Storms Stir Beyond the Seas—Iron Fire Ants

Chapter 469: Storms Stir Beyond the Seas—Iron Fire Ants

The hurricane vanished in an instant, revealing the sallow-faced man within.

His body stood frozen in place, the ice shield and green protective barrier completely gone. In the center of his chest, where his heart should be, was a fist-sized, transparent hole. The flesh around the wound was charred black, as if seared by something scorching.

He looked down at his chest, reaching out a trembling hand to touch it. His face was a mask of shock, as if he could not quite believe what had happened.

But at that moment, the black spear crackled with electricity once more and dissolved back into a dense swarm of flying ants. Without mercy, they surged toward the man, swarming over him and covering his body in an instant.

The man let out only a few short screams before falling silent.

A moment later, the ant swarm abruptly rose into the air, returning to their original spot and settling back down, once again becoming indistinguishable from the grains of black sand.

Where the man had fallen, there was nothing left. The swarm had devoured him completely.

Han Li, standing far away on the mountain peak, had watched the entire scene unfold without missing a single detail.

Despite the shock in his heart, a peculiar expression flickered across his face.

“Iron Fire Ants… that must be it. I never thought I would see such spiritual insects here,” he murmured to himself in a voice so low that only he could hear.

When the flying ants had first appeared, Han Li had not recognized them.

But when they ignored the flying dagger of the sallow-faced cultivator and, at the end, coalesced into a spear, he finally identified them as “Iron Fire Ants.”

Flying ant-type spiritual insects were not rare in the cultivation world, and their appearances were often similar. Unless one specialized in insect-controlling arts, most cultivators could not tell them apart.

In truth, however, the capabilities and danger levels of different flying ant species were worlds apart.

Weak ant swarms could be swept aside by Qi Condensation cultivators using ordinary magical tools.

The more dangerous varieties could make even Core Formation cultivators frown and give them a wide berth.

These Iron Fire Ants, ranked thirty-seventh on the Strange Insect List, were among the most terrifying of flying ants.

Apart from the legendary “Heavenly Crystal Ants,” which ranked ninth, the Iron Fire Ants were likely the most fearsome of their kind.

These ants were impervious to blades and spears and immune to most spell attacks.

Only mid-grade and above water- and ice-element spells, along with a few other elemental techniques, could harm them. Their defensive capabilities were almost as twisted as those of the Gold Devourer Beetles, and in terms of withstanding direct attacks from magical treasures, they were even superior.

Of course, they lacked the Gold Devourer Beetles’ monstrous ability to devour spiritual power. But they possessed their own terrifying skills: spitting black flames and the ability to combine and transform as a swarm.

With these abilities, an Iron Fire Ant swarm was, to some extent, a fire-element magical treasure that could change shape at will.

Given their fearsome offensive power, ordinary defensive treasures and spells stood no chance against a full-force assault. The sallow-faced man’s miserable death was hardly unjust.

Although the Iron Fire Ants were not an extinct insect type like the Gold Devourer Beetles, they were still extremely rare in the cultivation world.

And even when one did encounter them, it was usually in swarms of a few hundred or a thousand at most.

This was because Iron Fire Ants had extremely harsh living requirements.

They needed not only scorching lava zones but also large deposits of copper and iron ore nearby to survive. If they left such an environment, they would rapidly weaken, and their special abilities would degrade until they were no different from ordinary flying ants.

If only such living conditions were required, many cultivators would still try to tame them. Creating a similar environment or finding one naturally would be a small price to pay for the Iron Fire Ants’ tempting abilities.

But a fatal limitation dashed the hopes of anyone who sought to control them.

Neither wild nor domesticated Iron Fire Ants could be bound to their master.

Whenever anyone attempted to use a binding ritual to control them, the ants would explode one by one, without exception.

This shattered the dreams of countless cultivators.

As for the exact reason, there were many theories. Some said the ants were too proud to be enslaved. Others claimed it was related to their physical constitution.

Of course, information about Iron Fire Ants was rarely known, whether in the Heaven South Region or the Chaotic Star Sea.

For the past thousand years, sightings of Iron Fire Ants had grown increasingly rare, and the scale of ant swarms had dwindled. They were practically a type of spiritual insect on the verge of extinction.

