Chapter 1639 - 1691: Slaughter
The two of them kept walking back, and a few minutes later, they discovered the traces of those giant army ants. A gap separated the rainforest; one side still retained the appearance of the rainforest, while the other side looked as if it had been plowed over. As far as the eye could see, there were white bones of various large and small animals, all of which had just been treated as food with not a trace of blood left on them, only finely detailed bite marks remained.
Horrifying! Only this word can describe the scene before them. Wherever these ants, several times larger than ordinary army ants, passed, it could only be described as terrifying. If the two had been just ordinary people, they would probably have been doomed moments ago.
These creatures weren’t without damage either; many army ants remained on site. Some were stuck in the mud, some were damaged in battle, some had died, and some were still struggling.
Li Yifei picked up a stick as thick as a toothpick and extended it in front of a mud-stuck ant. The giant ant immediately clamped the stick with its pincers, snapping it with a click, a testament to its incredible strength, explaining why these creatures were so destructive.
Li Yifei placed one foot on the destroyed side and one on the intact side, squatting down slowly. There was a gap not large, about two fingers wide. He casually grabbed a half-meter-long stick and inserted it into the gap, which disappeared entirely with almost no resistance. This indicated that the space underground was deep. Li Yifei turned the stick slightly and found the space inside was even larger.
As Li Yifei was studying the place where the army ants disappeared, Xu Shanshan, with a slightly trembling tone, patted his shoulder and said, "Over there... there’s something moving over there."
"Hmm?" Li Yifei turned his head and saw a series of bubbles emerging from the mud about tens of meters away, increasing in number as if the water was boiling.
Seconds later, a white thing suddenly emerged from the mud, resembling a white python. Li Yifei stood straight, watching the thing in front of him.
Just then, a rustling sound rose again, coming from the underground crevice.
"We need to move back; it seems like those big ants are coming back!" said Li Yifei. Xu Shanshan also sensed the creatures, quickly retreating with Li Yifei.
Meanwhile, those white things in the mud revealed their true form, turning out to be over two-meter-long giant white worms, like endless versions of mealworms. They weren’t pure white but a milky color, plump and faintly appearing in the mud, yet not stained by it.
It wasn’t just one but a group; numbers even exceeded a hundred. These giant worms burrowed out of the mud, resembling massive proteins.
From the gap Li Yifei poked earlier emerged countless army ants, and those deadly creatures appeared once more. Numerous giant ants piled up, quickly forming a one-meter-tall ant wall; countless claws and mouthparts moved, producing a rustling sound that made one’s teeth ache. For anyone with trypophobia, it might seem like the apocalypse.
Currently, the continuous emergence of army ants from the gap kept raising the height and thickness of the ant wall.
The white worms completely emerged from the mud, crowding together like lambs awaiting slaughter.
The ants automatically ignored Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan, but those white worms... in the face of those deadly army ants, instead of retreating, they crawled slowly toward the army ants.
Were these army ants charging from so far to trouble these worms? Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan exchanged a glance, tacitly choosing to stay and watch; such a scene had never been witnessed before.
The two finally saw how large the massive army was—a five-meter-wide and one-and-a-half-meter-high ant wall. Judging by the size of these ants, there could be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands within a meter.
Remember, the legendary army ants in the Amazon Forest don’t even match the number of ants here, let alone their size.
They both were nearing each other; those giant white worms had eyes, small enough to be almost invisible unless observed closely, and there weren’t just one pair of eyes—there were three pairs as far as the eye could see, a type of worm Li Yifei had never seen.
Less than ten meters apart, these seemingly just oversized worms suddenly moved, the ones in the front opening wide mouths, roaring toward the army ants.
They truly roared because these worms, nearly mouthless, suddenly split open, revealing half-meter-long mouths lined with dense sharp teeth, emitting a hiss that, when combined, became an earth-shattering roar.
Xu Shanshan was already covering her mouth, eyes full of shock.
Amidst the shock, both sides were already engaged; the giant white worms collectively accelerated, charging toward the ant wall.
The ant wall resembled a vast net, while those massive worms were like fishes; entering the net, is it an impasse, or can they break through it to escape?
