Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 209 Gaining Control of the Ruins and Abundant Resources

The swarm of insects spread wildly, covering the entire square in the blink of an eye, climbing the walls, and engulfing the rooftops.

The bodies of the fallen soldiers were devoured within seconds, leaving not a single bone behind.

Kai and the princes, who had fled in panic, were driven back by giant centipedes and beetles, and surrounded in the center like livestock to be slaughtered.

The old king tried to control the remaining two giant insects to fight back, but as soon as they moved, they were cut in half by a giant centipede that suddenly emerged from the ground.

In just a few minutes, everything had been settled.

The old king slumped in his wheelchair, gazing at the boundless sea of ​​insects before him, the last glimmer of light in his eyes extinguished.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he just slowly lowered his head and breathed his last.

Aburame Zhicheng slowly walked up to the second prince, Alphonse.

The young prince was pale, but he still stubbornly refused to collapse.

He glanced at his father's gradually cooling body, then looked at his brothers and Kai who were surrounded by insects, and finally fixed his gaze on Aburame Shisei.

"You win."

His voice was hoarse and dry. "What do you want? The throne, or the Regel Stone?"

"I have no interest in the throne. Tell me how to activate this ruin. Where is the control room? And what is the key to activation?"

Alphonse paused for a moment, then shook his head with a wry smile: "Even if I told you, it wouldn't make a difference. This fortress... has long been unusable."

"What do you mean?"

"The reason it keeps floating on the sea is not because we are controlling it, but because it simply cannot stop."

Alphonse looked at the tallest metal tower in the distance: "The energy... has long been exhausted. This 'land' beneath our feet is all soil transported from the surrounding islands, ship after ship. The trees and grass were planted later, just to cover up its original appearance, a cold metal fortress."

Aburame Shigeaki stared at him, confirming that he wasn't lying: "Take me to the control room."

The control room was hidden deep beneath the palace. The heavy metal doors were rusted and worn. Alphonse used a strangely shaped key to unlock the door and pushed it open.

The interior was more spacious than expected, but it was dilapidated. The control panel was covered in dust, and many of the instrument panels were broken.

Some of the metal panels on the wall have fallen off, revealing a complex network of pipes behind them, most of which are broken or rusted.

The most striking feature is the enormous cylinder in the center of the room, its surface covered with hundreds of grooves, most of which are empty.

"This is the energy core," Alphonse said, pointing to the cylinder. "To activate it, you need at least one hundred high-quality Regel Stones. But the kingdom's current inventory... adds up to only eighty-odd, and most of them are embedded in the armor of the Holy Knights. Even if you kill them all and pry out all the crystals, it still won't be enough."

He slowly recounted the history of the lost kingdom:

Many years ago, their ancestors fled the mainland with the greatest secret of the ruins, boarded this mobile fortress, and sailed into the vast sea.

Initially, the fortress was functioning properly, and they could even control it to travel to different sea areas.

The Stone of Kregel is a non-renewable resource; once used, it's gone. Centuries passed, and the stockpile gradually dwindled. By his father's generation, the fortress had long since lost its power and could only drift with the tide.

"We tried to find alternative energy sources, but all our efforts failed. Coal and crude oil can only power ships; they can't awaken this sleeping behemoth. We would have been trapped here long ago."

Yu Nuzhi listened quietly until he heard the other person mention coal and crude oil, at which point his eyes lit up instantly.

"You said you discovered coal and crude oil at sea?"

Alphonse paused slightly, "Is that important? They're just a few low-level energy sources."

As he spoke, he pulled up a nautical chart, on which were marked the islands they had marked over hundreds of years of drifting at sea: "Some are underwater and some are on islands, but they are not of much use; at most, they can only replace fuel for oil tankers."

"They are of no use to the relics."

Aburame Shigeaki stroked his chin thoughtfully: "Have you ever considered trying to purify them?"

Alphonse asked in surprise, "What purification?"

"Never mind." Aburame Zhicheng knew that it was pointless to explain to them. Soon he discovered that there were many frozen cube-like things piled up at the bottom of the cabin.

He went inside to observe and discovered that it was natural gas that had been polymerized using special methods. Simply put, it was combustible ice under the seabed. He was amazed that they had a way to preserve it and prevent it from vaporizing.

"My lord, these are the substitute materials we found, but they are very difficult to preserve. The one who harvested them was a holy knight who could transform into a jellyfish. Unfortunately, after he brought these ices up, he completely lost control."

"Can we still find the location of these ice crystals?" Aburame Shisei gently touched them and found that there was indeed a layer of water film on them, which was very likely the ability of that Holy Knight.

"It's marked on the nautical chart." Ayumi Shicheng glanced at it and found that the combustible ice mine was a thousand meters underground, which was indeed very difficult to mine with current technology.

However, if we could cultivate insects that feed on this mineral, there might be great potential.

As Aburame Zhicheng's thoughts drifted away, the Second Prince Alphonse said, "My lord, I know you have come to seek our royal bloodline and unlock the ruins. I can grant you my life and help you find and unlock the ruins."

"But you have to grant me one request."

"explain."

"That is, can you spare our people, spare my brothers?"

Aburame Shisei turned to look at him. "Take me to the true entrance to the ruins. In exchange, I can spare your people. But your brothers seem to want to kill you, and you're going to let them go?"

"The past is the past, what's the point of killing them now?"

He lowered his head, a helpless smile on his face: "Actually, I discovered a long time ago that our country is heading towards decline."

Because this metallic island is gradually deforming our offspring and making it harder for our people to reproduce, we... will perish one day.

"Yes, metallic toxins are indeed an important factor. But the fundamental reason is that almost everyone on the island comes from the same paternal line. Another point is that the compatibility between human bloodlines on the mainland and human bloodlines on land and sea is relatively low."

The prince's eyes lit up: "I see! My lord, I beg you to save my people!"