Honkai Impact: Starting from Wandering with Kiana

The beam of the flashlight swept across every spot, but apart from numerous insect eggs, there were only some scattered Houmu dolls. In the center of the depths of the hall, there stood a tall Houmu throne.

When Jiuxiao saw the throne and the murals on the wall next to it, he realized that this hall must be the residence of the "King" in Houmu Castle, which is a place specifically for children to take pictures.

But this place looks very strange, especially the throne, which has a familiar yet unfamiliar aura about it.

In this spacious hall, there was the sound of liquid dripping.

Bronya and Seele returned from their investigation behind the throne, both looking very serious. Bronya pointed behind the throne, gesturing for Jiuxiao and Penglaiji Jiuxiao to look over.

“Look, behind the throne are insect eggs, many times more than we have seen elsewhere. Once these hatch, grow, and reproduce, their numbers will quickly reach the scale of the last insect swarm.”

"Hmm, they're densely packed like a beehive... This should be where the Ohmu, the insects Iselin mentioned, are located. Prepare for battle; the Ohmu should be hiding in some corner of the room."

As soon as Seele finished speaking, a puddle of liquid fell from above her and landed beside her.

"What is this? It's disgusting..." Seele touched the liquid in front of her with her scythe. It wasn't corrosive, but it was sticky.

Bronya looked up, following the direction of the dripping liquid. She saw a huge, blurry human figure.

"Seele, watch your head!"

Seele instinctively raised her flashlight, illuminating the figure Bronya had seen clearly.

A plump, voluptuous, and maternal spider lady…

Bronya's loud shouts completely startled the Queen Insect, who occupied the castle.

虫后

The queen insect, perched atop the roof with fluid from her newly laid eggs flowing from beneath her, opened her eyes and swooped down at Seele below.

"Om-!"

Taking advantage of the moment, Jiuxiao leaped into the air and unleashed a powerful punch at the charging Queen Insect, sending her flying. The Queen, out of control, landed in the pile of eggs behind the throne, crushing many of them into a pulp…

"This is the queen of these insects... or rather, the 'insect queen' would be a better name. Despite being an insect, its body is almost as soft as a human's..."

Jiuxiao shook off the hand that had just hit the Queen of Insects, then cast a burning gaze at her as she tried to stand up again, blasting her head apart.

"Tsk, this queen doesn't seem as strong as I thought..."

"Don't be careless, these insect eggs are the most troublesome..."

Penglai Temple Nine Heavens raised a heavy cannon and fired several shots in the direction of the Queen of Insects. How could one feel at ease if the final blow wasn't blasted to smithereens?

"According to Iselin's speculation, once the Queen Worm dies, the worms it laid will also disappear. Let's wait here for a while and verify it. If the worm eggs do not die naturally, we will need to go back and gather the troops to clean up Houmu Paradise."

No sooner had Bronya finished speaking than an insect egg beside her suddenly burst open, spraying a mouthful of hissing venom at her.

"elder sister!"

Seele lunged at Bronya, tackling her to the ground. The two landed together in the insect eggs, escaping the venomous breath they had just received.

Inside the newly burst egg, a larva rapidly grows at a speed visible to the naked eye, transforming into a new queen…

Penglai Temple's Nine Heavens raised a heavy cannon and blasted the newly born queen insect away with a single shot. Then, it quickly followed up with another shot, blasting it into pieces.

But then, immediately another new egg hatched and a new queen insect emerged.

The newly born queen insect had just extended her spider-like sharp legs to pierce the sac of the insect eggs when Jiu Xiaoyi's scorching gaze burned and melted the surrounding eggs.

Chapter 268 Are you in cahoots with the Queen Insect?

"This is a bit troublesome. It seems that as long as there are still eggs, new queens will keep appearing... I just don't know if only one can exist at a time, or if they can all be queens..."

Penglai Temple Jiuxiao wiped his sweat, feeling the remaining strength in his body. There were at least five hundred insect eggs here, and his physical strength was almost exhausted.

"Hmm, it looks like we have to wipe them all out before they hatch... I'll blow this building to smithereens, you take Seele and Bronya and get out of here first."

Jiuxiao seized a newly born queen insect and pinned her to the ground, controlling her. As long as the queen insect lived, no new queen insect would be born into the clan.

Upon receiving the order, Penglai Temple Nine Heavens didn't hesitate and rushed into the insect eggs to search for Seele and Bronya.

"Om-"

puff.

Just as the insect queen, who had been pressed into the ground by Jiuxiao, tried to let out a howl, Jiuxiao grabbed her throat and ripped off her vocal cords.

The corrosive venom from the queen's mouth flowed backward from her throat into her esophagus, sizzling as it corroded her upper body.

Perhaps she could feel pain too; the pain spurred the queen to launch a fierce counterattack. The spider claws on her back whistled through the air as they slashed at Jiuxiao's body.

"Behave yourself, I'm not going to kill you."

Jiu Xiao looked at his clothes with heartache. These were limited edition team uniforms for the Fire Moth team, and each person only had two sets. This one was damaged; he wondered if the skillful Emisha would be willing to mend it.

