About me traveling to the world of immortality but finding ways to surf the Internet

Exploring the ant nest of latent ants will give you a very strange feeling. It is not like a real ant nest with complex tunnels, but more like a one-to-one replica of a film and television city. This film and television city has been perfectly aged, but it has not been officially opened yet. This scene of empty houses but no people seems familiar, but the buildings in the little secret land of Panhu Mountain were definitely once inhabited. Even though no human remains were found, the atmosphere of life was extremely strong. And left behind a large number of daily necessities and treasures. And these buildings here, no matter how real they look, are just empty shells after all. Of course, this is true in a location where there are no hidden ants. If there were those hidden ants, it would be like adding a strange element of fighting aliens to the background of a costume drama, weird but somewhat touching.

Of course, the reason why Yang Yuyao feels like this has to do with the boldness of a skilled artist. After all, Yang Yuyao can fly in the air for a long time. Hidden ants that can only travel on the ground cannot reach him no matter how high they jump or even if they can spray formic acid. But he can clean them up high in the air, so for Yang Yuyao, these hidden ants pose no threat.

But for anyone who cannot fly for a long time, it would be hard not to feel numb and extremely frightened when looking at the dense swarms of hidden ants below. Even if the attack power of a single hidden ant is not very high, and its flexibility and movement speed are not very strong, the number alone is enough to make people feel fearful.

"This ant nest and ant colony are both ridiculously large, which is not good. I'm afraid this ant nest has been moved past the entrance. All the resources in Paoma Town combined cannot support such a large ant colony." Claimed himself A man in monk's robes with the title of Zhengxin said from the side. He admitted without hesitation that he could not fly for long, after all, the path of cultivation was completely different.

In this world, monks practice mainly to cultivate immortals. Since they want to become immortals, they must be able to fly. Flying is a big dream of those who cultivate immortals. Therefore, during the training process of the monks, during the foundation building period, which is the second stage of formal training, they have already begun to come into contact with the method of flying and try to fly with a sword. When the realm reaches a higher level, you can be exposed to more ways of flying. Even after reaching the Mahayana stage, depending on your personal preference, like Zhu Molan, you can stay off the ground most of the time.

However, Buddhism's understanding of spiritual practice makes their practice very different from that of other monks. If a monk who practices Buddhism wants to be able to fly, that can only be achieved when he has practiced at a relatively high level. The Zhengxin cultivator can easily use the golden bell that even the monks in the transformation stage cannot break, but his flying ability is not as good as that of the monks in the late foundation stage.

With such a flying level, it is indeed a bit difficult for him to have to take care of a child. However, with the help of Yang Yuyao's floating charm, Zhengxin was finally able to keep up with Yang Yuyao and the others by flying. If he couldn't fly, it was hard to say whether he would be buried by those hidden ants accidentally while rushing on the road.

"The possibility of moving through the entrance is indeed very high." Yang Yuyao agreed with Zhengxin's view. "The distance we have flown now far exceeds the boundaries of Paoma Town, but we still can't see the ant nest. A nursery. This is even larger than most dormant ant nests."

"Yu Yao, why can you tell that the nest of latent ants has moved through the entrance based on the size of the ant nest? Why did they move into the entrance?" Li Fengzhi asked puzzledly.

"The entrance of migration is related to the habits of crypto ants. The queen of crypto ants will continue to give birth after the nest is successfully established, but the crypto ants produced are all sterile females. But this happens about every ten years , it will lay some eggs that can hatch into male ants and reproductive female ants. When these male and female ants grow up, they will leave the nest to find other male and female ants for mating. Usually one female ant It will form a stable mate relationship with three to five male ants, and then they will build a new nest together." Although Yang Yuyao explained to Li Fengzhi, his spiritual consciousness was still searching for the location of the queen ant in a large area.

“When the female ants hatched from the eggs laid by the female ant grow up to a number that can meet the normal operation of the ant colony, the female ant that established the ant colony will become the queen ant, and the male ants who take care of it will become the queen ant. will die. After that, the queen will continue to give birth, repeating her mother's work. This is the normal reproduction pattern of latent ants."

"But when the queen ants age, there will be a phenomenon where the newly born fertile female ants are reluctant to leave the nest. They will fight with each other and kill their sisters who are also capable of reproducing. The final winner will imitate the breath of the old queen. , control the ant colony and kill the old queen as prey. Then the female ant who eats the old queen becomes the new queen."

"Since the queen has taken over the colony, she cannot leave the nest to mate. Therefore, she will change the location of the entrance to the nest to a location far away from the old entrance, allowing the ants to move to other locations. Capture male ants and come back to mate. This can reduce the chance of the ant colony catching its brothers back. Of course, the new queen ant does not know where there are enough male ants, so she will change the entrance and exit of the nest many times before mating is completely completed. Location."

