Published: August 28, 2025
Chapter 464: Crystal Refinement
“How many swarms of flying ants have we encountered since setting out?” Han Li gazed at the insect corpses on the ground and asked slowly.
“The seventh swarm! Although the ant swarms have appeared rather frequently lately, at least we haven’t run into any large swarms of over ten thousand ants!” Yuan Yao, standing beside Han Li, replied obediently.
It had now been half a day since the two of them had started their journey together.
Hearing her words, Han Li frowned slightly, his face growing somewhat gloomy, as if troubled by some secret worry.
After a moment’s thought, he waved to the golddevourer worms that had just swept the insect corpses away, and all the flying insects transformed into a dazzling cloud of light, returning to the spiritual beast pouch hovering in midair.
Han Li calmly stored the pouch away.
“What’s the matter? Daoist, your expression seems a bit displeased. We’ve already passed the most dangerous middle section of the desert. The road ahead should be much safer,” Yuan Yao said, blinking her beautiful eyes in puzzlement as she looked at Han Li’s face.
“Safe? Do you really think so?” Han Li glanced at Yuan Yao, a faint cold smile playing on his lips.
“Is there still some danger ahead?” Yuan Yao furrowed her brows unconvinced, asking in disbelief.
“I don’t know what dangers lie ahead. But one thing I’m certain of is that none of the swarms we’ve encountered so far contained an ant queen. Either there is only one queen in the entire desert, or we’ve just been lucky not to have met the few super swarms that do have queens yet. We should still be cautious on the road ahead. If we can travel another half day without incident, then it will truly be safe,” Han Li said calmly.
“Maybe you’re overthinking it! These flying ants are so strong; perhaps they simply don’t have queens at all!” Yuan Yao’s face turned pale at first, but after a moment, she forced a smile as if nothing was wrong.
“Hopefully!” Han Li didn’t argue further. Although he knew well that iron fire ants did have queen ants. While the queens weren’t especially powerful individually, their intelligence was said to be frighteningly high. Encountering one would definitely be extremely troublesome.
Due to these earlier words, the two remained silent during the next two hours of traveling.
But something even stranger happened: for the rest of the journey, they didn’t encounter a single ant swarm.
Now even Yuan Yao herself sensed that something was amiss, a faint unease showing on her face.
However, when the two of them inadvertently climbed a high sand dune and looked forward, they were stunned!
“This is...” Yuan Yao’s face was filled with horror, her red lips moving a few times but she couldn’t utter a word.
Han Li’s expression was somewhat more composed, but he was equally shocked.
Before the sand dune stood a solitary giant crystal pillar about twenty to thirty zhang high.
The pillar exuded an extreme chill, not only shimmering with a faint white light but also enclosing a black giant of equal height within.
The giant was hideously ugly, with fiery eyes wide open and a smooth bald head, motionless inside the crystal pillar. It was incredibly eerie!
Han Li stared for a moment, then his gaze swept to the nearby sand.
The ground was riddled with pits and holes of various sizes, as if a fierce battle had taken place.
A strange light flickered in Han Li’s eyes as he turned his attention back to the giant.
But this time, when he saw one of the giant’s eyeballs, he couldn’t help but let out a soft “Hmm.”
“Daoist Han, did you find something?” Yuan Yao asked, finally snapping out of her stupor.
Han Li smiled faintly but didn’t answer her question, instead narrowing his eyes and sending out his spiritual awareness.
After confirming there was no one else lurking nearby, he unexpectedly walked down the sand dune and strode toward the crystal pillar.
“Hmph!” Yuan Yao frowned in annoyance at Han Li’s mysterious behavior, but she could only follow.