บท 169: Chapter 168
After one scout insect screeched, it seemed to have caused a chain reaction. The entire swarm of scout insects also screeched at the same time. Hearing the screeching, all the nearby scout insects that were observing something else gathered together and screeched while flying around the waterfall.
Lin didn't know what they meant by that, but she could sense their emotions: unease and panic.
Why? Why would they panic when they saw the waterfall passage? Lin didn't leave anything behind in the waterfall passage, so the scout insects' sense of smell should be very poor. They shouldn't be able to smell anything inside, otherwise, they wouldn't have failed to notice the Flyer's change in color.
But if they were behaving this way, it was obvious that they had discovered something strange. Was it only because the passage had widened?
The scout insects' screeching continued for a while. When all the nearby scout insects had gathered, they began to fly south as a group. They seemed to be planning to return.
What should I do? Looking at the swarm moving further and further away, Lin had to quickly make a decision.
Lin could kill them, but even then, she didn't know if their leader would know. For example, the Cephalopod could control the swarm from a very long distance away, so it would be able to clearly see what happened to each of the footsoldiers.
Forget it, I'll just let them return. Lin wanted to see what the Incan swarm would do.
The scout insects didn't discover anything else along the way, so they left Lin's territory as quickly as possible. Lin had the Flyer follow them, so at full speed, the scout insects only took half the time to return to the border of the Death Spikes.
The wall of Death Spikes slowly opened. Lin watched as all the scout insects flew in. She immediately had the Flyer rush into the gap between the spikes that hadn't closed yet. They entered the territory of the Incan swarm.
This was the first time Lin had reached the border of the Incan swarm's territory. This was a completely different world compared to the Rocky Plains. The air here was filled with the smell of plants and the cries of creatures. The dense forest seemed endless, with countless creatures running on the ground and in the air. It was a stark contrast to the Rocky Plains on the other side that was separated by the Death Spikes.
Why didn't the Incan swarm the forest and instead use the Death Spikes to separate the two sides?
It was hard to understand the thoughts of other creatures.
The Flyer followed the Scout Bugs. The top of the cave at the border was only about 50 meters above the ground. Perhaps because it was too low, there were no Hometrees here. As they ventured deeper into the Inca territory, the top of the cave slowly grew taller until it reached a height of about 300 meters. At the same time, a few Hometrees appeared in Lin's vision.
The scouting Zergs flew into the nearest few Hometrees. They all drilled into the small holes on the bark and disappeared without a trace.
Lin's Flyer couldn't follow them in. These holes were quite narrow. Even if they changed color, they could still be discovered. So Lin planned to create shapeshifters to explore.
Just as Lin had the Flyer fly to the tree hole to create the Shapeshifter, a strange noise suddenly came from inside the Hometree.
"Buzz …"
This sound was like the cry of a creature with a large vocal sac. After the first Hometree made the sound, the other Hometrees nearby also made the same sound.
The sound was low and loud. It traveled quite a distance. Lin could even hear the sound slowly spreading. Even beyond the Flyer's vision, the sound was still echoing.
This seemed to be a chain of sound transmission. The Hometrees made the sound one after another, and it continued to spread until Lin's Brain Hunter also heard the sound …
"Buzz …"
Every Hometree made the same sound. The sound seemed to spread throughout the entire underground world. Even Lin's base in the Rocky Terrain could hear the resonance from the Hometrees.
As this deep and resonant sound continued to reverberate, Lin even felt the entire underground tremble. Large amounts of dust and some rocks on the ceiling fell off as a result.
Obviously, the Inca Zergs were sending out a signal that could be heard by the entire underground world.
Why were they sending out the signal? Were they preparing to attack? Or something else? No matter what, Lin had to be prepared.
Lin ordered the troops on the mountain to enter the water. She didn't plan to attack. Instead, she ordered the troops to wait and see what the Inca Zergs were up to.
Now, it was getting closer to night. The glowing creatures underground stopped emitting light. Everything was in complete darkness.
The Hometrees that made the sound slowly stopped, but Lin heard another sound.
In the underground world directly under the desert, there were dozens of Hometrees that were being monitored by Lin's Brain Hunters and the Flyers created by the Brain Hunters. These Hometrees contained a large number of Inca Zergs of different shapes and sizes. Because they usually stayed there and didn't move, they were the most suspicious. If the Inca Zergs were to make a big move, these normally inactive Zergs would definitely come out.
