Lu Yin's eyes narrowed as he looked around. The spy had exterminated this group, which meant that he must have taken away a portion of the Terror Ants. This spy was a hidden danger. Furthermore, Lu Yin's domain slowly spread out, and he could feel an aura in the void that caused people to tremble. This was an Emissary.
This spy was actually an Emissary.
This was no longer a spy; it might even be a Redback.
Shen Hai retracted his hand as traces of blood appeared on his fingertips. He hurriedly said, "Everyone, don't touch the corpse's wounds. The residual energy is very strong."
He stood up and looked at Lu Yin with a solemn expression. "It's the strength of an Emissary."
Lu Yin nodded and stared to the right. "He went that way. Go after him."
Shen Hai frowned. "Go after him?
Brother Ah Qi, that's an Emissary. "
Lu Yin replied, "I know. As long as we find his tracks and confirm his identity, we'll immediately report it to the headquarters. We won't need to capture him."
Shen Hai shook his head. "How can an Emissary's identity be so easily confirmed? He'll have already sensed you before you can confirm his identity. We can't chase after him, and the situation here needs to be reported. However, he's an Emissary, and that's beyond what we can handle. Besides, our mission is only to clean up the Terror Ants."
Lu Yin thought about it. "That's true. Then you guys keep going. I'll go look for him."
Shen Hai's expression changed, and the faces of the people around him turned ugly. "Ah Qi, the headquarters appointed me as the captain. You can't leave without permission."
Seeing the miserable state of the people around them, how could Shen Hai and the rest allow Lu Yin to leave? That would make them feel too insecure. They didn't want to die, and they couldn't wait for all the experts to gather.
"That's right, Brother Ah Qi. We also want to capture the spy, but our mission is to clean up the Terror Ants. Capturing the spy is the humble school's mission, and it has nothing to do with us. Maybe someone from the humble school has already gone after him," someone said.
The others agreed, as no one wanted Lu Yin to leave.
Lu Yin was resolute. "I must go."
Shen Hai clenched his fists. "Ah Qi, I'm the captain appointed by the headquarters. If you dare to leave without permission, I'll report it to the headquarters."
Lu Yin's face darkened, and he stared at Shen Hai.
You're just an Enlighter, and the enemy is an Emissary. No one will blame you if you don't go, but if you do, you might die. Why bother? The higher-ups already have a plan to deal with these spies, and it has nothing to do with us........ We just need to clean up the Terror ants..................
"Yeah, don't go."
.....
.
"How do you know that I'm not part of the higher-ups' plan to deal with the spies?"
...............
.....................................
....................................
The surrounding people looked at each other and hesitated.
Lu Yin was puzzled. "Why did you change your mind?"
.............. of course, we...............................................
. Everyone felt that his words made sense.
An hour later, Lu Yin's group followed the star energy suppression to the right and ran into a group of people who were surrounded by terror ants.
They had come to clean up the Terror Ants, but it was not strange for them to be surrounded and devoured.
Shen Hai led a group of people to attack, but it took them more than an hour to finish off the ants.
The leader of the group was called Cheng Ji, and he was a robust man with a similar cultivation level to Shen Hai's. His weapon was a strange-looking Cicada Blade. Before Lu Yin's group had arrived, the group had already lost half of its members. They had been devoured by the Terror Ants to the point that not even their bones were left.
"Thank you for your help, Captain Shen," Cheng Ji said gratefully.
Shen Hai replied, "It's what I should do. How long have you been trapped here?"
His gaze landed on the Cicada Blade, and he realized that it did not match the wounds of the people who had died earlier.
Cheng Ji sighed. "It's been four hours. If not for Captain Shen's group, we would have been finished."
Lu Yin's gaze swept across Cheng Ji's group, but it wasn't them. They had just happened to be blocking the path of the spy. Had the spy deliberately circled around them?
The spy was very cautious, and he had purposely found a group of people to block their path. Perhaps the Terror Ants had also been lured here by the spy to delay them, even if no one was following them.
This was a spy, and his actions were sinister and secretive. There was a reason why humans had not been able to eliminate the Redbacks and spies for so many years: they were too shrewd and cautious.
Cheng Ji's group's battle with the Terror Ants had disrupted the star energy suppression left in the void, making it impossible for Lu Yin to continue chasing after them.
Shen Hai heaved a sigh of relief. If possible, he would not have wanted to chase after an Emissary, but he still had to thank Cheng Ji's group.
Cheng Ji's group had lost nearly half of its members, and he had no choice but to join Shen Hai's group. Shen Hai did not refuse, and the group grew stronger.
Lu Yin was not satisfied, and he suggested that they continue in the same direction as before. Shen Hai did not refuse.
Cheng Ji looked at Lu Yin in astonishment, keenly sensing that this group seemed to respect this person.
