With matters in Whitewater City settled, Fang Chang wasted no time and hurried back to the Star Dou Great Forest under the cover of night. In this world, that was his true home.
Stepping onto this land again, Fang Chang was filled with mixed emotions. When he had first transmigrated here, he was just a three-thousand-year-old Man-Faced Demon Spider, constantly bullied and barely surviving by the skin of his teeth.
But now, with his soul power nearing forty thousand years and having evolved multiple times, he was confident enough to face even some fifty or sixty-thousand-year-old soul beasts, or even stronger ones.
As long as he didn't run into creatures like Da Ming, Er Ming, or the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, he likely had few rivals left in the Star Dou Great Forest.
Fang Chang wandered aimlessly through the forest. When he came across camps of human Soul Masters, he didn't bother hiding. Relying on his "Stealth" ability, he passed right through.
The human Soul Masters only felt the firelight dim for a moment, but when they looked, they saw nothing and simply assumed their eyes were playing tricks on them.
Evolution Conditions:
- Soul power reaching 50,000 years or more (Not achieved)
- Consuming 300,000 evolution points (Not achieved)
- Accumulated soul beasts devoured: 2,723/10,000 (Not achieved)
Fang Chang glanced at his evolution panel. The conditions for evolving into a Dominator Demon Spider were still far from being met, especially the requirement to devour ten thousand soul beasts…
Even though he had consumed many Pink Ladies and slimes in the Sunset Forest, he had only completed about one-fifth of this requirement.
Sighing, Fang Chang once again considered switching to a different evolution path. But the thought that the Dominator Demon Spider might greatly aid him in establishing the Star Dou Underground Lair made him hold back.
But where could he find several thousand more soul beasts? If he continued at his current pace, it would take years to meet the requirement.
As he pondered this, he arrived at one of the entrances to his former lair.
Fang Chang surveyed the familiar surroundings and activated his "Flexible Size" skill, shrinking himself to a size that could fit through the entrance. He slowly made his way inside.
Whether human or beast, after wandering outside for so long, one always longs to return home.
Huh? As soon as he entered one of the rooms in the lair, Fang Chang noticed something was off.
There were several drag marks of varying depths on the ground, as if something heavy had been dragged through here not long ago.
Moreover, the drag marks led directly to the central chamber, which made Fang Chang even more uneasy.
Could it be that during the months he was away, some fool had dared to occupy his old lair?
The more Fang Chang thought about it, the angrier he became. He quickened his pace and rushed toward the central chamber. Soon, he arrived outside the room and, sure enough, found intruders inside.
They were his "old friends," the Blazing Fire Ants. He wasn't sure if these were the descendants of the Blazing Fire Ants that had escaped from the lair or if they were a new colony that had taken over.
What infuriated him the most was that, in the center of the chamber, on the stone tablet engraved with the words "Star Dou Underground Lair," a Blazing Fire Ant Queen was perched.
Race: Blazing Fire Ant Queen
Soul Power: 450 years
HP: 120/120
Strength: 40
Attack: 43
Defense: 29
Speed: 45
This Blazing Fire Ant Queen was significantly weaker than the previous one, and its colony was much smaller in number.
As Fang Chang stared at them, the Blazing Fire Ant Queen noticed him. With a command, over a hundred Blazing Fire Ants swarmed toward Fang Chang.
Facing them, Fang Chang felt both angry and amused. He took a deep breath and unleashed his "Poison Mist Breath" skill.
Black mist spewed from his mouth, flooding the entire chamber in an instant.
Except for the Blazing Fire Ant Queen, which remained unharmed on its perch, the other ants collapsed one after another upon contact with the poison mist.
Fang Chang, like a reaper of life, fearlessly walked into the mist, devouring the over a hundred Blazing Fire Ants one by one.
The Blazing Fire Ant Queen on the stone tablet grew frantic, watching its subordinates being devoured by the spider but unable to do anything.
It wanted to descend and fight Fang Chang, but after seeing the black mist and sensing the terrifying aura emanating from him, it decided against it.
By the time Fang Chang finished devouring the ants, the black mist had mostly dissipated. He stared playfully at the Blazing Fire Ant Queen, pondering how to punish it.
Simply eating it seemed too lenient…
As Fang Chang thought, he noticed a row of white ant eggs beneath the stone tablet. An idea suddenly formed in his mind.
Ants were one of the most prolific creatures in the world. A single queen could lay hundreds or even thousands of eggs in a day.
As a soul beast, the Blazing Fire Ant Queen, due to its larger size, couldn't lay eggs as quickly as ordinary ants. But with sufficient nutrition, it could still lay dozens of eggs a day.
Fang Chang stared at the Blazing Fire Ant Queen, his smile growing increasingly twisted.
If he could capture a few more Blazing Fire Ant Queens and let them lay eggs to their hearts' content, wouldn't his requirement of devouring ten thousand soul beasts be achieved in no time?
Moreover, even after he completed his evolution, the eggs laid by these queens could serve as a high-protein food source for the other spiders in the lair.
Nutritious, abundant, and endlessly supplied—it was perfect!
The Blazing Fire Ant Queen on the stone tablet shivered under Fang Chang's gaze. It tried to escape but was trapped by a "Poison Web" cast by Fang Chang.
Fang Chang then dragged the queen, still wrapped in the web, into a storage room, threw it on the ground, and released it from the web.
"Do you want to live?" Fang Chang transmitted his threat.
But a four-hundred-year-old Blazing Fire Ant Queen had no intelligence to speak of and couldn't understand Fang Chang's words. It simply stood there, dumbfounded.
Uh… Fang Chang wasn't sure how to explain. He ran out of the storage room, fetched an ant egg from beneath the stone tablet, and threw it behind the queen. Pointing at the egg, he transmitted again, "Lay eggs!"
The Blazing Fire Ant Queen looked at Fang Chang, then at the egg, and finally, as if making a great decision, bit into the egg.
Fang Chang, watching this, was stunned. Ah… it seemed to have misunderstood again.
Fang Chang smacked the queen's head, picked up the egg, and nervously moved it behind his own abdomen with his hind legs, mimicking the action of an egg being laid.
This time, the Blazing Fire Ant Queen finally understood. Its disproportionately large abdomen twitched a few times, and an egg the size of a child's head plopped out.
Fang Chang sighed in relief, grabbed the freshly laid egg, still warm and covered in black blood, and stuffed it into his mouth, crunching it with a crack.
He then repeated the process, teaching the queen to lay more eggs.
After several repetitions, the Blazing Fire Ant Queen finally understood Fang Chang's intentions. To survive, it had to keep laying eggs.
And then feed them to the giant spider in front of it…