115 Guardian Spirit Insect

Ning Shi understood that for the hatchery to reproduce an insect tribe, he needed to first find a base to let it take root and grow.

He was now in the territory of the war insect tribe and did not plan to leave for the time being.

Fortunately, he could use the gene editor first.

[Do you want to use the gene editor to decompose the corpse of the war insect soldier? Yes, no.]

[The corpse of the war insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the strength gene.]

[Do you want to use the gene editor to decompose the corpse of the war insect soldier? Yes, no.]

[The corpse of the war insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the devour gene.]

[The corpse of the war insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the endurance gene.]

[The corpse of the war insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the strength gene.]

[The corpse of the war insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the speed gene.]

…

Ning Shi broke down hundreds of war insect soldier corpses in succession and obtained seven types of genes in total: strength, endurance, speed, devour, flight, defense, and penetration.

[Do you want to use the gene editor to decompose the corpse of the azure insect soldier? Yes, no.]

[The corpse of the azure insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the perception gene.]

[The corpse of the azure insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the wisdom gene.]

…

[The corpse of the azure insect soldier has been successfully decomposed. You have obtained the will gene.]

He then decomposed a few hundred azure insect soldier corpses and obtained seven types of genes, perception, wisdom, will, transformation, soul fusion, energy absorption, and crawl.

In the gene editor, there were a total of 100 squares. Because he hadn’t tried editing before, Ning Shi selected the seven genes of the war insect and put 10 copies each into the editor.

Then, he added 10 copies each of soul fusion, energy absorption, and will.

[Do you wish to consume one black crystal to activate the gene editing once? Yes, no.]

Ning Shi chose “yes”, and the gene editor started up.

[Strength *10, endurance *10, …, will *10, editing in progress. A new species has been created. Please name it.]

Because it was experimental, Ning Shi simply named it Life No.1.

Life No.1’s appearance was similar to the war insect, but the spike on its head was shorter. Above its eyes was a pair of feelers.

[Character: Life No.1]

[Physique: 16 (20)]

[Spiritual Power: 15 (20)]

[Bloodline: Insect tribe soldier]

[Skills: Rapid flight Tier 4, spike Tier 3, energy absorption Tier 4]

[Talents: Body of steel (white), balance (white)]

[Evaluation: An insect without any special characteristics]

Ning Shi checked Life No. 1’s attributes. He had used many genes, so Life No.1’s overall attributes were quite good, only two points lower than the war insect captain.

However, in terms of combat power, Life No. 1 was definitely no match for the war insect soldiers.

The war insects could beat Life No.1 just by relying on their bodies.

The system’s evaluation was very pertinent. Life No. 1 had no special characteristics.

Ning Shi tried gene editing a few more times, but the evolved insects were all very ordinary.

He found some rules. If the genes he used didn’t have enough types, the insect that was born would have major flaws. However, if there were too many gene types, the insect would have a little bit of each ability but no special characteristics.

“Let’s try one last time. If I can’t edit an insect with special characteristics for the time being, I’ll wait until I have collected more genes from other insect tribes.”

Ning Shi used another black crystal and activated gene editing.

[Devour *30, energy absorption *30, soul fusion *30, transformation *10. A new species has been created. Please name it.]

This was the 98th evolution. As per practice, it was named Life No. 98.

Ning Shi didn’t have any expectations at first, but after seeing Life No.98’s introduction, he was excited.

[Character: Life No.98]

[Physique: 12 (20)]

[Spiritual Power: 18 (20)]

[Bloodline: Insect tribe soldier]

[Skills: Mind control Tier 3, parasitism Tier 1]

[Talent: Gene optimization (white), learning (gold), soul devour (white)]

[Description: An insect with extremely high potential. No one can say for sure what it will bring to the world.]

To think an insect tribe soldier had a gold talent for learning! This was too overpowered. Its other skills and talents were also very strong.

[Mind control Tier 3: Use spiritual power to control the target. The control effect is determined by the comparison of the spiritual power of both parties.]

[Parasitism Tier 1: Parasitize a living creature. After it completes its growth with the help of the parasitized creature’s nutrients, it will break out of the shell after absorbing the parasitized creature’s nutrients. For Tier 1 parasitism, the parasitized target cannot be stronger than the insect tribe’s head soldier. The parasitized target can only be changed once.]

[Gene optimization (white): While parasitizing, Life No.98 will be able to optimize the parasitized creature’s most powerful genetic ability for itself. Being only in the white tier, this talent can only optimize one to two abilities.]

[Soul devour (white): After Life No.98 breaks out of the parasitized creature, it will devour the parasitized creature’s soul to strengthen its spiritual power and obtain soul elements. Being in the white tier, this talent can obtain at most one to two soul elements.]

Some of Life No.98’s abilities were very similar to the main character of a movie that Ning Shi especially liked, Alien.

Life No.98 could live in the parasitized creature’s body and gain the latter’s abilities. Compared to the Alien, which only took nutrients from the parasitized creature’s body, Life No.98 did not even let go of the soul.

