Star Odyssey

Chapter 1488: Anteater

Long Ke fell silent for a while. "It would seem that you will never listen to my requests."

Lu Yin replied, "I, Long Qi, have no intention of rebelling against the clan patriarch. If Elder Long Quan truly is a Redback, then it is imperative that he be arrested."

Long Ke's eyes flickered with a dark and terrifying light, but he did not speak.

At this time, Lu Yin's communication crystal vibrated. He raised his hand to see a line of text: 'Support the second array base to clean up terror ants and capture a traitor: Xiao.'

At this moment, Qing Chen tore through the void and appeared. He looked serious as he gazed at Lu Yin. "Long Qi, follow me to the second array base and report to their battlefield now."

Long Ke frowned. "Senior Qing Chen, is Long Qi required to go to the battlefield?"

"This is a mission from Humility's Gate, so I'm unable to answer you."

Lu Yin frowned. He had already participated on more than one massive battlefield. First, there was Ironblood Weave, and then later, there was both Endless Weave and the Cosmic Sea. Such battlefields were places where the slightest bit of carelessness could lead to death, and yet, the Perennial World's battlefield surpassed all of the others that Lu Yin had seen, as even Progenitors fought there. Lu Yin had no desire to die for the Perennial World, or at least not yet.

"Supervisor, I am the Huaiyuan Gate Master, and it doesn't seem proper for a Gate Master to personally fight on the battlefield," Lu Yin said. He was hoping to be able to refuse to go.

Qing Chen answered solemnly, "Your mission came directly from the Commander."

Lu Yin was shocked and despaired. This was a problem. If the commander had personally ordered Lu Yin to go to the battlefield, then he had to obey no matter how badly he wanted to refuse.

Long Ke was just as shocked as Lu Yin. He had never expected the Humility's Gate's Commander to personally send out orders regarding Long Qi. Long Ke was forced to reevaluate Long Qi's reputation and value, as he had managed to attract the attention of Humility's Gate's Commander.

Such qualifications instantly caused Lu Yin's value to skyrocket in the eyes of Long Ke. Taking this development into consideration, the patriarch pulled a white jar out of his cosmic ring and tossed it over to Lu Yin. "This is the Ancestor Python's blood. It can save your life at a critical moment."

Lu Yin was shocked as he took it.

Qing Chen sent a measured look towards Long Ke and then turned to Lu Yin. "Your mission cannot be delayed. We must go."

He then turned to Long Ke. "Thank you for your hospitality. When this mission is complete, I will bring Long Qi back to Dragon Mountain to finish your interrupted conversation."

Long Ke smiled. "Completing the mission is important. Senior Qing Chen, take care."

Qing Chen nodded and set a hand on Lu Yin's shoulder before taking him through a tear in the void and leaving.

Before Lu Yin left, he locked eyes with Long Ke. Lu Yin saw an endless darkness in the patriarch's eyes as well as a glimmer of hope. It was clear to Lu Yin that Long Ke would not easily abandon him. The patriarch was determined to find a way to use Long Qi to deal with the White Dragon Clan's branch families.

Lu Yin did not care about the main or branch families of the White Dragon Clan, as they were all enemies to him. However, the existence of the branch families served as a counter to the clan's main family, and that could only be a good thing for someone like Lu Yin who viewed the entire clan as an enemy.

Soon after Lu Yin was taken away by Qing Chen, a group of youths from the White Dragon Clan's branch families approached Heart-Cleansing Building. Their goal was to keep Long Qi on Dragon Mountain, but they quickly learned that he had already left.

Dragon Mountain gradually fell behind them, and Qing Chen emerged from the void with Lu Yin. The older man took a piece of white paper out of his cosmic ring. He did not fold it, but simply stepped onto the paper with Lu Yin, and they flew away.

"Monsters have attacked the Mother Tree. In addition to the battlefield behind the Mother Tree and destroying the defensive sourcebox array, there's another way to destroy the Mother Tree. Do you know which creature in the Lower World causes the most harm to the Mother Tree?" Qing Chen asked.

