139: Fire Ants

Qin Shilei looked at the helicopter behind them and asked, "You're not planning to transport grain by helicopter, are you?"

Lu Tian罡 hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Of course not. How much grain can a helicopter carry?"

Qin Shilei asked thoughtfully, "Do you have large-capacity spatial equipment, or has someone opened up a large-capacity Different Space?"

"Uh..." Lu Tian罡 stammered, "We just happened to acquire a spatial ring with a slightly larger capacity."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Qin Shilei with some apprehension, as if fearing that he would try to snatch it.

"Oh, that's an enviable piece of equipment. I wonder how big it is?"

Qin Shilei, however, was thinking to himself about when he could get some large-capacity spatial rings for An Qian and the others.

"It's not big, not big at all. It's about the size of a small truck bed, only a dozen cubic meters."

Although Lu Tian罡 said it wasn't big, his expression was full of self-satisfaction.

When everyone else's spatial rings were only 0.1 cubic meters, he could possess a ring of over ten cubic meters, which indeed made him feel very comfortable.

"You're not thinking of transporting grain back and forth with this space, are you? That's too dangerous, isn't it?" Qin Shilei asked.

Not long ago, he had personally witnessed a helicopter crash and burn due to a flock of small birds.

"He Shan District is really short on grain right now, so we have no choice but to take the risk," Lu Tian罡 explained with a frown.

"Actually, it's not just the danger of the round trip; the danger inside this granary is even greater."

Qin Shilei thought for a moment and decided to tell him that there were a large number of ants inside the granary.

After he finished speaking, he turned and walked into the granary, preparing to investigate where the ant queen was.

"Commander, should we go in now?" Li Feng asked.

"Let's go, but everyone be careful. If anything feels off, retreat immediately," Lu Tian罡 repeatedly cautioned.

"Commander, you're being too cautious. They're just ants; you can crush hundreds with one foot," Li Feng said with some indifference.

"If Qin Shilei bothered to warn us, it must be serious. It's best for everyone to be careful," Lu Tian罡 said.

"He said 'a large number' just now, so the count probably isn't small. It's better to be careful," another soldier chimed in.

"What's so great about a tiny ant? Even tens of thousands aren't enough for me to step on," Li Feng muttered softly.

But when he stepped into the granary, all his indifference turned into deep fear.

This 'large number' was indeed a billion times larger.

As far as the eye could see, it was a black mass of ants.

The number was probably in the tens of millions.

"Run!" Lu Tian罡 grabbed the still-stunned Li Feng and turned to run outside.

"Ah!" The last person running let out a scream, then was instantly submerged by ants.

That person, covered in a thick layer of ants, continued to run seven or eight steps forward, then stopped and thrashed around for a while before collapsing to the ground.

Lu Tian罡 heard the scream and looked back, just in time to see that person slump to the ground.

He knew in his heart that his teammate was beyond saving, so he continued to run towards the helicopter.

"Start it up quickly!" Lu Tian罡 shouted to the pilot as he ran.

It wasn't until Lu Tian罡 and the others were in the helicopter and airborne that the fear in their hearts slowly subsided.

"Look, Xiao Wu has been gnawed down to just bones," a soldier said sadly, pointing to a spot not far in front of the warehouse.

Li Feng looked down towards the warehouse, immediately filled with lingering fear.

If Lu Tian罡 hadn't pulled him just now, he might very well be a skeleton himself.

"Do you think Qin Shilei might have been eaten by the ants too?" the soldier asked.

"No, he wouldn't. He knew there were ants and still dared to go in; he must have a way to deal with them," Lu Tian罡 shook his head and replied.

"Commander, didn't you say he wasn't even afraid of cannon shells? He certainly wouldn't be afraid of these ants either," Li Feng also chimed in.

Although Li Feng and the others were full of confidence in Qin Shilei, Qin Shilei was indeed in a bit of trouble at the moment.

As soon as he entered the warehouse, he wandered around, hoping to find the ant queen.

However, apart from discovering an ant hole at the very back, he found nothing.

What was originally a hard tiled floor had been dug into a hole over one meter in diameter by the ants.

At this moment, countless black ants were crawling out of it.

Meanwhile, Qin Shilei was already covered in ants.

He casually activated a few bolts of lightning to electrocute the ants.

But soon, his body was covered in ants again.

Qin Shilei approached the hole and peered down.

He saw that the ant hole wound its way to an unknown destination, and the tunnel became smaller and smaller as it went down, with many branches, making it impossible for a person to enter.

Suddenly, he noticed dozens of ants, as large as arms, crawling out from below.

"Could it be that the ant queen is coming out?"

Qin Shilei's heart filled with joy, and he retreated slightly, so as not to startle the ant queen.

However, before the ant queen appeared, those dozens of large ants charged towards him menacingly.

Qin Shilei activated lightning again to clear the ants from his body, then took out his Blood Soul and slashed at the large ants.

Clang!

With one strike, it was like cutting into steel.

Despite the sharpness of his Blood Soul, Qin Shilei was unable to cut off the giant ant's head with a single sword stroke.

He had to deliver another strike before finally cleaving the ant's head.

These giant ants were at least dozens of times stronger than the ordinary ants, reaching about plastic eight or nine stars.

It was unknown how many of these giant ants there were; twenty or thirty had already crawled out, and they continued to emerge without stopping.

Qin Shilei instantly shifted to a beam on the warehouse ceiling.

He waited for a long time, but the ant queen didn't appear. However, the ants were already crawling up the wall along the beam towards him.

Qin Shilei had no choice but to use two consecutive instant shifts to leave the warehouse.

He summoned Xiao Qiang to fly into the sky, absorbing crystals to restore his vitality while observing the area below.

Because of their presence, a large number of ants had crawled out of the tunnels.

Looking down, the ground, walls, and roof were a dense black mass, all covered in ants.

The sight made one's scalp tingle and heart tremble with fear.

Once his vitality had mostly recovered, Qin Shilei moved on to several other warehouses.

Each warehouse also contained an enormous number of ants, as well as an ant-dug hole.

It was highly likely that these holes were interconnected.

Qin Shilei circled in the sky for a long time, but he never saw the ant queen appear.

Lu Tian罡 and the others remained hovering dozens of meters above the granary.

Perhaps due to the loud sound of the helicopter's rotor, the ants below had not returned to their holes.

"Since you won't come out, I'll force you out."

Qin Shilei had Xiao Qiang fly low over the ant swarm on the ground, while he took out a large barrel of gasoline and scattered it on the ground.

To avoid burning the grain inside the warehouse, he intentionally spread the gasoline away from the warehouse.

After he had covered a large area with gasoline, he casually took out a few wads of tissue, lit them, and threw them down.

The tissues instantly ignited the gasoline on the ground, and flames immediately shot into the sky.

A smell of burning flesh rose, and the ignited ants scattered in panic, but they were charred on the ground before they could escape far.

As for the ants that weren't burned, they retreated into the warehouse like a tide.

Qin Shilei descended to the ground again, holding two torches as he walked into the warehouse.

As he expected, after being burned once, the ants inside the warehouse, upon seeing Qin Shilei holding the torches, did not swarm him as they had the previous two times.