Chapter 1 - 1 Chapter 1 This Ant Queen is Extraordinary_1 (2/2)

Surprisingly, she quickly found her next mate, with no foreplay, mating directly.

“`

“Fickle creature!”

Qin Niu secretly despised the creature, paying even closer attention to this female ant.

Finding multiple mates could help acquire more outstanding genes.

The offspring that were born would also be more excellent.

In a short time, she had found four husbands and had completed mating with all of them.

The efficiency was astonishing.

Compared to the other female ants, who enjoyed the romantic and ceremonial pre-mating chase and play, she was simple and direct, everything was for the reproduction of outstanding offspring.

Just then, several returning birds spotted the delicacy and swooped down, quickly pecking away at the termites that had just mated.

Each of the physically frail termites was like a lamb waiting for slaughter.

Seeing that she was about to be devoured by a bird, the petite female termite flipped over and lay on the ground, covered in weeds, pulling in her six legs and remaining motionless.

Was this playing dead?

Within the order Coleoptera, Seven-spot Ladybirds and fireflies are masters of death feigning.

But I’d never heard of termites having this skill!

Qin Niu just watched quietly, not interfering.

The threat of the birds was just the first challenge in his creation of the Termite Kingdom.

After dodging the first wave of danger, the petite female termite seemed to feel that lying still was not safe enough. She quietly flipped over and began to move, at an extremely slow pace, inching towards the base of the nearest clump of weeds.

This speed of movement was barely noticeable to the naked eye.

The last male termite to mate with her had already been eaten by a bird. Due to its larger size, it tried to escape by crawling rapidly on the ground upon seeing the bird.

Unaware that such quick movement also made it a moving target.

Any termite that caught the eye of even one bird was bound to die.

The petite yet cunning female ant had successfully made it to the base of the weeds. She lay there quietly, pressed tightly against the roots of the weeds, motionless.

After the birds had their fill, they quickly left.

Many termites survived and were frantically scattering to escape.

Here and there, frogs lurking in the shadows leapt up, their forked tongues harvesting the lives of termites.

Nearby spiders also joined the feast, slaughtering the defenseless termites. Just as the birds flew away, a group of larger crows arrived.

Without any preamble, they began to feast.

It wasn’t easy to eat those termites that hid underground or in tree nests on normal days.

After the disaster, the vast swarm of termites had been decimated.

The ground was strewn with the corpses of male termites.

Humping Ants, drawn by the smell of food, came out of their underground nests in lines to collect the corpses.

For these Humping Ants, the bodies of the termites were a delicacy.

Dragged back to their nests, they could feed many young ants.

The tiny female termite observed the departure of the bird flock, and the frogs and spiders, having eaten their fill, had all rested.

Only groups of Humping Ants had begun to scavenge everywhere.

She had to flee this area quickly; it was the territory of the Humping Ants.

Cautiously, she advanced step by step, each time precisely avoiding the Humping Ant sentries searching for prey.

Qin Niu began to admire an insect for the first time.

He followed it until it chose a relatively smooth slope to climb. The area was wider at the top and narrow at the bottom, like an eave blocking wind and rain, and it was also on the leeward side.

This was a very suitable place to build a nest.

He had to admire its choice of location.

Struggling up the incline, due to the steep slope, it accidentally rolled down to the bottom of the hill.

Undeterred, it climbed up the slope again.

Building a nest close to the bottom of the slope would be too damp, risk flooding on rainy days, and was susceptible to invasion by predators.

Building a nest halfway up the slope posed much greater difficulty, but the safety factor increased significantly.

After five attempts, it finally made it up.

Once it selected the nest entrance, it didn’t pause for a moment, using its front legs and strong mandibles to start digging through the relatively soft soil.

This process was very strenuous for it.

It needed to quickly dig out a safe initial nest, then lay eggs inside and raise the first batch of Worker Ants to maturity before venturing out for food to feed it.

During this period, it couldn’t source food and had to continually deplete its stored energy to sustain life.

Qin Niu coldly observed its laborious digging without any thought of helping.

Finally, it managed to excavate a primary nest just 1.2cm deep. Larger female termites usually dug their initial nests four to five centimeters deep.

It seemed to know its limits and didn’t intend to dig any deeper.

Instead, it began to fortify the nest entrance.

“It’s all up to you, now. I hope not to waste another precious Contractual Talisman,”

A Low-grade Contract Charm sold for One Tael of Silver, and he had to sell his possessions and scrimp for a year to afford this Contractual Talisman.

The stronger the pet, the higher the grade of the Contractual Talisman needed, and in greater quantities.

This termite was just an ordinary insect for now, so a Low-grade Contractual Talisman would be sufficient.

He had already tried twice before, but none of the termites he chose managed to live until the first batch of Worker Ants matured.