Han Li stood on the spot, gazing at the black desert and recalling everything he knew about Iron Fire Ants, his mind a blank.

It seemed the Iron Fire Ants were the natural trap of the black desert.

Though he did not know how many ant swarms like the one he had just seen lurked within, the fact that the sallow-faced cultivator had encountered a swarm only a few hundred feet into the desert suggested there would be no shortage.

A super-swarm of tens of thousands might even exist.

At the thought, even Han Li felt a chill run down his spine.

He quickly swept his divine sense over the storage pouches on his body.

He had about a dozen or so mid-grade ice- and water-element talismans, enough to deal with two or three swarms of comparable size.

But using these to cross the entire desert was a fool’s dream.

Then his gaze fell on the spirit beast pouches containing the Gold Devourer Beetles, and an idea stirred within him.

Would the Gold Devourer Beetles prove effective against the Iron Fire Ants?

After all, the Gold Devourer Beetles were ranked higher than the Iron Fire Ants, and he had a vast number of them.

From the color of the Iron Fire Ants’ carapaces, they had not yet evolved to the legendary “Black Gold” stage. They were likely in the same semi-mature state as his Gold Devourer Beetles.

That meant it was worth a try.

Once the thought took root in his mind, it grew irrepressibly.

He forced himself to calm down and reconsider carefully. Concluding that there was no major flaw in the plan, he resolved to test the ant swarm he had just witnessed.

Even if the Gold Devourer Beetles could not handle them, he still had his mid-grade talismans, enough to retreat safely from the desert.

With cold resolve settling on his face, Han Li rushed down the mountain and headed straight for the black desert.

A short while later, he stood at the edge of the desert, coming to a halt.

He stared at the black sand at his feet, squinting thoughtfully.

Suddenly, he bent down and scooped up a handful of the black grains, bringing them close to his eyes for a closer inspection.

After a moment, he let out a cold snort. A yellow light flickered, and he clenched his fist tightly before slowly opening it.

Most of the grains in his palm had flattened. Very few had been crushed.

“It’s not really black sand. It’s just iron ore dust,” he murmured to himself with a hint of bitter self-mockery.

“Still, to spread iron ore dust across such a vast desert-like terrain… the original master of the Void Heaven Palace was truly extravagant.” He sighed as he thought about it.

He tossed the dust aside and straightened up, only to frown. Then he lightly tapped the jade pendant at his waist, and a white barrier appeared around his body.

He had deactivated the flame-repelling effect of the jade pendant to avoid drawing the sallow-faced cultivator’s attention, relying on his cultivation alone to endure the heat until now.

Now that he was close to the black desert, the scorching waves of heat had made his head spin within moments. Alarmed, he quickly reactivated the Fire-Repelling Jade Pendant.

This was not the time to conserve mana.

Without further hesitation, Han Li fixed his gaze on the location of the Iron Fire Ant swarm and carefully advanced.

Walking across the black desert was an agonizing ordeal. Beneath his feet were scorching grains of sand, and the air around him seemed to burn. Even with both the Fire-Repelling Jade Pendant and his flame-repelling garment active, he still felt as though he were suffocating. The heat was even more intense than the lava-filled path he had traversed the previous day.

After advancing barely a hundred feet, he sighed and reached into his storage pouch, producing a cool, moisture-beaded orb.

Without hesitation, he infused it with spiritual power. A white light flashed, and a wave of chill emanated from the orb.

A surge of cool relief washed over him. His spirits lifted, and he quickened his pace.

Using both the Fire-Repelling Jade Pendant and the Ice Pearl at once caused his mana consumption to spike. He would have to cross this desert quickly.

When he was still about fifty or sixty feet from the Iron Fire Ant swarm site, he stopped. He scrutinized the area carefully.

After a long moment, he lightly shook his head.

The dormant Iron Fire Ants were nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding black sand. Even when he probed them with his divine sense, it was difficult to pinpoint their exact location. The spiritual energy fluctuations from the swarm were faint and elusive, as if they had been naturally blessed with an extremely advanced aura-concealment technique.

It seemed the method of using divine sense to detect and avoid the ant swarms from a distance was not viable. He would have to test the Gold Devourer Beetles instead.