The Doomsday Lord: Starting as a Insect Queen
Chapter 191 - 105: Consecutive Breakthroughs

Chapter 191: Chapter 105: Consecutive Breakthroughs

Since the Corpse King ascended to Rank 4, White Poplar City seemed to have entered a period of calm.

Days passed, with low-tier Lords eagerly developing and accumulating Challenge Points. Though conflicts occasionally arose, they were quickly quelled under the mediation of several high-tier Lords.

Meanwhile, new Rank 3 Lords were deep in their own schemes, seemingly hoping to emulate the earlier strategy of the leaderboard Lords who ventured into instances immediately after their ascension.

Of course, all these detailed reports were the results of Insect Swarm surveillance.

Bai Yi was aware of their plans well in advance and had Shang Ji work overtime, turning her recorded list of creatures into a book which was then sold through Anonymous.

Professing to be a summary of "personal insights," Anonymous sold this book at a promotional price—practically giving it away—and rapidly distributed it to all Lords.

Under the temptation of Fan Mao’s new Potion trade proposal, Lords could only curse under their breath at the cunning merchant Anonymous, calling for a boycott while clandestinely placing orders.

They acquired a cloth-bound book titled "100 Ways to Fleece Fan Mao."

The Lords also purchased the book and brought it into the instances with them.

Bai Yi could expect to reap a new batch of special creatures grown under a novel system when they returned.

This was one of the reasons Bai Yi was willing to let these Lords be; rather than killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, this peaceful approach would yield greater benefits.

However, just maintaining the current group of Lords in White Poplar City was sufficient for Bai Yi; like household pets, one or two could be amusing, but too many would be a nuisance.

Lords like Iron Blood Landon, invigorated by the Corpse King’s success, redoubled their efforts, doling out various benefits to win hearts and minds.

In the following days, they each fulfilled their ascension conditions and consecutively ascended to Rank 4.

Once several Lords reached the same Rank again, Iron Blood called for another meeting—this time exclusively for Rank 4s.

Bai Yi did not attend in person; instead, Shang Ji went on her behalf, accompanied by an Avatar.

The meeting discussed concerns Bai Yi once had—requirements for ascending to Rank 5 and the conquest function available after reaching Rank 4, concluding promptly.

They mutually agreed not to break from the decisions of the previous meeting, to avoid plunging White Poplar City into chaos again, and to direct their mission objectives within the instances.

This aligned with Bai Yi’s thoughts, who naturally approved the resolution.

However, the peace of the meeting didn’t extend to the leaderboard, where, although Bai Yi’s position was unshakable, the following second and third places fluctuated rapidly.

Several Rank 4 Lords seemed to start competing fiercely.

If not for the fact that the number of Mutant Creatures that Bai Yi brought back from Zone 34 was more than ample, even exceeding the count before the Lords’ arrival, it wouldn’t have been enough for their intense battles.

After Bai Yi’s conquest of Zone 34, her points lay dormant for two days, but they surged again explosively once Bai Sheng found that native fleet at sea.

The battle for that fleet was far from easy.

Beneath that floating continent connected by numerous ships, home to merely twenty thousand people, lurked a Rank 6 Beast King!

A gigantic squid comparable in size to little You!

Although Bai Sheng did not underestimate the enemy, facing it with the highest standards, the Beast King’s sudden emergence still caught him somewhat off guard.

In fact, Bai Sheng’s original plan was not to engage the fleet directly, but rather to approach it under the familiar guise of a Lord, and slowly erode it with Witch Spores, avoiding any conflict.

After all, with the current capability of Witch Spores, even Rank 5 beings could be easily infected, and converting twenty thousand people was just a matter of time.

For this purpose, Bai Sheng had even concealed the Insect Swarm and brought a group of Witches from his territory to impersonate the crew, mimicking the two Captains they had encountered.

With the Witches’ appearances, the initial contact went very smoothly, as under Bai Yi’s directed Genetic Transformation, the physique and beauty of the Witches were top-notch.

Moreover, because of Bai Yi’s particular insistence, these Witches were much more petite after their transformation, becoming cuter and inadvertently gaining a higher level of trust from others.

But Bai Yi hadn’t expected the fleet’s Captain to be so resolute, who, realizing something was amiss as Witch Spores began to spread, urged the Beast King to act without a second thought for the damage to the fleet and attack what he suspected to be Bai Sheng’s fleet.

In the end, the Beast King was subdued, and after being infected with specialized spores, it was converted into the territory’s first Rank 6 unit.

However, nearly five thousand unconverted individuals were lost in the process. Only those who had completed their transformation, the Witches, survived the battle thanks to the robust bodies granted by Bai Yi.

In the end, the remaining Witches were safely brought back, but the Beast King, unable to leave the water, continued to follow Bai Sheng, and the fleet began its mission to collect marine life.

Fifteen thousand Witches—if not for the territory’s around-the-clock efforts which had nearly completed building the Giant Tree City, the original treehouses built could not have housed them.

But now, with over a hundred giant trees completed, they had plenty of space to choose from.

And in the territory as well, development picked up during this calm period.

Bai Yi too was busy, taking on the role of Pharmacy teacher within the territory, imparting knowledge of Pharmacy to the Witches.

