After trying unsuccessfully to visit the female ants and being driven away by the guard ants, the protagonist returned to his residence in despair.
In the remaining two days, neither the eldest brother nor the oldest king gave any more lessons to the protagonist. Since the protagonist has basically understood and mastered the basic knowledge, the eldest brother could no longer teach him any more, while the oldest king was Busy with other things. As the wedding flight ceremony is approaching, the work focus of the kings in the main nest has shifted to this work. It is said that the Lao Lao Wang listens every day to see if there is any latest divine decree on marriage, but finds nothing. In this important matter concerning the reproduction of the big-headed ant kingdom, all attention and caution should be taken.
The protagonist now has a lot of free time every day besides eating and sleeping. Whenever he is free, he will run to the top of the hill and watch the kings and queens of each sub-nest arriving one after another. He was waiting for Gun and Rambo from the "East Yangcheng Vice Nest".
There was no rain that night or the next day after the failed visit to the female, which was good news for the distant ants.
But the good luck didn't last long. As night approached the next day, a heavy rain came unexpectedly. The wind was getting stronger little by little, but dark clouds seemed to cover the sky in an instant, blocking the sun that was about to set on the western horizon. Only a few rays of light could tenaciously break through the obstruction of the clouds, and the strong wind carried the huge The raindrops swept violently and ravaged the ground, and with the blessing of the wind, the rainwater was splashed to the south layer by layer like a curtain of water. In the eyes of the ants, this heavy rain was as powerful as a flash flood and tsunami.
The protagonist hides at the exit of the sacred passage. The terrain here is higher, and there are stone walls to prevent water seepage. The wind does not flow in this direction, so it is relatively safe. Moreover, on heavy rainy days, there are no ants moving outside, and there are no ants climbing up inside, so the protagonist does not worry about being discovered. He stayed in this safe place, but he didn't feel safe at all in his heart. The power of heaven and earth filled him with fear, and he almost wanted to run away and hide back in the peaceful underground.
The protagonist couldn't help but be worried about Gun and the others. After all, they had already set out for a day or two, and they didn't know if they could survive the heavy rain attack.
The ants in the main nest had already felt the change in air pressure and shrank back to the main nest early.
The size of the pools and currents formed by the heavy rain has become extremely large. The ground has become a vast ocean for the ants. No team can continue to move forward in such weather and terrain. The night under the dark clouds and heavy rain was extremely dark, and the moonlight was also covered up. As the last bit of twilight that barely broke through the clouds disappeared, the protagonist could no longer clearly see the scenery in the distance. It would be futile to wait any longer. The protagonist was unwilling to do so. Climb back with Xiao Mi and Hua Mulan.
The further down the protagonist goes, the more powerful the rain becomes. Even the underground is not immune. Although the entrances to the main nest are built with a slight arc and low-lying areas are avoided as much as possible, when the rainfall is too heavy, a large amount of muddy water still pours in from the lower entrances. However, there are spillways deep underground near these entrances. , the muddy water disappeared directly into the depths of these spillways without causing much harm.
On the contrary, in many tunnels and nest chambers, droplets of water oozing out from the soil caused many areas to be submerged, and many places above the entire main nest became muddy. The ants hurriedly moved the food, eggs, pupae and larvae that were in danger of being soaked in water to dry areas. The remaining worker ants worked hard to pick up the water drop by drop and threw it into the spillway.
The heavy rain did not stop until midnight, causing a lot of damage to the entire main nest. Although the ants tried their best to rescue, some of the food was still soaked. The protagonist was so scared that he could not sleep all night, even in the area where he was. It was not affected by the flood. The protagonist walked around and saw some adult ants, larvae and pupae that were drowned before they could be moved, and felt desolate in his heart: limited by their size, ordinary weather in nature can also cause damage equivalent to natural disasters to ants. If there are disasters such as floods, wildfires, and mudslides, an ant kingdom with a history of hundreds of years can easily be destroyed.
The protagonist felt uneasy and ran to the fire to take a look. It was well protected here. Not a drop of water seeped out of the cobblestone wall. I don't know if the flue had a special design, and there was no sign of water intrusion. The fire burned brightly, and the entire nest was dry and warm.
After dawn on the third day, there was no more water in the lair. The protagonist finally felt relieved, and then felt very sleepy. He ran back to the bedroom and squinted for a while. After waking up, the protagonist quickly ran to the top of the hill to look into the distance. According to the time when the protagonist came from the "Dongyang City Deputy Nest" to the main nest, they should have arrived today.
During the day, many teams arrived one after another to participate in the wedding flight ceremony. They were all very embarrassed. Some even only one male ant arrived alone, and all his subordinates were missing. Seeing the miserable situation of each team, but never seeing Gun Gun or the others, the protagonist couldn't help but feel a little anxious.
Finally the sun sets, and the protagonist reluctantly goes back because the senior brother sent worker ants to summon him back.
After the protagonist came back, the senior brother told him a piece of unfortunate news, which deepened his worries: "Of the 404 sub-nests, only 311 teams have arrived for the wedding flight, which is far less than last year."
The elder brother then told him: "The king's meeting has decided to hold a wedding flight ceremony tomorrow."
"But there are other teams that may have been delayed due to heavy rain... they can arrive after just one more day." The protagonist protested.
"We must obey the decision of the king's meeting and be prepared to participate in the wedding flight ceremony tomorrow." The senior brother told the protagonist: "Maybe God did not favor them this time."
The protagonist had no choice but to return to the bedroom. He ordered Guard 1 and Guard 3 to go to the upper level of the main nest where the male ants were concentrated to guard, and notify him as soon as there was news of new male ants.
One night passed, and when the protagonist woke up again, he still did not receive any news about the situation. With a heart full of disappointment, the protagonist, on the advice of his senior brother, decided to fill his stomach first and prepare for the next ceremony.
"The entire wedding flight ceremony is very physically demanding. Only the strongest, wisest, and most favored king can successfully get the opportunity to mate with a queen." This is what the elder brother told the protagonist at the time, while constantly passing on the message Emotions of excitement and anticipation.
I ate so much that I would try my best to avoid the entanglement of the female ants for a while, but the protagonist thought so. He really couldn't accept having sex with ants, and there were a bunch of ants doing the same thing next to him.
