Bugs Entering the Abyss

A new Zerg fleet was slowly advancing across the water.

A few days later, the fleet made landfall, and swarms of Zerg landed on the opposite shore.

The reason they could cross so smoothly was that before this fleet arrived, two others had already taken out the Dawn Empire's navy wandering nearby.

In terms of production surges, that massive empire could no longer compete with the Zerg.

It was truly terrifying.

Of course, this wave of hive upgrades had directly reduced the Zerg's reproduction speed to one-third of its original rate.

However, the Tier 4 locusts had done a good job of stabilizing the negative consequences brought about by the slowed production growth.

The swarm hosts undoubtedly became the first batch of units to be upgraded.

Not only were there locusts on the ground, but flying locusts also gradually began to appear in the air.

From 100,000 on the first day to 400,000 or 500,000 per day later on, these locusts attacked everywhere, spitting venom toward the ground or suddenly jumping onto soldiers to slash with their forelimbs, significantly reducing the Dawn Empire's combat effectiveness.

Because these locusts were so effective, Xia Jin kept a large number of the produced scourges but reduced their ongoing production, reallocating resources to the navy and army.

The daily production of Carrier Bugs reached 10. They carried scourges out to sea, intending to use these aerial forces to completely cover the entire East Sea and continuously transport the Swarm to the East Continent.

Yelu's performance under the Zerg offensive was also extremely pathetic.

One could only say that things always developed in strange directions.

Clearly, at the beginning, the Yelu Empire and the Zerg had formed a pact to resist the Dawn Empire together. But now, on the East Continent battlefield, it had inexplicably turned into Dawn and Yelu fighting against the Zerg together.

There might have been some resistance at first, but with the landing of the new bugs, the unification of the East Continent was basically settled.

A large number of Tier 8 combat bugs took the lead in entering the Mist-covered zone, beginning to hunt the resource-rich monsters within.

Xia Jin speculated that the Mist Zone was created by the demons during their last invasion to prepare for future incursions.

The beasts within were frenzied and terrifying, deeply affected by the Abyss aura, and they blocked humans from entering.

But the Zerg were not humans.

These creatures were even more frenzied than the monsters affected by the Abyss.

If demons were fearless of death, the Zerg simply didn't care about life or death.

Sacrificing themselves was as effortless as breathing for the Zerg; the Queen's orders were higher than death itself. Demons, at least, would consider their own safety; they couldn't be completely indifferent to death.

While Xia Jin sent a few thousand bugs to explore the Mist Zone, about 1,000 others arrived at the previously discovered portal.

In fact, she found that within the Mist Zone, there was basically a portal every certain distance.

Some were as close as one kilometer, while the furthest were dozens of kilometers apart.

Thinking about the many gates at the exit, they were likely all connected to the Mist Zone.

"With so many, it seems the demons can deploy troops to the main world much faster than I imagined."

By this time, 1,000 bugs had already begun passing through this single gate to the other side.

Leading the group were 500 zerglings.

As the cannon fodder of the Zerg—strong, low-cost, and not particularly painful to lose—Xia Jin naturally sent them.

Following them were 10 swarm hosts, used to produce locusts for scouting and to carry items.

Why not use Scout Bugs? Mainly because they were too weak to survive the environment of the Abyss.

The rest were other bugs, primarily hydralisks. There were no aerial units, nor large ones like ultralisks or nydus worms.

Once these bugs reached the other side, the swarm hosts immediately released 200 flying locusts.

These creatures began flying out in all directions.

Before long, they spotted some demons.

In this wilderness, many demons were wanderers. A group of hydralisks, led by zerglings, immediately approached the targets and fired powerful Tier 8 spines.

Several demon sentinels were attacked and immediately charged over, only to see dozens of zerglings charging at them. They instantly turned and fled.

What else would you do when encountering strange beasts in the wild?

But the sentinels soon discovered that their speed couldn't match the bugs', and they were caught before long.

The bugs, having entered their Frenzy state, engaged them in melee. After a fierce battle, two bugs fell, but seven demons were killed.

"Not bad. The zerglings' combat power is stronger than the demon sentinels'."

Xia Jin, watching the scene remotely, was quite satisfied. Even if the hydralisks didn't act, the zerglings' melee strength alone was comparable to the demon race's cannon fodder.

If the Zerg could win in a cannon fodder-versus-cannon fodder scenario, then the demons were in trouble.

Now, the real gap probably lay at the top level.

After all, the Swarm already had a large number of Tier 9 creatures, and Tier 10 could be mass-produced. Thus, their regular army on the main battlefield was not significantly weaker than the opponent's.

However, if they encountered a demon above Tier 10, dealing with them would be difficult.