Qin Ming and Old Liu were busy with various tasks like chopping wood, paving roads, and trapping animals. Everything was ready.
"The silver-headed ants are omnivorous and have a keen sense of smell. They're very sensitive to scents they like, and it’s showing now!" Qin Ming said.
They had bought some honey at a high price and prepared plenty of beast blood, spreading it along their path while occasionally applying honey, moving from far to near.
As soon as Qin Ming and Old Liu entered through the crack in the mountain, the two scents stirred the motionless silver-headed ants into action.
"Some are starting to move! Hurry and light the fire!"
"Be careful not to burn yourself!"
The two of them threw several barrels of oil into the crack and, after tossing their torches, turned to run.
Boom!
Flames erupted, waking up all the silver-headed ants inside the mountain. Although many were killed by the burning oil, there were just too many of them, packed tightly together. The ant nest was complex, and many areas couldn’t be reached by the flames.
In an instant, the silver-headed ants were enraged and surged out like a tide through the crack.
"Come on! It would be great if the ant queen comes out too!" Old Liu shouted, wielding a heavy machete.
"Run! They’re coming!" Qin Ming pulled him and they started running up the mountain.
They weren't worried about the silver-headed ants not chasing them because they had spread honey and beast blood along the way. Besides, these creatures were not ordinary ants; they had a strong territorial awareness and were extremely fierce. Anyone who dared invade their nest would be met with swift revenge.
"Why are some of the silver-headed ants flying?" Before Qin Ming had run a hundred meters, he heard a buzzing sound behind him.
"What’s going on?" Old Liu was confused too. At least a hundred flying ants, each the size of a fist, were rushing toward them, far more than usual.
"Are you asking me?" Qin Ming felt uneasy. This old man seemed unreliable. Didn't he say he knew everything about the mountains? How could he not know there were flying silver-headed ants?
Old Liu was busy chopping at the flying ants with his machete and replied, "It’s probably because the nest has an abundance of spiritual materials, causing some silver-headed ants to evolve. They didn’t exist five years ago!"
"You... your information is five years out of date?" Qin Ming struck at the fist-sized flying ants, feeling how hard they were. A normal person couldn’t break them with a single hit.
The flying ants were dark red, with brighter and more silver stripes on their heads. Their wings were transparent, and the sound of their flapping echoed in the snowy air, quite terrifying.
Their mandibles looked like a pair of large pincers, blood-red and capable of making a clanging sound when they bit into armor, showing just how strong their attack power was.
Just the hundred or so that appeared were enough to devour an ordinary person in an instant.
"It’s fine, there aren’t many flying ants. This hundred or so isn’t enough for us to kill," Old Liu said as he swung his machete, keeping an eye on his face.
Just as he finished speaking, hundreds more flew out from the mountain crack. The terrifying sound of their wings was like metal scraping against metal, quite chilling.
Qin Ming's expression changed. If they kept coming in waves, thousands could emerge, and that would be a huge problem.
The two of them had good stamina and ran all the way to the top of a small hill.
Around them, hundreds of flying ants were madly charging at them. In this extreme cold, their speed was unaffected.
It was like they were forging iron; Qin Ming smashed each one that charged at him.
Old Liu was equally fierce, wielding his machete, and the sound of his strikes echoed in the bright snow, with piles of ant corpses falling at their feet.
Looking down from the small hill, the dark red mass was dizzying, as countless silver-headed ants crawled up the snow.
In fact, they didn’t even need to spread beast blood and honey. These fierce insects had a strong sense of revenge and an exceptional sense of smell; they would have chased them down just by their scent.
"How come they’re not slowing down in this freezing weather?"
"They’ve slowed down a little, but not enough. We need to hold on a bit longer."
Standing on the small hill, they didn’t run away. They fought off the fierce flying ants while watching the army of silver-headed ants climbing closer.
"They're slowing down. If we wait a bit longer, they might actually freeze up."
"Let’s set fire to a batch, warm them up a bit, and try to lure more silver-headed ants out of the nest."
The two of them swung their weapons, lighting torches, knowing they had to eliminate the army of ants below before they could enter the nest.
"Be careful not to throw the torches in the wrong place!" Old Liu warned, genuinely afraid Qin Ming might make a mistake and trigger the explosives early.
That was a byproduct of alchemical materials, which had gradually been utilized by people after spreading to various places.
"Don’t worry!"
Soon, some areas of the small hill that had been covered with wood caught fire, fueled by the oil, and the flames roared.
Many silver-headed ants were burned to death, but this only provoked the army of ants, which charged forward fearlessly like a tide.
"The second wave of the ant army has emerged from the nest!" Old Liu said.
The worst-case scenario hadn’t occurred; there weren’t as many flying ants as they had feared.
