Chapter 491: Chapter 491: Disperse

In midair, Lv Pei was surrounded and furiously bitten by a group of demonized soldier ants, looking as if he were being torn apart, his body covered in wounds.

As someone chosen by the Shadow Circus Troupe leader to take on an epic quest, Lv Pei’s strength should not be underestimated. However, when compared to Song Jian and Lu Mingyuan, the gap was apparent.

Song Jian and Lu Mingyuan dared to jump down because they had their own trump cards to ensure their safe landing at the bottom of the cave. However, Lv Pei thought that a bottle of “Light Body Potion” would suffice for him to safely reach the bottom, clearly underestimating the demonized soldier ants swarming behind him.

“Plop!”

A severed arm fell from the sky, and Lv Pei let out a piercing scream.

“It seems he is done for…” Lu Mingyuan looked up at Lv Pei, who was increasingly enveloped by demonized soldier ants, and said emotionlessly.

Weakness is a sin. In this insane game, bystanders might watch with indifference as you are killed by monsters, then loot the boxes left behind after your death.

Song Jian understood Lu Mingyuan’s question – should they save him?

Upon landing at the bottom of the cave, Song Jian had already observed the surroundings. The entire cave was surrounded by deep tunnels, each over three meters in diameter. The demonized ants entered and left through these tunnels, leaving and returning to the lair.

“Save him, having an extra scout is better than none,” Song Jian shrugged nonchalantly.

Lu Mingyuan nodded, waving his magic staff and releasing a string of fireballs towards the demonized soldier ants in midair.

Boom, boom, boom~

As the fireballs exploded in the sky, they instantly attracted the hatred of the demonized soldier ants. Lv Pei, covered in blood and wounds with one arm severed, fell to the ground like a corpse.

With only a fifth of his Vitality Points left, Lv Pei crashed onto a rock at the cave’s bottom, and after spitting out another mouthful of blood, passed out. If not for the faint movement in his chest, Song Jian would have thought he had died from the fall in an instant.

With the Ant Soul Orb in hand, Song Jian was much more at ease when facing the onslaught of demonized soldier ants. Swinging his sword in hand, it left dark red streaks in midair.

The Ant King Slave roared, and the demonized soldier ants seemed to fear it and didn’t dare to attack it proactively. The Ant King Slave, however, ferociously attacked the demonized soldier ants as if they were hell-bent on mutual destruction.

Leaning against the cave wall, a transparent light barrier appeared around Lu Mingyuan as he continuously used instant-cast magic to attack the demonized soldier ants approaching him.

As the number of demonized soldier ants increased, Lu Mingyuan furrowed his brows, coldly saying, “If we don’t leave now, we may not have a chance to leave later.”

The bottom of the cave was not very spacious, and in a short while, Song Jian was surrounded by a dense mass of demonized soldier ants, with no room to even stretch his foot.

Glancing at Lv Pei, who still lay beneath the rock, Song Jian noticed that his wounds were healing at a visible rate, and his Vitality Points, which were originally down to one-fifth, had already recovered to nearly half.

“Stop pretending to be dead and get into the nearest tunnel,” Song Jian ordered coldly, not even looking at the other two as he commanded the Ant King Slave to open the path and headed toward the nearest tunnel.

Lu Mingyuan’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Song Jian, seeming to want to say something. In the end, he only shook his head, glanced at Lv Pei lying on the ground, snorted coldly, and threw a firewall into a tunnel on the side. A path instantly opened up, and he disappeared into the tunnel.

As the two vanished into the tunnel, a chill ran down Lv Pei’s spine. He quickly scrambled to his feet and hurriedly followed Lu Mingyuan before the demonized soldier ants could encircle him.

While battling the monsters, Song Jian had deliberately kept some distance from Lu Mingyuan and Lv Pei, and thus, they didn’t enter the same tunnel.

He had teamed up with Lu Mingyuan previously to complete the task, as their efficiency in defeating monsters as a team would be much higher.

But now, Song Jian’s task was more than half completed. The number of demonized worker ants met the requirements, and he was less than a hundred demonized soldier ants away from his goal, with only two more demonized Ant Kings needed.

Moreover, with the Ant Soul Orb, Song Jian no longer cared about having teammates to help.

All along the way, Song Jian felt that Lu Mingyuan seemed to harbor ill intentions towards him. If Lu Mingyuan had wanted to use Song Jian’s assistance to hunt the demonized Ant Kings earlier, now, Song Jian’s value might be much higher than the demonized Ant Kings in his eyes.

Taking advantage of their entry into the demonized ant lair, Song Jian deliberately separated himself from the duo and entered a tunnel alone.

This tunnel was spacious enough for two demonized soldier ants to walk side by side. The walls were made of hard rock, with corrosive acid traces visible on them.

Darkness enveloped the tunnel. With his vertical eye, Song Jian quickly dashed forward, soon leaving the cacophony of demonized soldier ants behind.

Song Jian glanced at the Ant Soul Orb, which had collected the souls of over four hundred demonized ants, nearly approaching five hundred. Within the tunnel, the rustling sounds of something swiftly crawling could be heard from time to time.

In no time, Song Jian saw a demonized soldier ant in front of the tunnel. Before he could act, the Ant King Slave growled, spread its wings, and pounced at the demonized soldier ant.

Before the demonized soldier ant could react, it was overturned by the Ant King Slave. The serrated mandibles easily tore through the demonized ant’s carapace, violently ripping apart the purple-red muscles within.

Watching the howling demonized soldier ant, Song Jian pointed his left finger, and a golden Sword Qi blossomed from it, piercing the demonized ant’s skull and vanquishing its last trace of Vitality.

The Ant King Slave’s mandibles and fangs were covered in purplish-black blood. Seeing Song Jian kill the demonized soldier ant, it seemed to ignite its ferocity as it turned its head, opened its mouth wide, and let out a threatening growl at Song Jian.

Startled, Song Jian’s face darkened. Perhaps to other players, an Ant King pet would be precious and needed to be carefully looked after, but Song Jian did not care. Even killing the Ant King would not make him hesitate.

With a thought, a black rune formed on the Ant King Slave’s forehead, radiating dazzling light. A wave of black aura spread through the dungeon, like blades surging towards the Ant King Slave’s joints.

Soon, the Ant King Slave lost all strength and slumped to the ground. Whip-like black auras formed small knives inside its body, relentlessly slicing it and causing it great pain.

…