Chapter 90

Ants piled on ants, a huge swarm of flame‑spitting gold‑eating ants surged onto the city wall.

Wu Tie swung his spear; where his divine power passed, the great swarm of ants was blasted away, and not a single ant could approach him.

But several of the Stone City soldiers beside him had already been bitten to a bloody mess, and the bravest Ox Tribe warrior was even sprayed in the face with a mouthful of flame from a flame‑spitting gold‑eating ant, burning one of his eyeballs to burst.

Wu Tie is now the centurion of Stone City, commanding a hundred soldiers under him.

Over the past month or so, although Wu Tie had been busy cultivating, he had also become familiar with these soldiers under his command.

Ox Tribe warriors are simple and honest, without much scheming. Back when Wu Tie was young at the Wu Family Shibao, he loved playing and rough‑housing with these big Ox Tribe fellows.

Seeing his own soldiers suffer heavy casualties, Wu Tie felt a surge of anger.

He thrust his spear, sending the dozen or so flame‑spitting gold‑eating ants lunging at him flying away, then backhanded a punch into the head of one of those ants.

Amid the loud bang, Wu Tie's fist was burned to a bloody mess, yet his fist drove deep into the ant's head, violently punching in over a foot deep.

Wu Tie opened his palm inside the ant's head, grabbed two handfuls of the scorching flesh, seized a thick nerve ganglion, and then snapped it.

The flame‑spitting gold‑eating ant's body twitched violently; several long, sharp tarsi shot straight out, then contracted and tensed against the body. The long legs kept vibrating, striking the hard torso and emitting a crisp 'ding‑ding' sound.

The white egg wrapped in the heart‑protecting mirror on Wu Tie's chest glowed with a faint light; the flames on the ant's surface quickly dimmed, and its whole body swiftly turned icy cold.

All its heat, all its life essence, together with the ant's feeble soul, were sucked dry by that white egg the instant Wu Tie killed it.

From nearby came a miserable 'moo‑moo' cry; the Ox Tribe warrior, his head and face engulfed in flames, with burst eyeball juice continually oozing from one eye socket, staggered backward.

He dropped his left shield, one hand covering his burned eyeball, the other hand wildly waving a short‑handled wolf‑tooth club, helping his nearby companion block the charge of a flame‑spitting gold‑eating ant.

The short‑handled wolf‑tooth club smashed into the ant's head, sending sparks flying; the two long teeth on the tempered steel club snapped off, and the ant's head was merely dented by two insignificant pits.

The Ox Tribe warrior stumbled backward, crashing into two lizardfolk archers also under Wu Tie's command.

Compared to the tall, sturdy Ox Tribe warrior, the lizardfolk archers were undoubtedly much slimmer and weaker. They yelped in panic, spitting out long tongues from their mouths, and were knocked flat on the ground by the Ox Tribe warrior's impact.

The Ox Tribe warrior tripped with his foot and sat down heavily on the bodies of two lizardfolk soldiers.

After taking a heavy blow to the head, the slightly dazed flame‑spitting gold‑eating ant let out a sharp hiss, its long tarsi snapped outward, it opened its sharp mouthparts and clamped down on the neck of the still‑burning Ox Tribe warrior in front of it.

Wu Tie tossed aside the icy corpse of the flame‑spitting gold‑eating ant in his hand, let out a long roar, primordial vigor surged around him, and a turbulent wave of energy burst from his body. Gripping his spear with one hand, he thrust it with all his strength to the side.

This thrust held nothing back.

Primordial vigor infused his arm, his right arm swelling to twice its normal thickness, and Wu Tie further bolstered it with an invisible force field, making his strike faster and fiercer.

The spear tore through the air, bringing a straight, undeviating cold light, accompanied by a piercing crack as it shot forward.

The spear struck the junction between the ant's head and abdomen—only as thick as a fist, and there was no heavy carapace there. With a crisp crack, the spear pierced the ant's body, spewing out large amounts of scalding plasma; Wu Tie swung the spear and hurled it hard toward the outside of the wall.

The flame‑spitting gold‑eating ant's body was pierced, the nerve cord running through its entire body shattered, it twitched and writhed violently, and its vitality left it in an instant.

Faint light flickered on the surface of the white egg; the scorching corpse of the flame‑spitting gold‑eating ant, the moment it was flung away, became as cold as ice.

Wu Tie suddenly found the weak point of these troublesome foes.

He dropped the spear in his hand; a golden light mass gathered at his brow, and an invisible force field suddenly spread outward in all directions.

