After purchasing the item, Xu Luo had only a few thousand faith power left, not enough to buy anything significant. Thus, he returned to his divine realm from the divine realm's main city.
In his realm, tens of thousands of mayflies were diligently gathering evolution points, too small to be seen by the naked eye, so Xu Luo could only sense them. The other Zerg species, now just two types, mostly remained hidden underground.
The Zerg preferred dark, damp environments, which was why he wanted to build a Zerg hive to enhance their evolution speed.
Compared to the morning, Xu Luo noticed his divine realm had slightly shrunk, likely due to the mayflies' activities. He also had a considerable reserve of insect eggs.
He didn't rush to hatch them, as it would only increase his feeding burden.
With the newly acquired Acid Pool terrain card, Xu Luo chose a location at the edge of his divine realm and used it. Terrain cards seal a specific terrain within them, and using one releases the sealed terrain.
A dazzling light flashed, and an area of about a dozen square kilometers collapsed. After a series of rumbles, a pungent odor emerged, and green liquid began filling the large pit, forming a massive acid pool. The acidity was so high that few organisms could survive in it.
[Divine Realm has acquired an Acid Pool!]
[The Acid Pool can produce special acid that can combine with Explosive Bugs to form a new species, Acid Bugs!]
A new species? Xu Luo was curious. Explosive Bugs were consumables, so he hadn't used them before. He didn't expect a new evolution direction involving them.
Acid Bug : Explosive Bug + Acid; upon explosion, it corrodes the surrounding area, Bronze tier-six.
Bronze tier-six Zerg! Xu Luo was thrilled. The explosive power should be formidable.
With the Acid Pool, evolving Acid Bugs required no additional evolution points, just an Explosive Bug. Placing the insect eggs in the Acid Pool and selecting the Explosive Bug evolution path, the eggs would naturally absorb the acid and evolve into Acid Bugs. They also required no feeding, subsisting solely on acid.
Typically, species can't evolve independently. They need their deity's help, either by loading different evolution templates or consuming vast faith power to advance their bloodlines. Without such intervention, they remained as they were, only able to gradually increase their strength.
Since Acid Bugs required no feeding, Xu Luo placed all thousand insect eggs into the Acid Pool, consumed a thousand evolution points, and chose the Explosive Bug path, waiting for them to hatch naturally.
The process was swift. Within minutes, the insect eggs hatched and began absorbing the acidic substances. In about a minute, the evolution into Acid Bugs was complete.
The original finger-sized bugs evolved into fist-sized Explosive Bugs, and now, as Acid Bugs, they grew to about half an arm's length, roughly the size of a washbasin.
- Acid Bug : Bronze tier-six
- Skills : Acid Spray, Self-Destruct
- Fanatic Believer : 6 faith points/day
The evolved Acid Bugs were significantly different and provided much more faith power than ordinary Bronze tier-one creatures, with each contributing six faith points per day. A thousand Acid Bugs would yield six thousand points, adding to the previous total, giving Xu Luo an income of seven thousand faith points daily!
Moreover, Acid Bugs had combat capabilities, able to spray strong acid ten times before self-destructing, which would then corrode the surrounding area. The explosion's power was akin to a grenade, with subsequent damage, making them quite formidable.
Seeing the once-full Acid Pool deplete by a fifth, Xu Luo realized he couldn't recklessly produce Acid Bugs. Although the acid could replenish, it wasn't limitless.
With a thousand Bronze tier-six Acid Bugs and over nine thousand Jumping Bugs and Armored Bugs, Xu Luo felt confident about the upcoming freshman monthly exam.
The monthly exams assessed students' divine realm development, identifying elite students for special attention in the following month. Underperformers risked expulsion from the elite class.
Having offended Director Zhao Yiming due to the incident with Xiang Yang, Xu Luo expected trouble. He was not as nonchalant as he appeared. The boost in strength gave him some confidence.
Compared to others, Xu Luo's significant advantage was the lack of feeding requirements. Unlike many species, which had specific needs like meat for carnivores or special environments for magical creatures, Zerg only needed evolution points, which could be derived from any material, not requiring specific resources.
Feeding was secondary; the primary focus was obtaining more gene templates to strengthen the Zerg.
Xu Luo knew he couldn't develop passively like a farming player. He would become an invader, relying on plunder. Thus, his forces had to be as powerful as possible.
Although he could accumulate faith power at his current rate, achieving one divine power point in just over ten real-time days and igniting the divine fire to become a true god, such a god would be weak, without a divine kingdom or divine office, essentially useless. Xu Luo wouldn't choose this path.
With the Overlord System and ever-evolving Zerg, Xu Luo planned to amass enough power before becoming a god. Early ascension would only lead to bullying by established deities. Better to strengthen in the novice divine realm, then emerge to conquer the old gods.