Chapter 207 - Hive
The mine was now filled with those black bugs, which were gushing out like water during a tide.
Shaosi grabbed Taisi by his neck and pulled him away from the entrance of the mine. The few strong and muscular slave warriors had easily been torn apart by those bugs, so a scrawny kid like Taisi would probably be swallowed entirely by a bug.
Feng Xing took a glance at his bow, shook his head and leapt away as well. There were too many bugs, but he would only be able to kill a few with one shot. If he used arrows of mass destruction, he might destroy the entire mine. If he used only ordinary arrows, he could kill at most a thousand bugs with all his arrows.
Yu Mu considered it briefly, but then shook his head as well, turned hurriedly around and fled away. He was actually quite willing to throw some of his poison into the mine and easily kill all of those bugs. However, he was good at using poison, but not that good at detoxifying. If he left a highly poisonous mine for the Rong Mountain Clan people, those clansmen probably wouldn’t be too happy about it. Therefore, he wisely chose to step back.
Man Man excitedly carried her pair of gigantic hammers, rushed into the mine while laughing and carelessly waving her hammers, smashing those bugs. With every move she could smash at least ten bugs to death. The carapaces of those bugs were solid and smooth. They would emit huge amounts of fire sparks when clashing against the hammers. The clashes itself sounded like someone was hammering iron blocks.
However, every time that Man Man would hit the bugs slightly harder, the entire mine would shake intensely. Elder Iron Yan was horrified by this. He was afraid that the mine would collapse. That was why he hurriedly yelled at Man Man, telling her to stop. According to surveys, this spot was located nearest to the main lode. If Man Man destroyed this newly built mine, they would be unable to rebuild it later, because the soil and rock formation underneath it would be shaken loose.
Man Man stopped unwillingly, opened her mouth and spew out a mouthful of flame.
Gold-red flame swooshed out of her mouth along with countless golden, silvery, and purple light spots, instantly burning over ten thousand bugs, which were filled in the, hundreds of zhang long and seven to eight zhang wide, mine to death. The flesh and blood of those bugs were burned into ashes. Only their carapaces were burned into a sticky red liquid, flowing into the ground along the cracks in the rocks.
“This is…high-quality tungsten steel!” yelled Iron Yan, who was bitten by a highly poisonous three-tailed animal earlier on and still had a numb and stiff leg. He abruptly let out a series of screams and said, “These bugs have somehow purified tungsten ore and absorbed tungsten steel, merging the steel with their carapaces! Ah! Man Man, don’t burn them at such a high temperature!”
Looking at the streams of sticky red liquid flowing on the ground along the rocks, Iron Yan had gone nearly mad. The carapaces of these bugs were extremely pure tungsten steel that could be directly forged into weapons after undergoing a very simple smelting process. But, now these carapaces had melted and merged with the rocks and soil, making it too difficult to extract the steel again.
Man Man paused for a second, her cherry-like lips curving downwards, then carried her hammers, turned around and walked out of the mine. She had only learned to let out flames as hot and powerful as she could to make sure she struck her enemies down immediately. She had yet to learn how to control the power and the temperature of her flames. Therefore, she had no idea how to fulfill Iron Yan’s requirements.
Ji Hao shook his head and said confidently, “Let me try. Just burn them dead, yeah?”
The melting point of tungsten steel was twice as high as that of ordinary iron. As long as he controlled the power of his flames, keeping it under the melting point of tungsten steel, those carapaces would not melt down. Ji Hao walked calmly into the mine, facing large groups of bugs swooshing towards him. Suddenly, raging gold-red flames spurted out from his body. The flames were not as hot as Man Man’s flame and were slightly cooler than the melting point of tungsten steel.
Those black bugs darted towards Ji Hao. However, when they were still a few zhang away from Ji Hao, streams of gold-red flames would gush into their bodies through the cracks on their carapaces. Their carapaces were thick and solid, but inside their bodies, their internal organs were as fragile as that of ordinary insects. Popping sounds were coming continuously from their bodies, Ji Hao waved his arms and brought up a whirlwind, rolling countless empty carapaces out of the mine, which he piled on a flat area hundreds of zhang away from the mine.
Ji Hao walked into the mine step by step. At each step the black bugs in the mine were being burned, after which they would be rolled out by the whirlwind and finally get piled on the flat area.
Yu Mu was standing far away from the mine and stared at Ji Hao in shock. He tried to do the math with his fingers, while murmuring, “Ji Hao was born in the Gold Crow Clan of the Southern Wasteland, who are naturally capable of controlling the power of fire. But, he also is capable of controlling the powers of wind, water, and is able to fly, and move underground. He also has a deep understanding of poisonous medicines as well as magic medicines. He has even forged few rather high-quality mining tools a few days ago, and built an iron cattle to help the Rong Mountain Clan people to transport ores…”
Feng Xing was a bit shocked as well. He licked his own lips and asked, “Is there anything that he is not capable of?”
Yu Mu let out a big grin, proudly raised his head and said, “He can’t eat as much as I can…and, he certainly can’t become pregnant and give birth to a baby!”
Man Man carried her hammers and curiously rushed over, poked hard on Yu Mu’s fat belly with her finger and yelled, “Fatso! Can you give birth to a child? Haha, you have such a huge belly! Man Man has seen some women carrying babies in their bellies, their bellies were as big as yours!”
Man Man then raised her tender, petal-like face, staring admiringly at Yu Mu with a pair of sparkling eyes and asked, “Can you really give birth to babies?”
The chubby face of Yu Mu darkened instantly. He seriously looked at Man Man, and couldn’t help but wanting to explain her about the details involved in making babies. However, he quickly predicted the horrible consequence that this might cause - if he taught Man Man these adult stuff, old Zhu Rong would probably come in person to find and crush him.
Therefore, Yu Mu gasped deeply, closed his mouth, then gave Man Man an incomparably warm grin.
Step by step, Ji Hao walked deeper in the mine. Soon, he reached the place where the few slave warriors had been torn apart, which also happened to be first place the bugs had rushed out. He saw a few water-tank-sized holes opened in the main lode, and streams of bugs ceaselessly flying out from those holes.
“Come down, I found the source of these bugs.”
Ji Hao waved his hand and let tens of fireballs out, swishing into those dark holes. Right after which, large streams of flame spurted out from those holes. Hundreds of empty carapaces of the black bugs had been blown out by the streams of flames, rolling and crashing on the ground.
Man Man was the first to rush back into the mine at, with the others following right behind her.
After Ji Hao walked along the entrance opened up by his fire streams over a distance of two hundred miles, and had burned at least a hundred thousand black bugs to death, the road suddenly widened, and an over ten mile wide underground cave appeared before his eyes.
Countless black bugs gathered in this cave, staring at Ji Hao and the others with their glowing green compound eyes.
The bugs gathered in here were not only human-head-sized. The largest bugs were over a zhang in length. The carapaces of these extra-large bugs seemed to be especially thick and solid, and were decorated with large amounts of complicated and beautiful silver patterns.
Encircled by all these black bugs was hundred zhang long fat worm that was curled up on the ground. From the tail-end of its body, large amounts of eggs were laid out continuously. These eggs would break immediately after the wind had blown across it, and a grey bug would crawl out from each of the eggs.
Another tens of wild paths were connected to this underground cave, from which, groups of black bug were ceaselessly rushing down like streams of water.
This was obviously a huge underground hive and that gigantic worm was their queen.
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Edited by SecondRate
Translated by XianXiaWorld