hsntnovel Chapter 84: Exploding Ants
Chapter 84: Exploding Ants
A cow ant? Ye Zhi was taken aback. Where did this third ant king come from? But then he realized that it was his unusual appearance as a weaver ant that made the little exploding ant king mistake the species for his own.
It's not surprising that the Little Ant King made a mistake. After Ye Zhi evolved into a mid-level warrior, it had a slender body, long and sharp mandibles, and even two abdominal stalk tubercles. Apart from lacking a stinger, it did indeed resemble some kind of bull ant.
"No, they're leaf ants," Ye Zhi explained truthfully, "the kind that are mortal enemies of your exploding ants."
That's true. There's a view from my past life that the self-destruction ability of these flat-headed ants' worker ants evolved to cope with the competitive pressure from weaver ants. The exploding ants and weaver ants in this world are probably no better off.
The little ant king trembled, emanating fearful mental fluctuations, but Ye Zhi did not intend to continue intimidating him. Instead, he continued to transmit his mental power: "However, you should have also felt that the natural primal force is very scarce. Further away, there is no natural primal force at all."
The little ant king twitched its antennae somewhat listlessly, indicating that it had also explored the distance on its own and knew this conclusion.
"I can take you to an area where the natural force is more than twice that of here, provided that your life seed is controlled by my ant colony. As long as you don't become hostile to me, I will take care of your life seed as carefully as I would my own."
Given the precedent set by the Fire Ant Kingdom, Ye Zhi dared not gamble on whether this explosive flat-headed ant king would turn against him in the future, so he had no choice but to make things clear beforehand.
The little ant king's antennae twitched, seemingly because the allure of the abundant Force overcame the fear Ye Zhi felt, which also relieved Ye Zhi. It seemed that the exploding ants were not as ferocious as she had imagined, and if she was careful, she should be able to control them well.
"I will cover your compound eyes and antennae with ant silk and lead you to the other side. Once we arrive, I will remove the silk. Do not struggle."
Ye Zhi did not intend to let the little ant king know about the interdimensional passage. He also planned to plant the little ant king's life-sustaining seed on the side of the continent that was close to the divine power barrier in the future, so as to completely cut off the possibility of the other side getting rid of control.
Ants are fierce, especially explosive flathead ants. Although keeping them alive would be more beneficial for Ye Zhi, he still had to be careful to avoid a backlash.
Ye Zhi pulled out a suitable thickness of ant silk rope, used her mental power to guide and glue it together, weaving it into a simple little bag. She put it over the head of the exploding flat-headed ant king, and then tied the opening of the bag at the neck with a thick ant silk rope.
The insect's respiratory opening is located at the spiracles on its abdomen, so there's no need to worry about it suffocating if it's tied too tightly. Ye Zhi covered its compound eyes, then pulled out another ant silk rope, tied its small body under her, and grabbed its six limbs.
It is currently the nuptial flight season for common exploding flathead ants. This little ant king must have just awakened its Force and shed its membrane wings after completing a molt evolution. Its ability to move independently is extremely limited, so long-distance transfers can only be carried by Ye Zhi.
"Don't move, I'm taking you to see my elders."
Ye Zhi transmitted her mental power, and the ant king beneath her, which had exploded, obediently curled up into a ball. Its head, which was completely wrapped in a sack, twitched twice, allowing it to shrink itself between the ant silk ropes.
With a swift flap of its wings, Ye Zhi once again infused the membrane wings with primal energy. As the membrane wings flapped violently, the veins of the wings glowed with primal force patterns. With its body over thirty centimeters long, it carried the small, explosive flathead ant king all the way to the interdimensional passage.
In this matter, one should first go to see the King Ant and discuss it with this "elder" before deciding whether to control the exploding flathead ant king according to one's own plan or to kill it directly.
As she pondered, Ye Zhi used her spatial positioning to sense the location of the worker ants in her mind. She gradually approached the interdimensional passage, crawled into the hole that was faintly covered by grass and trees again, and entered the metal corridor.
......
In the dimly lit interdimensional passage, Ye Zhi flew swiftly and soon returned to the Dragon Bamboo Continent. He changed direction again, but instead of flying directly towards the nest of the Black Ant King, he took a detour and flew towards his own nest.
He wanted to first show the Ant King his divinely granted seed, the Chimera, to demonstrate his power and intimidate him by using the Chimera's unique properties.
After returning to the Dragon Bamboo Continent and leaving the interdimensional passage, Ye Zhi no longer concealed himself. He found a flat tree branch to land on, removed the ant silk bag from the head of the Exploding Flathead Ant King, allowing it to see the light of day again, and continued flying forward.
After flying for a while, they soon arrived at the location where the "Chimera" was planted. Ye Zhi deliberately lowered the altitude and brushed past the huge plant that had begun to meander along the mountain ridge, while sending a mental greeting to the "Chimera".
"Ye Zhi, what is this? Is it an ant king like you?"
The tree spirit of "Chimera" sent out a puzzled mental message, clearly indicating that it was also seeing the existence of the Exploding Flathead Ant species for the first time.
"Exploding flathead ant, a first-instar juvenile queen ant, bring it back and hand it over to the citron ant queen for disposal."
"Ye Zhi, will it explode? Will the worker ants it produces also explode? Does that mean we can't eat it?"
The tree spirit emitted a mental energy that was first filled with longing and then regret, which made the little ant king, who could not perceive what the tree spirit was saying but could vaguely sense the tree spirit's emotions, feel a chill down his spine.
"It won't explode, but its small worker ants will, and its large worker ants won't. The corpses of the worker ants that die naturally can be recycled by you." Ye Zhi transmitted his mental power, and the little exploding ant king next to him trembled as if he had been completely arranged.
"King Ant, is that... is it your divinely bestowed seed?" It trembled as it transmitted its mental power, as if frightened by the aura emanating from the "Chimera" that truly chose to devour insects.
"Hmm, the two-toothed pitcher plant is a divinely bestowed species. It's an insectivorous plant that has risen to become a divinely bestowed species. It thinks differently from other divinely bestowed species. It's not inherently bad and won't really do anything to you. Just get used to it." Ye Zhi transmitted a reassuring mental power.
A combination of kindness and severity is the best way to maintain long-term control. Ye Zhi doesn't want a tragedy like the one that happened in the neighboring Fire Ant Kingdom, but she also doesn't want things to get too tense.
After all, these are ants that can self-destruct, and he didn't want to push them too far and risk the exploding flathead ant king disregarding its own life and trying to trade one life for another with him.
Controlling the life seed is a last resort, but normally Ye Zhi hopes to get along well with this little ant king and try to build a stable relationship.
With a thought in mind, Ye Zhi did not linger at the "Chimera" site. She flapped her wings and took off again, her six limbs gripping the exploding flathead ant queen, and flew straight towards the main nest where the black ant queen was located.