Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After speaking with Chan Dou for a while, Lin Huang did not stay in the Genius Union and logged out right away.

He spent a day practicing his sword skills in the hotel and only logged in again the next morning after breakfast.

The levels between checkpoints 63 to 72 on the Stairway Tree were filled with monsters with immortal-level rank-9 combat strength. The level of difficulty was different from the monster levels before checkpoint 63.

The strategy that people left behind was very simple: rush through without holding back.

However, bug guardians would appear as soon as one pa.s.sed through half of checkpoint 63. According to the strategy, as soon as one pa.s.sed through the 12 bug guardians defense individually, they would not encounter any bug guardians later on. The probability of the Queen Mother appearing was then extremely low.

Someone asked if they could form a team. The rest of the teammates could pa.s.s through as long as a few people stopped the bug guardians.

In reality, that would not work. The level of difficulty on the Stairway Tree would progress according to the number of players that entered.

If one person entered, he would encounter 12 bug guardians at the most. If two people formed a team, they would encounter 24 bug guardians at the most. A three-man team would encounter 36 bug guardians, and so on and so forth.

Moreover, these bug guardians would not attack based on personal reasons. Everyone would be a.s.signed the same number of bug guardians to fight with. If someone in the team died, the number of bug guardians would not change. Instead, they would be allocated to the remaining team members.

Some even speculated that the number of Queen Mothers on this level would be affected by the number of players who entered. Naturally, n.o.body verified that because everyone stopped trying since they realized the level of difficulty would increase when they entered in teams.

b.l.o.o.d.y began releasing Leech Pods as soon as Lin Huang stepped into checkpoint 63 to look for the bug guardians and the Queen Mother"s coordinates.

Lin Huang sat at the starting point, waiting for b.l.o.o.d.y"s search results patiently. A monster appeared in his field of vision not long after he sat down.

It was a monster with many legs similar to a centipede with a body of at least ten meters long. Its upper body was raised two to three meters high while eight of its front legs looked like they were equipped with black spiked bayonets that were half a meter long. A layer of black sh.e.l.l extended from its head all the way to its tail and there was a black scythe on the end of its tail.

From the looks of it, it was a monster that lived to fight.

Before the monster attacked, b.l.o.o.d.y was done casting parasites with his Leech Pods and commanded the monster to leave.

“There"s a Bug Tribe here?!” The stone tablet"s voice came into Lin Huang"s ears all of a sudden.

“What"s so odd about that? Weren"t those Combat Hornetdemons on checkpoint 56 earlier a Bug Tribe too?” Lin Huang did not find that peculiar.

“No, the Bug Tribe that you know is different from the one I"m talking about,” explained the stone tablet, “The Bug Tribe that I"m talking about is a galactic race. In this world, the Bug Tribe"s overall abilities are no less than a Protoss.

“The Combat Hornetdemons that you encountered on checkpoint 56 earlier were just a tiny branch of the Bug Tribe even hundreds of thousands of years ago. Furthermore, from the long course of evolution, the Combat Hornetdemons could basically be removed from the Bug Tribe branch.

“The real Bug Tribe"s a race that"s gravely predatory and destructive. In this world, anywhere the Bug Tribe pa.s.ses by will turn into barren land. They swallow other beings and planets" resources to strengthen their race continuously. They would do anything for the sake of expanding and for the longevity of their race.

“Just like most living things such as humans having a stable gene sequence, a tribe"s overall evolution depends mainly on reproduction to produce a variety in generations. They also use knowledge for the inheritance of civilization which is a long cycle.

“However, the Bug Tribe"s different from most beings when it comes to this. They have an extremely unstable gene sequence which causes mutation easily. Not only that, it"s a controllable mutation. Perhaps the genetic mutation of a Bug Tribe will create an evolution that"s on par with human evolution throughout hundreds of years after a battle has ended. Such a mutation makes them grow stronger continuously as well as gives them a formidable adaptive ability to the environment. They can survive in extreme environments that most beings can"t.

“The Bug Tribe has gone through billions of years of evolution. They"re just as powerful as the formidable Protoss in this world now. They"ve evolved to perfection individually. Almost every tissue and every part of the Bug Tribe fighters" bodies were made to fight. They never need any external tools. To them, their body is the best weapon.

“Each Bug Tribe fighter has a powerful combat ability, defense and battle will. They have no pain receptors, so they can maintain extremely high battle power even if their bodies are severely injured. They"re fearless to fight anyone and they won"t stop until they"re dead.”

Lin Huang found the stone tablet"s explanation unbelievable. He thought that the Protoss was already powerful enough, so he did not expect the Bug Tribe to be just as mighty.

Lin Huang was even more interested in the Queen Mother now after listening to it. “Since the Bug Tribe"s so powerful like you said, wouldn"t it mean that the Queen Mother"s even more powerful?”

“There are many varieties in the Bug Tribe. This one on the Stairway Tree is only one of them. It"s called the Queen Mother species,” clarified the stone tablet further.

“If the Queen Mother evolves to its ultimate form, naturally, it"ll be extraordinarily powerful. It can even ma.s.s produce true G.o.d-level Bug Tribe fighters. However, this one on the Stairway Tree"s clearly a baby. It"s even been weakened a few times.

“Under normal circ.u.mstance, even a baby Queen Mother will be on true G.o.d-level. The Bug Servants that it produces would have a combat strength of at least virtual G.o.d-level and there would be at least hundreds of them. However, this one on the Stairway Tree isn"t even on imperial-level. The combat strength of the bug guardians didn"t only drop to immortal-level rank-9, but their grade also dropped and there are only 12 of them.” The stone tablet was clearly looking down on the weakened Queen Mother on the Stairway Tree.

“That"s already not bad. I could train it slowly if I really get the Monster Card.” Lin Huang was getting excited about the prospect of his battle loot. “If it"s not weakened, I"ll have to avoid it if I encounter it.”

“I"m in no place to comment about how powerful Xiao Hei actually is, but there"s something that I must remind you.” The stone tablet seemed to feel negative about this plan. “The Bug Tribe isn"t easily controlled.”

“The Bug Tribe master isn"t an individual but is the will of the bug horde. It"s an extremely compelling conglomeration of will. It essentially connected to each Bug Tribe member"s brain and consciousness.

“The Queen Mother is the node creature of the will of the bug horde, just like branches that are derived from a tree trunk. Under normal circ.u.mstances, it should be able to sense if the Queen Mother were to be controlled by another being.

“Of course, the Queen Mother has a powerful control ability as a node creature. The children that she gave birth to would take her orders no matter what, no questions asked. Hence, if you manage to control a Queen Mother, it would mean that you have yourself a Bug Tribe army. In a nutsh.e.l.l, risk and opportunity coexist in this situation.”

“How powerful is that will of the bug horde that you mentioned?” Lin Huang could not help but ask.

“It"s the top existence in the world whereby the level of life is far above the True G.o.ds. It"s much more powerful than my master who, by the way, is dead.” It was Lin Huang"s first time hearing the stone tablet acknowledge someone as being more powerful than his ex-master.

“I"m not sure if the will of the bug horde will sense you changing the Monster Card. However, I"ll be able to sense it immediately if there"s anything unusual that happens during the change of Monster Cards. Just destroy the card if necessary,” Xiao Hei voiced its opinion.

“Sure, let"s do that then!” Although there were risks, Lin Huang was unwilling to give up on making the Queen Mother his target