Chapter 002: The Ant Tribe

As Count Wade finished speaking, Hua Musi and Ulbas let out strange cries and swiftly unleashed two beams of energy, pulling out two subterranean creatures from not far away—one of Ulbas’s subordinates and the other of Hua Musi’s.
Seeing the presence of these two leaders, the confused men quickly knelt down, waiting for orders.
Witnessing this, Count Wade and Randy also understood Hua Musi and Ulbas’s intentions. If nothing went wrong, Du Fan and his group must have reached the underground world by now.
“Hmph,” Ulbas snorted coldly, speaking to his tribesmen in a detached tone, “What’s going on? Have Du Fan’s men caught up?”
“Yes,” replied the night elves on the ground, breathing heavily as they looked up at their leader Ulbas with utmost respect. “Du Fan and his five men have already entered the underground world.”
“Oh?” Hearing this, Count Wade murmured thoughtfully, “I never thought Du Fan would actually dare to enter the underground world. If this is true, I’ll teach him a harsh lesson this time, so he knows there are always those stronger than him!”
“Yes,” Ulbas replied to Count Wade before turning to his subordinates and ordering, “You have half an hour to gather the best night elves and lay ambushes around Du Fan. Wait for my command.”
“You have half an hour to station our tribesmen throughout the ten-mile radius around Du Fan, working together with the night elves to kill him and his men in one strike,” Hua Musi also began giving orders to his subordinates.
The night elves and the spiderfolk had lived in the underground world for generations. If not for the wars on the surface led by Count Wade, neither race would be able to leave the underground world so easily. Yet, having survived there for so long and adapted to everything about it, these two races thrived in the underground world, likely even more powerful than those on the surface.

Hearing the commands from Ulbas and Huamusi beside him, Count Wade finally nodded in great satisfaction. At that moment, looking at Randy beside him, he said jokingly, “Son, I think with just these two races, the chances of defeating people like Du Fan are not very high. Go and give it a try.”
“Yes, Father.” Randy stood up then, touched his blue armor, looked ahead with great confidence, and vanished from sight in an instant.
The Green-Faced Wolf was originally one of the fastest creatures in the underground world. When it came to the continent, however, it was somewhat hindered by the various elements in the air. But when Randy wore the Green-Faced Wolf armor and returned to the underground world, its speed truly returned to that of a level-9 magical beast.
“Heh.” Count Wade sneered at that moment, staring in the direction Randy had gone, and said with a fierce expression, “Du Fan, this time I’ll show you what death really is.”
……
“Du Fan,” Rob looked at Du Fan in front of him with surprise and said softly, “Weren’t you saying there are many magical beasts in the underground world? Why haven’t I seen any yet?”
“Well…” Hearing Rob’s voice, Du Fan stopped in frustration and said, “We’ve just entered the underground world—how could there be any magical beasts here? But the deeper we go, the stronger the magical beasts will be. If we’re lucky, we might encounter a realm-level magical beast. Then, depending on whose attributes match those of the beast, that beast will belong to them.”
Hearing Du Fan’s words, the powerful ones present couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise and secretly rejoiced. Du Fan’s words meant that everyone there had a chance to obtain the armor. After all, realm masters had no resistance to magical elements, and with the power of their realms, they could easily possess any kind of magical beast.
“By the way,” Basha stopped in confusion and asked Du Fan ahead, “There must be some rare ores in the underground world, right? If so, I want to collect some to take back.”

After Basha finished speaking, a few shameless individuals took out a bag full of storage rings. These rings had been hastily crafted by the dwarves throughout the night just for Basha’s entry into the underground world. The space within them was likely no less extensive than that of divine artifacts. Given the large number of these rings, if they were actually used to transport things, the ores in the underground world might be completely exhausted by Basha.

Watching Basha’s actions, everyone helplessly wiped the sweat from their brows. Their real goal this time wasn’t to besiege Count Wadeber, but to find realm-level magical beasts in the underground world to use in crafting armor. Additionally, as long as their strength wasn’t too poor, they would bring back many low-level magical beasts to use in making armor for the dwarves, elves, and blue-blooded races under their command.

The armor worn by Count Wadeber and its usage method had truly shocked everyone. At this moment, Du Fan keenly realized that if they turned those magical beasts into armor for their own races to wear, the strength of these rare races could double in a short time.

