novelden Chapter 39: The Continental Landscape
Chapter 39: The Continental Landscape
Termites! Upon hearing the mental signal from Wu Yuan, Ye Zhi was startled.
In the world he lived in in his previous life, termites, which are members of the order Blattodea and close relatives of cockroaches, were very different from ants, which are members of the order Hymenoptera and close relatives of bees. For example, they did not undergo complete metamorphosis, were mainly vegetarian, and had a queen ant that existed for a long time instead of dying after the nuptial flight.
But most importantly, ants and termites are mortal enemies. They have been fighting each other endlessly since they were born about 100 million years ago, and this fighting has continued until the time of Ye Zhi's previous life.
Many ants show a preference for preying on termites, and some, like the Matabel giant ant from my previous life, have a diet consisting of at least 90% termites.
Termites respond with highly specialized soldier ant castes that have evolved to target the body structure of ants, using mandibles to bite, spraying mucus, and even launching suicide attacks, employing every possible means.
In this world, ants and termites, who have become beings of the Force and developed intelligence, have not only failed to reconcile their differences, but have instead fought even more fiercely, to the point that it is no exaggeration to say that they are mortal enemies.
"Most of us worker ants need a lot of meat to raise our larvae, so there's always a limit to the size of our kingdom." Wu Yuan's mental energy interrupted Ye Zhi's thoughts.
"Even ants with a high proportion of vegetarian food, such as the slender ant colony and your little weaver ant colony, need a lot of juicy berries, while termites can feed directly on dead branches, leaves and wood."
"On the Dragon Bamboo Continent, the most powerful tribe is the 'Fighting Giant Termite'. Their worker ants can chew up dead branches, leaves, and rotten wood, ferment them in their stomachs, and then excrete them to cultivate a kind of mycelium, which they then feed on."
"These termites are inherently greedy and evil. They can even eat the remains of dead plants and cultivate mycelium with some primal properties, using this mycelium to grow and evolve."
"However," Wu Yuan changed the subject, "the true god of nature is fair. While the termite kingdom has these advantages, it also has many flaws."
"We ants and bees both have distinct larval stages, which require pupation to become worker ants, and the larvae grow relatively faster."
"Termites are different. Their nymphs are born with all six limbs. Therefore, they do not have the differentiation of large, medium and small worker ants like your weaver ant colony. Instead, they rely on nymphs at different developmental stages to complete various tasks."
"So, their growth and development are deliberately slowed down?" Ye Zhi thought of the termites from her previous life and couldn't help but ask.
"That's right." Wu Yuan tapped its antennae. "It takes a very long time for a termite kingdom to grow to an extremely large scale."
"Termites are born with life-related talents and have long lifespans, but other species will not sit idly by and watch the termite kingdom grow and expand. They will often take action to wipe them out as soon as possible."
"Little one, the inherited memories say that a termite kingdom is generally composed of two complete beings at the Force level: the king and the queen. Do you know why?"
Ye Zhi shook his antennae. He really didn't know that the termite colony in his previous life was forced to do so because the queen ant could not store the life essence of the male ants for a long time like ants. It was strange that the primal life forms in this world could not produce normal offspring.
"Between each pair of ant king and queen who have ascended to Force life, there will be a Force resonance similar to that between insect warriors and their life seed," Wu Yuan said slowly, "just like you, little guy, and the half-Force queen ant you produced."
Ye Zhi was secretly alarmed. She raised her head, stopped eating, and looked at the Black Ant King in front of her.
"In the termite kingdom, once the queen enters the egg-laying state, she becomes extremely fat, making it difficult for her to fight or handle various matters, but in return, she gains powerful life-type primal energy."
"A special life-based primal energy connection is formed between each pair of ant kings and queens who can establish a kingdom. As long as the ant king is near the queen, the queen's inexhaustible life-based primal energy will give the ant king almost unlimited primal energy."
Ye Zhi was somewhat stunned - life-type primal energy, aiding in healing, wouldn't that mean that as long as the termite king is near the queen, it almost shares life force with the queen, and if the queen is not killed, the king is practically invincible.
"Little guy, the Force connection between you and your half-Force Queen is special. We'll have to wait until you continue to grow and evolve to find out what its specific effects are, but it will definitely be beneficial."
Ye Zhi turned her head and looked at the semi-primal force ant queen she controlled beside her. She pondered in her heart, could the connection between herself and the ant queen that Wu Yuan mentioned be the kind of primal force power that is suspected to be related to space?
The greatest effect of this power seemed to be that it allowed him to control the queen ant as if he were controlling the limbs extending from his own body. Apart from that, Ye Zhi did not feel anything coming from the connection.
Perhaps it really is because my evolution level is too low? Ye Zhi pondered, and felt that this three-year evolution really couldn't be delayed for even a day, and he had to speed it up.
While pondering, he continued to eat voraciously, and the queen ant beside him also continued to eat under his control until the social ant's stomach was completely full.
After briefly bidding farewell to the still-eating Black Ant King, Ye Zhi immediately returned to her "Spider Cave," opened the spider silk bag at the head of her "bed" with a ripping sound, poured out a grain of primal food, and swallowed it.
According to the original schedule, it would take more than a month for me to advance to the third stage, and further evolution would be even more distant. Anyway, since my absorption capacity can keep up, I might as well eat more and advance to the third stage within a month.
Thinking it over, he counted the remaining Force food, then counted out about a third of it, arranged it neatly by type, picked out a piece, picked it up with his forelimb, and put it in his mouth.
Pure Origin Force surged into her body, and Ye Zhi moved her body, continuing to move through the constant fighting with ants to help the Origin Force food transform her body. She then regurgitated some food from the social stomach to replenish her energy.
After some fuss, Ye Zhi closed the spider silk bag containing the Force food again, placed it at the head of her ant silk mattress "bed," and slowly lay down on the mattress, preparing to go into hibernation.
The Force continued to circulate along the blood, eventually flowing into the Life Sac. A portion of it was absorbed by the divinely bestowed seed "Chimera" within the Life Sac, further strengthening it as a seed. The rest was stored within the Life Sac.
Silently calculating in her mind, Ye Zhi's main body quickly fell into a deep sleep, leaving only the queen ant and the only worker ant, who were still semi-autonomously analyzing and executing Ye Zhi's last instructions using primitive ant colony algorithms in the small "Spider Cave".