Chapter 1486 Hivemind and Corpse
Xia Fan’s group of eight, having taken shelter from the Demonic Ant horde in the Seal Formation, sighed in relief and joy.
Right after entering the Demon Chasm, they had all realized to their collective shock that their special abilities were ineffective against the Demonic Ants.
The worst off were Thousand Ink, Duanmu Heng, and Luo Jiuyi. Thousand Ink’s combat beasts evaporated on contact with the Demonic Ants, and the same was true for Luo Jiuyi’s cat clones.
Duanmu Heng’s special ability was vines, a plant-type special ability that could take control of a large part of the battlefield. But when surrounded by the Demonic Ants, let alone control the battlefield, Duanmu Heng had a hard time just surviving. The thick vines would instantly sag weakly and soften open contact with the Demonic Ants.
!!
The special abilities of the others were also affected to varying levels. Traveling Buddha’s Battle Buddha Golden Light would become a flickering lightbulb on contact with the Demonic Ants, but fortunately, his combat power was only weakened, not completely neutralized, allowing him to continue fighting.
In short, Xia Fan was the only person whose special ability was completely unaffected. He rushed to and fro across the battlefield, forging a bloody path through the Demonic Ants and leading everyone to a safe zone.
“It’s bizarre! My combat beasts are completely ineffective, becoming limp shrimps on contact!” Thousand Ink gripped his combat beast pictures as his entire body trembled, so angry that he almost crumpled them and threw them to the ground.
Everyone sighed in sympathy. This ability of Demonic Ants to neutralize special abilities was truly too bizarre, dealing a severe blow to everyone’s confidence.
At that moment, Xia Fan stood up and looked toward the surrounded Murder Shrine army in the distance. “Although I don’t know what these ant monsters are and why they can neutralize our special abilities, through this battle, it’s not hard to realize that they can neutralize all outward-facing special abilities.”
Everyone realized to their shock that Xia Fan was right. Traveling Buddha’s Battle Buddha Golden Light needed to radiate out, as did Thousand Ink’s combat beasts. That was why they were affected.
Meanwhile, Xia Fan’s Speed ability only worked on himself. Its operating principle was to boost the user’s speed, not throwing out speed to hurt one’s enemies. Of course, speed wasn’t some solid object, so it couldn’t be thrown out. That was why he was unaffected!
“What are you doing?” Traveling Buddha was Xia Fan’s old partner, and he instantly sensed that something was wrong and questioned Xia Fan.
At this moment, they had successfully taken shelter in the center of the Seal and were far from danger. But Xia Fan had lowered his body and taken up a sprinting posture, taking aim at that group of enemies that was in dire peril.
Xia Fan didn’t answer. Traveling Buddha followed Xia Fan’s gaze and saw that the Murder Shrine’s force was in dire straits. It was losing men every second, and there were now less than a thousand people left in it.
This was the moment!
Xia Fan’s eyes flashed, and his legs pushed against the ground at full force, carrying him into the Demonic Ant horde.
“You’re crazy! Hurry and come back!” Jin Yu shouted in alarm. Everyone had escaped, and now that they realized, to their stunned disbelief, that Xia Fan had charged back into the Demonic Ant horde, their hearts were thumping madly.
That guy had run back in! For what? Did he want to finish off the Murder Shrine’s force?
No, things didn’t go how they imagined at all. Xia Fan wasn’t going there to kill, but to save!
He forged a bloody path through the horde, and when he got close to the Murder Shrine force, he reached out and grabbed a hawk-nosed fellow, dragging him back to the Seal Formation.
Traveling at an insane 1200 meters per second, Xia Fan was able to get in and out of the terrifying Demonic Ant horde twice!
The Speed ability truly deserved its reputation as the most tyrannical special ability!
Thump!
Upon returning to the formation, Xia Fan threw the hawk-nosed man to the ground and sternly said, “This guy is the Murder Shrine commander. He must know what’s going out. Bind him up for me so that he can explain things!”
Everyone now realized that Xia Fan had taken this person back to get a better understanding of the situation.
Xia Fan sat his butt on the ground and shook off the blood on his arms. It was obvious that charging in and out of the Demonic Ant horde twice had left him very tired.
…
With Anyo captured by Xia Fan, the Murder Shrine force was deprived of its commander and was quickly engulfed by the Demonic Ants. As for the pale Anyo, he was bound up by Duanmu Heng’s vines.
