MMB Chapter 5 Desert Army Ants, Treasures in a Woven Bag.
Chapter 5 Desert Army Ants, Treasures in a Woven Bag.
"This place isn't very clean."
Lin Mu's cold voice echoed in the empty cave, and together with the howling black sandstorm outside, it instantly sent a chill down everyone's spine.
"Click!"
Almost reflexively, the security captain pulled the bolt of his rifle, and the three security guards, all retired special forces soldiers, immediately spread out in a triangular formation, their tactical flashlights flashing like sharp swords into the depths of the cave.
"Mr. Lin, what...what did you see?"
Professor Zhou swallowed hard, even his form of address had changed without him realizing it.
Lin Mu did not answer. He held the half-sharpened entrenching tool in one hand, his deep gaze fixed on a patch of shadow at the deepest part of the cave.
After merging with Zhang Qiling's template, his five senses have surpassed the limits of humanity.
In addition to the heavy earthy smell, there was also a very faint but nauseating sour and rotten odor in the air.
That smell was from formic acid secreted by a large number of organisms gathered together.
"Professor! There are signs of artificial excavation here!"
An archaeology graduate student, who was using a flashlight to probe the path, suddenly shouted excitedly.
Following the light, everyone saw a huge ancient well with a diameter of more than two meters at the bottom of the rock wall at the deepest part of the cave.
The wellhead was sealed tightly by a thick bluestone slab, and some blurry carvings could still be vaguely seen on the slab.
"The ruins of the thirty-six kingdoms of the Western Regions! This is definitely an ancient dry well used for sacrificial rites!"
Upon seeing the artifacts, Professor Zhou's previous fear vanished instantly.
He was so excited that his hands trembled. He took out a soft brush and a magnifying glass from his backpack and stumbled over.
Chen Wentao was feeling extremely guilty and humiliated because he had almost caused the death of the entire team by giving the wrong directions.
Seeing an opportunity to shine, he immediately rushed forward, pulled out a geological hammer from his waist, and tried to clear the sand that had accumulated in the cracks of the bluestone slabs so that he could see the patterns on them.
"Don't touch that rock."
Lin Mu's voice suddenly rose eight octaves, his tone carrying an unquestionable sense of command.
Chen Wentao's hand abruptly stopped, the geological hammer halting in mid-air. He turned to Lin Mu, gritting his teeth, "Lin Mu, you won the feng shui dragon-finding, I admit defeat. But this is archaeology! The patterns on this stone slab are extremely valuable for research. I'm just cleaning the surface sand; I won't damage the artifact!"
"I'm not afraid you'll damage the cultural relics."
Lin Mu gripped the entrenching tool in his hand, his eyes as cold as ice: "I'm afraid you'll lose your life here."
The sour, rotten smell in the air grew stronger and stronger.
Lin Mu's muscles had already tensed up unconsciously, a beastly instinct brought about by the Zhang Qiling template when facing mortal danger.
"Stop spreading alarmist rumors..."
Chen Wentao felt that Lin Mu was deliberately humiliating him. A surge of anger rose in his heart, and he swung the geological hammer in his hand forcefully, directly hitting a hardened sand block on the edge of the bluestone slab.
"Click."
The sand shattered, and a gap about two fingers wide was cleared from the cracks in the bluestone slab.
"See, nothing's wrong..."
Chen Wentao's words were cut off before he could finish speaking.
His pupils dilated instantly as he stared intently at the gap.
A bright red ant, about the size of an adult's thumb, slowly crawled out of the crack.
Its two upper jaws resembled a pair of sharp hydraulic shears, gleaming with a chilling metallic luster under the flashlight beam.
Then came the second one, the third one...
"Shhh—"
A series of intense, chilling friction sounds came from the depths of the ancient well, like countless steel brushes scraping glass at the same time.
In less than three seconds, a swarm of ants, as red as a fountain, gushed out from the two-finger-wide gap!
They spread rapidly across the bluestone slabs and expanded in all directions at an extremely fast pace.
"Desert army ants! Retreat! Retreat quickly!"
