Following Ramtas’s move, Paul hesitated, clearly reluctant to sacrifice his metal golem, but Fang Senyan merely uttered four words: “Long nights breed trouble. Let the spectacle begin—” Paul instantly grasped that if the battle dragged on, it would be disastrous.

If Hedikuri and his unreliable allies managed to catch up, things would truly become maddening. So, gritting his teeth, he dispatched the heavily damaged War Golem as the second line of defense before Aldaris.

The Queen Ant, roaring in agony, also noticed the motionless Aldaris standing in the distance and immediately charged towards him with frantic force. The Queen Ant’s attack lacked finesse, but its momentum carried the staggering force of an out-of-control locomotive.

Yet, the Consul apparition manifesting behind it attacked with even greater ferocity; nearly every blow brought forth large sprays of lacerated flesh, and terrifying snow-white lightning snakes lashed through the air, even carrying the scent of searing meat. Ramtas swung his staff, striking out directly, parrying the Queen Ant’s foreleg.

However, his disadvantage in sheer strength immediately manifested as he was shoved back a stumbling step. But immediately, Ramtas swung his staff again, its heavy metal head smashing down.

This strike was particularly vile and malicious, as Ramtas targeted the exact spot previously struck by the metal war golem, Heracles. The old wound was struck heavily once more, causing its carapace to shatter instantly.

A copious amount of milky-white fluid, resembling cerebral matter, jetted out from the wound. The Queen Ant shrieked piercingly.

Under the torment of the pain, its inner universe exploded. Its two forelegs lashed out with uncanny speed, piercing Ramtas’s chest.

It prepared to wrench Ramtas apart, but at that moment, the seed of the Grasp of Nature circling Ramtas activated. With a bang, it exploded, and numerous roots burst from the ground, binding the Queen Ant.

Although the binding effect of the Grasp of Nature was instantly strained and broken by the Queen Ant’s monstrous strength, Ramtas, enduring unimaginable agony, retreated several steps, pulling clear of the creature’s attack range. The recovering Queen Ant was just about to charge again when it saw the War Metal Golem standing before it, coldly and ruthlessly raising its massive siege hammer.

The unforgettable memory of pain made it hesitate momentarily. Thus, even as the Queen Ant slammed Heracles away again, Aldaris had gained sufficient time.

He spat out a final, icy syllable from his lips, crossed his arms over his chest, lifted his feet off the ground, and floated upwards, bowing deeply. The next second, the Consul apparition on the Queen Ant’s back retracted instantly, like a great whale inhaling, back into the slender rapier, which then detonated with a deafening roar.

White electricity sprayed outward, its residual energy extending five or six meters. The Queen Ant’s back was blasted open, revealing a bloody pit two meters in diameter and one meter deep.

Likely due to several major blood vessels rupturing simultaneously, copious bodily fluids instantly filled this gory crater—it was undeniably a lethal assault. Paul attacked at this very moment.

He raised both hands high above his head—a gesture quite bizarre, resembling surrender. Paired with Paul’s slender frame, it looked almost comical.

However, a sharp, yellow light suddenly illuminated his fingertips. Metal began to converge from all directions towards the tips of his ten fingers, forming ten small spheres that rotated slowly.

Immediately after, Paul aimed his fingertips at the distant Queen Ant. The ten metallic spheres before his fingers shot out like bullets, hitting their mark with perfect accuracy, burrowing deep into the Queen Ant’s existing wound.

Then, the force bound to the metallic spheres exploded violently. Ten thousand tiny fragments of metal shattered and erupted inside the Queen Ant, inflicting unimaginable damage.

Having suffered consecutive heavy blows, the Queen Ant finally weakened. It began to descend into futile and blind rampage, but power without reason or intellect to guide it was ultimately useless, especially now that the Queen Ant lacked the explosive force provided by its wings.

Despite their urgency during the engagement, Fang Senyan and the other two maintained sufficient patience to slowly grind down the Queen Ant’s tenacious life force. Even so, it took nearly half an hour before the Queen Ant finally wailed, sprayed out a large amount of green fluid, and fell down in defeat.

Only now did Fang Senyan form a direct assessment of the native lifeforms in this world: collective strength was truly necessary to survive relatively safely. Take the Queen Ant they had just killed—the factors contributing to its demise were remarkably contingent.

Firstly, the Queen Ant’s greatest asset wasn't combat, but reproduction. In fact, the true fighting strength of the entire One-Horned Flying Ant colony lay in the moment they had more than ten Drone Ants; the terrifying venom they sprayed could instantly reduce an enemy’s defense to negative values, leaving them completely exposed like newborn infants.