The situation of these Zergs was just as Lin thought.
Every Flyer that was monitoring had the latest echo detection system. They only needed to make a 'tap tap' sound to instantly analyze everything in their surroundings.
Under the echoes, images of the Flyer's exploration appeared in Lin's mind. Lin was able to color and materialize all the objects she recognized in the images in an instant, producing an effect that was almost identical to her vision.
The 'tap tap' sound instantly spread to every Flyer's surroundings, displaying the images in Lin's mind.
In the echoes, Lin saw a lot of Inca insects. Most of them were originally hiding inside the Hometree, but now, they had all come out. Most of them were crawling on the bark of the trees, but there were still a lot of them that had entered the forest.
The Flyers made another sound. Lin noticed that the Zergs were all coming down from the trees and gathering in the forest.
There were tens of thousands of Inca Zergs. From every Hometree, more and more Inca Zergs came out to join them. They formed a huge army and began to … move towards the north!
Were they trying to start a war?
How was that possible? Was it just because they saw a passage under a widened waterfall? Or … were they trying to invade the surface through that passage? How did they know that the passage was connected to the surface? There was no need for them to deploy such a huge army, right?
Lin had the Flyer follow this army and observe their every move. Although there were many of them, they moved quite quickly. Although these creatures were multicellular, their cooperation with each other was no different from the cells in a single organism. They wouldn't slow down due to crowding or darkness.
Obviously, the Inca Zergs were much more evolved than the Aztec Zergs. Lin's initial suspicion that these Zergs were a threat was correct.
Under Lin's observation, she noticed that there were a total of 30 Hometrees. The rest didn't move. The Inca Zergs kept moving towards the north. Although they were moving quickly, they were still in the forest. No matter how fast they moved, they couldn't increase their speed. When they were close to the border, the surroundings became bright again. The night passed, and the day came once again.
When the light of day shone, Lin noticed that the Inca Zergs did something strange. The army suddenly dispersed. Each of the Inca Zergs headed towards a nearby Hometree. They burrowed into the bark of the trees or into the tree holes. Not long after, the entire army burrowed into the Hometrees and disappeared without a trace.
… … What's the meaning of this?
Lin was puzzled by their actions. The Inca Zergs weren't afraid of light. Could it be that the sound from before was just a signal for them to move to a Hometree closer to the border? They didn't want to start a war at all?
Lin ordered the Flyers to spread out and observe every Hometree that the Inca Zergs entered. These Hometrees were originally inhabited by Inca Zergs, but they were probably just Black Wasps. Therefore, they could still accommodate quite a number of Inca Zergs.
How strange … … Everything seemed to have quietened down. Was this what they called a 'false alarm'?
No, something was wrong.
Lin suddenly noticed an insect burrowing out from one of the Hometrees that the Inca Zerg army burrowed into. This time, it wasn't a group of Inca Zergs like before. There was only one of them. This was a two-meter long beetle with a red glow on its abdomen that Lin often saw.
The temperature of the beetle's abdomen was relatively high. They never moved, and Lin didn't know what they were used for. Therefore, when it moved, Lin noticed it very easily. Now, the beetle suddenly burrowed out of the Hometree and spread its wings, flying towards the north.
Lin immediately ordered a Flyer to follow it. The beetle was quite fast. It seemed to be using a jet system to fly. The Flyer had to fly at full speed to barely keep up.
The forest below quickly retreated. The red beetle was already close to the border. The wall of death spikes opened up a path for it when it was still far away.
The beetle seemed to want to fly towards the Rocky Lands. It rushed past the border at an extremely fast speed. The Flyer couldn't catch up to it anymore.
However, Lin's base in the Rocky Lands soon spotted the beetle. It was flying at a speed that Lin had never seen before. It dashed through the rift valley, flew past the base cluster on the Rocky Lands, passed through the few hometrees that Lin occupied, and finally crashed towards the direction of the waterfall.
Boom!
The high-speed beetle crashed into the waterfall, and a violent explosion sounded. Floating astronomy.
Ps: Thanks to ~ oceophylla ~ for 1888 ~!
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