The Black Panther Knight Corps and the Elf Griffon Corps were both Du Fan’s original teams. However, unlike the blue-blooded races, these two factions were slightly inferior in both combat strength and defense. If Mingwei suddenly turned the situation around, Du Fan’s strength would be sufficient to hold back the attack, but it would mean losing many elite warriors.

“Ahem.” Du Fan cleared his throat and, looking at the entrance ahead, said in an extremely excited tone, “This is the entrance to the underground world. What awaits us now are the challenges posed by its creatures. Everyone, get ready!”

As soon as Du Fan finished speaking, the five powerful individuals stepped through the entrance at the same time and gradually disappeared…

…

“Good heavens.” As soon as Rob entered the underground world, he was stunned. At the entrance, thousands of red-haired ants were slowly crawling on the ground, pushing aside the soil and rolling clumps of mud the size of thumbs, pushing them forward.

These red-haired ants were the weakest magical beasts among the underground ant races. The ant races in the underground world were divided into three factions: the strongest were the golden ants, followed by the black soldier ants, with the red-haired ants being the weakest, as seen by Du Fan and the others.

“Let’s fly above.” At this moment, Du Fan rose into the air along with the five people behind him. The dominance of a realm powerhouse became evident then. Gently holding Naixiu by the waist, Du Fan said, “Look, there are red-haired ants on the ground. It seems they’re doing something.”
“Mm,” Naixiu nodded, her face showing slight shyness as she said, “If I’m not wrong, they’re probably making a model for the golden ants’ nest. That’s the first step. Next, the black soldier ants will reinforce the nest, and finally, the golden ants will move in.”
“Hm?” Bashaa pointed curiously at the object emitting golden light and asked, “Third brother, what is that thing glowing with gold? I feel there’s a lot of energy inside it.”
“You mean that?” Du Fan also looked at the glowing object and replied with a faint smile, “These are the energies produced when red ants swallow mud and then spit it out. This step is the most important. After that, the black soldier ants will use this energized mud to build the nest. Such a nest not only has strong defensive capabilities but also provides great comfort for the golden ants living inside. Second brother, don’t move…”
After Du Fan finished explaining slowly, Bashaa suddenly took off and flew toward the nest. Though it was just for a moment, none of Du Fan’s group managed to stop him.
“Boom!” Bashaa landed steadily on the ground. His storage ring flashed, and all the golden mud disappeared instantly. At that moment, all the red-haired ants stopped and stared at Bashaa.
“Second brother, come back quickly!” Du Fan called out helplessly, waving his hand to cast a defensive spell on Bashaa to protect him from the red-haired ants.
By this point, the situation had gone beyond Du Fan’s expectations. Suddenly, four transparent wings grew strangely on the backs of all the red-haired ants, which flew toward Bashaa. Their two finger-long fangs began gnawing at the restrictions Du Fan had set. In just a few breaths, the barriers created by this realm powerhouse were completely destroyed.
With a buzzing sound, thousands of red-haired ants took off, flapping their wings. Their targets were not only Bashaa but also Du Fan and the others.

“Damn it.” Du Fan waved his hand in frustration, unleashing the power of his domain and sending it at the thousands of red-haired ants in front of him. The ants hit by the energy emitted crackling sounds before falling to the ground. Du Fan’s move failed to suppress the ants’ attack; instead, it only intensified their hatred. Soon, tens of thousands of ants united into a single force and charged toward Du Fan’s position.

“Absolute Defense!” In desperation, Du Fan activated his second domain ability—Absolute Defense. As soon as it was deployed, thousands of ants collided with it and perished instantly. Feeling the increasing number of ants hitting the domain, everyone finally realized the terrifying nature of these lowest-tier magical beasts. Were they afraid of death? Of course not. From the current situation, it was clear that it wouldn’t take long for all these ants to die after crashing into Du Fan’s domain. The powerful warriors present couldn’t help but feel a sense of solemnity. Who would have thought that the magical beasts living at the bottom of the underground world would rather perish entirely than yield an inch to protect their dignity?

“What should we do?” Nayixiu also grew anxious. Looking at Du Fan beside her, she asked tremblingly, “Should we ask Second Brother to return those energy clays to the ants? Otherwise, this race might completely disappear from our hands.”