The axe blade's light vanished silently, only to reappear behind the swarm of Gold-Devouring Ants.
The [Primordial Annihilation Array] gathered spatial energies, forming solid spatial blades!
*Puff puff puff*
*Whoosh whoosh*
In a single strike, over five million Sky-Devouring Ants were cut in half, falling to the ground like a sudden downpour.
The once orderly ant swarm, for the first time, became agitated. The ants began to panic.
*Hiss hiss* *Hiss hiss*
Yang Hong heard faint yet piercing sounds echoing in his ears. The panicked, agitated ant swarm began to stabilize.
Five million, out of at least sixty million ants, was not a significant number.
Watching the rapidly stabilizing swarm, he immediately expanded his divine sense to its fullest.
"Where is the Queen? If I capture you, this insect disaster will end."
To Yang Hong's surprise, his divine sense, which could extend thirty thousand miles, could not locate the Queen. The Queen possessed an incredibly powerful ability to shield her divine sense.
The Azure Sky Willow Tree demons unleashed twelve more axe strikes, annihilating all the Sky-Devouring Ants that were still gathering, yet the Queen remained unfound.
"This is bad! The Gold-Devouring Ants are trying to escape. Everyone, mobilize! Pursue and kill the Gold-Devouring Ants with all your might. Remember to use only ranged attacks, maintain distance, and dodge. Do not get caught in the Primordial Annihilation spell."
"Yes, sir!"
The disciples of Qingfeng Mountain Villa charged out like unleashed mad dogs, their excitement palpable. For two days, they had been chased by these small insects like homeless strays, constantly retreating. As disciples of both the human and demon races, the members of Qingfeng Mountain Villa felt an immense sense of humiliation. Now that they had found a way to eliminate the Gold-Devouring Ants, they were eager for revenge.
The Gold-Devouring Ants, or at least the Queen, possessed considerable intelligence. Upon witnessing the annihilation of the Sky-Devouring Ants, she immediately began to command the entire swarm's retreat, rather than deploying more powerful King Ants. The once sky-obscuring swarm had now dwindled to merely covering the ground. In the morning sun, the golden Gold-Devouring Ants rapidly converged, forming a golden river. This golden river, instead of taking the vast, flat desert path, plunged into a river of magma! In the fiery magma, the golden river flowed upstream, slowly retreating. It turned out that, at some point, even the worker ants, with their mere third-tier strength, had become immune to fire damage, running as fast as flying in the magma reaching over a thousand degrees Celsius. This was terrifying! Human cultivators, if using spiritual artifacts and spells, could walk on the magma surface even at the second-tier Foundation Establishment stage. However, to step directly into the magma with their physical bodies required the tempering of the Golden Core tribulation; only cultivators at the fourth-tier Golden Core stage could achieve this. Moreover, when the Gold-Devouring Ants were first discovered, the most effective attack method for humans was fire-elemental magic! What was truly terrifying was the growth and evolution speed of the Gold-Devouring Ants! Or perhaps, the most terrifying aspect was the modification technology of the person who had engineered them.
This was not the time for contemplation. The most important task was to eliminate these Gold-Devouring Ants.
"All human and demon cultivators at the Integration stage and above, teleport forward and set up an interception at the front. Nascent Soul stage disciples, spread out and use ice-elemental magic to intercept, limiting the ants' escape speed. Everyone else, bombard them with lightning beads!"
"Yes!"
"Chirp~"
The first to charge out were Jin Jialin and his flock of demonic birds. A rudimentary [Heavenly Peng Formation] composed of over 200 demonic birds quickly took shape. Under the formation's enhancement, 100 demonic birds vanished from sight like streaks of light.
Jin Jialin: "My little ones, all of you, stay alert! These ants can be fanned onto the desert. This is prime food!"
Zhuiyun Chongshan: "Mountain Master, rest assured. This old man still remembers the deliciousness of the Lihuo Flying Locusts. This time, we must breed more ninth-tier offspring."