Suddenly, Old Liu shouted, and with a crash, he was knocked away by a silver-headed ant, tumbling into a snowbank, quickly getting swarmed by a large group of flying ants.
Qin Ming was startled. He saw a flying ant larger than a human head, blood-red with silver stripes all over. It had not only mutated but seemed to have undergone two transformations.
He dashed over, swinging his hammer, but the second mutated flying ant was incredibly fast, dodging in an instant and diving toward Old Liu in the snow.
Qin Ming moved like lightning, quickly following and striking at this special flying ant.
The second mutated flying ant, not wanting to land on Old Liu while being hit from behind, quickly dodged. It became enraged and flew at Qin Ming, attacking erratically.
Old Liu cursed as he climbed out of the snowbank, swinging his machete at the fist-sized flying ants.
"I can’t believe I got knocked down by an ant! I’ve lost all face today. Am I really getting too old to hold a blade? Ugh, a super-strong second mutation ant! Little Qin, can you handle it?"
Qin Ming quickly replied, "I’m fine. Just be careful; there might be other second mutated flying ants!"
Old Liu’s expression grew serious. "That’s right. Although the ant queen is a third mutation creature, it’s not good at fighting. They must be focusing on cultivating these flying warrior ants."
Qin Ming swung his long-handled hammer, hitting the flying ants multiple times, making a sound like metal striking metal. It was surprisingly effective.
However, it couldn’t withstand Qin Ming’s immense strength. With each hit, cracks appeared in its body, and then it would explode with a pop.
"This isn’t good; three more super-strong flying ants have appeared." Old Liu’s face changed.
At the foot of the mountain, three unusually large flying ants made terrifying wing sounds as they flew up, followed by six slightly smaller flying ants, but still far stronger than ordinary ones.
"Three second mutations and six first mutations. This nest is indeed hard to deal with!"
As for the ordinary silver-headed ants, some had already climbed up the peak. Although the main force was moving slower, they still charged up when they noticed the two were so close.
"That’s enough!" Qin Ming said, blocking the three strongest flying ants.
Old Liu quickly lit a fire. With a boom, the buried explosives went off, triggering an avalanche that buried a large number of silver-headed ants below.
They estimated the timing, believing the ant army was already close to freezing. Being buried, they likely wouldn’t be able to crawl out, and most would freeze to death.
"You little ant think you can knock me over? I can’t afford to lose that kind of face!" Old Liu blocked one of the second mutated flying ants, swinging his machete fiercely.
"It’s so tough; I can’t cut through it!" Old Liu was flustered, especially since there were other ordinary flying ants around.
Qin Ming gave it his all, golden patterns appearing on his body. With loud clangs, he finally smashed two second mutated flying ants, then swung his long-handled hammer like a windmill, sending ant corpses falling around him.
"Don’t move; let me handle this!" Old Liu, being very proud, ultimately killed that second mutated flying ant.
After they dealt with the remaining silver-headed ants that hadn’t frozen on the peak, they both sighed in relief.
"We’ve done a good deed here. If the queen were a fourth mutation, the scale of the silver-headed ants would explode, leaving nothing in their wake." Old Liu said, sitting down in the snow.
"It’s not over yet; a large group is coming out from the crack in the mountain." Qin Ming reminded him.
Old Liu’s face turned pale. Fortunately, this time there were no second mutated flying ants, just ordinary silver-headed ants crawling up again.
"It’s not as many as before. Once we finish these off, we should be done."
Now they couldn’t trigger an avalanche anymore. The silver-headed ants below seemed to have received a command and were returning to their nest before freezing.
"Let’s go down and lure them out, then kill them up close."
By this time, even Qin Ming was exhausted after continuously fighting the ants.
But the night was almost over, and there were still a lot of silver-headed ants crawling out.
Old Liu was already worn out, barely able to lift his knife.
Fortunately, this area was remote, and no other creatures dared to approach the silver-headed ants’ nest, so no mutated creatures were spying on them.
"Let’s continue tomorrow!"
...
In the past two days, some villagers had entered the underground caves of the great crack and brought out some excellent weapons, causing a stir and leading more people to go there to seek fortune.
Many of the weapons and armor were left behind by the young nobles of Chixia City after they died, so they were naturally high quality.
Qin Ming and Old Liu never expected that since the first day they started eliminating the silver-headed ants, they had already been at it for three days without cleaning them out completely.
"I think today is enough; we could probably storm the ant nest without any issues."
"You have a mouth like a crow; better not say such things!"
On the fourth day, as they walked and talked, Qin Ming suddenly froze when passing the great crack, rubbing his eyes to confirm he wasn’t seeing things. There was a black mist in the valley, moving quickly like a spirit snake.
"Look over there in the great crack..." Qin Ming pointed.
"What? There’s nothing there," Old Liu said, puzzled and confused.
