Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Mei Yu and Cheng Changfeng, who had been following behind the two and listening to the whole thing, were practically glaring at each other. They now truly understood what it meant to be terrified of a teammate who was as useless as a pig, not a god-like opponent.

This was the first time they had ever seen anyone dare to catch live fire ants. Not only did they catch them, but they also carried them with them. They must be afraid that the fire ant swarm would come looking for them!

The thought of the fire ants that might emerge from any crack at any moment made Mei Yu and Cheng Changfeng feel uneasy. They felt that the cracked ground was full of dangers and that the fire ants might be lurking everywhere.

Cheng Changfeng couldn't help but send a telepathic message to Mei Yu: "Senior Brother, what should we do?"

They couldn't just abandon him now, but if they continued to follow him, given Xu Lingguang's reckless behavior, they might actually attract a swarm of ants.

Thinking of the various rumors about fire ant swarms devouring living people until only bones and scraps remained, Cheng Changfeng felt his body begin to itch.

It would be fine if Xu Lingguang died, saving them a lot of trouble, but they didn't want to be implicated.

However, in order to ensure that Xu Lingguang and the other two did not leave Fengyu Mountain and died as planned, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow the two, lest something unexpected happen and the two escape death.

Mei Yu frowned deeply, and after a long silence, said, "Take them to the illusion array as soon as possible."

After he finished speaking, his gaze turned to Xu Lingguang, his eyes flashing with murderous intent.

Cheng Changfeng asked with concern, "If we're too hasty, won't we give ourselves away?"

According to the original plan, they intended to circle around the perimeter for a few days, and when the magma of Fengyu Mountain began to erupt, they would create some chaos, and then take advantage of the chaos to lure Xu Lingguang and the other person into the illusion array, so that they would panic and enter the inner perimeter of Fengyu Mountain to their deaths.

Mei Yu said, "He can carry fire ants with him at all times, which shows he's a very carefree person. How could someone like that find any flaws?"

Despite saying that, Mei Yu suppressed his anger for the time being and said patiently, "Let's leave it at that for today. We should make our move tomorrow at the earliest. When we rest tonight, you should send a message to Changsong so that he can be prepared."

He worried that if he stayed with Xu Lingguang for two more days, he would really be driven crazy by the other party.

The day was spent as Xu Lingguang and Liu Zhu carefully examined the natural environment of Fengyu Mountain, while Mei Yu and Cheng Changfeng secretly plotted.

As the sun was about to set, Cheng Changfeng suggested, "It's getting late, we need to find a place to rest. After nightfall, many spirit beasts become active, so we should find a secluded spot and set up some illusions to avoid being noticed by the spirit beasts that come out at night and causing unnecessary trouble."

This time, Xu Lingguang didn't disagree and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

Upon hearing his answer, both of them inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

Cheng Changfeng was afraid that he would suddenly come up with some strange idea again. Seeing that he had agreed, he immediately pressed on and pointed to a sheltered spot that he had already chosen, saying, "Let's go here. The terrain here is flat and sheltered from the wind, and there are no cracks in the ground. We don't have to worry about strange insects crawling out while we're sleeping at night."

However, Xu Lingguang didn't listen to him at all. He nodded indifferently, his attention completely focused on the glass bottle—that's right, he took out the glass bottle again and whispered to Liuzhu.

"It ate all of these stalactites."

Xu Lingguang tapped the bottle with his fingertip, looking at the fire ants that were no longer pretending to be dead, but instead had their thin legs twitching and antennae swaying as if they were also observing him, and said in a strange tone, "I have a feeling that it can understand what we are saying, and it is also observing us."

Liu Zhu frowned and examined it closely, but this time he couldn't see anything special. He said in a flat tone, "Maybe it's just hungry."

Xu Lingguang boldly suggested, "Why don't we release it and take a look?"

Seeing that Liuzhu did not object, Xu Lingguang opened the stopper of the small glass bottle, tilted the bottle, and continued to observe the movements of the fire ants.

The fire ant's antennae swayed slightly, and after pausing for a short while, it actually crawled out along the tilted bottle.

It paused when it reached the bottle opening, and then its slender legs carefully stepped onto Xu Lingguang's fingers.

However, it was clearly very wary. After using Xu Lingguang's fingers for leverage, it jumped to the ground, looking like it was preparing to escape.

Xu Lingguang wasn't in a hurry. He took out a bottle containing stalactites, uncorked it, and said, "If you leave, these stalactites will be gone."

The fire ant, which had been moving its legs rapidly, paused for a moment and hesitantly turned its head back.

Xu Lingguang seized the opportunity when he turned around, and he winked at Liu Zhu excitedly: "See? I told you it could understand us."

Xu Lingguang picked up the fire ant that hadn't run far and examined it in his palm. After looking at it for a long time, he didn't find anything unusual: "It's just an ordinary fire worker ant, yet it has developed supernatural intelligence and can understand human speech? That's amazing."

Logically speaking, these ordinary fire ants should be short-lived consumables, and even after they die, their bodies should be dragged back to the nest as nutrients to raise the next generation of ants. It would be a fantasy to imagine them gaining sentience.

Even if intelligence were to be developed, it should be the queen ant that develops intelligence.

Xu Lingguang felt something was off, but couldn't figure out why. He could only press down on the fire ant that was trying to jump down again and said, "Since you can understand me, why are you running? You don't really want to go and call for help, do you?"

The fire ant continued to vigorously wave its thin legs, its antennae on its head swaying constantly, looking quite unwilling.

Xu Lingguang had no choice but to negotiate with it: "How about we make a deal? You can stay with me for now, and I'll take care of your food and drink. Once we've finished our business, we'll let you go and even give you an extra bottle of stone milk. How about that?"

As he spoke, Xu Lingguang waved the opened stalactite in front of the fire ants.

The fire ants' struggles indeed lessened considerably.

It seemed to hesitate for a moment, then climbed up Xu Lingguang's arm to his shoulder, and then curled up and stopped moving.

Xu Lingguang said incredulously, "It really is intelligent."

Liu Zhu had never seen such a spirit beast before, and there was a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

So when Mei Yu and Cheng Changfeng finally set up their simple tents at the campsite and set up the barriers, they came over and saw the two of them sitting head to head, intently watching the ground with great interest.

What's on the ground? Why are you staring at it so intently?

Cheng Changfeng's gaze followed the direction and he saw the fire ant happily waving its antennae as it drank the stony milk.

Cheng Changfeng: ? ? ? ? ?

Cheng Changfeng: !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!

His voice cracked as he shrieked, "Why did you release the fire ants?"

The fire ant was clearly frightened by his sharp voice, and its body instinctively shrank into a ball, with only two antennae still swaying.

Xu Lingguang poked the ant ball with his finger and gave Cheng Changfeng a disapproving look: "What are you yelling about? What if you attract other things?"

Cheng Changfeng glanced at Xu Lingguang with a frustrated expression, feeling so angry he could hardly speak out, as if he was about to vomit blood from holding it in!

He thought to himself, "You've released all the fire ants, aren't you afraid of attracting a swarm of fire ants? Or are you afraid that I'll attract other things?"

It's a classic case of "the magistrate is allowed to set fires, but the common people are forbidden to even light lamps!"