As his strength grew, Dazhuang's confidence swelled.
He readily agreed.
"I'll listen to you, boss."
...
The two large mantises arrived at the riverbank.
The river flowed rapidly.
"Boss, that's a golden threadworm!"
A long gray bug lay on a stone by the river.
A long golden thread stretched from its head, ending in a fleshy lump bristling with exposed bone spurs.
The golden threadworm dropped the fleshy lump into the river. A moment later, the thread twitched.The worm yanked backward with all its might, hauling a small fish out of the water.
A natural-born angler... This world truly was bizarre!
Lu Qing spread his wings and flew over.
He pressed a Sickle Leg directly against the golden threadworm's head.
The golden threadworm, which was just about to enjoy its catch, nearly pissed itself in terror.
"Holy mother... what a huge mantis."
"Brother Mantis, are you here for my fish? Take it, it's yours."
The golden threadworm acted perfectly obedient and cooperative; clearly, this was not its first time getting mugged.
The small fish was only First Grade. Eating it would be practically useless.
But this golden threadworm had reached Second Grade.
Seemingly noticing Lu Qing's gaze, the golden threadworm shrank back. "My flesh is foul and stinks. It's nowhere near as delicious as fish..."
"Shut up, I'm not eating you!"
"Tell me, are there any powerful creatures around here?"
The golden threadworm immediately cooperated. "The most powerful creature on this side of the river is you! This is my first time seeing such a majestic and towering mantis..."
"As for the other side of the river..."
"Over there. Do you see that huge mountain? That isn't a mountain at all, but an Ant Lair."
There was indeed a mountain on the opposite bank. Lu Qing had genuinely thought it was a natural peak, given how heavily it was overgrown with weeds.
Looking closer, however, he finally noticed the anomalies.
Hidden beneath the thick brush, countless holes pockmarked the surface of the "mountain."
What kind of ants built their nests above ground, shaping them like literal mountain peaks...
Ridiculous!
But an even more ridiculous sight followed.
An ant crawled out of one of the holes.
Lu Qing shuddered.
The ant's carapace was a glossy black, and its mandibles were as sharp as blades. Even more absurdly, its body length reached fifty centimeters.
It looked like it had already reached Fifth Grade!
The golden threadworm chimed in, "That is just a very ordinary worker ant."
Very ordinary...
Ants lived in colonies. Judging by the scale of that mountain, there had to be at least several hundred worker and soldier ants.
If a single one was this strong, what about hundreds of them...
No wonder he hadn't seen any other creatures living on the opposite bank. Who in their right mind would want to be neighbors with such terrifying ants?
Lu Qing let go of the golden threadworm.
The moment it was free, it turned and bolted, completely abandoning the fish.
Dazhuang hurried over, scooped up the little fish, snipped it in half, and tossed it into his mouth.
"Boss, what are you looking at?"
"Ants."
"What's so interesting about ants..." The next second, he spotted the monstrously oversized ant. "Holy shit, that's an ant?"
He truly captured the essence of the phrase.
Lu Qing inspected the worker ant that had crawled down to the riverbank.
'Species: Giant Strength Ant (Worker Ant)
Strength: Low Tier Fifth Grade'
Sure enough, Low Tier Fifth Grade!
"Giant Strength Ant. Fifth Grade strength."
Dazhuang instantly wilted upon hearing this.
"It's even stronger than me... Thank goodness we didn't head over there."
Before he even finished speaking, he saw his boss spread his wings and fly directly across the river.
"Hey, are you crazy..."
If a single ant was already that powerful, who could possibly survive if the whole swarm rushed out?
"I'm going over to take a look."
After sending the mental message to Dazhuang, Lu Qing landed silently on the opposite bank.
A pulse of consciousness echoed in his mind.
"Food. Food."
The source was the very ant that had just crawled out of the nest.
Clearly, this ant had received an order, and it was repeating the directive to complete its task.
The worker ant scaled a thick ancient tree nearby.
