History's Number 1 Founder
chapter-937

Before Shi Tianhao finished, Wang Lin already understood what he wanted to say as he himself made the same guess.

"Ant nest," said Wang Lin slowly. "This earthen palace is like a huge ant nest."

Picking any single one of the countless, densely-packed holes would reveal many traces at the edge that showed that whatever made it must be a type of insect.

However, the insect in question here was large and it could not be an ordinary ant. Instead, it was bound to be some type of demon.

As Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao pondered over it, both their hearts trembled slightly. They saw that the void in the horizon suddenly opened and hundreds of black shapes poured out. Their entire forms were black but they were as big as wolves, yet they were huge, black ants.

Their exoskeletons shone with an icy, cold glow that brimmed with a murderous intent.

Their icy-cold exoskeletons completely shielded the strength they had. However, as Shi Tianhao arched his eyebrows and sensed, he knew that underneath those black shells, these ants possessed a physical strength that was much superior to other demons of their level.

In all the time he had spent in the Barren Expanses, he naturally battled against many types of demon. In terms of physical strength, the most powerful were the Zang Turtles, the Mang Turtles, which like the Xuanming Tribe was another impure descendant of the Xuanwu and the Bastille Black Dragon. The Zu’e he fought just now could be counted amongst them too.

Other than these demons, Shi Tianhao himself cultivated the blood of the Kun Peng. Hence, he knew that the physical power of the Kun Peng was superior to these demons too. After he witnessed the battle between his master Lin Feng and the monkey, he realized that the Great Spiritual King Hand move the monkey used when he was in his Extreme Divine Spiritual Monkey Form was astounding too.

While the Heavenly Master Grand Sage did not show his hand and simply stood by the side, one could still feel the astounding strength of the Heavenly Demon Ape Tribe.

However, while the most powerful ants before them were only in their Demonic Lord stage, they brimmed with a huge amount of strength under their ice-cold exoskeleton. Even Shi Tianhao had to look twice.

"Third Senior, I believe that these are the Heaven-Carrying Ants," Shi Tianhao said as he looked at the ants interestedly. He turned his head to look at Wang Lin before he continued, "In other places, these ants have gone extinct. I can’t believe that I can see them here."

There were many types of demons but most of them had faded out of history, including many powerful tribes of demons that had left their mark.

The Heaven-Carrying Ant Tribe was one such example. The meaning behind their name, Heaven-Carrying, was that they were able to carry all of Heaven’s creations.

Every single demon tribe had a unique gift. In terms of pure, physical strength, one could not avoid discussing about the Heaven-Carrying Ant. In all of history, only the Immemorial Celestial Dragon Tribe, the Immemorial Divine Elephant Tribe and the pure-blooded Xuanwu could compare to them.

Rumor even had it that if they were to only compare pure strength, the Heaven-Carrying Ants were slightly better than the rest.

Other than that, the Kun Peng Tribe in their ‘Kun’ form and the Heavenly Demon Ape Tribe of the Ancient Ape Demons could perhaps compare with the other four tribes. However, they would still be slightly weaker.

Today, however, the Heaven-Carrying Ants, the Immemorial Divine Elephants and the pure-blooded Xuanwu were all gone. Most would say that they had gone extinct.

The pure-blooded Xuanwu went extinct at the end of the Primordial Age. The Immemorial Divine Elephants too were rare and they went extinct somewhere in the Antiquity Age. Finally, at the end of the Middle Age, the Heaven-Carrying Ants went extinct.

The group of disciples from the Celestial Sect of Wonders would never have thought that in the Outer Realm underneath the Polarity Steel Mine, they would be able to meet these legendary beasts.

Wang Lin stared at the ants and shook his head slowly, "So these are the Heaven-Carrying Ants. They look strange, though."

These ants looked ferocious and their heads and bodies twisted and turned about as they swept their surroundings with their gaze.

The Heaven-Carrying Ants that appeared were in their Demonic Lord and Demonic Commander stage. Hence, they were completely unable to discover traces of Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao.

However, Wang Lin could clearly sense that a powerful supernatural awareness came out from the bodies of these Heaven-Carrying Ants. This supernatural awareness appeared to be possessed only by Demonic Saint stage demons. Furthermore, the supernatural awareness that these ants emitted seemed to belong to an Undying Demon Soul Third Level demon!

The two of them looked at each other and said, "This supernatural awareness and this aura… could it be from the demon which had just tried to sense with his supernatural awareness?"

Thinking about it, how could the two of them not understand. The Heaven-Carrying Ants before them were all puppets. All they had were their physical bodies. The powerful demon from before had erased their souls while he helped them cultivate their demon souls and demonic core. They had been turned into his avatars.

"That b*stard appears to be doing something so he himself could not leave. However, his suspicion was aroused and hence, he sent his Heaven-Carrying Ant Avatars to investigate," Shi Tianhao said, twitching his mouth. "The Yellow Heaven Bell could be near him. If my Hammer of the Yellow Heaven Bell had a reaction, then the Yellow Heaven Bell would have reacted too. This would have confirmed his suspicion."

Wang Lin’s eyes flashed as he said, "These Heaven-Carrying Ants are contaminated by the Avici Satanic Qi. Hmm, it appears that everything is all related."

