But a short moment later, his heart froze. After knocking the black winged ants tumbling away several times, they charged forwards once more without the slightest injury.
He was greatly alarmed! Without taking further thought, he raised his hand and released a grey flying knife. It transformed into a ten meter long streak of light and fiercely chopped towards the winged ant swarm.
Just as the flying knife left the hurricane, the countless ants let out a drone and surrounded it. The fierce attack of the grey light didn’t harm the flying insects in the slightest. Instead, they swarmed all over the flying knife in an instant and held it still.
The sallow-faced man turned pale from fright and tried to recall his magic treasure. However, he was too slow. The magic treasure’s grey light flashed several times before being submerged in the swarm of black insects.
A blood curling shriek soon followed. The man’s face was bloodless. The destruction of his magic treasure had greatly injured his Origin Qi.
Without any further hesitation, he hastily controlled the white hurricane to follow him as he rushed forward. Leaving the desert was now his only chance at life.
At that moment, the black winged ants finished devouring the remnants of the flying knife and didn’t move to chase after him. Its next action was cause for disbelief. It gathered together in an instant and flashed with a strange light before turning into a ten-meter-long black lance. Then with a sharp whistle, the lance pierced through the air as if it had been shot from a crossbow.
The sallow-faced man panicked at the sight and hastily exerted the entirety of his magic power to propel the hurricane with further intensity.
The lance of black light struck the white hurricane and pierced through it in an instant.
The spearhead and shaft were completely covered in scarlet blood.
Chapter 462: Ironfire Ants
The hurricane came to an abrupt stop, revealing the sallow-faced old man.
His body listlessly stood in place with the ice shields and green barrier completely destroyed. A fist sized hole appeared where his heart should’ve been. The hole’s edges were pitch black as if it had been caused from incineration.
The man lowered his head to look at his chest and involuntarily touched it with his hand. He wore an expression of astonishment as if he couldn’t believe what he saw.
At the moment, the black lance hummed and transformed back into a dense swarm of flying ants. They madly rushed towards the man without restraint, throwing him down and covering his entire body in an instant. Several miserable screams immediately followed before being met with silence.
A short moment later, the winged ants suddenly floated in the air and dropped back down to their original location, blending into the grains of sand. As for where the old man had fallen, there was no trace of him that remained.
Han Li saw this in its entirety from the hilltop. He wore a strange expression from the shock he felt.
“Those are Ironfire Ants! They must be. I didn’t think I’d see exotic insects at this location.” Han Li muttered to himself.
When Han Li initially saw the winged ants, he hadn’t recognized what they were. Han Li only managed to identify them after he saw them fearlessly receive the attack from the sallow-faced cultivator’s magic treasure and then condense into a lance. There were many winged ant spirit insect species in the cultivation world, and they all appeared nearly the same. Cultivators that didn’t specialize in insect control techniques would find it difficult to differentiate them.
As a matter of fact, different species of winged ants greatly differed in their degrees of power and ferocity. The more fearsome winged ants would cause even Core Formation cultivators to nervously recoil at the sight of them.
As for the Ironfire Ants, they were ranked thirty seventh on the ranking of exotic insects and were one of the most fearsome winged ant species. Apart from the rank nine Heavencrystal Ants from legend, these ants were possibly the most formidable of their kind. Not only were these winged ants nearly invulnerable to physical attacks, even a majority of magic techniques also had little effect on them. Apart from fire and water attribute magic techniques of mid grade or higher as well as a few specific magic techniques, they were nearly indestructible, possessing abnormal defensive abilities nearly equivalent to that of the Gold Devouring Beetles. In fact, they were even superior to the Gold Devouring Beetles in resisting the attacks of magic treasures.
While they didn’t possess the Gold Devouring Beetle’s bizarre ability to consume spiritual power, the Ironfire Ants possessed the fearsome abilities to spout black flames and perform swarm transformations.
A colony of Ironfire Ants could transform into a fire attribute magic treasure at will. Its fearsome attack could penetrate through common defensive magic treasures and magic techniques without even the slightest resistance. As a result, the sallow-faced man’s miserable death couldn’t be considered surprising.
Although the Ironfire Ants weren’t considered extinct like the Gold Devouring Beetles, they were seldom seen in the cultivation world. And even if they were seen, the swarm would only consist of a thousand at most.
This was due to the harsh living environment of the Ironfire Ants. Not only did they require a scorching environment to survive, but they also had to stay near large quantities of metal ore. Upon leaving this environment, the Ironfire Ants would quickly grow weakened. It wouldn’t take long before their abilities completely disappeared and they reverted into ordinary winged ants.
If it were just that, there would still be many insect controlling cultivators that would desire to use them, even to the point of creating or finding an appropriate environment to breed them in. However, these winged ants possessed a fatal flaw.
Regardless of whether the Ironfire Ants were wild or domesticated, they were incapable of recognizing a master. When someone wished to conduct a master recognition ceremony on the winged ants, each of the ants would self implode without exception, crushing the dreams of many cultivators.
As for the specific cause of this, there was no definite answer. There were those that said the nature of the winged ants was unyielding and didn’t allow them to be controlled. There were others that said it had to do with the Ironfire Ant’s constitution, while others...
