The magical worker ant "Xiaohua" leads the delegation on the road to the territory of leaf-cutter ants.
Her name comes from the fact that when the protagonist was bidding farewell to the mission on the ant mound in [Xinyang City], he looked up to the northwest where the mission was about to go, and saw a large field of colorful wild flowers on the land in the northwest, and he was immediately moved. Got this name.
After all, as a diplomatic envoy, and as the first mission leader sent by the Divine Envoy King's Legion to contact other forces, "Little Flower" still needs a name so that the protagonist can easily remember it.
The members of the Divine Envoy King’s Legion also know that it would be a great honor to be named by the Divine Envoy King!
Leaving [Xinyang City], "Xiaohua" led the team all the way to the northwest. Soon, the group of them entered the wild flower bush that inspired the protagonist and gave the name "Little Flower".
This is an open field where herbaceous plants dominate and there are basically no trees. A few trees have gone through a lot of hardships in childhood to escape the stranglehold of weeds and occupy a piece of land.
Perhaps under suitable climate conditions, thousands of years from now, trees will replace weeds. But at least for now, this is still a world of wild grasses and flowers.
The large purple or slightly white Zhuge cauliflower blooms very brightly and densely. Different from the monotony around the hometown [Inula Flower City], where Inula basically drives away other weeds, this area of Zhugecai is not so overbearing. Scattered rape flowers, shepherd's purse flowers, and Inula flowers are dotted in the sea of purple flowers, and it looks like it from the air. Go, it's brilliant.
The ants don't like the beautiful scenery of these colorful flowers, but they don't like such dense grass.
The delegation trudged hard to find their way under the grass. To the ants, the tall Zhugecai plants were no different than humans facing tall trees. Moreover, the weeds are very crowded with each other, and there is almost no gap between the leaves.
Even if the ground is slightly better, it is still quite difficult because the mission led by "Little Flower" needs to carry gifts.
The most difficult thing was that the mission soon found that they could not find their way...
Previously, the mission had followed paths marked by long-lasting pheromones left behind by last winter's pavement ant expeditions.
Although the pheromones between different races are not completely universal, the big-headed ants in the Angel King's army can still recognize the unique smell of the pheromones left by the pavement ants. There is no need to translate the specific meaning of these pheromones, just follow the pheromones.
Last year, this sea of flowers did not exist, it was still a land covered with dead grass.
The pheromones left by pavement ants are not connected in a straight line, but a typical marker is found at a distance and a little is left.
Now the sea of flowers covers this land, the surface terrain has changed drastically, and many pheromones have been moved or simply disappeared.
This left the mission, which relied heavily on pheromones for guidance, almost trapped here.
The flying knights in the sky were originally responsible for monitoring the mission, but in the sea of flowers, they could not see the specific location of the mission on the ground. They simply ran to the end of the sea of flowers in advance, found a tree, and stopped to wait.
"Little Flower" patiently waits for a few soldier ants to find the location of the next primary pheromone. Now, almost every decimeter of walking, there will be such a pause, and it must rely on the soldier ants to search around to find the next way.
"Little Flower" once wanted to lead the team back the same way. Anyway, they left their own pheromones along the way when they came, so it would be very fast to go back.
After returning, can you walk around from both sides of the sea of flowers?
But this is not a good choice. On one side of the flower sea is the river bank, which is overgrown with reeds and the road is muddy, making it difficult for ants to pass. The other side is very close to the control range of the red fire ant country and is prone to danger.
"Little Flower" finally led the team to trek through the sea of flowers. Relying on their natural sense of direction, they finally got rid of the interference caused by pheromone chaos and left this maze of wild flowers.
When the delegation left the sea of flowers, they had already deviated several meters from the original road, which was not a short deviation for the ants.
Fortunately, the flying knights had a large detection range. When the envoy did not appear at the expected time, the flying knights had already started searching everywhere, and even reported to the God Envoy King immediately, causing a false alarm.
After finally finding the mission, the flying knights guided the mission back to the right path.
Before reaching the forest where the leafcutter ant country is located, the mission still needs to pass through a transitional zone where forests and grasses are mixed.
Originally, if they had not been delayed in the sea of flowers, the mission would have arrived at the Leafcutter Ant Country early the next morning. Now we can only find a place to spend the night in the forest and grassland area in advance.
The team members found a rock crevice as a camping spot before nightfall. The flying knights returned to [Xinyang City] to spend the night.
——I am the dividing line——
On March 24, the mission and the flying knights met after sunrise and then continued on their way.
In the morning, the mission finally arrived at their destination - the edge of a dense forest.
There is almost no grass growing on the forest floor, which is caused by the dense trees depriving almost all of the sunlight.
When the mission entered the barren demarcation line, they entered the territory controlled by the leafcutter ant kingdom.
The members of the mission became nervous. After all, this was the land of another race, especially "Little Flower". Before departure, the great envoy king had told her that this operation might be life-threatening.
"Little Flower" is very smart, and smart individuals will consider the consequences of their actions and have more worries or expectations.
The Flying Knights had already hidden themselves, and the occasional sound of fluttering wings of flies indicated that the three of them were still nearby. But when I looked up, the canopy was pitch black, and the few small patches of light that occasionally came through were very dazzling. There was no trace of the Flying Knight at all.
Finally, after cautiously advancing for a short distance, the mission met their target.
Two medium-sized leafcutter ants and one small leafcutter ant blocked the way. Although there were few people, the other party still approached aggressively. After all, this is their land. Thousands of companions will come to reinforce them as soon as the warning is given. They don't need to be afraid.
The number of ants in the mission led by "Little Flower" is not large, and they don't look like they are looking for trouble. Otherwise, if thousands of fire ants suddenly appeared, these three leaf-cutting ant warriors would have gone back to ask for help, and they would not come close to them.
"Little Flower" anxiously followed the instructions provided by "Old Heart" and crawled on the ground in an eight-body posture. The other members of the mission also followed suit.
This is a gesture that expresses harmlessness or even submission, just like raising hands in the human world, and is universally used throughout the world.
A small leaf-cutter ant came close, touched the antennae of the "little flower" with its tentacles, received the information package delivered by the "little flower", and then immediately climbed up the tree and returned to the nest to report the message.
Leave two medium-sized leafcutter ants to monitor the "little flower" row.
"Little Flower" finally breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the other party was just as "Old Heart" said. They didn't start fighting indiscriminately at the beginning, and they could still communicate.
