The Doomsday Lord: Starting as a Insect Queen
Chapter 184 - 98: The Snake Mother Who Joined at the Speed of Light

Chapter 184: Chapter 98: The Snake Mother Who Joined at the Speed of Light

Time rewinds to yesterday, on the western side of White Poplar Mountain

As a certain Beast God begins to gain the upper hand, the continuous days of scorching sun finally dissipate the accumulated snow among the mountains, and the temperature starts to recover, awakening the Snake Mother from its slumber.

It had thought that it would see White Poplar Mountain fallen into desolation due to the cold disaster, but after climbing to a high spot, it found that this was not the case.

With its eyesight, it could already see scattered Mutant Creatures moving about, nibbling on fresh and tender branches and leaves.

And there was also that conspicuous giant tree in the distance...

Was that the Human Tree King?

The cold disaster hadn’t slowed her growth at all; judging by this appearance, she was about to reach our level...

This is what they call a Lord...

The Snake Mother reflected on the Tree King’s Talent, and once again, a question arose in its mind.

Even the Tree King was approaching the 5th Rank. If it remembered correctly, before the cold disaster, she was only about 2nd Rank. How long had it actually been sleeping?

After descending from a withered tree it had climbed, it took some effort to realize it had only been asleep for half a month, and was once again astounded by the frightening growth of the Tree King.

"At this rate, after the cold disaster ends, her growth will likely be even more rapid!

Should I pledge my allegiance in advance? Perhaps I could benefit from it..."

The Snake Mother speculated in its heart, began wandering in the mountains, preparing to have a full meal and then find the other Beast Kings to properly catch up on recent events.

But when it hurried to the territory of the White Feathered Owl, which was the closest, it was stupefied.

No, where are the birds?

Forget the birds, this vast forest didn’t even have a single feather left!

Realizing something was amiss, the Snake Mother immediately hurried to the Monkey King’s territory and found, as expected, that the place was deserted... where people went, the monkeys were gone.

The entire forest didn’t have a single monkey hair to be seen, but instead, there were two Mutant Squirrels searching for food...

It was certain that if that group of monkeys were around, they would never allow other creatures to just come in and forage.

Not becoming food for those monkeys would be fortunate enough!

Moreover, there were many more obvious traces on the monkeys’ side. Under the Monkey King’s lead, the monkeys’ habits leaned more towards humans: they used firepiles, stored food using tools, and even built simple shacks.

It had witnessed the prosperous signs of the monkey group when it had previously visited.

And judging by the current traces, they had clearly been gone for a decent length of time, and moreover, it was a voluntary evacuation. All signs of their possessions were tidied up, without a sign of rush.

Could they all have migrated elsewhere because of food issues?

No, how come after one sleep, all its neighbors had run off, leaving it as a lonely snake?

What if that gorilla comes?

After a moment of disarray in the mountain breeze, it quickly realized what it needed to do next.

Both Monkey King groups could run, but the Tree King would always be stationary!

The Monkey King’s territory was not far from the Tree King’s location, and the towering nature of the giant tree could already be felt from here.

More importantly, it was the Magic Power radiating from it.

This environment of Magic Power, even the willow tree wouldn’t be much different...

Remembering its feeling in White Poplar Lake, it grew admiring of the Tree King’s methods again.

In just a month’s time, she had cultivated a 2nd Rank giant tree to 5th Rank, with this kind of Strength, if it...

Perhaps it could also...

The Snake Mother suppressed the thoughts in its heart and, determined with the direction of the giant tree, began to slither forward.

The closer it got to the Tree King, the more it was struck by the realization.

Not only was the Magic Power environment better, but even the surrounding plants were more lush, hardly resembling the aftermath of a cold disaster.

Is this the power of the Tree King?

The Snake Mother was puzzled in its heart, but as it crawled over the last mountain close to the giant tree, it saw the "acquaintances" it had just been looking for.

The monkey and bird groups were scattering among a stretch of forest, where simple nests even could be seen built throughout.

And that distance, it was almost a stone’s throw away from the giant tree, surely that had been permitted by the Tree King, otherwise, it wouldn’t look as if they had settled here.

It couldn’t believe that the monkeys and big bird harbored ideas to coerce the Tree King.

Not to mention that this would contradict their original plans, it was also because of the Tree King’s current Strength!

So, had they pledged allegiance to the Tree King?

That was utterly shameless!

Actually!

Actually not including it!

No, I can’t be the only snake left behind! I must also lead my people to migrate!

Immediately, at once!

The Snake Mother coiled itself on a lush tree among the mountains, its gaze firmly fixed on the two mixed groups below, its heart suddenly harboring emotions akin to envy and jealousy.

It had already harbored similar thoughts, and seeing the Monkey King and White Feathered Owl’s tribes only further affirmed its own ideas, determined to align itself with the Tree King.

Its thought process was simple: since the monkeys and the big birds had pledged loyalty to the Tree King, that clearly indicated it was a sound path to follow.

Besides, considering that the orange cat, who was initially responsible for protecting the Beast King, had already joined up, it was the only one of the Four Great Beast Kings left—and it happened to be the weakest one!

After thinking it over, naturally, the best course of action was to defect as quickly as possible.

