Chapter 49 A Heart Full of Excitement

Qin Ming and Old Man Liu were busy with various tasks, such as chopping wood, paving roads, and hunting animals; everything was ready.

“Silver-headed ants have a varied diet and a keen sense of smell, and they are very sensitive to their favorite scents. This is definitely showing now!” Qin Ming said.

He and Old Man Liu bought some honey at a high price, and also prepared plenty of animal blood, splattering blood along the way and occasionally smearing honey on their hands, as they approached from afar.

As soon as Qin Ming and Old Man Liu entered through the crack in the mountain, the two smells stimulated the motionless silver-headed ants to start reviving.

“Some parts are starting to move, quickly ignite the fire!”

“Be careful not to burn yourself!”

The two threw several buckets of kerosene over, tossed out torches, and turned to flee.

boom!

The flames ignited, waking up all the silver-headed ants in the mountainside. Although many had been burned to death by the oil, there were simply too many of them, huddled together, wriggling about. Moreover, the ant nest had a complex structure, so many parts of it couldn’t be burned at all.

In an instant, the silver-headed ants were enraged and surged out along the crack in the ground like a tidal wave.

“Come on, you guys! You’d better call the queen ant out too!” Old Liu shouted, carrying a thick-backed machete.

“Run! They’re already coming!” Qin Ming grabbed him and started running up the mountain.

The two were not worried that the silver-headed ants would not give up, because they had scattered honey and animal blood along the way. In addition, these creatures were no longer ordinary ants; they had a strong sense of territory and were extremely ferocious. Anyone who dared to invade their nest would be retaliated on the spot.

“Why can some silver-headed ants fly?” Qin Ming hadn’t even run a hundred meters when he heard a rattling sound on his back.

“What’s going on?” Old Liu was also dumbfounded. At least a hundred flying ants the size of fists rushed over, far exceeding the number of their kind.

“You’re still asking me?” Qin Ming sensed something was wrong. This old man was a bit unreliable. Didn’t he say he knew everything about the mountains? He didn’t even know there were flying silver-headed ants!

While hacking away at the flying ants with his thick-backed machete, Old Liu replied, “It must be because the spiritual matter in the ant nest is too abundant. Some of the silver-headed ants have evolved. They didn’t have this problem five years ago!”

“You… your information is five years behind?” Qin Ming hammered at the fist-sized flying ants one by one, feeling that they were quite hard, and an ordinary person would definitely not be able to break them in one blow.

The flying ants were dark red, with brighter and more numerous silver markings on their heads. Their wings were transparent, and the sound of their flapping wings echoed across the snow-covered ground, creating a somewhat eerie atmosphere.

Their upper jaws are like a pair of large pincers, blood red in color. When they land on a person, they bite and make a clanging sound on the armor, which shows how powerful their attack is.

The mere hundred or so that appeared were enough to devour an ordinary person in an instant.

“It’s alright, there aren’t many flying ants. These hundred or so aren’t enough for us to kill.” Old Liu swung his knife repeatedly while being careful to protect his face.

No sooner had he finished speaking than hundreds more flew out from the crack in the mountain, their terrifying flapping wings sounding like metal plates rubbing together, quite chilling.

Qin Ming’s expression changed. If thousands upon thousands of them kept flying out, it would be a huge problem.

The two were in good physical condition and ran all the way to the top of the hill in one go.

Hundreds of flying ants swarmed around them like madmen, and the frigid environment did not affect their speed.

It was like forging iron here; Qin Ming smashed the ferocious insects that rushed towards him with each blow.

Old Liu was equally decisive, brandishing his large cleaver. In the bright light, a series of cracking sounds echoed as ant corpses fell to the ground beneath their feet.

Standing on the low hill and looking down, they saw a vast expanse of dark red, which was truly dizzying, as large numbers of silver-headed ants crawled up the snow.

Actually, they didn’t need to sprinkle animal blood and honey. These ferocious insects were too vengeful and had an exceptionally keen sense of smell. They came after the two of them by smelling their scent.