"Do those captured male ants also need to take care of the queen after mating?" Li Fengzhi asked curiously. The reason why he had such doubts was because, in his opinion, it was according to the regular reproduction pattern of latent ants. The reason why male ants need to take care of female ants after mating is because the newly established nest does not have enough hidden ants to work. But in this situation of inheriting an ant nest, there will be no shortage of ants that can work, so those male ants no longer have the need to take care of the queen.

"I don't know much about this part. I wonder if any monks have studied it and recorded it." Yang Yuyao answered honestly.

Although the habits of latent ants are similar to those of ants, they are not real ants, so they cannot be completely adapted to the habits of ants. For example, the reproduction of latent ants does not have the phenomenon of mating and flying like ants. Cryptic ants during the breeding period when leaving the nest also have no wings, but they are invisible and can only be seen by their own kind. In addition, there can only be one queen in the nest of latent ants, and the male ants of the newly built nest will take care of the queen until the nest is completed. These habits are different from those of ants.

"In short, the ant nest of latent ants will grow stronger through this inheritance method. A particularly large ant nest may have experienced several generations of queens and existed for thousands of years. And the reproduction speed of latent ant queens is equal to that of food. The more food the ant colony can obtain, the faster the queen will produce and the larger the colony will be."

"How much food does a dormant ant colony with such a large ant nest and ant colony count need? Hidden ants do not necessarily feed on humans, but humans will be eaten by them if they are within their hunting range. The one in Paoma Town Although the town is very prosperous, taking away the entire town's people and other animals may not be enough for this nest of hidden ants. And if people disappeared frequently, it would have caused panic. Therefore, these clues can be used to judge, This entrance to Happy Horse Town was definitely moved here recently.”

After listening to Yang Yuyao's explanation, Li Fengzhi naturally understood why Yang Yuyao and Zhengxin made such judgments. As they said, so many hidden ants must need a lot of food. If the entrance and exit were set up in Happy Horse Town from the beginning, then this town would have been abandoned out of fear. Therefore, the entrance and exit of Paoma Town was not only just moved, but also moved in a very short time. Even after the queen ant moved the entrance, the little girl and him were dragged in by the hidden ants that set out to forage. nest.

"But where can we support so many hidden ants?" Li Fengzhi murmured.

"Judging from the size of this ant nest, there is a place that can satisfy you." Yang Yuyao thought for a moment and then replied.

"Where?" Li Fengzhi asked immediately.

"The border between Li Yangguo and Luguo." Yang Yuyao replied.

"Battlefield..." Yang Yuyao didn't need to be more clear, but Li Fengzhi already understood. I wonder where in this world death and disappearance are taken for granted, and where there is a steady stream of people and materials arriving and then being quickly consumed. Only war can breed such a terrifying hidden ant colony.

Perhaps at first these latent ants just picked up the remains of dead soldiers and stole some food and grass. But as the ant colony grows, they will definitely not be satisfied with this. Li Fengzhi had never experienced war in person. The town where he grew up, Tongling Town, was located in the hinterland of the powerful Wei Wu Kingdom, and the fire of war could not burn there. But through the poems about war in his grandfather's books, we can still get a glimpse of the cruelty of war.

"Indeed, there is no place more suitable for raising such an amazing ant colony. The battle for royal power has been fought intermittently for three hundred years, and there is a tendency to continue." Zhengxin said in agreement, "If the nest It was first built nearby, so the current queen ant should still be there. In the nest of hidden ants, the location of the queen's dormitory will not change. We should fly in the direction of Li Yangguo and Luguo first. Then we can find the queen ant.”

"Well, let's go." After Yang Yuyao said that, he accelerated and flew in the target direction. The enchantment of the hidden ant's nest cannot replicate living things, so in the nest, there are only mountains and no forests, but with the They can still easily confirm the direction of the trend of mountains and rivers.

"Hey! Wait for me! Your speed at this golden elixir level must be incredible, right?!" Zhengxin, who was left far behind by Yang Yuyao in the blink of an eye, followed with difficulty.

Fortunately, his shout had an effect, and he successfully made Yang Yuyao slow down and float in mid-air, waiting for him. After Zhengxin caught up, Yang Yuyao put an acceleration talisman on him and accelerated again. This time Zhengxin had no problem keeping up with him.

"I saw it." Yang Yuyao stopped flying forward and stared below. Li Fengzhi, who was standing on Yang Yuyao, also stuck out his head and looked down, and then took a breath of cold air. He originally thought that when Yang Yuyao said that the queen ant was larger than other dormant ants, it meant that the average dormant ant was like a cow and the queen was as big as two cows. However, after seeing the real thing, Li Fengzhi realized how big the hidden ant queen was.

Although they are at a high altitude, from this height, the hidden ants are about the same size as ordinary ants. But through proportion, we can still compare the amazing size of the queen ant. The number of latent ants in this location is particularly large, densely packed, and covered with black and gray latent ants everywhere, like a dark, flowing river.

