The moment his own interests were on the line, Paul instantly became unusually aggressive, rising to his feet immediately, sneering: “What about us? We attacked the One-Horned Flying Ants?

What’s the problem? Are these One-Horned Flying Ants your relatives and off-limits?” At that moment, an incredibly sharp, imposing aura emanated from Paul.

Fang Senyan had even sensed a similar aura from Zhi Qian before, suggesting Paul's hidden strength was far from trivial. Aldaris chimed in, picking up Paul's thread lazily: “After hearing the news of our two companions’ deaths last night, we were so grief-stricken and upset we couldn’t even sleep.

So, we agreed to rush over here, come what may, to exact revenge for them. Because this matter was so dangerous, we decided the three of us would bear this risk alone.

Now, we have successfully taken our revenge—aren't you even a little happy about it?” If Paul’s words carried a sharp, aggressive edge, Aldaris’s statement was an even more gag-inducing, caustic sarcasm! However, Fang Senyan chose not to pour oil on the flames at this moment.

Instead, he interjected appropriately: “It was largely thanks to the fierce battle yesterday that significantly thinned the numbers of those damned One-Horned Flying Ants. Otherwise, with the remaining males combined with the Queen, we truly wouldn't have been able to take them down.” As soon as Fang Senyan said this, he immediately redirected the attention of the remaining team members toward the Queen Ant.

Even Aziza couldn't help but exclaim in surprise: “You actually managed to kill the Queen?” Fang Senyan smiled faintly: “Pure luck. The body is right over there.” Undoubtedly, this exchange immediately sent a chill through the rest of the team members.

Their assessment of Fang Senyan and his companions' combat prowess immediately rose by a level; they realized their arrogance had a solid foundation. Next, Fang Senyan noticed that the expressions of the newly joined companions were all quite exhausted, and they bore injuries.

He quickly deduced something and was about to speak with a faint smile when he heard Paul confronting Ronnie again in a sharp retort: “You say we took advantage of the situation? No team spirit.

Fine! Tell me, where was your team spirit last night when you sneaked out?

You thought your actions were totally secret, didn't you? You wanted to capitalize on the vacuum period after the One-Horned Flying Ants suffered heavy losses but before any powerful outside creatures arrived, planning to hunt freely on the plains.

Did you spare a thought for us then?” From the Basilisk Fang Senyan had hunted previously, it was clear that even lower-tier creatures on planet Uplus could possess considerable value. For instance, the Basilisk wasn't an overwhelmingly powerful creature, but its petrification ability was quite rare, which consequently drove up the price of its spoils.

Last night, both parties had their own agendas. They appeared to be sleeping soundly in the camp, but both had secretly slipped out.

The difference was that one side, terrified after being mauled by the One-Horned Flying Ants, could only target the relatively weaker creature clusters. The other side adopted a reverse-thinking approach, charging head-on because they believed the enemy had already become a paper tiger...

Fortunately, the god of luck favored both parties, so both sides seemed to have made decent hauls. However, without a doubt, for the two main tanks (MTs), when they triumphantly returned this morning, they had intended to leverage their recent bountiful results to establish dominance within the team, completely demonstrating that "following the boss leads to rewards." Yet, they found that the opposing faction who had argued against them was also absent from the camp.

They, too, had apparently gone out hunting. Inevitably, the feeling of crestfallen disappointment in the MTs' hearts at that instant was almost palpable.

Those individuals who had been eager to show off would feel as sick as if they had swallowed flies. And when this group saw the Queen Ant's corpse, along with the Xuan Ore currently being purified, the complex emotions they felt instantly intensified to a peak.

The feeling of wanting to flaunt one's wealth only to discover that the other party’s plucked hair was thicker than their own thigh was tantamount to slapping themselves hard across the face. The MT faction, naturally, felt jealousy and anger.

As for the neutral party, the Daldanian faction, who had followed the MTs’ lead, they were filled with regret. They surely couldn't help but think: "If only I had shown goodwill to these people last night, would I also have a share of the Xuan Ore being refined right now?" Undoubtedly, following the blow from this incident, the MT faction’s prestige weakened once more.

But just as both sides settled into an awkward silence, Fang Senyan, realizing the perilous nature of this world, took the initiative to extend an olive branch: “Actually, we also discovered a medium-grade vein of Xuan Ore, deep inside the ant nest. If it’s convenient, you had better go record its location.

