CHAPTER 177: CHAPTER 169: ANT COLONY EATING AWAY AT THE TREEHOUSE

The big black ants no longer stepped within a hundred meters. The vines within the area lost their targets and gradually retracted into the ground, leaving only the outermost circle.

These vines did not stop attacking and continued to pierce and sweep towards the ant army a hundred meters away, forcing them back another ten meters.

Of course, his vines were not the mutated vines outside the protected zone, which would perish if they left their active range. Although their growth range was a hundred meters, the vines were more than ten meters long, enough to affect an additional ten-meter range!

Wow, the backyard has expanded significantly again!

Of course, there still needed to be enemy units stepping within a hundred meters to attract the vines.

Seeing the situation stabilize, Xu Xin relaxed and dropped to the ground.

"Alright, these ants shouldn’t be able to get in." Xu Xin said to the pangolin admiringly. Initially, it was still a bit worried, but seeing this, its mouth gaped wide open.

It was clearly shocked, not expecting such a powerful defense facility here.

"See, I told you, it’s pretty safe here, you can rest assured."

Even though Xu Xin said this, he still didn’t bring the two little guys down, who knew if these ants would erupt later.

However, he felt that even though the two little ones hadn’t been weaned yet, they weren’t afraid of these ants. After all, they already had a full set of scale armor, which seemed much stronger than these tiny-limbed ants.

In conclusion, he shouldn’t need to surround the treehouse with a ring of fire anymore. After several more waves of ant attacks, he could basically exhaust them.

The fire circle still had the risk of causing a wildfire; what if some ants caught fire and continued running around for a while? Best not to use it if unnecessary.

But just because he didn’t need it didn’t mean others wouldn’t.

The regional channel was abuzz due to the sudden situation.

"Oh my god, so many super big ants! How come there are so many?!"

"Just dealt with the vines, and now we have ants!"

"Go vines! Go! Crush the ant swarm! Whoa, just one sweep takes out a bunch, so impressive!"

"Shouldn’t have burned that heart fragment just now. Doesn’t that mean the area around the treehouse isn’t protected? Is this a trap by explorers?"

"Idiot, if you hadn’t burned the heart fragment, your treehouse would’ve already been destroyed by the vines, without needing ants to attack you!"

"Strongly suggest the big guy blocks that idiot above and never helps them again!"

"Oh my god, some ants breached the defense line! My goodness, they’re climbing up! They’re not attacking the trunk; they’re gnawing at my treehouse!"

"They crawled directly into my treehouse! Didn’t attack me, just gnawing at the walls, what should I do, if I attack them, will they swarm me?"

Ants not attacking the trunk but gnawing the treehouse?!

Right, these ants, though their combat power’s about the same as rabbits, their target was never the survivors but the treehouse!

Mutated vines attack the trunk, while these big ants climb into the tree crown and gnaw the treehouse.

Without the heart fragments provided by Xu Xin and others, most people would face both vine and ant attacks!

Xu Xin immediately said on the regional channel: "The ants’ combat power is very weak, similar to wild rabbits, and their target is the treehouse, not survivors. Pick up your weapons and attack them immediately!"

Ji Chaoyang also spoke: "Their weakness is the head! Spear-like weapons can kill them in one hit, get moving, don’t let the ants gnaw the treehouse!"

"With the big guys speaking, I’m relieved—let’s go, brothers!"

"Rabbit strength? Just this? I’ll kill them!"

"Haha, brothers, these ants are so weak, grab your weapons and attack them!"

Xu Xin: "No need to rush too much, the treehouse has a self-repair function, just attack calmly, no need to worry excessively about damage."

"Understood, big guy!"

"Thanks, big guy!"

Meanwhile, the [Explorers] were also considering the previous fire incident.

Qin Yunlong: "Should we try it? There are too many ants! Our treehouse is much bigger and multi-layered; solely relying on ourselves is too chaotic and can’t clear the ants completely!"

