The Great Army

Rowan decided that no matter what, he had to suppress his curiosity this time and firmly refuse to go watch the commotion. He had already been "sent away, a thousand miles away" last time, and with his sense of crisis being this intense, who knew what kind of trouble would stir up if he went out.

Five minutes later, Rowan carefully crawled toward the surface.

Regarding this, he didn't want to explain anything; he could only say that his curiosity was too powerful, and he hadn't been able to overcome it.

But just as he crawled close to the transit station above, he discovered that it had been invaded. The sound of dense, swarming unknown creatures crawling through the tunnels was sensed by the fine hairs on his body.

Could it be an invasion from the Insect Nest? He thought about it, but felt it was impossible. He went undercover there every day to transport food; if they had any major movements, he wouldn't have failed to notice. Moreover, given the intelligence of the Black Ants, it was unlikely they could act in front of him to the point of deceiving and paralyzing him.

It seemed these were foreign species, and Rowan inexplicably thought of the Yellow Earth Ants he had encountered this evening, his heart tightening.

He had to poke his head out to take a look; otherwise, he would be too passive if he didn't even know what the enemy was.

Rowan carefully made an opening in the tunnel connecting to the transit station and looked inside. It was truly a dense mass of Yellow Earth Ants. Could they be here for revenge?

That couldn't be it, right? He had only slaughtered seven scouting worker ants. Was it worth sending a massive army to suppress the border? Could there have been some important figure among those seven scouts? Like a prince or princess of some great ant empire? Damn it, if that were the case, it would be too melodramatic. Compared to that, Rowan still felt the probability of this being a coincidence was much higher.

However, regardless of the reason, the enemy was too powerful to provoke for the time being. There were hundreds of Yellow Earth Ants in the transit station alone, but compared to the vibrations coming from the surface further up, these were only a tiny fraction.

Rowan guessed that there must be at least tens of thousands of Yellow Earth Ants on the surface to cause such intense vibrations; otherwise, if only a few hundred were passing by, he wouldn't even be able to feel the tremors deep underground.

Without attracting the attention of the Yellow Earth Ants in the tunnel, Rowan quietly retracted his head.

It was fortunate that the original intention behind building the transit station was to serve as a decoy, a fake nest.

Because connecting directly to the Insect Nest carried a certain level of danger—in case he slipped up and was discovered by the Insect Nest, they might follow the tunnel back. If the tunnel connected directly to the Insect Nest, he would be in constant danger and extremely passive.

Therefore, he had built this fake nest above the Insect Nest. Aside from serving as a food transit point, it also provided a certain level of deception.

Every night, after the Transport Team and Excavation Team outside returned, all traces of the tunnel connecting the Insect Nest and the transit station would be destroyed and then backfilled.

If any nest wanted to launch a sneak attack, they would absolutely never find the location of the Insect Nest by simply following the tunnel. If they kept investigating, they might end up hitting another nest instead.

This tactic was called "diverting the disaster." Now, the role that might have served as the "disaster" had changed, but the "diversion" could still function. Rowan could only pray that the Insect Nest would be able to withstand the invasion of the Yellow Earth Ants; otherwise, he would have to find a new granary.

Returning to the Insect Nest, Rowan had no heart to sleep and focused all his senses on the movements above. Fortunately, the numerous vibrations were far away from him, and the Yellow Earth Ants had not discovered the hidden Insect Nest below.

The vibrations from above lasted for a very, very long time, until Rowan felt somewhat numb.

If the Yellow Earth Ants weren't putting on a show and were constantly rubbing back and forth above the Insect Nest, it meant their numbers were quite vast—hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions.

Rowan felt they weren't putting on a show. Firstly, there was no need, and secondly, he could feel that the vibrations were always moving from one end to the other, indicating that the Yellow Earth Ants were moving in a single direction without any signs of returning.

He felt he had underestimated them. Even he, who could take out seven Yellow Earth Ants in a minute, would be instantly submerged by the army if he appeared on the surface, unable to stir up even a ripple.

Therefore, Rowan very "wisely" commanded the many insects in the nest to stop all work, rest in place, and not make a single sound.

In the dark cave, the insects were like machines with their power pulled; they all remained silent. While this made the place even quieter, it also made the vibrations and friction sounds from above even clearer.

Rowan couldn't imagine how massive a nest must be and how abundant the resources must be to support such a vast ant army. Rowan felt a bit lucky that the insects didn't have the capacity for fear; otherwise, they probably would have had a mental breakdown long ago.

Time passed, and the vibrations above gradually ceased. The ant army had finally passed through this area entirely. But Rowan still remained quiet, waiting for them to move further away.

After a long time had passed, Rowan finally climbed up. The ant army should have truly moved far away; his tiny Insect Nest wasn't worth them pulling a "U-turn" maneuver.

Although he already had his guesses, he still carefully crept upward. He first arrived near the transit station; there were still some sporadic movements inside, possibly some Yellow Earth Ants that hadn't kept up with the main force and were trapped inside.

Rowan didn't go in to check. He bypassed the transit station and continued upward, quietly drilling out of the ground.

The temperature difference between day and night in this region wasn't as extreme as it had been in the desert; there was no frost at night, but the temperature was still very low. The two cold light sources in the sky shrouded the earth in a hazy light and shadow.

In his field of vision, the earth looked as if it had been plowed by something. The Yellow Earth Ant army had fully interpreted what it meant for an army to pass through—not a blade of grass remained. The vegetation that had been considered dense here, aside from some thick trees, had all disappeared.

Looking at it, it felt as if the sky had been raised by three feet.

The desolate scene almost made Rowan think he had returned to the desert.

A few Yellow Earth Ants were still lingering in the distance, as if looking for something. Their eyesight was poor, and they didn't discover Rowan. However, even if they had, their numbers alone couldn't cause Rowan any harm now.

After scanning the surroundings a few times, Rowan didn't stay on the surface long. He turned back to the transit station and dealt with the trapped Yellow Earth Ants one by one, then crawled toward Ant Nest No. 1.

The sporadic Yellow Earth Ants on the road couldn't cause him any trouble; they couldn't even slow him down.

Although their individual strength was not worth mentioning to the current Rowan, once their numbers crossed a certain threshold, Rowan would only have the option to flee.

This experience made him truly understand the power of an insect swarm, but he scoffed at it; this method of relying purely on numbers to crush others had no tactics to speak of.

In terms of technique, it was far inferior to his Rowan's Combat Technique.

Just as he thought this, for some reason, his mouth suddenly secreted quite a bit of formic acid. Could it be because he had eaten too many ants?