Chapter 459: Iron Fire Ants

The hurricane stopped instantly, revealing the sallow-faced cultivator inside. WM Net

His figure stood sluggishly in place, the ice shields and green protective barrier were gone, and there was an extra transparent hole the size of a fist in his heart, with the surrounding area pitch-black and charred, as if it had been scorched by something.

The man looked down at his chest, couldn't help but touch it with his hand, with a look of shock on his face, appearing as if he still didn't believe it.

But at this moment, the black long spear let out a "zila" sound, transforming into a dark, oppressive flying ant swarm once again, rushing toward the man, who was full of horror, without politeness, and instantly covering his entire body.

The man only let out a few miserable cries on the ground before there was no sound at all.

After a moment, the flying ant swarm soared into the sky, returned to its original place, and landed, becoming no different from those sand grains once again.

And the place where the man fell was empty, swallowed completely by the ant swarm.

This scene was seen clearly from beginning to end by Han Li, who was standing far away on the mountaintop.

Apart from shock in his heart, Han Li's expression became somewhat strange.

"Iron Fire Ants! It should be correct. I truly didn't expect to see this kind of spirit insect here." Han Li said to himself in a voice that only he could hear.

When this kind of flying ant first appeared, Han Li hadn't recognized the origin of these black flying insects.

But when they didn't fear the sallow-faced cultivator's flying knife magic treasure attack and finally condensed into a long spear, he recognized these "Iron Fire Ants."

After all, flying ant-type spirit insects were not few in the cultivation world, and their appearance was almost the same. Unless one was a cultivator specializing in insect-driving techniques, most people couldn't distinguish the difference between them.

But in reality, the abilities and terrifying degree of different flying ant-type spirit insects were a world of difference.

Weaker flying ant swarms could be easily swept away by Foundation Establishment stage cultivators relying on ordinary magic treasures.

Stronger flying ants would make Core Formation stage cultivators frown and retreat three feet upon seeing them.

And this kind of spirit insect, which was ranked thirty-seventh on the Strange Insect List, was precisely one of the most terrifying types of flying ants.

Apart from the "Heavenly Crystal Ants" ranked ninth in the legends, it was probably this kind of Iron Fire Ant that was the most terrifying.

Because this type of flying ant was not only invulnerable to swords and spears, but also didn't fear most magic spell attacks.

Apart from mid-tier or higher water attribute and ice attribute magic spells and individual magic spells of other attributes, which could cause damage to them, they almost had the same perverted defensive power as the Gold-Devouring Beetles. And in terms of resisting direct attacks from magic treasures, they were even a grade better than the Gold-Devouring Beetles.

Of course, they didn't have the perverted ability of the Gold-Devouring Beetles to swallow magic power, but correspondingly, they also had the terrifying ability to spray black flame and perform group combination transformation.

With these abilities, the Iron Fire Ant swarm was, to a certain extent, a fire-attribute magic treasure that could change shape at will.

Relying on their terrifying aggressiveness, ordinary defensive magic treasures and defensive magic spells couldn't block their full-force strike at all. The sallow-faced man's miserable death wasn't exactly unjust!

Although Iron Fire Ants didn't belong to the category of extinct spirit insects like the Gold-Devouring Beetles, they were also rarely seen in the cultivation world.

And even if someone occasionally saw them, they were at most ant swarms of several hundred or a thousand.

This was because the environment where Iron Fire Ants lived was extremely harsh.

Not only did they need lava zones, but there also had to be a large amount of copper and iron-type ores nearby to survive. If they left this environment, the Iron Fire Ants would weaken rapidly. Without long, their special abilities would degenerate completely, becoming no different from ordinary flying ants.

If it were only this point, there would be many cultivators who wanted to drive this kind of flying ant. Creating similar environments or directly searching for similar environments for domestication and breeding was nothing compared to the tempting abilities of the Iron Fire Ants.

But a fatal limitation of this type of flying ant made cultivators who had designs on them only return disappointed.

Whether wild or domesticated, Iron Fire Ants could not recognize a master at all.

Whenever someone wanted to control them using various master-recognition rituals, the Iron Fire Ants would explode one after another, without exception.

This made the cultivators' dreams fall through!

As for the specific reasons, there were many different opinions. Some said this type of flying ant had a "fierce personality" and was unwilling to be driven by others. Others said it had to do with the Iron Fire Ant's constitution, and so on...

Of course, the information about Iron Fire Ants was rarely known by anyone, whether in the Tiannan region or the Chaotic Star Sea.

Because in the last thousand years, very few people had encountered Iron Fire Ants, and the scale of the ant swarms was getting smaller and smaller. It could be considered a spirit insect that was nearly extinct!

At this moment, Han Li gazed at the black desert, thinking about the information on Iron Fire Ants, somewhat dazed in place.

