Marching Ants, like all ants, have an extremely clear hierarchy, akin to the medieval European system; all the Marching Ants carry out this system without reservation. In the evolution of species, the cognition of Marching Ants is obviously not as advanced as that of humans, so there are no "traitors" among the tens of millions of Marching Ants. Therefore, the efficiency of an ant colony is much greater, like a powerful "state machine." No one knows what would happen if the ant queen were captured because no one dares to capture one, nor has anyone succeeded.
Isn’t this plainly a death sentence...
"If the Elephant Clan really encounters Marching Ants, I guess they’re no match for them. So, this river is undoubtedly a perfect Heavenly Chasm, and since it’s a rainforest with rain all year round, there’s no dry season for this river due to the tropics, so no freezing period either." Along the way, Ji Qian kept "tutoring" Ye Shikai with high school geography knowledge.
"Cough, cough, alright, let’s keep going." Ye Shikai murmured in his heart that Ji Qian really should become a high school teacher...
"This is the Elephant Clan’s territory. Though they seem clumsy, they’re very vigilant, so we can only infiltrate." Ji Qian hadn’t finished speaking when Ye Shikai turned around and handed her a piece of clothing.
"A ghillie suit, put it on." Ye Shikai also took out one from the Storage Ring and put it on himself. He never thought that this sniper’s camouflage suit would now be used to hide from wild beasts.
"Elephants have poor eyesight, but there might still be other beasts around, it’s better to wear it."
"We should have passed through the Elephant Clan’s habitat by now." Ji Qian held the map and took a drink of water to replenish her strength.
"Then we must be close to the place with the awakening fruit, right?" Ye Shikai said excitedly.
"I’m afraid there’s still some distance to go, and who knows what strange things are in between." Ji Qian looked around, then at the dusk sky, and sighed, "Let’s rest here tonight."
Ye Shikai took out some food, salt, MSG, water from the Storage Ring and put them into a small pot which he held in his hands. He then channeled his Inner Strength and the pot actually began to levitate slowly in the air. Soon after, the water in the pot began to show signs of boiling. One minute later, it indeed began to boil. Ye Shikai added noodles and seasoning into the prepared ingredients and carefully adjusted the output of his Inner Strength, causing the water to "calm down" gradually. He gently covered the pot with its lid. At home, he had Nanny Wu, so he didn’t need to cook noodles himself. When he was in the Dragon Teeth special forces, he ate more "wild game" when outdoors: snakes, bugs, rabbits, and the like—where would he have gotten soup noodles?
"I remember you don’t like cold food, so I made you some cooked food." Ye Shikai handed a bowl of noodles to Ji Qian. To prevent a wild beast attack in the darkness, they couldn’t make an open fire, and it was too troublesome to heat the iron pot with quicklime and water, so they simply used Inner Strength to heat it.
"Thank you." Ji Qian took the bowl of noodles which, despite being made in the wilderness, looked very appetizing.
"Have you ever thought about something?" Ji Qian said lightly.
"What is it?" Ye Shikai scratched his head, curious.
"Why does Boss Xing adamantly refuse to let you go?"
"I remember... My first contact with Boss Xing was when I tried to save Shiqi, and I got involved with him indirectly." Ye Shikai thought about it; when he first came to Yanjing, he was new and hardly knew anyone. His acquaintance with Luo Shiqi was even more hasty, meeting her when he was drowning his sorrows in a bar. Now thinking about it, if he hadn’t gone to that bar, would any of the subsequent events have happened?
"What happened later?"
"After that, I can’t remember clearly, it felt like every action I took somehow irked Boss Xing, and things just got messier and messier." Ye Shikai pondered. The Xun Long case, the Mothman case, weren’t these all related to Boss Xing? And all of it had involved Ye Shikai; could it be that he was Boss Xing’s nemesis?
"If it was just because you saved Luo Shiqi, considering he knows you’re not someone to be trifled with, why would he repeatedly plot against you, even joining forces with Zeus?" Ji Qian continued.
"Boss Xing has someone else behind him." Ye Shikai’s expression changed slightly; he had known this from Ghost’s description much earlier on, but he had never delved into who the person behind Boss Xing was. After all, just dealing with Boss Xing himself, who was elusive and gave Ghost headaches, let alone the person pulling his strings.
"Ghost must have told you." Ji Qian said sternly, "Instead of saying you provoked Boss Xing, it is more accurate to say that you angered the mastermind behind Boss Xing."
"I don’t remember doing anything that would outrage both humans and gods." Ye Shikai joked. Indeed, unless it was some deep hatred, why would anyone continually trouble Ye Shikai, especially once they discovered his identity as the Netherworld King? Even Zeus would only dare to pull off minor schemes.
"So, I think when we return to Yanjing, we’ll need to investigate thoroughly."
"Hush." Suddenly, Ye Shikai swiftly knocked Ji Qian to the ground and gestured for quiet.
The sound of a bell occasionally floated through the air, a warning device Ye Shikai had set up to prevent wild beasts at night. Since electronic devices couldn’t be used here, cameras were out of the question, so they resorted to this somewhat primitive method.
"A wild beast is approaching." Ye Shikai whispered. The rainforest at night was not quiet, filled with the cries of insects. Still, anything that could touch his bell had to be something big.
"It’s a lion." Ye Shikai crawled quietly over. Fifty meters away, a male lion was slowly moving in their direction.
"It’s just one, we shouldn’t be worried, right?" Ji Qian murmured. Even if it were true, as Ghost said, that the creatures here also possessed Inner Strength, a single lion was unlikely to be a match for the two of them.
"Hold on." Ye Shikai spoke calmly, as the lion hesitated, seemingly waiting for something.
"Haha, we’re in trouble now." Ye Shikai suddenly said.
"What happened?" Ji Qian peered out and saw in the dark that there were seven or eight more lions, looking like a pride.
"Fighting them now would be a huge disadvantage." Ji Qian’s expression turned grave. Here, apart from the Elephant Clan and the Marching Ants, lions were at the top of the food chain. Most people would avoid them by a wide margin, let alone a pride of lions.