When an ant colony reaches a certain size, the queen will cultivate a batch of winged ants as successors. These winged ants will leave the nest at a specific time to mate and cultivate the next generation.

However, that was not the girl's goal. She had sent these ants out to search for her younger brother.

"Buzz, buzz..."

Even after turning into monsters, this pair of parents was still just as annoying, clinging on relentlessly.

A sickening soundwave echoed, powerful enough to drive an ordinary person insane.

Ruan Xing’s soul was already exceptionally strong, and after being supported by magic, these mental attacks were insignificant to him.

The real problem was how to shake off the persistent ants.

"I thought it was just luck, but your soul strength exceeds my expectations." The girl's voice rang out.

"However, that's all there is to it. You're just an ordinary human. Mom, Dad, let's finish this quickly tonight. For dinner, we'll have this guy's head. Just imagine—sticking a straw into that beautiful head and drinking it's content must be delicious, right?"

At some point, a small black orb had formed in Ruan Xing’s hand. As soon as the first flying ant lunged at him, he pushed the orb forward, sending the creature plummeting to the ground.

A thick purple hue spread across its body.

Poison still works on them.

The girl scoffed. "Your abilities must be running low by now. If you surrender obediently, I might just keep your face as a decoration."

—

"Senior, you’re always so impatient. Qiao Zhi’s team hasn't fully evacuated yet." Chen Yihang casually blasted an ant’s head with a single shot.

Pei Ye replied casually, "My goddess’s new drama is airing in a few hours…"

As he moved, the small tuft of hair on his head bobbed up and down, its grayish-white color particularly distinct in the night-vision display.

"The level of this polluted area is not high, but there are too many ants, which are really annoying to deal with. I hate cleaning up these low-level pests."

Pei Ye grumbled as he fought. "Hey, can’t you summon something more useful? This one isn't great for clearing enemies. How are we supposed to handle this with single-target attacks?"

Chen Yihang held up his transparent umbrella. An ant soldier snapping its mandibles lunged forward, but when it entered the umbrella’s coverage, it instantly disintegrated into dust.

[Teleportation Umbrella]

Any hostile entity entering its coverage area will be transported to another world in the form of dust.

Remaining summons for today: (1/3).

"I can't control what I summon. You know how random my ability is," Chen Yihang replied.

Pei Ye sighed in exasperation. "Can’t you at least negotiate with your ability? You can't always be this reckless."

Chen Yihang said he would try his best.

Pei Ye stopped for a moment as he sighed again. He raised his hands in front of him, right hand above, and his left hand below. He spread his fingers and began drawing a circle—first counterclockwise, then clockwise.

A circular shape formed from swirling air, flickering faintly in and out of view.

"Open your mouth," Pei Ye instructed.

Chen Yihang opened his mouth obediently.

The circle became more distinct—like an entrance to the eye of a tornado. Suddenly, a massive compressed air blast shot forward, cutting through the dense swarm of ants.

The originally robust worker and soldier ants were crushed to dust under the concentrated windstorm.

The sheer force of the attack left a ringing noise in Chen Yihang’s ears, drowning out all other sounds.

"Shit! The tunnel is collapsing!" Pei Ye grabbed the dazed Chen Yihang and ran. "We should've called an earth-element user for this kind of underground map! What the hell am I doing here as a wind user?!"

Dirt crumbled from the ceiling as the tunnel shook violently.

Chen Yihang swallowed hard, and the pressure in his eardrum finally returned to normal: "The earth-element Awakened are supporting Qiao Zhi’s team."

The tunnel caved in behind them. At the last second, Pei Ye yanked Chen Yihang out of the collapsing passage.

Brushing dirt out of his hair, Pei Ye sighed. "I hope they manage to save everyone. We should head to the queen’s nest soon."

Chen Yihang glanced at his wristband. "Senior, someone’s already there."

Pei Ye turned. "Who?"

The baby-faced man pointed at his wristband. "Ruan Xing."

—

The flying ants sped up, slamming Ruan Xing to the ground with crushing force. His body curled up involuntarily, and a pained groan escaped his throat.

Somehow, the girl had summoned another wave of flying ants, and their attacks were growing fiercer.

They destroyed the queen’s wardrobe and tore apart her bookshelf but still failed to capture the agile human. Frustrated, they grew even more aggressive.

