Seeing the ten little bees charging forward without a trace of fear, the Demon Insect King immediately activated its Soul-Slavery power as they drew near, attempting to forcibly blanket them.
Outside the grotto, Qi Ping felt the consciousness of the Golden Marrow Bees suffer a massive impact. The ten bees immediately fell to the ground, dazed and disoriented. Fortunately, the animal companion contract remained unshakable!
'Their consciousness is just a bit blurred; they'll be fine after some rest...' Perceiving the state of the bees, Qi Ping felt relieved and instantly devised a new tactic.
"Bees, change to groups of three. One of each type per group..."
"Buzz... (Copy that, Boss!)"
The activation of Soul-Slavery power consumed a significant amount of soul energy. He wanted to see how many times this newborn Demon Insect King could use it.
Inside the grotto, the Demon Insect King looked at the unconscious bees and fell into deep thought. This wasn't right... According to its inheritance memories, these bees should have been enslaved, becoming its loyal servants. It was the Demon Insect King whose future army would number in the hundreds of thousands or millions—how could it not even handle a few tiny bees?
Its bloodline inheritance told it, and its physical instincts confirmed it: it was a natural-born ruler, the leader of millions of demon insects. So what was happening here?
Yet, before the King could figure out the problem, three more bees charged in. Refusing to believe its eyes, the King activated its Soul-Slavery power again... Without surprise, the bees' consciousness was struck, and they fell, but the enslavement remained a failure.
What was going on? The Demon Insect King began to suspect that something was wrong with its inheritance.
But it had no time for further thought as the third wave of bees attacked. It used its Soul-Slavery power once more... and the bees fainted again.
The Demon Insect King was truly starting to panic. It suspected there was a problem with these specific bees, but it had no other targets for comparison. This continued for twenty consecutive waves. The King had consumed half of its mental energy, yet it hadn't secured a single subordinate.
This plunged the Demon Insect King into a deep existential crisis. In its inheritance memories, it was clearly the King of all demon insects, but now it couldn't even manage a few tiny bees? Could its inheritance memories be a lie?
Yet its physical instincts and the power coursing through its body told it otherwise: it was the heaven-born King. If not for this array trapping it, it would have already gone out into the world to gather countless lackeys and dominate the heavens and earth.
But Qi Ping didn't care what the Demon Insect King thought. He intended to completely drain the King's mental energy, test its specific data, and then move on to the next step.
"Continue the assault. Don't give the King any time to catch its breath or recover."
"Buzz... (No problem, Boss! Leave it to us!)"
Following that, the swarm launched a continuous, non-stop stream of attacks. Finally, after a dozen more waves, the Demon Insect King finally gave up on the idea of enslaving the little bees. At this point, the bees were finally able to land physical hits on the King's body.
The first to strike was a High-speed Ring-cutter Bee. Under its razor-sharp wings, a shallow scratch appeared on the King's blood-red body. However, after only a single breath, the King's flesh rapidly healed, returning to its original state.
'The body has high toughness and exceptional regenerative capabilities.' Outside, Qi Ping immediately made a judgment on the King's current strength based on this feedback.
According to the perception of the Ring-cutter Bee, the currently birthed King was only at the late stage of the first rank, but its pressure was terrifyingly strong. Furthermore, Qi Ping was well aware of the attack power of those wings; the fact that the King could easily withstand them at only the late-first-rank meant its defense was absurdly high.
He recalled how easily the Ring-cutter Bees had broken through the defense of that late-stage Qi Refinement black-robed cultivator. This put the King's defensive power into perspective.
The second to strike was a Toxic Bee. Mutated from a Golden Marrow Bee, its toxicity had soared, and its stinger had been reinforced with powerful piercing and armor-breaking properties. The toxic stinger successfully pierced the King's body without a hitch. However, even after the bee injected its entire payload of toxins, the King showed no reaction whatsoever—not even a hint of being poisoned.
Qi Ping wasn't too surprised by this. For ordinary spirit beasts, the Toxic Bee's poison was lethally extreme. But for a Demon Insect King, a creature whose toxic resistance was likely maxed out, it was unlikely to suffer much harm. Otherwise, it wouldn't deserve its title.
As for the third to attack, the Ink-Armor Bee, Qi Ping hadn't held any hope for it at all. A breed specialized for defense was inherently poor at attacking; its offensive power was likely below average even for a high-tier first-rank spirit insect. As expected, the Ink-Armor Bee couldn't even break the King's skin.
'Aside from these traits, the Demon Insect King doesn't seem to be counterattacking beyond struggling. It appears to be truly pinned by the Four Saints Array.'
'With this, the King's data is basically clear: high defense, high toxic resistance, high regeneration. Offensively, due to the restraint, it appears to have no means of attack other than its Soul-Slavery power. Its flexibility and speed are also nullified by its confinement.'
These stats meant that the Ink-Armor and Toxic Bees were useless in an offensive capacity against the King. The only one capable of dealing damage was the High-speed Ring-cutter Bee, but even its damage was limited and quickly healed by the King's regeneration.
'In that case, only Yaya has a chance to kill the Demon Insect King...'
'Fortunately, Yaya's strength has returned to the peak of the first rank, and its bloodline has mutated into a Sun-Fire Crow. Its Sun-Fire Flame should be able to deal a lethal blow.'
At this point, Qi Ping had a solid grasp on how to deal with the King. However, he didn't choose to send Yaya down to make the kill immediately. Instead, he ordered the Ring-cutter Bees to keep attacking.
"Bees, next, thirty High-speed Ring-cutter Bees per group. Launch a full-power assault on the Demon Insect King. Don't give it a moment's rest. All other types, retreat."
The reason for this was that Qi Ping was still worried about the King's mental attacks. As a character capable of inciting a demon insect calamity, even in its weakest, newborn state, it could not be underestimated. He planned to use the Ring-cutter Bees to continuously interfere, draining the King's mental energy while testing for any hidden trump cards.