Start By Parsing The Sun

Chapter 184: Team Split, Cheng Han's Strategy

Upon hearing about the "gathering of the insect swarm," Deputy Lieutenant Du Shancheng of the First Battalion immediately rushed over, anxiously saying, "Cheng Han, in the past, when we encountered insect swarms, everyone would gather together for concentrated defense."

"The Divine Banyan can sense the gathering of the phantom insects and will automatically activate its internal defense mechanism, secreting a large amount of resin to block the insect swarm."

"As long as we persist in defense for a while, the insect swarm will be afraid of being trapped by the resin and will quickly disperse."

Cheng Han calmly replied, "There's no need to gather for defense."

Du Shancheng became anxious, "There must be a group of warrior-level battle insects within the insect swarm. They can spray highly toxic stingers, and a small team cannot confront them."

"In previous missions to clear the phantom insects, the majority of casualties were caused by the battle insects. The five battalions must gather together..."

Cheng Han interrupted, "Follow my plan, and we can surround the insect swarm instead. At least we can eliminate more than ninety percent of them."

He felt that passive defense was a subpar strategy.

The proactive gathering of the insect swarm would save the trouble of searching in different places. Wasn't this an opportunity for achievement?

Du Shancheng's expression changed, and he gritted his teeth, "Once the insect swarm appears, there will be at least a thousand insects, with no fewer than fifty battle insects."

"Sorry, I have to take responsibility for the soldiers of the First Battalion. I choose to withdraw from this operation. Our battalion must concentrate on defense."

Cheng Han paused for a moment and didn't force him, "So be it."

Soon, there was more bad news.

The Deputy Lieutenant of the Fourth Battalion, Hu Liang, also chose to withdraw.

Cheng Han became even more helpless.

Before leaving, Hu Liang even advised the Third and Fifth Battalions to prioritize safety and not risk lives for achievements.

Deputy Lieutenant Tie Feng couldn't help but say, "Lieutenant Hu, you just witnessed Cheng Han's abilities. Even if you lack confidence, why would you encourage other battalions?"

Hu Liang solemnly replied, "I have personally witnessed the power of the insect swarm and do not think that confronting them head-on is a wise move."

Tie Feng bluntly retorted, "You yourself lack the ability and assume others can't do it either."

Hu Liang's face twitched, and he left on his own.

Cheng Han didn't explain, his expression remained calm.

On the other hand, the leaders of the other two battalions took the initiative to express their support.

Deputy Lieutenant Gao Jiuzheng of the Third Battalion spoke simply but firmly, "I believe in Cheng Han."

Deputy Lieutenant Qin Tingshu of the Fifth Battalion smiled and said, "I have also comprehended the Qingyan Talisman, but I can't match Cheng Han's skills. I'll listen to Cheng Han."

Despite this, it was inevitable that people's hearts would become somewhat unsettled.

Cheng Han sighed inwardly and decided to go all out.

Just for the support of these people, he planned to let the two battalions earn a substantial amount of battle merit points.

Cheng Han surveyed the faces before him and spoke in a perpetually calm tone, "Everyone, I have just developed a method to communicate with the Spirit Leaf Handle, allowing us to monitor the movements of the insect swarm at any time."

He immediately provided proof.

"Boom!"

Cheng Han stomped on the ground.

A strange change immediately occurred.

Brown vines emerged from the ground and quickly formed a long passage resembling the shape of a Spirit Leaf Handle.

This was clearly a model.

The crowd stirred with excitement.

Because this model segment was incredibly lifelike.

Tie Feng gave a thumbs up directly, "Impressive!"

The other two lieutenants nodded in agreement.

The complexity of the passage made it difficult for even ordinary soldiers to understand its entirety with a single walk.

Yet this young genius easily reconstructed the entire passage. How could people not admire him?

"Snap!"

Cheng Han snapped his fingers towards a nightlight plant.

Many fluorescent dust particles floated into the model passage, scattering in various corners.

He once again used a special method, causing the dust to enter the pipeline, invisible to the naked eye but easily sensed by everyone.

Cheng Han explained, "Each speck of dust represents a phantom insect."

This scene once again amazed the crowd.

Anyone could understand the benefits of fully knowing the location of the insect swarm.

Cheng Han sighed with regret, "I originally planned to wipe out this batch of phantom insects completely, but now that we are short sixty soldiers, I'm afraid we can only eliminate half at most."

If he had said this earlier, most people present wouldn't have believed him.