As if she understood Jiuxiao's words, or perhaps after realizing that her resistance was futile, the Queen of Insects gradually calmed down.

However, beneath her wide skirt, her lower body began to stir.

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Meanwhile, Seele tackled Bronya onto the insect eggs. Although the two of them together weighed less than 100 kilograms, they were still quite heavy compared to the insect eggs.

The moment they came into contact with the insect eggs, the hive of the eggs collapsed instantly, and the two women fell inside.

"These bugs have hollowed out the ground..."

Seele got up from the ground. Luckily, there were insect eggs to cushion their fall, otherwise they would have definitely had a close encounter with the floor.

"While I'm very grateful for your saving my life, you're disgusting..."

Seele disgustedly squeezed the insect eggs to burst the slime stuck to her body and pulled off some of it, but before she could pull off much, Bronya reached out and held her down, stopping her from removing any more slime.

"Don't take it off yet. Look... because of this slime, these bugs seem to think we're one of their own."

Bronya tentatively approached several insects whose eggs had broken and hatched prematurely. Just as Bronya had said, these insects did not attack Bronya, who was covered in slime.

"I don't know what the situation is up there, or how strong that queen insect is. I've already heard the heavy cannons of Penglai Temple Nine Heavens exploding several times, as well as the air booming caused by Nine Heavens' heat vision."

"Then let's hurry back and tell them about the new discovery. I just don't know if the queen insect also identifies by smell."

"It's a bit difficult to get up there; the holes these bugs dug are quite deep..."

Seele looked around. There were no places to attach herself, and her body was covered in slime, so there wasn't enough friction to make it easy to climb up.

"There's always a way... I'll just have to trouble an old friend... Come on, reinstall Little Bunny."

Bronya opened her arms, calling out to an important part of her life. The next moment, the damaged, creaking Heavy Bunny appeared behind Bronya.

During the Great Collapse, the Heavy Bunny, which was smashed by Kiana, had completely lost its ability to fight. It was already working beyond its capacity to support its own body.

"Come on, let the Heavy Bunny throw us up there..."

"Sigh, if only the Heavy Bunny could fly... Oops, don't grab me suddenly!"

Amid Seele's gasp, the Heavy Bunny grabbed Seele's scythe and flung her upwards.

boom--

But a few seconds later, the two figures fell down from above again, leaving Bronya, who was about to take off, dumbfounded.

"Uh, Penglai Temple Jiuxiao, why did you come down here?"

Bronya helped Seele and Penglai Temple Nine Heavens up. Fortunately, they both landed on the insects, and with the soft insects as cushions, they were not seriously injured except for being dazed.

Penglai Temple Nine Heavens blinked his bewildered eyes, then clutched his stomach, which had just been hit by Seele's super headbutt.

"I was just looking for traces of you up there when Seele suddenly headbutted me..."

"Haha, my mistake... How's the situation up there?" Seele chuckled and rubbed her head, then began to inquire about the battle situation up there.

Penglai Temple Nine Heavens briefly explained the characteristics of the Queen of Insects and exchanged information with Bronya that they had gathered together.

Upon hearing Bronya's discovery, Houraiji Kyusho also smeared the insect's slime on himself, and then the three of them began preparing to take turns being thrown up by the Heavy Bunny.

Seele, who was at the forefront, once again used her Super Headbutt to break through the insect egg barrier above and successfully reach the ground.

Just as the Nine Heavens of Penglai Temple were about to ascend, the Queen of Insects let out another howl, and this time all the eggs began to hatch.

The path above was covered by a dense swarm of insects, rendering the method of throwing heavy bunnies up ineffective. Bronya and Penglai Temple Jiuxiao had no choice but to find another way, continuing to fight their way down underground to explore a new path.

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Jiu Xiao opened his hand and disgustedly flicked away the unknown liquid. The insect queen, whom Jiu Xiao was riding, had already lost her life force and died, but a human-like smile appeared on her lips even in death.

While Jiuxiao controlled her, preventing her from speaking or dying, she secretly carried out selective reproduction, giving birth to a new queen insect.

The new queen was not human-sized, but rather three-headed. She hid behind the old queen's skirt, developing quietly where Jiuxiao was not paying attention, and then let out a howl to awaken all the eggs.

Although the successful growth of a new queen also signifies the impending death of the old queen, this is the queen's mission: to control the swarm, nurture the swarm, and even become nourishment for the swarm when necessary.

"Buzz—Buzz—!" (You can't kill us. As long as even one member of our tribe escapes, our people will not perish!)

"...? Have I been infected? I actually understood what an insect was saying?" Seele muttered to herself in disbelief as she walked over.

“It must be that the Queen of Insects learned and understood our language during her brief confrontation with us…” Jiuxiao said, turning to look at Seele.

Then an amazing scene unfolded: Seele walked among the swarm of insects, but not a single insect attacked or tried to attack her. Instead, they surrounded her as if escorting her.

Meanwhile, around him, numerous insects launched relentless, suicidal attacks.