Reincarnation Paradise: The Crucible

On the vast plain, the mighty black ant army formed a long column, passing through it, and beside the army, there were two more magnificent green torrents.

This black ant army is the Black Xuan Army under Xuan Jun who is returning to the nest. Xu Yue is also in the middle of the queue at this time, chatting with Xing Hai from time to time while observing the surrounding environment.

Now we are quite far away from walking out of the dense forest. According to Xing Hai, the center of the plain beneath our feet is where the ant nest is, and we are now very close to returning to the nest.

Resisting the urge to spread his wings and take off, Xu Yue looked to both sides. Around him were black ants with big bellies and carrying various supplies.

It has to be said that the foraging skills of this group of ants are meticulous and do not let go of anything that can be used. While filling their bellies with lake water, they also did not forget to pack up all the things on the battlefield such as corpses and weapons. Take it away, even if it is just an ordinary wooden spear, never throw it away.

Among them, they will bury the corpses of ants killed in battle around the ant nest. They believe that doing so will allow the souls of the dead soldiers to still loyally guard their homes, and the flesh and blood of wasps, water creatures, etc. are the best ingredients. Well, in the eyes of the ants, except for themselves, everything on this island is food.

Of course, when talking about this, Xing Hai also deliberately emphasized that the allies of the ant tribe were not included in the food, but Xu Yue said that he did not care about this.

His eyes passed over the surrounding ant colonies and continued outward. What came into view was a queue of yellow-brown ants. Each of them carried a huge leaf with their strong mandibles, thus forming a line on both sides of the team. The spacious and constantly flowing green river embarked on the journey home together with the Black Mysterious Army.

"Leaf-cutter ants..."

His eyes continued to flow on the green river outside, and Xu Yue whispered the name of this ant species.

It is said that besides humans, there is another species that can feed millions of subjects through cultivation - leaf-cutter ants.

Leafcutter ants are experts in planting in the ant family. They do not make a living by hunting. Instead, they rely on collecting leaves, cultivating underground sterile ecological gardens, growing fungi, and finally using these fungi and mushrooms to create a large and orderly ecosystem. Civilized empire.

Through scientific and meticulous large-scale planting, leaf-cutting ant nests can even expand the population to 8 billion, which is an extremely exaggerated number even for ants.

On the other side, just as Xu Yue was looking at the leaf-cutting ant colony with concentration, Xing Hai beside him also noticed the sight of this human ally, and explained to him with a little pride:

"The Poseidon's disaster is approaching, so our tribe has also accelerated the collection of various materials. In addition to the flesh and blood of the creatures hunted by the legion, plant leaves are also a top priority. These leaves can ensure that after the sea disaster, the surface of the island will still be Even when everything was desolate, my people’s plantations were still thriving.”

"Your Excellency Xinhuo, after returning to the ant nest, I may be able to take you to visit our clan's ecological plantation. It is one of the crystallizations of the ant clan's civilization. With the supply support of the plantation, our clan can survive safely. There have been three consecutive Poseidon disasters, but civilization has never been cut off."

After listening to Xing Hei's explanation, Xu Yue withdrew his gaze, but the curiosity in his eyes did not diminish at all. Seeing completely different civilizations and miraculous creations with different styles in each world is a major charm of the paradise.

"Then I'll wait and see. It will definitely be very grand."

……………

Since the last conversation about leaf-cutting ants ended, the rushing team has returned to calm again, but the good news is that what Xing Hai said about being so close is not a lie.

After more than ten minutes of rapid march, a magnificent red mountain came into Xu Yue's sight.

"Your Excellency Xinhuo, welcome to the ant kingdom!"

Xing Hai's high-pitched words rang in his mind. Xu Yue looked up into the distance. In front of him was a wide mountain range hundreds of meters high rising from the ground. The mountain range was dark red in color and covered a very large area. The whole thing seemed to be large. It is made up of piles of red rocks, but it is extremely stable. There is no vegetation or grass on it. It looks like rugged rocks and mountains.

At various locations on the mountain wall, there are large and small irregular pits and deep caves. The interior is so dark that it is hard to see clearly. When the wind blows across the entire mountain range, thick and weird whimpering sounds come from these dense caves one after another. It came out that in addition to being spectacular, it also added a bit of horror to the entire mountain range.

In fact, strictly speaking, this mountain range is not the real ant nest. It is just an external part of the ant nest. The real ant nest is located deep underground.

In a location that cannot be observed, the ant nest is far more vast than imagined, and the most important role of the exposed mountains is to supply oxygen and regulate the temperature.

It can be understood as a huge outdoor air conditioner.