“Why don’t they slow down in extremely cold weather?”

“It’s gotten a little slower, we still don’t have enough time, we need to keep going.”

The two stood on the low hill without fleeing, fighting off the fierce flying ants while watching the army of silver-headed ants climbing the hill, getting closer and closer to them.

“They’ve slowed down, and I estimate they might really freeze to death in a while.”

“Let’s set fire to a batch first to warm them up and hopefully attract more silver-headed ants out of the nest.”

The two men brandished knives and hammers, while also lighting torches. To enter the ant nest, they had to first eliminate the ant army below.

“Be careful, don’t throw the torch in the wrong place!” Old Liu reminded him, genuinely worried that Qin Ming might carelessly detonate the homemade explosives prematurely.

It was a byproduct of the alchemical process of refining medicinal powders by hermits, and it gradually came into use after spreading to various places.

Don’t worry!

Soon, some sections of the hillside that had been covered with firewood caught fire, and because oil had been poured on them, the fire raged fiercely.

Many silver-headed ants were burned to death, but this only fueled the ferocity of the ant army, which continued to surge upwards like a tidal wave, fearless of death.

“The second wave of ants has broken out of the nest!” Old Liu said.

The worst did not happen; there weren’t as many flying ants as expected.

Suddenly, Old Liu yelled and was knocked away by a silver-headed ant with a thud. He fell headfirst into a snowdrift and was immediately swarmed and buried by a large group of flying ants.

Qin Ming was startled to see a flying ant larger than a human head, its main body blood red and covered with silver spots. It had not only mutated, but it must have gone through two mutations.

He rushed over immediately and swung his hammer, but the mutated flying ant was extremely fast and dodged it in an instant, then swooped down towards Old Man Liu in the snowdrift.

Qin Ming moved with lightning speed, quickly following up and blasting towards the special flying ant.

The mutated flying ant, not wanting to pounce on Old Liu, was struck from behind and quickly dodged. Enraged, it flew towards Qin Ming, darting left and right, attacking relentlessly.

Old Liu cursed and swore as he climbed out of the snowdrift and swung his knife at the fist-sized flying ants.

“How could someone my age be knocked down by an ant? I’ve lost all face today. Is it really true that old age makes my legs weak and I can’t lift a knife anymore? I… Ouch, a super-strong ant that has undergone a second mutation, Xiao Qin, can you handle it?”

Qin Ming quickly responded and reminded him, “I’m fine. Be careful, there might be other flying ants that have undergone secondary mutations!”

Old Liu looked serious and said, “That’s right. Although the queen ant is a mutated creature, she is not good at fighting. We must focus on training these flying war ants.”

Qin Ming swung his long-handled black gold hammer repeatedly, striking the flying ant several times. Like striking iron, the hammer produced a crisp, clear sound, indicating its formidable power.

However, it was ultimately no match for Qin Ming’s immense strength. Each time it was hit, cracks would appear on its body, and then it would be smashed to pieces with a “poof”.

“Oh no, three more super-powerful flying ants have appeared.” Old Liu’s expression changed.

At the foot of the mountain, three obviously oversized flying ants flew upwards with a terrifying flapping sound. Behind them were six smaller flying ants, but still far larger than ordinary flying ants.

“Three of them mutated twice, and six mutated once. This kind of insect nest is indeed difficult to deal with!”

As for the ordinary silver-headed ants, some had already climbed to the mountain peak, while the main force behind them, though moving more slowly, still charged upwards when they realized the two were very close.

“That’s about enough!” Qin Ming said, stopping the three strongest flying ants.

Upon hearing this, Old Liu quickly lit the fire. With a loud bang, the pre-buried explosives took effect, triggering an avalanche that buried a large number of silver-headed ants beneath the raging flames.

They estimated the time and concluded that the ant army was already almost frozen stiff, and if they were buried inside like this, they would most likely not be able to climb out and would freeze to death.

