Before William could give any orders, the surrounding Toxic Sting Dragonflies had already gathered in sufficient numbers and immediately launched their attack.

Over a thousand Toxic Sting Dragonflies surged forward, each one of the gnoll warriors being stung at least a dozen times by the dragonflies' tail spikes, causing them to collapse instantly.

Seeing that the altar had been cleared, William immediately controlled the dragonflies inhabiting his body to land on the surface of the altar. As he consumed his divine power, his divine sense slowly spread out and finally detected the presence of the core of the divine realm two meters below the stone altar.

William was overjoyed; he had finally found it. He quickly ordered the surrounding dragonflies to begin destroying and excavating the altar.

The dense swarm of dragonflies began gnawing at the altar. Considering their small size, William estimated that it would take at least two hours to extract the divine realm core. During this time, he could only monitor the various battle groups of his swarm, making timely adjustments while patiently waiting.

“Huh…?” A surprised exclamation escaped William’s lips as he suddenly noticed something unusual among the swarm.

At this moment, Old Caius was lying motionless on the ground, while Varek was lying nearby, the two gnolls staring at each other.

Next to them lay the corpse of another gnoll from their team, the one who had been sprayed with corrosive acid, disfigured by the attack.

Varek, his face filled with fear, turned to Old Caius and asked, “Captain, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know, let’s just wait.” Old Caius replied, his face full of despair as he had already given up resisting.

After receiving the order, Old Caius had led the team back to the divine realm quickly, as two of the team members were injured, one of whom was Varek, the young gnoll he had high hopes for.

He had decided to escort Varek to the medical station at the rear of the divine realm, thinking to have a good talk with this naïve young gnoll along the way.

They managed to avoid the first wave of the insect swarm. When they looked up, they saw the giant insect ball hovering above the battlefield.

Old Caius immediately turned and, taking the two injured gnolls with him, began running as fast as he could. As an experienced gnoll, he calmly assessed the situation. Faced with this scale of insect swarm, he instinctively knew that they had little chance of surviving.

After the main battle was over, the Blade-Cutting Cockroaches began to pursue the fleeing gnolls.

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As land creatures, there was no way they could outrun the flying Blade-Cutting Cockroaches. Old Caius, carrying two wounded members, was soon overtaken.

Looking up at the insect swarm, which stretched like a terrifying serpent across the sky, he knew that their fate was sealed.

Just as Old Caius had placed the two wounded team members by the roadside, a small group of cockroaches detached from the main swarm and flew toward their position.

Facing the approaching swarm of over a thousand Blade-Cutting Cockroaches, Old Caius felt his fighting spirit fade as terror took hold.

There was no more chance to escape. The cockroaches descended in a ring formation, surrounding the three of them.

Standing in the center of the encirclement, Old Caius awaited death. However, just as the cockroaches closed in, they bypassed the motionless gnoll who had already collapsed on the ground, his face horribly corroded.

“Varek, don’t move….” Old Caius, sensing the urgency of the situation, immediately realized what was happening. His mind worked at lightning speed as he thought, his thinking clearer than ever before in his life. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he stopped Varek from getting up.

Sure enough, the flying and grounded Blade-Cutting Cockroaches ignored Varek and continued to close in on the other two gnolls, leaving Varek lying motionless on the ground.

Confirming his suspicion, Old Caius watched as Varek, without hesitation, dove to the ground in one swift motion, lying flat with no further movement.

The encircling cockroaches did not attack him but instead circled around his body. It was as if they were observing and trying to figure out what the suddenly prone gnoll was trying to do.

At that moment, Old Caius dared not move, staring wide-eyed at the cockroaches surrounding them. His heart raced with terror, and he held his breath.

It turned out that his gamble had paid off. The cockroaches began to fly off, scattering and merging back into the main swarm, leaving only three cockroaches perched on nearby trees, silently observing the three lying gnolls.

From Old Caius's vast experience, he understood what was happening. The insects had not attacked them because they were prisoners now, and the cockroaches were their captors.

Old Caius tried speaking to the cockroaches, but they remained unresponsive. Any small movement, however, caused the three cockroaches on the trees to raise their sickles in a threatening posture, ready to strike.

The wait for the inevitable was long. Old Caius saw the Swarm Spiders, which were skillfully moving toward them, parting around the three gnolls and moving on.

It was only when the injured gnoll, who had been blinded by the acid, started to stir, that the three cockroaches acted. Despite Old Caius's warning, the blinded gnoll, instinctively trying to sit up, met his tragic end. The cockroaches swarmed and swiftly hacked his skull apart with their sickles, spilling his brain across the ground.

Seeing the two remaining gnolls lying on the ground, William confirmed that he had never issued any orders to capture prisoners. What had caused these Blade-Cutting Cockroaches to behave in such a way?

He realized that this was not an isolated incident. In the map’s model, many areas with overlapping red and green lights showed similar situations.

William immediately directed a question at the Blade-Cutting Cockroach that had been watching the two gnolls on the ground.

“Why are you accepting prisoners?”

As he activated the line of faith to transmit the question, he sensed hesitation and confusion from the cockroach.

“Hmm… hmm….” William quickly realized that the question was beyond the understanding of the cockroach. Ordinary swarm units, despite their inherent instincts, had simple minds and could only grasp basic commands and questions, as well as the orders from William.