Huang Ying and his group easily managed to make their way deeper into the caves that served as exits and entrances to the anthill, they even had space to spare above their heads. The reason behind this was simple, the ants on the outside might only be half a meter large, but those were mere drones, the weakest and lowliest among the ant hierarchy. Within the depths of the hive, there would surely be warriors, guards, and the final queen, all of which would be far larger than the drones.

The peach-haired and golden-eyed Ming Chang walked at the front of the group, four small orbs of orange fire dancing in the air in front of her and serving as a light source that illuminated the path ahead of them. They didn't spot any other ants despite descending almost 100 meters, the brows of the crimson-haired and green-eyed Han De furrowing somewhat.

"It's unnatural that we haven't encountered any more beasts yet, the ones we killed in the front probably sent out some type of warning signal, their current silence might even be that very signal. There is a chance that we'll get swarmed by hordes of ants before long so we should take up a proper position that will allow us to attack in waves while also defending. Ming Chang and I will take the front, Lil' Zan and Guo Shui should take the back, and Huang Ying and Xun Zhi should stay in the middle where it'll be easier to support us."

The ants might be individually weaker than them, but their sheer number made them a great threat. Their group was also walking around underground within their tunnels now, so the ants that could burrow through the earth freely were easily capable of attacking them from all directions. As such, he decided that it was important that they kept Huang Ying and Xun Zhi in the middle where it would be easier to protect them should something happen. Huang Ying had his strange element that yielded excellent supportive capabilities and Xun Zhi had the element of water that was greatly suited for both healing and attacking, she was an excellent choice for filling the second spot in the middle.

The others in the group had nothing against this arrangement, they might not have known each other for long, but escaping from the jaws of death together sped up the process of gaining trust rather drastically. The group continued to make their way deeper into the hive, everyone except Huang Ying and the silver-haired and brown-eyed Lang Zan wearing somewhat tense expressions.

And then, after descending a further 50 meters, Han De's fears were proven correct when the sound of skittering started echoing throughout the caves. The ants didn't enter their sight immediately, the skittering echoing all around them for around half a minute before the first ants entered their sight.

Looking at the ants ahead of them, Huang Ying could only find one word to describe them, wave. They rushed forth like a wave that covered the entire two-meter wide and three-meter tall cave, flooding out of every single side-cave that connected to the one they were in. Most of the ants flooding forth were normal drones, but Huang Ying was also able to see a few larger and more ferocious-looking ants, just their pincers alone were longer than the drones.

But all the ants had the same special feature, their compound eyes were filled with desperation, resolution, and resignation. These ants had evolved beyond being normal ants, gone was the hivemind that only knew how to mindlessly follow the queen's orders. These ants were capable of their own thoughts, their own hopes and desires. They only stayed in hives and followed orders due to the strong hierarchical instincts that were engraved upon their very souls.

And it was this evolution that allowed them to understand their own situation right now. They were going to die, every ant within the first few waves would face a horrible death at the hands of the humans in front of them. But even so, they strode forward to fight. Because they were a hive, because they weren't alone, because there were ants behind them that they had to protect even if it was just for a moment longer.

Faced with such suicidal determination, Huang Ying's heart moved slightly, a thought flitting past his mind. He had long since decided to live his life as he pleased, so he didn't disregard his thought, he stepped forward and stopped the others just as they were about to launch their attacks.

"Stop, let me try something first. Oy, ants! We've got no interest in starting a slaughter or driving you out of here, we just want a place to take a break while the big guys above went all their pissy attitudes. We'll leave you alone if you just give us a room where we can wait in peace."

Most living beings didn't want to die, their very instincts themselves would try to prevent them from doing so. Huang Ying was hoping to bet on these instincts to make a pact of non-aggression with the ants so that they could avoid a slaughter. The ants slowed slightly after Huang Ying called out, eventually stopping about 10 meters in front of his group.

The larger ants seemed to communicate with each other, clicking their pincers in rhythmical fashion for a bit. After spending nearly half a minute doing this, one of the ants turned around and scurried back down the tunnel it had came from, vanishing from sight. The other ants all remained in place, forming a thick wall in front of Huang Ying and the others, a few even starting to skitter out from the tunnels behind them. The brows of Xun Zhi and the others furrowed a bit at the scene, Ming Chang looking backward a touch worriedly while talking with Huang Ying.

"It's dangerous to give them more time like this, Little Ying. It would have been a bit tough normally, but your strange element should have allowed us to easily slaughter our way through the entire hive if we just paid a bit of attention, was this really the time to show mercy?"

With Huang Ying's law of devouring, he could have snatched up any corpse around them and used it to restore their wounds and lost energy, they could practically keep fighting without pause. The swarm tactics might prove a bit effective at first, but Ming Chang was confident that they would quickly figure out how to best work together to deal with the horde around them. Huang Ying understood the group's concerns, but he could only shrug his shoulders while giving his explanation.

"What can I say, I ended up respecting them after seeing their determination to face death for the rest of their hive. To snuff out such a determination without reason, I felt it a pity so I decided to try this instead."

The others in the group couldn't help but be dumbfounded by his reasoning. He felt respect for the ants, and even felt it would be a pity to kill them? This wasn't the first time they had met someone who could feel respect for a Demonic beast, but it was the first time they had ever met anyone who felt respect an ant. But amongst the group, the petite Lang Zan suddenly remembered something, poking Huang Ying right between his shoulders from behind.