Professor Zhou, a man of great experience, was terrified the moment he saw the red ants and scrambled backward.
"ah!!!"
Ye Zhi Qiu let out a piercing scream as she saw several red ants crawling to within a meter of her.
Su Nianwei pulled her behind her, picked up a dead tree from the ground, and stared at the ground warily.
"Fire! Push them back!"
The security captain roared, and all three assault rifles opened fire simultaneously.
"Da da da da!"
The bullets struck the bluestone slab, sending sparks flying, and indeed pulverized the leading ant swarm.
But what's most terrifying about desert army ants is their sheer numbers and their fearlessness.
The death of their companions did not deter them; instead, the pheromones they emitted completely enraged the entire ant colony.
A crimson tide began to gush forth from the cracks in the ancient well, not only covering the ground but also climbing up the rock walls of the grotto, attempting to surround everyone in the middle.
"Captain, this won't do! There are just too many of them; we can't possibly kill them all!"
A security guard shouted anxiously. Several ants had crawled on his tactical boots. One ant bit down and it actually pierced through the thick leather, causing him to gasp in pain.
"Use cold fireworks! They're afraid of fire!"
Chen Wentao frantically rummaged through his backpack and pulled out two cold cigarettes, lit them, and threw them at the ant colony.
The blinding white light and high temperature did cause the ant colony to pause for a moment, but this was only a drop in the ocean.
The burning area of the cold fireworks was too small. After a few seconds, the ant swarm bypassed the flames and continued to approach.
A sense of despair spread through the grotto.
Outside are black sandstorms that can bury people alive, and inside are army ants that can gnaw people down to their bones.
There was no way to go to heaven, and no way to go to hell.
Just when everyone was frantically retreating and falling into extreme panic.
An extremely abrupt action appeared in the live stream footage.
Lin Mu did not back down.
Instead of retreating, he strode to the front of the line.
Amidst the shocked gazes of millions of netizens, he single-handedly opened the red, blue, and white snakeskin woven bag that had been ridiculed across the internet for an entire day.
"Whoosh!"
Lin Mu pulled out two huge plastic bottles from inside.
One bottle contained a purplish-black powder, and the other contained a white powder.
potassium permanganate!
quicklime!
Yesterday afternoon, he spent several tens of yuan to buy "poor student stationery" at a labor protection store on the South Fifth Ring Road in Yanjing.
Lin Mu's movements were incredibly fast.
Zhang Qiling's template endowed him with terrifying explosive power and precision.
He squeezed the plastic bottle open with both hands at the same time, and then quickly scattered a circle about five meters in diameter around the crowd, with himself as the center.
The purplish-black powder and the white powder mixed on the sand.
"Water! Throw all your water bottles over here!"
Lin Mu shouted.
Su Nianwei reacted the fastest. Without any hesitation, she untied the water pouch from her waist and threw it forcefully at Lin Mu.
The security captain and others suddenly realized what was happening and started throwing water bottles at them.
Lin Mu didn't try to catch it; instead, he kicked out and accurately shattered the water sac in mid-air.
"Bang!"
Clear water fell like raindrops onto the circle made of a mixture of potassium permanganate and quicklime.
A miracle, or rather, a chemical reaction, was born at that moment.
"Sizzle—!!!"
Accompanied by an extremely violent boiling sound, quicklime releases terrifyingly high temperatures upon contact with water, while potassium permanganate undergoes a violent oxidation-reduction reaction under the catalysis of high temperature and water.
A white wall of steam, half a meter high, filled with pungent alkaline gas and extreme heat, instantly rose up around everyone!
The desert army ants at the forefront were instantly scalded and curled into a charred mess the moment they came into contact with the wall of high-temperature steam.
Furthermore, those pungent gases directly damage the ant antennae pheromones that ants use to communicate and orient themselves.
The ant swarm, which had been fearless and as disciplined as an army, was now in complete chaos.
They seemed to have encountered an insurmountable barrier, frantically circling outside the steam wall, trampling each other, but none of them dared to cross the line even a step.
Inside the grotto, apart from the hissing sound of boiling steam, there was a deathly silence.