These days, he has practiced the Foundation Establishment style to 1,180 forms; the golden light mass at his brow has swollen to fist size, and under the tempering of righteous vigor it has become purer and more condensed, like solid gold.

The invisible force field spread outward, quickly enveloping the city wall within a radius of three hundred meters centered on Wu Tie's body.

"Rise!" Wu Tie shouted loudly.

On the six‑hundred‑meter‑long city wall, over three hundred howling, attacking flame‑spitting gold‑eating ants suddenly flew up involuntarily.

Wu Tie clasped his hands together, made a twisting motion, and said, "Break!"

With a 'crack', the heads of over three hundred flame‑spitting gold‑eating ants all turned 360 degrees at once; Wu Tie forcibly twisted and broke their heads with the invisible force field, and their internal nerve cords snapped as well.

The body structure of these flame‑spitting gold‑eating ants is strange: a single nerve cord controls all their bodily functions.

Even if their heads are pierced and their bodies hacked to pieces, as long as that nerve cord remains unharmed, they can stubbornly keep fighting and charging.

Once the nerve cord is severed, they die instantly; only their bodily functions remain temporarily intact, and the tarsi will instinctively keep twitching.

Over three hundred flame‑spitting gold‑eating ants are like that: they hover in the air, their long tarsi trembling violently, constantly striking each other and producing a 'ding‑ding' impact sound.

But the spasms of their limbs stopped in an extremely short time, and over three hundred Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants quickly became stiff and cold.

Their internal heat, life essence, and souls were devoured by the white egg on Wu Tie's chest in an extremely short time, and the air around Wu Tie writhed violently, with faint firelight flickering in and out.

Wu Tie casually flung them outward, and the corpses of over three hundred Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants flew far away, several hundred meters.

He raised both hands and shouted loudly 'Rise!'—in an instant, another over three hundred Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants took flight.

Very uniformly, the heads of over three hundred Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants spun 360 degrees in mid‑air; their vitality swiftly faded, their bodies rapidly turning icy and stiff, and then Wu Tie threw them out of the city wall.

Facing the direction from which the Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants came, on this side of the wall of Stone City, thousands of Stone City's warriors were already locked in melee with the Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants.

Facing these Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants that are resistant to blades and axes, emit intense heat all over, and occasionally have powerful individuals that constantly spew fire and shoot out metallic spikes, the warriors of Stone City fought with great difficulty.

In the short span of a tea cup, hundreds of warriors were seriously wounded, and dozens more were dragged down from the wall by the Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants and torn to pieces.

Shi Meng wielded his great axe, leading a group of his personal elite warriors as they roared on the city wall, swinging the axe fiercely and, relying on the brute strength granted by the Giant Bloodline, smashed each Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ant into oddly shaped iron discs.

He also had several warriors who had reached the Chonglou Realm.

However, these warriors, like Shi Meng, had all their divine abilities and secret techniques focused on close combat.

Each tall, sturdy warrior charged across the wall like an iron tower, but they simply could not attend to the entire wall.

The elemental mages on the arrow towers and watchtowers were busy using gales to block the inferno's invasion, busy dropping frost to eliminate the heat on the wall, and they also had no time to lend a hand attacking these Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants.

Seeing the casualties among the city's warriors piling up, Shi Meng shouted in anger and cursed, but for a moment he could not think of any good solution.

Suddenly, Shi Meng saw that on this stretch of the wall Wu Tie kept throwing out large batches of Flaming Gold‑Devouring Ants, and once these ants landed on the ground they would not move again; he could not help but look up and let out a roar of extreme excitement.

"Little Tie steward… nicely done! Hahaha, my great‑granduncle's family has a few unmarried elder sisters; I'll introduce you to them later… hey, they're just a bit big‑boned." Shi Meng was so excited he wanted to raise his head and sing.

Shi Meng's great‑granduncle?

Wu Tie thought of Shibao's twenty‑meter height.

Is she the eldest daughter of the Shibao family?

A female giant several meters tall?

Wu Tie shuddered, shook his head, and began running back and forth along the wall.

An invisible force field spread out; wherever Wu Tie passed, large patches of flame‑eating gold ants kept flying up, then repeatedly had their heads twisted off and were flung toward the city wall.

Wu Tie's running speed was also extremely fast; for a city wall several li wide, he could run its entire length in just a dozen breaths.

In other words, in just a dozen breaths Wu Tie could sweep clean the flame‑eating gold ants that had climbed the wall.

A quarter of an hour passed quickly; Wu Tie had already slain at least ten thousand flame‑eating gold ants, the golden light spot between his brows had grown dim, and the invisible force field had shrunk to less than ten meters around him.

