Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

"Leaf-woven Ant King!"

Before he could take a few steps forward, a mental force entered Ye Zhi's mind, slowing his flight and causing him to hover in the air.

Looking up, Huo Yun's figure flapped its wings and flew towards them, with a bloody headless bird carcass between its legs. It looked fresh and must have just been caught.

As an ordinary bird, it was simply unlucky to encounter a brown bee-mantis warrior in its early fifth year, whose size was comparable to its own and which could attach its catching feet to attack.

"Leaf-woven Ant Queen, you're back... Hmm, where did you find this nascent ant queen? What species is it?"

Huo Yun's evolution level was lower than Ye Zhi's, and her awakened inherited memories were not as complete as Ye Zhi's, who was already a mid-level warrior. It seemed that she did not recognize the little ant king's race and asked curiously.

"Exploding flathead ant," Ye Zhi transmitted through her mental power.

"Huh?" Huo Yun was somewhat surprised. She flapped her wings violently twice, stepped back a body, and loosened her grip, causing the headless bird corpse she was holding to slide straight down.

Then, its compound eyes discreetly observed the little ant queen before it, and it sent out a curious telepathic message: "Leaf-woven Ant Queen, is this the Exploding Ant? It doesn't seem that powerful."

Aside from its bright, fiery red warning coloration, the body of the Exploding Flathead Ant doesn't really have any prominent ridges; it looks quite ordinary, except for the head of the queen and the large worker ants, which appears to have been flattened.

"Don't judge a book by its cover," Ye Zhi replied with a modified version of a proverb from her past life, then continued, "I'm taking it to see the Black Citron Ant King to decide how to deal with this exploding ant. Do you want to come along?"

"No, Leafweave Ant King, I'm going to continue hunting." With that, Huo Yun swooped down, picked up the bird carcass hanging on the ground again, and casually threw it into the huge insect trap of the "Chimera" with a diameter of half a meter, which earned her a joyful mental fluctuation from the tree spirit.

Ye Zhi didn't say anything more, bid farewell to "Chimera", and continued to fly towards the main nest of the Black Ant King with the Exploding Flathead Ant King.

"Ye Zhi... Ant King." The little ant king trembled, mimicking Huo Yun's earlier address, and sent out its mental power, pointing its antennae at the worker ants under the command of the Black Cypress Ant King below, "Those are... slender ants?"

"The slender ants," Ye Zhi replied through her mental power. "Our tree ant kingdom is a symbiotic relationship between weaving ants and slender ants. Their ant king is a second-instar lord-level being, who is also my protector."

While pondering, Ye Zhi, flying at full speed, had already reached the entrance to the nest chamber of the Black Ant King. He slowly descended with the Exploding Ant King and flew into the wide entrance, which was no less impressive than the entrance to an apartment building in his previous life.

"Squeak... Crack..." The slender worker ants nearby sensed the presence of the strange creature and became alert. They looked in Ye Zhi's direction, their antennae standing up, tense and alert, and the warning signal spread throughout the nest.

Just moments later, a large swarm of worker ants charged in aggressively. Zuo Wang Qingyuan emerged from the ant colony, his limbs taut, and his mental energy scanned through his antennae, where he spotted Ye Zhi.

"Little guy, what's going on... Exploding ants?!" Qingyuan had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Ye Zhi, but then he noticed the little ant king that Ye Zhi was holding down, and immediately tensed up again.

"The Azure Cypress King has only this one little ant king; it has no other members of its kind."

Ye Zhi transmitted her mental power, and then her antennae pointed in the direction of the divine power barrier: "I found it over there. I brought it back and handed it over to the Black Ant King for disposal."

"Bring it back to the Ant King for disposal?" Qingyuan asked in surprise, his compound eyes examining the ant silk rope binding the little Ant King. After a moment, he transmitted his mental power, "...Alright, tie it tighter and come with me."

The little ant king's antennae drooped, and it looked timidly at the large number of ferocious-looking alien worker ants nearby. It even shrank back towards Ye Zhi. Ye Zhi also tightened the ant silk rope and followed Zuo Wang Qingyuan into the depths of the nest.

......

"What's going on...? These are... exploding ants?! Little guy, where did you get these?"

Deep within the nest, the Cinnabar Ant King had already received a simple pheromone signal from the worker ants, but it was still startled to see the little ant king that Ye Zhi had brought.

Ye Zhi still had her tentacles raised diagonally upwards, pointing towards the divine power barrier, simply indicating that she came from the opposite continent. She leaned forward and transmitted her mental energy:

"I didn't kill the King Ant. Now there's a threat to the north of the Tree Ant Kingdom. The Exploding Ants are fierce. We can control its life force and make this Exploding Ant King work for us."

"This is too risky, little guy. It's best to kill it. Exploding ants aren't so easy to control." The Black Ant King transmitted its mental power, not very optimistic about Ye Zhi's control plan.

Knowing what the Black Ant King was worried about, Ye Zhi touched its antennae to its antennae and transmitted a faint, audible telepathic message, similar to a human whispering in the ear, that only she and the Black Ant King could hear:

"I brought back the King of the Cinnabar Ants by blindfolding its eyes and antennae with ant silk along the way, so it doesn't know about the interdimensional passage."

"Little guy, you mean, plant its life seed on the opposite continent, so it can't find the location of the life seed?" Wu Yuan immediately realized Ye Zhi's meaning, and a glint flashed in his compound eyes.

"Yes, the Cinnabar Ant King, this explosive flat-headed ant king, we've placed it in the northernmost area near the mountain ant kingdom, while its life seed is at the southernmost point, opposite the divine power barrier."

"As long as we heavily guard the interdimensional passage, even if the Explosive Ant King wants to rebel in the future, we will have enough time to destroy its life seed. When its soul is damaged, it won't be able to cause any big trouble."

The compound eyes of the Black Ant King gleamed as it looked at Ye Zhi, then at the exploding Flathead Ant King. After a long while, it slowly released its mental energy:

"Alright, then stay here for now, nurture it to evolve to the Mountain Lord level, and station it at the location closest to the border of the Mountain Ant Kingdom. As for the Life Seed, you arrange the location, and I will have Qingyuan lead worker ants to assist you."

"King Ant, this..."

Just as Qingyuan was about to send a questioning mental signal, it stopped abruptly. It seemed that the Wuyuan Ant King had emitted a pheromone signal that only the Piaoxian Ant clan could understand, which roughly explained the situation.

Immediately, Zuo Wang Qingyuan twitched its antennae, leading the nearby worker ants away. In the huge nest chamber, only Ye Zhi, Wu Yuan, and the exploding flat-headed ant queen remained, and for a moment they were silent.

A moment later, the antennae of the Black-Headed Ant King pointed at the explosive flat-headed ant king still bound by Ye Zhi. The powerful mental energy of a lord-level ant king emanated from it, breaking the silence:

"During your first-year junior warrior stage, did you cultivate a Life Seed? If so, what plant did you choose as your first Life Seed?"