The hurricane abruptly ceased, revealing the yellow-faced man within.
He stood frozen in place, his ice shield and green barrier completely gone. A fist-sized transparent hole had been pierced through his chest where his heart should be, surrounded by blackened, charred flesh as if seared by intense heat.
The man looked down at his chest, instinctively touching the wound with his hand, his face a mask of astonishment and disbelief.
But at that moment, the black spear shattered with a crackling sound, transforming back into a dense swarm of flying ants that surged toward him without mercy. They knocked him to the ground and instantly covered his entire body. After just a few agonized screams, the man fell silent.
A moment later, the ant swarm suddenly took to the air, returning to their original spot and settling down, once again indistinguishable from the surrounding black sand. Where the man had fallen, there was nothing left—the ants had devoured everything clean.
Han Li, watching from a distant mountaintop, witnessed the entire scene clearly. Though inwardly shocked, his expression turned peculiar.
“Ironfire Ants! It must be them. I never expected to encounter such spirit insects here,” Han Li muttered to himself in a voice so low only he could hear it.
When the flying ants first appeared, Han Li hadn’t recognized them. But when they proved impervious to the yellow-faced cultivator’s flying dagger artifact and eventually coalesced into a spear, he identified them as Ironfire Ants. After all, flying ant-type spirit insects were not uncommon in the cultivation world, and their appearances were often similar. Unless one specialized in insect-control techniques, most cultivators couldn’t distinguish between them.
In reality, however, the abilities and lethality of different flying ant-type spirit insects varied dramatically. Weaker ant swarms could be easily wiped out by Qi Condensation cultivators using ordinary magical tools. More formidable ants, however, would give even Core Formation cultivators pause, forcing them to retreat.
Ranked thirty-seventh on the Strange Insect Leaderboard, Ironfire Ants were among the most deadly of flying ants. Only the legendary ninth-ranked “Heavenly Crystal Ants” were considered more fearsome. These ants were not only impervious to blades and spears but also resistant to most spell attacks. Aside from mid-tier or higher water and ice spells, as well as a few other specific elemental spells, they were nearly invulnerable, boasting defenses on par with Gold Devouring Beetles—and even surpassing them in resisting direct artifact assaults.
Though they lacked the Gold Devouring Beetles’ ability to devour spiritual energy, they compensated with the terrifying capabilities of spewing black flames and morphing through collective transformation.
With these abilities, an Ironfire Ant swarm was, in a sense, a shape-shifting fire-attribute artifact. Given their fearsome offensive power, ordinary defensive artifacts and spells stood no chance against their full-force assault. The yellow-faced man’s gruesome death was hardly unjust!
Unlike Gold Devouring Beetles, which were nearly extinct, Ironfire Ants were still extant but exceedingly rare in the cultivation world. Even when encountered, swarms usually numbered only in the hundreds or thousands.
This scarcity was due to their extremely harsh living conditions: they required scorching lava zones with abundant deposits of copper and iron ore. Away from such environments, Ironfire Ants would rapidly weaken, soon losing their special abilities and becoming little different from ordinary ants.
If this were their only limitation, many cultivators would still seek to tame them, creating artificial environments or seeking out natural ones to raise the ants—a small price for such desirable abilities. However, a fatal restriction dashed these hopes: whether wild or domesticated, Ironfire Ants simply could not be bound to a master. Any attempt to control them through various binding rituals would cause the ants to self-destruct one by one, without exception, shattering cultivators’ dreams.
The reasons for this were debated. Some claimed it was due to the ants’ fierce, unyielding nature, unwilling to be subjugated. Others argued it was related to their unique physiology…
Of course, such knowledge about Ironfire Ants was scarcely known, whether in the Tiannan Region or the Chaotic Star Seas. Over the past millennium, sightings had become increasingly rare, and swarm sizes had dwindled, rendering them nearly extinct.
As Han Li gazed at the black desert, lost in thought about the Ironfire Ants, he felt a chill down his spine.
It seemed the black desert’s natural traps were these very ants. Though he didn’t know how many such swarms lay hidden, the fact that the yellow-faced cultivator had encountered one just a few hundred zhang into the desert suggested their numbers were substantial. It was even possible that swarms numbering in the tens of thousands existed.
The thought sent a cold shiver down Han Li’s spine. He quickly scanned his storage pouches with his spiritual sense. He had over a dozen mid-tier ice and water attribute talismans, enough to deal with two or three swarms of the size he’d just witnessed.
But relying solely on these talismans to cross the entire desert was pure folly!
However, when his gaze fell upon the spirit beast pouches containing his Gold Devouring Beetles, an idea sparked. Would using them against the Ironfire Ants yield unexpected results?
After all, Gold Devouring Beetles were ranked higher than Ironfire Ants, and he had a vast number of them. Judging by the color of the Ironfire Ants’ shells, they hadn’t evolved to the legendary “Black Gold” stage and were likely in a semi-mature phase, similar to his beetles. Thus, it was worth a try.
Once this idea took root, it grew uncontrollably.
Suppressing his excitement, Han Li pondered carefully and, finding no flaws, resolved to test it on the nearby Ironfire Ant swarm. Even if the Gold Devouring Beetles failed, he still had his mid-tier talismans to ensure a safe retreat from the desert.
With a cold gleam in his eyes, Han Li dashed down from the mountaintop straight toward the black desert.
Soon, he stood at the desert’s edge, pausing to observe the black sand beneath his feet. Squinting, he bent down, scooped up a handful of black sand, and examined it closely.
A moment later, he snorted coldly. With a flash of yellow light, he clenched his fist tightly, then slowly opened it. Most of the sand grains had flattened, with very few crushed.
“So this black desert is actually iron ore particles,” Han Li muttered to himself with a trace of self-mockery.
“Still, to spread iron ore particles into such a vast desert-like terrain—the master of the Void Palace truly had an impressive vision,” he mused, feeling a sense of awe.
As he tossed the sand aside and stood up, he frowned suddenly and lightly patted the Lingxi Jade Pendant at his waist. A white protective shield enveloped him.
Earlier, to avoid the yellow-faced cultivator, he’d had to deactivate the pendant’s fire resistance, relying solely on his cultivation to endure. Now, merely approaching the black desert, the blistering heat waves made him dizzy within moments. Startled, he hastily reactivated the Lingxi Pendant. This was no time to conserve spiritual power.
Without further hesitation, Han Li cautiously advanced toward the Ironfire Ant swarm.
Moving through the black desert was an excruciating ordeal. The scorching sand underfoot and the burning air around him made it unbearable. Even with the Lingxi Pendant and his fire-resistant robe, he felt suffocated, as if the heat surpassed even yesterday’s trek across a stretch of molten rock.
After just thirty zhang, Han Li sighed and reached into his storage pouch, pulling out a smooth, cool pearl. Without hesitation, he channeled spiritual power into it. A white light flashed, and a wave of cold air emanated from the pearl.
Immediately, Han Li felt a refreshing coolness around him, boosting his spirits. He quickened his pace.
Using both the Lingxi Pendant and the Frost Pearl significantly increased his spiritual power consumption. He needed to cross this desert as quickly as possible.
When he was still fifty or sixty zhang from the Ironfire Ant swarm, he halted, carefully observing the area.
After a long moment, Han Li shook his head slightly.
The dormant Ironfire Ant swarm was nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding black sand. Even with his spiritual sense probing the area, he struggled to detect them. Their spiritual energy fluctuations were faint and elusive, as if they naturally possessed a highly advanced concealment technique.
It seemed that relying solely on spiritual sense to avoid the ant swarms from a distance was futile. Testing the Gold Devouring Beetles was the only option.
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