Chapter 2298: Chapter 2300: Busy and Chaotic
The two warships used this shameless combat method, striking again and again at the battle bee swarm that protected the Bee King.
Their tactics were very obvious, not only to the warriors of the Seventh Army but also to many insects who could understand it.
However, understanding didn’t mean they could break through it. Even if some insects wanted to support, they had to consider the frenzied ant and bee swarms, as well as the ice silkworms running around.
The Nascent Soul Bee Queen didn’t care much for others, summoning its own kin to shield it — it was quite afraid of dying.
In this chaos, the two warships suddenly turned sharply, heading towards a thick group of beetles.
No one knew why they were doing this, then several huge beams of light flashed, and a heart-wrenching scream echoed in space. Only then did the soldiers of the Seventh Army belatedly realize, "Sound wave and soul attacks... are there enchanting butterflies?"
Enigmatic Butterflies are quite rare within the Insect Race and belong to the controlling type of faction. However, they not only control their own kin but can also enchant the Human Race and the Insect Race, using hallucination skills to turn those controlled into their puppets.
Their control is implemented through the soul, deceiving the warriors of the Seventh Army, but how could it fool the Cultivators?
With a surprise concentration of fire, the warships blasted the Nascent Soul Butterfly King to pieces, causing chaos among the Enigmatic Butterflies.
This group had strong souls so they certainly weren’t brainless. However, the Butterfly King’s death triggered a major issue: Who could become the next new king?
Where there are many intelligent beings, there are plenty of scheming things. The smart ones in the Insect Race face the same problem.
Moreover, once an Enigmatic Butterfly becomes a king, it gains the right to control other Enigmatic Butterflies — it’s the nature of the species.
Enigmatic Butterflies who fail to compete for the kingship absolutely wouldn’t willingly be controlled by a new king. They can only choose to die or leave the group, which means during the competition for a new king, they not only won’t hold back but are also very urgent regarding the timing.
What, the enemy has attacked? No rush, decide the new king first and then talk about other things.
So, it’s understandable that such chaos was sparked after this insect king was killed.
Even many beetles directly rebelled — they were controlled in a shallow way to shield the Enigmatic Butterflies from fire.
The Cultivators from Tianqin made this decision also by stumbling into it. In fact, even Feng Jun and others who had ventured into the Insect World for more than half a year didn’t know that there was such a thing as Enigmatic Butterflies.
The main reason was that True Sage Diaosou’s strength was comparatively strong. While wandering around the Insect Race, he discovered the tight defenses that suggested some mystery here, but he didn’t want to disturb the Insect Race then, so he didn’t increase his probing efforts.
During the uproar earlier, the Enigmatic Butterflies were startled and couldn’t help but observe the battle, which led to their discovery by True Sage Diaosou that there was another Insect Race Nascent Soul here.
No need to overthink; just by looking at the protection it received, it was clear it was a controlling type of Nascent Soul, so everyone pretended to be oblivious and launched an attack while maneuvering around the War Bees, catching them off guard and killing the Enigmatic Butterfly King.
It must be said that the Insect Race’s fighting was still somewhat rigid; if they were dealing with the Human Race Nascent Soul, they definitely wouldn’t be so easily exterminated.
However, the consequences of killing the Enigmatic Butterfly King also puzzled everyone: why did they start fighting amongst themselves, even more fiercely than before?
They didn’t know that the Enigmatic Butterflies controlled many insects, not only to direct their combat but also to use their bodies to breed progeny, meaning they injected butterfly eggs into them, so when hatched, the larvae would have food.
Especially treacherous was that over ninety-nine percent of Enigmatic Butterfly offspring lacked the "hallucination" talent, with less than one percent having the chance to grow into Enigmatic Butterflies, yet the butterfly group wouldn’t reduce hatching because of this — quite the contrary, they would increase breeding intensity.
For other Insect Races, this was quite unacceptable, putting Enigmatic Butterflies on the must-kill list within many Insect Race groups. Without a strong group to secure them, Enigmatic Butterflies leaving the butterfly group were basically destined for death.
And this same urgency and bloodiness accompanied the emergence of a new Butterfly King — the loser faces death.
However, the Divine Master of the Insect Race had rules: do not attack an Enigmatic Butterfly group with a Nascent Soul; otherwise, this type of insect might bring extermination to other Insect Races.
The Cultivators from Tianqin didn’t know these things. Instead, they seized the chaos among the Enigmatic Butterflies to launch another lightning-fast strike on the War Bee swarm.
The War Bees thought the warships would drift again, but who could have imagined two warships firing in unison, charging straight ahead.
The ant and bee swarms following behind the warships, however, were affected by the chaos of the Enigmatic Butterflies and didn’t pursue in large numbers.
The two warships fired together again, blasting the War Bee King into a riddled state, then released a net, directly taking the corpse of the War Bee King away — in fact, when they dropped the net, the War Bee King wasn’t completely dead, still convulsing, struggling to stay alive.