Although it was a bit late to the game compared to the monkeys, as long as it showed a good attitude, it figured it might not be any worse off than them!

However, it obviously couldn’t just stupidly rush up to join; it still had its own tribe to consider!

After staring a few more seconds at the giant tree radiating a rich aura of life from its perch, the Snake Mother reluctantly swam back.

What it didn’t realize was that ever since it had gotten close to Bai Yi’s territory, passing through a barrier of Tree-men disguised as ordinary banyan trees, it had been marked by the ever-present Fei Wen surrounding the territory.

It was tracked all the way back to the inner parts of its own territory.

And after that, it acted swiftly, rallying its tribe and heading towards the Tree King’s domain overnight.

All this was observed by Shang Ji, who had just woken up at dawn, just finished with her transformation, receiving the Swarm Network’s report that a creature had breached the outer barriers of the territory.

She had barely gotten the chance to rest and was now forced to work overtime again; this was why Shang Ji was in a bit of a mood when she formally visited Bai Yi in the morning.

The old her might not have reacted the same, but after transforming into a witch, Shang Ji felt she needed to take a refresher course in emotion management.

Regaining control of her emotions, Shang Ji received Bai Yi’s answer:

"Let it slide this time; the witch gene still needs adjustment. You may handle it yourself.

Hmm, it came of its own accord, plus I need the gene entry it carries with it.

So, let’s still give it two options: either agree to transform into a Hero Unit and receive some preferential treatment, or become a resident and be moved to the area of the mountains where the Mutant Creatures congregate."

"Yes~"

With Bai Yi’s permission, a tinge of pleasure rose in Shang Ji’s heart.

Her mind instantly thought of several tricky methods, of course, none that would hinder the final outcome.

Everything still had to adhere to the master’s command as the top priority, but the process well...

Shang Ji felt she hadn’t had as many emotional ups and downs in her entire time in the territory as she did on this day, though she didn’t resent the change.

"Which approach shall I use..."

As she left Bai Yi’s tree hollow via the suspended walkway, Shang Ji was muttering to herself.

.........

Every thought of Shang Ji’s was accurately reflected in the Swarm Network as the currently most unique witch, Bai Yi took great interest in Shang Ji’s psychological transformation.

For now, Shang Ji appeared quite stable.

With the Swarm Consciousness overseeing things, it was quite difficult for individual issues to arise under a Collective’s consciousness.

Even though the current witches’ group consciousness had been artificially weakened by others, the aspect of their Spiritual Connection remained untouched.

This ensured loyalty and also avoided detection by the mod as being the same unit.

As Bai Yi watched her in the Swarm Network engaging with the Snake Mother in negotiation, she withdrew her attention and continued with her witch transformation plans.

While for Shang Ji, despite some effects from becoming a witch, most were positive.

She entered negotiations with the Snake Mother, who was also leaning towards joining the territory, and the talks concluded swiftly and satisfactorily, reaching an agreement that left both parties content.

The Snake Mother’s tribe would become a complete part of Bai Yi’s territory, at liberty for Bai Yi to dispatch as long as she consented and did not intentionally harm the tribe.

As for itself, after understanding all the treatments and possibilities put forth by Shang Ji, it made a decision and accepted a brand new path that Shang Ji had thought of after becoming a witch—a path that was conceived by combining the current resources and Strength of the territory with the essence of a witch.

Like the White Feathered Owl, the Snake Mother would cultivate within the territory as a Free Snake, with Bai Yi’s side providing extra resources to support its advancement and to transform into a territory’s Hero Unit with Hero conversion credentials upon reaching Tier 6.

The guarantee for that was a Contract established with scales of balance.

Although scales were usually employed in combat, it indeed had the function to witness contracts; it simply hadn’t been used much as there hadn’t been the necessity for a strong Compulsion contract offline.

And before officially joining the territory, Shang Ji naturally wouldn’t let matters take their course without precautions, hence the Swarm Consciousness.

Previously, as a Rank 5 Beast King, it wouldn’t have been possible for her master, but now circumstances had changed.

The master, in essence still Rank 5, couldn’t directly fuse genes due to the constraints of the Superpower Tier limit on the mod, but now there was a method to circumvent this limitation

—that was to infect the Snake Mother with spores like those of a witch through witch infection.

As long as the Snake Mother allowed the spores to modify her, it was theoretically possible to achieve a higher-tier gene allocation!

Of course, this required urging the master to swiftly complete witch enhancements and then produce these gene spores.

After affirming the Contract with the scales, Shang Ji uploaded the meeting’s outcomes and her own urge to the Swarm Network and cheekily tagged Bai Yi to complete the spores as soon as possible.

And she soon got her wish, receiving Bai Yi’s reply—unsurprisingly, that led her to tackle a mountain of new tasks because of her daring.

"Alright, alright, rebelling against Heaven itself to assign tasks to me, huh.

You’re right, but after resting yesterday, Eternal Life City has a day’s worth of backlog, and several new construction projects popped up yesterday requiring your attention to arrange resources and workforce, plus new resource extraction and storage..."

.........

Snake: That Snake guy, a bit slow and simple-minded, but lucky, always making the correct decisions intuitively. Humans actually think it’s cunning, hahaha, how ridiculous, that cracks me up!