Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

You's deep underground exploration hadn't encountered any danger; those sand worms seemed to only occasionally drift past, and not many other traces were found in the tunnels he had dug.

"In that direction, that is where the underground tunnel leads, let's go there to confirm again," said You, who was pulled out, pointing in a certain direction, providing guidance for the team.

"Okay! Let's set off."

"Drive slowly," You reminded. Continue your adventure with empire

Sitting in the vehicle again, Tiger curiously examined the half-piece of bone blade fragment found by You.

The bone blade, separated from its host, appeared somewhat dull and even brittle to a significant degree; it felt as though it might snap with just a little force.

"Living bone armor…" Tiger shook his head, "How could there be such a perverted species in the world."

The vehicle slowly advanced, and Song Ying soon discovered the existence of the underground tunnel again.

"Over there."

"Good."

Following the same procedure, You went down alone once again.

A couple of forays couldn't confirm the true direction of activity of those sand worms; even if there were some collapses in the underground tunnels, it was still possible to follow them to a certain extent to determine where the sand worms had gone.

"So chaotic…"

"It seems that it's not just one sand worm… let's extend a bit further."

"Hmm~ indeed it's not just one, at least three... four of them."

Arriving on the surface and taking a deep breath, You pointed another direction, "That way."

...

"That way."

...

"That way."

The creatures' pattern of behavior was to have no pattern.

Each time You descended into the tunnel, he was adjusting the team's direction of advance.

The passages that the creatures occasionally dug out from beneath the surface were the core source of information for tracking them.

Bai E had been enjoying the spectacle, as his teammates' training time was much longer than his; in some professional capabilities, they were far more outstanding than he was.

Moreover, he possessed the ability of "Hive Mind," thus being able to infiltrate the enemy's ranks. If there were any creatures lying in wait underground, it was very likely that he would detect them in advance.

Comparable to a humanoid early warning system, he was safeguarding You's personal safety.

However, the tracking efficiency definitely could not be considered high; occasionally, when there was a long distance, and the sand worms did not leave the underground to burrow up, You would doubt his judgment.

Occasionally adjusting, occasionally continuing forward, turning back and forth, advancing little by little.

Before understanding the responsibility of the evolved new type of creature of the Bug Race and its general characteristics, nobody knew what the purpose of the sand worms' usual activities was.

Maybe they were just hunting? Maybe they were expanding the underground world of the creatures? Who knows.

Fortunately, the direction of tracking was not heading towards the nest of bugs; otherwise, whether to continue following this clue or not would still be a matter of discussion.

As time passed, the light gradually dimmed.

The transport vehicle quietly sat upon the earth; with the poor visibility of the players, nobody intended to continue the pursuit.

"It seems that these sand worms, just like us, also possess the concept of 'organization,'" You concluded based on the findings at hand, "Within a certain area, there may be occasional independent actions, but their overall direction of movement is consistent. And the squadron of sand worms we're tracking, looks to be at least around eight."

Bai E, seated in the back, offered his opinion, "Maybe it's not because of 'organization,' but rather their 'Hive Mind'?"

Bai E, who himself possessed the "Hive Mind," felt that he might have a deeper understanding in this aspect than anyone else.

The creatures seemed immensely powerful, but during the battle on the Bug Race battlefield last time, Bai E also noted a weakness of theirs which couldn't exactly be called a weak point.

The existence of the Hive Mind allowed the creatures on a battlefield to follow the commands of node creatures, responding and adapting at any moment. However, if they lost the management of the Hive Mind, the creatures' own intelligence was quite low.

Their bloodthirsty instincts could even lead them to attack indiscriminately; if they were released beyond the range controlled by the Hive Mind, those low-intelligence creatures acting purely on instinct probably wouldn't take long to endanger themselves.

Were the sand worms of high intelligence or low? There was no definitive answer, but given the encounters from last time and the conclusions You observed this time, there was probably only one reason for these creatures to appear in groups—they needed a central brain.

