After that, Chu Feng led everyone forward, and upon passing through the forty-fourth gate, another stretch of forest appeared before their eyes.
The trees in this forest were tall enough to block out the sky, but the tallest among them reached only a hundred meters, with most standing at several dozen meters or even just over ten.
They appeared perfectly normal at first glance, but what was abnormal was that upon entering this forest, none of them could fly.
It was not that they had lost their ability to fly — rather, an invisible force was suppressing their aerial movement.
Some of them tried climbing the trees and successfully reached the top.
From up there, an endless expanse of forest stretched out in every direction.
"What's the point of stopping us from flying?"
"We can just leap across the treetops. Even if we can't fly, our speed won't be reduced at all."
Those who had climbed to the tops of the trees felt that the restriction on their flight was completely unnecessary.
But suddenly, dark clouds blanketed the sky above.
"Get down!"
Seeing this, Chu Feng immediately activated the formation and tugged on the ropes, forcibly pulling everyone who had climbed to the treetops back down to the ground.
At the same time, he swept them all deeper into the forest.
Boom boom boom—
Moments later, several bolts of heavenly lightning crashed down simultaneously from the dark clouds.
And the spots they struck were exactly where those who had climbed to the treetops had been standing moments before.
Upon impact, the lightning spread outward, and in an instant, tens of thousands of meters of surrounding forest were reduced to ash.
"This…"
Looking back at what had been a perfectly fine forest but was now a massive crater billowing with thick smoke, every one of those who had climbed to the treetops wore an expression of lingering fear.
They knew that although the heavenly lightning's coverage area was not particularly vast, its speed was terrifyingly fast and its power was absolutely horrifying — even they would not have been able to withstand it.
Had Chu Feng not acted swiftly to pull them away, they would have undoubtedly perished.
Thus, those individuals hurriedly bowed to Chu Feng in gratitude: "Young Hero Chu Feng, thank you."
"This is the most dangerous path within the Nine Heavens Secret Realm. If you let your guard down, you're only digging your own graves," Chu Feng reminded them.
"Young Hero Chu Feng, from now on we will follow your lead without question. We absolutely will not rashly attempt to scout ahead again," everyone assured him.
Chu Feng said nothing more and instead stared at the crater carved out by the heavenly lightning.
Not daring to ask too many questions, the others followed Chu Feng's gaze and also peered into the deep pit.
"Hm? There's residual barrier power lingering in there."
"Could it be hiding some kind of clue?"
After careful observation, everyone discovered that the massive crater concealed a subtle barrier power that was nearly imperceptible.
However, none of them knew what purpose this barrier power served.
Rumble rumble rumble—
Suddenly, the earth began to tremble. In the distance, trees started collapsing with tremendous crashes, and the wave of destruction was rapidly spreading toward where Chu Feng and the others stood.
Everyone deployed their respective observation techniques and looked toward the source of the thunderous noise.
The moment they saw it, every single one of them lost their composure.
Countless blood-red eyes — dense and packed together beyond number — all belonging to ants.
An ant swarm!!!
Each ant was a full meter long, entirely black, and covered in sharp spines. But their numbers were absolutely terrifying — there were hundreds of millions of them.
They swept forward like an unstoppable tide, obreasing every tree in their path.
And the direction they were heading was straight toward Chu Feng and the others.
They were coming right for them.
"Young Master Chu Feng, where should we run?!" someone cried out.