Their most effective weapon was mental attacks—but since those didn’t work on Ruan Xing, they began rubbing their antennae together to discuss something.

These creatures made no sound, and the Spirit Speaker ability could not hear their unique form of communication.

Moments later, the flying ants stopped attacking individually and instead formed a circle, like an overturned bowl, attempting to trap him underneath.

Ruan Xing rolled to dodge, but he hadn't anticipated an attack from behind.

A middle-aged woman’s leg stabbed straight through his body, and his pupils dilated in shock.

Dark stains spread across his clothing—a sight that was both horrifying and striking.

“Ruan Xing!” The crow dove toward him, only to be swatted away by a swift and agile ant-man.

A silver-bell-like laughter rang out from the girl. “Mom, it's time to eat.”

Her massive body wriggled, and sticky, mucus-covered flying ants emerged from her transparent form. Spreading their wings, they quickly joined the attacking swarm.

Ruan Xing’s gem-like eyes moved slightly. Slowly, he raised his hand and made a throwing motion behind him. A small object landed behind one of the ants.

Once immobilized, the flying ants lost their advantage.

The middle-aged woman's legs trembled slightly. In the next moment, she was about to shove Ruan Xing into her mouth, failing to notice the faint smile on the injured young man's lips.

The girl's face changed. “Throw him away!”

But it was already too late.

Boom!

A wave of intense heat burst forth, kicking up dust and sand. Both the youth and the monster were flung aside, staining the ground red with shattered internal organs scattering everywhere.

Fortunately, with a monster as a meat shield, Ruan Xing only coughed a little blood. The broken pieces on the ground all belonged to the creature.

A shriveled mass of mycelium extended a single thread toward the blood Ruan Xing had coughed up, greedily absorbing it. It trembled violently as if experiencing immense satisfaction.

Fu Gui exclaimed, “Wah wah wah! Quick, green light!”

Ruan Xing pressed his palm against the wound and noticed the mycelium getting high from the blood it had just absorbed.

"MOM! How dare you!!"

The girl was both shocked and furious at the sight. “Healing ability? The Investigation Corps actually sent a healer to kill me?!”

Ruan Xing coughed twice, wiping the blood from the corner of his lips with his fingertips. “Is your mother still with you now?”

The girl waved her slender, pale limbs. “Of course she is! She is my mother!”

Ruan Xing leaned forward slightly. “Your mother died the moment you turned into a pollutant. You killed her yourself by cutting off her head with your own hands. It floated up like a balloon—don’t you remember?"

The silver-haired girl’s hair practically stood on end. She screamed, “I didn't kill her! You're lying! Dad, kill him!”

The young man lay on the ground, gravely wounded and completely defenseless, like a fish on the chopping board. And yet, he dared to say such things! He was simply looking for death!

The middle-aged male ant led the remaining ant-man in a charge, intending to tear the defenseless young man to pieces. Their jaws were already open, revealing rows of densely packed teeth.

Ruan Xing gently shook his head. "You are just deceiving yourself."

A faint glow began to radiate from his body.

Seeing this, the girl sneered. “Even if you can heal yourself a hundred times, I can kill you a hundred times!”

But Ruan Xing’s smile deepened. "I’m not healing myself."

Under the girl’s astonished gaze, the light began to gather—not on Ruan Xing but on the feeble mycelium beside him.

“If you wanted to eat so badly… then go ahead and eat to your heart’s content."

It was as if a sudden gust of wind had blown through a field of dandelions, scattering them everywhere.

The mycelium stretched and expanded at an alarming rate. What was once a fist-sized fluffball now swelled like an inflating balloon, growing larger and larger.

It was like a cotton candy machine running at full power, spinning out endless strands of sugary threads. The delicate silk floated and stretched, filling the air with a faint sweetness.

The mycelium’s growth was astonishing. It was no longer “threads” but a massive “mass.”

Bathed in a ghostly green glow, it swelled unnaturally like force-feeding an already stuffed duck to cultivate the finest foie gras.

In the blink of an eye, the little mycelium had expanded to the height of an entire floor.

Ruan Xing chuckled. “Now, who's really at the top of the food chain?”

The mycelium suddenly expanded as if someone had popped a balloon with a needle. White filaments filled the air, swirling and entangling everything in their path.

Some strands lunged toward Ruan Xing, while others shot toward the airborne ant-men.

