Chapter 580 328: Crystal Core of the Warlord Bug (Part 2)

"These ancient insects seem to assume the role of a Commander within the swarm. In any swarm numbering over a thousand, at least one such ancient insect exists."

"I dissected a few in the laboratory, and without exception, discovered this."

Lize extended her hand, revealing a stone-like object the size of an egg in her palm. It appeared unremarkable, but upon close examination, one could discern that it could actually invoke the Power of Law in the surrounding void.

Sunan's eyes glimmered with interest as he took the stone and examined it closely, realizing that the activity of the Power of Law within a hundred meters of the stone's center had noticeably increased.

However, the attributes of this Power of Law were rather extreme.

Slaughter, destruction, devouring... nearly all are negative laws!

"This ancient insect is called a Commander Insect, essentially serving as a military commander among the ancient insects. In wartime, they are responsible for directing ordinary ancient insects in battle. They possess higher intelligence and only take orders from a Queen Insect."

"Queen Insect?" Lize frowned in confusion, "Mother Insect?"

Sunan nodded, "More or less, the Queen Insect itself lacks combat prowess, but it can simultaneously command tens of millions of swarms in battle. It belongs to the royal family of ancient insects. It is estimated that the entire ancient insect species doesn't have many Queen Insects."

If the Queen Insect is the supreme commander of the swarm, then the Commander Insect is the swarm's general.

The former commands large-scale wars, while the latter directs regional, smaller-scale wars.

After hearing Sunan's explanation, Lize nodded in sudden realization and glanced again at the stone in Sunan's hand, asking, "And what about this?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but it should be some kind of Crystal Core."

Sunan shook his head, admitting his limited knowledge of the ancient insect species. He only knew of the Commander Insect and the Queen Insect, but couldn't ascertain more detailed information.

This was his first time learning that the Commander Insect had such a Crystal Core capable of invoking the Power of Law within its body.

"Regardless, anything linked to the Power of Law is anything but ordinary."

"This Crystal Core is worth researching, potentially leading to some interesting discoveries."

"Send these Commander Insects to my laboratory."

Following Sunan's command, over a dozen Commander Insects were swiftly sent to his laboratory.

Without delay, Sunan began dissection and research the same day.

The terrifying aspect of the ancient insect species lies primarily in their swarm tactics and their fearlessly tenacious combat style.

The individual power is not particularly strong.

Even the relatively high-ranking Commander Insects only possess combat capabilities equivalent to those of a Level 1 Wizard.

After dissection, the body structure of the Commander Insect did not surprise Sunan, so he focused his research primarily on the Crystal Core.

The results did provide him with a surprise.

In the structure of the Commander Insect, the Crystal Core serves as the reason for ultra-long-range transmission and reception of information waves, thereby commanding the swarm.

If one were to make a comparison, it is somewhat analogous to a god's divinity.

Divine Spirits can accept prayers from millions of believers simultaneously through their divinity, process information, as well as issue commands and bestow Divine Power and Divine Art through divinity.

The Crystal Core of the Commander Insect is quite similar to divinity in this regard.

As for why the Crystal Core can invoke the Power of Law, Sunan speculated that it is due to the tightly knit Spirit connection of the ancient insect's consciousness.

The ancient insect is an extremely collectivist species where ordinary ancient insects almost lack independent thought, with all actions commanded by the Commander Insect or Queen Insect.

They completely surrender their Spirit and will to the latter two.

Through the connection of the Crystal Core, the Spirit and will of the swarm conglomerate to form a vast Spirit network.

An individual ancient insect may be insignificant, but when their numbers reach a certain scale, the Spirit network can leverage the Powers of Law such as slaughter, destruction, and devouring.

These Powers of Law ultimately converge at the network's source, which is the Crystal Core.

Subtly influenced, the Crystal Core's ability to invoke the Power of Law is not surprising.

Of course, due to the Commander Insect's own weak strength, the invoked Power of Law is minuscule, barely assisting the Crystal Core in processing massive amounts of information, and has nearly no impact on its combat abilities.

In simple terms, the Crystal Core is essentially an ultra-subordinate version of divinity.

"If that's the case, is it possible to synthesize something similar to divinity using Crystal Cores?"

A spark of inspiration flashed across Sunan's mind, and his eyes lit up.

It's worth a try!

Formulating a strategy, Sunan immediately used a magic cube to synthesize all the Crystal Cores in his possession.

After synthesis, the varied slaughters, destruction intentions within the cores disappeared entirely, leaving only the purest essence.

When Sunan tried using it, he indeed found a noticeable increase in the efficiency of comprehending the Laws.

"Although the effect is not as good as divinity, that's because the synthesis quantity is too small. As long as the synthesis quantity increases, it can entirely replace divinity for aiding in cultivation."

With joy, Sunan immediately ordered the Star Alliance to hunt Commander Insects with full force and collect Crystal Cores, while also purchasing Commander Insect Crystal Cores externally.

Although these items are somewhat peculiar, they aren't particularly useful, and only by using the synthesis magic cube can one realize their potential, so Sunan wasn't worried about not being able to purchase them.

Normally, if the Commander Insect's Crystal Core has this effect, the Queen Insect would definitely possess a similar core, and its impact would undoubtedly be more formidable.

However, the Queen Insect is scarce, and whenever it appears, it is invariably guarded by a massive swarm.

Unless a Floating City is deployed, it's nearly impossible to kill a Queen Insect, so Sunan didn't set his sights on them.

Anyway, as long as the scourge of ancient insects continues, there's likely a future opportunity to encounter a Queen Insect.

Following Sunan's command, the Star Alliance began collecting Commander Insect Crystal Cores with full force.

The Commander Insect is relatively rare among ancient insects, as it isn't guaranteed that even one would appear in a swarm of a thousand.

Yet the sheer-bulk numbers of the ancient insects facilitate that the number of Commander Insects is not particularly small.

Many are curious about the Star Alliance's purpose in collecting the Crystal Cores, but after extensive research, they couldn't find anything extraordinary about the cores.

Meanwhile, as the intensity of the war increased, with the anticipation of it largely continuing in the foreseeable future, the various Wizard Influences began to consciously purchase and stockpile resources, leading to a clear rise in the prices of various resources.

In such circumstances, everything prioritizes preparation for the war.

Seeing the Star Alliance offering a high price to purchase Crystal Cores, most Wizard Influences decided to trade the cores with them.

Although the amount of Crystal Cores acquired wasn't large, it was more than sufficient to support Sunan's cultivation.

"At this rate, in at most three thousand years, I will be able to elevate my Gravity Law to a 1000-level energy tier."

A smile appeared on Sunan's face.

For someone like him, a True Spirit Wizard with 'divinity' and Law nodes assisting his cultivation from start to finish, likely not another exists in the entire Multiverse.