Astral Ants

Chapter 12 The Season of Growth

At the foot of the mountain there is a large bamboo.

Long Bai's two jaws cut bamboo poles, polished them, and made a small 'bucket'.

Mo Lan followed all the way, questioning: "Long Bai, what are you doing this for? Watering? It's raining."

"Not watering."

Long Bai explained: "The temperature in the incubation room is much higher than the natural temperature outside the ant nest. Put water in the ant nest, and then soak the seeds in it for half a day to help it recover from dormancy quickly, so that it can recover faster. germinate."

Long Bai: "This is a small technique for sowing seeds, soaking seeds."

"Oh--"

"wait!"

Mo Lan flapped her wings and left quickly, and after a short while, hurried back with the spider silk bag.

"Longbai, this is my Xuelan Life Seed, I dug it out again, please help me steep it."

"There are also various orchid seeds I collected last autumn and winter. I plan to open two nurseries according to your method and concentrate on cultivating them. Longbai, you can soak them for me."

Long Bai: "..."

……

The Life Seed is already at the force level, and its vitality is much stronger than that of ordinary seeds.

After the cypress seeds of Longbai are fully soaked in warm water, they will germinate smoothly the next day after being planted in the soil.

After the rain, it was sunny and the temperature rose.

The transplanted cypress, juniper, and juniper saplings have sprouted successively, entering the vigorous growth stage of the new year.

Migratory birds return, stand on the branches and sing.

The hibernating frog snake wakes up and starts a new year's chase.

Hidden bug eggs begin to hatch.

The singing of various birds, insects and animals in the mountains echoed endlessly.

A winter-starved predator is increasingly active.

There are frequent activities of elk, wild boar, black bear, leopard, python and other large animals in the settled mountains.

Long cypress took the only large worker ant, on the hillside hundreds of meters away from the ant nest, cut thorny branches from a clump of red thorn vines, controlled the throne to enlarge and transport, and built defenses around the newly planted cypress species .

Mo Lan finished working on her own territory, came to help, moved big stones and placed them around the circle for reinforcement.

At the same time, Mo Lan also increased the amount of food she hunted, digging pits and filling compost near the life planting plants if she couldn't finish it.

Every three or five days is a spring of light rain.

The season when everything grows.

The cypress of Longbai grows taller every day, and grows like insects.

The first specialized soldier ant finally emerged from its cocoon.

The body is more than ten centimeters long, almost twice the size of Long Bai, and the two jaws occupy one-third of the body length, ferocious and fierce.

At about the same time, another large soldier ant was born.

Long Bai sent them out to guard the green cypress seedlings full-time.

In the ant nest at this time, there were 5 small worker ants, 4 medium worker ants, and 2 large worker ants; 1 medium soldier ant, 1 large soldier ant, and 1 specialized soldier ant.

The number is small, but the types of differentiation are basically complete.

In the process of practice, Long Bai found out the truth.

In terms of territory management, medium-sized worker ants have the widest application range. They are capable of feeding larvae, feeding soldier ants, developing ant nests, dividing food, loosening soil in gardens, etc. pests.

In terms of territory protection, there is no doubt that the specialized soldier ants are the strongest, and they are the trump card of the giant head ants.

Next, for the ant eggs produced by the ruling throne, the 'guardian' and 'producer' are split [-]-[-], and Longbai only breeds two types of ants: specialized soldier ants and medium-sized worker ants.

In the busy spring, the development of the territory is proceeding in an orderly and fast pace.

During intermittent excavation, the second hatching room was completed, named 'Soldier Ant Hatching Room'.

The previous first incubator was named 'Worker Ant Incubator'.

It is an extremely complicated process for pheromones to stimulate ant eggs and larvae to differentiate into different levels of ant species. It is divided into two types of hatching chambers, which are separated to prevent odors from passing through.

……

Time flies.

A hundred flowers bloom in the mountains, colorful and colorful.

thick spring.

"Long Bai, dinner is ready."

For the first time, Mo Lan changed his taste today, and what he sent was a black snake with its head cut off.

