In the vast and boundless desert, a rolling cloud of sand dust appeared. It was a peculiarly shaped… desert sledge.
Made from several large tree branches combined together, with soft blankets laid on top, Ye Chui, Debbie and the others were sitting on those blankets, gripping tightly onto specially made crude handles. In front of this sledge were ten illusory steeds, those horses galloping through the desert. The loose sand greatly restricted their speed, yet they still raced like the wind. The one driving was a bald man, that was the bald heroic spirit Tang Laoda summoned by Ye Chui.
Tang Laoda’s magical modification ability was speed. He could make carriages travel at extreme velocities. Even without a carriage, he could pull other objects along rapidly to cover ground. Ye Chui had specially crafted this desert sledge for their journey. Although its speed could not match Tang Laoda driving a carriage in the city, it could already be called swift. At the very least, that sand tribesman elder, now Ye Chui knew his name was Karen, the spirit summoner priest Karen, was utterly terrified by such speed, his face remaining ashen throughout.
After learning the current situation in the secret realm from Karen, Ye Chui and the others immediately decided on their next course of action: head to the Blood Scorpion Tribe and find a way to deal with the tenth prince.
The ferocious spirit god was undoubtedly a terrifying entity, but he still needed time to fuse with the tenth prince. Perhaps Ye Chui could take advantage of this interval to eliminate him. In the Crown Battlefield, the princes had to determine the final victor to end it, so they would have to confront the tenth prince sooner or later. Thus, the best approach was to deal with him before he gained the ferocious spirit god’s power.
Of course, Ye Chui could not be certain whether everything Karen said was trustworthy, so their actions all needed to be even more cautious and prudent.
After travelling for about four or five hours, the desert sledge came to a stop. According to Karen, the Blood Scorpion Tribe was located in a nearby oasis. Standing on the sand dune, they could already vaguely see that oasis appearing in their field of vision. From the place where Ye Chui and the others had set out to here, if using the pace of the sand beast mounts typically employed in the secret realm, it would take at least twenty hours. But by borrowing Tang Laoda’s magical modification ability, they had arrived here in just four or five hours!
Before launching their operation, Ye Chui and the others prepared to rest a bit and eat some food.
“There is no food here to fill your stomachs. I still have some dried meat in my bosom that I can share with you…” Karen, still bound tightly, said coldly.
“You do not need to worry about that. Keep those dried meats for yourself to eat.” Ye Chui said with a smile. He had no interest in the enemy’s provisions.
He had Jacob use his earth-element magic to raise four wind-blocking stone walls around them. Green adeptly took out charred firewood, chunks of meat, and various seasonings from his magic guide book, starting to barbecue. Debbie also took some brewed fruit wine from Green to distribute to everyone. For those who did not want to drink, there was clear water. In the desert, water was the greatest enemy of all, but for magic mentors, water was no issue. Ye Chui could condense large amounts of water at any time, and as for food, with their stockpiles from the oasis forest, it was even less of a problem.
The wonderful aroma of roasting meat soon wafted in all directions, and Karen, watching Ye Chui and the others devour their meal heartily, was momentarily speechless in astonishment. Could you all not respect the harsh environment of nature a little…
Karen was not someone who enjoyed food indulgences, but upon smelling that enticing roasted meat fragrance, his mouth still uncontrollably secreted a large amount of saliva in an instant. He simply turned his head away, looking towards the distant vast desert.
At that moment, Karen suddenly spotted something, his expression changing slightly: a black mountain appeared in his field of vision!
The secret realm was home to many sand beasts. These sand beasts were not ordinary desert animals or wild creatures, but desert magical beasts, some of which were extremely dangerous existences. That black mountain was one of them, a mobile mountain of death!
He never expected it to appear right here!
Although Karen had led Ye Chui and the others to the tribal gathering place, he harboured no good intentions. The Blood Scorpion Tribe did not have just one gathering site. The one Karen was leading Ye Chui to seek was not the location of the ferocious spirit god’s worshipped temple. In this gathering site, elite warriors of the Blood Scorpion Tribe were stationed, along with three spirit summoner priests. He had lured Ye Chui here precisely to kill him in one fell swoop!
However, upon seeing this black mountain, Karen changed his mind. He quickly made a decision…
Taking advantage of Ye Chui and the others not paying attention, Karen suddenly exerted all his strength to leap up from the ground and began charging madly towards that black mountain.
Whoosh,
Guni reacted first. She still had a large piece of roasted meat in her mouth, and her fire ant greatsword was thrown flying from her hand. The greatsword arced through the air, emitting a whistling wind sound. In the next moment, a miserable scream rang out as it slammed directly onto Karen’s body, smashing him to the ground.
The greatsword’s blade plunged into the sand, while nearly half of the blade pierced through Karen’s body.
Ye Chui and the others hurriedly rushed over.
“Why did you try to escape?” Ye Chui asked with a frown. He looked up and saw that black mountain.
Karen had been trying to flee towards that black mountain.
“Haha, hahaha… you are all doomed…” On Karen’s aged face, however, was a ferocious cold laugh. His blood rapidly spread into the surrounding desert. Ye Chui suddenly felt a strong sense of foreboding in his heart. He immediately wanted to call for his companions to move away from Karen, but almost in the blink of an eye, as Karen’s blood seeped into the remaining desert, those desert sands seemed to come alive, beginning to writhe constantly and turning black.
That black was ants!
Countless bizarre sharp-headed ants were rapidly crawling up from beneath the desert!
