A portion of the belly of the Azure Steel Immortal Ant shimmered with a milky hue on the inside, suggesting that the Sky-Cleansing Stone Oil had likely been consumed and stored by the ants.
It seemed the Azure Steel Immortal Ant was a spiritual creature based on Myrmecocystus, the so-called honeypot ants.
Not just ants, but honeypot ants!?
There was no time to rejoice in this fact.
Disappointment followed immediately after.
“Then... does that mean the queen ant isn’t here!?”
If these creatures before him were truly spiritual beasts modeled after honeypot ants, then the three hanging ants couldn’t be queens—which was an astonishing thought.
The term "honeypot ants" refers to various species in the Myrmecocystus genus, native to arid regions in the western United States, Mexico, and Australia.
They include a specialized caste known as repletes or rotunds.
Replete means “full,” and rotund means “round”—both terms refer to worker ants that store liquid nutrition in their swollen abdomens.
In Korean, they might be called “storage ants.”
These specialized ants fill their abdomens with liquid food, swell to a size dozens of times larger than typical ants, and hang from the ceiling of the nest for life, distributing sustenance to their colony.
Their name comes from the way their engorged abdomens become perfectly round.
Considering this, the fact that all three hanging ants resembled such storage ants made it clear—they couldn’t be queens.
Repletes and rotunds were always workers.
“My ant colony dream...”
The dream of building an ant colony—shattered in an instant.
As So-ryong stared blankly at the three ants...
“So-ryong?”
Hwa-eun tilted her head as she approached, puzzled by his sudden stillness.
When the light of her lantern combined with the glow of the night pearl shining from above, a small difference became visible—one of the three ants looked slightly different from the others.
“Hm? What’s this? Why is that one...”
All three had bluish abdomens, and between the segments shimmered a milky glow.
But only one of them had a slightly different shimmer.
Two sparkled brightly, while the third’s glow seemed faint.
Was it perhaps dying?
Focusing his gaze more sharply, So-ryong let the light illuminate the translucent blue belly of the ant more clearly.
“It looks like... bubbles? Wait—!”
It looked like bubbles were forming inside its belly.
He quickly rushed over and examined the ant up close.
And then he understood.
At first, he thought all three were the same because their bellies were similarly bloated—but the one in the middle was entirely different.
Its body was much larger than the other two, and even its bone structure was different.
And the bubbles inside... were immature eggs.
In honeypot ants, the queen is much larger.
Several times the size of a normal worker, since her entire life is dedicated to laying eggs.
Some repletes or rotunds may also grow quite large, but this one was clearly different.
This meant—
This one was undoubtedly the queen ant.
The dream of the ant kingdom that had collapsed... began to rise once more.
“Yes! That’s right! How many times is this going to make my heart skip? Seriously, Hwamu-jin, this man is too much.”
This wretched tomb—how many times had it dragged him through heaven and hell?
So-ryong sighed, thinking again that the creator of this tomb, Hwamu-jin, was a dangerous man.
At first, he was overjoyed to find that the Azure Steel Immortal Ants had been preserved.
Then heartbroken, thinking only dead workers remained.
Then relieved to see a living one.
Then disappointed again, thinking it wasn’t a queen.
And finally, amazed to discover that one was indeed the queen.
Only someone like So-ryong with a sturdy heart could endure this. Anyone else would’ve had a heart attack.
Not that it was necessarily Hwamu-jin’s intention.
But still—wasn’t it always the fault of the house’s owner? Or in this case, the tomb’s?
“For the crime of toying with this So-ryong’s heart, I’ll make sure Hwamu-jin gets buried in a sunny spot.”
As So-ryong swore to honor Hwamu-jin with a well-lit resting place for causing him such distress, Hwa-eun’s voice rang out again.
“So-ryong?”
“Ah, yes. Hwa-eun.”
“Are the Azure Steel Immortal Ant alright?”
“Yes, Hwa-eun. All of them are alive.”
“Then shouldn’t you pay your respects to the owner of the tomb?”
“Oh! Right.”
Yeoncheon and Yeonji, perched on Hwa-eun’s shoulder, stared at So-ryong with their antenna-like eyes.
