Xu Yan didn't take the Golden Emperor Ant's words to heart. An ant dared to say it would beat him to a pulp? What a joke.
He shook the half a roast chicken he was holding and smiled. "Don't rush. I haven't finished talking. Be my pet, and I'll provide food and lodging!"
"Master!"
What?
Xu Yan suspected he'd misheard. Had the Golden Emperor Ant just called him Master?
Hadn't it been threatening to beat him to a pulp just a moment ago? How had it skipped straight past agreeing and started calling him Master?
The reversal was so abrupt that he nearly failed to react.
The Golden Emperor Ant stared at the half a roast chicken. "Master, is this roast chicken for me?"
Its drool was practically dripping onto the ground, though it was so tiny it could be ignored.
Xu Yan thought, As expected, it's a glutton—and one who values food more than dignity.
What an interesting ant.
He set the bag on the ground and opened it, revealing the roast chicken inside. "Go ahead and eat as much as you like. It'd be a waste to throw it away."
"Sure thing, Master. Little Gold has always lived by the motto of never wasting food. Leave this chicken to me," the Golden Emperor Ant said.
Then it eagerly crawled onto the half chicken and began to gobble it down.
Xu Yan had never seen an ant eat before, so he watched the Golden Emperor Ant devour the roast chicken.
He was also curious to find out just how much the golden ant that kept threatening to punch him to smithereens could eat.
Yet it didn't take long for him to realize just how extraordinary the golden ant was.
The golden ant actually ate the entire half chicken. It was simply unbelievable.
No one would believe it if he said an ant barely as long as half an index finger had eaten half a normal-sized roast chicken.
What's more, after finishing the chicken, the golden ant was still exactly the same size as before. It hadn't changed at all. Xu Yan had no idea where the chicken had gone; it completely defied the conservation of matter.
After finishing the half chicken, the Golden Emperor Ant still didn't seem satisfied. "Master, this roast chicken tastes great. Where did you get it? Take me there next time, and I'll sneak a few."
"I'm curious. How can your tiny body eat half a roast chicken?" Xu Yan asked, voicing his confusion.
He could understand a fox eating half a chicken. But an ant eating half a chicken too? However he looked at it, it just didn't seem right.
Of course, this was an abnormal world to begin with.
"Master, all the food I eat turns into energy, which I absorb to increase my strength." The Golden Emperor Ant waved its forelegs as it spoke.
Forget half a chicken—even half a cow was no problem for it.
It was the Emperor of Ants, after all. It wasn't just boasting when it came to eating; it had never met its match.
Xu Yan reached out, pinched the Golden Emperor Ant, and set it on his palm. Then he began examining it up close.
At last, he spotted how the Golden Emperor Ant differed from ordinary ants.
Its entire body was covered in extremely tiny, unusual runes. Unless you looked closely, you'd never notice them.
He asked, "Golden Emperor Ant, what are those runes on your body?"
The Golden Emperor Ant fell silent for a moment before answering. "Those are Sealing Divine Runes. They seal my power. I'm usually in a sealed state, and I won't break the seal unless I have no other choice."
The runes on its body were the reason it could eat so much.
No matter how much food it ate, the energy would be absorbed and sealed within the runes.
The more runes on its body, the more power was sealed—and the greater that power was.
Hearing this, Xu Yan understood the general situation.
Though he couldn't cultivate and was just an ordinary man, he could still come into contact with things from the cultivation world.
He'd never encountered a situation like the Golden Emperor Ant's, or even heard of one. Still, it seemed like the sort of unusual circumstance that could only exist in the cultivation world.
"Master, take me home. I want to see my new home," the Golden Emperor Ant said, clearly unwilling to say more about the runes.
Before this, its home had been the whole world. Wherever it went was home.
"All right!"
Xu Yan brought the Golden Emperor Ant into the shop and walked over to the table where Su Jiuer was. "Little Fox, we have a new companion."
With that, he set the Golden Emperor Ant down on the table.
Su Hu'er looked at the golden ant in front of her, puzzled. Why had that old monster Xu Yan brought an ant inside?
Was this golden ant the new companion Xu Yan had mentioned?
No way. Surely no one actually kept ants as pets?
When the Golden Emperor Ant saw Su Jiuer staring at it, it said, "What are you looking at? Never seen an ant as handsome as me?"
It looked down on Su Jiuer. She was such a big fox, yet she was sprawled lazily on the table instead of going off to do something.
When Su Jiuer heard the Golden Emperor Ant, her eyes widened, filled with disbelief.
She'd actually heard an ant speak—and it was full of itself, too.
"Little Fox, this is the Golden Emperor Ant. Get along with your new companion, okay?" Xu Yan said, patting Su Jiuer on the head.
He was a little worried Su Jiuer might slap the Golden Emperor Ant to death.
Though the Golden Emperor Ant kept threatening to punch people into oblivion, it looked so tiny that it hardly seemed like a creature with that kind of strength.
Su Jiuer's eyes were full of disdain. He expected her to get along with an ant? What did he take her for?
One of the ants?
The Golden Emperor Ant didn't care what Su Jiuer thought. It said arrogantly, "For my master's sake, I'll get along with you. But don't bother me for no reason."
After saying that, it lay down on the table and went to sleep.
After eating a large amount of food, it needed to sleep for a while. During that time, Divine Runes would form inside its body, sealing the energy it had just absorbed from the food.
Su Jiuer wanted nothing more than to slap the insolent ant to death. How dare it act so arrogantly?
Even some of the larger ant demons weren't as unbridled as this golden ant, which looked barely any different from an ordinary one.
When Qin Tian came to play chess with Xu Yan, he saw the Golden Emperor Ant and exclaimed, "Senior Xu's tastes are truly beyond the ordinary. We vulgar folk could never aspire to such heights."
He could understand keeping a little fox demon as a pet. After all, plenty of men liked fox demons.
He could understand keeping a green tortoise as a pet, too. After all, green was environmentally friendly, and tortoises symbolized longevity. Plenty of people liked keeping them.
But he couldn't understand keeping an ant as a pet. An ant was the easiest creature in the world to overlook; one careless step and you could crush it. What was the point of keeping one?
Xu Yan didn't plan to explain that the Golden Emperor Ant wasn't an ordinary ant. "I was bored, so I got a few more pets."
He felt it was best to keep the Golden Emperor Ant's unusual qualities under wraps as much as possible.
Rare things were precious. If people found out his ant could talk, they might come to kill him and steal it. He couldn't afford to let his guard down.