The ruined temple was safe during the day, but at night, it would be surrounded by swarms of ghost ants hunting for prey.
The old guide learned this from ancient records passed down by his ancestors. Discovering that Hei Yanjing carried a large sum of money, he was momentarily blinded by greed and deliberately led them to the ruined temple to spend the night. He planned to wait until they were eaten by the ghost ants, then return at dawn to scavenge their belongings.
"Oh? Quite a clever scheme, aren't we?" Hei Yanjing chuckled, but his foot remained firmly planted, pinning the old guide immovably.
"Then what are these three camels you've prepared for? Hmm?"
"This... this, I planned to ride one of the camels and escape when it got close to nightfall..."
"If, if any ghost ants discovered me early, I would, I would abandon the remaining two camels as bait..."
"Hoh! Aren't these camels the ones you worship as your family's camel gods? Blasphemy, you say?"
"Hey, mute! Why don't we just throw this guy into the ant pile?"
Hei Yanjing looked up and shouted towards the temple entrance. His sunglasses, reflecting the firelight within the temple, flashed with a chilling glint of steel!
Under the moonlight, as white as gauze, ghost ants with ghostly faces on their backs formed a black tide, surging towards the small temple!
Like a violent hurricane, like the world overturning, this was a colossal pressure that could make all humans gasp for breath in terror!
But such a mind-boggling assault, and yet it hadn't breached this narrow temple entrance?
Zhang Qiling, clad entirely in black, had completely merged with the darkness. The old guide, lying on the ground, could barely lift his head, unable to see anything clearly.
Only blood!
Puffs of blood exploding!
No matter how many ghost ants there were, no matter how fierce their assault, as soon as they entered the one-meter radius in front of the temple entrance, they would suddenly burst into a cloud of bloody mist!
Endless blood seeped into the sand, splashing into the temple. This small, ruined temple had become a charnel house.
"Monsters...!!!!"
The old guide suddenly struggled in terror, frantically trying to escape from under Hei Yanjing's foot.
In his eyes, Zhang Qiling, who was supposed to be protecting him, was now a more terrifying demon than the ghost ant swarm that sought to devour him.
"Shut up."
Suddenly, a gun barrel was forcefully shoved into the old guide's mouth, silencing his unrestrained shouts.
Hei Yanjing still wore a smiling expression, but his words made the old guide tremble like a sieve.
"Say one more word, and a bullet will pierce your tongue."
...
Zhang Qiling had no time to concern himself with what Hei Yanjing was doing or saying.
The ghost ant swarm before him occupied his entire vision.
Although Wu Tianzhen and Pangzi were not by his side, Zhang Qiling felt as if the two of them were watching him.
This led him to completely abandon the most convenient idea of bleeding himself.
He swung his saber, weaving it into a net. Each downward slash carried the sharp sonic boom of a hurricane!
The Qilin tattoo on his body had long since emerged, faintly roaring amidst the clang of the saber!
Gradually, Zhang Qiling completely disregarded time, opponents, and everything around him.
At this moment, he seemed to have entered a wondrous realm. The Black Gold Ancient Saber felt as if it had truly become a part of his limbs. For the first time, he truly felt the joyous resonance of his saber in battle.
After a long while, when he suddenly came to his senses, he saw before him the mountain-like, towering, and continuous corpses of ghost ants.
It was still night.
But the surviving ghost ants had already fled without a trace.
Their undeveloped brains did not support much thought, but their survival instincts prevented them from advancing further.
The warm firelight in the ruined temple usually meant the arrival of food, but today, this firelight symbolized death.
Zhang Qiling stood in place for a long time before belatedly feeling the discomfort in his body.
But with it came a sense of liberation, as if some restraint had been broken. The Qilin blood surged through his body, bringing waves of heat.
[Detected Host successfully portrayed Little Brother's terrifying combat prowess. Portrayal degree +5]
[Current Portrayal degree: 61%]
[Unlocked Ability: Disguise]
He quietly glanced at the bright moon, then sheathed his saber.
His footsteps into the temple remained steady. With each step, the blood of the ghost ants dripped from the hem of his black clothes onto the ground.
"Clap, clap, clap!"
Hei Yanjing applauded with exaggerated flair, his smile under the sunglasses remaining almost unchanged.
"Good saber technique."
In the pitch-black melee, he seemed to have seen every move Zhang Qiling made.