From overexertion, Wu Tie's complexion repeatedly turned pale, and cold sweat kept seeping out of his forehead.

Finally, a wave of stabbing pain came from between his brows; Wu Tie plopped down on the ground and shouted at Shi Meng not far away: "I can't hold on any longer… Old Man Shi Liu… you guys hold out for a while."

His vision kept blacking out; although his stamina wasn't much depleted, Wu Tie's spiritual energy was nearly exhausted and he almost fainted.

He trembled, and with difficulty pulled a tiny metal box from his waist‑tied beast‑skin pouch, took out a stalk of lava grass, thought for a moment, tore off two leaves and stuffed them into his mouth.

He lay crookedly on the wall, assumed a Quiet Repose Nurturing Spirit posture from the Foundation Establishment stance, fully absorbed the vast energy of the lava grass, and strove to restore his spiritual energy.

Dozens of flame‑eating gold ants surged onto the battlements, hissing as they charged at Wu Tie.

Shi Meng bellowed in a deep, resonant voice: "Guard Little Iron steward… behold, I'll definitely stuff a few of our big sis for you. Charge up, kill them!"

Shi Meng was the first to rush to Wu Tie's side, swinging his great axe with both hands; a single horizontal chop sent a dozen flame‑eating gold ants flying.

He drew a deep breath; his body, originally three meters tall, suddenly expanded, reaching seven or eight meters in the snap of a finger. His frame became extraordinarily burly, and with a few 'booms' the heavy armor he wore burst apart, all its pieces flung away by his swelling body.

Bare‑chested, the beast‑skin war skirt at his waist split open in several huge gaps; nearly naked, Shi Meng dropped the now‑unwieldy great axe, grabbed hold of the two most stalwart flame‑eating gold ants, and slammed them forward with force.

With a tremendous boom, seven or eight flame‑eating gold ants were smashed by his blow into iron discs.

Following that, this section of the city wall shook violently, and long cracks split open across it in a dozen places.

The masses of warriors beside Shi Meng let out terrified howls, and even several of his close aides opened their mouths, angrily spitting at Shi Meng.

Shi Meng somewhat dazedly dropped the flame‑eating gold ant in his hand, then blankly scratched his head.

"Damn it… this wall, how can it be so flimsy? Who built Great Stone City back then?"

"They definitely cut corners, no doubt about it!"

Hordes of flame‑eating gold ants swarmed forward; Shi Meng spread his arms, letting a dozen of the ants' mandibles viciously bite into him. He gave a weird 'ga‑ga' laugh, swung his arms, and those ants flew off like cannonballs.

The heads of the flung flame‑eating gold ants exploded, spraying large swaths of scorching plasma.

Many warriors of Great Stone City on the wall were drenched head‑to‑toe in the scorching plasma; many were burned to a crisp, each shouting and cursing wildly in Shi Meng's direction.

Murderous aura boiled, blood energy surged—at this point who could still recognize who Shi Meng was?

This guy's crude, violent fighting had everyone in such a sorry state that even an exasperated Ox Tribe warrior earnestly greeted Shi Meng's mother!

Endless streams of flame‑eating gold ants kept surging upward.

Tens of thousands of flame‑eating gold ants piled up at the base of Great Stone City's wall, each pressed against the next, each squeezed together, each stacked on top.

Even though the elemental mages on the arrow towers and watchtowers kept whipping up gales and dropping ice crystals, the number of piled‑up flame‑eating gold ants kept growing, and the temperature on the wall kept rising.

The flame‑eating gold ants piled up outside the city gradually reached the same height as the wall.

Vast flames raged; the tide‑like flame‑eating gold ants no longer needed to climb the wall, but instead surged forward by trampling over each other's bodies.

Shi Meng's complexion turned grim.

Even after activating the Giant Bloodline, his cerebrospinal fluid was almost completely consumed by his swelling muscles and bones, his IQ had nearly dropped to that of a child with intellectual disability, and he too realized something was wrong.

"Damn it… Shibao that old thing, didn't he say that as long as we had wine and meat ready he'd come whenever called?"

"Where is he? Where is that old thing Shibao?"

"Damn it, where did that guy run off to?"

"He should slap these bastards to death with one palm, slap them dead!"

Shi Meng, furious, howled atop the wall, while the Great Stone City soldiers on the wall kept retreating defeat after defeat.

A flame‑eating gold ant about the size of a large wild ox suddenly climbed onto the battlements; it let out a sharp hiss, locked its gaze on Wu Tie, and spewed forth a sticky, magma‑like bluish‑white flame.