Ashen God
Chapter 279 - 278: Sudden Incident

Chapter 279: Chapter 278: Sudden Incident

"Let it be, perhaps the absence of monsters in the eighth area is just a coincidence; it doesn’t mean that other areas of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest are likewise devoid of monsters."

Zhang Yanhang felt that what he should do now was to check other areas, such as the ninth and tenth areas planned for the Second Tier Stage cleanup. After all, it couldn’t be possible that every remaining area in the Second Tier Stage cleanup plan was devoid of monsters, could it?

Because he could walk in a straight line without having to detour, Zhang Yanhang quickly arrived at the ninth area originally planned in the Second Tier Stage cleanup of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest. However, the situation here was identical to that of the eighth area; no matter how Zhang Yanhang scanned, he couldn’t find any life forms other than himself.

"This situation seems unreasonable, however I think about it. Could it be that the two thousand Crimson Iron Ants previously gathered by the Crimson Iron Ant Queen were actually pulled from this area? That can’t be possible, can it?"

Zhang Yanhang felt that the likelihood of such a situation occurring was quite low. Nevertheless, he still couldn’t think of any other reasons that fit logically.

"What could be the reason behind this occurrence? I can’t figure it out..."

Since no monsters were present in the ninth area of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest’s Second Tier Stage cleanup plan, Zhang Yanhang then planned to immediately inspect the last area to see if there were any Crimson Iron Ants there.

After spending a few more seconds, Zhang Yanhang arrived in the tenth area of the Second Tier Stage cleanup plan of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest. However, the situation there still disappointed him; no monsters were to be found in the tenth area, maintaining consistent status with the eighth and ninth areas.

"Unbelievable, the remaining ninth and tenth areas in the Second Tier Stage cleanup plan really did not have any monsters.

Let’s think positively, after all, the Crimson Iron Ants cannot escape, and there are no other Awakeners here. Moreover, the Crimson Iron Ants themselves don’t have the possibility to commit suicide to prevent me from gaining any benefits.

So, even if there are no Crimson Iron Ants in these planned areas of the Second Tier, other areas of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest must definitely have Crimson Iron Ants, as it’s impossible that four thousand Crimson Iron Ants just vanished into thin air while I was asleep, right?"

Zhang Yanhang felt that he must have missed some important event while he was sleeping, but it wasn’t really his fault; he didn’t have the ability to foresee the future, how could he know that just sleeping would lead to such a peculiar situation.

Moreover, even if he knew unexpected events would occur, there was no use; Zhang Yanhang was simply too exhausted at the time. He was so tired that he had to sleep; even if he could continue forcing himself to hunt monsters, his overall combat effectiveness would definitely be greatly reduced.

Promoted to Second Tier, Zhang Yanhang had entered an Extraordinary stage; though he could sustain himself without food, there was still a dimensional gap away from being a perpetual motion machine. Therefore, for him at the moment, sleeping was unequivocally the best method to recover his Physical Strength.

"Sigh, I slept too deeply. If I had some Skill or Talent that provided Passive Perception ability even while sleeping, I surely would have woken up immediately had I heard any unusual noise."

Zhang Yanhang knew very well how sound he was in deep sleep; he used to set alarms, but they never helped much unless he specifically activated related options. Otherwise, it was really rare to be woken up before naturally waking up.

"But the key point is that I specially set up a several-decimeter-thick blocking wall before I slept, which must have also acted as a soundproof wall, significantly reducing the sound transmission from the passageway to the cave where I was sleeping.

Plus, while I was sleeping, I would subconsciously operate the Energy Shield to isolate sound. Perhaps it was this combination of factors that led to the situation where such major changes occurred in the Crimson Iron Ant Nest and I was completely unaware."

Zhang Yanhang felt truly helpless about this situation, but he had already thought of a solution. Normally running the map was too time-consuming, so he was planning to use Time Pause and re-explore the entire map to see where those remaining four thousand Crimson Iron Ants were now hiding within the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu.

If Zhang Yanhang had to list a likely place where Crimson Iron Ants might gather, the first place he suspected was the Crimson Iron Ant Nest Inner Area, after all, the Crimson Iron Ant Queen resided there, and the remaining ants might have gone to protect the Ant Queen.

Then, the second possible gathering place was the Transmission Channel where he initially entered the Ashen World, because the Ant Queen seemed not very smart, so it could not be ruled out that she would summon the remaining ants to go again to the C-shaped passageway where the Transmission was located.

The last possible gathering place for the ants could be the passageway leading to other Ant Nests or other areas, although normally monsters cannot leave their designated areas to go to other areas.

But considering that his current location’s official name is actually the Crimson Iron Ore Vein, and the small ’**Chidaantu**’ Dala Gu occupies only a small part of it, perhaps the ants could indeed move freely inside the Crimson Iron Ore Vein, theoretically, as the interiors of the Ore Vein all belong to the Crimson Iron Ants’ territory.

Although Zhang Yanhang had not seen such passageways leading to other Crimson Iron Ant Nests during his previous exploration in the Ant Nest, in fact, he only explored the Outer Zone of the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu at the time.

Due to time constraints, Zhang Yanhang explored less of the inner area of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest on his last visit. As for areas deeper than the Inner Area, such as the Core Area? He was completely unaware of the specific situation.

Thus, it is indeed quite possible that there are passageways leading to other Crimson Iron Ant Nests in the inner area of the Ant Nest or even deeper, in the Core Area. It just happened that he did not discover them during his previous exploration.

Moreover, other than the possibility that Zhang Yanhang didn’t discover passageways to other Ant Nests due to insufficient exploration intensity, there is also another possibility, such as the Crimson Iron Ants just happened to have dug through to other Ant Nests during the time he was asleep.