Naturally, there were very few people that knew about the Ironfire Ants in either the Heavenly South Region or the Scattered Star Seas. They had been rarely seen in the last thousand years and their colonies were growing increasingly smaller. They were considered to be nearly extinct.
At that moment, Han Li was looking at the black desert while lost in thought.
It seemed that the black desert was a natural trap for the Ironfire Ants. Although Han Li didn’t know how many colonies the desert contained, judging from how the sallow-faced cultivator encountered one after walking just one kilometer, they couldn’t be few in number. It was quite possible that colonies of Ironfire ants numbering in the hundreds of thousands existed in the desert as well.
With that thought, Han Li felt a chill run down his back. He then swept his spiritual sense through his storage pouch, counting over a dozen mid grade ice and fire attribute talismans. They should be enough to deal with three Ironfire Ant colonies similarly sized to what he had seen before. However, Han Li would have to be delusional to believe that these talismans were enough to carry him through the desert!
When Han Li set his sights on the several spirit beast pouches of Gold Devouring Beetles, his heart stirred. He pondered whether or not the Gold Devouring Beetles would be exceptionally effective in dealing with the Ironfire Ants.
After all, the Gold Devouring Beetles were higher ranked than the Ironfire Ants, and from the appearance of their shell, they haven’t yet evolved to the rumored “Black Gold” stage. They should be half matured like his Gold Devouring Beetles. As such, it would be acceptable for him to test them against one another.
Barely able to suppress his increasing excitement, Han Li pondered for a moment m
ore before deciding that there was no problem in testing his Gold Devouring Beetles against the Ironfire Ants he had just seen. Even if his Gold Devouring Beetles weren’t able to deal with them, he still had a few mid grade talismans he could use to defend himself and safely withdraw from the desert.
Han Li’s expression grew cold as he rushed down the hilltop, heading straight into the black desert.
After a short moment, Han Li had arrived at the edge of the desert. He gazed at the black sand beneath him and narrowed his eyes. He then grabbed a fistful of sand and brought it close to his eye.
Han Li soon snorted. With a sudden flash of yellow light from his hand, he tightly closed his grip and squeezed. As a result, most of the sand remained uncrushed.
Han Li smirked and slowly muttered to himself, “This isn’t black sand. It’s actually grains of iron ore.”
“But to spread such a dense amount of ore across such a large desert... The master of Heavenvoid Hall was truly an extraordinary person.”
After flinging away the sand in his hand, he stood up and frowned. He then lightly patted the White Rhino Emblem at his waist, enveloping him in a layer of white light.
Because he was earlier evading the sallow-faced cultivator, he was forced to disable it and endure the heat by using his cultivation alone. But now that he was so close to the desert, the overwhelming heat had caused him to be temporarily light-headed. Alarmed, Han Li quickly reactivated the White Rhino Pendant. This was not the time to be concerned with saving magic power.
Without any further hesitation, Han Li looked at the area containing the colony of Ironfire ants and carefully walked over.
The black desert was extremely painful to walk on. The sand was scorching hot and the air itself felt as if it were on fire. Even with the White Rhino Emblem and the Fire Repelling Robes, Han Li still felt suffocated. It felt even hotter than the small path of lava he went through the day before.
After walking over a hundred meters, Han Li sighed and patted his storage pouch, taking out a soft pearl in his hand. Without any delay, he poured a bit of spiritual power into it. Cold air immediately released from the pearl in a flash of white light.
Han Li suddenly felt himself surrounded by a chill. With roused spirits, Han Li quickened his pace.
As the simultaneous use of both the White Rhino Emblem and the Glacial Ice Pearl greatly increased his magic power consumption, he needed to pass through the desert as quickly as he could.
When Han Li was about two hundred meters away from the location of the Ironfire Ants, he stopped and carefully examined where they would be.
A short moment later, Han Li shook his head.
The concealed Ironfire Ants were extremely difficult to differentiate from the black sand. It was even difficult to see them with his spiritual sense. The ant colony’s spiritual Qi fluctuations were extremely faint, presumably because they were innately skilled at restraining their Qi.
It seemed that using his spiritual sense to spot the winged ants from a distance wouldn’t do. He’d have to try using his Gold Devouring Beetles.
Chapter 463: An Opportune Encounter
Han Li raised his hands with a solemn expression, and tossed several spirit beast pouches into the air. As they floated in the air, he formed his hands into an incantation gesture, causing the pouches to open and release countless Gold Devouring Beetles. They formed a cloud of shining gold and silver shimmers in the air. In regards to numbers, the Gold Devouring Beetles were far fewer to the recently seen colony of Ironfire Ants.
With his confidence strengthened from looking at the the gold-silver insect swarm, he pointed to the ground not far away and softly shouted, “Go!”
With a buzz, the glittering cloud flew forward, moving to descend and blanket the ground.
But before they touched the ground, a black cloud of ants suddenly rose to meet the swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles.
In the instant that the two sides clashed, huge streams of dark flame suddenly spouted out from the black ant colony, violently enveloping the Gold Devouring Beetles in black radiance. It was clear the ant colony had realized the Gold Devouring Beetles were fearsome and rushed to strike first by using their innate flames.
