Ch152 - Ant Nest (16)

That night, before dawn.

While most of the workers were still sleeping, the soldiers came quietly. They searched all the empty caves and also recorded the list of workers who were absent that night.

The number of people was more than expected. Workers and soldiers together account for a quarter of the total population, and they were all young and in their prime.

Looking at this data, the captains of the soldiers also fell into contemplation.

“If there was conflict, both sides will suffer.” Saman looked straight at the most stubborn people, making them avert their eyes.

“Understood. We’ll cooperate temporarily.”

Soon after, a group of soldiers set out for the sacred tree.

The sacred tree was not far from the ant nest, and it had been sheltering the ant nest for so many years.

A long time ago, before God’s arrival, the sacred tree provided them shelter. Now, there were still caves left at the roots, extending in all directions, and the area was larger than the entire ant nest combined.

“Why did we abandon the sacred tree back then?” A young soldier did not understand.

“In the summer, the cave was at risk of being flooded by rainwater. But the place we live now has a drainage system, and excess rainwater will flush into the ground.”

The soldiers, with burning torches in hand, carefully walked under the roots of the trees, where they found many dead animals (mostly insects). All were burned, with fires, pots and pans still left next to them.

“They’ve been living here for a long time.” The soldiers dropped the fragile beetle corpse in his hand.

The workers’ food could only ensure survival, so in order to consume more food, they chose to collect fruits and animals by themselves to obtain enough carbs, protein, fat, etc.

It was not once or twice, not a year or two— but nobody noticed.

“Maybe someone found out, but they chose to become an accomplice.” The workers were treated so poorly that they would have made that choice to survive. As for the soldiers, maybe their food and clothing were secure, but they were still bound to the system.

These two types of people reached a consensus.

They continued walking forward and found where the workers made tools. There were many broken stone chips, bone chips, clay and more on the ground. They even found fresh footprints.

“Here!” The captain suppressed the tension in his heart and led the people along the footprints.

All the way to a fork in the road, and suddenly, a thick smoke spewed out of the cave, making them cough, stinging their eyes, and irritating their throats.

Accompanied by the thick smoke were arrows, the same ones used to shoot the nobles yesterday. The workers hid in every corner of the fork, which was a trap specially set by them.

“Enemy attack!” The captain cried, pulling out a horn.

The workers heard the horn, which echoed in the cave.

When the white smoke gradually dispersed, they saw that the besieged soldiers had gathered together at some point, holding shields in their hands, creating a hemisphere. They shot for a long time, but only a few soldiers were wounded.

That was not all. In the direction they came from, a brand new group of heavily armed soldiers wearing wet face towels appeared. They were the second wave of soldiers, but they were also the real defence.

The workers at the fork in the road clenched their weapons tightly. Was this going to be a fight to the death?

The second group of soldiers split into two groups, and a tall man in a white uniform with long legs came over and said:

“Do you want to break the blockade of God and create a new era?”

His voice was clear and pleasant, but it surprised everyone.

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Naturally, the workers did not believe such words, at least not entirely.

However, so what if they did not believe? Their soldiers were standing there, arrogant and vigorous, and both sides would suffer heavy losses in a fight.

“We killed the nobles,” shouted the workers.

“I know.” Saman said, “You just want to end this kind of life. Am I right? Shu Ye, you don’t want them to die because of this kind of infighting, do you? Isn’t that why you pulled up this team in the first place?”

Saman said a lot in order to force out Shu Ye, who was hiding in the dark. Since she led the rebel army, taking her down was the only way to completely eliminate hidden dangers.

“You can return to your original position, and so can your subordinates. We have the same objective.”

“Tell me, what objective do we have?” A female voice came from deep in the cave.

Saman laughed, “I’m also tired of living a life that could only be lived by praying on my knees to God.”

He did not say it directly, but the meaning was obvious. He wanted to overthrow the trap set by the so-called God.

Before God descended, workers and soldiers were not so hierarchical because they were genetically the same. The workers could give birth to soldiers, and the soldiers could also give birth to workers.

