Chapter 568 - 383: Probing, Summoner Haina

Ian came to a halt, standing on a shattered mountain ridge.

In the distance, insectoid silhouettes squirmed in and out of the edges of several twisted Insect Nests.

He looked up at the sky. The most direct way to quickly understand this world was to elevate his Will and make contact with the World Will.

With his current Rule Perception and Soul strength, he could easily perceive the Will fluctuations of a Middle World.

But... He looked toward the enormous, pale purple Rift in the sky. He could faintly sense a vast, cold Will peering through the Rift, watching this world.

’Void Nest...’ A cold light flickered in Ian’s eyes.

Esok’s Heart of the World was certainly being monitored closely by the Void Nest’s Will right now. The moment he tried to make contact, he would be detected.

’The risk is too great. I can’t alert it yet.’

Ian withdrew his gaze and his figure blended into the shadows of some ruins. He needed to gather intelligence himself.

The information High Priest Calendor had given him came from the Silver Moon Council’s external observations and the reconnaissance of two Elders. The perspective was limited, and the information wasn’t necessarily completely accurate.

His Gravity Rule silently contracted, forcibly smoothing the airflow around him. He contained all heat within his body, not letting the slightest trace escape.

His figure flickered, and he stopped three kilometers away from an Insect Nest.

The Nest before him resembled a giant beehive, its surface riddled with holes through which members of the Insect Race constantly entered and exited.

Most were "Male Bees," hauling purplish-black ore and chunks of flesh.

Occasionally, larger "Swift Beasts" could be seen patrolling the area, their blade-like forelimbs glinting menacingly.

Ian’s Perception spread out silently like an invisible net, quietly blanketing a hundred-kilometer radius.

The trajectory of every member of the Insect Race, every wisp of Energy fluctuation, appeared clearly within his Perception.

’I’ll start from the periphery...’ The thought crossed his mind.

On the outskirts of the Nest, a Male Bee hauling ore suddenly froze stiff.

The image of its companion ahead was still reflected in its compound eyes, but its body no longer obeyed its commands.

In the next instant, its internal temperature skyrocketed. Starting from inside its Shell, its cellular structure disintegrated and vaporized in one ten-thousandth of a second.

There was no sound, no flash of fire—only a small pile of Ashes fluttering down, scattered by the wind.

The Male Bee had vanished into thin air, as if it had never existed. The surrounding swarm of insects had no reaction.

They lacked individual consciousness and completely obeyed the hive mind’s directives. As long as it wasn’t a large-scale anomaly, no alarm would be triggered.

Ian’s expression was calm as he continued his test.

A second, a third, a fourth... He waited one to three seconds between each one, choosing random locations and random targets.

Five, ten, thirty... The Insect Nest remained quiet.

The Male Bees continued their hauling, and the Swift Beasts continued their patrols. Only occasionally would a few of the insects pause, their compound eyes scanning the surroundings blankly.

They seemed to wonder if a companion had just gone missing.

But the hive mind issued no command, so they quickly resumed their mechanical movements.

Ian gradually increased the number: fifty at a time, then a hundred, then three hundred...

He began trying to clear out a small area all at once. In the southeast corner of the Nest, several hundred Male Bees gathered together and froze simultaneously.

Their internal temperatures all rose at the same time, and they all vaporized. The entire process was silent.

The area was instantly "empty," but the surrounding swarm still didn’t react. A few Male Bees simply skirted around the empty space blankly and continued their hauling.

Ian began to try an even faster clearing speed, soon exceeding a thousand at a time.

On the west side of the Nest, at a mineral deposit point, several thousand Male Bees vanished one after another within seconds.

The hive mind finally detected the anomaly.

HUMMM! A Level Four Will fluctuation spread out from the depths of the Nest, sweeping over the entire area.

The Mother Insect inside the Nest had realized something was wrong—her children were rapidly disappearing.

A chill went through Ian. He immediately ceased all action, astonished. ’To think the Mother Insect of a random Nest is already at Level Four.’

His Gravity Rule completely retracted, his heat was perfectly sealed, and he turned himself into a piece of Stone.

The Will fluctuation swept past him, pausing for an instant. It seemed to be wondering why the number of insects in this area was decreasing.

But it detected no abnormal life forms or attack Energy, so the fluctuation quickly moved on to scan other areas.

A minute later, the Will fluctuation withdrew back into the depths of the Nest, and everything returned to calm.

The swarm continued its busy work as if the recent anomaly had never happened, except that there were now tens of thousands fewer Male Bees in the Nest.

Ian slowly exhaled, his gaze profound.

’The results are in...’

’As long as I clear out fewer than a thousand at a time, with intervals of thirty seconds or more, I won’t trigger an alarm.’

’Exceed that number, or clear them out too quickly, and the Nest’s Will will notice.’

’But it can only "detect" an anomaly, not "lock onto" me. If I use my Domain to conceal myself, I could even extend that time.’

As long as he remained sufficiently hidden and didn’t expose his presence, the Nest’s Will would only register it as "abnormal localized losses" and wouldn’t immediately classify it as an invasion.

In the end, he didn’t make a move that day. This was just one Nest. If he killed this Mother Insect, the Void Nest beyond the world would surely notice.

’This is enough for now.’ Ian’s figure moved again, leaving the Nest behind.

Over the next three hours, he scouted four more Insect Race Nests.

The structure of each one was largely the same: the surface was a breeding and worker activity zone, while deep underground lay more complex tunnels and Energy Nodes.

But in all four Nests, he found no trace of any "Crystal Core Insects."

Those core members of the Insect Race, capable of converting the World Origin, were clearly being heavily protected somewhere deeper.

He soon arrived at a fifth Nest. Located in the ruins of a collapsed mountain range, it was twice the size of the others, and the number of Swift Beasts patrolling the surface had clearly increased.