Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 58: Observing

After some thought, Ye Zhi decided to build a smaller nest for Huo Yun next to her own tree nest. She flapped her wings and circled around, looking around the vicinity.

A natural tree hole came into view, and Ye Zhi's eyes lit up. The size was just right. For Huo Yun now, this was a natural living space that only needed a little modification.

"Huo Yun, what do you think of this place as a nest? If you'd like, I can modify it a bit with ant silk." Ye Zhi waved her tentacles and sent out a mental message.

Huo Yun flapped its wings and took off, slowly flying to Ye Zhi's vicinity. Its compound eyes surveyed the direction Ye Zhi was pointing, and then it gently tapped its short, thick, rod-shaped tentacles, transmitting a unified mental energy.

Upon hearing this, Ye Zhi also twitched her antennae, examining the tree hole in front of her, pondering a modification plan.

The tree hole is long and narrow, with its height exceeding its width, making it a perfect habitat for mantises, crickets, and other insects that excel at climbing and hanging upside down. The leaves and antennae sway as they begin to achieve their predetermined goals.

With a thought, five worker ants, born in the third instar, emerged one after another from the tree nest beside them. Under Ye Zhi's control, they crawled into the tree hole one by one, their abdomens raised and spitting out ant silk.

Ye Zhi's worker ants inherited his ability to directly produce ant silk. Under his precise control, these worker ants moved back and forth, pulling out bundles of ant silk and sticking them tightly to the originally rugged surface of the tree hole.

A layer of coarse ant silk "gauze" was quickly covered on the walls of the tree hole on three sides, followed by the ground, which was covered with a thick layer of ant silk.

Even when resting upside down, they still need a flat ground to rest on after molting and evolving, so as not to fall due to exhaustion after molting and cause irreversible damage to the newly grown tender shell.

Finally, at the entrance to the tree hole, Ye Zhi specially used a technique she had stolen from the Flame Spider Merchant to weave a "curtain".

The curtain ends with short, thick, stiff ant silk, while the ground is covered with a layer of soft, fine silk, forming a structure similar to Velcro from the previous life, resembling the opening of the spider silk bag of the Flame Spider Merchant.

Finally, Ye Zhi, together with several large worker ants that were four or five centimeters long, built a platform at the entrance of the tree hole using branches to facilitate entry and exit, reinforced it with ant silk, and treated it with ant glue.

"Huo Yun, take a look." After the final entry and exit platform was completed, Ye Zhi called out to Huo Yun, who was already circling nearby, "Clamp here, push upwards, and you can tear it open."

Huo Yun fanned its arterial wings and slowly descended. A pair of compound eyes curiously observed Ye Zhi's movements, then tentatively extended a catching leg, gently clamped a corner of the "curtain," and with a ripping sound, pulled the curtain open.

The little guy, who had never seen the world before, was quite excited. He darted into the tree hole, closed the curtain, and then opened it again from the inside with a ripping sound. His little head peeked out of the tree hole, his antennae waving excitedly back and forth, and his compound eyes gleaming.

"Leaf-woven Ant King, you're amazing!" Huo Yun's mental energy was still filled with excitement.

"Be careful, don't break it." Ye Zhi gave a helpless warning, then shook his antennae, controlling the five large worker ants to file out, leaving the space inside the nest to Huo Yun.

Huo Yun then moved its limbs nimbly, leaping onto the wall covered with ant silk climbing nets by Ye Zhi in a few steps. Hanging upside down at the top of the wall, it tucked its legs in, assuming the classic pose of a mantis predator.

Ye Zhi glanced around, shook her antennae, and then, without paying any more attention, flapped her wings and took flight, landing on a broad leaf of the "Chimera." She continued to check on the condition of her divinely bestowed seed, waiting for the little warrior Huo Yun to continue consuming primal energy food.

......

As the day passed, the little warrior Huoyun was quite satisfied with her new nest. During the day, she spent her time circling around hunting small flying insects and feeding them to the "Chimeras." She also tore open and closed the curtain woven by Yezhi from ant silk at the entrance of the cave, making a rustling sound.

Ye Zhi was somewhat helpless, but there was nothing he could do. Fortunately, he was confident in the strength of his ant silk, and that Huo Yun wouldn't be able to break it before its third evolution stage.

As for after the three-year mark, it will either be redeemed by its own kind on the Cloud Continent, or it will be kept and trained as a scout. At that time, the size of this tree hole will become unsuitable and will need to be re-opened.

The next morning, Hongyuan once again brought the worker ants, delivering a deer leg and helping Yezhi cut it into pieces. Some of the pieces were given to Yezhi and Huoyun to eat, while the majority were sent into the "Chimera's" insect trap.

After Hongyuan left, Huoyun came forward again, her antennae twitching slightly, her large compound eyes gleaming with hope as she stared intently at Yezhi.

Ye Zhi naturally knew what Huo Yun wanted. She flapped her wings and took off, grabbed the spider silk bag containing the Force food, flew down, untied the ant silk rope around the bag's opening, tore open the bag with a ripping sound, and picked up a grain of Force food.

Huo Yun waved its tentacles, its excited pulse wings stood up, took the food from the Force, and skillfully picked up a strip of meat, then began to gnaw on it with both hands.

After all, the first-year warrior was not an exception like Ye Zhi, a chimera. This time, Huo Yun ate four Force Foods and was unable to withstand them, showing signs of dormant evolution.

Ye Zhi drew out two extremely fine ant threads from her abdomen, infused them with primal force to transform them into sharp flying blades, and swung them to cut flesh into pieces that Huo Yun could just pick up. Then, she used a thicker ant thread like a tentacle to roll it up and handed it to Huo Yun.

Huo Yun caught a piece of meat with its claws, brought it to its mouth, and quickly ate it. It ate more than ten pieces before stopping, flapping its wings and taking flight, landing on the platform in front of the tree hole.

Ye Zhi stretched out its forelimbs, its tarsi lifting the curtain, and Huo Yun flicked its antennae, then lowered its head and burrowed into the tree hole. It immediately lay listlessly on the soft ant-silk cushion in the center of the hole, transmitting its mental energy:

"Leaf-Woven Ant King, I feel I'm about to fall into a deep sleep..."

Ye Zhi tapped her antennae, slowly retreated, closed the curtain, and waited on the platform at the doorway.

The inherited memories mention that the process of growth and evolution is most vulnerable to disturbance, especially mental probing. Once awakened, the evolutionary process may have to start over, or even fail and result in death.

Ye Zhi dared not risk the life of Huo Yun, a little guy he had some faith in, to test the authenticity of the inherited memories. He simply waited silently outside the tree hole, feeling the flow of natural primal force in the air.

A faint, invisible vortex of primal force is generated – a one-year evolutionary stage, and unlike Ye Zhi, it does not immediately conceive a divinely bestowed seed, so the consumption of primal force is negligible.

Seeing that growth and evolution had begun, Ye Zhi felt relieved and waited patiently. She casually picked up two pieces of flesh and blood that Huo Yun had left over and stuffed them into her mouth. Then she flapped her wings and flew up, picked up a large piece of flesh and blood that had not yet been finely cut, and threw it into the "Chimera's" insect trap.

Time passed, and two days later, a faint rustling sound finally came from the tree hole, which cheered Ye Zhi, who was still waiting at the entrance of the hole—the evolution was complete.