Node creatures capable of holding the central command of the Hive Mind were rare even among the Bug Race; every group of sand worms venturing out needed the guidance of a node creature to ensure they did not completely break away from the control of the nest after being released.

The fact that the sand worms showed a higher rate of experience from the subtitles seen last time also corroborates this inference from another angle. These creatures gained experience only slightly more than the common bee-type creature, far less than the mantis-type creature that could be called a squad commander among the node creatures. And this was still under the premise that they were larger in size.

It was not that they didn't want to, but they were not permitted to operate alone.

This was, of course, good news for humans; if each of these elusive sand worms underground possessed their own intelligence and could fight in a dispersed manner, it would be much more troublesome for humans to deal with their attacks.

But if they were just low-intelligence beings similar to bee insects and worker insects, then their greatest advantages—stealth and surprise—would be lost if they had to act in groups under the control of node insects.

"Bai speaks from a deeper root," Ying said.

Insects do not have the messy problems of human management, status, or worldly wisdom; they act solely for basic efficiency, with no reason to restrict their own actions for the sake of unnecessary "regulations."

Zhou scribbled in his notebook, his personal conjectures could also be submitted.

The intuition of front-line soldiers is sometimes more accurate than the calm calculations of strategists in the rear.

"So, sand insects aren't node creatures themselves, but they're accompanied by another, more powerful node creature?"

"Is it a mantis insect?"

"I'm afraid not," Song Ying shook his head.

The scene of a mantis insect racing through underground passages was just too low, and whether it could keep up was questionable.

"Perhaps we should broaden our scope."

Listening to the chatter of his teammates, Bai E remained silent, his eyes somewhat absently fixed on the entrance to the underground tunnel left by the sand insects.

'The node creature of the sand insect… Did I see it last time?'

Like slides in a projector, scenes from the last time they navigated through the sea of insects flickered in Bai E's mind.

Although the situation was tense then, and Bai E focused on evading, the scenes captured by his eyes would never disappear, only buried deep in memory, seldom unearthed.

After gaining Spiritual Energy, Bai E found his memory management had greatly improved.

When recalling something, those memories passed through his mind as if they were happening live.

So, every sand insect that emerged from the ground at that time was filtered through his mind, one by one.

Bai E tried to recall if there was one that stood out, significantly different from the other sand insects.

'No…'

'No…'

'No…'

As Bai E's gaze became distant, the fleeting Spiritual Energy escaped from the surroundings of his brain.

It seemed to entangle briefly with the echo of space-time left in the air, and in a mere instant, a vague dark image flashed through his mind.

Fierce…

Massive…

In that brief glimpse, Bai E had no time to remember more details, only these two keywords resonated slowly in his mind.

"Bai?"

"Bai?"

Soft calls came to his ears as Dashan shook Bai E's body.

"Ah?" Bai E blinked and came to his senses, seeing his teammates looking at him with concern.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…" Bai flashed a bright smile, recalling what Yue Ying had said—

"Premonition…"

Spiritual Energy communicates with all things, occasionally tapping into the memory fragments of space-time or other creatures during highly focused thoughts on matters closely related to one's own fate, thus obtaining information never experienced before.

Of course, sometimes it was also proven that so-called "premonitions" were closely related to the "unclean whispers" of higher-dimensional spaces.

Such completely non-scientific phenomena had no consensus, and the content seen varied from person to person.

Bai E shook his head, trying to recall the vague image he saw in that moment, but found it had dissipated like a dream upon waking in the morning, impossible to remember at all.

Only that feeling lingered in his heart.

Premonition…

Premonition…

Premonition!

With a start, Bai E suddenly remembered the distraction he felt earlier that day, shortly after setting off in the car.

At the time, it felt as if something had snapped… Now in hindsight, could it have been a premonition sounding the alarm?

Bai E's eyes darted around, his dubious gaze making his teammates somewhat curious.

"What are you looking at, Bai?"