Under the influence of the wind, the black smoke column continued to roll and sway, gradually rising and spreading, until finally disappearing into the air completely.
The protagonist looks at this scene excitedly. Fireworks, fireworks I had only seen in my previous life. It used to be common to see all kinds of black smoke next to earthen stoves in the countryside, on the meat skewers at street barbecue stalls, and in the huge and towering chimneys of factories. At that time, the protagonist would also complain about the polluted air, and the smog with the smell of fireworks was so annoying. But now, the protagonist looks at this thin black smoke, but he is extremely excited - this is the fireworks of civilization. Although in this excitement, a lot of surprises gradually emerged.
The protagonist stood motionless, as if on a pilgrimage, staring closely at the smoke that kept pouring out, for fear that this was just a fantasy in his mind and would disappear when he was distracted.
Seeing that the protagonist had made no movement, the other ants had no choice but to wait where they were, and kept accepting verifications from the passing ants in the main nest. The little secretary was the first one who couldn't wait any longer and pushed the protagonist with her head.
The protagonist is immersed in inner activities at this time. Whenever this happens, the scenery in the protagonist's eyes seems to turn completely black, and all consciousness is deprived of external perception.
He was curious about why ants could master fire, an extremely powerful force in nature. He heard that there was a fire in the main nest before, but he only heard about it. Even though he came here full of curiosity, he never thought that he could actually see the fire. Maybe the ants have just seen flames. After all, fires in nature are not uncommon. A thunderstorm or a volcanic eruption will cause a wildfire. The so-called ants have fire, or is there an active volcano right next to the main nest? Or is it simply a beautiful mistake made by the ants in their poor language?
The protagonist cannot imagine what an ant tribe that has mastered fire would look like, even if it is just an ant nest that can use natural fire but cannot make artificial fire. Want to know why the ancestors of human beings were able to stand out from many creatures and achieve a dominant position on the earth? No matter what the answer is, the role of fire in it will not be ignored.
Humanity's understanding, use and mastery of fire is the first practice for humans to understand nature and use nature to improve production and life. The application of fire is of extremely important significance in the history of the development of human civilization. From the Yuanmou Man more than 1 million years ago to the Beijing Man 500,000 years ago, traces of the use of fire have been left behind. Humans initially used natural fire, but after the invention of artificial fire, primitive humans finally fully mastered a powerful natural force, which promoted the development of human institutions and society, and ultimately separated humans from animals.
Controlling fire to provide heat and light was one of early mankind's greatest achievements. Early humans preserved fire from naturally occurring fire sources. Later, he learned to use the method of drilling wood to make fire or knocking flint to actively obtain fire. Learning to use fire enabled humans to migrate and settle in cooler climates. Fire was used to cook more digestible cooked food, provide lighting, provide warmth, drive away wild animals, heat-treat materials, and more. Only when fire was used, subsequent pottery making, metal smelting, etc. became possible.
Now, this technology that only humans mastered in the original world has been mastered by other species. Although the protagonist is now an ant, he is also deeply worried about humans. What kind of world is this? Is it the earth? What about the humans in this world? All I have seen these days are bugs. Where have all the humans and animals gone? If they were humans, where were they? What stage of development have they reached? Are they capable of accepting the ants' challenge? Have they not discovered that the ants have evolved yet? Could it be that ants will eventually defeat humans and become the rulers of this world? What should I do, am I an ant or a human?
The protagonist cannot imagine that although he is an ant, if ants and humans appear at the same time, he will still prefer humans from the bottom of his heart.
What somewhat reassures the protagonist is that what he sees and hears along the way shows that these ants are not strong enough, their civilization is not advanced enough, and coupled with their size disadvantage, they are not enough to defeat even primitive humans. But this is just a nest of ants. Is there a more powerful ant empire somewhere in the world?
At this time, the protagonist was finally pulled out of his wild thoughts by Xiao Mi. He turned to ask Xiao Mi and Hua Mulan: "Did you see those smokes?"
Hua Mulan shook her head blankly, and the protagonist guessed that her eyesight was not enough to see such a long distance.
However, the secretary replied that she had seen it. It seemed that not only was her intelligence superior, but her eyesight was far superior to other worker ants.
"You said you have seen fire, what do these fires look like?" The protagonist can't even wait to crawl over to the scene to have a look. He is eager to know how well the ants master fire. The secret who has seen fire is the only one who can answer his questions. candidate. Even Hua Mulan is not qualified. She is too stupid and often cannot understand the protagonist's meaning.
"It's a fire that keeps burning. It keeps adding fuel and never goes out." The little secretary replied.
It seems that these ants are still using natural fire to keep the flame burning. Otherwise, once the fire is extinguished, it will basically lose the fire forever. After all, natural fire that can be successfully retrieved is rare but not sought after. of. Only by keeping the flame burning like the people of Beijing once did, will eventually leave a layer of ashes several meters in place.
"What does the main hive use fire for?" the protagonist asked, and the answer in his heart was nothing more than cooking food, heating, making pottery and so on. Of course, if the ants even pointed out the technology of pottery, the protagonist would be surprised again.
As a result, the secret's reply made the protagonist very surprised: "Of course it is used to sacrifice to gods, and to burn the king or queen to death."
Sacrifice to God? Do ants have a religion? Religion is an activity only available to very advanced civilizations! There are also burning male ants and queen ants. Aren't the ants very peaceful among themselves? Why burn your own people to death? Is this an ant sacrifice similar to human sacrifice or a punishment after trial? Or were they prisoners obtained during battles with the enemy? Didn’t the documentary say that ants will eat the corpses of their enemies?
No matter what, Xiaomi’s answer contains a lot of information. The secret of this main nest is not comparable to that of the secondary nest with a sparse ant population and a simple society where the protagonist was born.
"Let's move on!" The protagonist is now full of curiosity about everything in the main nest. So he led the team and continued towards the main nest castle not far away.
When walking to a place only a few meters away from the castle, the human unit. The protagonist and the others were stopped by a patrol of twenty or thirty soldier ants. Even if their identity was verified, the patrol would not let the protagonist pass.
They will only reply to the protagonist mechanically: "The foreign king, the king of the main nest will dare to come and receive you."
