The Deal

Lu Yuan had been trailing some distance behind Xiye's group when a deep, rolling rumble shook the tunnel.

*What was that?*

He ran forward. Ahead, the tunnel floor dropped away without warning — a pit, roughly five meters deep, cut into the stone. He reached the edge and looked down.

On either side at the bottom, two pitch-black passages yawned open. Palace Sand Ants were streaming out of both, converging in a torrent on the three cat-kin Hunters trapped in the center.

*A Palace Sand Ant nest?!*

His first instinct was to turn and leave.

Just yesterday, he'd worked through the Sandy Rock City Creature Field Guide, and he'd read the entry on Palace Sand Ants in full. If you encountered a small group in a dungeon corridor, the book said, you could fight — and you'd be fine. But if you ever stumbled onto their nest, the author had distilled his entire survival recommendation to exactly two words.

*Run.*

A single nest housed tens of thousands of ants. Set foot inside and the whole colony would mark you as an invader and swarm until you were dead — no exceptions. Even boss-tier ants were beside the point: a sustained swarm of elite-rank soldier ants alone could drain a Gene Warrior's spirit power to empty. The moment he'd read that line, Lu Yuan had made himself an iron-clad resolution.

He would never be stupid enough to walk into a nest.

And yet his feet didn't move.

*I did use a 10,000-yuan serum today.*

Down in the pit, the three cat-kin were holding their ground impressively. Their potions still hadn't worn off, and every ant that charged was cut down, blasted, or shot through — but for every one they killed, ten replaced it. For every ten, a hundred. The floor was already carpeted in a thick layer of ant corpses, more than twenty of them.

"Block the tunnels with the bodies!" Xiye barked.

"Good idea!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the ants acted. Several broke off from the assault, seized the corpses of their fallen, and hauled them back into the passages. In moments, the floor was clean again.

"Are these things sentient?!" Nanqi snarled. "How are they this smart?!"

The stream from the tunnels didn't slow. Wave after wave — ordinary worker ants and elite-rank soldier ants alike — the pressure just kept building.

Moli was pale. She watched the tunnel openings and her voice came out tight. "What do we do?! If this keeps up, they'll grind us down eventually!"

Then Xiye's expression shifted — sudden and sharp.

"Wait. Where's the human?!"

All three cat-kin looked up at the same moment.

Lu Yuan was crouching right at the rim of the pit, watching them with a faint smile.

Their teeth ground together.

Lu Yuan gave them a cheerful wave.

"My three cat-kin friends! Hello there. Moving at my turtle's pace, I honestly didn't expect to catch up to you again."

Xiye ran his sword through an ant without looking. "Human. We had bad luck — we stumbled into a nest. What exactly are you getting out of just sitting up there watching?!"

"Who said I was only watching?" Lu Yuan's tone was pleasant. "I'm waiting for you to die so I can climb down and pick up your drops."

Three cat-kin Hunters: "…"

Moli fixed him with a cold look. "I hope the Palace Sand Ants eat you alive."

"Much appreciated, miss." Lu Yuan smiled. "But you're far too decent a person — we'd never work out."

The three said nothing more. They went back to killing ants in silence, methodical and grim.

Gene Warriors got tired, same as anyone. And their potions had nearly run their course — twenty minutes at most for a standard serum, and they were already close to the end.

Xiye cut down another ant and felt his spirit power drain a little faster. His face darkened.

Then he spoke.

"Human. Let's make a deal."

Lu Yuan glanced over. "What would we trade?"

"Let us out. Don't attack us. We'll give you Spirit Crystals."

As he said it, Xiye watched Lu Yuan carefully. The human had gone quiet.

*He's considering it. This one really seems short on Spirit Crystals.*

"Spirit Crystals?" Lu Yuan echoed, raising an eyebrow.

Xiye pressed: "One thousand each. Three of us — three thousand total. How about it?"

Three thousand Spirit Crystals.

*Damn. I really want that.*

Lu Yuan kept his face neutral.

*Sure, I'm broke. But I want to kill these three bastards even more.*

He took a breath. "Your offer is very tempting." A pause. "But I'm going to decline."

"WHY?!"

"Because," Lu Yuan said, his smile carrying a thin edge of cold feeling, "you three have tried to kill me twice. I won't feel right until I kill you back at least once."

Xiye's jaw tightened. He struck down another ant. Then, with deliberate calm:

"Fine. But let me mention something: we only just got here. We haven't collected a thing. If you let us die, you'd walk away with less than a hundred Spirit Crystals." He paused. "And maybe a dozen materials."

Lu Yuan's expression froze.

*Less than a hundred Spirit Crystals. A dozen materials.*

The words settled over him like cold water. He'd spent 10,000 yuan on a serum. And the payout for watching them die would be —

*A dozen materials?! That's not even beggars' wages. That's nothing.*

He couldn't find a rebuttal. His mouth twitched.

Xiye's eyes brightened.

*There we go.*

Lu Yuan recovered first. "Who said I was only watching?" he said, a little too evenly. "I was waiting for you to die and planning to collect whatever you dropped."

Three cat-kin Hunters: "…"

All three of them stared up at his face — that calm, infuriating smile — and looked like they wanted to spit blood.

Especially Nanqi, who had thrown that exact line at Lu Yuan not long ago. He looked like he was fighting the urge to lob a fireball regardless of consequence.

Lu Yuan told himself to stay calm.

*Okay. Think. Elite soldier ants aren't Black-stripe Gray Rock Beetles — the Beetles have lower tempering. They're easier going. To make back the cost of that serum just from regular Palace Sand Ant kills, I'd need to grind over a thousand beasts in the Sandy Rock Palace. That's just how it is.*

He kept consoling himself.

*But going down to observe isn't the same as entering the nest. With my current defenses, ordinary worker ants can't break through. As long as I'm not swarmed by elite soldiers — or worker ants with unusually high tempering — I should be completely fine. At the very least, I want to watch these three Hunters die in person. And if they drop something good in the process, all the better.*

Then a new thought struck him.

*Wait.*

*If enough ant corpses pile up to seal the tunnel entrance—*

He blinked.

*—the three cat-kin could climb out of the pit.*

A half-beat pause.

*…But I'm still up here.*

*So they'd be climbing straight into my hands.*

Lu Yuan's eyes lit up.

*Oh. That's actually perfect.*

Below, the battle ground on without mercy. Ants poured from the tunnels in ceaseless waves. Elite-rank soldier ants moved among the workers, and the pressure kept climbing with every passing moment.

Three thousand Spirit Crystals.

Lu Yuan watched quietly from the rim, his expression unreadable, still doing the math.