They continued in the same direction, and two days later, they encountered another group surrounded by Terror Ants. Shen Hai and the rest immediately took action.
Lu Yin also took action. Before meeting up with Cheng Ji's group, he had instructed everyone not to reveal his strength. At this moment, he was purposely hiding his strength, as Shen Hai was still the strongest.
Not long after, the group was rescued. The leader had been sacrificed, and there were less than five members left. They were all overjoyed at having survived a disaster.
A day later, the group found another group surrounded by Terror Ants.
This was not right, as they were here to clean up the Terror Ants, not to escape. It was normal for one or two groups to be unlucky enough to encounter a large group of Terror Ants and be swallowed whole, but to encounter three groups in a row, something was definitely wrong.
"We were chased here from below. There are too many Terror Ants down there. If there are less than a thousand of them, we can't fight them head-on," said the leader of the third team. He was also an old man, but as a cultivator, one's age couldn't be judged by his appearance. Although Cheng Ji looked like a middle-aged man, he wasn't much younger than Shen Hai and was of the same generation.
Some people even deliberately made themselves look older so that others would not look down on them.
"There are a lot of Terror Ants down there?" Shen Hai had a bad premonition.
Someone from the second group said, "We encountered Terror Ants from above, and they chased us all the way down."
Lu Yin thought back to the people who had died at the beginning, and the Terror Ants seemed to be heading upwards. He looked at Shen Hai, and the man's heart sank, "Let's go, diagonally to the left."
Cheng Ji seemed to have thought of something as well, and he agreed with the leader of the third group.
They headed diagonally to the left.
Three days later, a dense pack of Terror Ants appeared in front of them.
Seeing this, Shen Hai said bitterly, "I guessed right, we've been surrounded by Terror Ants. They've formed a huge net, and we're all trapped inside."
Cheng Ji gritted his teeth, "There must be an Ant Queen, or the Terror Ants would not consciously surround us."
"It would be great if we could find the Ant Queen. Without it, the Terror Ants will disperse, but in this situation, who can find it?" Shen Hai said in a low voice, subconsciously looking at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin stared ahead, "Let's retreat first and avoid coming into contact with the Terror Ants. Ask for reinforcements from the headquarters and discuss a plan. Maybe someone else will join us, and we'll be able to break through with more people."
Shen Hai was helpless, and there was nothing else he could do. Everyone's faces paled as they retreated.
They knew that they would not be safe for long, and the Terror Ants' encirclement would only shrink. At that point, they would no longer encounter a single group of Terror Ants, but an endless horde. They could only retreat as far as the Terror Ants could gather, and the sooner they broke through, the fewer Terror Ants they would encounter.
Anyone would feel despair as they watched the black line in the distance gradually approach.
This was not something that could be rushed through with speed alone. If the Terror Ants were so easy to deal with, they would not have been able to destroy the mother tree.
Within his domain, Lu Yin sensed that someone was approaching him, and he turned around to see a man who looked to be about the same age as him running towards him with a panicked expression.
Lu Yin rarely met people of the same generation on the battlefield at the back. Those who had come here were either forced to do so or were here to gain experience.
The others also saw the man, but they were not surprised. Perhaps he was a survivor from another group.
Shen Hai stared at the man and realized that he was not an Emissary or even an Enlighter. He relaxed, but he was still worried about the Emissary spy.
"The heavens have taken pity on us. We've finally met someone alive. This is great! We're saved!" The man was ecstatic, and his eyes were red.
Someone in the group unhappily said, "We're all going to die. Why are you so excited?"
The man ran over and blinked when he heard this. "No way! How can so many of us die?"
Cheng Ji grew impatient. "Cut the crap. Are you alone?"
The man nodded and lamented, "Everyone in the group is dead. There are too many Terror Ants, and if I didn't have some ability, I wouldn't have survived."
Not long after, the group retreated some distance, and some did not want to retreat any further.
"Keep retreating. Maybe more people will join us," Shen Hai said.
Cheng Ji frowned. "We can't retreat anymore. The further we retreat, the smaller the encirclement will be, and the more Terror Ants will join us."
"It's a pity that we can't find the Queen Ant. Otherwise, we'd fight to the death. It's better than waiting for death," someone said angrily.
The more desperate they were, the more restless they became. Lu Yin was the calmest of them all. Even if he was thrown into a pile of Terror Ants, they would not be able to harm him.
"Hey, are you guys looking for the Queen Ant?
I know where it is. "The last man to join the group was hiding in the crowd, and he raised his hand carefully.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
Lu Yin looked at the man, and his eyes flickered.
Cheng Ji dragged the man out. "You know where the Queen Ant is?"
The man nodded, but Cheng Ji's grip caused his neck to hurt. "Let go! You're strangling me to death!" Cheng Ji quickly let go, and the man gasped for breath.
Everyone looked at him.