Workers and soldiers— these two titles are given by God, and these two concepts are also given by God. Overthrowing God meant overthrowing these identities.

“Very good.” Shu Ye emerged from the darkness, followed by many soldiers and workers, “Prove it to me.”

“After four days, you will see.”

Saman saw that they came out on their own and did not bother to ask whether they believed it or not. He spoke to his subordinates and was ready to withdraw.

“Put this place aside; it’s still useful.” It’s a pity that such a good place has been wasted for decades.

“Boss, it’s fine if it’s Shu Ye, but what’s the use of calling back these workers?” The assistant asked him in a whisper.

“After all, we haven’t lived outside for many years. We don’t know what we can and can’t eat. But these workers have some experience.” Sooner or later, they will break away from the higher civilisation. It was better to be prepared now than to be unprepared.

Saman left the cave under the root of the tree. He looked back at the tree, and there seemed to be something flashing in the canopy.

Ren Yifei had a cloth wrapped around his waist, and his upper body was bare. He was sitting on a soft twig, and in his hand was a water sac made of leaves containing night dew.

After drinking a little carefully, his body swayed with tender branches, and his transparent wings fluttered.

There are two pairs of wings on Ren Yifei’s back; the upper ones were big, while the lower ones were small. They were completely transparent, but when they fluttered, they would sparkle with specks of light.

Coupled with his current size, it would remind people of creatures such as fairies.

When he was in the ant nest, he did not feel small. Most of the objects he could compare himself to was made for his body size. When he went out to the natural environment, he immediately recalled the fear of being overwhelmed by blades of grass.

Ren Yifei was already sitting on a branch blowing the wind in the middle of the night. He wanted to sit here and wait for the sunrise.

Below was the ant nest, but he was so high that unless someone had a pair of eagle eyes, he would not be found.

There were some fruits growing on the top of the tree. It was unknown why, and even though he did not recognise it, his body instinctively told him that it was ‘edible’. In addition, he also found some traces of human habitation.

On the thick branches, he found many man-made wounds, and it seemed that someone had built a nest on the branches before. They also carved flowers, birds, insects and fish on the bark to record history.

He visited the roughly carved drawings, which all seemed to be from before God’s arrival.

The huge, but definitely not as big as the one on the sixth level, Queen gave blessings to the newborn children. Those with horns, those without horns, those with ears and those without ears all knelt down below, holding food and precious items.

“……” The previous Queen seemed to be a combination of a primitive society patriarch and a sorcerer.

In addition to the Queen with a fat body and no wings, there was also a noble with wings in the painting. He stood in front of a man lying on the ground and stretched out his hands in a gesture of ‘release’.

Many pictures appeared above the kneeling man.

Conversations about god did not seem to be a serious activity at first glance.

Because the bark paintings were not well preserved, there were only a few copies left. Ren Yifei felt that it was boring, so he lay on the branch and observed under the tree.

There were human beings coming in and out under the tree. Looking down from the branches, they were really about the size of ants, densely packed and neatly lined up.

Ant nest, the name of the instance had never been overlooked.

Breaking into the fourth level twice, Gu Cheng was estimated to have entered the dessert player’s must-kill list.

Gu Cheng’s story could be said to have ended, and it was time for ‘Jiang’ to return. The excuses were already made— the player ‘Gu Cheng’ felt it would be more beneficial not to kill ‘Jiang’, so he let him go.

The only trouble was the wings on his back. Ren Yifei turned his head and glanced at the beautiful transparent wings, which looked like a yarn-woven cape when they hung down.

It’s okay; let’s just go back and find a cloak to put on. It was okay to only block the wings, right?

After waiting for a while, the sky turned white, like the belly of a fish. Ren Yifei sat on a branch as he gazed at the horizon.

A light orange-yellow colour appeared last, like a golden line that separated the sky and the earth. White clouds and blue mountains undulated in the orange-yellow colour, and a red sun jumped out.

One step, two steps, three steps— jumping in front of him.

The air here was so good that it seemed like he could reach the sun as soon as he stretched out his hand.

The breeze blew gently, and they skilfully drilled through the gaps in the leaves, making a crisp and pleasant whistling sound. The leaves bounced as the rain fell, emitting a dripping sound.