Lu Yin thought for a moment. "Long Xi told me that it's the terror ants."

Qing Chen nodded. "Terror ants originate from those monsters. They researched a race of terrifying ants and did everything they could to send what they had developed into my Mother Tree's Perennial World. During the most recent battle, those monsters also sent countless terror ants onto the battlefield, and they are even more threatening than the ones in the Lower Realm. Long Ke mentioned how many powerhouses have been drafted to the battlefield behind the Mother Tree. In truth, they were gathered to deal with these new terror ants.

"Terror ants aren't the only threat that you'll face on the battlefield. There will be quite a few traitors among those who were drafted to deal with the terror ants, and they will do their best to smuggle the ants off of the battlefield and into the Lower Realm. These new terror ants reproduce at a terrifying rate, and they could cause incalculable amounts of damage to the Mother Tree. This is why you've been tasked with cleaning up the terror ants, though your real task is to find the traitors and remove them.

"You won't be alone, as the Middle Realm's nine Gate Masters and the other five Gate Masters have also been sent to the battlefield, as well as a large number of other Humility's Gate's members. You must make sure that not a single terror ant slips through to the Perennial World from the battlefield."

Lu Yin frowned. He now understood why he was being sent to the battlefield; everyone was aware of his ability to track down traitors. While Qing Chen was aware that this was due to the information sources that Lu Yin had access to, it was a given that the Commander was aware of this as well. Thus, it would be very difficult to avoid sending Long Qi to the battlefield along with everyone else who was being sent.

"If traitors return from the battlefield, can't they be inspected one by one to ensure that they don't bring in any terror ants?" Lu Yin asked.

Qing Chen's voice fell low as he answered, "Do you know how those traitors hide the terror ants to smuggle them?"

Lu Yin shook his head.

"They raise them within their own bodies," Qing Chen dropped heavy words.

Lu Yin felt horrified. "They raise the ants inside their bodies?"

"They don't have to transport adult ants. They could transfer eggs, blood, or even a piece of one of these new terror ants' bodies. A single one of those items can be reverse-engineered through various methods to unleash this new strain of terror ant upon the Perennial World. It's basically impossible to search everyone heading down to the Lower Realm or prevent this issue from spreading once they return to the Perennial World," Qing Chen explained.

Lu Yin took a deep breath. "It's going to be very hard to capture all of the traitors."

Qing Chen replied, "This is the only way out of this mess. I will also be on the battlefield, and I will work to capture as many traitors as possible."

Lu Yin suddenly thought of the anteater that he had seen devouring the terror ants when he had Possessed a person in the Lower Realm. "Isn't there a beast in the Lower Realm that eats the terror ants?"

"There is one type of beast, but unfortunately, they are too weak. Those beasts would definitely die if they came across a large number of terror ants," Qing Chen lamented.

Lu Yin thought for a while and then drew an image of the anteater in the air. "Is this it?"

Qing Chen stared at the image and then asked, "What kind of creature is that?"

"You haven't seen this sort of creature before?" Lu Yin was surprised.

Qing Chen shook his head. He then suddenly thought of something, and he turned to stare at Lu Yin. "Have you seen this beast before? Did you say that it feeds on terror ants?"

Lu Yin nodded.

Qing Chen quickly asked, "Where did you see it?"

Lu Yin thought for a moment. "When Long Xi led me to visit the Ancestor Python, we encountered a terrifying swarm of terror ants. While we were fleeing for our lives, I happened to see it. I don't know exactly where it was, and I can't tell you without going there."

Qing Chen grew serious. "Are you certain that this creature can devour an entire swarm of terror ants?"

Lu Yin remembered what he had seen during his Possession. It had truly been an endless swarm of terror ants, and the anteater had definitely devoured them. "Absolutely."

Qing Chen fell deep into thought. No one would better understand the implications for the Perennial World if they found a natural predator of the terror ants.

Lu Yin had a general idea of how important this task was, so he felt that if he could bring the use of the anteater to light, his value would rise even higher than ever before.

