318: Chapter 318 The ruins are deserted, and the royal family has vanished?

Lin Xiao withdrew his gaze and turned to Captain Xie Yun, who had walked up close to him.

"You've worked hard. I saw you didn't send any private messages last night; did you encounter any danger?"

"There was some, yes."

Captain Xie Yun raised her hand and pointed in a direction to the right of the ruins.

"But it was just a few sneaky little bugs. We took care of them all, and there were no signs of the Insect Swarm gathering."

"It seems they were scout-type units."

Lin Xiao nodded slightly.

As reconnaissance units, there was no Insect Swarm following up after they were killed.

Insufficient troops? That reason is unlikely.

After all, the entire desert is covered with the presence of Scarab Beetles; if the Insect Emperor calls out just once, those bugs will swarm over like a tidal wave.

This also indicates that the Insect Swarm retreated voluntarily during the first round of battle last night.

They are waiting for something. Something larger, something that requires more incubation time.

Lin Xiao put on the spirit realm lens, and the world in his field of vision was redefined by gray-white outlines.

In that area of pavilion ruins in the distance, the red light spots were even denser than yesterday.

These light spots had their outlines obscured by the jagged, broken walls, revealing only parts of a faint, slowly pulsing halo.

More egg sacs than yesterday. And they are very large!

We killed a batch yesterday, yet even more have appeared today. This is the unique attribute of the Insect Swarm.

Division and proliferation; the more you kill, the more there are! One bug splits into a swarm, and a swarm splits into a sea. As long as the Insect Emperor is still alive, the number of bugs will be endless.

Lin Xiao put away the lens and turned back to look at Captain Xie Yun: "Did you find anything in the ruins?"

Captain Xie Yun took a few items out of her backpack and placed them on a broken stone pillar nearby.

They were a few antique-looking metal boxes, with Sand-Condensing Crystals that had already lost their luster embedded on the surface.

The smaller boxes contained jewelry and ornaments. The larger ones held some lightweight clothing, the fabric of which turned to dust the moment it was touched.

"The jewelry isn't worth much, and these clothes don't even have any recycling value." Lin Xiao shook his head.

"But, that's all we found…"

Captain Xie Yun's tone carried a sense of frustration that had been suppressed all night, "How could there be so little to find in such a large palace? I really can't understand it…"

Lin Xiao picked up a metal box and examined it in his hands. The surface was engraved with intricate cloud and water patterns. It was the crest of the Heze Kingdom royal court. It was exactly the same as the one seen on the stone slab at Qitian Temple.

Perhaps the box itself is more valuable than the ornaments inside.

But regardless, Captain Xie Yun is right; the remains in the entire palace ruins are abnormally low.

According to Yimu's description, when those royal nobles evacuated, they probably took everything they could carry with them.

Then where did they run off to? Royal nobles who had never set foot on the ground surely wouldn't have successfully escaped this land eroded by the Insect Swarm.

Could it be… Lin Xiao thought of the Desert Temple surrounded by the black sandstorm.

The treasure map really is a treasure map! Now I just have to wait for my mental power to reach the requirement, then drive the flying shuttle through the sandstorm and go inside to explore properly.

"These metal boxes might be of some use; keep them."

Lin Xiao put the items back on the stone pillar and then initiated a trade request to Captain Xie Yun.

Captain Xie Yun glanced at the number that popped up in her field of vision, and her eyebrows arched involuntarily.

"600,000… so much? Train Conductor, did you type an extra zero?"

"It's not much. Guarding this place isn't a cushy job; if you get ambushed by the Insect Swarm, people could lose their lives."

Lin Xiao's tone was as calm as usual, but there was a hint of seriousness between his brows, "Distribute it among everyone and go back to the Astral Express to get some good rest."

Captain Xie Yun nodded. She didn't say much by way of thanks, just put away the stardust and turned to walk towards the stronghold.

She walked a few steps, then stopped, turned back, and looked at Lin Xiao: "If there's a guarding mission next time, you can ask me again. I guarantee I'll complete the mission!"

The corners of Lin Xiao's mouth curled up slightly. "Of course."

Not long after Captain Xie Yun left, the sound of the light screen closing came from the direction of the portal behind him.

The light screen shrank into a vertical line and then disappeared completely, and the anchor point re-entered low-power standby mode. All the passengers had already teleported over from the Astral Express.

At this moment, on the empty space of the ruins, the sounds of footsteps, shouting, and the crisp clashing of weapons broke the silence of the clouds.

Jiang Wanwan and Tian Xiwei were the last to step out of the portal. They each held a registration form, densely packed with the names and numbers of the passengers.

"Everything is registered." Jiang Wanwan walked up to Lin Xiao and shoved the registration forms into his hands, "1,440 people, we collected a total of 7.5 million stardust!"

Everyone had seen the harvest from the first round of fighting the Insect Swarm. Therefore, over 1,400 people came this time.

"The portal probably burned through about 3 million stardust in these twenty minutes. A net profit of over 4 million isn't a bad deal."

Lin Xiao glanced at the registration forms, then folded them and handed them back.

He looked around, his gaze sweeping over the passengers who were preparing on the spot.

Some were checking the blades that had chipped during yesterday's battle, and others were confirming the durability of their armor with their teammates.

Others were pulling up screenshots of yesterday's bug-farming in the chat channel, enthusiastically showing the new passengers who were participating for the first time the pieces of cobalt ore they had obtained.

Lin Xiao walked to the front of the group and stood on a relatively intact rock pedestal. The chaotic crowd gradually quieted down.

"The second wave of the Insect Swarm could come at any time." His voice was not loud, but it clearly drowned out the remaining whispers, "What we killed yesterday was only a small fraction. The egg sacs in the pavilion ruins in the distance are denser than yesterday. The bugs that come out next time will only be more numerous and more ferocious!"

He paused, his gaze sweeping across each face. The nervousness of the new passengers, the certainty of the veteran passengers, the focus of the merfolk who were gripping their weapons and tilting their heads slightly.

"But a large number is not a bad thing, because for every extra bug, there is more stardust, more materials for crafting equipment, and more trump cards for survival! So adjust your state, follow my orders, and after this wave is done, I guarantee you'll return fully loaded!"

The crowd was silent for a moment. Then, a flash of cold light bloomed from the crowd.

Chen Pingan, standing in the front row of the group, drew his horizontal blade, the blade reflecting a cold white arc under the starlight.

He didn't shout any slogans, he just raised his blade to the sky and then nodded in Lin Xiao's direction.

The emotions of the thousand-plus passengers gathered in the empty space of the ruins were instantly ignited. Accompanied by cheers, the sounds of weapons being drawn rose and fell, merging into one.

But before that, Lin Xiao looked at the ruins under his feet. This was the flattest area in the border zone. Since yesterday, it had served as a temporary stronghold.

It's just that there are no obstacles around, and it's possible to be ambushed by the Insect Swarm. So, while the Insect Swarm hasn't arrived yet, Lin Xiao pointed out Captain Lu Gongda and the engineering team he led from the crowd to start building a sufficiently sturdy circular fortification.