Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 202 The Truth About the Lost Civilization

"Who are you?" Dina gripped her longsword tightly, but her body trembled uncontrollably.

Aburame Shicheng did not answer, but walked to a soldier's side, squatted down and examined him.

"Hmm, as expected, there's no chakra. The physique is similar to that of a primitive human, and the skeletal structure is also similar, only the appearance is slightly different. It seems we are of the same origin."

"Who are you?!" Dina shouted again.

"Don't be nervous, I have no interest in your lives. However, I am very interested in your country."

Aburame Shisei stood up, smiled, and walked forward: "Your physical condition is quite good. In terms of strength, you are almost on par with an average Jonin. Your mental resistance is also very high; you must have undergone special willpower enhancement training."

"What Jonin? What mental resistance?"

Dina couldn't understand a word the man in front of her was saying. All she knew was that he was extremely dangerous and could take her life in an instant.

"Who exactly are you?" She gripped her longsword tightly with both hands, staring straight ahead without the slightest fear.

But she soon discovered that she was unable to activate the Regel Stone within her body to complete the transformation and enhancement. Her power seemed to be completely suppressed, and she couldn't even move her body.

"I've already told you, don't be nervous. I'm just a new businessman from the mainland, and my purpose in coming here is to visit your country. Could you tell me about your country?"

Dina gritted her teeth and said, "You think I'd believe that? I won't tell you anything. This is the honor of us Holy Knights..."

Before she could finish speaking, Aburame Shisei shook his head slightly and snapped his fingers. The next second, Dina's vision blurred, and she was instantly plunged into darkness.

Countless giant insects swarmed in from all directions, crawling onto her body, burrowing into her armor, and tearing at her skin.

"ah--!"

She screamed in agony, waving her hands frantically, but couldn't touch anything.

"This is just an illusion," Aburame Shige's voice came from the void. "But if you won't tell me, I can make it a reality."

Dina gasped for breath, her entire body drenched in sweat: "I am a Holy Knight, the honor of a knight is not..."

However, before the words were finished, darkness swept in again.

This time, the illusions were no longer small insects, but giant insects with heads larger than a human body. They stretched out their long tongues and licked her body, their tongues covered in a foul-smelling slime.

Then, a large swarm of long-legged centipedes crawled rampant around her. As the insect swarm grew larger and larger, Dina's mental state gradually teetered on the brink of collapse.

"I...I'll talk!"

Half an hour later, Dina collapsed to the ground, her eyes glazed over. She had revealed everything she knew: the Regel Stone, the sacred nectar, and the ever-shifting nations at sea.

So that's why he couldn't find it before; their country was built on a mobile fortress, constantly drifting in the ocean.

As for the Regel Stone, this civilization did not make high use of it, and its technology even regressed due to the demise of many civilizations.

For example, the Regel stun gun they used was a product from several eras ago.

Moreover, due to the enormous consumption of the Regel Stone, it is rarely used except for this trip to Giant Insect Island.

Most of them would embed the Regel Stone into their bodies, but the price was that if the embedder was over thirty years old, or if they used too much power, their bodies would undergo animalistic mutations, and they would eventually lose their minds completely.

But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining; they discovered the island of giant insects and found the sacred flower there.

The sacred nectar can suppress this mutation, which is why they risk coming to Giant Insect Island every year. However, the sacred flower is guarded by giant moths, and each harvest comes at a heavy price.

In addition, they steal insect eggs, use technology to extract the giant insect's genes, and then use Regel's knowledge to cultivate special drugs to create giant insect bioweapons that they can control.

However, control of these weapons was entirely in the hands of the people in the capital.

"Did you come here because the old king is dying?" Aburame Zhicheng asked.

Dina nodded blankly: "That's right, His Majesty the King desperately needs nectar to prolong his life."

"What about capturing slaves?"

"There's a problem in the capital," Dina said haltingly. "Technology is developing too fast, and nobody wants to farm. Crops like cotton, soybeans, and corn are left unattended."

And for some reason, most children born in the city are deformed. We need fresh blood, we need foreign genes.

Aburame Shisei remained silent for a moment, then summarized and organized all the information.

Mobile fortresses, technological regression, genetic degeneration... all these factors combined lead to a clear conclusion: this so-called lost civilization did not have as many people as he had imagined, and its population might not even be comparable to that of primitive tribes.

Moreover, their bloodlines are highly unified, which means that they almost all originated from the same ancestral family.

"One last question, where is your country located now?"

Dina shook her head: "I don't know. The capital is constantly moving at sea, and only high-ranking officers can receive the coordinates. We're just following orders..."

Aburame Shisei nodded; this was within his expectations. "So, you high-ranking officials, your so-called signal reception must be relying on the Regel Stone for sensing, right?"

Dina's pupils contracted sharply. She hadn't expected that the other person still didn't believe her and had even seen through her lie.

"You're truly loyal to your country. But they only want to use you."

Aburame Zhicheng continued to entice: "They know perfectly well that embedding the Regel Stone will shorten your lifespan, yet they make you regard it as an honor and do everything in your power to join the Holy Knights."

"No, protecting the royal family is our mission, protecting the royal bloodline is our mission."

"Ha. In ancient times, when the royal family fell on hard times, Mo Yi led his servants to steal a fortress and fled to the sea to make a living. They have not dared to return to the mainland all these years because they were originally escapees. In that case, everything makes sense. They don't even know that the civilization they belong to has been destroyed many years ago."

Aburame Shigeaki meticulously unravels the truth, dissecting it bit by bit. He had always scoffed at the original version of the story.

The claim that civilizations, upon reaching a certain level of development, will bring disaster to humanity and that we must stay away from overseas is nothing more than a whitewashing of reality.

After his reconstruction and deduction, the logic suddenly became clear.

Otherwise, how can we explain the continuous decline in their civilization and technological level?

Energy shortage is only one aspect; more importantly, they were originally destitute fugitives who had failed in their struggle for power. Only those of noble blood escaped, and there were hardly any scientific researchers among them.