However, with so many hidden ants here, the queen ant surrounded in the middle can still be recognized at a glance. Because it's just too huge. The size of its head and chest alone are not that exaggerated. Together, they are about twice as big as a hidden ant. What is outrageous is its abdomen. The length alone is as long as its own head and abdomen combined. Dragging such a body six times as long, its legs looked so small that it was impossible to move the body.

The queen ant keeps shrinking its abdomen, so white translucent eggs are constantly being laid. Other normal-sized dormant ants surrounded it, constantly carrying the translucent eggs. Others bring pieces of various colors to the queen's mouth, as if feeding her. There is a brown-red hidden ant crawling around it, which is slightly smaller than the ordinary hidden ant.

"Yu Yao, is that smaller red latent ant his child?" Li Fengzhi asked via voice transmission.

"No, that should be a male ant." Zhengxin said first for Yang Yuyao. "Go directly to the queen ant?"

"No, once there are no more fertile female ants in the ant nest, the remaining dormant ants that cannot reproduce will become fertile and escape from the nest. Although Zhu Molan and the others should guard the entrance and exit to prevent any dormant ants from escaping. . But if the number of latent ants escaping at once is too large, they may be overwhelmed. So we'd better make some preparations and precautions before taking action." Yang Yuyao denied the suggestion of taking action immediately and explained reason.

"That's right, I've even forgotten about this. However, with this number and the scope of the ant nest, it's not easy for us to stop them from inside." Looking at the hidden ant colony below, I felt a big headache.

"Can we kill the dormant ants that take care of the eggs and young first? If they die, there should be other dormant ants to take over their work, right?" Li Fengzhi suggested.

Li Fengzhi noticed that after the eggs laid by the queen ants were taken away, the hidden ants would put the eggs in groups of a dozen into shallow pits dug in advance as if they were farming. After the larvae hatch, the larvae are moved to another place and fed uniformly. There are several times more latent ants taking care of these offspring here than there are on the queen's side.

"It should be okay, I'll give it a try." Yang Yuyao said. Although as a relatively common spiritual beast, the immortal world knows a lot about the hidden ant, but not to the extent of fully understanding its habits. Moreover, according to the research records left by the monks who have studied the latent ants before, the latent ants generally live in the remote mountains and wilderness, do not develop on such a large scale, and do not pose such a big threat.

In the records about latent ants that Yang Yuyao has read, one of the monks discovered latent ants because the chickens in his chicken shed kept mysteriously disappearing. He disappeared within two days. Later, after the monk stayed for a long time to monitor, he discovered that the entrance to a latent ant's nest was located in his chicken shed. It can be seen that under normal circumstances, hidden ants will not attack prey as big as a human.

But the group they met now seemed to have been accustomed to preying on humans because they were nourished by war. Moreover, the number is so large that all the originally available prevention and control methods cannot be used. Therefore, it seems that they can only try Li Fengzhi's proposal first to see if this can continuously attract enough hidden ants to eliminate them in batches. If this method doesn't work, they can only try their best to clear out all the hidden ants first.

Before looking for the queen ant, they did not expect that the size of this group of hidden ants would reach such a terrifying level. Thanks to the fact that the appetite of the latent ant is very small except for the queen, otherwise the entrance and exit of the latent ant nest will definitely become barren for hundreds of miles.

Yang Yuyao did not take out another sword from the space ring, nor did he borrow Li Fengzhi's sword. Instead, he concentrated his sword energy and swung it at the hidden ants who were responsible for taking care of their young. The silver-white sword energy split into dozens of white lights, falling down like meteors. In an instant, dozens of hidden ants that were busy just now fell to the ground and died. Seeing this, other living latent ants began to wave their tentacles one after another. So dozens of latent ants rushed in from elsewhere. Some of them began to take over the work of their lost companions, and some dragged away the bodies of the dead latent ants.

"It seems this method is feasible." Yang Yuyao said as he looked at the hidden ants who had completed the work handover, although it seemed a bit cruel to do so. But they have to consider themselves first, and secondly consider the humans of the same species. These hidden ants, which will actively hunt humans, cannot be left here no matter what.

"In that case, let me start taking action! Boy, please take care of this little girl. I can't attack from such a long distance." Zhengxin handed the little girl to Li Fengzhi to hold, and then let himself fall. Go down and start killing those hidden ants with your fists.

Yang Yuyao was slightly relieved when he saw his actions. He was very fortunate that Zhengxin, a maverick monk, was not like the stereotype of monks left by Elder Tang in the TV series. Be compassionate and don't kill at will without doing practical things. If Zhengxin was that kind of guy, Yang Yuyao would definitely choose to knock him out to prevent him from getting in the way. But now it seems that this is not necessary at all.