The Small Stone Race members who had come out of the cave were also about a foot tall. Their bodies were well-defined and bright, clearly different from the ones who had been responsible for carrying the stones.
From the looks of it, the number of people here was about the same. There were more than a thousand Small Stone Race who had invaded, and the same was true for the Small Stone Race who had emerged from the cave.
The two sides lined up at the entrance of the cave, separated by a thousand feet.
The Small Stone Race were arranged in neat rows.
On both sides, there were some clansmen holding stone hammers or stone staffs, each of them looking particularly imposing and fierce. As they bared their fangs, the cold light flashing from their mouths became even colder.
On the Small Stone Race from the cave side, the tallest one came to the front of the group, each of his hands holding a stone hammer about the same size as himself as he paced back and forth in front of the group while shouting rhythmically.
Following his actions, all the clansmen shouted in unison.
“Haah! Haah!” The sound was endless.
Yang Kai’s expression became strange as he whispered to Yue He, “Is this to boost morale before the battle?”
Yue He nodded, “More or less.”
It wasn’t just the Small Stone Race that came out from the cave, but the invading Small Stone Race as well. Both sides’ actions were exactly the same, as if they had been carved from the same mold.
After a short while, the morale was completely boosted, and both sides began advancing towards each other in an orderly fashion.
The distance of a thousand feet was quickly flattened.
The two groups of Small Stone Race members who belonged to different races rushed towards each other and soon became one.
Under the watchful eyes of Yang Kai and Yue He, although these Small Stone Race were small in size, when they fought, it could be said that they were not afraid of death. Those with weapons rushed to the enemy’s side, raised their weapons, and smashed them down, often smashing their enemies to pieces with a single stone hammer. Those without weapons rushed to the enemy’s side, twisted together, opened their fangs, and ruthlessly bit down.
Their teeth were undoubtedly extremely sharp, each bite capable of biting off large chunks of rock from their enemies.
During the battle, all of them let out a series of shouts!
For a time, the scene was extremely tragic. One by one, the Small Stone Race members were cut into pieces and scattered on the ground.
There were originally more than two thousand people on both sides, but after the time it took to boil a cup of tea, more than two or three hundred people had died. After another incense stick’s worth of time, only half remained.
All of a sudden, the battle came to an abrupt halt, and the two sides who were engaged in a life and death struggle suddenly stopped fighting.
Immediately after, the surviving members of the Small Stone Race picked up the corpses of the dead Small Stone Race members and began to return to their original locations.
Many of the Small Stone Race members who had lost an arm or a leg in the battle struggled to move their bodies back to where they came from.
Yang Kai was puzzled, “What are they doing?”
Yue He said, “Young Master will soon understand. This race is very strange. This kind of battle seems to be their way of survival and often appears.”
“How intelligent are they? Have you tried communicating with them?”
Yue He replied, “Of course I tried, but their intelligence isn’t high, so I can’t communicate with them.”
Yang Kai nodded and said no more.
On the other side of the battlefield, the cleanup was quickly completed. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties, and the invading tribes had slowly retreated while the cave’s tribesmen who had come to fight also carried the corpses of their clansmen or enemies back to the cave.
Yue He called out and Yang Kai follow her into the cave.
The cave was only about the height of a man and some places were even shorter, so the two of them had to bend down from time to time.
It was just as Yue He had said before, this Small Stone Race's nest was extremely similar to an ant’s nest. Inside, there were twists and turns, each of which led to a massive underground network.
Along the way, a number of small caves had been dug out by the Small Stone Race and they were currently resting inside. When they were disturbed by Yang Kai and Yue He, all of them popped their heads out of their caves and stared at them.
As he continued to descend, Yang Kai carefully examined his surroundings and was secretly shocked. The underground had almost been completely dug up by the Small Stone Race.
After descending for more than ten kilometers, the two of them suddenly arrived at a huge cave.
Inside the nest, there were several bridges that connected to a giant platform in the middle. On the platform, a figure that was far larger than the other Small Stone Race members appeared in Yang Kai’s vision.
“That’s the Stone Queen of this Small Stone Race!” Yue He whispered.
Yang Kai nodded slightly and looked up to see that the Stone Queen’s body was extremely bloated. Lying on the platform, it was about 3 zhang tall, like a giant fatty with a body as white as jade.
Beside this Stone Queen, there was a small group of Small Stone Race members that were about the same height as him patrolling back and forth. This group of Small Stone Race members didn’t have a large number, only a few dozen in total. However, compared to the other Small Stone Race members, each of them was exceptionally tall, and the stone surface of their bodies made them look even more imposing.
“These are the guards of the Stone Queen?” Yang Kai raised his brow.