Sensing danger, the ant-men attempted to flee, but by then, the filaments had already spread throughout the entire cavern, leaving them with no place to escape.

The dense white mycelium wove together into an unbreakable net, rapidly contracting and trapping several flailing insects before binding them tightly.

The winged ants plummeted to the ground with dull thuds.

At this point, the smile on the silver-haired girl’s lips had not even faded yet.

Everything had happened in just a matter of seconds. Like flies caught in a spider’s web, the insects were now firmly imprisoned.

On the other side, the mycelium inched closer to Ruan Xing.

Fu Gui: "It's over! We're gonna be eaten!"

But the mycelium stopped just before him, as if lifting its "head," and gave a small nod. "Like it! Like it!"

Then, it happily coiled around Ruan Xing's wrist.

Great. This thing had evolved to the point where it could speak two-word phrases fluently.

Frustrated by Ruan Xing’s recklessness, Fu Gui scolded him: [Good thing this thing isn’t hostile toward you, or we’d be dead already!]

Ruan Xing responded calmly: [Maybe it understands the concept of ‘draining the pond to catch the fish’ better than we do.]

Killing him would provide a one-time benefit, but protecting Ruan Xing meant a continuous source of nourishment.

Ruan Xing gazed at the white mycelium coiled around his wrist with an unreadable expression.

The queen's body was too large to move, so she relied entirely on other ants to defend her while she crushed intruders with her immense mental power.

Her mental domain had briefly taken effect when Ruan Xing first invaded, but the young man had already anticipated it and repelled it within seconds.

Outside the nest, her knights were still loyally fighting, unaware that her personal guards had already been subdued like rats trapped in a cage. They screeched and struggled, but the white prison held firm.

Their segmented limbs stretched desperately through the gaps, writhing and thrashing.

But in the girl’s eyes, those slender limbs transformed into a pair of aged hands—hands that once guided her steps, helped her learn to speak, cooked her meals, and mended her clothes.

Now, those same hands were struggling helplessly in a suffocating cage.

A faint purple mist thickened in the air.

Ruan Xing sighed. “I thought this wouldn’t work on you.”

[Poison Mist]

The amount of magic controlled the range and potency of the mist, and it stacks negative effects such as dizziness and slowed movement.

At excessive concentrations, the affected would experience hallucinations—or even life-threatening conditions.

This time, Ruan Xing had truly drained his magic reserves.

Scattered images flickered before the eyes of the silver-haired girl.

"Sister, I don't understand this question. Can you explain it to me?" A familiar young voice echoed, so familiar that it seemed she heard it every day.

But… who was it?

—"Your Majesty, the worker ants have found a lot of human corpses today, but… still no sign of your brother."

—"Get lost! You useless fools! Keep searching! The world is too dangerous—what if something happens to him?!"

—"But, Your Majesty, you said he was with the Investigation Corps—"

—"That’s exactly why it’s dangerous! Hurry up and find him! He isn't allowed to get hurt!"

—"Yes, Your Majesty."

A massive soldier ant bowed, speaking in a familiar tone and voice.

"I will always stay by your side, Your Majesty."

He stood guard at the entrance of the queen's nest to ensure its safety.

I will dedicate everything I have to you.

Whatever you desire, I will provide.

But I will never let you know the truth.

How could I tell you that the brother you desperately searched for so long had already succumbed to corruption and become a monster?

How could I tell you that you will never find him—because he has always been by your side all along?

—

"Sister, Mom is still angry. You haven't eaten yet, have you? I made some instant noodles for you."

A small boy, his hands wrapped in bandages, smiled as he held up a bowl.

"It’s my first time cooking. I don’t know if it tastes good."

—

"Sister, I beat up those guys who bullied you and made them kneel and apologize. Look!"

A teenager, his hands covered in wounds, grinned proudly as he held up his phone.

—

"I'll find a way to deal with it at the company."

—

"Sis… I’m sorry. I really didn’t know that Xiao Mi would run out from that spot— Shut up! Can’t you see my sister is upset?! Get lost!"

Amidst his friends’ hushed murmurs, the young man crouched down with tears streaking down his cheeks.

"Let’s bury her."

—

That was her beloved little brother—the family she could never bear to harm.

No matter how painful life had been, how could she ever let go of the one person who made it all bearable?

Tears blurred her vision, causing the shadows of the past to overlap with the present.