The sand beneath Ye Chui and the others’ feet seemed to boil up swiftly. All around, sand mounds bulged one after another. The mounds cracked open, and ants surged forth like a spring, rapidly charging towards Ye Chui.
Shilos hurriedly released black fire magic, encircling them on all sides, but those ants seemed unafraid of flames. Shilos’s black fire was no ordinary flame, yet it still could not kill these ants. They rolled forward into the flames, pouncing towards Ye Chui and the others.
At the same time, more ants had already swarmed onto Karen’s body. Karen’s laughter continued endlessly, but his body was rapidly shrivelling. At a visible speed, it turned into stark white bones. The laughter, like ghostly wails, finally dissipated…
Guni hurriedly seized her fire ant greatsword and swung it to smash at the surroundings.
“They are not afraid of fire, then let us try cold…” Ye Chui hurriedly cast the ice-element magic spell [Doomsday Frost]. Icy cold air permeated the surroundings, and the writhing ants’ movements suddenly halted. They were not frozen to death, but rather entered a hibernation-like state under the chill. But this was useless; more ants were still surging in endlessly from all directions!
Magic had little effect on these ants. Guni’s greatsword and the Blue Knight’s twisting spear could sweep them aside, but they could not prevent their pervasive approach.
“This will not do.” Ye Chui surveyed the surroundings. He discovered that almost everywhere in his line of sight had been overtaken by black. Just how many of these ants were there?
Leaving by air was a good idea, but Ye Chui could not summon Dragon Baby now, after it had devoured the dragon souls in Dragon Nest Mountain, Dragon Baby had remained in deep slumber, digesting that terrifying dragon soul power. Among them, the only one with flight capability was the female Valkyrie Jiji, but having Jiji carry them all away was obviously impossible.
“Ye Chui, look at that black mountain!” Debbie suddenly noticed something and cried out in alarm. The adult female Valkyrie Jiji was fluttering by her side.
The black mountain was moving towards them!
“That black mountain…” Ye Chui looked at the black mountain with furrowed brows. Where was that a mountain? Clearly, it was a terrifying and enormous ant nest!
A mobile ant nest in the desert!
Karen had harboured ill intentions. He had deliberately charged towards the ant nest and let Guni severely injure him. He knew his blood could attract the ant nest, to devour Ye Chui and his group.
And that ant nest…
As the ant nest drew near, Ye Chui suddenly discovered that the ant nest was black, covered in countless terrifying holes. Groups of ants continuously drilled out from the ant nest like tentacles. The material forming the ant nest was actually human bones and beast bones, as if the ants had fused the bones with their secretions to create this black mobile ant nest!
No one knew how tall or large that ant nest was, nor how many people had perished within it!
A glint suddenly flashed in Ye Chui’s eyes as he vaguely thought of something.
The terrifying ant swarm, like an ocean, continued to close in.
At that moment, several sharp cries suddenly came from the sky. Looking up, several sand vultures were circling in mid-air. Those were the flying magical beasts they had first encountered in the oasis. The sand vultures rapidly swooped down, and Ye Chui saw that each carried a rider: sand tribesmen wrapped head to toe in cloth strips, and one swordsman dressed in outsider-style armour, the armour bearing the Jores family crest.
Without a doubt, this armoured swordsman was one of the tenth prince’s guards.
They had clearly been stationed in the nearby oasis earlier and, upon hearing the commotion here, had ridden the sand vultures to investigate!
That guard had obviously recognised that the ones trapped in the ant sea were precisely Ye Chui and his group.
“It is you!?” Ye Chui heard the guard say in a tone of delight. He was hovering in mid-air, so his voice seemed distant then near, ethereal and fluctuating. “Guild Master Ye Chui, I never expected you to be trapped here. Haha, black ants are highly venomous third-tier magical beasts. They are social creatures; even a swordmaster is helpless when they appear in swarms. This black ant colony has gathered so many here; you are all doomed… But if you are willing to swear allegiance to the tenth prince and hand over the thirteenth prince, I can save you!”
“Jiji, go snatch his bird!” Debbie directly issued the command.
“Jiji,” the female Valkyrie immediately soared into the sky, charging towards that guard.
“It seems you refuse to abandon the thirteenth prince. Then die in the ant sea. Hahaha…” The guard let out unrestrained mocking laughter, urging his sand vulture along with the other sand tribesmen to fly towards the distant oasis.
Jiji chased for a stretch but returned empty-handed: “Jiji, cannot, catch up jiji.”
Debbie comfortingly rubbed Jiji’s head and looked at Ye Chui, her face full of anxiety: “What do we do next?”
“I have thought of a good idea…” Ye Chui, however, laughed out loud.
This made Debbie and the others all feel invigorated. Usually, when Ye Chui showed this kind of smile, it meant he had truly come up with something exhilarating. They looked at Ye Chui expectantly.
Ye Chui, however, looked towards the black mountain that had now moved closer.
At the same time, while using [Doomsday Frost] to hold back the ant swarms around them, he opened a BGM.
Necromantic Prelude!
This black mountain was forged from human bones, and who knew how many had perished under its terror. There must be countless undead lingering within!
The music began to play, with Ye Chui setting it to maximum volume.
Just as Ye Chui had guessed, when the Necromantic Prelude sounded, figures of undead slowly crawled out from within the black mountain one after another. Accumulated over hundreds of years, the number of undead was simply endless!
Ye Chui then controlled these undead, having them push the black mountain ant nest towards the oasis where the Blood Scorpion Tribe was stationed nearby.
“Let us go big and steamroll right over them!”
Ye Chui saw his method take effect and said to his companions with a cold smile.
