I Became the Alchemy Master by Picking Up Trash-Chapter 193 - 191: Xi Yuan Tournament (Part 17)

Chu Yunyi was frowning, trying hard to swallow the rock salt crab meat, when he suddenly sensed something unusual outside. He made a gesture for everyone to keep silent.

Jiang Yuesheng, who was also at the Heavenly Armor level in spiritual power, sensed something was wrong as well. He quietly got up and switched the Qianji tent to stealth mode.

Through the one-way viewing talisman, they saw a giant creature, six meters tall and twenty meters long, slowly walking into the Stone Forest.

This is a level twelve adult Tube-Nosed Monitor. Its body is covered with brown scales, and its limbs are thick and powerful, each foot has five long and sharp claws. Its head is slender, with eyes and ears so small they are almost imperceptible, and its nose and snout are tubular, lacking teeth. Its long red tongue constantly flicks in and out, capturing the pheromones of its prey.

The Tube-Nosed Monitor’s cranial structure dictates that ants and other insect Star Beasts are the only food it can eat, but this doesn’t mean it has a mild temperament.

On the contrary, because its eyesight and hearing functions are degraded, the Tube-Nosed Monitor cannot detect distant dangers through vision or hearing, so it often uses feigned attacks to scare away large Star Beasts lurking nearby.

Thus, one often sees a Tube-Nosed Monitor walking quietly one moment, and in the next moment, it roars, stomps, and jumps, throwing a fit at nearby boulders or deadwood, like a ten-ton lunatic.

The Tube-Nosed Monitor is an Earth Attribute Star Beast, its scales extremely hard and sturdy, and being at the peak of high-level Star Beasts, rather than exhausting efforts to kill it, it’s better to wait quietly for it to leave.

The Tube-Nosed Monitor is half-blind; as long as they remain quiet, it would never discover their Qianji tent.

However, things did not develop as Tianyi Team had anticipated; the Tube-Nosed Monitor was not just passing by, it specifically came to the Stone Forest to forage.

They saw its tongue flick in and out, and it soon selected a ten-meter-high stone peak. Rising on its hind legs, it extended its long snout into a hole. Soon, the Tube-Nosed Monitor’s long tongue wrapped around an Ant Beast and dragged it out from the hole in the stone peak.

This was a small Red Fierce Ant, entirely blood-red, with sharp and strong mandibles, resembling a pair of scythes, which opened and closed relentlessly to attack the Tube-Nosed Monitor.

Unfortunately, compared to the Tube-Nosed Monitor’s size, the small Red Fierce Ant’s mandibles were like a nail clipper and within moments it was dragged into the long snout and swallowed whole.

The digestive power of the Tube-Nosed Monitor’s gastric juices is exceedingly strong; no matter how thick an ant’s shell is, once it enters its stomach, it is dissolved into liquid within seconds and flows into its intestines.

The crispy small Red Fierce Ant successfully whetted the Tube-Nosed Monitor’s appetite, making it crave more. Its sharp claws reached into the stone hole and clawed hard, toppling large rocks. The entrance to the stone hole expanded several times.

With its whole head inside, the Tube-Nosed Monitor frantically consumed the small Red Fierce Ants resting in the hole.

Inside the Qianji tent, Chu Yunyi’s gaze was fixed on the towering stone peaks, his expression grave.

So this Stone Forest is the lair of the Red Fierce Ant Beasts. No wonder each stone peak has numerous holes; those are the entrances and exits for the Red Fierce Ants.

These Red Fierce Ants forage by day and rest at night. The timing of their arrival was just right to avoid the ant colony’s active period, keeping them unscathed.

But with the Tube-Nosed Monitor’s commotion, the ant colony will surely strike back. The Qianji tent can deceive the sight-impaired Tube-Nosed Monitor, but it can’t fool the Ant Clan. When the ant colony dispatches a large number of soldiers to battle, they will undoubtedly be exposed.

Rather than being encircled and attacked as intruders by the Ant Clan, it’s better to seize the time and dash out before things escalate.

