No wonder there was so much black ash on the ground; it turned out to be the corpses of insects that had been charred by high temperatures and then blown away.

This discovery immediately conjured up a picture in front of the two of them: one or more fire-type awakened beings or alien beasts fighting against bloodthirsty golden ants in the distance.

Right where they were standing, there was a daring guy hiding, eating hotpot, singing... cough cough... gnawing on duck heads and drinking beer while watching the game.

This discovery left the already bewildered couple even more confused.

They kept telling their teammates to be careful, as other adventurers might appear at any moment.

Meanwhile, he was also looking around to see if there were any other new discoveries.

Ma Zhong's patience was almost completely worn out as he looked at the vast territory of the bloodthirsty golden ants. Despite their careful search, they had not found a single living ant.

"Isn't it said that this damn place is teeming with ants? This is already deep in Tengchong, and there isn't even a single living creature for kilometers around here, let alone ants."

He was still somewhat unwilling to give up. He had come all the way from Baoshan, and if the mission had really failed, he would feel a little better. But looking at the inexplicable situation in front of him, he felt inexplicably frustrated.

He had considered the possibility of danger, but judging from the current situation, even if there were powerful fire-type awakened individuals, they might have already self-destructed.

Otherwise, they would have already taken their spoils and left. Fortune favors the bold; who would be an adventurer if they were afraid of death?

With this thought in mind, he stopped pretending to be kind.

"Lianshan, we've searched all around but haven't found a single worker ant. I'm planning to lead the brothers to dig down from directly above the tunnel. That way, even if there are bloodthirsty gold ants inside, it will give us enough time to escape. What do you think?"

Na Lianshan didn't seem to mind the change in Ma Zhong's tone, as if he had been prepared for it. However, he couldn't refuse Ma Zhong's suggestion, since Ma Zhong was telling the truth. Otherwise, they would have had to turn back.

Seeing that Lian Shan did not refuse, Ma Zhong chose a location and called his men to start digging down.

Meanwhile, Wang Zheng, who was still buried underground, heard a rustling sound above his head and was overjoyed, thinking that he was about to reach the surface.

They immediately put in even more effort.

...

"Wow, boss, we dug someone up! It's the queen ant! The queen ant has become a demon king! Ahhhhhh!!!"

The younger brother, who was digging the soil with great effort, suddenly saw a round head appear in the pit in front of him and was immediately frightened and screamed.

Immediately, a shovel came crashing down.

As for this person, who else could it be but Young Master Wang, who we're still drilling underground?

At this moment, most of Wang Zheng's body was still buried in the soil, so he could only neither dodge nor evade, and after activating the counterattack, he took the hit head-on.

"duang~"

After a sharp crack, the strange underground creature that had been hit by a shovel was completely unharmed, while its companion inexplicably rolled its eyes and fainted. The people around became even more tense.

When Wang Zheng saw that they were still going to knock, he immediately cursed angrily, "Are you crazy? Is your third-rank ant queen a demon king? Even if she is, can she transform into a man?"

Ma Zhong and Lian Shanben were discussing the next steps when they heard the commotion and quickly came over.

Seeing a large, living person suddenly emerge from the ground, they couldn't help but become wary.

Although Wang Zheng, who had just emerged from the ground, squinted slightly from the blinding sunlight, he still heard the noise coming from above.

At this moment, he still thought these people were adventurers attracted by the commotion of the previous battle, unaware that he was the petty thief who had stolen their spoils in their eyes.

Having been buried underground for so long, Wang Zheng was already feeling restless. Seeing the heads surrounding him from above, he was annoyed and suddenly used his strength to leap out of the mud, finally freeing himself.

The moment Wang Zheng arrived, he scanned the group. The two leaders were only at the B-level. One was a tall, thin man dressed as an Arab, who was a mental type, and the other was a dark-skinned, muscular man, who was a strength type.

As for the others, they are even less of a concern; they're just a bunch of little karaomi.

At this moment, Wang Zheng did not distance himself from these people. He was just brushing the dirt off his body. After all, he had been buried in the ground for so long, and not only his pants and shoes, but even his ears had gotten a lot of fine dust in them.

Meanwhile, Lian Shan and Ma Zhong's group, who were subtly surrounding Wang Zheng, were naturally startled by the boy who emerged from underground.

Hearing his outburst, they all cursed inwardly at the kid for spouting nonsense, scaring them and making everyone else jump.

If this really is the Demon King, everyone here should hurry up and burn paper money for themselves, so that they won't have to be adventurers because they're poor when they get down to the underworld.

A group of people surrounded the shirtless boy who jumped out of the ground. Seeing his youthful face and fair skin, Ma Zhong and Lian Shan exchanged a glance and nodded in approval.

Then Lian Shan took the initiative to step forward and probe:

"What's your name, young man? I don't know why you're here. Our brother was too impetuous earlier, and I apologize on his behalf."

He's probably shaken by the aftershocks of the battle. Could you tell us what happened here, young man?