Qin Shilei glanced at the helicopter behind them and asked, "You're not planning to transport grain by helicopter, are you?"
Lu Tiangang hesitated and replied, "Of course not. How much grain can a helicopter carry?"
Qin Shilei asked thoughtfully, "Do you have large-capacity spatial equipment, or has someone opened up a large-capacity sub-space?"
"Uh," Lu Tiangang stammered, "we just happened to acquire a spatial ring with a slightly larger capacity."
After saying that, he looked at Qin Shilei warily, as if afraid he might try to snatch it.
"Oh, a very enviable piece of equipment. I wonder how big it is?"
Qin Shilei, however, was thinking about when he could get some large-capacity spatial rings for An Qian and the others.
"It's not big, not big at all. It's about the size of a small truck's cargo bed, only a little over ten cubic meters."
Although Lu Tiangang said it wasn't big, his expression was full of pride.
When everyone else's spatial rings were only 0.1 cubic meters, he felt quite pleased to have one that was over ten cubic meters.
"You're not thinking of using this space to transport grain back and forth, are you? That would be too dangerous!" Qin Shilei asked.
Not long ago, he had personally witnessed a helicopter crash and kill its occupants due to a flock of small birds.
"Hesh an District is really short of grain right now. We have no choice but to do it this way, even if it's dangerous," Lu Tiangang explained with a frown.
"Actually, the danger isn't just in the round trip. The danger inside the granary is even greater."
Qin Shilei thought for a moment and then informed the other party that there were a large number of ants in the granary.
After speaking, he turned and walked into the granary, preparing to find the queen ant.
"Commander, should we go in now?" Li Feng asked.
"Let's go. Just be careful, everyone. If anything goes wrong, retreat immediately," Lu Tiangang reiterated.
"Commander, you're being too cautious. They're just ants. We can crush hundreds with a single step." Li Feng seemed dismissive.
"If Qin Shilei warned us, it must not be simple. Everyone should still be careful," Lu Tiangang said.
"He just said 'large number.' The quantity is probably not small. It's best to be cautious," another soldier chimed in.
"What's so great about a tiny ant? Even tens of thousands wouldn't be enough for me to step on," Li Feng muttered under his breath.
However, the moment he stepped into the granary, his dismissiveness turned into deep fear.
That "large number" was a bit too large.
Everywhere he looked, there was a sea of black ants.
The number must have been tens of millions.
"Run!" Lu Tiangang grabbed the still-stunned Li Feng and turned to run outside.
"Ah." The last person running let out a scream and was instantly swallowed by the ants.
That person, covered in a thick layer of ants, continued to run forward for another seven or eight steps, then stopped and flailed for a moment before falling to the ground.
Lu Tiangang heard the scream, glanced back, and saw the man collapse.
Knowing his comrade was beyond saving, he continued running towards the helicopter.
"Start it up quickly," Lu Tiangang shouted at the pilot as he ran.
Only after Lu Tiangang and the others boarded the helicopter and took off did their fear slowly subside.
"Look, Little Five has been gnawed down to just bones."
A soldier pointed sadly at a spot not far from the warehouse.
Li Feng looked down at the warehouse and was filled with lingering fear.
If Lu Tiangang hadn't pulled him back, he might have ended up as a skeleton himself.
"Do you think Qin Shilei was eaten by the ants too?" the soldier asked.
"No, he knew there were ants and still dared to go in. He must have a way to deal with them," Lu Tiangang replied, shaking his head.
"Didn't you say he wasn't even afraid of artillery shells? He definitely wouldn't be afraid of these ants," Li Feng added.
Although Li Feng and the others had full confidence in Qin Shilei, Qin Shilei was actually in a bit of trouble at this moment.
As soon as he entered the warehouse, he had been moving around, hoping to find the queen ant.
However, apart from discovering an ant hole at the very back, he had no success.
The floor, which was originally hard tile, had been dug out by the ants to create a hole more than a meter in diameter.
Countless black ants were now emerging from it.
At this point, Qin Shilei was already covered in ants.
He casually unleashed a few lightning bolts to electrocute them.
But soon, he was covered in ants again.
Qin Shilei approached the hole and peered down.
He saw that the ant hole snaked its way down into the unknown. The further down it went, the smaller it became, with many branches. It was impossible for a person to go down.
Suddenly, he noticed dozens of ants as large as his arm crawling out from below.
"Could the queen ant be coming out?"
Qin Shilei's heart leaped with joy. He retreated a bit to avoid startling the queen ant.
However, before the queen ant appeared, those dozens of giant ants charged at him aggressively.
Qin Shilei again unleashed lightning to clear the ants on his body, then drew his Blood Soul and slashed at the giant ants.
Clang!
With a single strike, it was like hacking at steel.
Despite the sharpness of the Blood Soul, Qin Shilei couldn't sever the giant ant's head with one sword.
He struck again, and only then did he finally cleave the ant's head.
These giant ants were at least dozens of times stronger than ordinary ants, reaching about plastic level eight or nine stars.
He didn't know how many of these giant ants there were. Twenty to thirty had already crawled out, and more were continuously emerging.
Qin Shilei teleported to a beam on the warehouse ceiling.
He waited for a while. The queen ant didn't show up, but the ants began to crawl towards him along the walls and beams.
Qin Shilei had no choice but to use two consecutive teleports to leave the warehouse.
He summoned Little Qiang and flew into the sky, absorbing crystal cores to restore his vital energy while observing below.
Because of their actions, a large number of ants had crawled out of the ant hole.
Looking down, the ground, the walls, and the roof were a black expanse, all of them ants.
It was enough to make one's scalp tingle and their heart tremble.
Once his vital energy had mostly recovered, Qin Shilei turned and headed for the other warehouses.
Each warehouse also contained a massive number of ants and an ant-excavated hole.
These holes were likely interconnected.
Qin Shilei circled in the air for a while but never saw the queen ant appear.
Lu Tiangang and his men hovered tens of meters above the granary.
Perhaps because of the loud noise of the propellers, the ants below did not return to their holes.
"Since you won't come out, I'll force you out."
Qin Shilei had Little Qiang fly low over the ant swarm on the ground, while he took out a large bucket of gasoline and sprinkled it on the ground.
To avoid burning the grain inside the warehouses, he intentionally sprinkled the gasoline away from the buildings.
After he had sprinkled a large area with gasoline, he casually took out a few tissues, lit them, and threw them down.
The tissues instantly ignited the gasoline on the ground, and flames shot up into the sky.
A smell of roasted meat wafted up. The ants that were ignited scattered in panic, but they didn't get far before they were scorched to death on the ground.
As for the ants that were not burned, they retreated into the warehouse like a tide.
Qin Shilei descended to the ground again, holding two torches, and walked into the warehouse.
As he had expected, after being burned once, the ants inside the warehouse saw Qin Shilei holding torches and did not swarm him as they had the previous two times.