This is generally a common construction method used by termites. Through the dense holes in the mountains, whenever there is air flow, fresh oxygen will be poured into the underground ant nest through the holes, and the accumulated waste gas inside will be discharged from other channels. To ensure that the huge ant nest located underground can always have sufficient oxygen supply.

And during the flow of air, the winding passages will also lower the temperature inside. When the cold air flows into the nest, the heat accumulated in the ground will be discharged, thereby ensuring that the ant nest can continue to grow. It has a dry and cool temperature, preventing it from turning into a hot underground oven.

This is the role of mountains. Although the appearance of the entire mountain range looks rough and wild, the internal design is extremely sophisticated. This is undoubtedly a beautiful work of art originating from the ant civilization and one of the crystallizations of its civilization.

Even if you haven't entered yet, just looking at the huge mountain range outside, you can imagine how amazing the area of ​​the lair inside will be.

In the real world, there is a giant termite nest in northeastern Brazil with a history of more than 3,800 years. It is covered with a large number of mounds nine meters wide and three meters high. The total area is an astonishing more than 220,000 square meters, which is quite a lot. covering the entire land area of ​​the United Kingdom.

The above data can reflect the strong construction ability of the termite colony. Nowadays, this ant kingdom takes into account many specialties such as termite construction, leaf-cutting ant cultivation, and army ant hunting. Its comprehensive strength is evident.

“Pretty amazing building.”

Standing in front of the red mountain range, Xu Yue carefully looked at the 'outdoor air conditioner' of this ant nest and expressed his sincere admiration.

Behind him was the male ant Xing Hai who was waiting quietly. As for the other worker ants and soldier ants carrying various supplies, they had already entered the ant nest in batches through various holes in the mountain range.

"Your Excellency Xinhuo, Commander Xuanjun has already gone to the ant queen's palace to report on the battle situation. If he wants to meet with the ant queen, it will probably take some time."

"Do you want to take a rest during this period, or should I take you to visit our clan's ant nest kingdom?"

After hearing this, Xu Yue did not hesitate too much and decisively chose the latter. He was more interested in this alien kingdom located underground than resting.

"Don't be in a hurry to rest. I'm more looking forward to the noble underground kingdom."

"Okay, Your Excellency Xinhuo, please come this way!"

Xing Hai responded and stepped forward to lead the way. Xu Yue followed closely, and one by one they stepped into a cave corridor at the foot of the mountain.

The interior of the corridor is very wide, and the overall slope extends downward. As the distance goes deeper, the sunlight that diffuses in from the entrance of the cave is gradually expelled by the darkness inside, giving people the illusion that it is breaking away from the surface light and heading towards the dark abyss.

After walking for tens of meters, the darkness finally changed. A little green light lit up around the corridor. If you look closer, you will see that they are small fluorescent mushrooms.

According to Xing Hai's explanation, this kind of mushroom is a species cultivated by the ants in fungus plantations. They provide essential light for the entire underground kingdom. The nest of the ant civilization is not a dark place.

Sure enough, after advancing for more than ten meters, more and more light emerged in the corridor, and the colors were not single. The soft light produced by the collection of fluorescent mushrooms of different colors illuminated the entire corridor. Bright, it also renders the originally deep and gloomy atmosphere particularly magnificent.

More than ten minutes later, the corridor finally came to the end, and an extremely vast underground space burst into Xu Yue's eyes.

This is a three-dimensional circular space. The inner wall of the space is covered with fluorescent mushrooms of various colors, making it appear colorful and magnificent without being dark.

In addition to the fluorescent mushrooms used for lighting, there are a large number of circular passages connecting the inner wall from all directions. The overall structure looks very similar to a honeycomb, with ants of various colors flowing in and out, making it very lively.

Looking around, the mysterious and unique exotic customs suddenly come to your face, which is dizzying.

"Your Excellency Xinhuo, this is a large chamber in the ant nest. It is generally used for public activities. There are about three thousand such chambers in the entire ant nest, covering childcare, incubation, food storage, and supplies. It has multiple functions such as placement, rest activities, martial arts training, and item processing, all of which have their own uses, and there are countless small chambers.”

"There are many tunnels connecting the chambers to communicate with each other. For us ants, we have pheromones and spiritual communication as a guarantee. No matter how cumbersome the route is, we will not get lost. But for humans, maybe It’s just a large maze, so during this period, Mr. Xinhuo, don’t stray too far away from me.”

"good!"

Seeing Xu Yue nodding in agreement, Xing Hai stepped into this large chamber filled with intricate tunnels, and continued to explain to Xu Yue in detail as he walked. It can be seen that he followed the guidance issued by Commander Xuan Jun. The task is very serious.

