Among the cultivators, An Lin and his two friends were the ones closest to the explosion, but they had the protection of the Gundams, thereby ensuring their safety.
The Ant Queen was at the very epicenter of the explosion, and the nuclear bomb was detonated inside her, so it would simply be bullsh*t if she still managed to survive.
The sixteen powerful ants were also somewhat affected by the blast.
They all charged violently toward the cultivators in a fit of blinding rage at the sight of their Ant Queen being detonated.
As the instigators, An Lin, Xu Xiaolan, and Xuanyuan Cheng were their main targets. In particular, Xuanyuan Cheng, who had set off the nuclear bomb, came under ferocious attack as many of the ants risked severe injury to initiate kamikaze attacks on him.
âHold on, everyone, the Ant Queen is already dead. Sixteen injured ants are no match for us, keep calm and grind them down! Weâll be able to secure victory easily!â Sword Immortal Ling Xiao transmitted his voice to everyone.
An Lin and his group were forced into constant retreat after the explosion, and if it wasnât for the protection from the Gundams, they would probably have been shredded into mincemeat already.
The situation began to become a bit complex as all the cultivators gathered around the route through which Xuanyuan Cheng was escaping and engaged in guerrilla warfare tactics while the ants initiated kamikaze attacks on Xuanyuan Cheng.
A huge ant completely disregarded the fact that one of its arms had been slashed away when it crushed a Spirit Nurturing Stage cultivatorâs head into a pulp, simply because the cultivator was standing in the way of its pursuit of Xuanyuan Cheng.
The onset of blinding rage for the Ant Tribe made the battle even brutal as casualties began to quickly pile up on both sides.
Just as An Lin was quickly retreating through Dog Kinesis Flight, a dashboard suddenly began to flash in his mind.
He was greatly startled by the flashing dashboard and almost crashed his dog.
When he managed to calm himself down and come to his senses, he came to a sudden realization. Could this be⊠the system!?
Thatâs right, Iâm a man with a system!
An Linâs eyes instantly lit up. The system had remained silent for a whole year, leaving him with only the words âcultivate hard and improve every dayâ, leading to him completely forgetting about its existence.
He opened the dashboard excitedly and discovered that there was a special mission flashing.
[Detected that host is being pursued by the Ant Tribe, now assigning the special mission below:
Kill three Soul Formation Stage ants by hostâs own hand.
Mission Success: Upgrade the Wind Spirit Technique to the second stage (Wings of Wind)
Mission Failure: Deduct twenty vital stones.]
An Lin winced as he read through the conditions for the mission. He wanted to smash the system into pieces.
What the f*ck! The system wanted him to kill three Soul Formation Stage ants by his own hand? He was being chased down by a bunch of ants who were initiating kamikaze attacks on him. If he turned around to counter-attack now, it was probably as good as relinquishing his own life!
An enraged yell suddenly sounded behind An Lin.
He turned to find a huge ant enshrouded completely in a black mist with a black staff in its hand, which had already closed in to within a hundred feet to An Linâs group.
A few dozen black skulls suddenly erupted from the black staff, all of them screeching dreadfully as the black mist swirled and obscured the sky, before flowing toward the three of them like a black tidal wave.
âGundam One, Gundam Two, stop them!â
An Lin once again summoned his two Gundams in the face of the fearsome attack.
Two shiny silver automatons stood guard behind An Lin, one of them releasing the Ionic Deprivation Protection Formation, blocking the black mist attack, while the other initiated a gravity amplification force field, causing the huge ant shrouded in black mist to plummet toward the ground.
An Lin did not even have a chance to breathe a sigh of relief before another huge ant charged at him.
This ant was golden in color, and it unleashed insane speed in pursuit of the three of them.
How dare you kill mother! Even if I die, Iâll take you down with me!
The huge ant roared even louder as golden blood gushed from its body. One of its arms and both its legs had been slashed away, but it still pointed its remaining arm at Xuanyuan Cheng as it flew toward him like a golden sword.