Were it another breed of insects, the strange flames would’ve burnt a majority of them at the very least. But not only were the Gold Devouring Beetles completely unscathed by the black flames, the black flames themselves were cleanly devoured. Once the flames were gone, the beetles charged forward with a buzz.
The two insect swarms fiercely clashed, interweaving colors of black, silver, and gold. After only a moment of tearing away at each other, countless dead insects began to successively fall to the ground with piercing screeches. A vast majority of them were black with only a sparse few being gold and silver.
In just a short moment, the Gold Devouring Beetles had achieved an overwhelming victory, exterminating a majority of the ants.
The Ironfire Ants also sensed that things were far from good. Their remnants released a weak cry and suddenly gathered together to form a jet-black arrow. They shot past the Gold Devouring Beetles in an attempt to escape.
But at that moment, a streak of dazzling azure swordlight pierced through the air and chopped down at the arrow. The arrow trembled and was greatly slowed down.
In that moment of delay, the Gold Devouring Beetles swarmed around the arrow. In the blink of an eye, the black arrow was submerged in a sea of gold and silver and could no longer be seen. By the time the insect swarm dispersed, the arrow had completely disappeared.
At that moment, Han Li slowly walked over and serenely looked at the dead insects on the floor. He silently pondered for a moment while clasping his chin.
Only about several hundred of the dead insects belonged to the Gold Devouring Beetles, a trifling amount. The Gold Devouring Beetles’ decisive victory clearly illustrated the superiority of the Gold Devouring Beetles. After all, the Ironfire Ants had outnumbered the Gold Devouring Beetles ten to one.
After a moment of analysis, Han Li revealed an expression of relief. It seemed that his Gold Devouring Beetles would be able to get him through the black desert without problem.
After taking another look at the ground littered with dead insects, a strange expression flashed through his eyes. A low whistle left his mouth. The gold-silver insect cloud shrieked in response and fell from the sky, cleanly devouring the dead insects like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. They then obediently flew back into Han Li’s spirit beast pouches.
Having put away the pouches, Han Li gazed into the depths of the black desert before walking forward without hesitation.
...
Han Li motionlessly stood in the distance as he expressionlessly gazed at the sky.
The largest battle that his Gold Devouring Beetles had fought since entering the desert was currently taking place in the sky. Countless Gold Devouring Beetles and Ironfire Ants were scattered across the skies at a low altitude, mutually devouring each other. Dead insects rained from the sky, forming a thin, dense layer on the ground. It made for a truly shocking sight!
Han Li’s brow creased during a moment of carelessness. Although only about a day had passed, he had already lost nearly ten thousand Gold Devouring Beetles. It was as if he’d encounter a colony of Ironfire Ants every short distance he walked, numbering anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand.
But now, he’d encountered a tremendously large Ironfire Ant colony that numbered at around fifty thousand. He reckoned that this battle would result in the deaths of at least eight thousand of his Gold Devouring Beetles.
It was no surprise that Han Li felt regretful. The Gold Devouring Beetles took a long period of time to breed. Who knew when he’d be able to next replenish their numbers?
After the time it took to finish a cup of tea, the ant colony retreated in defeat. Apart from the several thousand survivors that managed to retreat, the winged ants had been cleanly devoured by the Gold Devouring Beetles.
H
an Li was uninterested in wasting time pursuing the remaining Ironfire Ants. Instead, he turned his gaze towards the Glacial Ice Pearl and continued on his way with roused spirits.
He supposed that he was currently at the center of the desert which was why he had encountered such a large colony of ants. He had better be more vigilant on the path moving forward, else he would waste the much needed magic power to fuel his heat repelling magic treasures, leaving himself in a dire situation.
After walking about twenty kilometers, Han Li’s expression froze. He stared to the right with narrowed eyes. After a short moment, he revealed a trace of suspicion and suddenly changed his direction to a dune he was looking at.
When Han Li arrived at the top of the dune, he unconsciously frowned. He had spotted yet another colony of Ironfire Ants in his line of sight.
This colony of winged ants only numbered about ten thousand, and were attacking a sphere of faint blue light. The sphere of light was on the verge of collapse. As it flickered, the image of a person with a strained appearance leaked through.
Han Li gazed at this with complete indifference.
At that moment, the Ironfire Ants had transformed into a keen longsword blazing with black flame and fiercely chopped at the sphere of light.
Han Li was certain that this person was doomed. But then, an unremarkable, dark green pellet shot out of the light sphere. Just as the pellet touched the black sword, a fist sized dark green flame violently combusted. The ants that were wrapped up by the flame rapidly dispersed with nearly a hundred Ironfire Ants falling to the ground.
Han Li felt surprised. That dark green pellet was an exceptional treasure. It was fearsome enough to burn away at fire attributed Ironfire Ants without resistance. An inconceivable display! It seemed he was still quite ignorant of the countless unique treasures that existed in the cultivation world.
The appearance of the green flame infuriated the ant swarm. They scattered and wildly charged towards the light sphere without any intent to retreat.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 251