Half an hour later, Qin Shilei and An Qian returned to the swarm outside the city.
As soon as they jumped off Xiao Jin's back and landed, the surrounding insects immediately swarmed towards them, brandishing their two sharp forelimbs.
Boom!
The massive Xiao Jin made its grand entrance, startling many of the surrounding insects.
"An Qian, try to spare the silver-armored beetles."
Qin Shilei said as he charged towards the scythe beetles.
The insects controlled by Xiao Jin were like docile lambs, allowing Qin Shilei and An Qian to slaughter them at will.
For these insects, which were only at the Black Iron realm, Qin Shilei could easily sever their heads with his sharp Blood Soul, rendering any combat skills unnecessary.
He would only summon the Phantom to assist in killing monsters when its cooldown was over.
An Qian also used her sharp Sky Phoenix Sword to slay insects, only occasionally unleashing her ultimate skill, Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix, in densely populated areas.
Half an hour later, hundreds of meters around were littered with insect corpses.
An Qian spoke, "Shilei, give me your Qiankun Ring."
"Here." Qin Shilei removed his Qiankun Ring and handed it over.
After receiving the ring, An Qian swiftly moved around the surroundings.
Instantly, treasure chests, ability orbs, and crystal cores were automatically picked up by the Qiankun Ring.
She then manipulated the Qiankun Ring and once again flickered around like a phantom.
The insect corpses on the ground were also collected into the Qiankun Ring.
Insect meat was far more valuable than zombie corpses, and they couldn't be discarded carelessly like zombies.
For three consecutive days, Qin Shilei and An Qian spent their days slaughtering insects, and at night, they sent Xiao Jin back to the insect realm to guard the Insect Valley.
With Xiao Jin's assistance, their efficiency in killing insects surpassed their previous efficiency in killing zombies.
They received a massive influx of crystal cores daily, and An Qian opened so many treasure chests that she became numb.
With the vast amount of crystal cores, Qin Shilei finally advanced to Silver Nine Stars, with his experience exceeding one-third and nearing the Silver peak.
As they were preparing to go and kill more insects, Zhang Xiaoli caught up.
"Brother Qin, my Jin Ya is almost recovered. Let's try using insects to kill zombies."
Qin Shilei nodded, "Alright, let's go."
The three quickly arrived at a place where insects roamed. Zhang Xiaoli had her pet Jin Ya control thousands of insects and then headed towards the nearest zombie cluster.
They traveled for half a day before reaching a small town overrun with zombies.
Like a swarm of locusts, the insect army swept through the town from one end to the other in just over ten minutes.
However, Zhang Xiaoli said with a dejected expression, "It seems my insect army is indeed not very practical."
Qin Shilei smiled, "It's still useful. When dealing with a zombie horde, it can quickly and effectively eliminate the zombie's fighting strength."
As he spoke, he flipped over a zombie and discovered that the crystal core in its head had been consumed by the insects as usual.
Out of the thousands of zombies in the entire town, they only harvested a few hundred crystal cores, with most of them being dug up and eaten by the insects.
It was unclear whether Jin Ya failed to understand Zhang Xiaoli's intentions or if Jin Ya couldn't control the insects well enough to prevent them from pilfering crystal cores.
While the insects only took over ten minutes to kill the zombies, it took Qin Shilei and the others over half an hour to dig out the crystal cores.
In short, relying on the insect army to earn crystal cores was not a good idea for peak experts like Qin Shilei.
An Qian comforted her, "Xiaoli, it's better to have quality than quantity. If you have Jin Ya control only silver-armored beetles, you might get unexpected results."
Zhang Xiaoli's eyes lit up, and she agreed, "Okay, let's go and pick out all the silver-armored beetles from the swarm right now."
The three returned to the area where insects roamed.
Qin Shilei said, "We'll kill the scythe beetles while Jin Ya controls the silver-armored beetles."
Zhang Xiaoli worried, "If we kill its kin in front of Jin Ya, will its loyalty drop, causing it to betray us?"
Qin Shilei smiled, "I guarantee it won't. Jin Ya is extremely loyal to you."
In the past few days, he had bestowed four excellent attributes upon Jin Ya, one of which was "Until Death Do Us Part."
Until Death Do Us Part (Red): Once a master is recognized, rebellion will never occur.
Qin Shilei and the others selected suitable elite subordinates for Jin Ya while fighting their way deeper into the swarm.
Another three days passed.
Jin Ya had gathered one hundred and sixty-eight silver-armored beetles and four to five hundred Black Iron Nine Star scythe beetles.
Zhang Xiaoli was now sitting on Jin Ya's back, surrounded by imposing silver-armored and scythe beetles, resembling a queen of the swarm.
With a single command, the swarm charged, their path unstoppable!
Even if the enemies ahead were also insects, the loyal Jin Ya showed no mercy, leading its powerful subordinates to cut down its master's enemies.
The hapless Qin Shilei followed behind, constantly splitting open insect heads to dig out crystal cores.
When controlling a small number of insects, Jin Ya could indeed ensure that its subordinates did not steal loot.
After experiencing the thrill of being a swarm queen, Zhang Xiaoli excitedly ran back to Qin Shilei's side to help dig crystal cores.
She complained, "These insects are good at everything, except they're too stupid to help their master dig crystal cores."
Qin Shilei laughed, "They're not unable to dig crystal cores, they just devour them immediately once they're dug out."
Zhang Xiaoli then asked, "Brother Qin, what will we do when we return to Hope City? Once Jin Ya is put away, those silver-armored beetles will probably rebel and eat their leader's master."
Qin Shilei pondered for a moment and said, "From now on, we'll discard all the scythe beetles and only keep the silver-armored beetles. You also don't need to put Jin Ya into your pet space. With Jin Ya around, those silver-armored beetles won't rebel."
Zhang Xiaoli frowned, "That's the only way. I feel too sorry to let these silver-armored beetles go or kill them."
Although it was inconvenient to always have one to two hundred large insects around, the strength of the silver-armored beetles made her unwilling to give them up.
From then on, a peculiar and astonishing sight appeared in Hope City.
A golden beetle, five to six meters tall, always led a large group of smaller silver-armored beetles through the streets and alleys.
Zhang Xiaoli also earned the title "Queen of the Swarm" because of this.
After testing the power of the silver-armored beetle swarm, Qin Shilei and the others continued to fight their way deeper into the swarm, arriving in front of a square in the small county town of Liuhua.
Liuhua County was nearly four hundred kilometers from Hope City. It had now become a world of insects.
The insects in this square were so dense that it was almost impossible to find a foothold.
An Qian pointed at a glowing gate ahead and exclaimed in surprise, "Why is this spatial rift so large?"
In the center of the square, about two to three meters above the ground, a spatial rift five to six meters wide hung in the air.
A continuous stream of scythe beetles and golden beetles emerged from the spatial rift and dispersed in all directions.