Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 72: Conception - Exploring a New Continent

"The Leaf-Weaving Ant King... has it successfully sown its seed?"

Huo Yun extended its tentacles, looking with some surprise at the ordinary life-growth plant in front of it that was sprouting rapidly, or at least growing rapidly in a short period of time, and transmitted its spiritual power.

It's no wonder Huo Yun was so surprised. Now, the growth rate of this ordinary life seed is no less than that of the divinely bestowed seed "Chimera" after it has been replanted.

"Probably, probably..."

Ye Zhi's uncertain response stemmed from his lack of experience in planting ordinary life seeds. As for the strange method by which a life seed emerged from the body of a special worker ant, he had no idea what was going on.

The Primal Force shimmered in the compound eyes of the Black Ant King, aiding its mental vision. With a light tap of its antennae, it said, "The flesh and blood of the worker ants are being transformed into nutrients for the growth of the Life Seed. Unlike the true Life Seed, which is a divine gift, this process should slow down after a while."

The ability applied to the compound eye was indeed extraordinary. Leafy antennae watched as the plant continued to sprout and grow, silently waiting in place.

About an hour later, the ordinary grapefruit seed that had emerged from the body of the special worker ant grew to a height of twenty or thirty centimeters.

As the Black Ant King had predicted, it seemed that the nutrients stored in the worker ants' bodies had been exhausted, and their originally rapid growth, which was no less than that of the divinely bestowed seed, finally slowed down or even stopped.

It wasn't a divinely bestowed seed after all; it was still a tree. After its initial momentum ended, it entered a normal growth phase, with a slow growth rate that was difficult to observe with the naked eye, just like any other seed. But it had survived the most vulnerable budding period.

......

Another worker ant with an external life capsule is now waiting on the tree nest. The first life seed has been successfully planted. Ye Zhi flaps its wings again, takes off, picks it up, and places it a hundred meters away from its first proper life seed.

Following the previous example, the spatial energy in the brain controls the worker ants, which dig with their six limbs and burrow into the loose, tilled soil, emitting a mental wave of "growth".

It looked familiar. The worker ant first emitted a special aura and remained motionless, as if it had transformed into an ant-shaped seed. A crack appeared on its carapace, and a plant sprouted from below.

The extensive root system penetrates the soil along the worker ant's six legs, and the tender shoot slowly emerges from the soil, unfurling two cotyledons, followed by a true leaf emerging from the tip, stretching and extending...

Ye Zhi's second common seed was also a representative plant from the Tree Ant Kingdom, a blood orange seed, and its growth and development progress was similar to that of the previous grapefruit seed.

About an hour later, the worker ants' flesh and blood were completely absorbed by their developed root systems as nutrients for growth. In the soil, only a broken exoskeleton covered with roots remained, while the seedlings grew into seedlings of twenty or thirty centimeters, surviving the most vulnerable bud stage.

Ye Zhi took flight, drew water from a bamboo tube, and watered the soil near her two life plants, replenishing their moisture. She continued to observe them, sensing the soul-connected fluctuations emanating from the life plants.

Ordinary life seeds are a level lower in terms of life, and are different from divinely bestowed seeds. The fact that they have such a faint feeling is probably due to the two worker ants that have already merged with the life seed plant.

During the hours of waiting, Huo Yun got bored and went to the vicinity to catch various flying insects that might harm the life-giving plants. She only ate the best parts, and buried the rest under the life-giving plants for compost, since "Chimera" had been moved by Ye Zhi.

Seeing that the natal ant species was in stable condition and the King Ant had returned to its nest, only Ye Zhi remained on the scene. She completed her training for the day on the tree nest while observing her ordinary natal ant species.

......

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, two months have passed since the intermediate stage of evolution. In early spring, the first batch of intermediate-stage worker ants is finally about to hatch.

Sensing the worker ant information transmitted back through spatial energy in her mind, Ye Zhi specially returned to the main peak hatching chamber and personally guarded the hatching chamber where ant pupae were piled up, assisting the large worker ants below to shed their pupal skin and emerge as adults.

Strangely enough, although its own appearance has changed and it no longer resembles a leaf ant, the worker ants and semi-force queen ants produced by the eggs it spit out are basically still standard leaf ant appearances, only their carapaces and mandibles are more robust, and they have inherited the physique strengthened by the force food given by the gods.

However, what Ye Zhi was most curious about at this moment was not this point, but the fact that he discovered that the "space" energy in his mind seemed to have other uses.

Through mental perception, it was as if an invisible thread connected him to the worker ants. He could locate the worker ants from afar using spatial energy without even seeing them.

Furthermore, this positioning is bidirectional. When commanding worker ants, he can also sense his own location through the worker ants' senses, and worker ants can also sense each other's location.

Ye Zhi pondered for a moment, then looked at the semi-primordial force ant queen larva in the incubation chamber, which was already larger than herself and had a pale white skin with a faint golden luster. It was about to enter the prepupal stage and would hatch in about a month.

In the intermediate stage, the evolution interval needs to be three to four months. After the semi-force queen ant emerges from the pupa, it is about time for her to continue eating force food and evolve towards the intermediate stage of the second instar.

Ye Zhi pondered in his heart, while simultaneously sensing the positioning ability brought by the spatial energy in his mind. He suddenly had a bold idea: to do something big before reaching the intermediate stage of the second evolutionary age.

He recalled that interdimensional passage, that continent where the primal force was dormant, close to the divine power barrier, an area where a faint amount of primal force could be released, barely enough for primal force-based life to operate, and pondered in his heart.

Having lived in a world without Force in his previous life, he naturally wouldn't have much fear about the depletion of Force. Instead, he thought of a question—would the distribution of plants and animals on the other side be different from that of the Dragon Bamboo Continent?

Cultivating plants and nurturing life forms is the foundation of survival for the insect warriors in this world. On the opposite continent, is it possible to find some rare plant species that are not distributed on the Dragon Bamboo Continent?

Even if it doesn't work out, I can still establish a branch nest in the interdimensional passage in the future, allowing the ant colony to move along the divine power barrier, forage for food on the opposite continent, expand its activity range, and indirectly increase the size of the ant colony.

As Ye Zhi pondered, the spatial energy he had accumulated and transformed in recent days began to converge with nutrients towards his life sac, nurturing a semi-primal force ant queen golden egg.

A familiar feeling of being completely drained washed over her. Ye Zhi regurgitated food to replenish her energy, then put down the second intermediate-stage semi-prime force ant queen egg in her mouth and took flight.

He prepared to find two more bamboo sections and began migrating the ant colony into the spaceship's passageway. He cultivated the ant colony in both locations simultaneously and quickly began a large-scale exploration along the divine power barrier.