The answer came quickly—the large white bugs rushed out, their mouths wide open, devouring hundreds, possibly more, of marching ants with each bite. Meanwhile, the bodies of these bugs rolled within the ant wall, crushing many marching ants beneath, killing or severely injuring them and rendering them incapacitated.
However, the marching ants were not without resistance. Each ant would desperately bite onto the white bugs’ bodies. Remember that small elephant? Its body was large enough, yet it was still bitten through, consumed, and turned into a skeleton by the ants.
The white bugs secreted slime from their bodies, which would stick to the ants, and even had a corrosive effect, a faint sour scent lingering in the air.
The battle lasted a long time, and the two people watching from the side also got their fill of viewing enjoyment.
The white bugs fought by swallowing and biting, using their slime to attack, while the marching ants relied on their overwhelming numbers. Possibly tens of thousands of ants would tackle a single white bug. They weren’t afraid of sacrifice and willing to die. So when the first white bug could no longer hold on and was bitten to death, the battleground changed.
Killing a white bug cost the marching ants greatly, but additional forces continued to come in, relentlessly engaging in combat.
Over an hour later, the killing finally began to cease, and the marching ants retreated. It’s uncertain how many ants died, probably hundreds of thousands, yet they managed to bite to death dozens of white bugs. These terrifying creatures finally withdrew.
As for the white bugs, some were bleeding green fluids, others white. The injured bugs hissed and retreated to the mud pit, twisting their bodies as they sank into the mire.
The terrifying battlefield remained here. If not for the countless bug and ant corpses littering the ground, it would be hard to believe such an unusual and shocking war had just occurred.
Once the surroundings completely calmed, Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan walked into the battlefield. A not-quite-dead white bug raised its head, growling at them but soon stopped moving altogether.
Xu Shanshan frowned, looking at the corpses scattered everywhere, and asked, "Why are both sides fighting so fiercely? Are they competing for something?"
Li Yifei chuckled, saying, "It’s possible that both groups have too many members, so they clashed to cull some numbers, leaving a remaining portion to return and continue thriving. It’s quite common in nature!"
"Can it really be like this?" Xu Shanshan was clearly unaware, feeling greatly impacted by the earlier scene.
"Of course. On the grassland in the Northwest Region, there are years when too many prairie mice are born, causing food shortages. So when this occurs, many mice will spontaneously gather together by agreement and collectively throw themselves into a river to commit suicide, while some remain to continue the tribe’s reproduction. This phenomenon doesn’t only occur among mice but with other species too."
"Amazing!" Xu Shanshan’s small mouth moved, unsure how to articulate her feelings.
Li Yifei chuckled, patted her head, and said, "I’m just curious; neither of these creatures seems to have been discovered before, and if they’re fighting over food, why did the ants not eat the dead bugs but retreat altogether, while the bugs also ignored their companions’ corpses?"
"Because this place is peculiar; so next, we need to search nearby. There might be an underground space here, and if there is... it very well could be what we are looking for."
Xu Shanshan’s eyes lit up, saying, "I think so too. Then... let’s split up to search; I’ll head over there."
"Wait, no rush. I suggest we still go together; communication devices don’t work here, and if we split up, it’ll be hard to find each other." Li Yifei stopped Xu Shanshan.
The two discussed for a bit and decided to start searching around the area.
After about ten minutes, Xu Shanshan first discovered the exit of a dark river, which was a small waterfall, with a stream abruptly appearing before them, flowing down a small cliff into a pool below.
The sound of rushing water emerged, and upon seeing the clear water, Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan were pleased, climbing down beside it. They washed their faces with the pool water, cleaning the mud off their bodies.
Then, using True Qi to dry themselves, they felt much more refreshed.
A plunking sound came from below, causing both Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan to simultaneously pause. The sound seemed to originate underwater, as if something was tapping. Li Yifei gestured for Xu Shanshan not to move, reaching behind to pull the machete out of his backpack.
With a loud bang, a shadow first emerged underwater, and a second later, a huge figure shot out from the water, directly heading towards them.