Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 76: Intermediate Level 2

"Ability awakening?" A luminous light containing fluctuations of the Force flickered from the compound eyes of the Black Ant King, accompanied by a mental scan that swept over Ye Zhi's entire body, giving Ye Zhi an uncomfortable feeling of being completely seen through.

"An alien ability, somewhat like a soul-based one, affecting the brain?" Wu Yuan exclaimed in surprise, sending out his mental energy. Qing Yuan, who was standing nearby, also curiously came forward to examine Ye Zhi, who was momentarily too afraid to move.

"Just like your precise control over the ant colony, little guy, it's a very useful ability for ants," commented the Black Cypress Ant King. "However, I'm afraid without corresponding Force-enhancing food, it can only be strengthened slowly by absorbing natural Force."

"...Little guy, you take Qingyuan over first. It's best not to delay the God-given Seed." The Black Yuan Ant King's antennae swayed, looking at Ye Zhi, then at Qingyuan, and its mental power was transmitted.

......

Flying out of the nest, heading south, Ye Zhi circled ahead to lead the way, with Zuo Wang Qing Yuan and the worker ants following closely behind, all the way towards the location of the divinely bestowed seed that was being conceived.

The ant silk markings entwined on the tree crown quickly appeared in the compound eyes. The leaf-woven wings fluttered forward, hovering in the air, locking onto the location of the pitcher plant that it had hybridized and pollinated. It used its mental power to probe out and observe the condition of the divinely bestowed flower.

This pitcher plant has a common racemose inflorescence, rather than the compound racemose panicle of the pitcher plant. As the divinely bestowed flower at the top floats up along the pattern, these ordinary flowers also begin to wilt and wither due to insufficient nutrients.

Ye Zhi carefully stepped forward, opened and closed her jaws, and cut off the other flowers, leaving only the divinely bestowed flower at the top and one or two flowers at the bottom that had also been pollinated and were growing well. She pulled out the ant silk and prepared to start processing.

With ants fluttering about, a simple "shed" quickly takes shape, completely covering the inflorescence with most of its flowers cut off, preventing birds from pecking at it.

Zuo Wang Qingyuan arrived with worker ants. The primal force shimmered in his compound eyes, and he quickly locked onto the location of the divinely bestowed flower. He stood silently in place, releasing the aura of a lord-level semi-primal force life form without reservation.

Immediately, its antennae twitched, and two worker ants stepped forward, simultaneously tearing open the spider silk sack with a ripping sound. They picked up the raw stone with their mandibles, and as their mandibles cut, bursts of pure primal force were released.

After using the four Primal Stones, it seemed that the Primal Force absorbed by the divinely bestowed flower was saturated, and the invisible Primal Force vortex no longer appeared. Zuo Wang Qingyuan shook his antennae, and the two worker ants closed the opening of the spider silk bag and waited silently in place.

"Alright, little guy, I'll have worker ants guard this place. You can go back and focus on evolving. Once you've evolved to the early second instar, you can nurture this divinely bestowed seed as your life seed."

Ye Zhi tapped his antennae, pondering to himself that it was indeed time to cultivate a new ant colony. He bid farewell to Zuo Wang Qing Yuan, flapped his wings, and flew towards the main peak's nest chamber.

......

In preparation for evolution, as usual, "Chimera" was transformed back into its seed form and stored back in its life sac. Afterward, Ye Zhi returned to the nest of the Black Ant King and brought back the Force food needed for its intermediate second-instar evolution.

The elder of his, whom he had never met, the Blue-skinned Ant King, had once created a dry storage room in the nest. The powerful earth-type primal energy left behind by the king was used to reinforce it, and the ant glue coating mixed in made it waterproof and moisture-proof. The conditions were even better than the storage room in the Black-skinned Ant Nest.

Ye Zhi placed the Force food she had retrieved, along with a large spider silk bag, inside. She first took out the portion she would eat that day, laid it flat in front of her, pulled out the ant silk rope to tie the bag tightly, and placed it in a corner of the spacious nest chamber.

The diet still consists of one or two kinds of precious divine-given Force foods as a base, supplemented by a large amount of ordinary Force foods with complementary effects. Ordinary liquid foods have already filled Ye Zhi's social stomach to replenish his energy.

Beside Ye Zhi, the social stomachs of four recently hatched intermediate-stage worker ants were filled with liquid food, which included minced meat and honey that Ye Zhi had specially dug up from a beehive for the worker ants to eat.

Ordinary Primal Force foods contain over 90% Primal Force and essence within their seeds. However, most plant seeds are bitter or even poisonous. This is also true for ordinary life forms that have not completely transcended the level of life.

Force-evolved beings are immune to ordinary toxins, but the bitterness is undeniable, especially for sweet-loving ants. Therefore, he deliberately stored a considerable amount of honey in his social stomach, mixing it with those bitter Force-evolved foods.

The ant silk rope coiled around the large spider silk bag, opening a small spider silk bag inside it. This small bag contained the amount of food needed for the day.

Ye Zhi picked up a grain of food with her forelimbs and ate it. Then, she controlled the worker ants beside her to come forward and feed her, drinking some liquid food mixed with honey and minced meat to restore her strength.

Repeating this process, the energy food in the small spider silk bag was soon exhausted. Ye Zhi rolled up the small spider silk bag, wrapped it with ant silk rope, placed it next to the large spider silk bag, and then tied the mouth of the large spider silk bag tightly with ant silk.

On the second day, the third day... during the intermediate stage of evolution, the consumption of Force Food increased further as they continued to evolve upwards. It took nearly a thousand Primal Stones worth of Force Food to meet the evolution requirements.

Returning to the "Spider Cave" inside the Black Ant King's nest, he ate the last grain of primal food, then filled his stomach. The familiar drowsy feeling came over him. He sealed the cave entrance with ant silk, lay down on the ant silk cushion, and began to fall asleep.

......

Five days later, Ye Zhi slowly woke up on the ant silk cushion inside the "Spider Cave". She twisted her body, which was a little sore from being squeezed by the old shell. A crack appeared in the old shell, and she slowly crawled out.

The pale yellow exoskeleton quickly stretched, expanded, and took shape, and with the stretching of muscles, its size finally settled at thirty-five centimeters.

The changes in the body during the early stages of evolution are not significant. Through mental perception, I can now produce two external life sac larvae, one corresponding to the life seed that should have been at the initial stage of the second instar, and the other corresponding to the life seed that is currently at the intermediate stage of the second instar.

However, having just completed its evolution and not yet fully recovered, Ye Zhi was in no hurry to lay eggs. Instead, she slowly tore open the ant silk sealing the nest entrance, crawled out of the nest, and looked outside.

Emerging from the nest, this time, only two worker ants were at the entrance. They recognized Ye Zhi's scent and shook their antennae, spreading them to the sides.

But this made Ye Zhi a little curious - usually one of the two assistant kings, Qingyuan and Hongyuan, would guard the nest entrance, but now, why were there only two combat worker ants? Could something have happened?

Slowly unfolding its newly hardened membranous wings, Ye Zhi flapped its wings and took flight, heading out of the nest.

Along the way, the slender worker ants moved back and forth, emitting a pheromone scent that Ye Zhi couldn't quite make out, but he could sense the excitement within it, which made him even more curious.