However, since it was bound by the Cultivators of Tianqin, any escape was basically a dream.
The other War Bees saw this and were enraged, though their intelligence was intact, seeing their own queen being captured alive was an unbearable humiliation for any intelligent species.
The pursuing War Bees didn’t completely lose their minds, they still used some tactics during the chase, but the swarm was already in chaos now, so any strategy was useless.
"Connect, you must connect to the other side!" Fang Yingwu shouted urgently, "This is a rare chance for a counterattack, hurry up, faster, I’m authorizing you to use methods outside the military’s technical scope, I promise not to pursue any responsibility!"
"I can’t hold it in anymore," someone shouted loudly on a single-person strike ship, "Armored assault, I’m applying for armored assault! Contacting the other side’s warship... I’m willing to sign a death waiver!"
"What the... what are they thinking," Captain Garen looked at the screen and couldn’t help but complain loudly, "Fang Yingwu that idiot! Why doesn’t he just use signal lights to forcibly requisition the other side? If they don’t cooperate, kill them without mercy, who needs teaching for that?"
Between the two Warships and the combat formation of the Seventh Army, there was a massive swarm of the Insect Race, but the Seventh Army’s combat ranking was high enough, even if the other side’s warship was advanced, it only had two, the Seventh Army was fully qualified to demand cooperation from the other side in battle.
Of course, the other side might have special missions and refuse to respond to conscription; in such cases, the Seventh Army couldn’t forcibly impose military law, but Garen’s point was, "You haven’t even tried once, how do you know it won’t work?"
"I want to execute military law now!" Fang Yingwu’s voice came through the broadcast, "Garen, you’re acting all tough, daring to insult a superior on the fleet channel, I now order your fleet to move forward and get the other side to respond!"
"Boss Fang, you’re sending me to my death!" Garen quickly switched to a private channel, "Give me two more destroyers, and I’ll try it; if you only allow this one ship to go, I might as well directly Self-Detonate the main ship."
Self-Detonating the main ship was the most intense defiance on the battlefield, although none of the main ship’s crew would survive, the crew of other subordinate ships could survive, Garen was out of options — even self-detonating was better than the entire army being annihilated.
"Then don’t keep blabbering nonsense," Fang Yingwu responded crossly, then muttered to himself, "Strange, where did these warships come from? Still no reply from Corps Commander Southgate."
Initially, he didn’t disturb the Corps Commander over this matter; the battle over at the star system was intense, and in comparison, this was just a minor side battlefield, with little impact on the bigger picture.
Moreover, in battles of this scale, outsiders accidentally getting caught up is very common.
Even Fang Yingwu himself didn’t pay much attention to this small matter; he had his eyes on the entire battlefield.
When those two ships started recklessly attacking the Insect Race, he began to focus on this corner, and then he prepared to contact Corps Commander Southgate — but it was only preparation.
Until he saw those two ships consecutively kill two Insect Race Nascent Soul commanders, he decisively called the Corps Commander.
However, very frustratingly... the line was busy!
This situation is very rare; he wasn’t calling the Corps Commander but the corps command headquarters. In the interstellar era, war communications are extremely prioritized; when the communications squad of the corps-level headquarters is at full capacity, it reaches six hundred people!
No matter how intense the battle, a busy line situation is very rare, and Fang Yingwu knows, before this big swarm came attacking, the corps command headquarters not only had topped up their communication team, but they also added another two hundred people.
The corps is prepared for a planetary-level battle, a definite major fierce battle.
But unfortunately, the scale of the Insect Race’s attack is at the star system level, beyond the military’s estimation.
Still, the eight hundred-member communications team experiencing a busy line situation made Fang Yingwu want to curse.
"Is this a de-prioritization?" Other than that, he really couldn’t think of another reason.
Understand this, the Seventh Army is one of the four main battle units of the Third Legion, even adding Xingzheng Star’s few major lines, the priority ranking is definitely in the top ten, being busy now is surely a de-prioritization.
But for eight hundred operators to all be busy, what level of de-prioritization is this?
Fang Yingwu felt like cursing: this is a full army, and it’s fighting alone!
He actually knew in his heart, the Corps Commander didn’t want to hear him complain or call for help, so he did this, on the system side and the Space Fortress, they could observe the battlefield here, can’t cause major delays.
But this still made him furious: we encountered special circumstances here... you damn bureaucrat!
Through persistent calling, the communication officer finally got through to the corps command headquarters.
The reception was from a corps staff member, stating, "We’re monitoring the situation here continuously, Commander Fang, your situation is okay, the situation at the star system is precarious, if there’s anything just tell me directly."
If not for Fang Yingwu’s high position, they might have said something harsher — in this situation, and you’re still causing trouble!
(Update to summon monthly ticket.)