Even with the support of the unique Magic Network among Witches, training them in Pharmacy was not something that could be expedited.

If she wanted them to simply become potion assembly line workers, Bai Yi could have directly shared the relevant knowledge with them, allowing for instant graduation.

However, Bai Yi’s preference was for the Witches to truly comprehend Pharmacy and make it an integral part of Witch Clan knowledge.

Let them be able to conduct research on potions that are more suitable for themselves or for practical use even without her presence.

This requires not only shared knowledge but also proper hands-on practice, naturally necessitating a certain amount of time.

Bai Yi estimated that it would take about one more day for them to get started on their work preliminarily.

However, afterward, there was no need for Bai Yi to watch over them every moment. She just needed to be contacted through the witch’s Magic Network in case of any special circumstances.

These witches were all excellent apprentices, never ashamed to ask questions, which considerably eased Bai Yi’s concerns.

The only thing that made Bai Yi somewhat uncomfortable was that even these witches who had just begun studying Pharmacy had concocted potions with far fewer negative effects than the potions she made at the same Rank in the past.

Even among them were many fine potions without any negative side effects...

Taking advantage of this stable period, Bai Gong and Bai Fa also found time to join in the dissemination of knowledge among the witches.

This was also to seize the opportunity to find innate talents among the witches and begin nurturing their own foundation.

Of course, this "foundation" does not refer to forming cliques, but more akin to departments in Bai Yi’s large conglomerate, each specializing in a specific area.

For instance, the Magic Research Institute that Bai Fa was preparing to set up, the Rune Technology Research Institute led by Bai Gong, and the Alchemy Potion Workshop that was going to be handed over to Nong Yi.

The former two seemed to have similar functions, but in fact, they were responsible for different directions.

The Magic Research Institute mainly researched various practical magic spells, and incidentally provided technical and theoretical support to the Rune Research Institute—the first research topic was to develop a Rank 5 Fireball Technique...

—Bai Yi seriously suspected that Bai Fa was slipping in personal interests, but Bai Fa provided the reasoning that the Fireball Technique is the most universal and easiest magic spell to deduce across all Ranks, which passed the review by Bai Yi.

And took away a whopping five thousand Rank 5 Magic Power Crystals as research funding...

Whereas the Rune Research Institute focused mainly on creating actual Magic Items and even further, Magic Weapons.

The Alchemy Potion Workshop was to use the Pharmacy knowledge provided by Bai Yi to meet the witches’ needs independently and to research new potions based on actual demands.

After all, everything was just starting, and it was impossible for the witches to master all the knowledge proficiently.

The optimal solution was naturally for them to first pick their preferred interests and specialize in one aspect of knowledge for collaboration.

However, the departments and directions set up for the witches by Bai Yi were not limited to these three.

There was also the Transcendent Agriculture Department, tentatively led by the Forest Elf Furistin, the territory maintenance handled by the virtual needle erosion insect group consciousness, and the construction department taken over from Bai Gong’s hands by the Engineering Ant group consciousness.

The former was mainly responsible for taking over the grand agricultural plan of Bai Yi from Nong Yi’s hands, in charge of cultivating crops for Bai Yi.

As for Furistin...

Purely because Bai Yi saw they were too idle, wandering around the territory all day, she decided to give them something to do.

It was also a perfect opportunity to completely free Nong Yi, so she could focus on her Alchemist profession and contribute to building the witch civilization for Bai Yi.

Moreover, Furistin was quite interested in farming, so this job was assigned to them.

The latter two were respectively responsible for the construction and maintenance of the territory.

In other territories, maintenance work would definitely fall under the construction department, as buildings don’t need much maintenance and the work is similar, so there’s no need for additional setup.

However, Bai Yi’s territory was special. Being a territory mainly composed of plants, there weren’t many formal buildings; instead, there was a plethora of magical plants.

Their daily care needed to be managed by the Insect Swarm.

So, at least within Bai Yi’s territory, the work of construction and maintenance was poles apart.

Or rather than saying that these insect swarms maintained buildings, it was more like they were the nannies or gardeners for Bai Yi’s plants.

Taking care of the children for Bai Yi, who would—

Cough, cough, who cared for planting but not raising them.

Currently, the engineering department’s primary responsibility was the construction of Giant Tree City, and the gardener brigade took over the building of the Eternal Garden.

Bai Yi was still looking forward to this territory transformation blueprint that could enhance the aesthetic value of her territory!

To this end, she even specifically allocated a batch of Erosion Worms to join the ranks, supporting their complete conversion to gardeners to accelerate the process.

And now happened to be a smooth period, the perfect time for territory renovation.

Until now, the day before the end of the Cycle Challenge between man and beast.

The completion degree of territory renovation had reached 47%, nearing the halfway point.

And Bai Yi, having completed her teaching tasks, finally had the time to begin extracting genes from various creatures accumulated over time, preparing to create a new aquatic tribe.

......

Tentacle King: Originally a mutant octopus nurtured by the City Lord of Li Sea from a young age. Over more than a decade of growth, it gradually became powerful and ultimately became the Guardian of Li Sea City, hidden beneath Li Sea City...