Prime Originator

The battle between man and ant was abrupt and unexpected. No one was prepared for it, and fewer were able to kill the ants. 

The black exoskeletal shells of the ants were tougher than the hides of low-level beasts in the Wildlands. 

Hundreds of rounds were fired by the soldiers, but not a single ant fell under their barrage.

The ants appeared unscathed, but there were numerous white marks on their black exoskeletal shells with a few cracks among them upon a closer look.

The beast-piercing shells fired by the soldiers were not utterly ineffective against the ants. IF they could concentrate their fire in a single point, they would be able to break through the ant's hard shells.

Unfortunately, there were few skilled marksmen amongst the soldiers to make this possible. They lacked both skills and firepower.

When the ants halted their attacks on the World Tree and began rushing towards the soldiers from the nearby camp, chaos broke out. The soldiers felt despair and the looming sense of death.

Luckily, there were still palace guards and earth spirits present to hold the fort.

"Construct an earthen wall to hold them back! We must contain them! Don't let them break through our line of defense!"

"Dammit! Why are they not attacking the World Tree anymore?! Why are they going for US?!"

"It must be the Ant King giving them the command! The Ant King appears to be more interested in us than the World Tree!"

"Why?! It's not like we were the ones who slaughtered the ants!"

The palace guards spoke to one another as they used their earthen abilities to raise the earth and erect an earthen rampart to hold back the advances of the army of ants that numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

With only 10 palace guards on the scene, they were naturally not enough to construct an earthen wall big enough to cover the entire camp quickly.

Elder Evergreen and his people were able to help with their earth-wood abilities, aiding and reinforcing the earthen rampart. 

"Hold your ground and protect the others! I will take care of these ants!" Elder Evergreen spoke with a commanding presence.

After the earthen wall was finished, Elder Evergreen dived straight into the sea of ants from atop the earthen rampart with a heavily slam as rings upon rings of earthen spikes shot out from the ground and smashed into the ants one after another like ripples with Elder Evergreen at its center.

Some ants were directly impaled to death, while others had their black exoskeletal shells cracked badly and launched high into the skies. 

One attack, several hundreds of ants, maimed or dead!

"So powerful!" 

"Is this the true power of Earth Transcendents?"

The palace guards and soldiers were badly startled and awed by Elder Evergreen's majestic display of strength. They gripped their fists with excitement and determination.

Earth-users were not to be looked down upon!

However!

Contrary to what the others were feeling, the elder himself frowned with dissatisfaction. The ripples of earthen spikes only contained a fraction of his power, but it should have been more than enough to kill all the ants targetted.

Unfortunately, that was not the case! His earthen abilities lacked penetrative power! Elder Evergreen had miscalculated. Hundreds of years of inaction had dulled his battle senses.

Elder Evergreen sighed.

The best way to use the earth is to crush all opponents with its sheer overwhelming weight! But while such methods were efficient for killing, it was also crude and exhausting!

Elder Evergreen could not use such a method. The Worker Ants and Soldier Ants before him were just small fries. He had to conserve his power for the Ant King!

Fortunately, Elder Evergreen was not just any Earth Transcendent. He was an earth spirit that had also gained an affinity with the wood element!

On the Grassland Region, where the fields of greens stretched as far as the eye could see, every stalk of grass—No, every blade of grass could be used as his weapon!

A mixture of brown and greenish energy gushed out of Elder Evergreen before seeping into the scattered grass along the ground, destroyed by his earlier attack. 

The grass on the ground was all curled up and listless like broken dolls, but after receiving the elder's energy, they all became sharp and erected upright like they had just received aphrodisiac—Ahem, steroids. 

Elder Evergreen dispelled the many pillars of earthen spikes with a wave of his hands and sent the countless straight blades of grass flying into the charging ants like he was tossing knives. 

In that instance, the blades of grass proved to be incredibly lethal. With the tenacity of wood, the hardening of earth, the blades of grass diced up the ants into countless pieces. 

"Incredible! Such Lethality! I can't believe grass can do so much!"

"You are looking at it wrong! It's because Elder Evergreen is already an almighty Transcendent that grass can produce such results!"

