In a corner of the fiery path, Lu Xuan's figure appeared silently. He didn't even activate his spiritual energy shield. He withstood the intense heat with his bare body and then strolled casually along the lava path.
Not far away, a human cultivator was standing not far from Lu Xuan. He stared at Lu Xuan from a distance, seemingly harboring some thoughts. However, seeing that Lu Xuan hadn't even activated his protective shield and was just standing on the lava road, the cultivator decisively turned and left.
Lu Xuan had no interest in killing and robbing. While such things were common in the cultivation world, Lu Xuan rarely did them. To him, the magical treasures of low-level cultivators were meaningless to his cultivation. As for spirit stones, he was the richest man in the Chaotic Star Sea. Therefore, his attention was only focused on things that interested him.
Soon, that thing appeared. The cultivator who was trying to get away from Lu Xuan suddenly turned around and rushed towards Lu Xuan in a disheveled state.
Lu Xuan turned his head and saw a swirling cloud of black sand chasing after him.
As the man ran, he conjured a bowl-shaped magical artifact, which emitted a golden light that enveloped him. The endless black sand instantly engulfed him.
A few breaths later, a silver flying blade sliced through the sand and shot out. But the next second, the man let out a scream. The silver flying blade was enveloped by countless 'black sand' and, in the blink of an eye, it seemed to melt away and vanished.
Lu Xuan then realized that what they were were not 'black sand', but swarms of flying ants, a top-tier spiritual insect called 'Iron Fire Ants'.
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Chapter 508 The Incomplete Insect Swarm
The Fire Ant is considered one of the two most dangerous flying ant species in the cultivation world. The other is called the Crystal Ant, but it is on the verge of extinction and has not appeared in the cultivation world for hundreds of years.
Iron fire ants, however, are occasionally spotted. These flying ants are not only impervious to blades and spears, but also immune to most magical attacks.
Aside from mid-tier and higher water and ice spells, and a few spells of other attributes that can harm them, they possess almost the same abnormal defensive capabilities as the Gold-Eating Insects. Furthermore, they surpass the Gold-Eating Insects in resisting direct attacks from magical artifacts.
Of course, they don't have the monstrous ability of the Gold-Eating Insects to devour spiritual energy. However, they can breathe out a peculiar black flame and can also combine and transform.
Black flames are specifically designed to counter the protective aura of magical artifacts. Once tainted by these black flames, even the most powerful magical artifacts will quickly lose their spiritual power and be rapidly devoured by the iron fire ants.
Their shape-shifting ability is even more peculiar. They can memorize the patterns of various attack magic weapons they have seen. In subsequent battles, the ant colony can form the shape of that magic weapon, temporarily transforming it into a fire-attribute magic weapon. It can be said that as long as there are enough Ironfire Ants, it is equivalent to possessing a fire-attribute magic weapon that can freely change its form.
Based on these characteristics, ordinary cultivators, as well as magical artifacts and supernatural powers, were utterly incapable of fighting against them. Therefore, within a few breaths, the cultivator was pierced through the heart by a black spear. Before his body even hit the ground, he was swarmed by countless iron fire ants. A few breaths later, there was no trace of the cultivator left in the world.
Lu Xuan, who witnessed this scene firsthand, was also amazed.
Fire ants are extremely rare because they live in very demanding environments.
Not only do they require scorching lava fields, but they also need abundant copper and iron ores nearby to survive. If they leave this environment, the fire ants will rapidly weaken. Before long, their special abilities will completely atrophy, making them almost indistinguishable from ordinary flying ants.
If that were all there was to it, there would be many cultivators who could control these flying ants. Creating a similar environment or directly seeking one for domestication and breeding is nothing compared to the allure of the iron fire ants.
However, a fatal limitation of these flying ants meant that the monks who wanted to take advantage of them could only leave disappointed.
Whether wild or domesticated, fire ants cannot recognize their master.
Whenever someone tries to control them using various rituals of recognition, the fire ants will spontaneously combust, without exception.
This shattered the dreams of all the cultivators!
As for the specific reasons, there are many theories. Some say it's because these flying ants have a strong personality and don't want to be driven by humans. Others say it's related to the physical constitution of the fire ants, and so on...
