The anger of the three catfolks was nothing to him.
As the potions' effects on their bodies gradually disappeared and the number of sand ants kept increasing, they didn't even have the mood to be angry anymore.
Just blocking the attacks from the sand ants exhausted all their strength.
However, it was useless. Ultimately, the three catfolks were devoured by the sand ants, and fresh blood stained the ground red.
After the three catfolks died, the space in the surroundings warped as a large number of items fell out.
Lu Yuan stared at the items on the ground as his eyes were wide open.
Leaving aside a bunch of spirit crystals and materials, there were actually two white-colored balls of light.
Lu Yuan's eyes brightened.
Was this a genetic armament or an extraordinary gene?!
He had struck it rich!
That catfolk sword-user was indeed extremely 'naughty'.
He actually lied to Lu Yuan saying that he had no gains?
Their gains were clearly so huge!
At this moment, Lu Yuan leaped down into the ant nest from the top of the crater. The sword in his hand danced, and he instantly killed two sand ants and sent the other ants flying, clearing an open space.
On the ground, the corpses of the three catfolks lay there and they gradually transformed into motes of white light before vanishing.
Gene fighters who died in the Land of Origins would ultimately be revived in the real world.
However, Lu Yuan didn't care that their bodies vanished. He hurriedly picked up the two balls of light on the ground.
He glanced and discovered two sets of leather armor within the balls of light. They were genetic armaments.
Although their value was inferior to extraordinary genes, he could still sell them for tens of thousands of dollars at least.
To Lu Yuan, this was already relatively good.
When Lu Yuan just picked up the two balls of light, the surrounding sand ants were screeching as they charged over again.
They had just killed three invaders, to think that there would be one more.
The sand ants frenziedly attacked Lu Yuan, but there were no changes to Lu Yuan's expression.
He wore his armor and maintained his Blackiron Body. His defensive prowess was very strong.
Although the potion effect had ended, it wouldn't be possible for ordinary sand ants to break his defense.
One of the sand ants used its huge mandibles to grab Lu Yuan's leg. In the end, a 'kaka' sound echoed out, while Lu Yuan merely felt a very slight sting.
"Scram!"
Lu Yuan shouted in a low voice and sent the sand ant, who was adamant about breaking his leg, flying away with a kick.
While he cleared the sand ants, he also collected the spirit crystals and materials.
Not only did he pick up the spirit crystals and materials dropped by the three catfolk, but he also picked up the spirit crystals dropped by the sand ants that the three catfolks had killed earlier.
Unfortunately, the corpses of those sand ants were already dragged back into the nest by their companions. He naturally had no way to collect the materials.
In addition, the most valuable material from sand ants was a special tendon in their bodies. One had to dissect the ant before they could collect it. In such a situation, it was impossible for Lu Yuan to do so.
Lu Yuan naturally gave up on the idea of collecting the sand ants' tendons.
Not long later, Lu Yuan finished collecting all the dropped spirit crystals and materials.
However, the other sand ants were still attacking Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan stared at the densely-packed sand ants that rushed out from the two tunnels in the crater. His original intention to retreat was somewhat discarded.
There were so many sand ants here, even if he didn't collect the materials from their corpses, he would earn a considerable profit just from the spirit crystals they dropped.
If it was other people, they might face mortal danger when facing so many sand ants.
However, Lu Yuan was different. He activated the Blackiron Body every moment, and these worker ants weren't able to break his defense.
Besides, he could also replenish his spirit energy, so his spirit energy wouldn't be completely exhausted.
All these factors gave Lu Yuan the capital to continue fighting unless he encountered worker ants with high refinement rates or elite-grade soldier ants.
However, over 100 sand ants had died and stronger worker ants or soldier ants had yet to appear. This meant that this sand ant nest might not be very large.
Even if there were elite soldier ants, their numbers probably wouldn't be many.
It wouldn't be too late for him to choose to leave if he really met powerful worker ants or soldier ants that he couldn't handle.
After all, this crater wasn't very tall. It was a simple thing if he wanted to get out.
Moreover, it wouldn't be easy for him to find another place with so many monsters that couldn't break his defense.
With this thought in mind, Lu Yuan drew in a deep breath and turned his gaze toward the worker ants who were surrounding him.
Fight!
Both his hands grabbed around his sword hilt as he started to reap the lives of the worker ants attacking him.
Five, ten, twenty, one hundred…
When Lu Yuan felt tired, he would simply absorb spirit energy from spirit crystals. From the start until the end, he could maintain the circulation of the strength of the Blackiron Body.
At this moment, he had forgotten the number of sand ants he killed.
His body was entirely stained by the transparent mucus left behind by the sand ants when they died.
At the same time, he also consciously trained his movements and sword techniques.
And this allowed his expertise-level in his movements and sword techniques to steadily increase.
Chi!!
A black swordlight flashed and Lu Yuan killed another sand ant.
A white ball of light floated out of the sand ant's corpse.
Lu Yuan's originally slightly numb mental state suddenly stirred.
(There's something?)
He quickly picked up the ball of light and looked at it. It was a dagger that resembled the huge mandibles of a sand ant.
