It took Lin 10800 seconds to dispose of the corpses and remnants of the Inca insect swarm. Almost all of them were converted into nutrients, while the rest were sterilized and stored in the bodies of Bechymos or Suppliants. Even the two Earthbreakers with broken legs were decomposed by Lin.
Lin's only regret was that there was no useful information about the army. Although there were some army types that Lin had never seen before, there was nothing worth learning about them. The abilities of these army types were rather ordinary.
Only the Earth Shatterers were worth studying. These two Earth Shatterers had undergone a lot of modifications compared to the ones Lin first encountered. Based on their body structure, Lin was able to design a gigantic land unit for herself, one that possessed pure and powerful strength.
At the same time, Lin also gave a portion of the Earthbreakers' flesh to the Cephalopods, which seemed to help them recover their former Earthbreakers. Lin would pack them together with the Stone Chime airship and transport them to the Maya army. At the same time, Lin would also bring some Hometree seeds back to the base for research.
Speaking of which, what does' pack 'mean? This word automatically popped up in Lin's mind.
Forget it, since everything was settled, it was time to take a look at the Inca army's crater.
Lin ordered a portion of the army to transport the airships and various nutrients back, while the rest followed Bechymos to the crater.
The Inca army was flying towards the crater. There must be some secret there. Lin initially thought that the crater could also fly, but that didn't seem to be the case. Under the observation of the flyers, the crater didn't seem to be flying at all. It was still stuck in the desert as usual.
Most of the Inca army's small airships had flown above the crater. They approached the edge of the crater, and the army inside walked out and entered the crater. In a cave on the highest flight of stairs.
A small portion of the airships flew towards the ocean. Lin knew that the Inca army's movements were very purposeful. They had never panicked and didn't know where to go. Based on this, the Infernal Worms that escaped underground would probably head towards the crater or the ocean.
Or perhaps they would run far away? In order to avoid Lin's pursuit and preserve the lives of their race.
Lin indeed wanted to exterminate them, but now she realized that it didn't seem very possible.
Regardless, she would try her best to achieve this goal.
Now, Lin's troops were close to the huge crater in the desert. A large number of rocks of different sizes were floating above the crater. This was a small airship left behind by the Inca insect swarm. There were no more troops inside.
Bechymos approached the huge crater and slowly descended at the edge of the crater. As it approached the ground, it shot out some barbed tentacles into the desert to stabilize its body and prevent it from being blown away by the wind. Following that, he released some land-based troops called the Sound Explorer. It was a small troop class that was only one meter long. It could use sound to detect the surrounding environment, and it could also emit light. Because its structure was very simple, it could be mass-produced, so it was a type of 'cannon fodder' troop class like the Predator.
Lin now preferred to use cannon fodder units to test for traps, or simply to exhaust the opponent's strength. This feeling was very effective.
The explorers walked down from the edge of the giant pit. They spread out and explored every cave on the stairs, looking for traces of the Inca insects.
Lin discovered that most of the caves were only tens of meters deep. Apart from some dry sand and some eggs, there was nothing else. Lin had seen those eggs before. They were the eggs of a type of worm reared by the Inca insect swarm. They produced these worms to feed fish, dragonflies and so on. However, they didn't eat them.
Apart from these shallow caves, Lin only discovered one strange cave. It was located at the edge of the crater, at the top of the stairs.
This cave was dark and long. The Inca insect swarm might be hiding inside. Because of this, Lin decided to gather the explorers and enter to search.
The inside of the cave was even darker than night. There was almost no light at all. The explorers quickly entered and made 'ta ta ta' sounds to explore the surroundings. This was a rocky cave with a flat path. There didn't seem to be any traces of the Inca insect swarm.
Did these paths lead to the underground world? Lin only knew that the caves at the bottom of the crater led to the underground world, but this staircase didn't seem to be the case … it was located very high up, and the path was completely flat. It didn't curve downwards or in any other direction.
It seemed like this cave led to another place …
Could it be another underground cave? This might be the last territory of the Inca insect swarm.
The explorers lit up and illuminated the dark surroundings. This cave was filled with a humid aura. This was quite strange in the desert. A layer of black furry things grew on the walls of the cave under the humid air. They seemed to be plants, but they didn't seem to be plants.
In the light, Lin also discovered some rocks stuck to the ceiling of the cave and kept swaying. These rocks were obviously 'singing stones'. What made Lin feel strange was that there were no traces of the Inca insect swarm. It was as if they had purposely erased their traces.
'Plop …'
The explorers walked about a hundred meters in the cave and heard the sound of water in front of them.
Water?
The explorers sped up. As they sprinted, the path around them became wider and wider. The ground also became more and more slippery. Some skeletons also appeared.
These skeletons were vertebrate skeletons. They seemed to be some kind of reptile, but their shapes were quite strange. Their necks were very long, about half the length of their bodies. The phalanges on their limbs were also close together. In fact, Lin had never seen such a reptile before. This path really did lead to some strange place.
Finally, an open space appeared in front of the explorers. This space had a diameter of about thirty meters. In the middle was a pool with a diameter of twenty meters.
The explorers approached the water surface. Under the illumination of their glowing cells, they could only see turbid darkness.
This couldn't be seawater, right?
Lin had one of the explorers jump into the water. After absorbing some water through its pores, Lin used her olfactory cells to analyze it. This was indeed seawater, and it was the kind of seawater that was filled with toxins.
This was really strange. The Inca insect swarm did rear seawater fish, but they used filtered seawater. How could there be polluted seawater here? This place was very far from the sea.
'Plop …'
A sound came from the water.