Chapter 22 - 22 Chapter 19 Strong Soldier Ant_1 (1/2)
22 Chapter 19 Strong Soldier Ant_1
Translator: 549690339
Qin Niu passed by Xie Laizi’s house at the foot of the mountain and happened to see Er Dan running out.
Er Dan was smart. He winked at Qin Niu, hinting that the job was done.
Qin Niu gave a slight nod in response.
Xie Laizi, whose head was full of scabs, eyed Qin Niu with surprise as he carried a firewood knife and a shoulder pole up the mountain. Ah Niu seemed to have no issues at all.
“Ah Niu, I heard Lord Kun visited your place?”
He greeted Qin Niu with a smile as if nothing had happened.
Qin Niu did not speak, just lowered his head and entered the mountain.
Usually, Ah Niu behaved almost the same way.
He hardly ever responded when other people spoke to him.
Xie Laizi, not getting a response, didn’t care. He locked his door and quickly headed in the direction from which Qin Niu had come.
Looking at his hurry, he surely was off to explain himself to Wang Haikun’s household.
He understood Wang Haikun’s temper very well, the man could turn hostile in an instant. If things went wrong, Wang Haikun might welcome him with his cymbal-sized fists.
Keeping company with a tiger is just like this, it has been since time immemorial.
Qin Niu turned to look at Xie Laizi’s retreating figure and smiled. All he needed to do was sit and watch the show unfold.
After he entered the mountain, he went to check on the termite nest he was fostering.
The bear blood had long been sucked clean by them.
Of the three centipede carcasses, only the biggest one remained, and half of its tail had been gnawed away.
“Eh! We’ve got new members here!”
Qin Niu discovered a few more worker ants.
Two of them were patrolling back and forth at the entrance, not engaging in labor.
They clearly looked different from ordinary worker ants.
Their mandibles were particularly large, their bodies robust, their six limbs powerful and strong. And they moved much faster than the other worker ants. Their speed was comparable to Fourth’s.
Also, their heads seemed to be longer.
“Could these be soldier ants?”
Qin Niu was pleasantly surprised.
For an ant colony, soldier ants are too important. Their combat power is far superior to worker ants.
Normally, after the female mates and takes her nuptial flight, she lays a small number of worker ants first, so that once they metamorphose into adults they can forage and feed the Ant Queen. The second batch will include a few soldier ants.
Because soldier ants greatly enhance the overall safety of the ant nest.
The Ant Queen that Qin Niu had subdued was highly intelligent, and her way of doing things was different from ordinary queens.
She laid worker ants for both her first and second batches of eggs.
Only the third batch included soldier ants.
Of course, this might also be related to her weak constitution.
The hatching and feeding of soldier ants require a lot of energy. She might have feared that producing soldier ants too early would increase the burden on the entire colony and affect its development.
Worker ants represent productivity, while soldier ants represent defensive capabilities.
Soldier ants, like the Ant Queen and reproductives, cannot feed themselves; they are born for combat, tasked only with defense, safeguarding the safety of the colony and the nest.
They rely on worker ants to feed and survive.
Fourth was leading the worker ants diligently carrying out Qin Niu’s orders, disassembling the centipede’s carcasses and transporting them into the nest as food reserves.
“Wow, Fourth seems to have gained a lot of strength!”
Qin Niu noticed Fourth’s mandibles “click-clacking” as it gnawed on the centipede’s body, its strength clearly greater than before, and its work efficiency higher.
Not only that, the other five small worker ants from the second batch that hatched also doubled in strength and became much more robust.
Could this be the change brought about by consuming the bear blood?
He speculated to himself.
It was a pity that so much bear blood was wasted on the ground. If used to feed this termite nest, it would undoubtedly bring huge surprises.
But he was not in a hurry.
Now that he had the ability to kill a black bear by himself, there would be no doubt more opportunities to hunt them in the future.
When the time came, he could collect the bear blood and gradually feed it to the ant colony.
Moreover, as the ant colony continued to grow, they would be able to consume even more bear blood in one feeding.
Currently, with only a few worker ants working, their intake capacity was very limited.
Seeing such great change in the ant colony, Qin Niu’s heart was filled with joy.
Now with the soldier ants, and having built their nest inside this big camphor tree, the entire colony’s survival capability was more than ten times stronger than before.
He subconsciously checked the Ant Queen’s attributes.
Female Milky White Ant (Ant Queen)
Grade: Grade Two order of insects, upgrade experience 198/1000
Lifespan: 4.3 years
Energy: 5861
Skills: Reproduction Grade One 0.95/10, Feign Death Grade One 2/10
Talents: Average Intelligence
Ant Colony: One lesser worker ant, lifespan 4 months, special abilities (Strength, Agility, Average Intelligence). Five strong worker ants, lifespan 3.1 years. Six ordinary worker ants, lifespan 3 years. Two strong soldier ants, lifespan 7 months.
After checking the attributes of the ant colony, Qin Niu was both happy and a little worried.
The Ant Queen, Fourth, and the worker ants from the second batch had all gained one month of lifespan.
The normal lifespan of soldier ants is about six months, so these two soldier ants must have also gained one month of life.
Moreover, Fourth and the worker ants from the second batch, as well as the newly metamorphosed soldier ants, had all gained an additional ability, which was Strength.
He could now be fairly certain this was a benefit of consuming the bear blood.
It seemed that as long as there was blood food available, he could fee more to them.