The auxiliary esper gritted his teeth and expanded the range of his slowing ability, preventing the male insects from rescuing the insect queen immediately.
Using his ability at such an overload, even an SSS-rank esper couldn’t hold out for long.
Fortunately, everyone’s attacks landed successfully on the insect queen.
Yunyang’s guess had been right. Its abdomen was indeed the weakest point in the insect queen’s defenses, which was why it had kept protecting it so desperately.
Now that countless attacks had struck its abdomen, it was pierced straight through, and large amounts of green fluid poured out.
At the brink of death, the insect queen tore through the vines and burst forth with unprecedented speed.
Trailing green fluid across the ground, it crawled to where Guiying was. Its pierced abdomen swelled up again, and milky-white insect eggs could be vaguely seen inside.
The milky-white eggs mixed with the green fluid, packed densely together.
Yunyang suddenly felt as though she’d developed trypophobia.
Suppressing her nausea, she continued watching the footage transmitted by Butler Four.
Inside Guiying, Fuyuan had shifted positions through the spatial passage Si Zhao opened the moment the insect queen came crawling over.
But the insect queen seemed able to sense fluctuations in supernatural energy. It changed direction with uncanny accuracy and stubbornly pursued Guiying.
It had abandoned all attempts at defense. Its only fixation was catching up to Guiying.
Yunyang remembered the two pilots who had previously been parasitized.
Could the insect queen be planning to lay its eggs inside Guiying before dying, allowing the eggs to parasitize Sister Zhaozhao and the others?
Yunyang imagined Si Zhao and the others all being parasitized, and a shudder ran through her.
She absolutely could not let the insect queen get its way!
She stared at the opening in the insect queen’s abdomen. Through the crowded eggs and green fluid, she could vaguely see an insect core.
The insect queen had an insect core too?
Yunyang was stunned for a moment, but quickly understood—
The Federation had never said that insect queens didn’t possess insect cores.
And the fact that the insect queen could still burst forth with such astonishing speed after suffering injuries this severe was probably because its insect core had yet to be destroyed.
The insect queen was above Level Nine in rank. With Sister Zhaozhao’s mental strength, she probably couldn’t destroy its insect core.
Yunyang made her decision in an instant. “Sister Zhaozhao, can you still open a spatial passage from over there?”
“I can try.” Without Yunyang’s blessing, Si Zhao wasn’t sure whether she could open a spatial passage across such a great distance. “Yangyang, are Wu Zhengming and Kalunden coming over?”
Yunyang shook her head. “Sister Zhaozhao, I’m going over there.”
“I saw the insect queen’s core. Its rank is extremely high. Only by working together do we have a chance of destroying it.”
Si Zhao hesitated as she looked at the situation inside the insect nest.
The insect queen had issued a final summons before its death, and now all the insects were chasing Guiying alongside it.
However, because of the spatial passages she had established earlier, the insects couldn’t catch up to Guiying for the time being.
“All right. I’ll try.”
Si Zhao no longer hesitated. She instructed He Youchuan and the others to continue causing chaos among the insect swarm, then attempted to establish a spatial passage between the insect nest and the aircraft where Yunyang was located.
The result was naturally a failure.
The insect nest was several thousand meters beneath the surface of the insect planet. Without Yunyang’s amplification, Si Zhao’s spatial ability was not strong enough to create a passage across such a distance.
Fortunately, Guiying was in aircraft form.
Si Zhao gave the order: “Fuyuan, ascend. The higher, the better.”
Fuyuan immediately controlled Guiying and sent it soaring.
Guiying’s speed increased to the maximum. In the blink of an eye, it reached a position less than a thousand meters above the ground.
The male insects could fly as well. Sensing the unusual fluctuations, they rose into the air, and the insect queen immediately ordered them to pursue Guiying, attempting to shoot it down.
At this distance, Si Zhao was within range to open a spatial passage.
She withdrew the spatial passages on the ground and concentrated all her ability on opening a new entrance near Yunyang.
Yunyang didn’t have time to notify Wu Zhengming and Kalunden. She immediately got to her feet and led her remaining six beast husbands into the spatial vortex.
She was dazed for only a moment. When she came to, she had already appeared where Guiying was.
Since they were in midair, there was no way to open the hatch and let the others inside.
Fu Shiyi voluntarily reverted to his beast form, carrying Yunyang and her five other rivals.
Those outside Guiying could not be concealed together with it. Thus, the moment Yunyang and the others appeared, the male insects instantly gained targets to attack.
Pei Wenye and the other four men couldn’t fly, but they were able to put up defenses immediately.
The five of them surrounded Yunyang from every direction, ensuring that she wouldn’t suffer the slightest injury.
Yunyang remained in communication with Si Zhao and the others. At that moment, she directly ordered Fuyuan, “Fuyuan, help Sister Zhaozhao replenish her mental strength.”
Fuyuan didn’t hesitate and immediately opened his mouth.
To restore Si Zhao’s strength without making physical contact, he could only let everyone hear his sound waves.
But his Mistress had said that she would ensure he would never be taken away for experiments.
He trusted his Mistress with all his heart and soul.
He Youchuan and the others silently covered their ears. It wasn’t that they disliked Fuyuan. It was just that… well, it was just that…
Forget it. To put it bluntly, Fuyuan’s sound waves really were a little unpleasant.
However, this time, Fuyuan’s sound waves were completely different from before.
Although the sound waves had no effect on males, merely listening to them made He Youchuan and the others feel refreshed.
Had they misunderstood Fuyuan and his brothers before?
Si Zhao could clearly feel her mental strength gradually recovering.
So that was why Yangyang’s merman beast husband had never used his ability before.
But none of that mattered now.
Si Zhao’s mental strength had only just reached S rank. Under Fuyuan’s full-power restoration, it was completely recovered in less than half an hour.
During that time, Leonardo took over the task of piloting Guiying.
Si Zhao once again established spatial passages throughout the insect nest, allowing Yunyang and the others to evade the insects with ease.
Nearly an hour had passed since the insect queen’s abdomen was pierced, yet it had stubbornly survived until now.
Insects were basically cockroach bodies with spider legs. Looking at the insect queen’s tenacity, Yunyang couldn’t help thinking of the indestructible cockroaches from her past life.
She had no idea whether destroying the insect core would truly kill the insect queen.
Whatever. They would destroy it first and worry about the rest later!
After confirming that Si Zhao had recovered her mental strength, Yunyang had Fu Shiyi descend slightly, and she and Si Zhao launched simultaneous mental attacks at the insect queen.
Sensing the danger, the insect queen instinctively tried to flee.
However, at some point, the ground beneath its feet had been soaked. Then, all thirteen of its remaining legs were frozen in place.
Qin Mo and the others had stayed by Yunyang’s side ever since they boarded the insect planet.
The Federation army had protected the fleet of aircraft extremely well. The insects had not even entered the fleet’s perimeter, so aside from guarding Yunyang, the group had spent every day working hard to improve their abilities.
Now that they finally had a chance to show what they could do, they used every skill they had.
They might not be able to inflict serious damage on the insect queen, but temporarily restricting its movements was within their capabilities.
Even if it lasted only a second, that was enough for their Mistress and the Empress to land their mental attacks on the insect queen.
…
My precious little darlings, happy New Year’s Eve! Here’s an extra chapter today to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new one~
Wishing all my little darlings endless happiness and peace in the coming year—and more money than you could ever spend! (This is the important part!)
