Seeing Xia Jin among the returning group, the girl who had previously hoped to see her make a fool of herself suddenly felt like she was the clown herself.
Of course, she did not let her true thoughts show. When everyone else began to clap, she followed suit and joined in the praise.
“As expected of Linya, your friend is truly amazing.”
She spoke those words through gritted teeth, yet she was helpless to do anything else.
“Student Su Li, since you solved the problem of this monster so easily, could you provide a way to defeat it at the same tier?” the teacher asked with a hint of helplessness.
A perfectly good piece of teaching equipment had been destroyed. He wondered how much it would cost to replace, but since he had no other choice, he could only silently accept the loss.
Xia Jin thought for a moment before shaking her head. “I apologize, teacher. To be blunt, if a human cannot cultivate certain special skills, it is almost certainly a death sentence.”
“Is that so?” The teacher fell silent.
...
The class ended quickly. At this time, several things were happening back at Xia Jin’s base.
First, because the size of the Swarm had increased, it provided a massive amount of mental energy.
Her talent, 【Queen’s Projection】, was now capable of creating a second projection.
She did not hesitate to create one that looked exactly like her original body.
Then, she secretly sent it out to swap places with her true self.
Her original body had already returned to the forest.
The lords would basically not notice anything was wrong.
At that moment... a heavy rain began to fall over the Hive.
The original body had just returned when she was completely drenched by the rain.
Sitting in the carriage, watching the fast moving clouds overhead and feeling the gale blowing against her, she fell into deep thought.
“If the wind gets any stronger, this carriage won’t hold up.”
The rainfall was ridiculous. The Zerg underground palace that was still under construction was even on the verge of flooding.
The drainage facilities were overloaded.
The surface structures, however, did not have much of an issue.
“Though in this curtain of rain, these buildings do have a strange feeling to them.”
There were numerous black spires with an indescribable style that could perhaps be called chaotic. Of course, there were also a few buildings that suited normal human aesthetics.
Xia Jin prepared to go inside some of the most primitive Zerg structures to take a look.
Climbing down a winding path to a spot about ten meters underground, she landed lightly, stepping into a puddle below.
There were deep pits nearby for drainage.
At a glance, countless tunnels stretched out ahead, branching in all directions. Every now and then, a drone would crawl past.
She randomly chose a tunnel and walked down. Before she had gone far, the walls of the tunnel began to change.
They were covered in a writhing mass mixed with flesh and blood. This was a special kind of creep.
She reached out and pressed against the fleshy wall. Several tentacles instinctively reached out and began to wrap around her body.
“Stop! Holy crap!”
Xia Jin let out a startled cry. The fleshy tentacles immediately froze in mid air before slowly retracting.
Looking closely, each of those things was as thick as an arm.
“Phew, damn it. My mind went to the wrong place. A girl and fleshy tentacles... it is hard not to think of certain wicked things with that combination.” Her face turned red on the spot.
To avoid experiencing it firsthand, she proactively backed out.
Rainwater was pouring in from some of the pits. The rainfall was absurd, and she was soaked through, her clothes clinging to her skin. However, with her current constitution, she did not need to worry about catching a cold. Xia Jin simply leaned back and lay straight down on the grass.
Looking up at the sky, a massive black shadow slowly flew past at the edge of her vision.
She narrowed her eyes slightly.
“What is that?”
An ancient behemoth?
As the monster passed over, for a brief moment, the rain became much lighter.
It was as if the water was being blocked by the creature.
Its size would have to be measured in kilometers.
A hint of wariness arose in her heart. Fortunately, the thing did not seem to notice her and quickly moved away.
At that moment, a newly born larva suddenly came hopping and skipping from near the Hive. It wiggled along and finally rested its soft head on Xia Jin’s leg.
“You...”
The girl sat up and looked at the lazy fellow, several dark lines appearing on her forehead.
“Why is this one so unique?”
After all this time, she no longer felt repulsed by the insects. In fact, she felt somewhat close to them. The larva before her did not actually possess any high level thoughts, only instinct. Because it was so close to Xia Jin, it had been involuntarily drawn to her.
It was like a dependency on a mother.
“Strictly speaking, my status within the Zerg really is similar to being the mother of these insects... although, I do not actually need to give birth to them.”
Thinking about the image of herself birthing the Swarm in her mind made her shudder instantly.
That was too terrifying.
Fortunately, the current reproduction of the Swarm had nothing to do with her.
In truth, once the Zerg reached the interstellar stage, they had nothing to do with actual insects anymore.
Even the early Zerg only resembled insects in certain details.
The Swarm consciousness and mental links were the foundations that allowed the race to develop into a peak civilization.
It was their existence that guaranteed the Queen could give absolute orders to every single insect.
A few hours later...
“It is flooded, it is totally flooded.”
Sitting in the carriage whose roof had been blown away, looking at the rainwater that had risen past her calves, Xia Jin was somewhat speechless.
Most of the insects in the entire territory were now in a state of bathing.
Except for some waterproof areas, most of the underground palace was now filled with liquid.
“What kind of crazy weather is this?”
She began to suspect whether this rain really was related to the thing that had flown through the sky earlier.
Fortunately, after another hour, the rain finally stopped.
Xia Jin ordered the insects to take advantage of the environment and continue exploring toward the west.
Some of the vanguard insects successfully crossed the Glowing Forest and began to advance toward territories further west of the elven race.
She still did not know how large this forest was.
According to the elven race, the area Xia Jin was currently in was still just the outer fringe of the forest.
Rate on N.U.