“You little ant think you can knock me flying? I can’t bear the shame!” Old Liu stopped a flying ant that had undergone a second mutation and began to fight it with his knife.

“It’s really tough! I can’t cut it with one stroke!” Old Liu was flustered because there were other ordinary flying ants around.

Qin Ming went all out, and golden ripples appeared all over his body. With a series of clanging sounds, he finally smashed two flying ants that had undergone secondary mutations. Then he swung his long-handled black gold hammer into a whirlwind, and with a series of popping sounds, ant corpses fell around him.

“Don’t move, let me do it myself!” Old Liu was very strong-willed and finally killed the flying ant that had mutated twice.

After dealing with the silver-headed ants that had climbed up the mountain and were still not frozen, the two breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’ve done this ahead of schedule to rid the people of a menace. If the queen ant mutates four times, the silver-headed ants will grow so large that nothing will be left in their wake,” Old Liu said, sitting down heavily on the snow.

“It’s not over yet; another large group has emerged from the cracks in the mountain,” Qin Ming warned.

Old Liu’s face turned green upon hearing this. Fortunately, there were no flying ants that had mutated a second time this time; ordinary silver-headed ants swarmed up again.

“There aren’t as many as the previous wave. Once we kill these, it should be enough.”

Now that an avalanche can no longer be triggered, the silver-headed ants below seem to have received a command and will return to their nest before freezing to death.

“Let’s go down the mountain, lure them out from outside the ant nest, and kill them at close range.”

Even Qin Ming was exhausted that day, having spent the entire time killing ants.

But even though the early night was almost over, there were still a lot of silver-headed ants crawling out.

As for Old Liu, he was already listless and could barely lift his knife.

Fortunately, this area was very remote, and no other creatures dared to build nests near the silver-headed ants, so it did not attract any mutated creatures to spy on it.

Let’s continue tomorrow!

…

In the past two days, some villagers entered the underground caves of the Great Rift Valley and brought out some excellent weapons, causing a sensation and attracting more people to go there to pan for gold.

Many of the weapons and armor were left behind by the sons of powerful families in Crimson Cloud City after their deaths, so they were all of the finest quality.

Qin Ming and Old Man Liu never expected that, since the first day they began eliminating a large number of silver-headed ants, they had been killing them for three days straight and still hadn’t managed to eradicate them completely.

“I think today is about enough; we can even force our way into the ant nest without any problem.”

“You’re such a jinx, you should stop saying things like that!”

On the fourth day, the two walked and talked. When they passed the Great Rift Valley, Qin Ming was stunned. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. There was a black mist in the valley that moved quickly like a serpent.

“Take a look over there in the Great Rift Valley…” Qin Ming gestured.

“What are you looking at? There’s nothing there.” Old Liu asked in surprise, his face full of confusion.

Qin Ming fell silent, feigning that his vision was blurry. He was quite unsettled, secretly guessing that it was because he had absorbed the mysterious liquid that he could perceive the abnormal black mist.

“I asked you to help me make contact with those families that once had a certain reputation but have now declined. Have you made any progress?”

Old Liu said, “One of them has agreed, so I don’t think there’s a big problem.”

“That’s wonderful!” Qin Ming exclaimed with delight.

“You two, come here. What were you looking at just now?” Suddenly, a voice came from afar, and two figures appeared one after the other near the exit of the Great Rift Valley.

The two men exuded a powerful aura, clearly indicating they were extremely dangerous experts, which made Qin Ming’s heart sink.

Old Liu looked at the insignia on the two men’s sleeves and lowered his voice: “They have gold patterns on their sleeves, which means they have been initially recognized by the Golden Bandits. The two should be the leaders of Golden Rooster Ridge, the two strongest bandits there.”

Then, he shut up and pulled Qin Ming along, walking forward.

Qin Ming naturally knew these two bandits, especially since he had heard many rumors about them recently. They were four-time newcomers and belonged to the strongest group in the local organization.

What are these two doing in the Great Rift Valley? Is that black mist related to them? He wondered.

