Xiao Han agreed to Paul's idea without any more convincing.
The idea itself was good, and such training presented little danger while its results could boost the confidence and morale of the recruits in his army.
In the morning, Xiao Han took Paul's group, along with five hundred recruits, and moved out in the direction of the hill they wanted to investigate.
Luo Mo and Luo Feng both took the same number of soldiers with them and joined them.
The rest of the regular army was divided among the officers and moved out with orders to kill as many ants as possible.
Cultivators, on the other hand, were divided into hundreds of larger and smaller groups before heading out.
Paul's ladies were a bit surprised when he told them about this arrangement, but considering that there were a lot of ants still around, they agreed to it without any objections, as having more people meant that they would be safer, and they certainly could use some training in close-quarters combat.
Their group was one of the first ones to move out, and as soon as they entered the forest, they found the first group of ants.
-We will take care of them.
Wei Lan said and rushed ahead along with Anna and Wu Yin.
The group was small, consisting only of six worker ants, so the three girls made quick work of them.
Additionally, this little skirmish was used as a demonstration on how to take out these ants and demonstrate their weak points to the others.
-Good job, ladies.
Xiao Han said with a smile after they slaughtered the ants.
However, there was a small change in the ants' behavior when the girls attacked them at a close distance.
Once the three of them got close, the ants seemed to try and fight back, but their moves were uncoordinated and sluggish.
It was also at this time that they heard the sounds of fighting all around them, signaling that other groups also found some ants to slay.
They arrived at the hill they wished to investigate two hours later, not that the hill was far away, but they started encountering more and more ants.
The second group of around forty ants, with some soldier ants present, was taken out by the soldiers, and they also took the ants out almost without any resistance.
The only sign of successful resistance was from a soldier ant, who managed to block one of the soldiers' swords, only to be pierced by another blade a moment later.
The third group was eliminated using bows, since Paul wanted to confirm something, and just as he thought, when they used bows, the beasts didn't offer any resistance at all.
This confirmed his suspicion that the ants only reacted if the enemy was right in front of them.
By the time they arrived at the hill, they dispatched more than a thousand ants, and they could see more of them in the forest, but they were in n o hurry, and they also had backup, as Luo Mo's and Luo Feng's units, were coming in the same direction but using other routs, dispatching even more ants on their way.
-I don't think we will find anything here.
Irine said when they arrived at the blast zone of the bombs.
She and Natalie also fought with the ants on their way there, and despite their reluctance, both mother and daughter did what they had to do, but they preferred to use their bows.
Then there was Elaina, who volunteered to go ahead as a scout and informed them every time before they encountered a group of ants.
Her cultivation was growing steadily, and her spirit tree gave her the power of nature, which was only slightly different than human mages with nature affinity.
She was now at a second stage, level 41 or so, as she had a problem with calculating her level in the human leveling system.
-I might have overdone it a bit with the number of bombs.
Paul said after he witnessed the devastation his attack unleashed on this whole area.
-That's an understatement.
Xiao Han said, also looking in disbelief at the carnage the incendiary bombs had caused.
-My lord, there are no more ants in our vicinity, and the other two groups are standing guard at the base of the hill just in case.
Elaina approached Paul with her report.
-Thank you, and can you stop calling me lord already?
He said in resignation, as this was the one thing she refused to do, no matter how many times he asked.
-I can't, you are my lady's man, so you are my lord, and you also accepted me into your service, so in all the ways that matter, you are my lord, and it would be inappropriate for me to call you anything else.
My lord.
She answered, and Paul could have sworn that he saw an amused smirk on her face for a fraction of a second.
This was giving him a headache, while everyone around looked amused at this.
-Alright, people, let's look around this place, and after that, we still have a lot of ants to kill.
Xiao Han said, trying to hide his amusement at Paul's predicament, and at the same time trying to help him a bit.
Everyone dispersed to look around, but other than some burnt wood, there didn't seem to be anything else on the hill.
Some of the soldiers even went down to the edge of the burned-out area, but they still came back empty-handed.
-It looks like the culprit didn't leave anything behind, or the females destroyed it if he did.
Paul said after an hour of searching the place.
-It was still worth a shot.
Xiao Han said, not any happier than his nephew.
They hoped that there was at least a clue to the culprit's identity left, since they had to escape in a hurry.
Unfortunately, they were out of luck.
After a few more minutes of unfruitful search, they decided to rejoin the other forces in eliminating the ants.
By the evening, at which time they all returned to the city, they had eliminated a few thousand beasts.
Some were shot, mostly when they encountered large groups of the beasts, and the rest were used to train everyone.
Even Paul took part in some close-quarters combat, since he was also not a veteran, and this was also a great opportunity for everyone to try out some of their techniques and spells.
Despite not finding any clues about the culprit behind this outbreak, the hunt itself was very successful as within only one day, they managed to wipe out over three million ants.
The same thing was to be repeated once again the next day, and the next one after that, until they either exterminated every last ant they could find.
-If we assume that we can repeat the same thing every time, then we would need a week or more to eliminate all the ants.
Anna said, as they were sitting around the bonfire.
-I don't think it will take this long.
Paul said, with a smile.
-Then how long will it take according to you?
Natalie asked, curious, if he knew something they didn't.
-Three days at most.
Today, everyone was not going all out, because they were not sure if the ants would not retaliate.
So tomorrow, everyone will be more confident about their attacks.
Additionally, you have forgotten that the forces from other provinces, cities, and towns are still arriving, so tomorrow we will have a lot more people out there.
He explained.
Paul only knew about it because Xiao Han told him, and according to the province lord, there were even more forces on their way, as it simply took them a lot of time to arrive at the capital.
At the moment there were almost four hundred thousand soldiers and close to a million cultivators in the capital and they were only from the closest provinces as well as from the capital itself.
In addition to that, Xiao Han estimated that at least another three to four million soldiers and two or three times that number of cultivators would arrive within a week at most.
What was even more shocking, was the information that these were not all of the forces in the empire.
The rest were not even ordered to move out as they were simply way too far away to get there on time.
-Wait uncle, since that's the case, then why is the capital so close to the wilderness?
Paul asked not understanding why the most important city was situated in such a place.
-That's because, no one was interested in developing these lands for millennia, and everyone liked having an abundant source of beasts, herbs and other materials so close to the capital.
Things changed during the rule of the previous emperor who decided to develop that land.
The result is the Storm wind province.
Xiao Han explained.
Only then did Paul figure out why he never heard about this.
In this world, something that happened a century or two in the past, was not treated as history but as recent events, so there was nothing about it in the history books he read previously.