He could sense slight disappointment in their gazes.
He’d been so focused on the Azure Steel Immortal Ants that he’d forgotten to bow in respect upon entering.
Dashing forward, So-ryong kneeled deeply before the tomb.
“I, Wei Su Long, son of the Beast Palace and son-in-law of the Sacheon Tang Clan, pay my respects to Elder Hwamu-jin, close friend of Senior Yeoncheon. I apologize for the delay in offering my greeting.”
Finally, the satisfied voices echoed.
[Indeed, it's only natural to check on the living first.]
[At first I felt slighted, but you truly are our benefactor. The others just lowered their heads, but you even bowed. By the way, are those three alright?]
A proper ancestral rite should be accompanied by a deep bow.
And so, his respectful gesture earned nods of approval from Yeoncheon and Yeonji.
They seemed to understand that he had prioritized checking whether the ants were alive.
“Yes, it seems they’re unharmed.”
Just as the greeting to Elder Hwamu-jin was complete...
Hwa-eun asked again.
“But So-ryong. Your face looks brighter now?”
Apparently, she’d noticed the change in his expression.
The shift from disappointment—thinking the ant wasn’t a queen—to joy upon discovering it was.
“Oh, I realized something I was mistaken about.”
“Really? What kind of mistake?”
“N-nothing major. Don’t worry about it, Hwa-eun.”
Brushing it off, So-ryong tried to change the subject.
But Hwa-eun continued, curious.
“I see. Then who are these three? Did they kill all the Azure Steel Immortal Ants? They do look kind of similar, but they’re so different from the ones in the Secret Compendium of Venomous Creatures and the dead ones outside.”
Hwa-eun seemed to think the bloated ants looked different enough from the ones outside and the illustrations in the compendium that they must be a different species altogether.
She likely had never seen ants like these before—or queen ants in their nests.
“No, Hwa-eun. These are all Azure Steel Immortal Ants.”
“Really? But they look so different.”
When she stared in disbelief, So-ryong walked toward the ants and explained.
“This one here is the queen ant of the Azure Steel Immortal Ants. The other two are worker ants that store liquid in their abdomens. The compendium probably only illustrated the ordinary workers, so the difference is expected.”
“Oh... now that you say it, Ranghu looked different from the other worker wasps too, didn’t he?”
“That’s right.”
“Still, their bellies are really bulging...”
As Hwa-eun marveled at the sight, So-ryong began to wonder how he would bring these companions home.
Then, from behind them, sullen voices called out.
“Little Hero So. It looks like all the treasures of the tomb have been ruined.”
“So-ryong, the Azure Steel Stone Tablet with martial arts inscriptions has been gnawed away by the ants, and the sword is broken. The Sky-Cleansing Stone Oil also seems to have disappeared.”
“What? There’s not a single relic of Elder Hwamu-jin left...?”
Turning around, So-ryong saw that even the usually confident Dragon Fangs wore gloomy expressions.
They seemed thoroughly disappointed after inspecting the tomb.
To be honest, So-ryong didn’t care as long as the Azure Steel Immortal Ant were safe.
But when he saw the broken half of the sword in his brother’s hand—and heard the reports that the martial arts tablet had been destroyed by ants—it was clear everything was in ruins.
Even the Sky-Cleansing Stone Oil was gone.
Their faces weren’t just sullen—they looked like their world had crumbled.
After all, this was the martial legacy of one of the most legendary figures in Murim history—something rarer than the Ten Great Venomous Beasts.
And now... nothing remained.
So-ryong figured he should at least cheer them up by telling them some of the oil might still be inside the ants.
“I should let them know the Sky-Cleansing Stone Oil still exists...”
“You don’t need to be so discouraged. Actually—”
–Ttak.
A strange sound interrupted him.
It came from the direction of the Azure Steel Immortal Ant—a faint snap, like a finger flicking.
Everyone turned toward the noise.
Perhaps revived by the heat from the lanterns, the queen ant of the Azure Steel Immortal Ants perked up her antennae and looked their way, blinking in surprise.
