Lin Feng remained in the Nest with Qin Hu and his men, waiting for the nearest Mid-stage Mother Empress to the west to investigate the situation.
However, he was somewhat surprised that after losing so many Samurai Hunter Zergs and the signals from two Early-stage Mother Empresses...
...it hadn’t come to investigate. It hadn’t even sent a couple of Samurai Hunter Zerg Scouts, or some Cyan-winged or Wind-winged Zergs to circle the skies. But there was nothing.
It was as if the creature had sensed something and decisively hunkered down to avoid revealing its location.
Not long after, the Genetic Warriors inside the other three Hive entrances noticed the anomaly and realized the Mother Empress of this Nest was likely dead.
After finishing off the Tier Two Zergs they were fighting, they left their respective Nests and gathered at the central entrance to rendezvous with the main group underground.
But to Lin Feng’s surprise, only five members of Shen Jie’s twenty-man Genetic Combat Team had arrived.
The other fifteen, including Shen Jie himself, had discovered a hidden wormhole after investigating the southernmost Hive.
It was only about five to six meters wide, so narrow that even an ordinary Tier One Black Spine Zerg would have trouble passing through.
Furthermore, the tunnel plunged thousands of meters deep, making it unlike the Hive’s ventilation shafts where Red-Armored Beetles rested.
Therefore, the tunnel’s presence deep underground was highly suspicious.
After discovering the lingering presence of Samurai Hunter Zergs inside, Shen Jie and his team decided to venture in and explore.
They wanted to find out where this group of Samurai Hunter Zergs came from and where it was going.
They believed this secret passage likely connected to the Mother Empress’s Underground Nest.
And so, Shen Jie led fourteen others inside, while the remaining five went to inform their leader, Lin Feng.
After hearing the report, Lin Feng quickly realized the abyssal tunnel Shen Jie’s group had entered was likely the one leading to the enemy’s rear—the territory of the Mid-stage Mother Empress west of the Capital City.
This also meant that Shen Jie and his fourteen men had already entered the Mid-stage Mother Empress’s Spiritual Investigation range. The Empress could now deduce that the two Early-stage Mother Empresses on the front lines, and the Zergs under their command, had been attacked.
This would explain why, more than an hour after the surprise assassination mission began, the Mid-stage Mother Empress in the rear hadn’t taken a single reconnaissance measure.
Fortunately, Shen Jie had already reached the Tier Three Early Stage, and the fourteen Genetic Warriors under his command had all gained a basic grasp of the Spine Zerg Race’s Realm Power.
Plus, since they were all equipped with Electromagnetic Cannon Replicas, killing an Early-stage Mother Empress would be no problem. As long as they didn’t venture deep into the heart of the Hive to confront the Mid-stage Mother Empress directly, they could stay on the periphery where the spiritual influence was weaker and retreat safely.
"The five of you, go and inform them. This assassination mission is over; both Early-stage Mother Empresses have been successfully eliminated."
"In our current state and at our current strength, we can’t take on a Mid-stage Mother Empress head-on. Have them return as soon as possible, lest we reveal our true strength and alert the enemy."
Even though the five Genetic Warriors had seen the slain Mother Empress’s Corpse lying like a small mountain in the depths of the Nest upon their arrival...
...now that their leader confirmed the mission was over and the other Mother Empress had also been killed, they couldn’t help but look deeply disappointed. The excitement in their eyes diminished by more than half.
Lin Feng saw this and added with a smile:
"Don’t worry. Today was just a small warning for the Multi-Emperor Alliance. Don’t forget, there are still three Early-stage Mother Empresses outside Yunxia Ridge."
"Since we can’t make a move on the Mid-stage Mother Empress yet, we’ll just use them to sharpen our claws and build up our strength!"
"Get ready. We have another tough fight tomorrow!"
After Lin Feng’s pep talk, the dejected soldiers’ spirits instantly lifted. They saluted with renewed vigor and left to recall their commander and teammates.
After seeing them off, the reinforcements Lin Feng was waiting for arrived. Half an hour after Jiang Yun’er had returned to Yunxia Ridge, they drove upgraded armored personnel carriers across the brutal, corpse-strewn battlefield and reached the surface entrance to the Hive.
The arrivals were logistics Warriors who were not on active duty.
There were about fifty of them, tasked with cleaning up the battlefield and collecting the Zerg Race’s Biological Material.
The remaining forty Battle Group members and one hundred fifty newly advanced Tier Two members at Yunxia Ridge all remained on the front lines to continue holding their position.
Although Lin Feng and Ling Yi had used Jiang Yun’er to leak information about the Hydrogen Bomb to the Multi-Emperor Alliance, there was no guarantee the Zergs wouldn’t risk launching a surprise attack.
The situation on the battlefield could change in an instant.
Especially now, at such a critical stage in the standoff, Lin Feng would not expose an opening that could decide victory or defeat.
In truth, the team didn’t have a lot of work. Their main tasks, arranged under Ling Yi’s guidance before his departure, were to dissect the two massive Mother Empress’s Corpses and extract the biological tissues required to cultivate Reproductive Armor Mechas. Their other job was to search the Hive.
They needed to locate the main hatching chambers within the two underground Zerg lairs—the ones specifically for storing and nurturing Tier Two Zerg Eggs—and then excavate the eggs.
The Salvation Army now had over two hundred Tier Two warriors in the Early and Middle Stages. Their daily Energy consumption was already siphoning off a significant amount of the Biomass Energy that was supposed to be used for the research and cultivation of Reproductive Armor Mechas.
This also included the new Electric Drive Cells being prepared for Lin Feng.
All of these demands had long since overwhelmed the main Nest at Yunxia Ridge, which only had a Swarm of tens of thousands, a single Hive, and one Hatching Meat Tower.