Wu Renxin's face darkened when he heard Lin Yi's words.
A flicker of anger crossed his eyes as he demanded:
"You guessed the way?"
"You were actually just guessing!?"
Lin Yi spread his hands helplessly on Wu Renxin's back and said:
"I've never been here either. The two passages looked exactly the same..."
"I could only guess which one was right."
Wu Renxin clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
But he took several deep breaths, forcibly suppressed his anger, and said in a low voice:
"Fine!"
"Then we'll go back. Take a good look this time, and don't guess wrong again!"
Lin Yi scratched his head and gave a slightly breezy smile:
"Of course!"
"There are only two paths. If this one's wrong, the other one has to be right!"
Violence flickered in Wu Renxin's eyes, but he said nothing, rose onto his tiptoes, and began retracing their steps.
After another trek of several hundred meters, they returned to the original fork.
By then, Wu Renxin had already lost a quarter of his HP!
Just as Wu Renxin was about to head left with Lin Yi on his back.
Lin Yi's eyes suddenly lit up, as though he had thought of a brilliant idea:
"Wait, Brother Renxin, I've got a great idea!" There was a hint of excitement in Lin Yi's voice.
Wu Renxin paused, the anger in his eyes not yet completely gone:
"What lousy idea is it this time?"
Lin Yi smiled faintly, took a few small glowing objects from his backpack, and said with a smile:
"These little things dropped from those bugs we killed earlier. We can use them to attract the ants' attention."
"That way, they'll gather around the objects, and we can take the opportunity to get through."
Wu Renxin was skeptical, but with no other options at the moment, he could only agree to try.
He took the glowing objects Lin Yi handed him and placed them in the passage on the right.
Sure enough, the ants were drawn to the light and began gathering around the objects.
The execution was perfect, and the number of ants blocking the left passage did indeed drop considerably.
With Lin Yi on his back, Wu Renxin carefully tiptoed forward.
But as he went deeper, the ants grew densely packed once more, making his scalp crawl.
"Do you have... any more of those glowing things?"
Wu Renxin asked, his eyes bloodshot and his breathing ragged.
Lin Yi spread his hands and grinned:
"Nope!"
"I didn't go out of my way to collect them, after all. Who knew they'd actually be useful!"
Wu Renxin took a deep breath, kept his mouth shut, and headed forward again.
Yet fate seemed to love playing tricks on people.
This time, he encountered five branching paths!
Five sinister cave openings stood in a row before them, inspiring a hint of despair.
Lin Yi looked at the five passages, a trace of slyness flashing in his eyes:
"Easy! We'll try them one at a time. We're bound to find the right one."
At those words, Wu Renxin began to lose his composure.
He turned his head and stared wide-eyed at Lin Yi, snapping:
"Are you kidding me? How long would that take?"
"Do you think I have that much HP!?"
Lin Yi secretly activated Eye of Illusion Breaking and discovered that Wu Renxin had only three-fifths of his HP left.
He patted Wu Renxin's shoulder and said with a smile:
"I know you're anxious, but don't be anxious just yet."
"I've thought of another good idea."
"Take off your beginner cloth trousers, light them with your burning stick, and toss them into the ants!"
"That would be an inanimate object damaging the ants, so presumably their damage won't transfer to you."
At those words, veins bulged on Wu Renxin's forehead. He clenched his right fist tightly and said through bared teeth:
"Why didn't you suggest that in the first place?"
Lin Yi smacked his forehead and said helplessly:
"I only just thought of it. After all..."
"This is my first time here!"
Wu Renxin said nothing more.
With a slight mental command, he held his beginner cloth trousers in his left hand and a burning stick in his right.
Hiss~
The flames ignited the beginner cloth trousers, and Wu Renxin tossed them into the swarm of ants to clear the area.
The fire spread rapidly, and the ants crackled as they burned.
But instead of scattering and fleeing, the ants flung themselves toward the source of the fire!
They swiftly broke the source of the fire into multiple encirclements, throwing themselves onto it layer after layer and quickly smothering the once-raging flames.
At the same time, however, a patch of scorched ground finally opened up around Wu Renxin.
The fire plan had worked unexpectedly well!
Wu Renxin finally planted both feet on the ground. His eyes were red and his face pale, and he looked somewhat hysterical:
"Why!"
"Why did I lose another huge chunk of HP!?"
"Huh???"
Lin Yi took the opportunity to jump off Wu Renxin's back, scratching his head and looking a little embarrassed:
"Looks like I guessed wrong again!"
"The system counted all the ants killed by the fire as your kills, Brother Renxin!"
"There's nothing I can do about it. I'm a newbie too, after all."
"But we've learned a little more than other people have!"
"That's progress! As long as we're making progress, our efforts weren't wasted!"
"Oh, Brother Renxin, these ants really stick together!"
"They weren't afraid of dying, and they put the fire out so quickly!"
Veins bulged on Wu Renxin's forehead as he glared wide-eyed at Lin Yi, who kept talking to himself.
But he suddenly remembered something, and a flash of terror crossed his face.
Ignoring the five openings ahead, he broke into a mad dash out of the Endless Ant Nest.
Lin Yi rubbed his chin, watching Wu Renxin's fleeing figure with interest:
"Not bad!"
"He's stupid, but not too stupid!"
Through Eye of Illusion Breaking, Lin Yi saw that Wu Renxin had less than thirty percent of his HP remaining!
If he went any farther, he might end up trapped in the Endless Ant Nest until he died!
His best option now was to leave, recover some HP, and then decide what to do.
What a shame!
If Wu Renxin were trapped in the Endless Ant Nest until he died, I could get his equipment for free and still maintain our friendship on the surface.
Looks like this thin facade is about to be torn apart!
Lin Yi shook his head to himself and strolled toward the exit of the Endless Ant Nest.
About ten minutes later, Lin Yi reached the entrance.
He shook off some ants crawling on him and looked at Wu Renxin, whose HP had already fully recovered.
Without his beginner cloth trousers, Wu Renxin stood in his boxers, looking in puzzlement at Lin Yi at the entrance:
"It takes at least six hundred thousand HP to walk out from there. You..."
Lin Yi held back his laughter, sighed softly, and said in a low voice:
"To tell you the truth, Brother Renxin, I have an innate skill..."
"It gives me a few minutes of invincibility every day!"
"I just used up today's time!"
A flash of delight appeared on Wu Renxin's face, but he quickly hid it and slowly approached Lin Yi:
"I just tried carrying a thousand-jin boulder on my back, and it wasn't all that heavy."
"Uh... what I mean is..."
"I was a little impatient earlier and forgot to look after you, Brother Lin Yi."
"Let's go in again. We'll definitely find the boss this time!"
Lin Yi stared blankly at Wu Renxin and said with a little surprise:
"Oh, so you wanted to find the boss, Brother Renxin!"
"Why didn't you say so!"
Smack!
Lin Yi clenched his hand into a fist and lightly knocked three times on the entrance to the Endless Ant Nest.
Whoosh!
The wall beside the entrance slowly moved!
Behind the wall, a teleportation array shaped like a blue vortex appeared before them!
Ignoring the dumbstruck Wu Renxin, Lin Yi scratched his head and said sheepishly:
"I spotted this teleportation array as soon as we came in. I guessed the boss was probably hiding inside."
"When you mentioned secret doors earlier, I said there couldn't be that many!"
"There's only one secret door, right here at the entrance!"