Qin Shilei, still covered in a dense swarm of ants, emerged outside.
He once again unleashed lightning, electrocuting the ants on his body.
"Buzz buzz buzz!"
Before Qin Shilei could even breathe a sigh of relief, a rustling sound came from behind him.
Turning around, he saw the black ants swarming towards him from all directions behind.
Though their speed didn't seem fast, they were already within five meters of him in the blink of an eye.
Qin Shilei turned and ran. After a hundred meters, he looked back and saw the ants still stubbornly pursuing him.
A dark mass, like a black ocean, surged towards him.
While they weren't as fast as him, in the short time he'd turned, they had already closed to about twenty meters behind him.
"Still coming? Do they think I'm a sick cat just because I don't show my tiger's ferocity?"
A surge of anger rose in Qin Shilei's heart. He unleashed several lightning bolts, as thick as fingers, one after another.
The lightning flashed, blasting and killing countless ants, but the terrifying numbers of the swarm were like a drop in the ocean.
"If only I could unleash the Devouring Thunder, I wouldn't let you run rampant."
Qin Shilei turned and fled into the distance.
A single ant posed no threat.
Qin Shilei could have eliminated it with a casual sword strike.
Even with one or two thousand ants, Qin Shilei would have felt no fear.
But too many ants can indeed overwhelm a person!
Thunder Stab was his area-of-effect skill, but it was less effective against these ants than a regular lightning bolt.
He reviewed his skills. The most effective against these ants was Devouring Thunder.
However, this was not the异空间 (yì kōngjiān - alien space), and he couldn't unleash Devouring Thunder even with the help of the Thunder Spirit Pearl.
So, he had no choice but to temporarily retreat and figure out how to collect the grain from that granary.
Qin Shilei quickly put a thousand meters between himself and the granary. The swarm of flying ants behind him had also disappeared.
Just as he was about to find a place to rest and ponder how to deal with those ants, a group of people suddenly emerged from a corner ahead.
"You're not dead?" the scar-faced man exclaimed in surprise.
"Hmph, you'll be dead soon enough," Qin Shilei sneered.
What a coincidence, he had run into these scumbags again.
"No, master, my mouth is foul and I spoke carelessly. Please spare me."
The scar-faced man quickly pleaded for mercy, his eyes darting around, as if searching for an escape route.
"Even if you call me ancestor, it's useless. You will all die today."
Qin Shilei walked towards the group, step by step.
"Master, we don't seem to have offended you. Why the need to hunt us down to the bitter end?"
Seeing Qin Shilei drawing closer, the scar-faced man's heart sank into despair, hoping that words could make the other party spare him.
"Go ask the people you've harmed in hell," Qin Shilei said in a deep voice.
"If I die, you won't have an easy time either."
The scar-faced man shouted fiercely and suddenly threw something at Qin Shilei.
The object dispersed upon leaving his palm, covering an area of two square meters in front of him.
At this moment, Qin Shilei had just reached within a meter of the scar-faced man, his Blood Soul sword already slashing down.
Seeing a puff of powder rushing towards him, he quickly dodged aside, narrowly avoiding the powder from sticking to his eyes.
"What a treacherous fellow, using quicklime."
If it were anyone else, at such close range, facing ants he could easily crush, a moment of carelessness could lead to quicklime blinding them.
Qin Shilei put away his disdain and charged forward like a bolt of lightning.
Screams echoed, and the scar-faced man and his companions fell in pools of blood.
Adhering to the principle of not wasting a single bit, Qin Shilei collected all their spatial rings.
He then turned and entered a vacant house nearby.
Qin Shilei sat on the sofa, casually flipping through the spatial rings of the deceased, while pondering how to obtain the grain from the granary.
The granary was teeming with a massive number of ants. As soon as Qin Shilei entered to collect the grain, he would inevitably draw their attack.
And those ants seemed to have a countermeasure against energy shields.
The shield provided by his Golden Silk Soft Armor would shatter and disappear within a few minutes under the gnawing of countless ants.
The first method was to collect the grain as quickly as possible using his Qiankun Ring while the shield was active.
Then, before the shield vanished, he would use teleportation to leave, replenish his energy, and then re-enter to collect more grain.
Because collecting items with the Qiankun Ring took a very short time, and the grain was too abundant, coupled with the time needed to recover his energy.
It might take two to three days to collect all the grain here.
The second method was to kill all the ants inside and then leisurely collect the grain. This way, it would take less than half a day to collect everything.
However, the sheer number of ants was overwhelming. If he had to kill them one by one with his sword, he might die of exhaustion before killing them all.
Using fire would burn the grain inside.
"Can I lure all the ants out and then use fire?" Qin Shilei mused.
Those ants were extremely aggressive. The swarm that chased him earlier had pursued him for three to four hundred meters. Luring them out shouldn't be difficult.
Just as Qin Shilei was preparing to burn the ants, he suddenly took out a scroll from the scar-faced man's ring.
Contract Scroll (Green): Can be used to contract pets. Success rate varies with the strength difference between the two parties.
He hadn't expected that, despite their poor strength, the scar-faced man and his companions possessed a scroll for capturing pets.
Looking at the scroll, Qin Shilei's mind began to stir.
Were these ants led by an ant queen?
If he could subdue the ant queen with the Contract Scroll, could he indirectly control this swarm of man-eating ants?
Picturing himself waving his hand and a tide of man-eating ants instantly engulfing his enemies, Qin Shilei couldn't help but show a slight smile.
To contract the ant queen, he first needed to find her.
Qin Shilei returned to the granary base.
Before he could start searching for the ant queen, the rumbling sound of propellers suddenly came from overhead.
Looking up, he saw two helicopters slowly descending and landing not far away.
Lu Tiangang, along with several soldiers, jumped out of the helicopters.
When he saw Qin Shilei, Lu Tiangang was visibly taken aback, then walked over with a smile. "Brother Qin, what a coincidence."
Qin Shilei also nodded with a smile. "It is quite a coincidence. Are you also eyeing this granary?"
"What are you talking about?" someone behind Lu Tiangang said indignantly. "How can we be eyeing the granary? The grain here is national reserve material. We're retrieving our own property."
"Heh heh," Qin Shilei chuckled noncommittally.
"What are you chuckling at? This is our military's territory. Please leave quickly," the man said sternly.
"Li Feng, shut up! This is the top expert of Nanzhuang City. How can you speak to him like that?"
Lu Tiangang turned and glared at his subordinate, reprimanding him in a deep voice.
"He is Qin Shilei?"
Li Feng's expression changed. "This... I meant no offense, Mr. Qin, please forgive me."
Lu Tiangang also apologized with a smile. "My subordinate was rude. Brother Qin, please don't hold it against him."
Qin Shilei shook his head, saying casually, "It's fine. But you won't blame me for also eyeing this granary, will you?"
"How could we? There's so much grain here. Take whatever you want," Lu Tiangang said generously, waving his hand.
He secretly thought, "You're alone, how much can you possibly take?"