Xia Jin stepped forward and gently took the leaf into her hand.
From its appearance, the leaf was large and entirely emerald green, giving off a somewhat translucent, crystalline feel.
“I'll take it back to study its genes, though I certainly won't find any answers in the short term.”
After saying that, she observed the starship before her once more before taking her leave.
In the following period, the Zerg began deploying fifty Zerg squads to the elven territory.
In exchange, the sparsely populated elves agreed to provide thirty elven maidens as support.
Though their numbers were few, considering these maidens were generally Tier 4 to Tier 6 mages, their actual combat power was quite impressive.
The most crucial point was that they were capable of support magic and could provide a certain level of high-intensity single-target capability.
After waiting for about two days, while Count Amelo's territory was tensely mobilizing its army, the thirty elven maidens arrived at Xia Jin's territory.
Facing the terrifying insects and the sanity-draining giant Hive, these young girls all shrunk back, looking quite frightened.
If the Queen hadn't told them there was no danger, these girls probably would have run away long ago.
Fortunately, they soon met the leader of this collaboration.
Xia Jin sat atop the Hive, swinging her legs. Her stunningly beautiful and petite appearance, set against the backdrop of various insects, held an indescribable allure.
“White hair... so this is the Zerg Queen? She's actually so cute.”
“It seems the Queen was right. The leader of the Zerg isn't as terrible as a magic beast.”
Amidst their whispers, the elven maidens naturally accepted the Zerg's presence.
“As expected, looks really do matter in this world.”
Hearing the words of these beautiful foreign girls, Xia Jin shook her head silently.
She believed that if she looked like an ordinary person or a magic beast, this cooperation would never have gone so smoothly. The two sides might have become enemies long ago; how could there be such communication?
In fact, a massive underground palace had already been constructed near the Hive, covering an area of ten square kilometers and reaching a depth of three hundred meters. Swarms of Zerg were excavating it, hauling rocks and transforming it into an exceptionally grand structure.
It was estimated that once the underground portion was finished in a while, work could begin on the surface section.
For this construction, Xia Jin considered headhunting the famous royal court architects from the Kingdom of Clear later. Until then, it was just a matter of bringing in some daily necessities from the human world and decorating the interior comfortably for her own residence.
At this time, some rooms were naturally allocated to the elven maidens.
Of course, most elves did not want to live underground, so some buildings on the surface were temporarily given to them.
As for food, the maidens had brought plenty of fruit with them.
These delicious fruits were born from the branches of the World Tree.
After obtaining the leaves, Xia Jin handed them over to the Hive for genetic analysis. Due to their wondrous structure, it was estimated that it would take quite some time.
As for the elven front in the underground world, the addition of the fifty Zerg squads allowed them to shift from defense to offense. They achieved a great victory, temporarily resolving the threat of a surface invasion.
However, the Elven Queen had also mentioned that multiple powerful races existed in the underground world. After suffering a defeat, the enemy would surely take countermeasures, and they would inevitably face an even more frenzied assault later.
During these intensive preparations, news arrived from the soldiers sent to explore the front lines. Count Amelo's main legion had assembled in Tate and had begun advancing toward the edge of the forest this morning.
The legion included a vanguard of 5,000 men and a main force of 35,000, with an additional 20,000 logistics personnel.
For a single territory to field such a large army was a massive investment.
Considering the losses the Swarm had suffered against a 500-man team before, Xia Jin decided to commit all the Zerg types she had been holding back to fight a perfect war of annihilation.
Based on her reconnaissance of the various cities on the forest's edge, she finally decided to let the 5,000-man vanguard in first to engage in a direct confrontation, forcing the 35,000-man main force to accelerate their reinforcement.
Then, utilizing the Zerg's superior mobility, she would set an ambush on the enemy's path.
The lord's army, which viewed the Zerg as mere magic beasts, likely held the preconceived notion that magic beasts did not use tactics. This gave Xia Jin's strategy a high degree of feasibility.
Several days later, when Xia Jin's total number of combat Zerg reached 50,000, the 5,000-man vanguard of the Count's private army finally arrived at the edge of the forest.
As the commander of the vanguard, Nat, who held the rank of vice-general, carried high expectations.
He walked up an earthen slope near the forest and picked up a telescope made from specially ground lenses, looking out at the endless forest in the distance.
The lush trees, averaging fifteen meters in height, obscured almost everything on the ground.
However, looking from a closer vantage point, the outer woods were not overly dense and were sufficient to accommodate a large-scale legion battle.
His gaze slowly shifted downward to the edge of the forest. Then, his brows twitched, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
He saw individual insects appearing in his line of sight, as if they had caught the scent of war.
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