Of course, this information about the Ironfire Ant is rarely known, whether in the Southern Tiannan region or the Chaotic Star Sea.
For the past thousand years or so, very few people have encountered Ironfire Ants, and the size of their colonies has dwindled significantly. They are practically extinct spirit insects! To be precise, very few people encounter swarms of Ironfire Ants anymore. Occasionally, two or three might appear in some copper mines, but this is largely meaningless. Without sheer numbers, these spirit insects cannot compare to true spirit beasts, unless they are at the level of the Gold-Eating Insect King.
Lu Xuan stared at the fire ants in front of him, thinking about the relevant information in his mind, but he did not make a move for the time being.
Previously, he had used his divine sense to probe the iron fire ants from afar. Just as in the legends, these creatures possessed chaotic and frenzied divine senses, making communication impossible. No matter how much pressure he applied, it only provoked more intense resistance. If the pressure was too severe, their consciousness was directly erased by his vast divine sense, and they were then devoured by their own kind.
This made Lu Xuan even more interested in this thing. He didn't have the Heavenly Bottle, so he couldn't use a pill-making cheat like Old Demon Han to accelerate the growth of the Heaven-Devouring Gold Insect. But Lu Xuan also had another kind of cheat.
The beast-controlling secret technique that the Beast God passed on to him was also a unique cheat in this world.
Lu Xuan didn't rush to cross the black desert in front of him, but instead began to wear down the iron fire ants at the edge of the desert.
After failing to forcibly tame these iron fire ants using his divine sense, Lu Xuan attempted to modify them. Yes, it was the same secret technique used by the Beast God in the world of Jade Dynasty to modify magical beasts. In the Beast God's hands, any living creature was like a lump of mud, which he could mold at will. Whatever he molded, that was what it became. He could even gather mud into a single area and mold it into a super monster.
Lu Xuan couldn't achieve the same level of unbridled freedom as the Beast God. Mainly because he wasn't a spirit creature born of heaven and earth like the Beast God. However, over the past few centuries, Lu Xuan had spent time researching this secret technique. He developed a technique that used spiritual power to induce mutations in spirit beasts.
The results aren't as unpredictable as with the Beast God. However, with a few tries, you can usually get the results you want.
This time, however, Lu Xuan failed. He discovered that fire ants possessed extremely strong xenophobia, both in individuals and in the colony. He attempted to modify several fire ants within the colony, but each time he succeeded, the modified ant was immediately devoured by its own kind.
So he captured some iron fire ants and tried to control them alone outside. However, it still didn't work. Once the iron fire ants were distorted by Lu Xuan's secret technique, although he could control them, their devouring ability was greatly weakened. They were basically just ordinary spirit insects.
Lu Xuan vaguely guessed that the Iron Fire Ant's physical structure possessed an extremely domineering inheritance, and his secret technique was no match for that unique physical pattern.
Lu Xuan wasn't annoyed; on the contrary, he became even more interested. The more unique these iron fire ants were, the higher their value and the greater their potential. He had a feeling that these spirit insects, which made a fleeting appearance in the original story, might be more complex and have a more significant background than he had imagined.
Furthermore, after several days of research, Lu Xuan finally discovered something truly special about the fire ants: these fire ants in the black desert had no queen!
Ants do have queens. This is common knowledge in biology. In the world of cultivation, although many things cannot be explained by biology, the basic characteristics of ants still exist. Most ant-like spiritual insects have queens. However, the fire ant does not.
This discovery led Lu Xuan to a new hypothesis: the fire ant colony might not be complete. They should belong to a collective of organisms with a sense of community. However, this group currently lacks the central control system that governs this collective consciousness.
Therefore, what Lu Xuan perceived with his divine sense was absolute chaos. Their consciousness was completely incomplete.
This thing is very likely a creature similar to the Zerg in a game.
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Chapter 509 The Inner Palace Opens
To tame the Zerg, you need to control their queen. While fire ants aren't Zerg, they are a similar species. A single fire ant doesn't possess complete consciousness.
This isn't a matter of varying intelligence; rather, their intelligence is fundamentally incomplete. This is why it's impossible to control the fire ants no matter what.