Chapter 12 - 12 Chapter 11: The Extraordinary Number 4_1 (2/2)
It’s akin to humans eating a balanced diet of meat and vegetables.
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Additionally, termites will also consume the corpses of other insects when starved, even including the bodies of their own kind, ant eggs, and so forth. Such a situation only occurs in extreme hunger and scarcity of food.
At this moment, Qin Niu heard the sound of human conversation not far away.
He immediately picked up the chopped firewood and left the area.
Within the ant colony, there was the clever and capable ‘Fourth,’ so as long there was no enemy invasion, there shouldn’t be any major problems.
As the Ant Queen’s energy recovered, she would soon enter ‘breeding machine’ mode.
She would lay a large number of ant eggs every day, and then hatch them.
As long as there were Soldier Ants in the nest, their defensive ability would be greatly enhanced.
However, it was probably not feasible to develop Soldier Ants now; the primary task was to expand the Worker Ant group. Within the entire colony, the Ant Queen, young ants, Breeder Ants, and Soldier Ants all lacked the ability to find food.
They must rely on the Worker Ants to forage and feed them in order to survive.
Therefore, Worker Ants are very important to the whole ant colony.
In the early stages of the colony’s development, without Soldier Ants, Worker Ants would take on both roles: acting as Worker Ants and also as Soldier Ants.
Qin Niu shouldered a load of firewood weighing about one hundred fifty to sixty catties as he walked towards the mountain’s exterior.
After crossing over the hill, he saw Wang Furen leading five or six hired farmers collecting humus.
Wang Furen pointed to the humus under the dwarf pine, saying, “This is the one, get me a basket of it back home, I want to mix the fertilizer personally.”
Qin Niu couldn’t help but shake his head and smile.
This Wang Furen, cunning as a ghost, must have secretly observed the leaves in his humus, recognized them, and then believed he had found the formula.
Just wait, Wang Furen would come to him again.
However, this also served as a reminder to Qin Niu that if he wanted to make his first fortune by selling soil, he had to be more cautious in the future. Not to give others the chance to peep and steal the technique.
Or perhaps deliberately create some ‘mist,’ letting those trying to imitate suffer a bit.
For instance, use a humus high in nitrogen during the corn’s flowering stage, consequently resulting in stunted growth and poor yield.
Or perhaps make some nutritional adjustments to the fertilizer used during the seedling stage, slowing down their growth or even causing the leaves to turn yellow, achieving the opposite effect like fertilizer damage.
Once these people suffered from these mistakes a few times, they would naturally understand that imitation is futile.
Then they would obediently come to buy fertilizer from Qin Niu.
However, pricing it at fifty Wen Money per basket, the price is indeed not cheap.
Cow dung is considered a top-quality fertilizer, yet it only sells for ten Wen Money per basket.
He now had nearly nine hundred labor points saved up and was secretly considering whether he should upgrade his fertilizing skills to the next level?
If he wanted to do this business, he would definitely need to constantly improve his techniques.
Upon seeing Qin Niu carrying a full load of firewood, Wang Furen said with a bit of pride, “Ah Niu, you refuse to sell for five Wen Money a basket, see this? I hire people to come up and carry it, and it doesn’t even cost two Wen Money per basket.”
“Then you should buy this two Wen Money a basket.”
Qin Niu smiled indifferently.
“It’s just a formula, not something very complicated. As long as you have eyes and a brain, you can figure it out. Young man, you must not be too greedy,” Wang Furen criticized him with the stance of an elder.
He felt proud of himself for being able to fathom out the formula from Qin Niu’s fertilizers.
Qin Niu just smiled and walked away without saying a word.
…
As days passed, Qin Niu became even busier each day.
In addition to taking care of the crops in the fields, chopping wood in the mountains, along with practicing his Chop Technique, he would also spend a lot of time in front of the Termite Nest.
He was observing the habits of termites and understanding them.
Six days passed, and the energy of the Ant Queen kept increasing every day.
On the first day, it rose to 21 points, on the second day to 54 points, by the third day it broke a hundred, reaching 102 points…
By the sixth day, even though only four Worker Ants were feeding her, the energy inside her body had already reached 279 points.
Since the Ant Queen’s energy was rising so fast, Fourth’s effort accounted for at least half of it.
Without its command, the foraging efficiency of the other three Worker Ants would at least be halved.
The growth speed of the four Worker Ants was equally rapid; they had grown larger than when they first molted into adult ants.
The increase in size also led to an increase in their foraging capacity.
They could bring back more food at a time.
This morning, as Qin Niu got up, he discovered that the properties of the Ant Queen had changed again.
Female Milky White Ant (Ant Queen)
Grade: Grade Two winged insect, upgrade experience 102.79/1000
Lifespan: 4.2 years
Energy: 229
Skills: Breeding Skill Grade One 0.15/10, Feign Death Grade One 2/10
Talent: Medium intelligence
Ant Colony: Worker Ants 4, lifespan 3 months
The energy had decreased by 50 points, and the proficiency of the Breeding Skill had increased by 0.1 – had it laid another batch of ant eggs?
Qin Niu was extremely delighted and went into the mountain with his cleaver, carrying pole, and rope.
The ant colony only needed to complete the initial accumulation and then start to expand; from there on, it would be like a snowball rolling down a hill, becoming more and more formidable.
He arrived at the Ant Nest and peered inside.
Goodness, the Ant Nest had been expanded deeper by the Worker Ants.
They had even established the first ‘birthing room,’ where ten snow-white transparent ant eggs lay silently.
The body of the Ant Queen was already showing signs of slight plumpness; her abdomen had visibly grown much fatter.
The food reserves within the nest were still considered abundant.
Everything seemed well-organized.
Fourth was leading another Worker Ant in digging another side tunnel.
Wonder what they’re preparing for?
I’m really looking forward to it; once these ten ant eggs hatch, the colony will further expand. With fourteen Worker Ants working, the energy the Ant Queen can obtain each day will be even more ample.