Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 32: Force Nutrient Body

The next day, Ye Zhi woke up early as usual, stretched her body, and then skillfully opened the "hatching chamber" of the two larvae to check their development. She then replenished her body with some pheromones and liquid nutrients stored in her social stomach.

He was pleasantly surprised to find that the little larva seemed to have begun to pupate, and the stored nutrients had begun to dissolve, supplying the special structure inside its body called the "adult disc," which was developing into a worker ant.

The larva hatched from the golden egg grew increasingly plump, now about two centimeters long, and was still quite active, shaking its head as it pupated on the soft mat.

Within the "soul," the wondrous connection of consciousness, somewhat similar to that with the "Chimera," became even more pronounced, and the vigorous life force of the golden egg larva could still be clearly felt.

Seeing that there were no problems, Ye Zhi stopped worrying and slowly walked out of the nest. After stretching her body, she flapped her wings and took off, skillfully flying towards the hillside where the "Chimera" was planted.

From afar, Ye Zhi could sense the joy and excitement of the "Chimera" through its mental energy, which even deliberately stirred up its not-so-strong mental connection to "call out" to him.

Seeing this, Ye Zhi slowly descended. In her mind, the "Chimera" emitted even more excited mental fluctuations: "Ye Zhi, look, I've succeeded!"

"?" Ye Zhi slowly typed out a question mark, sending out a mental wave of doubt.

It's only been one night, how did it already bear fruit? Did I accidentally oversleep and evolve into a three-year-old novice warrior? But that can't be right, I haven't molted, so am I still dreaming? Force creatures dream?

Ye Zhi bit his jaw hard, and felt a distinct sensation. It wasn't a dream, which made him even more puzzled. He flew around the "Chimera" in front of him, seemingly trying to find out where the fruit was.

But at the tip of that main vine, there were still only tiny, unfurled leaves and buds; there were no flower buds or fruits, making Ye Zhi even more puzzled: "'Chimera,' where are your fruits?"

"Under the vines!" Chimera's excitement was still palpable, but it made Ye Zhi even more puzzled - under the vines, is this where good fruit grows?

Somewhat suspicious, Ye Zhi lowered his altitude and hovered below the vines of the insect trap. He actually saw some things that shouldn't have been there.

Small, pale golden, rice-grain-like objects, about one or two centimeters long, grow on the outside of the vines, hanging down in rows. At first glance, the entire vine looks somewhat like sparse, upside-down ears of wheat or rice.

"Chimera, what is that?" Ye Zhi asked curiously. Although he did "read" in this world—meaning he inherited few memories—he knew that pitcher plants' fruits weren't like that.

"The fruit!" Chimera said matter-of-factly, "I don't feel it does me any good, and it even consumes a lot of my nutrients, but I just feel it's very important."

Ye Zhi examined it closely and suddenly felt that this thing was somewhat familiar. It was not a fruit, but a structure called a "vegetative body" produced by some ant-infested plants that she had heard about in her previous life.

In the description, the vegetative bodies of some ant-infested plants seem to grow at the tips of the leaves, appearing as rice grains, which are quite similar to the "fruits" that "chimera" produces at this time.

Ye Zhi carefully sensed that these "nutrient bodies" did not seem to have Force patterns, but they did faintly exude an aura similar to Force-infused food. Therefore, she thought to herself, "'Chimera,' are these 'fruits' ripe yet?"

"It should be mature by now, right?" Chimera responded somewhat uncertainly with a mental signal, "I feel like it can't grow any further."

"Then, shall I pick two?" Ye Zhi asked tentatively.

"Pick them, just give me some of the same delicious ones as yesterday today." "Chimera" seemed unconcerned, "looking" at the still piled-up corpses of the giant ants.

Ye Zhi slowly folded her membranous wings and landed on the outer edge of the insect trap. With a tentative clamping motion of her mandibles, she easily plucked a "nutrient" and held it between her mandibles.

Ye Zhi bit a little bit through the outer skin with her jaws, and a burst of primal energy actually escaped. Without further hesitation, she swallowed it in one gulp.

Pure primal force surged into his limbs and bones, and Ye Zhi felt a jolt in his heart—it was no mistake, it felt the same as the primal force food he had eaten before, only there seemed to be some differences in the strengthening effects, which he couldn't tell at the moment.

"Ye Zhi, how is it?" "Chimera" sent out a mental signal with some excitement.

"Awesome..." Still somewhat immersed in the shock, Ye Zhi blurted out a soul-stirring exclamation, which left "Chimera" somewhat stunned.

"Cow? What cow? Ye Zhi, you seem to have said that cows and deer look somewhat alike, but are much bigger? There should be a lot of meat on one, right? Are we having beef today?"

"No, I meant to compliment you on how amazing you are." Ye Zhi realized she had spoken too quickly and hurriedly explained, "'Chimera,' you're so useful, much more useful than any fruit!"

He wasn't lying at all—good heavens, other life-sustaining plants only flower and bear fruit once or twice a year at most, but his two-toothed pitcher plant, a divinely bestowed seed, actually ate some worker ant corpses at the half-force life level and grew so many force "nutrient bodies" overnight.

Thinking of this, fearing she was being too happy too soon, Ye Zhi quickly asked, "Chimera, does growing so many things consume a lot of energy? If you remove them all, how long will it take for them to grow back?"

"Consuming? How long?" The tree spirit of the "Chimera" sent out a thoughtful mental fluctuation. "It seems that some of the components from those corpses yesterday that I couldn't absorb produced these fruits. The other consumption wasn't much. If I pick them all, as long as there are still those corpses, I should be able to grow more..."

At this moment, Ye Zhi could no longer contain her excitement, and she blurted out "Holy crap, awesome!" which left the Chimera, which had received the mental signal, stunned once again.

Good heavens, my divinely bestowed seed is practically covered in energy rings! One seed is stronger than six. With this yield, even the best divinely bestowed seeds, whether double or triple superior, can't compare to a single hair of my "Chimera".

The mutations in his own life sac were probably all superimposed on this divinely bestowed seed, giving birth to a monster. As long as there is sufficient primal force and biological flesh, it will be a near-infinite resource for growth and evolution.

And this is the Dragon Bamboo Continent, primarily populated by true social insects, where a single ant can form a nation, and war is constant. Naturally, it has no shortage of life forms imbued with the power of the primal force. Wouldn't that mean that I'll be...

However, Ye Zhi quickly calmed down. Compared to all that might happen later, the most important thing now was to figure out the specific effects of this "Original Force Nutrient Body" before making any plans.