Xuanyuan Cheng knew that he couldnât evade the attack, so he turned and activated his Myriad Spirit Taichi Technique.
A circular energy barrier enveloped his whole body and the projection of a yin-yang symbol appeared behind him.
An Lin also stopped and brought out his Evil-Slaying Sword.
âDie!â The huge ant had already appeared in front of Xuanyuan Cheng and was stabbing its remaining arm toward Xuanyuan Chengâs heart.
âReverse Heaven and Earth.â Xuanyuan Cheng became motionless at this moment, and his body seemed to merge with the world around him. His longsword rippled like water as he stabbed toward the seemingly-invincible golden arm.
The antâs body was pushed away from its original trajectory and the two of them passed each other by.
In the instant they passed each other, Xuanyuan Cheng slashed out at his assailantâs stomach and golden blood burst forth again.
Xu Xiaolanâs flaming sword then slashed down, catching the antâs body alight.
The huge ant stared at them with its eyes wide open, clearly in shock at the fact that the three of them who had just been running for their lives could rally up such a powerful resistance.
In the next instant, An Lin had already used his Wind Sword technique to decapitate the huge ant.
âDing Dong. Completed one-third of mission criteria.â
An Lin faltered slightly at the notification. One out of three just like that?
Hmm⊠It seemed like delivering the killing blow on a few half-dead ants was not impossibleâŠ
The three of them glanced at each other, then began to escape again in perfect sync!
In order to be able to use the Wind Sword technique again, An Lin swallowed a Blood Spirit Pill to recover his energy and vitality.
Soon, another two ants broke through the defensive line of cultivators and pounced toward them in a kamikaze attack.
âIâm starting to regret being so nosy, I couldâve been spared from being huntedâŠâ Xu Xiaolan repented with a sour expression.
If she hadnât been so stupid and burned the Ant Queenâs arse, she wouldnât have to deal with the crazed pursuit of these Soul Formation Stage ants.
âDonât panic. There are another two ants coming now, Iâm going to stage a counter-attack!â An Linâs eyes glowed as he prepared for battle.
Xu Xiaolan and Xuanyuan Cheng both turned to look at him with incredulity.
Xu Xiaolan exclaimed in surprise, âYou were the first to fall back in retreat, when did you become so brave?â
Xuanyuan Cheng looked at him with approval. âClassmate An Lin, youâve truly shown me a new side to yourself.â
An Lin was a little dejected. So thatâs what Iâm like in their heartsâŠ
A huge ant transformed into a ball of fire and crashed toward Xuanyuan Cheng like a flaming comet.
As expected, their primary target was still Xuanyuan Cheng.
An Lin was pondering whether the ants would all focus on Xuanyuan Cheng if they split up.
But there was no point to that train of thought as he was definitely not going to abandon Big Brother Cheng.
âBastard, donât try to escape from my sword formation!â Someone yelled from above and a light sword shot forth at an unbelievable speed, piercing through the antâs flames and running through its body.
An Lin looked up to find that one of the sword instructors in the university had initiated the attack.
âPwahâŠâ A huge hole appeared in the antâs chest as its momentum was completely halted.
Its whole body was riddled with wounds, but it still persisted in its pursuit of Xuanyuan Cheng, only its speed was gradually falling awayâŠ
An Lin moved now, his Wind Sword technique was as quick as lightning as it sliced off the antâs head in one clean slash.
âDing Dong. Two-thirds of the mission has been completed.â
At that moment, a chilling sense of terror enveloped An Lin.
âHowl!â The howl of a dragon erupted like roaring thunder.
Four black dragons with terrifying auras pounded toward An Lin.
A huge ant in black armor stood in the center of the black dragons and spoke in a cold voice, âYou dare to kill my brothers, Iâll have you slaughtered in vengeance!â
An Lin cursed to himself in his heart. This ant seems to have a little bit too much HP left!