Two eerie green vertical pupils drew closer through the darkness. Heavy footsteps sounded, accompanied by the scrape of scales against stone. The figure emerged step by step from the shadows deep in the passage, and when it entered the white light cast by the compass, its full form finally came into view.
Meng Xinghe's pupils contracted. "How is that possible!"
Li Bufan's gaze locked on the figure too. It was a giant ant, black from head to toe and more than ten feet long, with six thick, jointed legs planted on the ground like iron pillars.
A glossy black carapace covered its body. Faint silver-white light shone through the seams, casting a weak glow in the dark underground chamber and making the giant ant look all the more eerie.
Its head made up nearly a third of its body. Two enormous mandibles curved beside its mouth like black scimitars, their inner edges packed with serrations. The pair of eerie green compound eyes atop its head stared fixedly at them.
Something about the giant ant's outline looked familiar to Li Bufan. He felt as though he had seen it somewhere before... but he could not be sure yet.
Meng Xinghe demanded, "Where did you come from? There's no way your kind lives in the sea!"
The giant ant's mandibles opened and closed slightly as it laughed. "True, not in the sea. But who says we don't live on land?"
The more Li Bufan looked at the Ant, the stronger that sense of familiarity grew.
As Li Bufan pondered its origins, the giant Ant raised its two forelegs and rubbed them together, striking a string of sparks from their sharp edges. "Two mere Golden Core Realm humans. Now that you're here, you won't be leaving."
Before it had finished speaking, it lunged.