Chapter 249 - 155: Sneaking Underground, a Bizarre Journey into the Hive
Chapter 249: Chapter 155: Sneaking Underground, a Bizarre Journey into the Hive
With that, the Tier Two Corps squad behind Lin Feng raised their Shotguns. Lin Feng also hefted his Tiger-toothed Chainsaw Sword, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
The moment the Tiger Spine Zergs passed by, they would attack with lightning speed and annihilate them all!
However, just then, Ling Yi, who had been interrupted in the middle of their explanation, suddenly spoke in a low, urgent tone:
"Wait, don’t attack yet!"
Lin Feng glanced over, his brow slightly furrowed.
Through his Mind Sensing Skill, he knew that several Tier Two Tiger Spine Zergs were two hundred meters to the left, about to pass by the wide Wormhole in front of them.
If they prepared in advance, they might be able to take them all down in one fell swoop.
But Ling Yi continued to explain:
"You’re all covered in the scent of Black Spine Zergs. Plus, the air in this ventilation duct flows upward, so your position hasn’t been exposed yet!"
"That group of Tiger Spine Zergs is just on a routine patrol. There’s no need to expose our presence for just a few of them!"
Lin Feng’s brow furrowed slightly.
"A patrol? If they have a set route, will it pass by an important Second-Level Hive?"
Ling Yi nodded. Seeing that Lin Feng had lowered his Tiger-toothed Chainsaw Sword, Ling Yi breathed a sigh of relief and continued,
"Exactly. We just need to trail them, and we can get a rough layout of the Underground Hive. It will make our search much easier later on."
"Besides, with me here, I can help conceal you—especially your spiritual fluctuations—making it difficult for the Mother Empress to detect you."
"But once we find the Tier Two Zerg Eggs and start destroying them, the Mother Empress will definitely be alerted. That’s when we’ll have to fight our way out of the swarm."
"If we attack now, given that they’ve already been warned by the Hai City Mother Empress, they will certainly move all the Tier Two Zerg Eggs to the deepest Nest..."
"With our current manpower, there’s no way we can face a Mother Empress who has personally joined the battle deep Underground."
Lin Feng took a deep breath and nodded, signaling his squad members to put away their Shotguns and move stealthily along the tunnel wall.
As they slowed their pace, Lin Feng asked curiously,
"Isn’t the Mother Empress’s movement speed very slow Underground?"
Ling Yi moved to the front to lead the way, explaining as they walked,
"Controlling tens of thousands of Low-tier Zerg Race, while also expending a great deal of energy to command the Tier Two Zerg Race, drains most of the Mother Empress’s Spiritual Power into the entire Zerg Race. That’s why its body grows so bloated and immense, and why it must constantly consume vast amounts of nutrients and Energy to maintain its Brain Domain’s state."
"Its slow movement speed is entirely because it’s weighed down. Moreover, every time it migrates, it has to carve up and relocate the massive Biological Nest within the Hive."
"This requires mobilizing tens of thousands of Red-Armored Beetles."
"That’s why the Zerg Race’s invasion and expansion speed is, at its fastest, only about three to four kilometers per day."
"Unless the Mother Empress feels its life is threatened. Only then will it, at any cost, sever its Spiritual Control over the entire Swarm and advance at full power..."
"In that situation, it can probably move at ten meters per second. Coming from the deepest part of the underground, that’s a distance of seven or eight kilometers."
"After we finish plundering the Tier Two Zerg Eggs, we should have a minimum escape window of about fifteen minutes before the Mother Empress arrives from the deepest Nest. But if this Mother Empress is cautious and doesn’t personally intervene, then we can just proceed with a normal harvest."
"Generally, as long as not all the Tier Two Zerg Eggs are wiped out, it won’t fight to the death. After all, the cost of doing so is high—it would take at least four or five days to recover its strength, reorganize the Swarm, and restructure its command."
Lin Feng nodded to himself. ’It seems the price Ling Yi paid back outside Jia City to prevent the situation from worsening—by forcibly bursting from the ground—was far more than just a Domain Release and a drop in Level.’
’By the same token, unless it was a life-or-death crisis, a Mother Empress would never abandon its control over the Swarm to personally enter the fray and kill its enemies.’
’And a particularly cunning entity like the Hai City Mother Empress would be even less likely to expose its own specific coordinates over just a few Tier Two Zerg Race.’
’After all, while human Nuclear Bombs posed no threat to a Nest five hundred meters underground, bunker-buster missiles had already been used in combat against targets one to two hundred meters deep.’
As the two were discussing this in low voices, Ling Yi, who was in front, suddenly fell silent and stopped walking. Then, they waved, signaling for the fully armed Tier Two Corps squad behind them to take cover and hide.
Lin Feng’s eyes narrowed. Through the dark lens of his Face Armor, he saw a fork in the path a dozen or so meters away from the group.
After descending for more than a hundred meters, they finally entered a wide Wormhole, twenty meters in diameter. This was a channel for rapid Zerg Race migration and also a regular patrol area for the Tier Two Zerg Race.
And it led ever downward, toward a Second-Level Hive even deeper Underground!
Once everyone was pressed tightly against the tunnel wall...
A short while later, a thudding sound echoed from the wall, which was reinforced with the mucus of Red-Armored Beetles!
THUD-THUD! THUD! THUD-THUD-THUD!
As the chaotic thudding grew closer, a group of Tier Two Tiger Spine Zergs suddenly appeared at the mouth of the tunnel ahead.
Lin Feng and the others immediately held their breath and focused.
They suppressed their auras as much as possible, remaining as still as statues.
These Tiger Spine Zergs moved slowly, constantly scanning their surroundings and checking the crevices in the corners of the walls to ensure no unknown creatures were hiding there.
Evidently, the appearance of the Awakener invasion on the surface had made the Underground Mother Empress even more cautious and vigilant.
It was controlling the Tiger Spine Zerg patrol squad, making them conduct a thorough search.
After the zergs had trickled past and moved on, Ling Yi glanced back at Lin Feng, nodded, and then stepped forward, leading the people behind them one by one into the widened Wormhole.
The Tier Two Corps squad continued to conceal their presence, ignoring the Red-Armored Beetles transporting supplies around them as they weaved through the Swarm underfoot...