The long-eared woman did not answer him.
She stared at Su Li for three seconds, then her gaze fell on the giant ant corpse at his feet. Her eyes swept over where the broken sword had entered and paused there.
Su Li noticed what she was looking at.
Where the sword had struck. The seam between the head carapace and the back carapace. The giant ants of this world had incredibly hard back armor; even smashing straight into it might not leave a white mark. Their only weakness was the membranous structure at the joints. It had taken him three tries yesterday to figure out that pattern.
A stranger who could not understand a word of the local language had hit the weakness with his very first strike.
If he were on the other side, he would have had second thoughts too.
The long-eared woman extended her left hand, palm down, and pressed it downward twice. Then she pointed at the broken sword in Su Li's hand and gestured for him to put it down. Finally, she pointed two fingers at the ground and made a motion for him to step back.
Put down your weapon. Take two steps back.
Su Li did as she said.
He planted the broken sword in the ground and let go. He took two steps back. On the third, his heel landed on a branch with a sharp crack. The human youth raised his crossbow another half inch, and Su Li immediately stopped.
The stocky one approached first.
He circled around the giant ant's corpse and crouched to inspect where the broken sword had cut through. He used his thick, stubby fingers to measure the width of the gash, then tugged at the edge of the shell to test its hardness.
Then he looked