Song Minghui immediately activated the Spirit Gathering and Fire Transformation Gourd, aiming the gourd’s mouth at the depths of the ant nest entrance.
Jets of flame shot out, surging into a vast sea of fire, rolling forward like a tide.
The nest was subjected to the high temperature of the flames, even the temperature around it rose, and the marching ants naturally sensed the changes around them at this time.
Their gaze turned towards the direction from which the flames were coming, then they were covered by a large swath of fire, issuing sounds of struggle, and instinctively retreating.
The ant queen also reacted quickly, immediately summoning the ant colony to form a defensive formation, gathering densely together, like moving red sands.
The densely packed marching ants appeared before everyone, the sheer number of them was daunting, amounting to four to five hundred thousand.
This level of ant nest, once it floods into Guangde County, the consequences would be unimaginable if they targeted people.
"We should still opt for a fire attack!"
Seeing so many marching ants truly startled everyone, instinctively they got the urge to retreat, making Zhang Nianchuan furrow his brows and decide to focus on the fire attack.
How long would it take to kill them one sword at a time?
Against such tiny marching ants in such vast numbers, the flying sword was clearly unsuitable.
Hearing Zhang Nianchuan’s words, Song Minghui naturally wouldn’t resist and immediately intensified the effort of controlling the Spirit Gathering and Fire Transformation Gourd, unleashing denser flames towards the ant colony.
Faced with such flames, the breadth of their coverage was enough to cause casualties to tens of thousands of marching ants.
The ant colony quickly retreated, trying to escape these flames, but their speed was a bit slow.
The marching ants on the outskirts of the colony, upon coming into contact with the flames, were immediately set ablaze, like oil being poured on a fire, mercilessly burned, running amok and struggling on the ground.
These marching ants, ignited and burned, clearly couldn’t survive and soon perished.
The ant colony was disturbed by the flames, becoming more chaotic, like a school of fish retreating towards the depths of the nest.
The ant queen was in the center of the colony, heavily protected and unaffected.
It remained very calm, emitting buzzing sounds, commanding the ant colony to maintain formation, using the ants on the periphery to resist the fire’s attack, thus protecting the ants inside, including itself.
"This ant colony is too large, it’s not feasible to eliminate them all at once. Everyone should use any fire element group attack techniques they know, stop holding back." Content originally comes from novel·fire·net
Zhang Nianchuan spoke, taking the lead to perform the Fire Magic ’Blazing Heaven Heart Technique’, conjuring a giant flame sword, sweeping towards the ant colony.
The other three, Xuu Yi, Lin Han, and Chu Qin, were not to be outdone, each taking action, using fire attribute techniques or other group attack techniques.
Zhang Deming and ten other Zhang Family cultivators, under Zhang Deming’s command, encircled and intercepted the ant colony, ensuring the clearance could proceed smoothly.
Under such a joint attack from everyone, the ant queen saw a large portion of the ant colony being cleared, becoming increasingly agitated, frantically commanding the ant colony to move deeper into the nest to avoid these human race cultivators.
In its view, the strength of these human race cultivators was formidable, beyond the ant colony’s ability to handle.
Especially that red flaming magical artifact, its power was extraordinary, clearing away thousands of marching ants with each use.
Meanwhile, the other cultivators either attacked swiftly or cooperated seamlessly.
As the ant colony fled deeper into the nest, Zhang Deming and the others pursued, blocking the surrounding paths, and soon, a tenth or twentieth of the ant colony had been cleared.
Of course, given the ant colony’s large scale and numerous numbers, it was clearly impossible to clear them all in a short time.
The entire clearing process persisted for a whole day.
By the second morning, the ant colony had been mostly eliminated, with only a small area of activity remaining, the number staying around ten thousand.
This number of marching ants no longer posed any threat.
However, the ant queen’s strength was not weak, reaching the Seventh-Layer Qi Cultivation, something Zhang Deming couldn’t handle alone, requiring Zhang Nianchuan and others’ help.
"This ant queen might still be of some use to us, it periodically produces some red copper after feeding. Red copper is a common material for refining Tier Two spiritual artifacts, useful to the sect."
Song Minghui said, continuing to wield the Spirit Gathering and Fire Transformation Gourd, unnerving the ant colony to keep avoiding.
After a day’s use, she had mastered the artifact very well, and it didn’t consume much magical power.
And the other cultivators could take advantage of their numbers, taking turns attacking, resting, and recovering magical power.
"If the ant queen isn’t eliminated, it will eventually be a hidden danger."
Zhang Nianchuan responded, scanning the ant colony, quickly spotting the ant queen hiding in the middle.
The ant queen wasn’t very conspicuous, only about two fingers long, with a completely dark body, its sharp mouthparts opening and closing, making buzzing sounds, commanding the colony to defend and also to attack.
Being constantly attacked by human race cultivators, the ant queen naturally felt anger and resisted.
Despite being small, its combat power was strong, but it was quite timid, not daring to leave the colony’s range, threatened by Song Minghui’s power, so it could only be in a defensive state.
The ant queen was also adept at control, commanding a large number of marching ants to act as guards, escorting the queen in its escape.
Unfortunately, the exit was blocked by Zhang Family cultivators.
Unable to escape outside, it ended up , cornered at the deepest end of the ant nest, a fish in a barrel.
Capturing the ant queen alive in this situation wasn’t difficult.
First, just clear out those marching ants.
Having already cleared over five hundred thousand marching ants, at this point clearing the remaining ten thousand or so was naturally easy, not challenging for everyone.
In just a moment, the number of ants dwindled, leaving only a dozen or so still protecting the ant queen.
Lin Han wielded the Cyan Bamboo Sword, clearing the remaining dozen or so marching ants one by one, and as the Cyan Bamboo Sword swooped down, directly towards the ant queen, Song Minghui immediately intervened to stop him.
Lin Han turned his head, a look of hesitation in his eyes, asking, "Do we really want to take this thing back to the sect for raising?"
"Marching ants aren’t easy to tame."
"It would be a pity to kill it, let’s take it back first and see, Junior Sister Snow Lotus might have a way to tame it."
At this time, Zhang Nianchuan also expressed his opinion, saying, "I think Senior Sister Song makes sense, we should keep this ant queen and take it back to the sect, it will be beneficial to the sect."
With that said, Zhang Nianchuan looked at Zhang Deming, asking, "I wonder what Clan Leader Zhang thinks about this, would you be willing to let us take this ant queen?"
Zhang Deming nodded immediately upon hearing this, "I have no objections to this, you’re free to do as you see fit."