Yue He nodded, “It should be!”
At this moment, the Small Stone Race cultivators who had retreated from the battlefield earlier were all carrying their spoils of war towards the central platform. These spoils of war were undoubtedly stones left behind by their clansmen or enemies.
When they arrived in front of the Stone Queen, the leading Small Stone Race raised the stone in his hand high into the air. The Stone Queen’s fat body squirmed slightly before it lowered its head and sniffed the air. Then, it opened its mouth that was bigger than a washbasin and bit off the stone, swallowing it whole.
Crack crack crack…
A crisp sound echoed throughout the cave. The Stone Queen’s teeth were extremely sharp, and eating this stone was like biting into crisp bones.
With just a few bites, the stone was swallowed by the Stone Queen.
The next Small Stone Race member holding the stone in his hand had already arrived and was about to deliver it to the Stone Queen’s mouth when the Stone Queen opened its mouth again.
One by one, the Small Stone Race presented their spoils of war, and the Stone Queen did not refuse.
After a while, the Stone Queen’s fat body suddenly trembled violently, and Yang Kai could clearly feel that this fellow was holding back a great deal of strength.
Immediately after, something fell from the tail of the Stone Queen.
The Stone Queen was lying on the platform in the middle, its tail hanging in the air, so after it fell down, it fell straight down.
Yang Kai could clearly see that what fell from the Stone Queen’s tail was an oval stone egg!
After rolling a few times on the soft ground, the stone egg came to a stop. A Small Stone Race member who had been waiting nearby rushed forward, grabbed the stone egg, and rushed into a nearby tunnel.
Yang Kai was surprised, “The Small Stone Race is born from an egg?”
Yue He nodded, “That’s why this Small Stone Race is extremely similar to ants, whether it is in terms of structure or survival methods.”
Yang Kai sent out a wisp of his Divine Sense and followed the Small Stone Race member who was carrying the stone egg. Soon, they arrived at a cave. Inside the cave, there were more than a hundred stone eggs arranged neatly, each of them containing a life aura.
Inside the nest, there was a Small Stone Race that was responsible for taking care of these stone eggs, patrolling back and forth like a nanny, occasionally glancing around and touching them.
In the vicinity, there were several other caves with stone eggs.
Yang Kai also saw a Small Stone Race member hatching from a few stone eggs.
In this battle, the Small Stone Race had brought a lot of spoils of war, but not much. In less than two hours, all of them had been eaten by the Stone Queen, and now, the Stone Queen had given birth to several dozen stone eggs.
After the spoils of war, the Small Stone Race members who had lost an arm and a leg because they had participated in the battle also lined up and walked towards the Stone Queen.
They didn’t have any spoils of war, so just as Yang Kai was wondering what they were up to, he saw the Stone Queen open its mouth and bite down on an armless Small Stone Race member.
In just a few bites, this clansman was swallowed into the stomach. The clansmen behind him didn’t react much, still lining up to deliver their broken bodies to the Stone Queen’s mouth, each of them showing no remorse or fear.
“They even eat their own clansmen!” Yang Kai’s eyes flashed with surprise, “It seems these Small Stone Race really don’t have much intelligence.”
Yue He sighed lightly, “It’s also for the reproduction of their race. The Stone Queen will only lay stone eggs after eating. Normally, she won’t lay eggs.”
Yang Kai frowned and said, “If it’s for the reproduction of their race, then what was the reason for the previous battle? In this battle, this race lost hundreds of clansmen, but in the end, all of their spoils were fed to the Stone Queen, the number of stone eggs they could lay was less than a hundred.”
“We speculate that they are trying to control the population of their race. Reproduction is their responsibility, but to them, the current Small Stone World is lacking in resources, so if they don’t control their numbers, they may die. With their intelligence, they may not be able to understand the destruction of their race, but they are still living creatures, so it makes sense for them to instinctively notice and react!”
“Controlling the population…” Yang Kai stroked his chin and muttered to himself. What he had seen so far proved that Yue He was right. After all, they had been observing and cultivating here for more than forty years, so they naturally had a better understanding of this place.
“In fact, in this entire Small Stone World, other than the special cultivation environment, we haven’t found any valuable resources here. Before, we were wondering why this happened, but after discovering that the entire Small Stone World is filled with these Small Stone Race, we understood,” Yue He said softly, “The Small Stone World may have had resources in the past, but they must have been eaten up by the Small Stone Race. Right now, they can only eat some ordinary ores, but their reproductive ability is too strong, so they must control their numbers. The best way to control their numbers is to fight with different clans.”
Hearing this, Yang Kai nodded, “This also makes sense. No wonder they suddenly stopped fighting and even brought back the corpses of their clansmen.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
Martial Peak