Zhao Xiaochuan: "If we let it go, even if the treehouse isn’t chewed up, it will need a long recovery time, maybe even affect upgrades!"

Qi Xuefei: "Fortunately, the number breaching the defense is still small, and they only gnaw on the treehouse, uninterested in people or items. But to be safe, just keep valuable items on you."

Xu Xin: "Anyone want to try the fire? I can provide some bloodthorn vines that haven’t been gathered, but beware, there’s still a risk of jungle wildfire."

At this moment, he was still hanging in mid-air, constantly observing the ants’ movements. Silver King and Mimi, restless from their intermediate mutated beast bloodlust, rushed into the ant group with his consent.

There were a total of seven groups of ant armies around the treehouse; they charged into two groups, wreaking havoc and disrupting those two groups.

Afu was waiting upside down under the treehouse. If the ant army attacked collectively, it was the only one who could perform a wide-range sonic attack. It wasn’t too strong but was perfect for dealing with these rabbit-strength ants.

At the same time, the large pangolin fiancée also approached a group of ants.

Just as Xu Xin wondered what it intended to do, it suddenly extended its long tongue and rolled an ant about the size of a kitten into its mouth.

Wow! Buffet!

Xu Xin almost forgot, aren’t pangolins insect and ant eaters!

This ant group was basically a large high-end buffet for it!

The surrounding ants were temporarily not targeting the treehouse, standing by in place, attacking the fiancée after witnessing their companion being killed.

But the fiancée couldn’t care less, these ants couldn’t penetrate its hard scale armor at all. Instead, they broke their mouthparts one after another and got rolled into its mouth.

Possibly due to high consumption during lactation and being on the verge of advancing to an intermediate mutant beast, the fiancée had a very large appetite. Under Xu Xin’s gaze, it devoured over a hundred ants without stopping, gradually repairing its previously somewhat broken scale armor.

I really wonder how such hard scale armor got damaged. Could it be domestic violence from that gigantic fellow?

Speaking of which, why did that giant pangolin, mixing with a group of mutated pangolins, abandon its two offspring with the behemoth bloodline? Why was that?

Can’t figure it out, just have to wait to unveil the link and difference between these two mutations later.

Finally, someone spoke in the [Explorers].

Zhao Xiaochuan: "I’ve dug a ring of pits around the treehouse, so I’ll try it first! Let’s see if this group of ants can cross this fire pit! Brother Xin, give me the bloodthorn vines!"

"Alright." Xu Xin initiated a trade with him, giving him enough bloodthorn vines.

On the other side, Zhao Xiaochuan stood under the treehouse, slightly frail-looking, wearing iron armor.

He quickly spread these bloodthorn vines at the bottom of the circle’s pits he’d dug. These pits were a meter deep and two meters wide, taking him great effort to complete the circle.

Meanwhile, many ants crawled past him, straight up the trunk, into the tree crown, beneath the treehouse, to the edges, through the windows, and began gnawing the treehouse walls and floors.

Zhao Xiaochuan didn’t bother with them for now. He shot a fiery bolt into the two-meter-wide trench lined with bloodthorn vines.

"Woosh—"

A blazing fire erupted from where the fiery bolt hit and spread rapidly along the trench. He initially considered shooting more arrows at other spots, but it turned out unnecessary.

Seconds later, fierce flames surrounded the treehouse, causing a fire wall over a meter high and two meters wide to rise around it, swaying in the wind.

"Ha, the reverse application of a moat, I call it: a Fire Moat!"

Zhao Xiaochuan, his face turned orange-red by the flames, wiped his sweat and watched the ants’ reactions as they rushed into the flames.

Under his tense observation, many ants rushed into the fire wall, some falling into the fire pit and turning to ash without resurfacing, while others escaped but couldn’t extinguish the flames on them, taking a few steps toward the treehouse trunk before burning alive into a pile of ash, scattered by the wind.

"Beautiful, it worked!"