Astral Ants

Chapter 38 Juniper
After more than 70 days, the specialized chemical ant land cultivated by Longbai emerged one after another, with a body length of 22 cm.

The current body length of Cypress is only 18 to 19 cm.

Specialized chemical ants are one size bigger than the king ant, Longbai, and correspondingly, they are more energetic and efficient in doing their jobs.

Those "small" specialized chemical ants bred during the junior ant queen period gradually became auxiliary porters.

……

On a small hill below the mountain range, a large sumac tree grows.

cold night,
The leaves of the sumac tree are bright red and shiny.

Before you know it, autumn is coming to an end.

Recently, Long Bai spent a lot of time and energy on cultivating intelligent soldier ants, and the work under the mountain was not too delayed.

The three large ponds were all completed, the ponds were drained, and excavated to form a C-shaped super large pond surrounding the small pond.

The upstream of the ditch next to it is blocked and intercepted, and the diversion channel leads to the large pond, and then leads to the downstream ditch from the drainage channel of the pond.

On the east side of the small pond, a large pond with a side length of 8 meters is dug in the place including a section of the river ditch.

After digging, the pond water is drained, and the whole line is connected.

Finally, trim the corners and corners to form a circular pond with a diameter of about 13 meters surrounding the small pond.

There is an isolated island in the center...

The Zhanlan God-given Seed is trying to take root deep underground, and there is no rush to get through it all for the time being, and it is going to be done again in the spring of next year.

The project at the foot of the mountain is basically complete.

As the temperature drops, the worker ants don't like to move, so they simply stop working. All the worker ants that are resident at the foot of the mountain return to the ant nests in the mountains. The long winter vacation is waiting for the spring of the next year.

……

The larvae of intelligent chemical ants exceed 20 centimeters in length, and their development becomes slow, but they are still reluctant to spin silk and form cocoons.

This guy has a big appetite, and he has already eaten half of the original food worth 1000 rough stones.

Not sure if it was enough, Long Bai himself was reluctant to eat it.

Not sure when the intelligent chemical ant larvae cocooned and when they were born, Long Bai guarded the ant nest and dared not travel far.

Similarly, it is uncertain when the fruit of the orchid seed bestowed by the gods will be ripe this year, and Mo Lan must guard the territory.

The waiting time with no end in sight.

The large-scale blue ants and specialized blue ants cultivated in the later period emerged one after another.

Wild rabbits and squirrels became rampant in the vicinity of the mountains, as predators were driven away.

Long Bai and Mo Lan wantonly hunted and let the blue ants refine and stock up.

Soon there was enough rations for the ant colony to feed for a month, and the blue ants were also full.

nothing to do.

Boring.

Molan flies fast, it flies close to the force barrier, leaves early and returns late, searches north and south, and collects wild fruits such as winter dates, kiwi fruit, oranges, persimmons, and pomegranates.

On a cliff, he picked up a hive of a big black bee and brought back a lot of honey.

Long Bai commanded the blue ants to combine honey and fruit to brew different flavors of 'ant honey'.

I started food research out of boredom.

Research results: The more types of fruit, the richer the type of aroma, the better the taste of ant honey, and the better the taste when adding meat in an appropriate amount.

Long Bai speculates that if some dried fruits such as torreya seeds, pine nuts, almonds, and walnuts can be added, the taste will definitely be even better.

The way Long Bai and Mo Lan eat has completely changed.

Mainly fresh meat.

When eating, let the worker ants cut the large pieces of meat into shreds of suitable size.

Spread a large leaf on the ground and put ant honey on it.

The shredded pork is eaten with ant honey.

Longbai widened the entrance of the ant nest, and opened a spacious restaurant with a length of 1.5 meters and a width of 1 meter on the left side of the entrance.

The eating place is fixed in the restaurant.

Delicious, sophisticated, elegant and tasteful new way of eating.

Boredom is the source of civilization and progress.

……

The sky outside the ant nest was dark and rainy.

There are ant colonies in the ant nest, which continuously release body temperature, and the hatching room is always warm as spring.

Finally, after eating up all the force food of Longbai, the intelligent chemical ant larva spins silk, pupates, and enters the final stage of eclosion.

Finally, in the territory of Molan, the seed bestowed by Guoxianglan absorbed a large amount of force. After 50 rough stones were used, the capsules entered the final stage of maturity.