"In ant nests, such activity chambers are very common, but when it comes to the most ornamental and most closely connected large chambers, it is the ecological plantation located at the bottom of the ant nest, in which a variety of various types of plants are cultivated. The fluorescent bacteria that can be seen everywhere are just an insignificant species among them."

"In the period when the ants were not yet enlightened, fungal cultivation at that time could only cultivate tiny mushroom species for larvae to eat. But now that the ant civilization has become intelligent, after hundreds of years of development, fungal cultivation has advanced to a level where It’s a completely different situation. In addition to simply eating to fill our stomachs, we have also given fungi more unique abilities.”

"I believe that Your Excellency Xinhuo also experienced the magic of the bee clan's golden honey and royal jelly today. The bee clan's honey has its own unique effects, and the fungi and mushrooms of our ant clan are naturally not inferior. Compared to..."

While talking, Xu Yue continued to walk through this huge ant nest under the leadership of Xing Hai. Compared with the ants' general body size of 2 to 3 meters, his height of less than 2 meters was unusual in the entire nest. A truly small man, apart from the various magnificent things unique to the underground world along the way, what he saw most were spaces and tunnels that were wider than each other.

Along the way, we also met many individual male ants who mastered the skill of "spiritual communication". They would often greet the Xing Hai who was leading the way enthusiastically, and then politely say "Your Excellency Xinhuo" to Xu Yue.

It was obvious that he had entered the ant nest less than an hour ago, but it seemed that the entire ant clan already knew his identity and strength, and not even a provocative and dissatisfied male ant was encountered among them.

In this regard, Xu Yue could only turn his gaze to Xing Hai's pair of tentacles that had been trembling non-stop since he entered the ant nest, and sighed secretly again:

‘Psychic communication is really a useful skill. ’

Time passed quickly during such a visit, and Xing Hai led his allies through some of the exposed chambers in the upper ant nest, and then went straight to the bottom of the ant nest. As he said before, ecological planting The garden is the most worth visiting place.

Half an hour later, even if he walked quickly, with Xu Yue's agility attribute of nearly 40 points, it took a lot of time to reach the bottom of the ant nest. It is difficult to imagine how deep these ants dug. the point.

When he arrived at the bottom, Xing Hai did not lead Xu Yue to the ecological park immediately. Instead, he took him to a huge cave that was dry and dark. Different from the lively scene of ants coming and going in the upper levels of the ant nest, the upper levels were different. All entrances to the chambers are guarded by soldier ants, and the number of ants coming and going is relatively rare.

Past the guarding soldier ants, Xu Yue followed Xing Hai's footsteps and stepped into the cave. There were not many fluorescent mushrooms in the cave, but there was a colorful sea of ​​stars on the dome. Looking at it carefully, you could see that this sea of ​​stars was It consists of transparent balls filled with various liquids.

The size of the spheres is not consistent, but the diameter is generally upwards of 2 meters. When the line of sight continues to move upward, you can see that each sphere is connected with a black shadow. To be precise, it is a shadow. The upper body of an ant.

The so-called colorful balls are actually their lower abdomens filled with liquid and inflated to the limit. These ants are not dead, they just hang themselves motionless upside down on the dome of the rock wall, like a group of animals. Corpses or artifacts don't look like life.

After seeing the truth of Xinghai clearly, an inexplicable sense of horror suddenly filled the inside of the cave, making people feel chilled in their hearts just by looking at it.

Of course, Xu Yue didn't feel anything about this. Instead, he looked at the colorful sea of ​​stars above his head with great interest.

"Is this...honeypot ant?"

Honeypot ants actually do not refer to a single ant species, but a special division of labor among worker ants. They can be found in many ant species.

This is a worker ant that transforms itself into a storage device, thereby selflessly dedicating itself to the community and storing liquid food.

The liquids in their abdomens are diverse. The main sources are nectar, plant juices, biological blood and other sweet substances. After being stored and fermented by honeypot ants, a liquid food similar to nectar is formed.

However, compared to honey bees, their ending is much more tragic. The moment they become honeypot ants, their fate is destined to be hanging upside down on the rock wall forever, waiting for their kind to enter a state of hunger. When they come to look for food, they are the living barrels of the group.

Whether it is selfless dedication or cruelty and indifference, after all, these are just the unique needs that the ants have evolved for survival, and human morality cannot be applied to other species.

Xu Yue originally thought that after the ants evolved into a civilized group, there would be no such species as honeypot ants. After all, there were too many tools that could replace the role of honeypot ants. But now it seems that not only have honeypot ants not been abolished, but their scale has also changed. It was even larger. At least at a glance, he could see that the number of individuals in this sea of ​​​​stars was definitely no less than that of the previous Black Mysterious Legion.

"Yes, these are honeypot ants, the most selfless warriors of our ant clan."