Over the course of the year, William launched a sweeping campaign to gather new species within his domain. Thanks to the sheer number of his insect swarm, he spared no corner, almost collecting the genes of every invasive species he encountered.

The results from collecting these various genes were immense. The genes of large mammals, in particular, opened up new breakthroughs for his previous Jump Insect project, allowing the experiments to continue, and they were now nearing a significant milestone.

During the war against the jackal-men, William had specifically paid attention to the extraordinary Jackal Shaman, whose body was later entirely handed over to the Queen Ant as a source of sustenance.

He had hoped to use the Jackal Shaman’s magic-wielding abilities to unlock a path to the extraordinary for his swarm, but the results were disappointing.

The Jackal Shaman’s genes were nearly identical to those of regular jackal-men. As for why they could wield magic—a form of extraordinary power—William surmised that it might be due to the influence of a demigod’s divine attributes. This caused a magic-related rule to appear in his domain, which, over time, led to the Shaman discovering a crude path to the extraordinary, enabling jackal-men to evolve from ordinary to extraordinary through self-taught practices.

However, the efficiency of this self-discovered training method was horrifically low. Out of the 700,000 jackal-men, only a dozen or so Shaman-like individuals had reached the extraordinary level. The primitive nature of the cultivation method was clearly ineffective.

In addition to the new genes brought by their domain, William was also exposed to various new species that piqued his interest. Currently, he was studying a newly analyzed species gene, feeling quite conflicted.

This species, a special ordinary species from the enemy's domain, had some traits of both aquatic mollusks and crustaceans. It resembled a squid with a shell and reproduced at an extremely fast rate. William named it "Octopus Shrimp," one of the water-based food sources for the jackal-men.

While food was of little concern, what William was most interested in was the species' method of reproduction.

The reproduction method of the Octopus Shrimp was strikingly similar to that of the Queen Ant. After mating, the female undergoes a secondary abdominal development and begins laying eggs. Over time, her abdominal ovaries grow larger, preventing her from moving freely, and she relies on the male to feed her.

As the egg production increases, so does the demand for food. The male alone cannot supply enough sustenance. At this point, the female undergoes a transformation completely different from the Queen Ant—her abdominal ovaries detach but remain connected to her body by an organ resembling an intestine. This allows her to begin foraging around her nest, and as the organ grows longer, her range of activity expands.

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Eventually, the detached ovaries will develop their own independent digestive system, easing the burden on the female's body. After some time, assuming the female and her detached ovaries are in good condition, a new abdomen will start to grow beneath the connection between the female and her ovaries.

Once the new abdomen matures, the male will mate with the female again. This time, the original mate will no longer feed the female but will focus on providing for the newly detached abdominal ovary, while the female pairs with a new mate to form a new nest, repeating the process.

As long as the female Octopus Shrimp remains healthy, this cycle will continue. If she weakens or suffers malnutrition, the latest mate will sever the connection with the original abdominal ovary to ensure the survival of their offspring. This is a very peculiar reproductive strategy.

William saw in this species' genetic traits the potential to reduce the Queen Ant’s burden and accelerate the reproduction rate of the swarm.

A long time ago, William had tried every possible method to increase the Queen Ant’s reproductive speed. He even attempted to create insect units capable of reproducing offspring, bypassing the Queen Ant’s limitations. The results, however, were disastrous.

Any units capable of reproducing would be killed by the insect swarm under the Queen Ant’s influence, causing chaos. When William tried to intervene and let these units survive, it caused severe damage to the instincts encoded in the chimeric ant genes, nearly leading to the collapse of the swarm’s social and belief structures.

At that time, seeing the Queen Ant and the swarm’s faith level plummet from zealots to low-level believers, with some insect units even descending to a near-apostate level and attacking the reproductive units, William made a decisive move. He ordered a logistics spider-ant to eliminate the new reproductive unit, then comforted the Queen Ant and stabilized the swarm’s faith.

Once the Queen Ant regained her zealot status, the other insect units quickly returned to their previous fervor.

It was then that William realized the significance of the Queen Ant’s role in the swarm as the core, and he gave up on the idea of allowing other units to reproduce.

Now, after leaving the beginner protection period, William could find many extraordinary resources in the market of the Gods' Communication Continent to ensure the Queen Ant’s safe genetic transition. However, William still had psychological trauma regarding gene fusion experiments with the Queen Ant. After two failed attempts to improve her reproductive speed—one success, one disaster—he was deeply cautious.

A gene fusion experiment involving black ants had almost killed the Queen Ant, and bypassing her had nearly caused a crisis in the swarm’s survival. As a result, William adopted an attitude of extreme caution, knowing that any mistake could result in the loss of his core subordinate and the end of his path to godhood.

Weighing all these risks, William temporarily set aside any ideas about merging genes with other species and decided to take more time to carefully consider the potential consequences.

With his thoughts in order, he gently extended his divine consciousness to calm the Queen Ant. William’s demigod projection then flew to his independent hatchery laboratory, located five kilometers away.

Standing before the 1.5-meter-tall cocoon for the fourth time, William felt calm. This was the fourth cocoon to restart the Jump Insect project.

Previously, due to the lack of large mammal genes in his domain, the Jump Insect project had to be temporarily halted. Now, with new genes from various mammals and the jackal-men, he was ready to resume the experiment.

After three months of calm reflection, William restarted the Jump Insect project.