ATPnovel Chapter 83: Exploding Ants
Chapter 83: Exploding Ants
In the narrow metal tunnel, after a long, sunless flight, a glimmer of light pierced the darkness and appeared in both the compound eye and the single eye. Ye Zhi shook her head twice in the sunlight, allowing her compound eye to adjust to the long-lost light.
This time, his goal was clear: after passing through the cross-border passage to the south, he turned right and continued flying westward toward the towering mountain range that originated from the ant kingdom.
According to the known information, after this mountain range suddenly bends south, it extends into the divine power barrier, forming a north-south mountain range on this side of the continent, extending into the distance where the natural primal force is completely depleted.
Ye Zhi guessed that the environment on the other side of the mountain might be different from this side, and the flora and fauna might also be different, and there might be some precious plant species left behind.
At an extremely fast speed, the flight speed of the second-year intermediate stage is incomparable to that of the initial stage. The membranous wings, which originally attached to the wing veins and were shrouded in a faint halo, flapped vigorously and headed west.
A towering mountain range appeared before her eyes. Ye Zhi bypassed the highest peak, flew along the ridge to the other side of the mountain range, scanning the surrounding area with her compound eyes and releasing her mental energy in sync.
"Um?"
After crossing the hillside, Ye Zhi was taken aback. Her outward spiritual power detected an unusual fluctuation of primal force in the tall rainforest in front of her.
Folding its membranous wings, Ye Zhi silently descended into the forest. Its pair of antennae waved, releasing and receiving psychic energy like radar antennas. A careful scan revealed that it was likely the aura left behind by a Force warrior.
This godforsaken place, where did these Force warriors come from? The amount of natural Force that has seeped over from one side of the divine power barrier is so meager, can it really sustain Force life?
Could it be a newly born little warrior? Born in a place like this, it's probably time to start over, Ye Zhi thought to himself, continuing to use his mental energy to sense the location where the strange primal force aura last appeared.
As Ye Zhi scanned the area with his mental energy, he gradually narrowed the range. Suddenly, he sensed a sound from one direction that was distinctly different from the fluctuations of natural primal force!
In her line of sight, a tiny, fiery red figure seemed to flash by. Ye Zhi turned her head instantly, her compound eyes looking in the direction the figure had flashed, but she saw nothing. All she could see was the trunk of a giant tree.
"Hmm? It seems like it just came from here?"
Perhaps she had misperceived something? Ye Zhi wondered, and turned to leave, but suddenly felt that she had missed something, so she turned back abruptly.
"wrong!"
The compound eye focused instantly, and on the tree trunk, in an inconspicuous spot, a small hole had been carved out. A dark brownish-red, round, coin-shaped object was blocking the entrance, emanating an unusual aura of the Force.
Ye Zhi instantly guessed what was going on. She swung out a silken rope, controlled by her mental power, and precisely extended it through the air towards the coin-shaped object, attempting to pull it out of the tree hole.
"Snap!" Beneath the coin-shaped object, a pair of large triangular mandibles, which had originally been integrated with the "coin," opened and bit down hard on the ant silk rope that Ye Zhi had just thrown out.
It could feel an primal force that did not belong to it being injected into its jaws. It exerted great force, trying to bite through the ant silk rope, but it seemed powerless in the face of the intermediate-level primal energy attached to the ant silk rope.
"Come out here!"
Ye Zhi suddenly pulled the ant silk, like fishing, and pulled the figure that was biting the ant silk rope out of the tree hole. The figure struggled and flailed its six limbs, and tried to loosen its jaws to break free, but was quickly entangled and bound by the ant silk rope.
Looking closely with compound eyes, the figure was only two centimeters long, bright red all over, with dark spots on the forethorax and abdomen, and a stalk nodule on the waist and abdomen confirmed its ant-like identity.
However, its head was particularly strange. When viewed from the side, the front of the head was trapezoidal, as if it had been cut flat. The coin-like shape was the flat cross-section of its head.
"Holy crap, exploding ants!"
Upon seeing the other person's full appearance, Ye Zhi was startled once again.
The Exploding Ant, whose full name in the inherited memories is the Exploding Flathead Ant, is a distant relative of the Pale Yellow Flathead Ant that Ye Zhi once bullied, which is the Shi's Flathead Ant in her previous life. However, this guy is not a soft persimmon that can be bullied by ordinary flathead ants, but one that can really explode.
In their previous lives, ordinary exploding flathead ants had an exceptionally well-developed gland called the mandibular gland in their worker ants, which could even extend all the way to their abdomen.
This gland is filled with a toxic, yellow, sticky substance. In battle, if their lives are threatened, these worker ants will squeeze their mandibular glands until their bodies burst, spraying out a large amount of sticky, toxic substance that kills nearby enemies.
In this life, having ascended to the Force life form, the Explosive Flathead Ant's awakened elemental talent remains the extremely destructive fire element. The fire elemental energy strengthens its mandibular glands, turning the original explosive spray into a true explosion.
For a fleeting moment, Ye Zhi considered killing the newly awakened Exploding Ant King to prevent future trouble.
With a precedent of a brutal fire ant king being killed by a suspected invading red fire ant king that he had taken in, Ye Zhi couldn't believe in the alien ant race at all. But then he thought that keeping this ant king might be more beneficial to him.
Fierceness also means strong combat power. If it can be completely controlled, and the Fire Ant Kingdom really crosses the Mountain Ant Kingdom and moves south on a large scale in the future, a controlled Exploding Ant colony can serve as excellent cannon fodder.
As for how to control it... the life-seed plants cannot be moved, and they are bound to the soul of the host. They prosper together and suffer together. If multiple life-seed plants are damaged, the soul will be damaged, and the host may immediately lose its fighting power or even die.
Controlling the life-sustaining seed is equivalent to controlling the life and death of the insect warriors. As long as you control the life-sustaining seed while the opponent is still weak, you can effectively control this newly hatched, explosive flat-headed ant king.
Like leaf ants, the exploding flathead ant is an omnivorous ant species with a preference for vegetarian food. If the territory of the tree ant kingdom is expanded to include fruit trees, it is entirely possible to support another exploding ant colony.
Thinking it over, Ye Zhi loosened the ant silk binding the ant's body slightly, laying it flat on a tree branch. Ye Zhi spread its membranous wings, first releasing a trace of the primal force aura of a mid-level warrior, then slowly transmitting mental energy: "Explosive Flathead Ant? Without the protection of its ant queen?"
The ant silk cord had barely loosened when the little ant king immediately rolled over and stood up, instinctively raising its abdomen and opening its mandibles in a menacing pose. But upon hearing Ye Zhi's question, it lowered its head, resignedly ceasing its struggle. It twitched its antennae, sending a positive signal, and then, with a slight tremor, transmitted its mental energy:
"A cow... the king of the cow ant tribe?"