"Actually, there's no need to be too sad. I have some news that might cheer you up a bit."
Deng Ru pondered for a moment in his mind. His ant followers were a golden finger that couldn't be exposed.
But the alliance of Taoist priests was something he could talk about.
Deng Ru never expected the county-level deities behind the Taoist priests to overthrow the rule of the city-level deity in H City.
There was an unbridgeable gap in power between the city and county levels.
Especially for a deity like the one in H City, who had been demoted from the provincial level.
Whether it was the strength of their fanatic followers or their own foundation, it was impossible for a few top-tier county-level deities to overthrow them.
But this news was a great comfort to Qiu Yuan, an ordinary girl who had very little contact with other deities.
After all, how could several deities fighting against one deity possibly lose?
Just like the old saying from Earth's past, "Regardless of the situation, with 800,000 against 600,000, the advantage is ours!"
Qiu Yuan remained silent, only nodding slightly.
She didn't have much hope for the news Deng Ru could bring. She knew that Deng Ru just wanted to comfort her.
So, she put on a comforted face, not wanting to worry Deng Ru further.
She never expected that just staying outside her home for a little longer would cause Deng Ru to worry.
Although "a little longer" was actually quite a while.
"I've heard that many deities are dissatisfied with the rule of the H City deity and want to overthrow him. The old guy in H City won't last long, maybe not even a month."
Deng Ru didn't hesitate to expose the group of deities led by Qing.
"Oh, I see. Thank you, A Ru. Hearing this news makes me feel a little more hopeful about life."
A smile returned to Qiu Yuan's face, but in her heart, she didn't believe Deng Ru's words.
Although she hadn't had much contact with other deities besides Deng Ru, she wasn't foolish. She had read history books and knew that deities only fell due to their own mistakes, never because they were overthrown by lower-level deities.
Even if she believed Deng Ru, she didn't believe that the deities he mentioned could succeed.
"Well, don't worry. I promise you'll be safe in a month."
Seeing Qiu Yuan's cheerful demeanor, Deng Ru thought she had been comforted and got up to return to his rental room.
It was time to continue developing his ant colony.
Even without Qiu Yuan's connection, the H City deity occupied too many belief resources, and if Deng Ru wanted to develop, he had to eliminate him.
Deng Ru didn't linger downstairs for long. After comforting Qiu Yuan, he returned to his rental room to busy himself with the ant colony's "family planning."
When Deng Ru opened the door to his rental room, the scene inside shocked him.
A dense swarm of ants, like a black tide, covered the floor, and each ant held a long, thin, plastic-like... spear?
If Deng Ru guessed correctly, those were spears for the ants.
After all, the ants had surrounded five genetically modified rats and were about to hurl those long, thin plastics at them, much like ancient humans hunting with spears.
The only difference was that ancient humans used wood, while these little ants used...
Deng Ru looked closely at the plastic spears thrown at the genetically modified rats.
Something about those plastic spears seemed off, especially their color.
The purple plastic, the flesh-colored plastic...
Why did they look so familiar?
Suddenly, it hit him. Those weren't just any plastics. They were parts of the hand-crafted figurine of his favorite anime character, the Raiden Shogun, which he had made using his divine power when he first arrived in this world.
No wonder he couldn't find it anywhere recently. These ants had dismantled it and turned it into spears!
That figurine had taken him three whole days to make and would have been worth thousands, if not tens of thousands, in the Earth of his previous life.
These ants were truly wasting precious resources.
Deng Ru didn't dwell on his disappointment for long. He activated his divine translation ability and was soon greeted by a cacophony of battle cries.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Oh, gods, are the evil rat monsters crazy? With the blessing of Lord Deng Ru, how dare they invade us in such large numbers!"
"Damn it, we have been blessed by Lord Deng Ru, and our strength is greater than ever. These evil rat monsters will surely meet their end here!"
"My leg, oh my leg, ahh."
Deng Ru could see that many ants lay scattered on the ground, their limbs severed.
Roughly estimating, there were tens of thousands of them.
This sight pained Deng Ru deeply.
With tens of thousands of ants dead, he had lost the equivalent of thousands of people's belief.
However, he chose not to help the ants kill the five rats.
If he intervened now and helped the ants dispose of the rats, his previous words about using the rats to train the ants would become a mockery.
As a deity, he couldn't go back on his word in front of his believers.
Besides, watching millions of ants battle five giant rat monsters was much more thrilling than any ancient war drama he had seen in his previous life.
If you put yourself in the rats' shoes, it was even more exciting than watching Ultraman fight monsters.
"The Queen is coming! Make way, make way! The Queen will defeat these evil rat monsters! Lord Deng has granted her the greatest strengthening power!"
Deng Ru watched as the ant queen, holding a sharpened plastic arm from his beloved Raiden Shogun figurine in her antennae, prepared to strike.
A faint divine power gathered at the tip of her antennae, charging the plastic arm with kinetic energy.
With a loud bang, the plastic arm was launched like a bullet, piercing straight through one of the rats' heads.
The rat, as big as a cat, stood stunned for a moment before collapsing in a fit of convulsions, crushing some unlucky ants underneath.
"The Queen! The Queen! The Queen!"
The ants' antennae vibrated wildly, and their excitement was palpable. The ant queen's one-hit kill had greatly boosted their morale.
Soon after, another sharpened plastic leg was presented to the ant queen.
Deng Ru watched in horror as his beloved anime character was dismantled piece by piece. It was like watching his most prized possession being brutally torn apart.
With each shot from the ant queen, a piece of the Raiden Shogun figurine was launched towards the rats, piercing them through.
Deng Ru's heart ached with every hit. These little ants were truly relentless in their dismantling.
They didn't seem to care what they were destroying as long as it served their purpose.
He cleared his throat, drawing the ants' attention back to him.