A white-colored dagger that was a genetic armament.
Lu Yuan revealed a smile.
The probability of ordinary-grade beasts dropping genetic armaments was extremely low. Hence, he didn't expect his luck today to be so good.
Naturally, this had something to do with the large number of ants he killed.
Sufficient quantity led to qualitative change!
"Ji!!"
Lu Yuan put away the genetic armament and just when he prepared to continue hunting…
All of a sudden, a sharp cry rang out, and the sounds of chaotic footsteps could be heard from the tunnel in front of Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan's expression changed. He directly stepped on the head of a sand ant without even thinking and leaped up.
As a gene fighter, Lu Yuan's various abilities in all aspects were extremely strong. It was naturally so for his jumping ability.
With a single leap, he reached a height of close to four meters. After that, his right hand wielded the sword, while his left hand grabbed some of the protruding rocks at the side of the crater.
He exerted force with his arm and lifted himself up once more. In even less than a second, he managed to get out of the roughly five-meter-deep crater.
After leaving the crater, Lu Yuan directly ran into the depths of the tunnel.
After tens of meters, he turned his head and saw that there were two gigantic sand ants that had yellow bodies and were roughly 1.7 meters to 1.8 meters tall jumping out of the crater.
Behind them, there were countless sand ants. These sand ants were all around 1.2 meters and looked much stronger than the ones he had met.
These were all experts in the ant nest.
Lu Yuan's heart trembled as he hurriedly continued fleeing
Behind him, screeches and the sound of ants scuttling could be heard.
Lu Yuan ran a certain distance and saw that there were a few forks in the road.
He casually chose one and continued fleeing. On his way, he ignored the small stonemen and black scorpions he encountered, allowing them to attack him freely.
Just like this, after he ran for roughly half an hour, Lu Yuan could no longer hear any sounds behind him. Only then did he stop in a tunnel with no ferocious beasts.
He leaned against a wall and panted continuously.
After calming his breathing, Lu Yuan glanced at the transparent mucus on his body and frowned.
Because of it, he found a corner and put away all his genetic armaments and clothes before using clean water and shower gel to wash them. Only then did he feel comfortable.
After changing his clothes, Lu Yuan wore his armor again.
Because of the battle against the three catfolks and ant swarm, several scratches could now be seen on Lu Yuan's armor.
Repair for genetic armaments had to be done by weapon refiners who specialized in it. Lu Yuan didn't know anything about weapon refining, so he naturally couldn't repair it himself.
Hence, he could only wear it despite its damaged state.
Luckily, his Bugclaw Sword was an elite-grade weapon. Its toughness was much stronger than his armor, so it was still in pretty good shape.
Now, Lu Yuan found a place to sit down and started to take stock of his gains.
Firstly, it was the three genetic armaments.
Two were leather armor and one was a dagger.
Although they were just common-grade, they could be sold for $10,000 or more respectively!
There were also materials.
Lu Yuan didn't have any chance to collect materials from the sand ants he killed, but the three catfolks had dropped plenty of them.
Small stonemen's hearts, venomous scorpion's stingers, underground palace spider silk, sand ant's tendons…
There were many varieties and a total of 200 materials.
The total price of these materials added up could reach tens of thousands of dollars.
These were just the beginning.
The true climax was the number of spirit crystals that stacked up so much, to the point that they resembled a small mountain!
Earlier, just the three catfolks had dropped a total of over 1,000 spirit crystals. After that, they killed close to 100 sand ants, and there were roughly 200 spirit crystals dropped. He obtained roughly 1,500 spirit crystals here.
As for the others, it was due to Lu Yuan's killing of the sand ants.
The total number of spirit crystals Lu Yuan obtained was at the very least 1,500 as well.
It also meant that earlier, Lu Yuan had killed over 500 sand ants!
One must know that the three catfolks were working together, and they were completely devoured merely after killing close to 100 ants.
Yet, Lu Yuan was working alone, but he had killed five times the number of sand ants they could kill!
Earlier, Lu Yuan had grown numb with the killing. He was merely dodging and attacking on instinct, slashing with his sword and absorbing the spirit energy within the spirit crystals to maintain the activation of the Blackiron Body.
He didn't think that he would actually kill so many sand ants.
Seeing the mountain-like pile of spirit crystals, Lu Yuan couldn't help but reveal an agitated smile.
"From the looks of things, being a guard-type does have its advantages! If my battle technique wasn't something like the Blackiron Body that emphasizes defense and it was a battle technique that leans toward attacking instead, I wouldn't be able to ignore the sand ants' attack and would have been injured and devoured by the ant swarm."
Maybe guard-types would find it cumbersome when they encountered gene fighters with fast speed.
However, when facing a crowd of ferocious beasts, the strength of guard-types was immediately exhibited.
This was especially so when it complemented his ability to absorb endless spirit energy instantaneously from spirit crystals.
It could be said that he was cheating.
In this underground palace that was full of ferocious beasts, his advantage was simply too great.
Comparatively, his somewhat slightly cumbersome speed was no longer as important.