Moreover, the actual damage inflicted by each Drone Ant strike would then surpass the damage inflicted by a previous critical hit. Secondly, prior to the battle, starvation had already eroded a significant portion of the Queen Ant’s stamina.

Thirdly, the Queen Ant had bitten off part of its own body to separate itself from the cumbersome egg sac, a process that came at a huge cost. Finally, the battle against Fang Senyan and his allies took place outside the nest.

Considering these four factors, objectively speaking, the Queen Ant’s combat capability was at most 60% of its peak strength, and it was not even a creature specialized purely for combat, yet it had pushed the three of them into disarray. Therefore, one could imagine just how savagely formidable those creatures must be that carve out territory on this planet through individual might alone.

In that instant, Fang Senyan couldn't help but recall that incredibly mysterious creature that had ripped apart a Wolverine with its bare hands—the one that even Ramtas felt an instinctual dread towards. After dispatching the Queen Ant, they proceeded to thoroughly loot the ant nest.

They found that the battle had not been in vain. Besides obtaining several unknown rare items collectively worth at least thirty merit points, their greatest haul was a full eight chunks of high-purity Xuan Ore.

It was estimated that the Worker Ants discovered these high-purity Xuan Ores while digging underground, and these stones, imbued with immense power, had been hoarded. Of course, the Queen Ant’s corpse was also a valuable asset.

Fang Senyan’s group left behind a crafted android skilled in such matters to handle the remains. However, after Fang Senyan and the others conducted a thorough search of the nest, an awkward situation arose.

Ramtas, heavily injured in the fight, succumbed to the gluttonous instinct of a wild boar and savagely attacked the Queen Ant’s corpse—or more accurately, attacked its mouth. Evidently, the androids were incapable of stopping him, or perhaps they chose not to intervene.

Regarding this incident, Fang Senyan expressed deep apologies. He consulted the offline database carried by the androids, marked the prices of several valuable organs of the Queen Ant on the Cosmic eBay, and then announced he was forfeiting his claim to all discovered unknown rare items and Xuan Ore.

Aldaris and Fang Senyan shared everything, so they naturally didn't haggle over these spoils. As for Paul, after rapidly calculating the figures Fang Senyan presented, he immediately realized this distribution arrangement actually favored him slightly.

He politely agreed after a few courteous remarks. He was already entirely focused on his fragmentation extractor, eager to see how much high-purity Xuan element he could salvage.

To put it simply, within the Empire, this substance was the one-hundred-percent hard currency, much like how gold was the most reliable form of wealth during the chaotic periods of Old Earth. Fang Senyan naturally took possession of the half-devoured carcass of the Queen Ant.

Admittedly, in terms of superficial value, forfeiting his share of the other items to secure this corpse—which wouldn't drop a key—was a loss, at least ten thousand universal credits. But for Fang Senyan, in a certain sense, it was a massive gain.

Because upon approaching the Queen Ant, the Liquid Metal Lifeform Fang Senyan possessed began to react, as if something on the Queen Ant was desperately desired by it. Especially when Fang Senyan plunged his knife into the creature’s body, this stirring intensified to its absolute peak.

Fang Senyan also sensed Ramtas’s profound craving for the Queen Ant’s genetics, which was why Ramtas was willing to suffer the loss of other spoils just to keep the corpse. Fang Senyan wasn't worried that Ramtas’s gluttony would "accidentally damage" what the Liquid Metal Lifeform sought, because undoubtedly, anything the Liquid Metal Lifeform was interested in would mostly be metallic substances.

After some searching, Fang Senyan retrieved what he wanted: a pale green concretion residing within the Queen Ant’s brain. This item was extremely dense with metal, feeling heavy in his hand.

The Liquid Metal Lifeform silently dissolved, transforming into a puddle of liquid, silvery-white "lotus leaf," which then enveloped the pale green stone. A crackling sound immediately emanated from within, as if something were being deep-fried in hot oil.

Large amounts of dross were squeezed out. Immediately thereafter, Fang Senyan received a notification from the Nightmare Imprint: “Silver Series Mission Hidden Branch Chapter: Infusion, acquired important mission item: Queen Ant’s Pineal Gland.” “Mission Description: The Liquid Metal Enhanced Lifeform has absorbed a strange metallic component that it senses will greatly aid its growth.” “Hint: Your Liquid Metal Enhanced Lifeform has matured.

Mission completion increased by 33%. Please continue searching for Tear Stones or similar items to increase completion.

Better completion yields better rewards.” To be continued.