The worker ants and soldier ants don't have self-awareness, but after all, they are half-force beings with certain memory and comprehension abilities. They all know Mo Lan, smell the smell of meat, and scramble to come over.

The specialized soldier ants snatched the black-stalked snake and cut it into sections with their jaws.

Worker ants, big and small, surrounded them, divided them, and ate.

Long Bai walked out of the ant nest slowly, shaking the antennae.

4 medium-sized worker ants came forward with shredded meat in their mouths: the king eats first

Five small worker ants, with good eyesight, came forward to comb the membrane wings of the dragon cypress and clean the carapace.

Mo Lan stood aside, watching with great interest.

"Long Bai, you are now the real ant king! In the future, you will definitely become the most powerful ant king in the entire continent!"

"Oh--"

Long Bai has already figured out the pattern of Mo Lan's speech, and there must be other small thoughts hidden behind the rambling praise.

It's not hard to figure out,

Long Bai said calmly: "The caravan of the Watase Flame Spider clan entered the Ten Thousand Kingdoms Continent at the end of winter. It lasted about 80 days. When the flowers blooming all over the mountains, they completed the first half of the trade route and gathered in the east of the Ten Thousand Nations Continent."

Mo Lan accurately captured the core information in the words, looked left and right, looked up and down, and said: "The flowers are in full bloom? Then they have arrived! Long Bai, shall we set off tomorrow?"

After Mo Lan finished speaking, she turned to look at Longbai's cypress seed, and said, "The most vulnerable seedling stage has passed. It should be safe with soldier ants guarding it, right?"

"Yes……"

Long Bai asked: "Mo Lan, where are the Xuelan seeds you planted?"

Mo Lan said, "Almost."

Long Bai: "Mo Lan, don't worry, the caravan of Zeqi Spider King is moving slowly, a little later than other caravans, and we will leave in a few days."

"Great."

Mo Lan cheered, and then asked, "Long Bai, what preparations do you need to make?"

Long Bai: "There is no goods that can be traded with the caravan. There is nothing to prepare, right? This trip may be delayed for several days. It is good to protect the life planting plants before leaving."

Long Bai warned: "Mo Lan, when in contact with the caravan, don't reveal that you have the God-given Seed of Orchid orchid, and don't leak the information that there is a place in this mountain range that is extremely rich in natural force."

Mo Lan tilted her head, puzzled.

Long Bai: "Each caravan has its own travel route, but this route is not fixed, driven by interests, they are all keen to pass through those rich Zerg territories, and strive to reach a stable trade relationship with them. But most Zergs are all in short supply, rich Zergs are always a minority, and there is also competition among caravans.”

"The force food produced by the god-given seed is too expensive, and it is rooted in the fertile mountains. Once the news spreads, all the caravans will definitely compete to trade with you. But you can only choose one, or two, or three, In this way, other caravans will be offended, understand? In case any caravan feels resentful, it will disclose the news to the nearby Ant Tribe Kingdom..."

"Understood!"

Mo Lan asked worriedly, "Will the Ant Kingdom kill us?"

Long Bai: "What's the benefit of killing you? If you kill you, your god-bestowed seed will also die, so there is no benefit at all. The smart ant king will calculate when the fruit-bestowed seed of Guoxianglan will mature, and then It invades regularly every year and loots you."

"So bad!"

Thinking of her territory being robbed, and being robbed every year, Mo Lan's worry turned into fear and anger.

Long Bai comforted: "Mo Lan, don't worry too much. Next spring, Luochen will come. I will look for it privately and reach a stable transaction relationship with it secretly."

"On the Yunji Continent, the exit of the starship is narrow, and the powerful ant king can't get through, and the large soldier ants can't get through. You and I can evolve into advanced fighters and high-level ant kings as soon as possible, and we will have enough strength to protect the territory."

"I understand."

Mo Lan was a little relieved, and said by inference, "Long Bai, your ruling throne is the same. Don't let other insects know, they will kill you and take your treasures away."

Long Bai reassured: "That's right! Mo Lan, you are so smart!"

Mo Lan couldn't be happy.

Come happily, go home worried.

(End of this chapter)