They won the Holy Grail War, but this turned out to be the Virtual Tree Universe.

Chapter 53 Brainless Breeding Insects (Seeking recommendations and further reading)

To be fair, the true cricket that Danlei is facing now would probably be a sub-adult individual during a global locust plague.

Compared to the one in the animated short film "Embers of Grammer", this one is not even one-twentieth the size.

Moreover, the number of insect guards is basically negligible.

But for Dan Lei, this guy's sheer size already gave him the feeling of an ant trying to shake a tree.

The only good news is that in the Star Iron Universe, especially in the battles of the Fate Walkers, being large in size does not necessarily mean having an absolute advantage in combat power.

Just as Dan Heng was able to withstand and defeat the giant star beast, Dan Lei was not afraid of such a large insect; on the contrary, he was eager to try.

Dan Lei can deal with the attack of the True Stinging Insect's eggs by using wind blades and lightning.

Because insects also have to follow the basic rules of life, the shell of a newly hatched larva cannot harden instantly, so ordinary elemental attacks can destroy it.

The problem was that once he got close, the carapace of this large true burrowing insect was too thick. Even with the added power of the Hunting Fate, Dan Lei's ordinary attack methods could not break through its defenses.

It is important to know that although the Star God of Reproduction is gone, the destiny of reproduction still exists.

The nature of a reproductive destiny is actually somewhat similar to that of abundance.

The greatest effect of abundance on living organisms is their self-healing ability, while reproduction is the process of proliferation.

For example, there are creatures blessed with abundant life, which recover the same amount of health you lose.

As for the path of reproduction, it will increase its resistance to attacks and its attack power by proliferating its body. For example, what was originally a single layer of skin will now directly become ten layers.

If one's destiny is strong enough, turning one into two on the spot is just basic stuff.

When this is applied to the true stinging insect, it means that when Dan Lei throws a fireball at it, its carapace cracks slightly, but the next second, it immediately regenerates and can even grow spikes at super-fast speed to attack Dan Lei.

The spikes on the large True Stinger are as hard as the armor of an interstellar civilization, and they are also enhanced by the power of destiny. Even the armor of the Grammer Iron Cavalry can be pierced by a single blow.

Of course, this is related to the fact that the ordinary Grammer Iron Cavalry armor is not as strong as imagined; after all, they are not super powers like the Immortal Ship and the Interstellar Peace Company.

Moreover, the ordinary Grammer Knights were not the Destiny Walkers; it was only because a Firefly among them, who could destroy a star upon awakening, that the universe made some incorrect judgments about this organization.

For Dan Lei, the spiked sun-wheel greatsword of the large true worm, when activated in high-heat mode, can be easily cut through.

Although Danlei's physical body cannot fly, he can still temporarily stay airborne and maneuver for a period of time using wind element magic.

However, just as the bountiful creatures cannot be killed by cutting, the sharp spines on the true stinging insects cannot be completely cut off.

The high-temperature thrusts of the Sun Wheel Heavy Sword would be pushed aside by the sheer number of sharp barbs from the true stinging insect, preventing it from truly harming its flesh.

At the same time, it is constantly breeding insects. It is only because there is no food inside the sandstorm that the insects it produces are underdeveloped. Otherwise, Dan Lei suspects that this one large true locust worm alone could have caused a small-scale global locust plague in Aijihazo.

Moreover, with the interruption of the earth's energy supply, Dan Lei clearly sensed that the surrounding sandstorm was weakening, so he had to finish the battle quickly.

So, Danlei sent Sasaki Kojiro, who had transformed into a spirit on the ground, to a designated location to retrieve several of the great treasures he had just exchanged from the workshop.

Then, stepping on the Sun Wheel Greatsword, it turned around and instead of looking for weaknesses in the True Stinging Insect's lower abdomen and other places, it flew straight to its face and mouthparts.

