Devouring Stars: Master of Evolution

Chapter 19 The Journey

When Qin Mu tried to use the Mother Nest to deduce his own marksmanship and movement techniques.

With the powerful computing capabilities of the mother nest, it easily discovered the non-standard or incorrect parts of Qin Mu's movements and marked them one by one.

With the computing power of the brood chamber, it can even directly mark which muscle is not working properly and which movement has become distorted.

When using psychic attacks, the Mother Nest can assist in calculations and control the weapon's attack angle and force.

This discovery filled Qin Mu with ecstasy; it was like having a cheat code, allowing Qin Mu's combat power to increase rapidly.

Take body movement as an example.

Solid foundation, proficiency, and ease of use – these are the initial three levels of body movement techniques.

Qin Mu's movement technique wasn't even at a solid foundation, yet he reached a level of proficiency in less than a day.

This improvement is even greater than what I've achieved in the past month of training.

Immersed in improving his strength, Qin Mu was completely unaware of the passage of time until the Mother Nest reminded him.

"It's already evening, time to get ready to leave."

Looking at the sky, which had darkened without him noticing, Qin Mu shifted his consciousness to the mother hive and checked the current number of each unit the swarm possessed, as well as its energy reserves.

The result was a pleasant surprise for Qin Mu. The number of Tiger Mastiffs was more than expected, totaling 175. As for the worker insects, there were originally 126, of which 5 were killed in the battle with the monster, leaving 121.

There is not much energy left, only 1003 points.

Thanks to the efforts of these Zerg units, the monsters within a ten-mile radius of the villa area were almost wiped out.

The flesh and blood transformed into energy for the insect swarm, which explains why there are more Tiger Mastiffs than expected.

However, this is the limit of what the villa area can develop, because there are no more monsters for the insect swarm to hunt.

We can only keep venturing deeper into the wilderness.

Because the activities of the swarm also require energy, if they do not venture out, the swarm will not only be unable to expand, but will also be forced to kill each other due to food shortages.

"Leave 50 worker insects and 20 tiger mastiffs to guard the mother nest. The rest of the units shall assemble and prepare to head to County Town No. 0203."

After removing the three Tiger Hound squads that had already set off to scout ahead, and the guard force left to defend the hive, a total of 125 mid-level beastmen Tiger Hounds and 71 low-level beastmen worker insects, forming a 196-strong insectoid force, set off.

The swarm does not gather together in one go, but is dispersed under the control of the mother hive, with vanguards scouting ahead and flanks providing protection.

Qin Mu didn't drive an off-road pickup truck; instead, he jumped onto a tall mastiff.

With a shoulder height of nearly 1.5 meters, the Tiger-Ao Dog is much larger than many warhorses, much like the dire wolves in the Warcraft movies Qin Mu watched in his previous life, and could definitely be used as a mount.

Some necessary luggage and equipment were taken out of the vehicle by the worker insects and carried by them.

One of the worker insects was particularly conspicuous, with a round belly that stored a large amount of high-energy liquid. After arriving at its destination, it would hatch a new mother nest.

The reason Qin Mu didn't drive was because he didn't intend to travel along the highway, but rather along the road that the mastiff had scouted out.

Hundreds of monsters marching in a grand procession along the highway were too conspicuous and would easily attract the attention of human martial arts teams.

The insect swarm is not yet ready to be exposed.

At the speed of the insect swarm, moving through the wilderness is no slower than an off-road vehicle, enough to reach the destination within the expected time.

Under the starlight, the swarm of insects silently advanced, with Qin Mu, riding a tiger and a hound, guarding the center.

This gave Qin Mu the time to observe the unfamiliar nightscape of the wilderness after entering it.

The starry sky in the wilderness is beautiful. The sky is like a deep painting, with stars twinkling and a crescent moon hanging gently in the sky, casting a hazy silver glow on the earth.

Under the moonlight, a gentle breeze blows, and all kinds of beautiful flowers and plants sway gracefully in the moonlight, making people feel as if they are in a dream.

In the distance, unknown insects chirped, and shimmering flying insects danced among the flowers and trees.

Such beautiful scenery is simply a world full of poetry and dreams.

However, the roar of the tiger-dog startled Qin Mu, who was lost in the beautiful scenery. A tiger-dog scouting ahead passed by an exceptionally beautiful and enormous flower.

A chilling thing happened: the flower suddenly opened up and completely enveloped the entire tiger and hound.