Chu Yunyi made up his mind and gestured to Jiang Yuesheng and An Qing. The two immediately understood, shielding Lin Caier as they emerged from the tent front and back. The four of them took advantage of the night as cover and retreated in the opposite direction of the battle.

At this moment, the Tube-Nosed Monitor had already devoured dozens of small Red Fierce Ants. As it greedily widened the hole further, the ant colony no longer needed to be trapped in their nest awaiting slaughter. They quickly streamed out of the damaged hole.

The Red Fierce Ants that ran out raised their antennae, shaking them rapidly in the air to receive orders from the higher-ranking Red Fierce Ants.

The Red Fierce Ants are highly social creatures. Those living in the same colony evolve into different forms and assume various social roles due to their division of labor. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The group of Red Fierce Ants that emerged was bigger than the small Red Fierce Ants, with more prominent, massive mandibles, and had a serrated edge more suitable for fighting and biting.

They are the primary combat forces of the ant colony—the Big Red Fierce Ants. When the colony is threatened, these Big Red Fierce Ants are led by General Fierce Ants in groups to kill the intruders.

The two General Fierce Ants swiftly assessed the surrounding situation. After gathering enough information, they faced their antennae to each other, quickly shaking them a few times before separating again. One turned its head and charged towards the Stone Forest behind, while the other issued orders to the Big Red Fierce Ants.

The Big Red Fierce Ants’ antennae quivered as they received the general’s order, revealing their giant mandibles and advancing to encircle the Tube-Nosed Monitor.

On the other side, Chu Yunyi was leading the team to quickly retreat from the Stone Forest. Ant Clan Star Beasts are extremely sensitive to Elemental Power fluctuations, so Chu Yunyi dared not use the Wind Rolling Dust Formation. They had to run to leave.

Because of the Yellow Spring Soil, Chu Yunyi couldn’t sense how many Red Fierce Ants were beneath this Stone Forest. But he had to prepare for the worst.

If the entire Stone Forest is the nest of the Red Fierce Ant Beasts, then undoubtedly, they are dancing on the razor’s edge now.

The Tube-Nosed Monitor has already angered the Ant Clan. Unexpectedly, the Red Fierce Ant Colony will dispatch its elite forces—their strongest combatants—to eradicate the outsiders who dared to sow chaos on their territory.

Chu Yunyi hoped the Tube-Nosed Monitor would create more chaos, so the Ant Clan’s attention would be entirely focused on it, overlooking them, the few outsiders caught in the turmoil.

But unfortunately, things often go in the opposite direction of what is desired.

Just as Chu Yunyi and the others were about to reach the edge of the Stone Forest, the General Fierce Ants, who had gone back to communicate, had already reached the foot of a stone peak. With its massive and hard mandibles, it struck the stone, producing a rhythmic "thump-thump" sound.

These stone peaks are hollow. The knocking sounds, like drumbeats, quickly spread from one place to every corner of the Stone Forest.

The thumping sound was the call to battle, and a slight tremor emanated from deep within the Earth.

Chu Yunyi thought to himself that this was not good. Without caring about hiding the Elemental Power fluctuations, he formed hand seals, causing golden talismans to emerge. The Wind Array intertwined into a net beneath the four, lifting them into the sky.

Just as they ascended, out of all the stone peak holes emerged thousands of Big Red Fierce Ants.

The Big Red Fierce Ants, like red lava, quickly occupied the ground and then converged into a torrent, guided by the thumping sound, charging towards the Tube-Nosed Monitor.

Chu Yunyi breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that the Big Red Fierce Ants hadn’t focused their attention on them. The Wind Rolling Formation enveloped Tianyi Team’s four members, preparing to swiftly fly away.

At this moment, from a hole at the top of a stone peak, a jet of water suddenly shot out, like a water cannon, straight towards the four suspended in midair.

Chu Yunyi’s heart alarmed, his hand seals swiftly changed, countless tiny Wind Blades forming an impenetrable net, blocking the water jet.

"Sizzle—"

The water jet was shredded into mist by the Wind Blades, a pungent acidic smell permeating the air.

Everyone was shocked; this was no simple water jet, but strong acid!

If not for Chu Yunyi’s timely activation of the Wind Array, they would have already been corroded by the strong acid.