Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 59: Another Year of Spring's Benefits

"Click click..."

A faint cracking sound came from the exoskeleton, indicating that evolution was complete and the final molting stage had begun.

For insect warriors, this process is actually quite dangerous, but with a properly balanced supply of Lord-level Force food, Huo Yun obviously doesn't need to worry about this problem for the time being.

Through the ant-silk curtain, sensing with its antennae, Ye Zhi looked into the tree hole as the sound gradually subsided. Sure enough, Huo Yun had completed its evolution, and its new body had completely emerged from its old shell.

The mantis's wings are large, and its molting method after becoming a Force life form is slightly different from that of ants. Each time it molts and evolves, the old wings fall off directly, and new wings grow back from under the wing buds, spreading out.

The newborn exoskeleton, yellow and black, stretched and expanded in the air. Huo Yun's pair of capture feet had become more coordinated with evolution. When opened, their inner edges were sharp and gleamed with a cold light, but when closed, they were like a sword in its sheath, its sharpness concealed.

At the early stage of the second instar, Huoyun's body length has reached about seven or eight centimeters, close to the size of Yezhi at the fourth instar. Its pair of pulse wings spread out to nearly ten centimeters, clearly indicating that it has a strong flight ability.

"Leaf-woven Ant King!"

Seeing Ye Zhi guarding the cave entrance, Huo Yun waved its still-short, thick, rod-shaped tentacles after its evolution, sending out a mental greeting. Over the past few days, it had become increasingly familiar with Ye Zhi.

"You're in your second year now, are you hungry? Want a bite?"

A fresh, headless corpse resembling a grasshopper was entangled in ant silk ropes and dragged behind Ye Zhi. Under the control of mental power, it was rolled up by the ant silk ropes and handed to Huo Yun.

Ordinary insects do not have the social stomach structure of ants. After evolving and awakening, they have not eaten for several days and need to replenish their food. Ye Zhi had already made preparations and had a fresh small invertebrate carcass ready at any time today, in case Huo Yun might awaken.

Huo Yun lightly tapped her antennae, sending out a mental wave filled with gratitude. She then extended her grasping leg, took the body of the grasshopper, and began to devour it. The headless, mangled body was quickly eaten clean.

After eating, Huo Yun clearly regained her strength. Seeing this, Ye Zhi took two steps back, lifted the ant silk curtain, and slowly walked out of the tree hole.

Huo Yun followed closely behind, stretching out her body in the sunlight. Her exoskeleton still looked tender and shiny, and her membranous wings were still a little wrinkled.

......

Located in the tropics, although it is winter, the temperature has not changed much. After Huoyun completed her second-year evolution, Yezhi also began to move around every day, making preparations and waiting for the day when she would evolve into the first stage of the sixth-year stage.

In the early stage of the second instar, Huoyun chose a top-tier plant seed cultivated by the Tree Ant Kingdom—the Blood Orange Seed—as her life seed. It was already being nurtured in her life capsule, while the original Xiaoyun Wood life seed was dried and stored, awaiting a decision on whether to keep it or not.

A month or so passed quickly, and Ye Zhi returned "Chimera" to its seed form, retrieved it from its life sac, and returned to the main nest of the Black Ant King to begin preparing to consume Force food.

The Black Emperor Peach Pit and Azure Persimmon Seeds, two top-tier divine-given foods, which the Black Ant King had obtained in the last trade, along with the non-divine-given but still top-tier Torreya grandis seeds, were all durable enough to be stored for a long time, and there were enough of them for Ye Zhi to eat until the intermediate stage.

It was still a feeding period of more than a month. Every two to three days, a certain amount of Force food was consumed. Several kinds of precious God-given Force food were consumed alternately. Ye Zhi soon felt that Force seemed to fill every cell.

About forty or fifty days later, Ye Zhi felt familiar signs that she was about to enter a dormant evolutionary stage.

After consuming large amounts of flesh and blood to fill his digestive system and social stomach, Ye Zhi once again crawled into the old "Spider Cave," which he had further expanded, preparing to evolve towards the initial stage of the sixth age.

......

Four days later, Ye Zhi slowly awoke from her slumber. She had shed her old shell, and her newly grown, tender yellow exoskeleton stretched and extended, eventually reaching a length of about fourteen centimeters.

Looking around at its body, the physical appearance of the body did not change much during this sixth-year evolution, but the strength of its muscles and the density of its carapace were significantly improved compared to the fifth-year stage, thanks to the enhancement of the God-given Seed.

At the same time, he had a peculiar feeling, as if some recessive genes in his body were being gradually activated, and that he would fully awaken once his level of evolution was further improved.

Clearly, the moment of complete activation is the major evolutionary leap from the primary to the intermediate level, where the accumulated quantitative changes will lead to a qualitative change.

Feeling excited, Ye Zhi stretched her body a few times, sensing the new power within her. She emerged from the cave, skillfully spread her membranous wings, flapped them, and took flight towards the hillside where the "Chimera" had originally been planted.

"what?"

As soon as it flew out of the cave, Ye Zhi's compound eyes caught sight of something - the sixth instar of evolution. The already keen compound eyes of the Leaf Ant had been greatly enhanced, and its vision was much stronger than when it was a human in its previous life.

With a mental focus, a hint of green appeared in his eyes. A somewhat bulky and clumsy figure extended its tentacles from the back of a leaf, seemingly seeing Ye Zhi, before quickly and frantically retracting.

Ye Zhi was surprised. She flapped her membranous wings and flew slowly closer. She stretched out one forelimb and hooked the leaf stalk with her two forepaw claws, turning the leaf over completely. Her compound eyes looked at the emerald green figure behind the compound eyes.

It was an ordinary weaver ant queen, who had just shed her four membranous wings. Seeing the relatively large figure of the weaver ant approaching, she struggled to raise her abdomen, open her mandibles, and assume the standard guarded posture of a weaver ant.

But in Ye Zhi's view, it was like Hakimi's breath in his previous life—an ineffective and futile act, and it would be more practical to turn around and run away.

At the same time, he was also both amused and exasperated. It seemed that he, a Force warrior who had risen from the Chimera, was not accepted by the ordinary members of his own tribe...

While pondering, Leafweaver loosened its forelimbs, flapped its membranous wings, and slowly departed, leaving only the Leafweaver Queen Ant standing there in what it considered a useful deterrent posture. Only after Leafweaver had gone far away did it turn its head and disappear among the leaves.

Before I knew it, a year had passed since I came into this world. It was the season for weaver ants to take their mating flight again. A new batch of male and female reproductive ants had already set off for the unknown distance with the mission of passing on the future of the colony.

Within a year, Ye Zhi had transformed from a tiny, fragile, deformed chimera that could be killed by the ant colony at any moment into a Force-based life form, joining the Tree Ant Kingdom. This transformation filled him with a sense of感慨 (gan kai, a complex feeling of mixed emotions, often including nostalgia or reflection).

However, intelligent beings must always look forward, whether it was the human Ye Zhi in the past or the current sixth-instar primary leaf ant queen Ye Zhi.

Instead of dwelling on the past, let's continue to strive for evolution and break through to the intermediate warrior stage as soon as possible in the new year. Ye Zhi pondered this as she continued flying towards the direction of planting the "Chimera".