Qin Ming fell silent, pretending to be dizzy. He felt unsettled inside, secretly guessing that it was likely because he had absorbed the mysterious liquid, allowing him to sense that abnormal black mist.
"I asked you to help me contact those once prominent but now fallen families. Have you made any progress?"
Old Liu replied, "One family has loosened up. I think it won’t be a problem."
"That’s great!" Qin Ming was overjoyed.
"Come here, what were you just looking at?" Suddenly, a voice came from afar as two figures appeared near the exit of the great crack.
The two had strong auras, clearly dangerous experts, making Qin Ming’s heart sink.
Old Liu looked at the golden patterns on their sleeves and whispered, "They have golden markings on their sleeves, meaning they’ve been preliminarily recognized by the Golden Thief. They should be the leaders of Jinjiling, the strongest two bandits there."
Then he fell silent and pulled Qin Ming forward.
Qin Ming knew these two bandits well, especially since he had heard many rumors about them recently. They were fourth-generation new beings, among the strongest in the local organization.
What were these two doing in the great crack? Was the black mist related to them? He felt suspicious.
"Stop dawdling and come over!" one of the bandits shouted.
"We just want to hunt in the mountains; we’re just passing through," Old Liu said, lowering his stance.
The two bandits looked to be around forty, with cold eyes. One of them grabbed Old Liu by the collar and lifted him up.
"Even though you’re a new being, you’re too old to be of any use!" the bandit commented, tossing Old Liu aside, making him stumble and nearly fall.
He stepped in front of Qin Ming and said, "You’re young and already a new being; that’s impressive."
Then he grabbed Qin Ming by the collar and said, "The Golden Thief is recruiting these days. Make sure to sign up, got it? I’ve remembered your face!"
The bandit said this in a flat tone, not raising his voice, but his tone left no room for doubt.
"Okay, don’t worry, I’ll take him to sign up," Old Liu quickly said, fearing Qin Ming might act recklessly and provoke the bandit, which would lead to disaster!
"You’re so old; are you just feeding off him?" the bandit shot a glance at him.
"I meant I’d take him to sign up," Old Liu explained.
"Mm!" The bandit nodded and released Qin Ming's collar.
"I was just asking you a question; are you mute? Did you hear me?" the other bandit suddenly spoke, coldly scolding Qin Ming.
"I was a bit dazed for a moment. Yes, I’ll sign up when the time comes," Qin Ming nodded.
...
"I’ll have words with them..." Once they got near the ant nest, Old Liu exploded with anger, cursing loudly. He had been holding in his frustration.
Then he quickly advised Qin Ming not to act impulsively and to endure, saying they should sign up first.
"You’re still young, and your strength is already this impressive. You’ll get even stronger. Anything is possible, and then..."
Qin Ming took over, saying, "Then I’ll storm Jinjiling alone and wipe out all the bandits there!"
Old Liu hurriedly stopped him, saying, "Shh, don’t say such things out loud. Think about it after you become a fourth or fifth generation new being!"
After that, they had a smooth journey. Once they entered the ant nest, they found that the silver-headed ant army had indeed been mostly eliminated in the past three days.
The ant queen finally appeared, a silver worm. Although it was a third mutation creature, it was not good at fighting. Its only strong attack was the glowing liquid it spat, which had incredible penetrating power and could corrode armor.
At first sight, Qin Ming and Old Liu were unexpectedly sprayed by the liquid, nearly getting hit. The first layer of armor was penetrated, but thankfully they had a steel plate beneath.
After that, the battle had no suspense. The strongest warrior ants had long been dealt with, and without the massive protection of the silver-headed ants, the queen was quickly taken down by the two.
"We hit the jackpot!" Old Liu exclaimed as he entered the depths of the ant nest and saw the honey wine preserved in the ant wax. His eyes sparkled. Although it had been mostly consumed in winter, even the small amount left was worth a fortune.
Qin Ming said, "Should we bury it first? If we sell it, we definitely can’t hide the fact that we’ve become third generation new beings. That gang of bandits at Jinjiling won’t play fair; it would be a problem if they found out."
Old Liu understood this and nodded.
Then they discovered a light golden spiritual material, and both of them showed surprise and excitement. It was enough for the two of them.
...
Back home, Qin Ming looked at the light golden liquid in the porcelain jar, feeling a surge of emotions, his heart in turmoil.
So much had happened recently that he couldn’t find peace, but as long as he was strong enough, all the troubles he faced would be manageable.
Thanks to the Holy Immortal Qitian, and thanks to the Golden Leader for the support, and to the Silver Leader for their backing, and to the two leaders from San Sheng Yuan, I’m very grateful to everyone. What happened today? Why are the big shots all gathering to reward? I’ll work hard on my writing to show my appreciation!