It was a golden ant, standing out in stark contrast against the black ants around it. It was also far larger than the others, perhaps ten times their size—a crane among chickens.
That was why Su Mu spotted this golden ant at a glance.
He stepped onto the stone bridge, reached out with his right hand, pinched up the enormous golden ant with two fingers, placed it on his palm, and examined it closely.
He discovered that this golden ant had ten legs.
Ants belonged to the Hexapoda subphylum and generally had only six legs, yet this ant had a full ten.
Of course, that was not particularly strange. What puzzled Su Mu was that, upon closer inspection, each of its ten legs bore strings of tiny characters that looked like some sort of runes.
He turned the ant over and found a peculiar marking on its abdomen. It looked like a pattern, like a moon.
Moreover, Su Mu could not smell the slightest trace of rot on this ant.
The other black ants, however, gave off a nauseating, instinctively repulsive stench the moment they were picked up, without even needing to be brought near the nose.
But this golden ant was different. There was no rotten smell at all—only a floral fragrance. The scent was exceedingly familiar, identical to that of Lycoris Radiata! From that fragrance alone, he could preliminarily conclude that this was definitely a Treasure Ant! This was Su Mu's special treasure-identification method: Scent-Based Treasure Identification!
However, Su Mu did not intend to eat this Treasure Ant right away. He would take it back first and study it.
Not every treasure could be eaten. What if he really ate some poisonous thing? That would be troublesome.
The ant lay in Su Mu's palm, not daring to move.