Guopanlan seeds are matured and harvested first, the quantity remains the same, 308 pieces, the quality has been improved, and 6 rough stones can be sold per piece.

Long Bai eats his fill once, and won't be hungry for three or four days.

Mo Lan is full once, and she won't be hungry for five or six days.

For the Guoxianglan seeds produced this year, Longbai and Molan each eat 4 pieces to try out, and the remaining 300 seeds are kept for sale to caravans in the spring of the coming year.

Dry the seeds, dry and collect.

Longbai and Molan began to tidy up their respective territories, preparing for the long-distance exploration.

There is not much to clean up, the main issue is the security of the territory, collecting thorny branches, renovating and strengthening the enclosure.

At present, there are 100 specialized soldier ants in Longbai, 36 in the north of the mountain, 12 on the top of the mountain, 36 in the south of the mountain, and 12 in the bottom of the mountain. There are still 4 disabled soldier ants standing guard at the entrance of the ant nest.

Everything is ready, only intelligent chemical ants are missing.

After waiting for 10 days, this product can be regarded as breaking out of the cocoon.

The whole body is pitch black, with a body length of about 25 centimeters, slightly larger than that of a chemical ant, and its head is extraordinarily large, accounting for one-third of its entire body.

"Do you have inheritance memory?"

Longbai shook its tentacles, using the unique communication method of the ant tribe to send information.

"???"

There was a period of dazed and doubtful mood swings from the intelligent chemical ants.

That is no more.

Long Bai: "Can you command other worker ants?"

The intelligent worker ants were confused for a moment, and after realizing what Long Bai meant, they turned their heads and shook their antennae, and the worker ants near the ant nest all moved closer.

"good……"

Long Bai shook his tentacles to disperse the worker ants surrounding him, and said, "Come with me."

……

During the few days of waiting, Mo Lan simply stayed in the restaurant.

"Longbai? Intelligent chemical ants?"

"Yes."

"Does it command worker ants?"

"Directing worker ants is instinctive, and it is born with it. However, it has no inherited memory, and it doesn't understand anything. I need to teach it many things."

"Long Bai, what do you mean..."

"Let's delay for another day. I will take it to familiarize itself with the territory, get to know all kinds of life-growing plants, and the saplings cultivated in our nursery."

"All right……"

Mo Lan reluctantly agreed, and followed her out of the nest.

"It's called Molan, my friend. You needn't be afraid of it."

Long Bai turned his head and introduced to the intelligent chemical ants.

The intelligent chemical ants who were afraid of hiding behind Long Bai nodded their antennae to show that they understood.

Long Bai pointed to the four specialized soldier ants standing guard at the entrance of the cave, and asked, "Can you command the soldier ants?"

"It seems to be possible..." The intelligent chemical ant tried to shake its antennae, and the four soldier ants moved closer.

However, the four soldier ants stepped forward, looked around the intelligent chemical ants, and turned away again.

Intelligent chemical ants: "They don't recognize me."

Long Bai: "..."

"Mo Lan, let's take it out to see the world."

Long Bai led the intelligent chemical ants out of the ant nest, came under the Long Bai Mingzhong tree, and introduced solemnly:
"This tree is my life seed, the tree species 'Longcypress', I named it after it. The so-called life seed..."

"The force food you ate when you were a larva was produced by the Life Seed, and it is the most important wealth in the territory."

Long Bai continued to lead the way to his second life-seeding tree, and said: "This tree is also my life-seeding tree, the tree 'Junbai'..."

Mo Lan who was following at the side suddenly asked: "Long Bai, didn't you say that the intelligent chemical ant is very smart? Do you want to give it a name?"

"right……"

"Then call it juniper?"

Long Bai immediately turned his head and said to the intelligent chemical ant: "Its name is 'Molan', and mine is 'Long Cypress', I am your king, now, I give you a name that belongs to you, Junbai! Named after my second life seed."

"Molan. Long cypress. Juniper."

The intelligent chemical ants seemed very happy, refined the main points, cheered and waved their tentacles. .

"My name is Juniper!"

"Very smart!" Long Bai praised, and continued to introduce: "That's a juniper seed, that one is a green cypress..."

PS: No more updates today.

(End of this chapter)