It seemed the Iron Fire Ants were the natural traps of the black desert.

Although he didn't know how many flying ant swarms like the one just now were in the desert, judging from the fact that the sallow-faced cultivator encountered one after walking only a few hundred zhang into the desert, the ant swarms in the entire black desert were absolutely not few.

It was possible that super-large ant swarms with a scale of tens of thousands also existed.

Thinking of this, even Han Li felt cold air rising behind his back.

He hurriedly scanned several storage pouches on his body with his spiritual sense.

There were more than a dozen mid-tier ice attribute and water attribute talismans, which should be enough to deal with two or three Iron Fire Ant swarms of the same scale as just now.

But wanting to cross the entire desert using these talismans was completely wishful thinking!

However, when Han Li's gaze fell on the several spirit beast bags containing the Gold-Devouring Beetles, his heart stirred.

I wonder if using the Gold-Devouring Beetles to deal with the Iron Fire Ants would have a miraculous effect?

After all, the Gold-Devouring Beetles' ranking was above the "Iron Fire Ants," and their numbers were numerous.

Looking at the color of these Iron Fire Ants' shells, they hadn't evolved to the legendary "Black Gold" stage either. They should be in the same semi-mature stage as his Gold-Devouring Beetles.

In this way, it was completely possible to test them with the Gold-Devouring Beetles.

This thought rose in Han Li's heart and couldn't be suppressed.

He forcibly suppressed his mind, re-pondered for a while, felt there was no problem, and decided to test it with the Iron Fire Ant swarm just now.

Even if the Gold-Devouring Beetles couldn't deal with them, he still had those mid-tier talismans, which could also ensure his safety to retreat from the desert.

Thus, Han Li's face turned cold, and he ran down from the mountaintop, heading straight for the black desert.

After a while, Han Li stood at the edge of the desert and stopped his steps.

He looked at the black sand grains on the ground, but his eyes narrowed.

Suddenly, he bent down, grabbed a handful of black sand grains from the ground, and put them under his eyelids to look closely.

A moment later, Han Li let out a cold snort, suddenly yellow light flashed, his five fingers closed tightly, and then he slowly loosened them.

As a result, most of the sand grains in his palm flattened, and not many were crushed.

"What kind of black desert, it turns out to be some mineral grains containing black iron." Han Li's mouth contained a trace of self-mockery, and he muttered slowly.

"However, being able to pave iron ore grains into such a vast desert-like terrain. The owner of the Void Heaven Palace back then was truly a person of great means." Han Li thought for a while, and felt somewhat emotional again.

When he threw the things in his hand away and stood up again, his brows frowned abruptly. Then he patted the Spirit Rhinoceros Pendant at his waist, and a white protective barrier appeared on his body.

Because he was avoiding that sallow-faced cultivator earlier, he had no choice but to turn off the fire-repelling effect of the jade pendant and rely entirely on his cultivation to hold on until now.

Now that he was close to this black desert, the heat wave rushing toward his face made him dizzy and bloated in just a short time, which made Han Li startled in his heart, and he hurriedly used the Spirit Rhinoceros Pendant again.

At this time, it was not the time to save magic power.

Han Li didn't hesitate anymore, looked at the place where the Iron Fire Ant swarm was, and walked over carefully.

Walking in this black desert was truly an unbearable torment. The scorching hot sand grains under his feet, the air in the surroundings that felt like it was burning. Even with the simultaneous use of the Spirit Rhinoceros Pendant and the Fire-Repelling Treasure Garment, it still made Han Li feel like he was going to suffocate. It felt as if it were three times hotter than the section of lava small road he had passed yesterday.

After walking only thirty zhang, Han Li sighed, reached into his storage pouch, and a warm, moist bead appeared in his hand.

He didn't hesitate to inject some spiritual energy into it, white light flashed, and a coldness dissipated from within the bead.

Han Li immediately felt the coldness in the surroundings rise greatly, and his spirit was refreshed. He immediately quickened his pace.

Using the Spirit Rhinoceros Pendant and the Cold Ice Bead at the same time made his magic power consumption soar, so he had to pass through this desert as quickly as possible.

When Han Li was still fifty or sixty zhang away from the "Iron Fire Ant" swarm, he stopped his steps. He stared at that place carefully.

After a long while, Han Li shook his head lightly.

The "Iron Fire Ant" swarm that was hiding motionless was extremely difficult to distinguish from the surrounding black sand grains. Even if he probed with his spiritual sense, it was still not easy to identify their existence. The spiritual energy fluctuations on the ant swarm were faint, as if they were born with high-level concealment techniques.

It seemed that the method of opening his spiritual sense wide to avoid the ant swarm from afar wouldn't work, and he could only test it with the Gold-Devouring Beetles.

Net ===== CHAPTER 460 =====