That should increase your evaluation points upon our return.” Fang Senyan’s gesture of goodwill unquestionably diffused the tense atmosphere. After all, that vein was buried more than ten kilometers underground; no one else would know about it unless Fang Senyan mentioned it, so the other contractors were indebted to him.

For Fang Senyan, using such an effortless gesture to ease the tension was a way to foster some cohesion within this temporary team. At least on one point, Fang Senyan and the two MTs shared the same objective: this team could not disband until their individual goals were met.

To achieve this, they were willing, at certain times, to use the threat of dissolving the team as leverage. This situation sounded bizarre, even convoluted, yet it was a precise depiction of Fang Senyan and his group's current predicament.

After nearly three hours, all eight blocks of Xuan Ore were finally extracted. The refined Xuan element was only about the size of a fingertip.

It appeared gray in the sunlight but turned golden in the dark. Holding it carefully in his palm to observe, one could even feel that it seemed like fine sand floating in the air, as if a single breath could scatter it—a substance existing between solid and gaseous states.

Yet, when pressed with a finger, the firm, reassuring sensation transmitted to the skin clearly communicated that it was a piece of hard metal. This contradictory phenomenon between sight and touch was something no one could explain, but it also directly prevented anyone from finding an imitation of the Xuan element.

Perhaps this was the very reason it was so valuable. Since Fang Senyan and his two companions had pointed out the ore vein and displayed their goodwill, coupled with proving their strength, the others treated them with significantly more respect.

While waiting for the ore to be refined, the resentful group turned the ant nest upside down again. They even went to the collapsed area of the Mushroom Rock, searching the ruined nest of the worker ants, and surprisingly, Aziza discovered a piece of Xuan Ore with a content level of 3%.

This was likely the hoarding of some worker ant. Once they confirmed there was no more easy pickings, Fang Senyan proposed leaving the area quickly.

Soon, the powerful creatures would realize that this location had become a vacuum zone; the deterrent force that previously dominated the area had vanished. Therefore, if they didn't depart quickly, they might face multiple terrifying creatures, each one potentially possessing power on par with the entire One-Horned Flying Ant swarm...

Without a doubt, this likely included the creature capable of tearing apart the Savage Wolf Badger alive. Thinking of this, even Ronnie, the one most prone to opposition, looked a bit pale and supported Fang Senyan’s suggestion.

The group began heading west of Mushroom Rock, where a deep canyon lay. A long river flowed through the canyon.

Fang Senyan proposed entering the canyon and following the current downstream. Unquestionably, this would greatly save time on the journey and avoid much unnecessary effort.

More importantly, canyons were often mineral-rich areas, offering a higher probability of finding more Xuan Ore. Furthermore, since Fang Senyan’s party possessed a detector, traveling by water in the canyon was effectively expanding the area they could scan.

The team quickly accepted Fang Senyan’s proposal, though some questioned whether aquatic monsters might attack, noting that if an attack occurred and the raft capsized, dealing with it might be far more difficult than on land. However, at this point, Bokhan stepped forward to back Fang Senyan’s decision: “I can handle that problem.

Even if the raft capsizes, as long as we are no more than fifty meters from the shore at the time, I can conjure a temporary bridge to get everyone to safety.” Since the biggest hidden danger was resolved, there was nothing more to discuss; the only thing left was to act quickly. The group rapidly moved, cutting down several trees and lashing them together to form a giant raft before entering the canyon.

This canyon looked like a deep scar across the plains, appearing quite abrupt. The drop from the top edge to the bottom was at least a hundred meters, but due to the moisture from the water flow, the surrounding vegetation was noticeably denser.

After finding a suitable spot to descend to the bottom of the canyon, Fang Senyan and his party found that because of the minimal sunlight, the canyon walls were covered in grayish-black moss, and many fungus-like plants grew there. They resembled mushrooms but were enormous.

A slight touch caused a shower of spores to fall, and coupled with the updrafts common in the canyon, it looked like waves of yellow mist rising continuously. Daldanian, the botanist, warned that these spores might carry unknown dangers and strictly forbade anyone from intentionally touching them.

However, Fang Senyan noticed large patches missing from the edges of some mushrooms, as if they had been gnawed by some creature. He could only hope that these seemingly herbivorous organisms would be friendly, but logic told him this was likely as fragile as a soap bubble.