The interior of the anthill was similar to a labyrinth of underground caverns tunnels about 3 meters tall with many different paths that resembling branches twisted and diverged in more paths. Being underground, all the place completely equal made it incredibly difficult to oriented there and even more difficult to find a concrete place.
Moreover, all the walls were imbued in the same aura as the ants that devoured energy. This forced to Bai's group to keep absolute control of their own spirit energy to avoid leaving their body. It also caused it to be impossible to sense its intern structure as the mental energy would quickly diffuse, being impossible to sense more than 10 meters away from one, not helping in finding your correct path.
Fortunately, Bai was very sensitive to Mayi's presence, being able to sense something like a pull from him. He didn't know if this was actually the shortest path, a previously crossed path by Mayi or some dead end, but it was better following his instinct rather than running like headless chickens.
Bai's group formation was Bai at the front, followed by Chenxiang and Tang San with Xiao Wu at the back. Bai was at the front guiding and quickly killing the ants at the front. Tang San at the middle to control the battle if there was the need, Chenxiang at the middle to quickly react if anyone needed help and Xiao Wu at the back due to her greater instinct and defense than the others.
The group advanced without stopping, compared with outside the ants were less here and with the limited space, it was difficult for the ants to use their numbers "Xiang, left!" Chenxiang quickly reacted, her wings glowed and turned sharper and collided with her hand. She thrust her wing at the wall just as the head of an ant was digging its way out. The wing penetrated the ant's head instantly killing it.
This was the most dangerous of the anthill. The ants not only attacked from the path, but they could also create new ones, surprising attacking the group as they sensed the invaders. Thankfully, Bai could detect them. He activated his Mind Eye the minimum only covering their surroundings without much precision. What he could detect wasn't their presence, it was the degree of absorption. Bai's mental strength was continuously being drained by the walls, however, the ants' suction was stronger, so Bai focused on this difference. Detecting a place that absorbed more, meaning that an ant was about to attack from them.
This method was possible thanks to two factors. The ants weren't intelligent, always charging madly to them. If they were about to wait and follow them, Bai could know that they were near, but not when they would attack. The other factor was thanks to the number of ants, thanks to Bai's 6th ring, each kill recovered him, this was essential to keep using his Mind Eye with such a great energy's expense.
As they continued advancing, strangely, the number of ants decreased instead of increasing "Be extremely aware. I will stop continuously searching" Bai warned. Due to the low number of ants, he couldn't waste his mental strength like that as he needed to be fully prepared for the unknown that waited for them, keeping the Mind Eye becoming inviable. Now they could only depend on their physical senses, even so, the ants' attack lowered a lot so they didn't have much of a problem.
For the number of ants decreasing, Bai could think of two hypotheses. He was wrong and it wasn't going to the empress, making a wasted trip and forcing them to retreat. Or the actual empress didn't create new ants and she only controlled the queens. This queen would be in another place, producing ants in great numbers. This way the numbers of ants passing through the empress' way would be less, while if they directed towards a queen it would increase. Of course, this was only a hypothesis, they would need to reach an end to see their result.
After advancing for 1 hour, they could see a light at the final of the tunnel, strange as they were undoubtedly underground and there's no way to leave outside. The tunnel opened forming a huge cave. The cave was a kilometer long with a 20 meters tall. The light from the cave was formed by green and black crystals that shined all around the cave.
Entering the cave, Bai's group found themselves being oppressed by a strong aura, needing to revolve their spirit energy to keep up. Looking at the front, they could see the final of the cave, a little gate 2 meters tall. Guarding it and emitting the previous aura were three ants.
Fifteen Ton Ants were around 10 cm long at 10 years old, 20 cm at 100 years old, 30 cm at 1.000 years old, and 70 cm at 10.000 years old. Finally, reaching 1 meter at 30.000 years old until being 3 meters long when they were 90.000 years olds. About what they became when reaching 100.000 years old, nobody knew it as it never had been documented an ant reaching that age. Even in Mayi's case, she became human when reaching 100.000 years old and she didn't invoke an astral projection of her spirit, as it only manifested as armor around her.
Now, Bai's group discovered how they were. Undoubtedly, the three ants in front were older than 100.000, maybe even surpassing 200.000. They were two meters tall, stood on the ground with two strong legs and they were a little curved, their heads lowering to 1,60 meters. Their body was formed by three parts, the head, a straight thorax, and a round and lifted abdomen that seemed more like a tail. All of it was covered by a golden red hard carcass that shined with a black glow.
From the thorax 6 extremities surged, two used to keep them on standing on the ground while the others were hanging. Their 6 extremities were identical, they were wide as a human and ended with four 10cm sharp claws.
Their head was round, two big eyes in the middle of it with 4 other little ones surrounding the bigs, all of them were compound eyes that shined with a purple glow. With four mandibles at the bottom of the head with a mouth that seemed a black hole. With 4 antennas resting over their head that seemed to twitch under Bai's group's presence.
"CRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The three ants shrieked at Bai's group presence. They leaned their body at the ground, putting two more arms on the ground. They disappeared, appearing in front of Bai's group. They crossed the 1-kilometer distance in the blink of an eye.
"
The ants' claws quickly pierced through them, but Bai's group had gained enough time to activate their spirit and step back, evading the thrusting claws.
"Crrrrrr" The ant's' body trembled and seemed that they were laughing "Wer srtrorng!" their mandibles vibrated and a penetrating and hoarse voice surged from it.
They were strong, it was without a doubt that physically even Di Tian would lose against them, it was normal that they could keep him busy and injuring him.
On Bai's hand, his twin swords appeared, 8 rings surging under him. He prepared to charge to the ants
"Bai. Continue!" Chenxiang shouted.
"We will stop them" Tang San said.
"3vs3 it won't be a problem for us" Xiao Wu reasoned.
"Bai you're objective is healing Mayi and stopping all this shit" said Chenxiang "We will keep them here while you face Mayi. Trust us." Chenxiang's 4 wings extended, All her body started shining with all the visible colors, the light focusing on her forehead, where a mark of a round object with wings appeared. From the mark, the light became solid, surging from it a shining blade. She took it with her right hand finally showing the form. It was a 1-meter long rapier, the blade was translucent, seemed to be made of crystal and shined with multiple colors. The guard seemed to be like Chenxiangs wings that curled around her hand with a round yellow pommel under the handle.
Chenxiang lifted the rapier "Go!" the rapier flashed three times intermittent, a yellow glow attacking the ants. "
Bai seeing the confidence in their faces charged forward "Thank you. And don't die!" lightning and wind covering his body, his 3rd ring shining, maximizing his speed. His wings appeared at his back, flapping them furiously, he passed through the ants, crossing the 1-kilometer cave and disappearing into the gate.
Chenxiang pointed her saber to one ant. Xiao Wu's body glowed with a pink aura as she looked at another ant. Finally, Tang San was holding a black colored trident and pointed to the last ant. All prepared to fight them.