“Stop dawdling and get over here!” one of the bandits shouted.

“We wanted to go hunting in the mountains, we were just passing through,” Old Liu said humbly.

The two bandits, who looked to be around forty years old, had cold eyes. One of them grabbed Old Man Liu by the collar and lifted him up.

“Although he’s a newcomer, he’s too old and useless!” the bandit commented, tossing Old Man Liu aside, causing him to lose his balance and nearly fall to the ground.

He approached Qin Ming and said, “You’ve been reborn at such a young age, that’s quite impressive.”

Then, he grabbed Qin Ming by the collar and said, “Jinji Ridge will be recruiting people in the next couple of days. Remember to sign up, you hear me? I’ve already memorized your face!”

The bandit said calmly, without raising his voice, but his tone left no room for doubt.

“Alright, don’t worry, I’ll take him to register then,” Old Liu quickly said. He was afraid that Qin Ming, being young and impetuous, might offend the bandits, which would surely lead to his death!

“You’re so old, are we going to support you just to eat your fill?” Da Kou glanced at him.

“I mean, I’ll take him to register,” Old Liu explained.

“Hmm!” Da Kou nodded, and at the same time released Qin Ming’s collar.

“I just asked you a question. Are you mute? Did you hear me?” another bandit suddenly spoke up, coldly rebuking Qin Ming.

“I was a little stunned. Okay, I’ll go register later,” Qin Ming nodded and said.

…

“I greet them…” After arriving near the ant nest, Old Liu cursed and swore, he was really angry and full of resentment.

He then quickly advised Qin Ming not to act impulsively, but to hold back this time and register first.

“You’re still young, yet you’re already so strong. You’ll become even more powerful in the future. Anything is possible then…”

Qin Ming chimed in, “Then I’ll single-handedly raid Golden Rooster Ridge at night and wipe out all the bandits there!”

Old Liu quickly stopped him, saying, “Shut up, you can’t say that out loud. You can think about it again after you’ve been reborn four or five times!”

They then proceeded smoothly, and upon entering the ant nest, they discovered that the silver-headed ant army had indeed been almost entirely wiped out by them in the previous three days.

The queen ant finally appeared; she was a silver worm. Although she was a creature that had mutated three times, she was not good at fighting. The only thing that was strong was the luminous liquid she spewed from her mouth, which had amazing penetrating power and could corrode armor.

Upon first encounter, Qin Ming and Old Man Liu were nearly hit by its unexpected spray of liquid, which pierced through their first layer of armor. Fortunately, they had a steel plate on their chests.

The battle was then largely predictable. The strongest warrior ants had already been eliminated, and the queen ant, without the protection of a massive number of silver-headed ants, was quickly dealt with by the two.

“I’m rich!” Old Liu’s eyes lit up when he saw the mead sealed in the ant nest deep inside. Although it had been almost completely consumed during the winter, even the small amount left was incredibly valuable.

Qin Ming said, “Should we bury it first? If we really sell it, we definitely won’t be able to hide the fact that we became three newcomers. Those bandits in Jinji Ridge are ruthless now, and if they find out, there will be problems.”

Old Liu naturally understood all this and nodded.

Immediately, they discovered a pale golden spiritual substance, and both of them were overjoyed and excited; there was enough for the two of them.

…

Back home, Qin Ming looked at the pale golden liquid in the porcelain jar, his emotions surging and his heart filled with excitement.

Many things have happened recently, making it difficult for him to find peace, but as long as he is strong enough, all the troubles he encounters will not be a problem.

Thank you, Saint Immortal Qitian! Many thanks to the Gold Alliance Leader for your support, and also to Zhai Cai! Thank you to the Silver Alliance Leader for your support, and thank you to the Alliance Leaders San Sheng Yuan Han Bao and San Sheng Yuan-San Cun Chi! Thank you all so much! What happened today? How did all these big shots manage to give so many generous rewards? I’ll keep writing to express my gratitude!