Published: August 28, 2025
Chapter 460: Iron Fire Ants
The hurricane suddenly stopped, revealing the yellow-faced man inside.
He stood there dazed, the ice shield and green protective barrier completely gone. On his chest, where his heart was, there was a transparent hole about the size of a fist. The surrounding area was blackened and charred, as if it had been scorched by some intense heat.
The man looked down at his chest and instinctively touched the wound with his hand, a look of shock and disbelief on his face.
At that moment, the black spear emitted a sizzling sound and suddenly transformed back into a swarm of dark flying ants. Without any mercy, they surged toward the man, knocking him to the ground and instantly covering his entire body.
The man only let out a few miserable screams before falling silent.
After a while, the swarm suddenly flew up into the air, returning to their original spot and settling back into indistinguishable black sand grains.
Where the man had collapsed, there was nothing left ā the ants had devoured him completely.
From the mountaintop, Han Li watched the entire scene clearly.
Though shocked, his expression grew strangely thoughtful.
āIron Fire Ants! It must be them. I never thought Iād actually see such exotic insects here,ā Han Li muttered quietly to himself.
When the flying ants first appeared, Han Li hadnāt yet recognized their origin.
But when they didnāt fear the yellow-faced cultivatorās throwing knife magical artifact attacks, and finally combined into a spear, he realized these were the infamous Iron Fire Ants.
After all, flying ant-type exotic insects arenāt rare in the immortal cultivation world, and most look nearly identical. Unless a cultivator specializes in insect-repelling techniques, they canāt distinguish between them.
In reality, though, the abilities and dangers of different flying ant species vary drastically.
Weak swarms can be easily wiped out by qi refining stage cultivators using ordinary magical artifacts.
Stronger swarms cause core formation stage cultivators to frown deeply and keep their distance.
The Iron Fire Ants, ranked thirty-seventh on the Exotic Insect list, are among the most powerful flying ants.
Aside from the legendary Tian Jing Ant, ranked ninth, the Iron Fire Ants are likely the most fearsome.
These ants are not only immune to blades and spears, but also resistant to most magical attacks.
Only mid-level or above water and ice attribute spells, as well as a few select other spells, can harm them. Their defense rivals that of the golddevourer worms, and they surpass them in resisting direct magical treasure attacks.
Of course, they lack the golddevourer wormsā bizarre ability to devour spiritual power, but compensate with the terrifying ability to spew black flames and combine into various shapes in groups.
With such abilities, the Iron Fire Ant swarm is essentially a fire-attribute magical treasure capable of shape-shifting at will.
Thanks to their ferocious attacks, ordinary defensive magical treasures and spells canāt hold back their full assault.
The yellow-faced manās tragic death was hardly undeserved!
Although not extinct like the golddevourer worms, Iron Fire Ants are extremely rare in the immortal cultivation world.
Even when seen, their numbers rarely exceed a few hundred or a thousand.
This is due to their harsh living conditions.
They require burning lava zones and abundant copper and iron ore nearby to survive.
If removed from such an environment, they quickly weaken, and their special abilities deteriorate rapidly, making them little different from ordinary flying ants.
If that were the only issue, many cultivators could still use them.
Creating or finding similar environments to breed and tame them wouldnāt be difficult, considering their allure.
But Iron Fire Ants have a fatal limitation that keeps cultivators away.
Neither wild nor tamed ants can be bound to a master.
Whenever someone attempts a binding ritual, the ants self-destruct one by one without exception.
This shattered many cultivatorsā dreams.