Han Wu heard the person before they even came into view.
âYou dare kill my units? Iâll kill you!â
Turning toward the sound, Han Wu saw a figure with black carapace armor and bulky arms the size of his legs.
A name floated above his head, designating him as Ant God. He initially had 840 billion points, but somehow lost 100 billion points after presumably encountering some misfortune.
At the same time, Ant God also noticed Han Wuâs alias. The name Locust Plague brought a frown to his face. He then checked the ranking and saw that Han Wu had 880 billion points, much higher than what he had started with. After glancing at Han Wuâs units, he scoffed.
The variety in Han Wuâs core race caused Ant God to assume he had bought all his units. Ant God looked down on candidates who relied purely on money. However, Han Wuâs high ranking on the list dissuaded Ant God from waging war on him yet.
After all, the ceremony had just started. If they fought, it would only benefit those further down the list.
It would be downright embarrassing for the Gods and Major Gods if a Demigod or Divine Being ended up becoming the inheritor.
âYouâve killed a lot of my units, so let me kill some of yours, and weâll call it a truce, alright?â Ant God proposed.
Han Wu scoffed. âNo.â
They were already fighting, and Ant God wanted to kill more of his units before shamelessly fleeing. Han Wu would never let that happen. Gods saw their units like their children. Even if Han Wu had a lot of children, that didnât mean someone could just harm them without consequence.
âLocust Plague, donât get cocky. Iâm trying to let you bow out without disgracing yourself. The miscellaneous units that you bought off the market canât defeat my black ants.â
Ant God thought Han Wu was being impertinent by rejecting his grace. Meanwhile, Han Wu couldnât care less.
âStop talking and fight. Letâs see whoâs the strong one,â Han Wu taunted before ordering his units to kill the black ants.
All of Han Wuâs units took to the air, conjuring two illusions and sending them to Self Detonate on the black ants. Explosions rocked the ground. Many of the black ants were killed in the blast.
Han Wu, on the other hand, didnât lose a single unit, as he had merely detonated the illusions of his units. It was all thanks to Han Wuâs new Sacred Objects, the Illusion Stone and the Truth Brush. The two were synergistic, with one conjuring illusions while the other turning them into clones.
When paired with Han Wuâs famous Self Detonation, it turned into the new battle strategy. Ant God was horrified. Han Wuâs method of turning illusions into clones to use as kamikaze warriors was extremely effective.
Reeling from the loss, Ant God let out a furious roar, commanding his black ants to grab as many boulders as possible and chuck them into the air.
In response, Han Wu ordered his units to fly higher and activate the Sixfold Artifact to summon the shortbow. Drawing the bowstrings, they fired a hail of arrows downward. The heavy arrows killed the black ants through sheer numbers, with many dying horrifically.
The helplessness of the situation caused Ant God to panic. His black ants were humanoid and excellent close combat specialists. Even if there was some distance between them and their enemy, they could still launch boulders as an assault.
However, as his black ants couldnât fly, there was nothing he could do against flying units.
Unfortunately, Han Wuâs units could fly and were essentially the perfect counter to his core race. When Ant God saw waves of his units perishing, he immediately ordered them to retreat. Staying would only cause unnecessary deaths.
Fortunately, Han Wu didnât give chase. Han Wu didnât want to take it too far and provoke Ant God into retaliating, regardless of the risks.
The ceremony was destined to last a long time, so Han Wu wasnât worried about pursuing Ant God for now. Once the black ants retreated, he focused on the corpses left behind. They were excellent food for his units.
He was staring at the corpses when something unexpected happened. The corpses were disappearing rapidly. Rather than being digested, they were quickly turning into small balls of light.
âWhatâs going on?â Han Wu couldnât just let this wonderful meal for his units disappear like that. Bewildered, a single Core fragment the size of a human head suddenly landed in his hand.
Upon checking the fragment, he immediately understood what had happened. The black antsâ corpses werenât simply disappearing; they were being refined into Core fragments.
The fragment in his hand was the size of a human head, enough to increase a level 30 Core by two additional levels.
âI donât need to level my Core right now, but itâs a rare resource. I canât just throw it aside.â Thus, he carefully placed it in his divine realm beside the Swamp God's Divine Ego.
At the same time, Ant God checked his points and saw that they had gone down further. He was down to a mere 690 billion points.
Han Wu had killed many of his units, so this point loss was inevitable. âDamn you, Locust Plague and Crouching Dragon!â
The first time he lost 100 billion points was because he had encountered Crouching Dragonâs core race. Facing such misfortune twice left him feeling cursed.
He was trying to think of a strategy when one of his black ants sent back a report. They had found something peculiar and needed him to check it out. Rushing over to the black ant, he found a shrine.
A sentence was etched into the side of the shrine. âOffer 200,000 Power Stones and receive the blessing of the Berserker God.â
In the shrine stood a copper statue depicting a muscular man with unlimited strength. Noting the presence of Divine Points emanating from the statue, Ant God hesitated to hastily offer 200,000 Power Stones, instead breaking the shrine and keeping the statue in his pouch.
He would only crack open the statue and take the treasure inside once the ceremony was over. However, despite expending all of his strength, he couldnât move the statue a single inch. This made him more certain that the statue was hiding something good.
Thus, he decided to test out what blessing he would get. But where could he find Power Stones?
Ant God turned to look at his units.
Black ants were famed for their strength, and 200,000 wasnât a large number for him. So, he decided to crack open their skulls, remove the Power Stones from within, and offer them to the statue.