Coupled with its gold talent for learning, it would definitely be an extremely terrifying insect.

Out of respect, Ning Shi changed the name of this insect to the guardian spirit insect.

According to the system’s notification, when the hatchery’s new base was completed, it would absorb Ning Shi’s flesh and blood as nutrients. In return, he would have absolute control over the hatchery.

With that, the insects born from the hatchery would be injected with obedience to Ning Shi in their genetic information.

Therefore, Ning Shi was not worried about the guardian spirit insects losing control.

Since the guardian spirit insect was so powerful, Ning Shi couldn’t be bothered to collect more insect genes. Either way, even if he continued to edit them, he might not be able to get a better combination.

[Are you sure you want to use the guardian spirit insects as the insect soldiers to be reproduced by the hatchery? Yes, no.]

[Reminder: Once the soldier module is confirmed, it cannot be changed. The subsequent insect captains and generals will be upgraded based on the soldier’s abilities.]

Ning Shi no longer hesitated and chose yes.

[The hatchery soldier has been confirmed. The hatchery’s name has been changed to the guardian spirit insect hatchery. Please choose a base as soon as possible so that the hatchery can grow.]

[The growth and reproduction of the hatchery require energy. Please prepare sufficient black crystals.]

Ning Shi hadn’t been in a hurry to build the hatchery, but after seeing the information on the guardian spirit insects, he couldn’t wait to see their abilities.

Seeing that his war insect subordinates were still mining hard, Ning Shi flapped the four pairs of wings on his back and soared, finding a base for the hatchery.

After searching for a long time, he found a valley about 100 kilometers away from the Black Crystal Mountains.

There were only some ordinary insects in the valley, and there were no powerful insect tribes. This place was high in the mountains with dense forests, so it was more secluded and suitable for low-key development. Ning Shi was very satisfied.

He took out the guardian spirit insect hatchery from his game backpack. After the hatchery was held by Ning Shi, its body began to twist, and countless tiny feelers stretched out.

At the end of the feelers were sharp spikes.

The spikes pierced into Ning Shi’s arm and pulled out pieces of flesh.

Before long, Ning Shi’s arm was covered in injuries.

Ning Shi laughed bitterly in his heart, “Fortunately, I have undying talent, and my flesh regenerates extremely quickly. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to meet the flesh needs of the nest.”

As the hatchery gnawed on Ning Shi’s flesh, it began to grow bigger. Two minutes later, the hatchery, which had been the size of a football, had become the size of a thatched house.

It was like an altar, standing on the flat ground of the valley.

Ning Shi checked its information.

[Guardian spirit insect hatchery: Level 1 insect tribe hatchery]

[Black crystal: 0 grams]

[Producing insect tribe: Guardian spirit insect soldiers]

[Reproduction conditions: 20 grams of black crystals for one guardian spirit insect soldier]

[Level-up requirement: 100kg of black crystals]

The black crystals in Ning Shi’s backpack were all collected by the war insects. Their sizes were relatively uniform, and one weighed about 40g.

With that, one black crystal could produce two guardian spirit insect soldiers, and 2500 black crystals would be enough to upgrade the hatchery.

Ning Shi first took out 10000 black crystals and put them into the hatchery, then issued the upgrade command in his mind.

With that, the hatchery extended several feelers and accurately swallowed 2500 black crystals.

After devouring the black crystals, the hatchery slowly grew until it was 15 meters in length and width and about 4 meters in height.

[Guardian spirit insect hatchery: Level 2 insect tribe hatchery]

[Black crystals owned: 300 thousand grams]

[Production insect tribe: Guardian spirit insect soldier, guardian spirit insect captain]

[Reproduction requirements: Soldiers 20g black crystal, captains 40g black crystal]

[Level-up requirement: 1000 kilograms of black crystals]

More preparation may quicken the speed of doing work. Ning Shi directly spent 11000 kilograms, which was about 275000 black crystals, to upgrade the hatchery to Level 4.

The Level 4 hatchery occupied the entire valley. Inside the hatchery were four huge growth chambers, corresponding to the soldiers, captains, lieutenants, and generals.

After reaching Level 4, the hatchery could thus reproduce lieutenants and generals as well.

A lieutenant required 1kg of black crystals, a general required 50kg of black crystals, and to upgrade the hatchery to Level 5, 500 thousand kilograms of black crystals were required.

There were now only 20000 kilograms of black crystals left in Ning Shi’s backpack. It seemed that his resources were not enough and he still needed to continue to feed off of the war insect tribe.

With the hatchery, Ning Shi could feel the importance of resources more directly.

In the insect’s ecosystem, resources were converted into combat power extremely quickly.

Resources represented everything.

Ning Shi had only been able to steal strategic resources like black crystals by blending in with a powerful insect tribe like the war insects. If he had sneaked into a low-level or intermediate tribe, he probably wouldn’t even see a trace of the black crystal.