Before the tiger-dog could even bark, it was locked tightly inside the flower bud by the closed flower.

Several tigers and hounds nearby suddenly rushed forward, tearing and clawing at the strange flower, scattering its branches and leaves all over the ground and tearing it into pieces.

The tiger-dog, which had been wrapped up, struggled to break free and angrily uprooted it.

In this world, not only have various animals mutated and evolved, but plants have also undergone similar changes.

What appears to be a beautiful scene is actually fraught with danger, poisonous insects, and lurking monsters.

This startled Qin Mu, and his relaxed state of mind immediately became alert.

Fortunately, the swarm of insects now possessed sufficient strength, and could easily resolve most dangers without Qin Mu having to intervene.

Along the way, they encountered more than ten monsters, all of which were dealt with by the insect swarm and turned into food for the swarm.

After traveling for several hours, the scout dog Tiger brought news that a herd of one-horned wild boars had been spotted ahead.

This herd of one-horned wild boars numbered over twenty. Their entire bodies were covered in black hair, resembling black steel spikes, and they had a single, dark gray horn on their heads that looked like a sharp knife.

Three of these unicorn boars were at the advanced beast soldier level, while the rest were mostly at the intermediate beast soldier level.

If war breaks out, given the current strength of the Zerg swarm, Qin Mu will likely suffer considerable casualties if he doesn't intervene.

Without dodging, Qin Mu controlled the swarm of insects to surround them directly.

To minimize casualties among the insect swarm, Qin Mu simply ordered the swarm to surround them without attacking.

Surrounded by tigers and hounds that outnumbered them several times over, the unicorn boar was somewhat panicked, but led by several high-level beast soldiers, it did not panic and instead confronted the tigers and hounds.

Under the moonlight, Qin Mu carefully examined these one-horned wild boars, a type of boar monster even more powerful than the Iron-haired Wild Boar.

Compared to the iron-haired wild boar, they are more ferocious and agile, and the single horn on their heads greatly enhances their attack power.

Without hesitation, a spearhead hovering above Qin Mu's head shot out.

"Chirp—"

The spearhead transformed into a streak of light, hurtling straight toward a high-level beast soldier-level unicorn boar.

The attacked unicorn boar noticed something was wrong, but the spearhead was too fast. Although it tried to dodge, the boar's body couldn't react in time. It could only lower its head slightly to avoid its eyes.

"Click-clack—"

The spearhead failed to pierce the one-horned boar's eye socket as intended, instead striking its skull head-on.

The A2-grade Broken Army Spear emitted a faint cracking sound from its tip, and tiny cracks appeared on the tip.

The incredible speed and powerful kinetic energy allowed the spearhead to pierce through the skull of the one-horned boar head-on.

"Ho ho ho ho"

Enraged by the attack, the one-horned boar grunted, lowered its head, revealed its single horn, and galloped wildly on all fours like a series of high-speed tanks.

Although their numbers were several times greater than those of the unicorn boars, under Qin Mu's control, the swarm did not directly confront the unicorn boars' charge. Instead, they opened an opening and attacked from the flank.

"The gun tip is somewhat damaged!"

The spiritual energy attached to the spearhead made Qin Mu immediately realize something was wrong. It was still too much of a stretch to smash the skull of a high-level beast soldier, a unicorn boar, which was known for its defense, with the head of the A2-level Breaking Army Spear.

But at this moment, Qin Mu couldn't care less about anything else. He controlled the gun to draw an arc, taking the life of another one-horned wild boar from the flank.

This time, with Qin Mu's precise maneuvering, the spearhead pierced the eye socket of the high-speed running one-horned wild boar and flew out from the other side.

The tiger-dog beneath it also started running, not confronting the one-horned wild boar head-on, but instead chasing and encircling it!

In terms of speed and agility, the one-horned wild boar is no match for the tiger and hound.

As it charged, a spearhead flew and weaved through the herd of one-horned wild boars, striking their eyes, throats, mouths, and bellies—vital points.

The three high-level beastmen-class unicorn boars were killed one by one.

Having lost the deterrent effect of the three-headed beast-like unicorn boars and being surrounded, their fate was already sealed as a tragedy.

I revised the previous chapter. I checked the calendar, and starting from July 24th, there are 8 days until the martial arts combat assessment. Since July in 2056 has 31 days, theoretically the protagonist can stay in County 0203 for two days.

(End of this chapter)