But now that there is a model in front of them, everyone believes it completely.

Tiefeng directly cursed, "Du Shancheng and Hu Liang, these two who are more likely to fail than succeed!"

Cheng Han comforted with a smile, "It's okay, the virtual worms are still in the handle of the spirit leaf. As long as we spend a little more time, we will eventually find them."

Gao Jiuzheng said directly, "Cheng Han, there's no time to waste. You give the orders."

Cheng Han didn't hold back, "Alright!"

He picked up his flower basket and gave out orders one by one, distributing batches of seeds.

In this battle, these seeds also played an important role.

*

At this moment.

In a cave hundreds of meters away.

The First Battle Group and the Fourth Battle Group joined forces and gathered here, intending to resist the approaching swarm together.

The atmosphere in the cave seemed somewhat heavy.

Du Shancheng and Hu Liang, the two deputy lieutenants, observed the outside situation while discussing in low voices.

"It's not easy to deal with such a large swarm of thousands. I hope the other battle groups don't encounter any trouble."

"The lone virtual worms are completely different from the swarm. Cheng Han has less experience and doesn't know how dangerous they can be."

"Everyone sees him as a genius, so he might be a bit arrogant."

The other soldiers listened to the discussion with different expressions.

Some were indifferent, some had no expression, and some agreed wholeheartedly.

At this moment.

A senior team leader who comprehended the Qingyan symbol pressed his right palm against the cave wall to sense the movement in the distance and shouted, "The swarm is getting close!"

The cave instantly fell silent.

Du Shancheng waved his right hand and shouted, "Block the cave!"

Two teams of soldiers quickly rushed forward, forming two rows. Each person held a large black shield, blocking the three-meter-wide cave entrance tightly.

The other soldiers didn't need to be ordered, they all raised their spears, ready to attack at any moment.

A few seconds later.

"Squeak! Squeak!"

A few strange insect cries came over.

The swarm was approaching!

A few more seconds passed.

The insect cries quickly grew louder, turning into a tide.

"Squeak! Squeak!"

"Squeak! Squeak!"

Among them were also strange and angry shouts.

"Kill all the Wan Hao people!"

"Destroy the banyan tree and reclaim our homeland!"

Soon.

The tide-like swarm appeared below.

This cave was chosen very well. It was relatively high, with only two beams leading to the cave.

Unfortunately, the beams were completely exposed, without any cover.

If the swarm wanted to approach, it would suffer from the dense spear attacks and inevitably suffer great losses.

Soon.

The swarm launched the first wave of probing attacks.

A group of unusually large virtual worms, covered in spiked shells, suddenly rushed out from the corner.

Their tails were raised like scorpions, and they sprayed a pale green gas towards the cave entrance.

"Woo~ Woo~"

Sharp wailing sounds rang out.

A cluster of black shadows instantly flew dozens of meters and hit a row of shields.

"Clang! Clang!"

The sound was particularly dense.

It was the poison stingers.

Du Shancheng decisively shouted, "Attack!"

The Black Armor Army immediately demonstrated an exquisite and perfect coordination.

The large shield blocking the door suddenly dispersed.

At the same time, a group of soldiers seized the opportunity and swung their right arms together.

"Wu~wu~"

A row of short spears flew out from the air.

In the next instant, the shield wall closed again, just in time to block the second wave of poisonous stingers shot by the insect swarm.

"Dang! Dang!"

Another round of pounding like a torrential rain.

No casualties on our side.

On the opposite side, three heads of the enemy were blown off and three others were injured.

However, the soldiers did not show any joy.

Because there were too many insects.

The senior team leader in charge of "monitoring" solemnly reported the numbers, "Captain Du, the insect swarm surrounding us is estimated to be no less than 1,300."

Du Shancheng was surprised, "So many?!"

Fox Liang's face didn't look good either, "The insect swarm attacking the other three squads will be even larger. Does that mean there are at least 3,000 virtual insects?"

The senior team leader reported another piece of bad news, "The insect swarm is crawling up from below. It seems they intend to gnaw a path through the cave wall."

As soon as the words fell, a chewing sound started.

The sound was so dense that every soldier could sense the slight vibration in the cave.

Du Shancheng tried to calm everyone down, "The cave wall is so thick that they can't chew through it in a short time. The Shenrong tree will secrete resin soon, so don't worry."

However, the senior team leader frowned.

This person had participated in several missions to exterminate virtual insects, and whenever the Shenrong tree was about to secrete resin, the Qingyan talisman would definitely sense it.

