novelTele Chapter 36: The Golden Egg is About to Form
Chapter 36: The Golden Egg is About to Form
"The King of Cinnabar Ants!"
Under Qingyuan's guidance, Ye Zhi finally met her current half-direct elder, Ant King Wuyuan, again.
This time, he also brought the small worker ant, while Qingyuan carried a small spider silk bag, which seemed to contain the primal force nutrients produced by the divinely bestowed seed "Chimera" of the pitcher plant.
"Little guy, are these your worker ants?" Just like when Zuo Wang Qingyuan first saw them, Wuyuan Ant King's gaze was immediately drawn to the little worker ants that Ye Zhi was carrying on his back.
Ye Zhi brought this worker ant here, naturally to explain to Wu Yuan the same situation regarding her control over worker ants. Seeing this, she repeated what she had said to Qing Yuan earlier.
"A remarkable little fellow," Wu Yuan praised softly. "When the True God of Nature closes one entrance to your nest, he opens another. Don't be discouraged about the life sac."
"Ant King, this little guy's destiny seed is no ordinary thing." Upon seeing this, Qingyuan immediately transmitted his mental power and pushed forward the spider silk bag in his claws. "These are what the little guy's divinely bestowed seed produced after absorbing the flesh and blood of the giant toothed ant."
"Oh?" Wu Yuan asked curiously. He used his forelimbs to rummage through the spider silk bag, and with a little force from his tarsors, he tore open the bag with a ripping sound, then deftly picked out a grain to examine it.
"Combined lightning-based enhancement, with additional strength-based enhancement effects?" Wu Yuan's spiritual energy grew serious. "Is this truly a transformation resulting from feeding the divinely bestowed seed with the corpses of those giant toothed ants?"
Qingyuan responded by nodding its tentacles, while Ye Zhi added from the side, "The tree spirit said that it felt it gathered some substances that it could not absorb on its own, and that's how these things were condensed."
After a moment's hesitation, Wu Yuan put the grain he had picked up into his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp. Immediately, his compound eyes lit up.
"The quality is comparable to divinely bestowed food. The raw material is a mountain lord-level giant toothed ant worker ant. The little guy's evolution level is a bit lacking. As a compromise, it is probably of the quality of a divinely bestowed seed at the advanced warrior level."
"Each one is quite large; at the Flame Spider Merchant's place, it should fetch eight to ten Origin Stones..."
"Qingyuan, have you and the little guy counted how many of these things there are in total?" Wuyuan shook its antennae, its compound eyes gleaming, and asked slowly.
"King Ant, the count is complete. There are a total of 114 pills. Basically, each large-toothed ant's corpse is converted into one pill. If there are more corpses to supply, this number can continue to increase." Qingyuan reported in advance.
The cypress retracted its tentacles, seemingly deep in thought: "How's the conversion efficiency? If we supply corpses at full capacity, can the output be increased?"
"King Wuyuan Ant, the biggest problem right now is that my evolution level is too low, and the evolution level of the God-given Seed cannot be improved. The size of the insect trap is limited, and it can't hold too many corpses." Ye Zhi responded immediately. He was indeed eager to continue to evolve.
"This is indeed a practical problem." Wu Yuan slowly transmitted his mental power, "But this God-given Seed absorbs the flesh and blood of the Great Toothed Ant and produces a composite lightning-type substance, which our Tree Ant Kingdom has no use for and can only sell to the Flame Spider Merchants."
"But we can't guarantee a stable output in the long term. Flame Spiders are cunning. Once or twice is fine, but they will inevitably become suspicious over time. The little guy's destiny characteristics are too strange. Once exposed, I'm afraid the outcome won't be good."
The mental signal from Wu Yuan carried a hint of worry: "The best method is probably to store them temporarily, accumulate a certain quantity, and then sell them to itinerant merchants in batches, claiming that they were stolen in a single robbery."
"The newly discovered ore vein in Red Cypress can probably produce millions of ore. If used on myself, it can only evolve a few young stages, and it's impossible to reach the King level. It's better to use it to supply the little guy's growth and evolution, which is enough to ensure his smooth growth before the Lord level."
"The little guy's life seed is similar to that of a flame spider; it can retract its life pouch at any time. Once it advances to the Mountain Lord level, even if it's exposed, it should have a chance to escape. If all else fails..."
Wu Yuan seemed to have thought of something, hesitated before speaking, but finally stopped, turned to Ye Zhi and said: "Little guy, your talent for the Force is not bad. During this year's trading season, I will get you some God-given Force food. During this time, you will first evolve into a mid-level warrior."
Ye Zhi nodded her antennae in agreement with delight, and at the same time sent out a mental wave with the same meaning.
"By the way, little guy, since your life seed can also switch between seed and plant forms, why don't you put the life seed into your life sac for a second strengthening in the near future, and then plant it again when you reach the third evolution and third age?" Wu Yuan added with his advice.
"If the giant toothed ants make any further moves, I'll have Red Citron collect some corpses first. Once they reach the early third instar, you can let the Life Seed absorb them. There's no need to rush. Future growth and evolution are the important things."
Then, Wu Yuan pushed a small bag of spider silk in front of him: "Little guy, the proportions of these are similar to the Force food you ate before. You need to finish this bag within three days. Remember, don't push yourself too hard."
Ye Zhi tapped its antennae, flapped its wings, and took the small spider silk bag. With a ripping sound, it tore open the bag and looked inside—it still contained those familiar seeds, including blood oranges and grapefruits, which are representative plants of the tree ant kingdom.
This time, however, the quantity was much larger than before, which explains why Wu Yuan specifically instructed that it was enough for three days.
Ye Zhi was secretly delighted. During this time, he had learned that his chimera body was unusually efficient at absorbing and converting primal forces. He felt that he could probably finish these quantities in less than two days.
"It doesn't matter, I can come back and ask for it later," Ye Zhi thought to herself with amusement. She waved her antennae to bid a temporary farewell to the Black Ant King, flapped her wings and took flight, carrying the bag of primal energy food towards her little "Spider Cave".
Flying into the cave, he temporarily placed the spider silk bag on his ant silk cushion "bedside," looked around, and prepared to fly out of the nest again to retrieve his divinely bestowed seed "Chimera" into his life sac for further enhancement.
But then he suddenly froze – a faint mental connection that had been there suddenly intensified. He turned his head and saw that the golden egg larva had transformed into a giant ant pupa, which appeared to be a female reproductive ant.
Near the ant pupa, the small worker ant under his control had already gone to the hatching chamber as soon as it landed, as usual to check the newly hatched eggs in the nest and the ant pupa that had developed from the golden egg, which was suspected to be a reproductive ant.
At this moment, the giant ant pupa, which appeared to be a female reproductive ant and had developed from a golden egg, was twitching slightly. It was from this peculiar spiritual connection that it had been maintaining with Ye Zhi that a different signal was being transmitted.
Ye Zhi was overjoyed – this seemed to be a sign that the ant pupa was about to complete its metamorphosis and the adult insect below was about to emerge from the pupa. The signal was a message of "help" being sent to the other individuals!