***
Ttak. Ttak-ttak.
The sharp clicking sounds continued.
They came from the ant’s antennae.
Everyone froze.
Then, with a soft thud, the ant leapt down from the ceiling, lowered its antennae, and bowed its head.
At the same time, a flustered voice echoed from Yeoncheon.
[It seems there’s been a misunderstanding.]
“A misunderstanding?”
[It’s asking us to take its life, Benefactor.]
“W-what!?”
What kind of absurd request was that?
Take its life?
While So-ryong stood dumbfounded, Yeonji explained.
[‘So soon...? If I had known, I would have shared it and waited with them... How could I live after sending them off first? Go ahead, take my life, human.’ That’s what she said.]
“Why...?”
Staring in disbelief at the queen ant, So-ryong heard Yeoncheon speak again.
[Listen. We have no intention of taking your life. This friend here—he’s the sort who’d rather die in your place than harm you. He adores spiritual creatures like you, so there’s no need to fear.]
Clearly, Yeoncheon had grown familiar with So-ryong’s nature after spending time with him.
As the conversation continued, the clicking returned.
Ttak-tak?
[Could you tell us exactly what happened?]
Ttak. Ttak. Ttak-tak.
[Hmm...]
Ttak-tak. Ttak.
Yeoncheon and the Azure Steel Immortal Ant queen conversed at length—and what came through was a tragic tale.
[She says she settled here decades ago. And...]
The Azure Steel Immortal Ant queen had made her home here long ago.
The ants thrived by absorbing the energy emitted from the Azure Steel stones, which is why they built their nest in this place.
It seemed they had entered through an old ventilation shaft, traces of which had been found on the surface, and began constructing their colony.
But several months ago, the main column that supported their original nest collapsed, putting them in grave danger.
Though they subsisted on the energy from the Azure Steel stones, the ants also needed water to survive. And once the column leading to the vent crumbled, they could no longer climb to reach it through the domed ceiling.
At first, they managed thanks to the replete ants—those that had stored water inside their abdomens. But as supplies dwindled, the colony faced a dire choice.
Eventually, the worker ants resolved to drill a passage through the wall to escape.
But Azure Steel was incredibly hard, and even the Azure Steel worker ants could barely carve through it. In the end, all they managed was to dig a single tunnel connecting this chamber to another.
The ants whose teeth had worn down and died were the ones who had just barely managed to bore through and then perished from dehydration.
Ttak. Ttak-tak.
[And after that...]
They had the fortune to discover the Sky-Cleansing Stone Oil here in this chamber—and found that a single sip could help them endure for a long time.
But then came a decision point.
After carving that tunnel, the last of the water was exhausted.
And when they discovered the Sky-Cleansing Stone Oil, the colony was already suffering from desperate thirst.
Should they share the oil and try drilling further?
Or gather what remained and preserve it within two ants to keep the queen alive—and hope that someday, humans would return and open the tomb?
Whenever that day might come.
No one could say when.
“Oh no...”
“That’s so heartbreaking...”
In the end, the ants had chosen the latter.
Realizing they could no longer tunnel through at any useful speed, they decided to preserve the queen and place their hope in the unknown.
And now, the reason the queen wept and asked to die was because she realized: had they simply shared the oil and waited together, perhaps none would’ve died.
The decision for the workers to die had only been made recently.
Having heard everything, So-ryong approached the ant whose antennae trembled as if in tears.
He spoke gently, offering comfort.
“No parent could ever rest easy after sending their children ahead into death. But are you really going to turn your back on the hope your children entrusted to you by trying to follow them now?”
Ttak?
The Azure Steel Immortal Ant queen looked up at him in surprise.
He smiled warmly and /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ continued.
“They didn't only want to save their mother. What they were trying to protect... were the unborn siblings still in your belly, weren’t they?”
“They gave their lives so those little ones, who haven’t even seen the light yet, could live. So let me take you somewhere safe—raise their siblings well in their honor.”
Ttak-tak...
The queen’s body trembled where she stood.
Ants couldn’t cry.
And yet...
It looked as though a single tear had fallen from the queen’s eye.