Ren Yifei held up a leaf umbrella, but the dew still fell on him, streaked across his back, and wet the cloth covering him.

“Hiss.” The mist in the morning was really cold, and he shivered.

“Okay, my wish is granted.” After watching the sunrise, it was another spirited day. Ren Yifei grabbed the sides of a huge leaf with both hands and leapt down from the branch.

The wind lifted both him and the leaf, and he drifted unsteadily towards the ground.

The undulating mountains in the distance, the sun breaking through the clouds, the colourful morning glow…… and the nearby grassland with sparkling morning dew, the unidentifiable flying insects, and even the lovely fuzzy flowers all entered his vision.

The leaf carried him for a while in the wind before he fell softly on a flower that was in full bloom.

Tender yellow stamens, deep purple petals, like a small daisy. He sat on the stamens and shook off a lot of pollen.

“Achoo, achoo.” Ren Yifei covered his mouth and sneezed, but he did not notice that the flower was bent more and more by him, and finally, he fell from the bent flower and landed on a small plant that was bent under the weight of the heavy fruit. He slid down the plant’s stem with aswooshand onto the ground.

“Achoo!” This time it was not because of the pollen but because of the weather.

The ground was slightly colder than up in the tree. Ren Yifei quickly untied the cloth around his waist and put it on again, hiding the wings tightly.

He looked around and found that he was drifting far away from the tree and even further away from the ant nest.

Currently, the workers had left the cave and gone out to look for the black cube as usual. Ren Yifei did not want to alarm them, so he hid behind a blade of grass.

These workers had smiles on their faces, seemingly unaware of the shocking events that took place here last night. Ren Yifei avoided their direction and walked towards the previous ‘swamp’.

Ren Yifei had always remembered that it was a swamp, but when he looked at it from the big tree, it was just a puddle of water, surrounded by the shadow of the tree canopy.

He quickly found the remote mud pit and found the previous markings.

The swamp was calm; no matter how much it had swallowed, it was unmoving.

Ren Yifei glanced at the swamp. He found the clothes and shoes, which belonged to ‘Jiang’, buried behind a big rock.

The clothes had been left for two days, and there was a damp smell, but he changed them right away. No matter how torn the cloth on his body, it was not something a worker could afford to wear.

Such details were one of the keys to interpretation.

“Rustle.” There was a sound in the grass. Ren Yifei’s ears pricked up; he stretched out his hand and directly rolled up Gu Cheng’s clothes and stuffed them into the crevices of the stones, filling them with gravel.

After doing this, he adjusted his expression, covering his mouth and coughing. The movement of the grass became more obvious, and a person slid down from the blade of grass, “Jiang? You’re still alive?”

Ren Yifei seemed frightened, jumping up and running towards the grass.

“Jiang! Wait!” The person who came grabbed Ren Yifei’s collar in two to three steps, “The people above said, it’s all right, don’t run away.”

Ren Yifei turned his head, “Let go. Don’t you know who wants me dead? You want to die with me?”

“The director personally said this morning that no matter what the reason is in the past, they are all forgiven.” The person pulling Ren Yifei refused to let him go.

Ren Yifei was stunned, staring at him blankly, hesitating. After a while, he asked, “Is what you said true?”

“Really. He even mentioned your name.”

Ren Yifei: ……

It was unknown why, but when he suddenly heard that the director knew his name, he felt there was a conspiracy. Especially thinking of Saman, who has amazing observation and analysis skills, this feeling was even stronger.

The real identity of ‘Jiang’ must be a huge pit.

But Jiang’s force value was limited, and he could not escape. Ren Yifei was dragged back with a face of reluctance. Sure enough, they did not make things difficult for him. Seeing that he said he was not feeling well, they even put a blanket on him.

“Our director will be here in a while.” The soldier who entertained him said with a smile.

After a while, a smiling soldier came, wearing a white coat. He politely said, “Can you tell me what Gu Cheng told you at that time?”

“……” Ren Yifei looked at him and hiccupped nervously.

T/N: Here’s agift~