in the Hellfire, molted, and were reborn.

The pale shells were dyed dark crimson, and black-gray sparks sprayed from their joints.

The seventh day.

The survival rate skyrocketed.

One hundred thousand Mimicry Source Bugs charged into the scorched earth, and thousands successfully survived the burning, evolving into Hellfire Source Bugs.

The eighth day.

Millions of [Mimicry Calamity Bugs] charged into the Extreme North.

The Fire Spirits swung their whips.

Hellfire exploded.

The swarm of bugs was not vaporized.

Thousands upon thousands of bugs bathed in the flames.

They opened their mouthparts, devouring the surrounding Hellfire.

Evolution was being completed.

Hundreds of thousands of [Hellfire Source Bugs] lined up on the scorched earth of the Extreme North.

The volcanoes on their backs erupted simultaneously, the black-gray sparks connecting into a single piece, reversely igniting the sky of the Extreme North.

The Fire Spirits' hands holding the whips stopped in mid-air.

In their hollow eye sockets, for the first time, an emotion called "horror" emerged.

The fuel had come alive.

And it was stealing their authority.