"Haha~ Elders, rest assured, we know what to do!"
Among the demonic birds were 15 ninth-tier, 43 eighth-tier, and over 100 seventh-tier cultivators, their strength not to be underestimated. Facing millions of Sky-Devouring Ants previously, they had truly been overwhelmed. However, without airborne enemies, they could now completely overwhelm the flightless Gold-Devouring Ants. Behind them, a flock of demonic birds that had grown to a hundred thousand strong also formed a [Great Heavenly Peng Formation] and slowly advanced. Seeing the ferocity and proactive nature of the demonic birds, the human cultivators of Qingfeng Mountain Villa decided not to intercept at the very front of the ant swarm. The high-tier cultivators, led by Ye Yudong, formed a formation and continuously used ice magic to sever the golden river of Gold-Devouring Ants. The other low-tier human disciples continued their bombardment with lightning beads. Everything proceeded in an orderly and highly efficient manner. After all, it was a group of flying cultivators bullying a horde of flightless ants.
Yang Hong did not join the ant-bullying squad. He was fully extending his divine sense, searching for the Queen. Anyone with basic biological knowledge knew that as long as the Queen was not killed, an ant colony would quickly recover. Therefore, after issuing the counter-attack order, Yang Hong focused all his efforts on searching for the Queen.
"Strange, this Queen's invisibility ability is too heaven-defying, isn't it? My divine sense can't find her?"
After searching for half a day, covering over thirty thousand miles, he couldn't find the slightest trace of the Queen, making Yang Hong doubt if the Queen had even come to the front lines.
Seeing Yang Hong's disappointed frown, Zhong Chengfeng, who was guarding him, asked softly, "Sect Master, you haven't found her? Could the Queen have entered the magma?"
"The magma was a key area of my search. My divine sense can extend six miles into the magma. I found no trace of the Queen within those six miles. Unless she's hiding below six miles, then I'm helpless." Yang Hong said with some disappointment, suspecting the Queen was hiding too deeply.
Just then, Gu Boji cautiously offered a different thought. "Sect Master, could it be possible that the Queen didn't retreat, but instead broke through our defenses and is directly behind us?"
"Behind us? Impossible," Yang Hong frowned and denied it, but subconsciously swept his divine sense behind him. He hadn't scanned the area behind him initially because he was confident that under the blockade of spells and formations, not a single ant could have passed. However, as his divine sense extended, his expression drastically changed!
"Holy crap!" With a surprised shout, he immediately formed hand seals rapidly, then vanished from his spot using an earth遁 (earth escape). He reappeared underground in [Myriad Peaks Plain], twenty thousand miles behind his original location.
"You're quite clever, you ant, infiltrating my territory so early. Take this!" As he spoke, Yang Hong summoned a silver flying sword and unleashed a [Sky-Breaking Slash] with terrifying spatial energy, sweeping across.
"Human, stop! I surrender! I recognize you as my master!"
*Clang*
Yang Hong's Sky-Breaking Slash was blocked by a golden shield emitted by the Queen. She then loudly pleaded for mercy.
"Heh~ Ants can talk now? Then I must keep you even less!" The Queen before Yang Hong was a hundred zhang long and over twenty zhang thick, with many football-sized eggs around her. He condensed his spiritual energy again, and the Sky-Breaking Slash, imbued with spatial energy, rained down like raindrops, attacking the Queen's two antennae repeatedly.
"Human~ Stop~ Stop attacking! I surrender, and I'll tell you a secret, the secret of my rapid strengthening."
"Heh heh~ If you weren't emitting spiritual attacks while speaking, I might have believed you." Yang Hong sneered dismissively. A obscure and ancient temporal law enveloped the Queen.
"Human! Stop! Spare my life, and I'll tell you where my master is!" Hearing this, Yang Hong slowed his assault and asked, "Oh? Your master? Who is he? And where?"