Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 57: Huo Yun's Evolution Preparations

Firefly flicked its antennae, flapped its wings and took flight, but instead of landing on the "Chimera's" insect trap, it circled around nearby, aimed at a flying insect, and with a lightning-fast snap of its catching legs, clamped it down.

Immediately, it bit down with its mandibles, smashing the head of the unfortunate flying insect. Then it flew to the top of the insect trap, hovered in the air, and released its grip, causing the headless carcass to fall straight into the trap.

Countless white, root-like objects immediately extended from the "Chimera" insect trap, enveloping and absorbing the tiny corpse. This divinely bestowed seed never misses a single food source.

Looking back, Huoyun was already circling again, eyeing another flying insect. It skillfully extended its catching legs, clamped it down, bit off its neck, threw the corpse into the insect trap, and then rushed to its next target.

"Ye Zhi, make it stop. There's no need for this. Actually, the flesh and blood of a few small flying insects are of no use to me anymore." A message from "Chimera" suddenly came through my mind. "I can sense that you don't want to hurt that little thing either."

Ye Zhi was taken aback. Was her divinely bestowed seed really that easy to talk to? What happened to the divinely bestowed seed being naturally domineering, unreasonable, and instinctively rejecting anyone who wasn't a soulmate?

"Huo Yun, my divinely bestowed seed says there's no need to catch any more prey. The prey you stole is nothing at all."

"Leaf-woven Ant King, really?"

The little warrior Huo Yun extended her catching legs and beheaded another flying insect. She then slowly landed beside Ye Zhi on a broad leaf of the "Chimera," waving her antennae to send out a probing mental force.

"Really, my God-given Seed is fed by worker ants under the command of the Cinnabar Ant King, which hunt ordinary beasts. One or two small flying insects are nothing."

Huo Yun released its grip, and the headless remains fell into the insect trap. Then it shook its antennae and said, "Leaf Weaver Ant King, I'm actually full. I just didn't eat for too long when I was escaping the swamp mountains."

Ye Zhi slightly opened her jaws, her antennae swaying as she pondered. This little warrior was indeed quite capable, having flown all the way from the Twisted Swamp across the mountains to the Tree Ant Kingdom. The journey was long and fraught with danger for a first-instar warrior.

Not to mention that the worker and soldier ants patrolling the ant colony along the way would treat it as an intruder and tear it apart, for a first-instar warrior, all kinds of common predatory insects and ordinary birds and beasts are deadly threats.

If no one of its kind in the Cloud Continent is willing to take it in, Ye Zhi will definitely choose to keep this clever little guy to scout and transmit messages.

......

As evening fell, Zuo Wang Hongyuan arrived on time, followed closely by four worker ants: two carrying a deer leg and the other two each carrying a small spider silk bag.

"Little one, these two bags are the Force food for the Mantis Warriors' evolution. The King said you should keep them for now."

Ye Zhi tapped its antennae, flapped its wings and took flight. Its six limbs grabbed the spider silk bag and, under Huo Yun's expectant gaze, stuffed it into its nest chamber inside the tree nest. It then pulled out a strand of ant silk and tied the bag's opening tightly again.

The red citron swayed its antennae, and two worker ants stepped forward, their mandibles cutting flesh into strips, which they then laid flat to one side.

Ye Zhi didn't stand on ceremony. She flapped her wings and took off, grabbed a thread, pulled out an extremely fine ant thread, injected her primal force, and transformed it into a sharp flying blade to cut a smaller piece off the chunk of meat. She held it in her mouth and looked at Huo Yun beside her.

"You've never had fresh meat before, have you? Here, I can't eat much of this meat. My divine seed needs it, so I'll share a couple of bites with you."

Huo Yun reached out with her claws, took a piece of flesh that was just the right size, brought it to her mouth, and began to slowly gnaw on it. Ye Zhi casually tossed the rest of the flesh into the "Chimera's" insect trap.

The tree spirit emitted a joyful mental fluctuation; this large chunk of flesh provided far more nutrients than the scattered flying insects. White root-like structures extended out, enveloping and absorbing the flesh.

More flesh and blood were thrown into the various insect traps by Ye Zhi, leaving only about twice the amount she could eat herself - the extra portion was naturally prepared for Huo Yun, who was about to evolve.

After Hongyuan led the combat worker ants away, Huoyun immediately came forward, her antennae swaying up and down, her compound eyes staring intently at Ye Zhi, her eyes gleaming with longing.

"Leaf-woven Ant King, look at my Force Food..."

"I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush." ​​Ye Zhi flapped its wings and took flight, tearing with its jaws to untangle the ant silk rope wrapped around the mouth of the spider silk bag. With a ripping sound, it tore open the bag, and another ant silk thread was pulled out from the end of its abdomen. It picked up a seed from inside the bag.

"Eat this first, grapefruit seeds, to enhance your ability to absorb Force food. After that, the other foods will be even more effective." Ant silk, like flexible tentacles, wrapped up Force food and handed it to Huo Yun.

Huo Yun extended one of its catching legs and gently pinched the seed, while its other catching leg picked up a strip of flesh that Ye Zhi had just cut off. At the same time, it brought it to its mouth, chewed with its mouthparts, and ate the pomelo seed.

As a one-year-old warrior, and not a special case like Ye Zhi, Huo Yun swallowed a whole pomelo seed. Pure primal energy surged into her limbs and bones, and her tentacles immediately stood up and quickly brought the meat shreds held between her other claws to her mouth, chewing them vigorously.

"How are you feeling? Can you still eat?"

"I can still eat one or two more."

Ye Zhi shook her abdomen, pulled out two ant threads, picked up two grains of primal food, and presented them to Huo Yun. Then she pulled out an extremely thin ant thread, infused it with primal power to transform it into a flying blade, cut off a piece of meat of a suitable size, and handed it forward.

Huo Yun still used one of its two legs to catch food with enough primal force and the other to catch meat shreds, swallowing them with both hands. Ye Zhi was getting a little hungry watching this, so she picked up a piece of flesh, tore it apart, and swallowed it.

After swallowing three Force-powered foods, Huo Yun's tentacles flared up and her wings spread wide. She seemed unable to withstand the Force's transformation of her body, and she trembled as she used her catching legs to support herself and crawled forward two steps using all six limbs.

Ye Zhi remained silent as she offered a piece of flesh. Huo Yun caught it with her catching feet, buried her head in it, and finally managed to stand on her own two feet. She then retracted her catching feet and emitted a trembling spiritual wave of gratitude.

"Alright, that's enough for today. Eat more the next day to prepare for your second-year evolution."

Ye Zhi retrieved the spider silk bag, closed the opening, then controlled the ant silk rope to wrap around twice, tightened the opening, and sent a mental message to Huo Yun.

Huo Yun's short, thick, rod-shaped antennae drooped slightly and retracted, then it picked up a sliver of meat and brought it to its mouth. Its mouthparts opened and closed as it gnawed at the meat, making Ye Zhi marvel at how efficient a proper chewing mouthpart was, more like a bee's chewing and sucking action than that of ants.

Tearing off a piece of flesh and putting it in his mouth, Ye Zhi flapped his wings and took flight, grabbing the ant silk bag and flying towards his tree nest. He was going to prepare to open a temporary nest for Huo Yun, the little brown bee mantis warrior, in his tree nest.