"You said something similar earlier, Little Ling. You told that kitty, Fang I believe you called it, that you'd let it live since you respected his determination and guts, didn't you? Why is determination such a big turn on for your respect button?"

Huang Ying turned his head slightly to look at Lang Zan out of the corner of his eye, his perception keeping a close eye on the ants around them. But just as he was about to answer, he picked up on something in her sentence and remembered something, pointing it out and receiving a swift answer that left him dumbfounded.

"Wait, why do you call me Little Ling? You said the same thing earlier if I remember correctly."

"Because it's cuter than Little Ying, next question please."

"You... Ah, fuck it, just fuck it. Why it's such a turn on, you ask? Because I greatly respect and admire those who can do what I can't. And showing such determination was, up until recently, not something I could do. I was weak and powerless, and rather than fight back, I simply bent my knee and waist, and I endured all the bullying and bad things that came my way. Only when the hands of death were softly brushing my back did I stand up, only then did I decide that I at least wanted to be determined enough to die on my own feet."

Huang Ying didn't lie, he saw no reason as to why he should lie about what he respected. Faced with the cruelty of life, the weak him chose to bow down and accept it all, he only managed to show determination when he was about to die, and then again after dying and gaining power. Due to this, he respected those who managed to show their determination freely, especially those that did so even when faced with something greater than them.

The rest of the group now understood Huang Ying's personality a bit more, but none of them even came close to thinking that the period of time he was talking about wasn't even half a year ago. Lang Zan also nodded her head, but her finger didn't leave Huang Ying's back as she continued to poke it with a slight bit of interest.

"Heh, so there was a time where Little Ling was actually Littler Ling, in both body and mind? You must have been an adorable Littler Ling."

Huang Ying rolled his eyes and ignored Lang Zan's continued poking, he could already faintly hear the sound of skittering coming from the tunnel in front of them. The ant that skittered away earlier, or it might have been a different one most of them were too similar for Huang Ying to tell the difference, returned and started to communicate with the other ants.

The clicking and snapping sounds seemed to be a sort of order, the wave of ants around them dispersing as most of the drones returned down the tunnels they had come from. But about ten drones and seven of the larger ants remained in the area around Huang Ying and the others, the large ant that had given the order clicking its pincers a few more times. The drones immediately got to work after hearing the clicking sounds, charging at the wall of the tunnel and chewing at it with their own pincers, quickly starting to dig deeper into it.

The ants dug a new tunnel to the left of Huang Ying and the others, the drones expanding the tunnel by chewing at its walls and ceiling. They stopped digging deeper once they reached 100 meters and then started to dig at the sides and the ceiling of the tunnel, turning it into a large cavern.

Within half an hour, the ants had completed an entirely new cavern, the drones vanishing down the other tunnels once the job was done. The larger ants remained for a bit longer, one of them gesturing towards the cave entrance while clicking its pincers. Huang Ying and the others couldn't understand its words, but its gesture was more than easy to understand. Ming Chang and the others eyed the ant somewhat suspiciously, but Huang Ying simply walked forward without reservation and entered the new cave. He trusted his own guts that had recognized the ants' determination, he trusted that they wouldn't pull anything now.

And his guts proved to be correct, at least for now, the ants allowed him to enter the room without issue, heading down the other tunnels once Huang Ying entered the cave. Clearly, the ants had taken Huang Ying as the leader of the group and decided that him entering the cave was the same as the rest of the group entering the cave. Seeing the ants leave, Guo Shui and the others were still a bit suspicious, but eventually, they too stepped into the empty cave. Looking at the completely empty area around them, Ming Chang couldn't help but sweep her gaze across it while muttering softly.

"Huh, gotta be honest and say that I didn't really expect that to work. So, what'll we do now while we wait for the storm above to pass? And Huang Ying, do you have any friends currently in this forest? Are you sure its fine to just hide away like this without sending them a message first?"

They knew that Huang Ying was from the Fierce Flame Academy so they also knew that he had come here with the rest of the new students to experience this trial. And given how approachable Huang Ying had been with them, they found it inevitable that he would have at least four or five friends who entered the forest along with him. And yet, not once had he pulled out a communicator to tell any of them about his situation, Ming Chang and the others couldn't help but be a bit surprised at this. The question wasn't too strange or unexpected, Huang Ying simply shrugging his shoulders while responding.

"I couldn't send them a message even if I wanted to, I don't have any way of communicating with them. With me, what you see is what you get. And I'm not too worried about them, they're horrible drinkers and jokers, but they aren't the type of people to fuck up too badly. Oh, that's only if it doesn't rain or get dark, then things will go to hell fast. But as long as those two things don't happen together, things should end up fine."

Huang Ying showed off his practically naked body as he spoke, right now his last piece of clothing, his pants, were in complete tatters, leaving very little to the imagination. It was only now that Ming Chang and the others noticed that Huang Ying wasn't even wearing an interspatial ring. Could it be that he didn't have one? Or had it just broken earlier? Huang Ying didn't give them time to voice their questions, his eyes gleaming slightly as he swept his gaze over the others, the corners of his lips tugging upwards.

"And as for what we're gonna do while waiting for the storm to pass, I'm gonna have myself a good fight with every last one of you."