But at this moment, he didn't sense anything.

How could this be?

Could something have happened inside the handle of the Lingye?

The senior team leader sighed inwardly and did not reveal this information.

But he knew that the news could not be concealed for long.

After three minutes of buzzing, someone finally noticed something was wrong.

"Why hasn't the Shenrong tree secreted resin yet?"

"Something's wrong! With such a large insect swarm, resin should have been flowing within two minutes."

The atmosphere became uncontrollably panicked.

Listening to the discussions, Du Shancheng's face turned extremely ugly.

He had decided to lead the team to retreat in order to protect the soldiers of the first squad.

But from the current situation, doing so had instead put the squad in a desperate situation.

*

On the other side, in another cave.

The operation led by Cheng Han was completely different.

He led ninety soldiers in a guerrilla warfare against the insect swarm.

In theory, this was impossible.

Virtual insects could crawl quickly on the walls, and in the complex environment of the Lingye handle, they were more agile than the soldiers of the Black Armor Army.

But Cheng Han managed to do it.

Because he mastered the real skill.

"Pa!"

Cheng Han tapped the cave wall.

Over a hundred thick vines quickly descended, blocking one of the caves.

A group of virtual insects chased after them from the corner and were conveniently blocked outside the vines.

The two teams responsible for the rear guard all swung their right arms together.

"Wu! Wu!"

Short spears flew out from the gaps in the vines, accurately killing a small group of insects.

"Bam!"

Cheng Han stomped on the ground again.

The cave began to wriggle like rubber mud, and the adjacent walls decomposed into vines, revealing a large hole.

Despite having seen it before, the surrounding group of people still showed surprise.

Even the warriors who comprehended the Qingyan symbols felt inferior.

The ability to manipulate and change the cave far exceeded their level.

These few people couldn't even imagine how it was done.

Cheng Han waved his hand and said, "Everyone, let's go!"

He took the lead and walked into it, starting to move to the next location.

*

Ten minutes later.

Cheng Han stopped and smiled, "The trap is set!"

Observing from a god's perspective, it was clear that over 1,400 large insect swarms were trapped in an area, following the Black Armor Army in a convoluted manner.

Cheng Han secretly made many changes, transforming the terrain of the area into a maze.

Tiefeng couldn't wait and asked, "Can we start?"

Cheng Han nodded, "Of course!"

He clapped his hands forcefully.

"Snap!"

This sound contained a strange power.

Within the trap area, the wooden caves, walls, and spiral columns began to secrete a translucent light green liquid.

When the feet of the virtual insects touched the liquid, they instantly lost their ability to cling to the walls. Their movements became slippery, greatly reducing their agility.

Controlling the secretion of oil with the handle of the Lingye was another key ability that Cheng Han had researched.

While other warriors had to wait for passive secretion from the wood, he could control it independently.

Being able to freely change the terrain and control the secretion of oil were his two trump cards for dealing with the insect swarm.

After sensing for a moment, Cheng Han shouted, "Start killing the bugs!"

He paused and added, "We only have ten minutes. Kill as many as you can. After that, we have to go rescue the others. Otherwise, not many of them will survive."

The group of people responded in unison.

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

Cheng Han walked dozens of meters and slapped the wall.

"Boom!"

This section of the wall collapsed.

The group of warriors were prepared and threw their seeds at the same time.

The seeds burst into a large number of vines in mid-air, attacking the opposite insect swarm.

Caught off guard and with their mobility greatly reduced, the virtual insects were mostly entangled firmly.

"Woo! Woo!"

A large number of short spears flew out, piercing through the bodies of the insects.

A one-sided massacre began.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for the 90 soldiers of the Black Armor Army to confront such a large-scale insect swarm.

But Cheng Han's careful layout not only made it a reality, but also gave the Black Armor Army an overwhelming advantage.

*

Ten minutes later.

Over 800 virtual insects were killed.

The remaining insects desperately gnawed through a few paths and escaped.

Cheng Han timely issued another order, "Everyone, pay attention, rescue the First and Fourth Battalions!"

Based on his communication with the handle of the Lingye, the situation over there was not good.

The insect swarm had been gnawing for more than ten minutes and was about to chew through the cave.

Two Black Armor Army soldiers were lightly injured.

Du Shancheng and Hu Liang were discussing whether or not to force a breakout.

The result of their foolish discussion actually leaned towards agreement.

This would undoubtedly put more people in danger.

(End of this chapter)