Xia Fan rested for a while and then said to Duanmu Heng, “Release him.”
“Why? What if this guy escapes?” Duanmu Heng looked at Xia Fan in confusion.
Xia Fan shook his head and glanced at Anyo out of the corner of his eyes. “Relax. He no longer has anywhere to go. Running out of here is suicide, and he can’t even return to the Murder Shrine. He has no way of explaining how he survived while all his subordinates died.”
Anyo was startled by Xia Fan’s words. This was a sharp and incisive assessment aimed straight at Anyo’s heart. Anyo truly had no way of explaining his wretched defeat.
Duanmu Heng obeyed Xia Fan and released Anyo. Xia Fan smiled and asked, “Can you tell me your name?”
None of them were unfamiliar with Anyo’s identity. Before joining the Murder Shrine, Anyo had been a four-star admiral in the Republic. As an ordinary person with no special abilities, Anyo could be said to have made history by becoming a Republic admiral. He was extremely famous among the traitors of the Three Federations, and he had probably had a very high status in the Murder Shrine.
Xia Fan asked Anyo what this place was and what was up with those ant monsters.
Anyo rubbed his hands, resentment in his eyes as he looked at the Demonic Ants now surrounding the Seal Formation. “This place is the legendary Demon Chasm, and those black things capable of standing on two legs are Demonic Ants.”
“Demonic Ants?”
“Yes, Demonic Ants are part of a sapient race completely different from us humans. If you understand distributed computing, then you understand what sort of existence Demonic Ants are.”
“What do these Demonic Ants have to do with distributed computing?”
The one who asked this question was Traveling Buddha. Anyo looked at him and then dropped his head and explained heavily, “The Demonic Ants all share one mind. To put it another way, their mind is actually a single being. Look outside the Seal Formation. There are probably several million Demonic Ants out there, but they’re all actually a single unit, but not exactly. They actually possess a terrifying ability to organize, able to marshal up several million individuals and become an enormous monster of terrifying strength.”
Xia Fan slightly frowned. “Since the Demonic Ants are so formidable at organizing, then why haven’t they done that?”
Anyo looked at that giant white pearl in the center of the seal and said, “Because their hivemind was Sealed by the Skywings. Look there. All of the Demonic Ants are circling their hivemind, unwilling to leave, precisely because they want to take back the hivemind. But because the hivemind is Sealed, all the Demonic Ants have lost their ability to organize themselves into a single unit.”
Xia Fan thought that over and said, “Since that thing is the Demonic Ant’s hivemind, if we destroy it, won’t all the Demonic Ants die?”
Anyo bitterly shook his head. “It’s not that simple. If this hivemind is destroyed, they will immediately produce a new hivemind. The only solution is to Seal the hivemind and ensure that it isn’t damaged. Otherwise, the Demonic Ant horde will be reborn like a phoenix from the ashes.”
Everyone couldn’t help but tremble in fear at Anyo’s words.
The Demonic Ants were like unkillable cockroaches. Destroying their hivemind would only mean that they would birth a new hivemind. Even the powerful Skywings had only been able to Seal the hivemind rather than exterminate the Demonic Ants.
Xia Fan clicked his tongue in wonder. “In other words, you came here with such great fanfare to take control of the Demonic Ant hivemind to control them?”
Anyo shook his head again. “There’s no controlling the Demonic Ants. Not even taking their hivemind will do anything. What we wanted is what was under the hivemind.
“Several years ago, we obtained a corpse of a Skywing warrior called Xia Chen. At that time, we also found Xia Chen’s notebook with his corpse. From the notebook, we learned that the Skywings had engaged in a great battle with the Demonic Ants here and the exact location where the Demonic Ants were Sealed.”
Xia Chen? That was his relative!
Xia Fan felt like his mouth was dry, and he had an almost irrepressible urge to grab Anyo by the collar and lift him up.
Not too long ago, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha had been imprisoned in a warship graveyard. There, Xia Fan had found the memorial stele to Xia Chen, but he had not found Xia Chen’s remains. Sure enough, the Murder Shrine had stolen Xia Chen’s body! These accursed scoundrels couldn’t even let his relatives rest in peace!
“What else did the notebook say? What did the Skywings put beneath the hivemind!?” Xia Fan roared at Anyo.