He lifted his head to look at the place where the magnetic light congregated and said, "It should be there."

"At such a short distance, coupled with his powerful mastery, we are unable to avoid detection." As he said that, Wang Lin revealed himself and walked calmly towards the Heaven-Carrying Ants. "If that’s the case, then let’s just go directly."

Shi Tianhao smiled and said, "Third Senior, don’t squash all the ants. While their bodies have all been turned into avatars, these are still some good stuff."

He too revealed himself and walked towards the Heaven-Carrying Ants. While the Heaven-Carrying Ants may be strong, they were at best in the Demonic Lord stage. If Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao really wanted to act, how could they stop them?

The swarm of Heaven-Carrying Ants stared at Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao coldly. Suddenly, many waves of demonic powers burst from their bodies, before harmonizing together.

Hundreds of ants grouped together and turned into a human-shaped figure. The human stood up and rushed towards Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao.

This was one of the Unique Gift of the Heaven-Carrying Ants and was similar to the spell formations cast by Daoist soldiers. The powers of many ants congregated together and as the volume of the power changed, the quality changed too. A huge power that was beyond their natural limits and could shake the very earth and heaven would then be summoned.

Since ancient times, human cultivators subdued demons to turn them into Daoist soldiers. In the eyes of human cultivators, Heaven-Carrying Ants were the most suitable candidates for Daoist soldiers.

Not only were they strong individually, but they also possessed a complementary Unique Gift. Hence, they could achieve twice the results with half the effort.

Heaven Gate of the Antiquity age once tried to subdue Heaven-Carrying Ants to turn them into Daoist soldiers. However, they faced oppositions from many sides and coupled with resistance from the Heaven-Carrying Ants themselves, Heaven Gate was unable to succeed.

However, it was at that time too when the Heaven-Carrying Ants began to decline as many of the more powerful ones died off.

Every single Heaven-Carrying Ant was a powerful avatar of the demon and when they merged together, they all became one, much more powerful avatar.

However, they were still unable to stop Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao. Wang Lin looked at the black figure and his footsteps did not even stop. River Styx Primordial Water surged around him and turned into the River of Forgetfulness as it gurgled towards the black figure.

While the black figure was made entirely from ants and completely black, one could see vaguely see its shape. It had the head of a tiger and the body of an ape. Light shone in its two eyes like the sun and the moon. Its forehead did not have a "王"-shaped (Translator’s Note: Tigers in Chinese depiction normally have this marking, which means ‘king’ in Chinese, on their forehead to symbolize their status as the lord of beasts) marking but instead, a circular pattern that looked like a little mirror.

At this moment, as it faced Wang Lin’s River of Forgetfulness, the circular pattern on its forehead blazed with light like a mirror. Then, a reflection of the River of Forgetfulness could be seen. Straightaway, gurgling River Styx Primordial Water poured out from the circle and turned into the River of Forgetfulness as it received Wang Lin’s attack heads-on!

Wang Lin’s gaze flashed but his expression did not change. The River of Forgetfulness grew in scale as it became much more powerful than before.

The opponent’s River of Forgetfulness too trembled and its scale increased as well. However, after a while, it appeared to have reached its limit.

At this time, the difference between the two River of Forgetfulness was akin to that between a small stream and a huge river.

Wang Lin’s silent River of Forgetfulness devoured the opponent’s River of Forgetfulness before completely submerging the black figure.

"Oh, good move." That was the last thing the demon communicated through his supernatural awareness before he was purified by the River Styx Primordial Water.

The Heaven-Carrying Ants, which were congregated together, separated. While they still brimmed with powerful physical strength and their exoskeletons still gave off an icy-glow, the light in their eyes had disappeared. Right now, they were akin to empty shells.

Wang Lin kept his River of Forgetfulness attack and collected every singe Heaven-Carrying Ant.

He looked at Shi Tianhao and said, "So it’s that Lu Yuan."

The ten most active demons of the Barren Expanses were known as the Ten Demonic Saints. Every single one of them belonged to a tribe, except the Lu Yuan Grand Sage, who was a Lu Yuan who managed to learn the Dao. He operated alone.

This demon was wild and always thirsted for a battle. He liked to challenge other demons and sought improvement through battle. While he had a bad name in the Barren Expanses, he was indeed powerful. However, he disappeared many years ago and he hadn’t revealed himself even till now.

The Lu Yuan had the head of a tiger and the body of an ape. His eyes shone like the sun and moon and he could cross a thousand mountains easily. On his forehead, a circular pattern and his Unique Gift was his ability to reflect his enemy’s move against him.

While it was only an avatar just now, both Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao recognized him from the brief fight.

"Let’s go." While they recognized the power of the Lu Yuan Grand Sage, Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao did not change their hearts. Their feet never rested as they walked even faster to where the magnetic light congregated.

Soon, a huge mountain appeared in the field of vision.

It was pure-black mountain. On its peak, black and golden light flashed and around the mountain, there was a chain that wrapped itself tightly around the mountain. However, it did not seem to be holding the mountain down but instead, it sought to uproot the mountain.

Yet, the mountain remained immobile. The chain and the mountain were in a stalemate.

Looking at it carefully, the chain was formed from innumerable Heaven-Carrying Ants, joined bottom to head.