Ye Zhi Qiu slumped to the ground, staring blankly at the white smoke that had saved everyone's lives.
Chen Wentao was still gripping the geological hammer tightly in his hand, frozen in place like a wooden sculpture, his brain completely shut down.
The security captain swallowed hard, looking at Lin Mu's retreating figure with undisguised awe in his eyes.
There was a ten-second silence in the live stream chat.
Then, like a volcanic eruption, a dense barrage of bullet comments completely covered the entire screen.
Holy crap!!!
Potassium permanganate reacts with quicklime and water? That's an exothermic reaction straight out of a middle school chemistry textbook!
Who said he was a bad student with lots of stationery? Who said that? Stand up and take your punishment!
[My scalp is tingling! Did he already anticipate encountering a swarm of insects when he bought these things yesterday?]
[Desperate Illiteracy? What the hell is desperate illiteracy?! This is called Breaking Bad, okay?!]
[Lin Shen! Please accept my utmost respect!]
Amidst the white steam, Lin Mu slowly turned around.
He remained aloof and indifferent, as if using a few dozen yuan's worth of chemicals to repel a swarm of army ants large enough to devour an entire army was just a trivial matter.
"Lin...Lin Mu..."
Professor Zhou stood up, leaning against the rock wall. His voice was trembling, and his eyes were filled with shock, confusion, and an intense thirst for knowledge.
"You could say you were lucky to find the location based on feng shui. But this method of repelling insects... how did you know there were army ants here when you bought these things in Yanjing yesterday? Where did you... find out about these things?"
Professor Zhou asked the question that was on everyone's mind, and also the question that puzzled the eight million viewers in the live broadcast room.
Chen Wentao stared intently at Lin Mu. This PhD, who had studied for twenty years, had been thoroughly humiliated twice by a popular celebrity. His worldview was on the verge of collapse.
Lin Mu looked at Professor Zhou, a barely perceptible ripple flashing in his deep eyes.
He knew it was time to unleash that perfect moat.
Lin Mu casually tossed the empty plastic bottle on the ground, dusted off the powder on his hands, and spoke in a calm tone as if he were discussing the weather.
"It's nothing."
"Among the ancient books and fragments left by my elders, there are some folk remedies for preventing insects in ancient tombs in the Western Regions. The original recipe used saltpeter and dragon oil from the Western Regions, which are no longer available, so I used modern chemicals as substitutes."
Lin Mu paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone before finally settling on Chen Wentao's pale face.
"It just happened to work."
happen?
What a fucking coincidence!
Professor Zhou gasped.
Fragments of an ancient book?
Left by our elders?
What level of uniqueness must an ancient book be to record in such detail the secret techniques of feng shui for finding dragon veins and insect prevention in ancient tombs in the Western Regions?
What kind of terrifying, hidden heritage must a family possess to be able to own such a unique copy?
Several taboo terms that had been circulating in the archaeological community for a century flashed through Professor Zhou's mind.
The tomb raiders, tomb raiders, mountain movers, and ridge unloaders.
In the live stream, even the lurking folklore experts and historical researchers went completely wild.
[Ancient book! Confirmed! He is definitely a descendant of a family of tomb raiders!]
No wonder he's an orphan! The reclusive family deliberately fabricated a false identity for him to protect their heir!
Holy crap, this is terrifying to think about! Could he have made that awful movie before just to cover for himself?
[Where are Han Zeyu's fans? Speak up! Does your idol even know what Western Region Fire Dragon Oil is?]
Su Nianwei quietly watched Lin Mu, who was surrounded by white smoke.
This man not only saved her life, but also trampled all her arrogance and prejudice underfoot in an extremely nonchalant manner.
She suddenly felt that the ordinary black windbreaker was more dazzling than any haute couture dress she had ever seen.
"Lin Mu".
Su Nianwei suddenly spoke, this was the first time she had called him by his name on her own initiative during the entire journey.
Lin Mu turned his head and looked at the aloof actress.
Su Nianwei's lips curled up slightly, revealing an extremely rare smile that stunned the entire live stream audience.
"I'll reimburse you for your next purchase."