Up in the branches, two soldier ants stood guard.
The soldier ants possessed even more monstrous and terrifying mandibles, and the "armor" plating their bodies was much thicker.
Before long, the worker ant descended, carrying a fleshy grub.
The grub was incredibly fat, resembling a ball of meat. Its mobility was extremely limited, and it lacked any offensive capability.
Lu Qing checked the grub's rank.
'Species: Flesh Grub (Livestock)
Strength: None (Low Tier Third Grade)'
They were actually keeping livestock, and they were even raising Third Grade grubs.
This ant species was quite interesting.
Lu Qing decided to climb the tree to see exactly how many grubs there were.
The grubs were guarded by soldier ants, making it quite troublesome to bypass them silently.
Let alone two Fifth Grade soldier ants; even against just one, Lu Qing would likely gain no advantage in a head-on fight.
These monsters possessed immense strength and razor-sharp mandibles. They had both offense and defense, and they could even wirelessly call in backup.
As for weaknesses...
If the ants in this world shared the same anatomy as the ones from his previous life, their antennae were their weakness!
Ants had no vision. Navigating, finding food, and even communicating relied entirely on their antennae.
Of course, if the ants in this world were different, he truly couldn't afford to provoke them. But at worst, he could simply spread his wings and flee.
His mind made up, Lu Qing concealed himself and waited for an opening to strike.
"Patrol. Patrol..."
His mind was filled with the two soldier ants' repeating directives, which thoroughly annoyed him.
Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long before his opportunity arrived.
One of the soldier ants patrolled down to the base of the tree.
Lu Qing was hiding in the tall grass just five meters away—the perfect distance to launch a strike.
Without hesitation, he used the skill 'Swift Winged Flight'.
Bolstered by the skill, he shot straight toward the ant at extreme speed.
Once he reached the right distance, his Sickle Legs lashed out swiftly.
He once again used the skill 'Deadly Heavy Strike', aiming for a guaranteed one-hit kill.
The ant's reaction was somewhat sluggish.
It only managed to broadcast a single syllable: "Ene..."
The Sickle Leg cleaved precisely across the top of its head, severing both antennae.
The broadcasted mental warning was abruptly cut off.
The ant instantly became a headless fly. It spun frantically in circles before dropping to the ground and charging around blindly.
It worked!
The antennae really were its weakness!
Lu Qing's confidence instantly surged.
He crawled up the tree trunk toward the other soldier ant.
After he repeated the tactic, the other soldier ant also lost its all-sensing antennae and fell to the ground.
Lu Qing glanced down at the two ants spinning around on the ground.
Although these two ants had lost the antennae they used to sense everything, their destructive power had not been weakened.
A small tree as thick as a bowl was snapped cleanly in half by one of the ants with a single bite.
The sight filled Lu Qing with trepidation.
Even with his skills bolstering him, he still couldn't cleave through a bowl-thick tree in a single strike, yet such an ordinary soldier ant could do it with ease.
If he hadn't discovered their weakness, a single random bite would likely have been enough to severely injure him.
Lu Qing no longer paid attention to those two soldier ants, instead climbing further up the trunk and finding the grubs.
A fleshy grub sat upon every leaf of the ancient tree, slowly chewing through the foliage.
These grubs were incredibly sluggish and had almost no attack power. They seemed incapable of doing anything other than eating leaves.
Even so, they possessed a Third Grade rank.
It seemed the Giant Strength Ants were quite adept at livestock farming!
Right now, however, it was going to benefit Lu Qing.
He immediately snatched up a grub.
After he devoured the whole thing, his Flesh Value increased by 0.1.
The Flesh Value was a bit low, but they made up for it in sheer quantity!
There had to be at least several hundred grubs being farmed on this one ancient tree.
Eating all of them would yield several dozen points.
Moreover, the neighboring ancient trees were also the ants' pastures. This place was absolutely going to let his experience grind skyrocket.