What? You Think Guarding the Gate Is Easy?

Star Dou Great Forest.

Yan Buhui flew through the sky, watching the two underlings he had just subdued below. The Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape were racing toward the Qian Jun Ant Emperors' nest.

Meanwhile, the three Ant Emperor Qian Jun brothers still had to hunt and frantically improve their strength.

For the three Ant Emperor Qian Jun brothers, reaching an age of over ninety thousand years had depended on their ability to devour and evolve.

Originally, they had only been ordinary Qian Jun Ants capable of lifting ten thousand jin.

If Qian Jun Ants were high-level Soul Beasts, then Qian Jun Ant Emperors were top-level Soul Beasts!

Even Power Attack System Soul Masters like those with the Clear Sky Hammer did not dare provoke the Qian Jun Ant race lightly.

That was simply because of their enormous numbers and solidarity.

They were more united than any other kind of Soul Beast.

That, too, was what people praised about the Ant Emperor Qian Jun race.

It was also a trait they shared as ants.

United as one, their common purpose formed a fortress.

"How much farther?"

From the air, Yan Buhui called down to the two below.

"Just past this forest."

The Sky Azure Bull Python paused, then answered earnestly.

"You'd better not be lying to me. If you are, you'll die a miserable death..."

Yan Buhui gave a cold chuckle and spoke to the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape with a hint of threat.

"Of course, of course. How would we, your subordinates, dare lie to you? Lord Flame Emperor, you are the future of us Soul Beasts. What could a few little ants possibly amount to in your eyes?"

The Sky Azure Bull Python replied with a grin.

"Heh, don't go saying everything I wanted to say."

Yan Buhui was a little embarrassed. Only he could call them little ants.

Those two fellows, the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape, had nearly been beaten to a pulp by the others before. Now that they had grown bold and the tables had turned, they were calling the others little ants. They really had some nerve.

"Yes, yes."

The Sky Azure Bull Python nodded silently in agreement.

"Watch it next time!!"

Yan Buhui smiled calmly and flew straight over the forest.

A glance ahead revealed the sight.

It was an expanse of earth-yellow hills and muddy ground, with a huge ant nest at the center of the tallest peak.

"Is this the nest of the three Ant Emperor Qian Jun brothers?!"

Seeing it, Yan Buhui showed a hint of curiosity. Although it looked impregnable and impenetrable, and its defensive fortifications were quite well built,

it still fell far short of his own Phoenix Emperor Mountain, blazing with magma.

It was no comparison at all.

Phoenix Emperor Mountain was more than ten times better than this Qian Jun Ant nest!

Just as Yan Buhui finished marveling,

the Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python, his two high-level enforcers, caught up.

The Sky Azure Bull Python pointed at the nest Yan Buhui had just seen and added, "That's the place, Lord Flame Emperor."

"Big brother is right, Lord Flame Emperor. That's the place. Please give the order and let us serve you by storming it!"

Now that the Titan Giant Ape saw his big brother, the Sky Azure Bull Python, licking Yan Buhui's stinky feet, he could only try to curry favor with Yan Buhui.

And now he, too, had to learn to bow and scrape and flatter Yan Buhui, becoming a king of bootlickers who could always see clearly how his leader thought and made decisions!

That was what the Titan Giant Ape thought. When joining a Soul Beast enterprise overlord, he first had to analyze how much money his boss had, how much strength he had to keep going, and what he himself could gain if everything went under.

Hmm... that was worth considering, weighing the pros and cons.

But one thing was certain: the strength Yan Buhui had displayed so far made him a big boss with exceptionally deep reserves of strength, the ultimate boss.

Yan Buhui, however, said with complete confidence, "No need to trouble yourselves. I thought you two were already strange enough, but I didn't expect there to be three little ants in this world even dumber than you."

Hearing this, the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape were momentarily at a loss.

They didn't know whether it was praise or an insult.

For a moment, all they felt was intense awkwardness.

As the ground shook violently,

Yan Buhui, the Sky Azure Bull Python, and the Titan Giant Ape all sensed it.

It was the presence of the three Ant Emperor Qian Jun brothers.

They were coming this way.

Suddenly!

Rocks and soil burst upward, sending dust across the ground. Amid a flash of light, three Qian Jun Ant Emperors appeared, each about three meters long. Their roughly three-meter bodies were covered in hard, dark-golden carapaces, and they had six thick, powerful broken legs apiece. Atop each head, six eyes emitted a ghostly green light, making them look eerie and unsettling.

One look at them would make anyone unable to resist exclaiming that ants this enormous actually existed in the world!

Neither an ant king nor an ant queen looked as mighty as the Qian Jun Ant Emperors before them!

With such colossal bodies, no wonder they could take on Soul Beast overlords like the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape.

So they were mutant ants!

It went to show that even a tiny ant could have its spring and become the overlord of a region.

In the worlds of Soul Beasts and Soul Masters alike, one could not judge by appearances.

Yan Buhui stood calmly before the three Ant Emperor Qian Jun brothers and said, "This is our first meeting. Isn't it a little much to be so fierce?"

"Hiss!"

The eldest Ant Emperor Qian Jun stepped forward and shouted in the language of beasts at the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape, "You villains actually dared to come back!! This time you even brought a human. Do you think that'll make us three brothers afraid? Sky Azure Bull Python, Titan Giant Ape, you drove us three brothers to the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest. We haven't settled that score with you yet, and now you've delivered yourselves right to our door. Don't think you can contend with us just because you're Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts!"

"That's right, big brother. Those two Soul Beasts have gone too far," the second Ant Emperor Qian Jun agreed.

"Big brother, let's show them what's what. Let them see just how frightening the results of our three brothers' cultivation during this time really are!!" the third Ant Emperor Qian Jun likewise declared.

"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone."

Yan Buhui waved and called out, "Are you listening to me? Hear me out. How about all of you become my underlings?"

At that moment,

the eldest Ant Emperor Qian Jun noticed Yan Buhui standing nearby.

He saw that Yan Buhui had an extraordinary bearing and the features of an emperor. Why did this red-haired youth, young as he was, give off the presence of a Soul Beast overlord?

"What's this? A Soul Beast that has taken human form?!"

The eldest Ant Emperor Qian Jun came to his senses and asked himself in curiosity.

After all, it was extremely difficult for a Soul Beast to take human form.

Soul Beast Transformation required one to endure several heavenly lightning tribulations. A single mistake, a failure to evade the heavenly lightning, and one's body would die and one's Dao would perish, with a hundred thousand years of cultivation lost in an instant.

And the red-haired youth before him, whether in his speech or his bearing, radiated a certain pressure belonging to a Soul Beast overlord. It could even be said to far surpass that of the two Soul Beast overlords standing beside him, the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape.

That sense of pressure truly aroused the eldest Ant Emperor Qian Jun's suspicions.

Seventh update!