"Roar!"
After Eyem's arm was severed, it did not dodge like an ordinary creature to avoid follow-up attacks.
Instead, the enraged Eyem, a powerful demon, turned and lunged at the being formerly known as Tal, now transformed into a Zerg!
"Whoosh!"
A new arm rapidly sprouted where the severed one had been.
But as a cost, the number of eyes on Eyem's body rapidly decreased.
Each lost eye represented a potential soul, completely annihilated and converted into sustenance for self-repair.
Although this consumption could be replenished later, such a large loss still pained Eyem.
"You damn fool, Tal!"
Eyem stomped a small Zerg to death, picked up the greatsword from the ground, and charged toward the Tal who was now massacring other demons—or rather, the former Tal.
"I will make you pay for this loss with everything you have…"
Its long, venom-barbed tongue flicked out, greedily licking the black greatsword.
Then it charged at Tal, who had been completely transformed by the Zerg.
---
"Clang!"
What Eyem did not expect happened.
Tal, once slightly weaker than Eyem, blocked the full-force strike using only the blade-like limbs sprouting from its abdomen.
And that was not the end.
Eyem was stunned to see that Tal's appearance was moving further away from that of a demon.
Meanwhile, a gigantic Zerg with countless blade-like limbs continuously molted from Tal's body.
Everything about Tal had become nourishment for this new Zerg.
The immense resources spent on its growth fueled the Zerg's evolution.
Even a single high-tier demon converted into a Zerg posed a threat Eyem could hardly resist.
Such scenes were common across the battlefield.
Countless demons had, without realizing it, been parasitized by the Zerg in some manner.
Chu Hao had not yet fully understood this parasitic system, but observing the situation…
"It's probably too late to figure it out now," he said.
He lightly swept his gaze over the battlefield, using his divine fire to scan every valuable native demon quickly and accurately, and made the most rational decision:
Grab and run.
---
Yes, it might sound shameful to say it aloud.
But Chu Hao, a man obsessed with science and knowledge, was decisive in his judgment.
He had calculated that under the current circumstances, he could not single-handedly eliminate the entire Zerg swarm.
Far away, the lower-tier gods' divine realms had already been mostly destroyed by the Zerg invasion.
Even across the fractured plane crystal walls, Chu Hao could sense through his divine fire that the rules within their divine realms were close to collapse.
One unlucky lower-tier god had the core of his world, the most crucial point of his divine realm, being devoured by the Zerg.
Chu Hao also observed that the Zerg were evolving rapidly.
After battles with these gods, many Zerg had gained the ability to devour divine fire.
Although each Zerg crystallized after consuming a small amount of divine fire, the reduction of divine fire around the gods was visible to the naked eye.
As for the middle-tier god, stronger than the others, it released many troops around its divine realm to block the Zerg from devouring it.
But…
This was only a temporary measure.
Once its troops were exhausted, the Zerg would inevitably break through.
At that moment, the gods would perish.
Chu Hao saw no hope of victory in this war.
---
Honestly, he could not imagine what being could wage war against such Zerg.
Higher-tier gods?
Unlikely.
Chu Hao shook his head, dismissing the idea.
In his view, most higher-tier gods—the equivalent of Tian Ding University instructors—were not much stronger than middle-tier gods.
Their strength lay mainly in accumulated divine fire over time.
Perhaps beings above higher-tier gods, or the subservient gods of sequence main gods, could handle the gray waves spawned by the Zerg.
Apart from them, not even Chu Hao could confront these Zerg head-on.
So…
Chu Hao concluded that the most advantageous course of action was to grab a prize and run.
Before that, he needed the demon princes like Fatey to fully occupy the figure-eight world.
After all, the value of that sacrificial world was far too important to the Endless Abyss.
The prize Chu Hao aimed for was…
The Zerg's will node.
To better study the Zerg's structure later, he intended to have the demons capture a will node.
Why not capture the main hive will directly? Simply put, he lacked the ability.
---
Through long-term observation, Chu Hao had discovered an interesting fact.
Though the Zerg seemed to operate entirely under the main hive will, there was more than one consciousness.
According to calculations by Chu Hao and Paimon, such a massive Zerg swarm consisted of one main hive will and thousands of will nodes.
Despite appearing perfectly coordinated, subtle differences revealed anomalies.
Some Zerg fought slightly differently from others.
Some consumed fewer resources than other units.
All this indicated that although the Zerg acted under the same primary will, the will nodes introduced minor variations.
"Heh, nothing can be done about it," Chu Hao smiled.
"No matter how precise a living being is, it's not like a machine. As long as there is life, errors—or bugs—will occur."
"This is a textbook truth, unquestionable."
He closed his eyes, surveying the battlefield.
Finally, a bright spot appeared among the gray waves.
"Found you!"
Standing amidst the black mist like a king commanding his army, Chu Hao extended his hand.
A wave of black mist, carrying the countless demons, surged toward the Zerg will node.
There, a special Zerg looked back, its eyes showing a hint of…
Curiosity and intelligence.