It is known that the breeding star god Taizyuros has almost no mind; the only concept in its mind is reproduction, and all its actions are aimed at this goal, as are its offspring.

Seeing that Danlei was flying straight towards its mouthparts, this true hibernating insect didn't even consider whether there was a trap.

For it, there was no consideration of whether the enemy's sudden arrival was a trap or not; it only knew that it needed energy to reproduce, and that it craved the flesh and blood of the creature charging towards it. So, without hesitation, this true cricket opened its mouth wide, grew extra mouthparts, and eagerly launched them out, thinking of quickly bringing its meal into its mouth.

However, how could Danlei possibly deliver food to the door?

Seeing that the distance was about right, Dan Lei used a swap to bring over the Sasaki Kojiro clone that was hidden on the ground.

Of course, Dan Lei didn't expect that one of Sasaki Kojiro's heroic spirit clones could rush into the belly of the True Stinging Insect and wreak havoc.

Let alone just a clone, even if Sasaki Kojiro himself came, with his E-rank durability, he wouldn't be able to withstand a few bites from this bug.

However, the heroic spirit clones that Dan Lei summons now lack consciousness and can truly be used as one-time high-level familiars.

So, he is now holding several perfectly round crystal ore bombs.

As is well known, Dan Lei has been seeking a combination of magic and imaginary energy.

Therefore, after possessing a large amount of ley line magic, Dan Lei not only opened up the ley line waterways, but also studied some gadgets.

The crystal ore bomb that Sasaki Kojiro is holding now is an early version of that product.

Using gem magic techniques, Dan Lei successfully injected unclaimed imaginary energy from the universe into the crystal mine, and added the array that Luo Fu used for ingenious self-destruction.

This turned the crystal mines originally from Ejihazo into imaginary energy bombs.

Of course, in terms of size, manufacturing difficulty, and ease of use, the crystal ore bomb that Danlei forcibly created using the magic power of the earth's veins has no value for mass production.

Any one of the Interstellar Peace Corporation's projectiles targeting spaceships can achieve the same destructive power as several crystal bombs exploding together, and even without considering manufacturing costs, the cost of the bombs themselves is much lower, plus they can be guided.

But this failed product is enough for now; the physical strength of this real stinging insect is definitely not at the level of a space battleship.

Moreover, this guy couldn't wait to stuff the Sasaki Kojiro Heroic Spirit clone he had acquired, along with the crystal bomb, directly into his mouth, instantly rendering the outer shell defense useless.

As golden imaginary energy exploded directly from the True Stinger's head, the giant creature instantly plummeted from the sky to the ground.

Although many insects have the ability to move their bodies even when they lose their heads.

However, true hibernating insects are not included in this category. The corpses of true hibernating insects that fall into the sand explode directly, just like juvenile hibernating insects and secondary hibernating insects, creating a huge crater hundreds of meters deep in the ground.

Fortunately, the blast radius was within the sandstorm area, so it didn't matter how much sand was kicked up.

Dan Lei, on the other hand, was clearly not going to be caught off guard by the foreseeable self-destruction and some sand.

After the True Stinging Insect died, Dan Lei's first task was to clear away the remaining insects in the air, and then use a displacement magic spell to transfer all the remains of the insects on site to the magic workshop underground.

Even in a sandy environment, the insect's body is still quite noticeable using the detection magic. Dan Lei can easily spot it by scanning carefully.

The purpose of collecting the wreckage was simple: to prevent the Interstellar Peace Corporation from discovering the presence of a breeding swarm of insects here.

Although the Bosch Society's planetary probes have been withdrawn, the Interstellar Peace Corporation's planetary-class environmental probes will certainly be able to detect the anomalous energy of the True Stinger's self-destruction.

However, they are probably unsure what kind of explosion occurred, so initially they will likely only send local staff to investigate.

As long as Dan Lei cleans things up, he can easily fool these low-level employees of Interstellar Peace Company before deciding whether or not to cooperate with them.

(End of this chapter)