Countless sand beetles instantly filled up the depression below. There was a distance of a hundred meters from the bottom to the top. These beetles did not have enough jumping power, so they spread out along the boulders. The beetles crowded together, and even more beetles came out from the cracks in the boulders. Like a spring, they filled up every rock and every crack, like a gray stream of water. These beetles were extremely aggressive, and if they could not reach Zhang Xiaoqiang, they would climb up the slope. Each beetle was courageously fighting to be the first. Their unique body structure allowed them to run up the steep rock walls as if they were flying. In a minute, nearly half of the rock wall was occupied by their figures, which made people's scalps go numb. Whether it was him or Zhuo Mingyue, they did not have the confidence to deal with this seemingly endless number of beetles … The water snake once again descended to prepare for its next meal. At this moment, a sharp pain came from the scales on its abdomen, as if it had been pierced by a red-hot steel needle.
It could not help but let out a croak. The pain made the water snake irritable. It gave up on its food and looked for the one that had hurt it. It lowered its head and saw Zhang Xiaoqiang stab a fiery red scimitar into its belly. Its huge snake eyes met Zhang Xiaoqiang's cold gaze. The water snake was cleanly defeated, and it lowered its head to submit to Zhang Xiaoqiang. Zhang Xiaoqiang slapped the water snake's lips and pointed at the countless sand beetles crawling behind him. The water snake became spirited, and it twisted its head downwards. Then, the bodies of countless sand beetles floated up. Apart from the beetles that were clinging to the rocks and swaying left and right, all the other beetles that did not have any strength floated into the water snake's mouth. These beetles rolled in the air, baring their fangs and claws as they tried to find something to hold onto. In the end, several or even dozens of beetles flew into the water snake's mouth.
As the saying goes, "Everything has its vanquisher." The water snake was born to restrain these things. The water snake's greatest interest was food, and it was never afraid of food. Its mouth, which was like a city gate, swallowed the beetles effortlessly. The endless stream of beetles was reduced to a few kittens in the blink of an eye. Most of the remaining beetles were hiding in cracks or clinging to rocks.
The water snake seemed to think that the taste of the sand beetles was much better than that of the horned beetles. After swallowing them once, it felt that it wasn't enough. It swallowed a lot of the dust and rubbish below. When there was nothing left, it raised its neck and spat out a large amount of dust and gravel. It then turned its attention back to the flying beetles in the sky.
Zhuo Mingyue stared at the empty tunnel in disbelief. The water snake had always been as weak as a slug in front of Zhang Xiaoqiang. It was so weak that most people looked down on this fellow that only knew how to eat. Even Zhuo Mingyue didn't take the water snake seriously. Usually, Zhang Xiaoqiang didn't pay attention to it. It had only been sent out during the battle in Shanghai, but at that time, the water snake was just a useless piece of trash. Its only bright point was that it had eaten a lot of zombies and gained a lot of weight.
But today, the water snake had really surprised her. Even she couldn't deal with the countless sand beetles, but the water snake had easily swept them all away. Wasn't this … too terrifying?
"Don't think too much. This thing is a glutton. As long as it has food, it's invincible …" Zhang Xiaoqiang could see the worry in Zhuo Mingyue's heart and comforted her. Zhuo Mingyue rolled her eyes at Zhang Xiaoqiang and muttered, "Like owner, like pet …"
The two of them went down the tunnel again. This time, the ground was a lot cleaner. Zhang Xiaoqiang also found the tunnel that the sand beetles had come out from. There was a huge hole at the bottom of the two boulders. There were ice beetle corpses around the hole. Seeing the blue shells of the ice beetles, Zhang Xiaoqiang's heart moved. Yesterday, when the fire was burning the mountain top, more than a thousand flying beetles probably came out from here. At that time, the fire was very strong and many of the flying beetles died in the fire. It could be seen that when the mountain collapsed, the beetles below still had a way to escape.
As the two of them walked into the tunnel, Zhang Xiaoqiang saw countless intact ice beetle corpses. The layers of corpses stretched all the way forward. This surprised Zhang Xiaoqiang more and more. Yesterday, the mountain fire was so intense that the air around the mountain top had been swept away. These insects had all died from suffocation, but he didn't expect that there would be so many insects that could escape from the explosion.
There was nothing worth using on the ice beetles' bodies. Even the insect's horns were not useful to Zhang Xiaoqiang. Although they were useful to ordinary evolvers, he didn't want to give them to the Americans or the British. They kept walking forward, and not long after, they saw the carcass of a knife-arm insect. This knife-arm insect had also died from suffocation. However, they were already far enough from the outside. Zhang Xiaoqiang could even feel the faint air flow passing by his cheeks. Obviously, this tunnel was connected to the other tunnels, so how could it suffocate?
After that, Zhang Xiaoqiang saw many more ice beetles and knife-arm insects. Suddenly, he understood. On the day of the explosion, thousands of ice beetles carried the queen and rushed into the tunnel. That was how they managed to escape from the collapse of the mountain. Previously, Zhang Xiaoqiang had seen the scale of the tunnel. Every insect tunnel was about the same size, just enough for a heavy truck to pass through, which was exactly the size of the queen. Zhang Xiaoqiang and Simon had been misled. They had seen the true face of the queen, and it was even fatter than a super fat pig. Not to mention moving, it would have been difficult for it to even turn over. They didn't expect that the queen would be able to move, which led to a blind spot in their thinking. In fact, the queen had always been alive, and it was living quite comfortably.
It was easy to understand why so many ice beetles and knife-arm insects had died. With so many insects squeezed into one pile, it would definitely consume a lot of oxygen. Even if the tunnel was clear, most of the insects would still suffocate to death. The queen, however, was the most dangerous one. The queen's body needed more oxygen, and with so many insects fighting over it, the queen definitely wouldn't let it go. So, it simply sent all of its subordinates to their deaths, leaving the queen with precious oxygen. This was also why so many insects flew out when the fire was at its hottest …
Thinking about this, the bright red scimitar in Zhang Xiaoqiang's hand shone brightly. Zhuo Mingyue thought that Zhang Xiaoqiang had discovered the enemy, so she quickly opened a protective shield to cover both of them.
"Don't worry, I just figured out something. Maybe it'll be the one to deal with the flying beetles in the end …" Zhuo Mingyue didn't understand what Zhang Xiaoqiang was saying, nor did she need to understand. The two of them walked along the insect corpses, went around a few holes, and walked along the dead beetles until they reached a large cave.
This large cave had traces of man-made construction. There were corroded wires on the walls, and there were also thick cobwebs hanging from the dust. In addition, the ground of the cave had traces of being flattened. At the center of the platform was the queen that Zhang Xiaoqiang had seen before. There were a lot of ice beetles and male insects around the queen, but there weren't many of them. There weren't even a hundred of them each. The wall behind the queen had countless holes dug out, and each hole contained an insect egg. The smallest of these eggs was the size of an ostrich egg, and the biggest was the size of a watermelon. The densely packed insect eggs made Zhang Xiaoqiang's heart go cold. Could this queen really lay eggs?
There were a lot of insect eggs that were qualified to be placed in the cave, but even more were piled up randomly on the ground. These insect eggs were the size of ping pong balls, and they weren't one by one, but in piles. They were piled up here and there like fish roe. There was no order to speak of. From a glance, there were at least hundreds of thousands of insect eggs, and even more insect eggs were hidden in darker places.