"When you saw this creature, how did you escape?" Qing Chen asked.

Lu Yin explained, "It was eating the ants, so it didn't notice us. It might not have even been interested in us."

"In what manner did it devour the ants?"

"Its mouth. It had a massive, tube-like mouth."

…

Qing Chen asked many questions, but Lu Yin really had seen the anteater, albeit from someone else's body. He did not tell any lies either; it was true that the creature lived in the Lower Realm, and this was why Lu Yin was not afraid of any of Qing Chen's inquiries.

Also, Qing Chen had no suspicions that Lu Yin might be lying. He had never heard of such a creature before, and if someone was making up a creature, it would be best to at least use one that had been seen before. Besides, Qing Chen could not even think of any motivation for Lu Yin to lie.

"Would you be able to find the creature if you went back along your original route?" Qing Chen pressed.

Lu Yin considered the question, but then he shook his head. "I'm not sure."

Qing Chen thought for a while and then called someone as they continued to ride the paper to the south.

After a while, Qing Chen asked another question, "Was the creature you saw alone or a part of a herd of some sort?"

"It was all alone," Lu Yin said.

Qing Chen sighed. "That's unfortunate. It would be nice if they were herd creatures. These beasts can be seen as the terror ants' natural predator as they seem to exist to devour the ants. Unlike our human efforts to clean up the terror ants, these creatures might be able to completely eliminate the danger of the terror ants, which would be a massive boon for us.

"Still, if we can manage to find the creature, we might be able to breed the terror ants' natural enemy. You mentioned that the creature's mouth was able to restrain the ants." Suddenly, Qing Chen changed topics as he spoke to Lu Yin. "Long Qi, you provided information that has been used to capture many traitors, as well as the proof that showed that Yun Mubai was a Redback. You have also arrested multiple traitors on your own. Humility's Gate will award you with eighteen merit points for your achievements, and each of my Humility's Gate's merit points can be traded for ten battlefield merit points. This means that you currently have 180 battlefield merit points.

"When you arrive at the second array base, trade those points for defensive treasures. If you are short on battlefield merit points, then you can use Humility's Gate merit points you have just gained, which is an advance on the reward that for uncovering information on the terror ants."

This news delighted Lu Yin. "What kind of treasure could I get for 180 battlefield merit points?"

"You can browse through the list when you get there, but try to get something a bit better to protect yourself. The commander personally ordered you to go to the battlefield, and such an order cannot be easily changed. Otherwise, I would immediately take you to the Lower Realm to search for the creature that you saw before."

Lu Yin had no desire to search for the creature. After all, how could he possibly know where it was? "Can I only pick one item?"

Qing Chen was momentarily stunned. This child was rather greedy. "You can only pick one, but try to get the best one."

Lu Yin nodded. "Don't worry, Supervisor. I'll be careful with my choice."

Qing Chen nodded and said nothing more.

Lu Yin was extremely eager to get to the second array base and choose a good treasure. "Supervisor, I'm just curious, but is it possible to overdraw one's merit points?"

Lu Yin had suddenly thought of this potentially serious problem. How would he be able to pick out anything truly good if people before him had already chosen them?

Qing Chen said, "Of course not. At least, not without special circumstances."

Lu Yin snorted. His current situation was indeed quite special. He had identified a creature that was likely to be the terror ants' natural predator, and if that information was verified, it would have a huge impact on the Perennial World. However, the possibility of confirming such information was too remote to counteract the commander's orders. If that were not the case, then people would just make up random stories to escape from the battlefield. Commands could not be casually altered no matter what.

Still, Lu Yin had made himself important enough that Humility's Gate cared about his survival. Thus, they clearly intended to provide him with something that would keep him safe on the battlefield.

Lu Yin had heard Long Ke mention how many people had been drafted to the battlefield, but Lu Yin had not noticed anything so far. However, as they continued on their journey, he noticed many other people who were all traveling south. Some were alone, others were in groups, and others still were in crowds of hundreds or even thousands. However, all of them had somber expressions. They had been drafted.