Zhang Qiling glanced at him, but did not reply, finding a corner to sit down on his own.
He whistled, then bent down and patted the old guide's cheek, rousing him from his state of terror.
"Alright, the mute has finished his performance. Now it's our time~"
"Tell me, what exactly did your ancestor say?"
β
(Bring three camels, early morning, the ghost ants are dormant, ... there is the entrance to the Immortal Palace...)
"He, he said this before he died!"
The old guide was so scared he couldn't even speak properly: "There's no Immortal Palace at all! I, I only found this ruined temple..."
"I, I, I was all, doing as he said!!!"
"I didn't want to... I didn't want to..."
Just then, the sky began to lighten, and a white streak slowly rose from the horizon, like some monstrous mouth opening.
Hei Yanjing stretched, cracking his knuckles with a series of pops, making the old guide tremble uncontrollably, fearing Hei Yanjing would suddenly twist his head off.
But Hei Yanjing didn't spare another glance for this greedy and unrepentant fellow. He merely looked at Zhang Qiling, who seemed to be meditating in the corner.
"How is it?" he grinned. "Herodotus?"
Zhang Qiling opened his eyes and stood up silently.
Once, a scholar named Herodotus discovered a tribe of giant ants.
He found that the ants in this tribe were enormous, skilled at digging gold from the desert, and storing it in their caves.
Only in the morning would the gold appear, so ancient people would often lead three camels into the ant nests at dawn, fill them with gold, and then abandon two camels as bait before escaping on the third.
This legend was called "The Ant Gold Diggers."
Zhang Qiling shouldered the Black Gold Ancient Saber, while Hei Yanjing rechecked the loading of his bullets.
"Find the ant nest."
Zhang Qiling said faintly.
Hei Yanjing gave a meaningless chuckle, walked lazily to the old guide's side, and gave him a light kick.
"Scram." He glanced at the entrance. The three camels tied there had already been gnawed down to skeletons by the ant swarm.
"Run now, and maybe you can get out before dark."
Upon hearing this, the old guide showed a face that was a mixture of crying and laughing. He tremblingly agreed and stumbled towards the exit.
But Zhang Qiling stopped him.
He handed a small cloth bag to the old guide, his face devoid of emotion.
"Take it."
The old guide, seeing this inhuman monster speak to him, turned pale with fright but dared not resist. He could only accept the cloth bag with a forced smile.
That smile was uglier than a cry.
After receiving the item and seeing that Zhang Qiling no longer blocked him, he immediately fled without looking back.
From a distance, Zhang Qiling clearly saw the old guide discard the cloth bag as if it were a hot potato.
...Never mind.
He no longer paid attention to the old guide and quietly finished the compressed biscuit in his hand.
Hei Yanjing, however, came over to join him.
"Mute, look at how you've scared him. I thought you were giving him poison~"
"Is that the powder you ground last night?"
"Mm." Zhang Qiling carefully folded the compressed biscuit wrapper and put it in his pocket.
The ghost ant swarm was ferocious, but they had not made any direct moves to destroy the ruined temple.
Zhang Qiling had suspected at the time that previous inhabitants might have made preparations against these creatures when building the temple.
So, while resting in the corner, he specifically observed the temple walls and indeed found that the red and black colors were not paint, but the blood of some unknown creature.
He surmised that this creature was a natural enemy of the ghost ants.
Therefore, he had cut off a bit of the outer layer last night and ground it into powder.
He had thought it might help the old guide survive.
But since the guide didn't want it, he would let him try his luck.
Zhang Qiling wasn't obligated to save him.
"Oh dear!" Hei Yanjing saw that he was in a bad mood and continued to tease him.
"Mute, what's wrong with you? Why give such good stuff only to these ungrateful wretches?"
"Truly, you don't know who toβ" appreciate.
Before Hei Yanjing could finish his sentence, a familiar cloth bag was handed to him. He was stunned and instinctively took it.
"This is yours."
Zhang Qiling said expressionlessly, then turned to leave, seemingly already searching for the ant nest.
Only then did Hei Yanjing realize that he also had a share of the cloth bag containing the wood powder. Thinking about his earlier words, "giving things only to ungrateful wretches," he suddenly felt the bag becoming hot in his hand.
He let out a soft chuckle and chose to take the cloth bag with him.
"This guy is quite interesting."