At that moment, William thought to himself, "Whoever wants this crappy domain can have it." To him, this type of barren land was even worse than a barren terrain card. Just as he was about to cut the land and retreat, the opposing demigod wouldn’t have it. Countless skeletons began to rise from the black soil, forming a massive army of skeletons that surged toward William's domain.

  Seeing William firmly hold the entrance of the teleportation portal, the opposing demigod appeared in the sky, casting a projection and unleashing a barrage of taunts. This immediately infuriated William.

  The consequence of angering William was that he immediately ordered 500,000 Jump Worm units to launch a counter-offensive against the sea of skeletons.

  As the primary low-level unit of the undead, skeletons are born from souls, bones, and extraordinary power. While they are inherently extraordinary, their combat abilities are far inferior to most ordinary units. They rely on their overwhelming numbers to pose a threat, growing stronger as they multiply.

  However, against the Jump Worms, which are top-tier killing machines among ordinary units, the skeletons' fragile bone bodies were easily shattered under the Jump Worms' attacks. With their strong, spiked tails and bone scythes on their backs, each strike sent a wave of skeletons scattering into fragments.

  Jump Worms, being a superior species with a more advanced brain, quickly discovered the skeletons' weak points. After a few rotations of their tail strikes, one of the Jump Worms let out a sharp screech, transmitting the newly developed rotating tail sweep tactic to the other Jump Worms, which then spread throughout the entire attacking group.

  As a result, the entire Jump Worm army adapted their attack methods to exploit the skeletons' frailty. The 500,000 Jump Worms, relying on their sturdy defenses and powerful leg muscles for jumping charges, carved a bloody path through the sea of millions of skeletons.

  Breaking through the defense line, they left the skeletons in their wake and rushed into the enemy's domain. The slow-moving skeletons could never catch up to the swiftly advancing Jump Worms.

  Using this group of Jump Worms, William implemented a decapitation strategy, directly targeting the center of the opposing domain. Fortunately, the core of the opposing demigod's domain was located near the center. William easily found it and, with the demigod's desperate pleas for mercy ringing in his ears, destroyed the domain core without hesitation.

  After the battle, William did not merge the opposing domain. Such a desolate and barren terrain was of no value to him. If he merged it, he would have to spend time and energy eliminating the remaining low-intelligence skeletons, which was simply not worth it.

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  This forced engagement brought him no benefits, and he lost nearly 300,000 Jump Worms, leaving William in a long period of frustration.

  To make matters worse, less than three days after the battle, over 200,000 Jump Worms that had entered the enemy's domain all fell ill and became lethargic. When William discovered this, he immediately launched an investigation. With a divine mental scan, he easily identified the cause.

  The Jump Worms had contracted a black mold from the opposing domain. Initially, William thought that with his divine powers, he could easily deal with the mold. However, after adjusting the genes and studying the mold’s genetic structure, he found that it was beyond his ability to handle.

  This mold, which William named "Deadzone Black Fungus," was no ordinary species. Upon inspecting its genetic chain, he saw a large cluster of extraordinary genes resembling tumors. William's genetic control powers were unable to parse them.

  Realizing the severity of the situation, he immediately isolated the affected Jump Worms and the surrounding areas. Yet, the spread of the Deadzone Black Fungus could not be stopped.

  After exhausting all possible solutions, William reluctantly threw this entire region and all the infected insect units into the void. Watching the fragments of the domain drift away in the void, with the insect life rapidly perishing, William’s face turned as dark as a pot bottom.

  Losing such a large area of domain and over a million insect units was a severe blow to William.

  With his wounds still fresh, William decided to lay low. He parked his domain in the void, licking his wounds and remaining still.

  In the center of a barren area within the middle section of his domain, inside a stone house, William quietly stored a crystal vial in his hand. The vial contained samples of the Deadzone Black Fungus—the very cause of his heavy losses. William had preserved a portion of the samples and stored them carefully.

  This biochemical weapon was a deadly trump card that could easily devastate a domain. With the speed of the Poison Sting Dragonflies, the fungus could be spread across the entire domain in no time. If someone were delayed or didn’t take action in time to address the fungus, the domain’s inhabitants would be doomed to extinction.

  After calming himself, William used his divine mental powers to carefully scan the area, confirming that there were no further issues. He then returned to the Ant Queen’s side to continue his daily work.

  Aside from looking for possible optimizations in the existing gene templates for his insect army, most of his focus was now on designing a new primary aerial combat unit. He sent a modified gene template into an insect embryo.

  Using his divine mental powers, William carefully monitored the embryo’s development. Once the larva was born, he ordered a logistics Spider Ant to transport the larva to an independent hatchery laboratory five kilometers away for individual care.

  After completing this task, William took a deep breath, hoping to relieve the mental fatigue.

  Over the past two years, in addition to designing the new aerial combat unit, William had also gathered a collection of easily obtainable extraordinary beast genes—such as the gene from a pangolin that could petrify its skin, a hawk capable of using wind blades, and a giant serpent that could exhale ice.

  At first, William thought these extraordinary beasts could open the door to transcendence for the insect swarm. However, the results were disappointing.

  While the genetic components relating to ordinary species were still within William’s control, the parts related to extraordinary powers, which he referred to as “genetic tumors,” were beyond his expertise.