Celestial Emperor of Shadow

We wanted to delve in and save them, but the Ant Hole was in chaos. There were countless Fire Red Ants around and we were instead trapped there."

"I'm their boss, so I'm most clear on this. It was a desperate situation then, so I decided to get out of the Ant Hole and return to the surface." Fatty Hai acted as if he was the boss.

"When we came out, we found out that the mercenaries had all gone crazy. They were killing every single person within their sight!" Li Qie talked about the horrific scene that unfolded that time.

"After that, we were embroiled in battle as well. But luckily, we found a crevice and hid in there." Li Ge nodded his head.

"After that, we were embroiled in battle as well. But luckily, we found a crevice and hid in there." Li Ge nodded his head.

"After that, what happened?" It was not that the Old General Ma did not trust what they said, but he felt that they were only scratching the surface. The one person who knew the truth would probably still be this masked lad who had not spoken a single word. He believed that he was the leader and the true boss of this party.

"I didn't leave the Ant Hole, so I was not clear on how the battle outside happened." Yue Yang felt that if he did not say anything, he would be unable to hide the truth from this Old General Ma, who seemed rough on the surface but had an extremely cautious mind. Obviously, Yue Yang would not speak of the battle between him and the Marquis of Zi Jin. However, he told him what happened in the Ant Hole that time. "I entered the Ant Nest and found that the thousands of ants were in chaos. On the second floor of the Ant Nest, countless mercenaries and Fire Red Ants were fighting each other. Some of the mercenaries even killed their own kind... Those mercenaries who had the Golden Ant Eggs were trapped on top of a platform. The situation was really desperate. Being an upright human, I went forward to assist them and gave them teleportation scrolls. Not only that, I opened a path for them and escorted those mercenaries into the Ant Tunnel... Their leader was called Zhong Hao. If you find him, then you will be able to prove that what I said was the truth."

Yue Yang tried to probe and see if that mercenary group's Zhong Hao was still alive.

He was 90% sure that Zhong Hao had died.

This was because if Zhong Hao was still alive, then the Old General Ma would know that he had obtained the Hard-shelled Dragon Fruits. He wouldn't ask about the matter of the Golden Ant Eggs, much less of not being clear on why the mercenaries went crazy.

Old General Ma confirmed it. "There was indeed someone called Zhong Hao before. He had managed to escaped to Hope Town and sought refuge from our garrison. But, there was an attack carried out by some thugs shortly after. All of the soldier from the garrison died in battle. Zhong Hao and his companions were captured as prisoners by the enemy. Following that, a battle broke out between them. All of the mercenaries seemed to know about the matter regarding the Golden Ant Eggs, and started to kill everyone on sight... However, I suspect that the enemy released some kind of poison that would make people crazy. Otherwise, the mercenaries would not completely lose their sanity just for the Golden Ant Eggs. Something more suspicious was that the space of Hope Town and the Settlement Camp seemed to be disturbed by some kind of Artifact*, and so people were unable to teleport out. There were very few people who managed to flee... Little student, could you talk about the meteor explosions?"

(Shiro: *Artifact was translated as Sacred Item before because lack of better words)

He felt that Yue Yang's party was definitely related to the meteor explosions. Perhaps the enemy had found a few more survivors who had great power, and so they decided to summon meteors to rain down upon them.

In order to cover up for the matters regarding the Hard-shelled Dragon Fruit, the Marquis of Zi Jin, Grandma Chi and the Medicine Encyclopedia, he decided to tell Old General Ma about the last battle to divert his attention.

(Shiro: I think I forgot to explain this in previous chapters. Grandma Chi = Lake Grandma. Not sure if that is her name or her nickname. I'm gonna leave it as Grandma Chi for now.)

Using a calm tone, he described the battle. "At that time, I had killed my way out of the Ant Nest that was packed with thousands of ants. When I was outside, I realised that my companions had been surrounded by the enemies. There were even two Level 5 [Grandmasters] and a Level 6 [Elder] amongst the enemies. They hid themselves in the group and rallied the mercenaries to surround and attack my companions. After that, when I came back, I found out that they had summoned a Jungle Boa, a Bronze-skinned Lion and a Metal-bone Leopard. Not only that, they summoned a Gargantuan Mammoth to attack us as well. After a bitter fight, the Level 6 [Elder] hidden within the crowd even summoned five meteors. I took risks and dispelled his summons. Finally, the meteors backfired and were directed towards him. As a result, even the mountain peak was destroyed, and we got knocked out from the impact. When we came to afterwards, the enemies had already been rescued by their companions in the air... There were many flying beasts in the sky, at least two hundred people, who left after the meteors struck the valley."

"Could you tell us how that [Elder] who summoned the meteors looked like?" Old General Ma furrowed his eyebrows.

He could hear that although this young lad had described everything quite simply.