A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 401-Chapter 600)

After a short moment, Han Li had arrived at the edge of the desert. He gazed at the black sand beneath him and narrowed his eyes. He then grabbed a fistful of sand and brought it close to his eye.

Han Li soon snorted. With a sudden flash of yellow light from his hand, he tightly closed his grip and squeezed. As a result, most of the sand remained uncrushed.

Han Li smirked and slowly muttered to himself, “This isn’t black sand. It’s actually grains of iron ore.”

“But to spread such a dense amount of ore across such a large desert... The master of Heavenvoid Hall was truly an extraordinary person.”

After flinging away the sand in his hand, he stood up and frowned. He then lightly patted the White Rhino Emblem at his waist, enveloping him in a layer of white light.

Because he was earlier evading the sallow-faced cultivator, he was forced to disable it and endure the heat by using his cultivation alone. But now that he was so close to the desert, the overwhelming heat had caused him to be temporarily light-headed. Alarmed, Han Li quickly reactivated the White Rhino Pendant. This was not the time to be concerned with saving magic power.

Without any further hesitation, Han Li looked at the area containing the colony of Ironfire ants and carefully walked over.

The black desert was extremely painful to walk on. The sand was scorching hot and the air itself felt as if it were on fire. Even with the White Rhino Emblem and the Fire Repelling Robes, Han Li still felt suffocated. It felt even hotter than the small path of lava he went through the day before.

After walking over a hundred meters, Han Li sighed and patted his storage pouch, taking out a soft pearl in his hand. Without any delay, he poured a bit of spiritual power into it. Cold air immediately released from the pearl in a flash of white light.

Han Li suddenly felt himself surrounded by a chill. With roused spirits, Han Li quickened his pace.

As the simultaneous use of both the White Rhino Emblem and the Glacial Ice Pearl greatly increased his magic power consumption, he needed to pass through the desert as quickly as he could.

When Han Li was about two hundred meters away from the location of the Ironfire Ants, he stopped and carefully examined where they would be.

A short moment later, Han Li shook his head.

The concealed Ironfire Ants were extremely difficult to differentiate from the black sand. It was even difficult to see them with his spiritual sense. The ant colony’s spiritual Qi fluctuations were extremely faint, presumably because they were innately skilled at restraining their Qi.

It seemed that using his spiritual sense to spot the winged ants from a distance wouldn’t do. He’d have to try using his Gold Devouring Beetles.





Chapter 463: An Opportune Encounter


Han Li raised his hands with a solemn expression, and tossed several spirit beast pouches into the air. As they floated in the air, he formed his hands into an incantation gesture, causing the pouches to open and release countless Gold Devouring Beetles. They formed a cloud of shining gold and silver shimmers in the air. In regards to numbers, the Gold Devouring Beetles were far fewer to the recently seen colony of Ironfire Ants.

With his confidence strengthened from looking at the the gold-silver insect swarm, he pointed to the ground not far away and softly shouted, “Go!”

With a buzz, the glittering cloud flew forward, moving to descend and blanket the ground.

But before they touched the ground, a black cloud of ants suddenly rose to meet the swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles.

In the instant that the two sides clashed, huge streams of dark flame suddenly spouted out from the black ant colony, violently enveloping the Gold Devouring Beetles in black radiance. It was clear the ant colony had realized the Gold Devouring Beetles were fearsome and rushed to strike first by using their innate flames.

Were it another breed of insects, the strange flames would’ve burnt a majority of them at the very least. But not only were the Gold Devouring Beetles completely unscathed by the black flames, the black flames themselves were cleanly devoured. Once the flames were gone, the beetles charged forward with a buzz.

The two insect swarms fiercely clashed, interweaving colors of black, silver, and gold. After only a moment of tearing away at each other, countless dead insects began to successively fall to the ground with piercing screeches. A vast majority of them were black with only a sparse few being gold and silver.

In just a short moment, the Gold Devouring Beetles had achieved an overwhelming victory, exterminating a majority of the ants.

The Ironfire Ants also sensed that things were far from good. Their remnants released a weak cry and suddenly gathered together to form a jet-black arrow. They shot past the Gold Devouring Beetles in an attempt to escape.

But at that moment, a streak of dazzling azure swordlight pierced through the air and chopped down at the arrow. The arrow trembled and was greatly slowed down.

In that moment of delay, the Gold Devouring Beetles swarmed around the arrow. In the blink of an eye, the black arrow was submerged in a sea of gold and silver and could no longer be seen. By the time the insect swarm dispersed, the arrow had completely disappeared.

At that moment, Han Li slowly walked over and serenely looked at the dead insects on the floor. He silently pondered for a moment while clasping his chin.

Only about several hundred of the dead insects belonged to the Gold Devouring Beetles, a trifling amount. The Gold Devouring Beetles’ decisive victory clearly illustrated the superiority of the Gold Devouring Beetles. After all, the Ironfire Ants had outnumbered the Gold Devouring Beetles ten to one.

After a moment of analysis, Han Li revealed an expression of relief. It seemed that his Gold Devouring Beetles would be able to get him through the black desert without problem.

After taking another look at the ground littered with dead insects, a strange expression flashed through his eyes. A low whistle left his mouth. The gold-silver insect cloud shrieked in response and fell from the sky, cleanly devouring the dead insects like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. They then obediently flew back into Han Li’s spirit beast pouches.

Having put away the pouches, Han Li gazed into the depths of the black desert before walking forward without hesitation.

...

Han Li motionlessly stood in the distance as he expressionlessly gazed at the sky.

The largest battle that his Gold Devouring Beetles had fought since entering the desert was currently taking place in the sky. Countless Gold Devouring Beetles and Ironfire Ants were scattered across the skies at a low altitude, mutually devouring each other. Dead insects rained from the sky, forming a thin, dense layer on the ground. It made for a truly shocking sight!

Han Li’s brow creased during a moment of carelessness. Although only about a day had passed, he had already lost nearly ten thousand Gold Devouring Beetles. It was as if he’d encounter a colony of Ironfire Ants every short distance he walked, numbering anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand.

But now, he’d encountered a tremendously large Ironfire Ant colony that numbered at around fifty thousand. He reckoned that this battle would result in the deaths of at least eight thousand of his Gold Devouring Beetles.

It was no surprise that Han Li felt regretful. The Gold Devouring Beetles took a long period of time to breed. Who knew when he’d be able to next replenish their numbers?

After the time it took to finish a cup of tea, the ant colony retreated in defeat. Apart from the several thousand survivors that managed to retreat, the winged ants had been cleanly devoured by the Gold Devouring Beetles.