novelbin Chapter 17: The Growth Story of a "Failed Ant"
Chapter 17: The Growth Story of a "Failed Ant"
Regardless of the number of caste differentiations, the ants in Ye Zhi's previous life and the ordinary ants in this world only have two types of eggs: unfertilized eggs that develop into haploid male ants and normal diploid fertilized eggs that develop into female ants.
All worker ants, soldier ants, and even reproductive ants are determined through pheromones and hormones during the larval stage, and their form after emergence is completely fixed during pupation.
The same applies to ants at the Force life level—their inherited memories clearly record the pheromone ratios used to stimulate larvae to differentiate in different directions. And because this method of producing "half-Force creatures" is similar to self-cloning, even the distinction between haploids no longer exists.
Even the Zo King was just an ordinary ant egg that developed from a large amount of primal energy food during its larval stage; there was no such thing as a separate Zo King egg. The existence of this "golden egg" that he had just laid was not present in his current inherited memories, which was probably related to the mutation of the egg-laying process in his life sac.
Ye Zhi stopped thinking for the time being, placed the two ant eggs, and continued to recover the strength that had been drained by laying the "golden eggs". When he had recovered to about 70% or 80%, he looked at the "ceiling" of the nest chamber and suddenly had an idea.
While the Force food that strengthens overall physique is one aspect, acquired training is still effective for insect warriors. Ye Zhi pondered as she looked at the ceiling, suddenly wanting to try out an idea she had long ago.
While he was thinking, he spread his membranous wings, flapped them and leaped onto the wall. Then, in no time, he climbed up to the ceiling, his claw pads sticking tightly to the wall, and he hung upside down from the ceiling.
Immediately, a strand of ant silk was drawn from her abdomen, the end of which stuck to the ceiling. Ye Zhi loosened her limbs and contracted her abdomen, trying to stabilize herself with the ant silk rope and slowly slide down.
With a crisp snap, the delicate ant silk rope broke silently. Then came a slight thud, and Ye Zhi's nearly two-centimeter-tall body fell sprawled on the ground.
Ye Zhi remained silent. Having ascended to become a Force creature, although his size was still small, the density of his exoskeleton and muscles was incomparable to what it used to be, and his weight also soared. A thin ant silk seemed unable to support his weight.
But he was not disappointed. Instead, he pulled out another ant silk thread and circulated his internal primal force. Sure enough, his guess was correct. His internal primal force flowed smoothly through his body and into the pulled-out ant silk thread.
Before the fall, he noticed that the ant silk seemed to be able to transmit the Force from itself without any hindrance, just like the exoskeleton. Now that he tried it, it was indeed a natural "Force superconductor".
Turning its jaws, Ye Zhi gently tore at the ant silk. The originally delicate ant silk became tough after being attached to the Force. Ye Zhi's still asymmetrical jaws tore at the silk repeatedly from side to side like a saw, but only a faint wear mark was left on the ant silk.
The life sac tightened, stopping the injection of primal energy into the ant silk. The originally firm ant silk immediately broke, proving that it was not due to the leaf-woven mandibles being weak.
He loosened his jaws and pulled the silk thread from the half-section of ant silk attached to his abdomen. Then, he tried to attach his mental energy to the silk thread again—and succeeded again. It flowed into him without any hindrance, just like the Force, as if he was born to do so.
In the inherited memories, the spider silk of the Flame Spider Merchants seemed to be able to be guided by their mental power, enabling them to perform delicate tasks that were difficult for their limbs to accomplish, which is why they had their silk sacs. Ye Zhi also experimented with using her mental power to gently pull her own ant silk from a distance.
It happened—the ant silk moved slightly in a way that defied physics, seemingly without any external intervention. Although the movement was incredibly slow, it was at least swaying.
Ye Zhi pondered for a moment and immediately came up with the most suitable way to use it - mainly using the power of the swinging of the abdomen, and making subtle directional adjustments with mental power, so that the end of the ant silk can stick to the desired position.
Without hesitation, he raised his lower abdomen, aimed his eyes at a not-so-smooth protrusion on the wall, and suddenly swung the nodule with force, while using his mental power to fine-tune the landing point of the ant silk tip with the help of inertia.
The tip of the ant silk successfully touched the target location, albeit slightly off-target, but it was harmless for the time being. Ye Zhi immediately contracted her abdomen, retracted some of the ant silk, and her body rose into the air, suspended in mid-air by the ant silk hanging from the ceiling.
He was secretly delighted. His "failed ant" plan, which he had been thinking about ever since he learned that he should preserve his silk glands, had finally made substantial progress. With the development of his racial talent, his paw pads, he might be able to continue to scale walls and rooftops when he grew larger in the future.
While pondering, he suddenly decided to perform a difficult maneuver, abruptly severing the Force supply from the ant silk thread. Then, at the instant the ant silk thread broke, he injected Force into the half still attached to his body, swinging his abdomen in the air.
"Snapped!"
With a soft thud, Ye Zhi shook her head and antennae, got up from the ground, spread her membranous wings and shook them, somewhat embarrassed—she had gone a bit too far and didn't seem to be able to control herself yet...
But Ye Zhi was still mostly excited. He felt that the potential for development of these ant silk threads, combined with the Force and mental power, was not low, and the current Spider Ant Project was just one way to utilize them.
......
Time flew by, and about a month passed in the blink of an eye. During these days, Ye Zhi spent his time either eating at the Black Ant King every morning and evening, consuming food made from primal energy, or practicing using ant silk in the nest chamber.
With the combination of Force-enhanced foods and appropriate training, Ye Zhi could indeed feel a noticeable change in her physical abilities, and couldn't help but marvel at how amazing the Force truly was.
However, the use of ant silk relies more on experience and reaction speed than physical strength, so his progress is not very significant at present. It seems that he needs more time to practice in order to achieve further improvement.
But all those days of gluttony weren't without effect. After consuming a large amount of primal energy food, Ye Zhi finally showed signs of impending molting and evolution, as indicated by her inherited memories. She felt slightly dizzy and wanted to fall asleep.
As a first-instar lord-level slender ant queen, Wu Yuan was naturally experienced. He immediately had the worker ants spit out some food, and after Ye Zhi ate it and filled his digestive system and social stomach, he had Zuo Wang Hong Yuan take him back to the nest chamber to prepare for the process of dormant evolution.
Because of the divine gift seed, Ye Zhi knew that this evolution might take a long time. So he simply wove another "curtain" out of ant silk to temporarily seal the entrance to the mouse hole. Then he found the soft and comfortable ant silk mat he had woven earlier in his cave, slowly lay down, and fell into a deep sleep.