"Yeah, although I already suspected it, seeing is believing. Elder Evergreen really could manipulate both wood and earth!"

"Ha… You have forgotten that there are still another 500 people from Elder Evergreen's village that can also manipulate both elements."

"Who would expect that there would suddenly be so many dual elemental users. Since when did people possessing dual elements become commonplace?"

With Elder Evergreen fending off all the ants, the palace guards directly behind him on the earthen wall had it easy and were able to cheer for him.

At this time, Lilith arrived with the group of archeologists. Seeing Elder Evergreen fighting alone on the other side of the earthen wall, she said, "I'm joining the battle too!"

"You mustn't, Lady Lilith! It is too dangerous! People like us won't be able to do anything in this kind of battle!" 

The archeologists were shocked by Lilith's statement. As scholars who have devoted all their time to studying ancient relics and language, the archeologists did not possess much fighting prowess. They had rarely ever cultivated. 

Although they were of noble descent, the strongest amongst them were only 2nd step Awakeners, and not even one of them was at the 1st layer of Body Tempering realm.

As someone more knowledgeable in the ancient language yet also younger than them, the archeologists all assumed that Lilith did not possess a single ounce of cultivation.

However, Lilith did not listen to them and directly leaped on the 5-meter high earthen wall and dived straight into the fray. 

The group of archeologists was significantly shocked, but they did not overthink. They chased her up the earthen wall and quickly cried, "Quick! Save Lady Lilith! We can't let someone as knowledgeable as her d—"

The words stopped short as the archeologists almost had their eyes popped out of their sockets at the sight of Lilith cracking the head of one Soldier Ant with a single punch.

Gulp!

"My Lord! Lady Lilith was this powerful?!"

"How can a petite body possess such brute strength?"

The archeologists were shocked silly at the sight of Lilith's tyrannical fighting style with her bare hands. 

"Please retreat back to the camp. It is not safe for you all to be here." A palace guard said after giving them a sidelong glance. These bookworms might not be so shocked if they learned that the person they much respected was a beastkin.

In the end, two people fighting on the frontline was not enough to hold back the entire army of ants, unless Elder Evergreen took it up a notch. They were only able to cover one side.

The ants began to circle around and attack their flanks, but Elder Evergreen was not too worried. There were still 500 other people from his village to fend off the ants. 

Although none of them had reached the Transcendent level, they were not pushovers either. Killing some ants was too easy for them.

Suddenly, the situation took an abrupt change.

"Elder Evergreen, look out!" One of the palace guards cried in warning as he barely kept up with the blurred shadow of the Ant King shooting towards Elder Evergreen like a cannonball with his eyes.

"Hmm?" 

Elder Evergreen had been keeping half his attention on the Ant King by the World Tree and naturally knew when the Ant King made a move. However, he was still surprised by the Ant King's closing speed.

"Too fast!"

Nevertheless, Elder Evergreen was still able to react in time. Stomping the ground, ten layers of sturdy thick earthen walls appeared between Elder Evergreen and the Ant King in a straight line.

However!

In the face of absolute strength, the defense conjured by Elder Evergreen displayed little to no effect on stopping the Ant King!

The ten layers of earthen walls were smashed right through as the Ant King continued shooting straight towards Elder Evergreen without losing momentum.

Elder Evergreen was greatly shaken. The physical might of the Ant King was more horrifying than he could ever imagine. 

The elder was only able to conjure a last-second earthen armor to protect himself before receiving the Ant King's full-powered punch with his arms crossed in front of his body.

Boom!

The force of the collision was horrifying. 

With bone-crunching noises, Elder Evergreen shot back like a cannonball, smashing straight through the 5-meter earthen rampart behind him. 

His body continued to crash into several soldiers and tents before grinding along the surface of the grassland. The elder's body only came to a complete stop after rolling some further distance away.

Being shot over 300 yards and turning into a broken mess with all his limbs bending in odd angles, Elder Evergreen's life and death became unknown. 

Everyone was full of fear and disbelief as they cried out loud.

"Elder Evergreen!!!"