I also know something about bullet ants, as Jiang Man mentioned.
While the venom of this ant can cause immense pain, it is not fatal.
However, the reason this is not fatal is because bullet ants are solitary creatures that can experience pain for up to 24 hours. If attacked by so many ants, even a god would not survive.
Although bullet ants are called ants, they are almost as big as grasshoppers, and these creatures can not only crawl, but also jump.
The bullet ants crawling out of the stone statues on both sides of the passage merged with the ant colony on the other side of the cliff, like a dark, surging tide. Not only behind and on both sides, but also on the road in front of us, a large number of ants appeared.
I saw a few ants hopping over, and I stomped them one by one: "Manjing, flamethrower clear the way!"
Get out of the way!
With a roar, Manjing appeared behind me, brandishing a flamethrower, and pulled the trigger directly at the ant swarm in front of me.
"call!"
The flames spread out, engulfing the ants in front and causing them to crackle and pop. The surrounding ants also dispersed to the sides due to the high temperature.
I saw the ants being driven away by the flames, so I pulled Jiang Man to stand behind Manjing and said, "These ants are afraid of fire. Manjing, lead the way, and the rest of you, stay close and don't fall behind!"
The flamethrowers we carry are portable, and the fuel canisters are about the size of gas cylinders used to fill lighters. Three fuel canisters can only be used for about fifteen sprays.
"Whoosh!"
Manjing walked ahead, constantly using a flamethrower to drive away the ant swarm.
The monkey stood beside me, waving a bag of fuel canisters to shoo away the stray bullet ants that hopped by: "Young Master Duan, when those people from Ping'an Village walked here before, they didn't trigger the ant swarm, but we encountered it as soon as we arrived! Do you think it's possible that the corpses they left behind were for a sacrificial ritual to awaken these ants?"
Upon hearing the monkey's question, Jiang Man shook her head and said, "I don't think so. If this were truly some kind of sacrificial ritual, how would they determine when the others arrived?"
"There's no need to confirm that! Didn't Young Master Duan say that these ants are specially bred Gu creatures? Perhaps they are very sensitive to sound and vibration? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that they erupted as soon as we arrived here!"
The monkey paused for a moment: "There's another possibility, which is that the people from Ping'an Village wanted to release the ant colony here and use them to block the passage. After all, their goal was to destroy this place, activate all the mechanisms, and perish together with the intruders. Those madmen are capable of doing that!"
"That's possible!"
After listening to the monkey's reasoning, I largely agreed with his explanation: "The stepped stone platform behind does indeed look like an altar or something similar. The fact that they weren't attacked by the ant swarm means they knew the secret of this place! And they also knew how to lure the ant swarm out from among the statues!"
"call!"
Holding the flamethrower, Manjing sprayed another burst of flame at the ant swarm ahead and said in a deep voice, "Brother, the pressure gauge on the flamethrower is alarming. At our current speed, it will be difficult to break through. We need to speed up!"
After listening to Manjing's words, I shone my flashlight forward and found that we were still about 20 meters away from the slope ahead. I took the travel bag off my shoulder and said, "Everyone, organize your equipment, throw away all the useless things, set the travel bag on fire and leave it behind to prevent the ant swarm from chasing us. Let's get ready to rush through here!"
While the others were packing their backpacks, I took out the alcohol from the first-aid kit, stuffed it with gauze to make a makeshift Molotov cocktail, and waited for Monkey to throw the lit travel bag behind him before taking a deep breath: "Manjing, charge out!"
"Stay close!"
Manjing let out a roar, then pulled the trigger of the flamethrower all the way down, unleashing a fiery dragon.
The ants in front, baked by the high temperature, all retreated to the side. The monkey and the sparrow also held burning travel bags and bandages, waving them to drive away the approaching ants.
With the team's cooperation, we moved much faster and soon arrived near the slope ahead.
I saw that the road ahead was blocked, so I quickened my pace to check the situation. But as soon as I took a step, I heard a monkey shout behind me: "Miss Jiang, watch out!"
When I turned around, I found that Jiang Man had triggered a flip stone. When the monkey saw that she had been hit, he pushed Jiang Man away, but he himself fell off.
These flip-top stones have a counterweight on one side. If a person falls in, the flip-top will close, trapping the person inside.
I saw the monkey fall into the trap, and without thinking, I instinctively pounced on it and grabbed its arm.
"Buzz!"
With the sound of stones scraping together, the flipped stone slab came crashing down on me.
"ah!!"
When Manjing saw that I was in danger, he roared and grabbed at the stone slab with both hands.
Beside the trap, I saw a stone slab hurtling towards me. My mind went blank. Manjing was dragged a distance by the stone slab, and with another roar, it actually pulled him back.
Seeing Manjing's actions, I tightened my grip: "Monkey, hold on tight!"
The monkey grabbed my arm and kicked wildly against the wall: "The walls in here are covered in something, they're slippery and I can't get a foothold!"
I heard the monkey's reply and was about to stretch out my other arm when a sharp, piercing pain suddenly shot through my back.
"Well!"
I felt a sharp pain in my back and couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.
I got bitten by bullet ants!
Although I knew beforehand that army ant bites were extremely painful, it wasn't until I experienced this that I understood why such a tiny ant could be ranked as one of the world's ten most venomous animals.
After the excruciating pain of ants biting my back, my whole body convulsed, and I only managed to hold on by sheer willpower.
Before I could recover, a second wave of pain hit my body. The intense pain caused me to break out in a fine layer of sweat, and my hand that was holding the monkey went numb and lost all feeling, so I let go of his arm.
"Gulp!"
The moment I released the monkey's hand, Lin Que pounced on him, grabbed his wrist, and began to struggle to pull him up from below.
I was bitten by just two ants, and the pain was so intense that I couldn't move on the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large swarm of ants crawling towards the sparrow, their mouths wide open, but they couldn't make a sound.
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