"Little Flower" and his party waited in place for a while. "Little Flower" had no idea about the length of this time, and they didn't have a clock. As a rough estimate, it's probably enough time for "Little Flower" to take a nap on his own.
Of course, without knowing whether leaf-cutting ants will harm them, it is impossible for "little flowers" to really take a nap when leaf-cutting ants are watching.
Then finally leafcutter ants came to contact us.
What came to contact the mission was a team of about thirty leaf-cutting ants, led by a male ant. Half of the team were large leaf-cutting ants, and the rest were small leaf-cutting ants.
When the male leafcutter ant came to the opposite side of the "little flower", he did not come to communicate with the "little flower" personally. Instead, he waved his tentacles and ordered a small worker ant to use his tentacles to tell the "little flower" and let them follow.
Leaf-cutting ants seem to have had experience in negotiating with other ants for a long time, and they also know that there is no obstacle to antennae communication between different ant tribes, and they behave very naturally when in contact.
"Little Flower" felt a little aggrieved. The other male ants were unwilling to "condescend" to deal with her. This situation had happened to her when she was despised by the big-headed male ants in [Xinyang City].
Although the great Divine Envoy King has great trust in the Divine Worker Ants and Divine Soldier Ants, he has also issued a "divine decree" to place the status of the Divine Worker Ants, Divine Soldier Ants, Great Worker Ants and Male Ants on the same level. But from time to time, "Little Flower" can still feel the contempt of the male ants for herself.
It is obviously impossible for male ants to accept a new group that may threaten the status and interests of their own class without any grudges. Both the conservatives and the reformers among the male ants are equally disgusted with the great worker ants or the magic soldier ants.
Now, the male leaf-cutter ant on the opposite side is leading the team, but he is obviously unwilling to come into contact with his "worker". This is a familiar feeling of being looked down upon.
But "Little Flower" did not make any mistakes. Although she was sensitive, she was very understanding. She unconditionally trusted and obeyed all the orders of the God Envoy King. The God Envoy King asked her to do her best to reach a treaty with the leaf-cutter ants, so she even You have to complete the mission even if you die, let alone just swallow your anger.
Under the leadership of "Xin Xin", the delegation carried the gifts and followed the leafcutter ants leading the team into the woods. There are also some leaf-cutter ants in the back, which look like a surveillance and escort mission.
After walking a long way in the dark woods, "Little Flower"'s vision had already adapted to the surrounding light. She soon discovered that as she went deeper into the woods, red symbols appeared more and more densely on the surrounding trees.
It is the strange symbol that the protagonist saw from the expedition team before: the symbol is generally circular, and the circle at the bottom is not closed, leaving a small gap; a sapling pattern grows from the gap; and outside the top of the circle, another There are two arcs extending to the left and right respectively, which look like a pair of simplified ears.
The protagonist felt familiar with this pattern before, but couldn't understand it. It seemed to be related to the ant world and the worship of tree gods. "Little Flower" does not have the experience of the protagonist, and is even more unrecognizable.
But "Little Flower" insisted on keeping these scenes in her mind, and prepared to go back and make an information package to give to the great God Envoy King. This information will definitely be useful to the God Envoy King.
After arriving at the area with dense red symbols, the leaf-cutting ants led the envoy up a tree.
Now that they have been walking for a little while, "Little Flower" has realized that they are definitely not going to the nest of the male leaf-cutting ant leading the team.
When the leafcutter ant messenger returned to report the news, the male ant led the team and appeared before "Little Flower" and his party had waited too long. Now, when converted into distance, the time they traveled along the way has already exceeded the distance that the male leaf-cutter ants set off to the rendezvous point.
"Is it the main nest of leaf-cutting ants?" Xiaohua was a little skeptical. Thinking about it, if you want to reach a cooperation with a strange ant tribe, the deputy nest alone has no decision-making power, and the decision must be made by the main nest.
I wonder if the main nest of the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom is far away, "Little Flower" thought. If the main nest of leaf-cutter ants is too far away, it may take several days of trekking to reach it.
While thinking wildly, "Little Flower" and his party arrived at a thick horizontal branch of the tree. At this time, "Little Flower" saw an unforgettable scene.
At the end of the branch, sixteen large black insects with white spots were lined up. Some leaf-cutting ants were obviously controlling these insects. Next to the leaf-cutting ants and insects, there is the entrance and exit of a tree nest cut into the bark.
The insect is a star beetle, an ugly-looking pest that damages trees.
These star beetles are apparently domesticated insects by leafcutter ants. Considering that there are also domesticated insects in the territory of red imported fire ants, it does not seem surprising that leafcutter ants, which are evenly matched with red imported fire ants, can tame beetles.
On the heads of these beetles are two drivers. They bend the long antennae of the beetle to this position and fix it. Apparently, they rely on the tentacles to control the action of the beetle.
On the chest and back of the star beetle, there is a saddle placed. The saddle is made of wood, ant silk, ant glue, and some kind of wax. The saddle is large enough for three or four ants to squeeze in, and there are guardrails and ropes next to it.
The male leafcutter ant asked a small worker ant to signal "Little Flower", and asked the members of the envoy to get on the saddle of the star beetle and bite the rope with its mandibles. Each star beetle is also watched over by leafcutter ant warriors.
The gifts of honeydew and crow honey contained in snail shells could not be put into the saddle, so they had to be hung under the bodies of several star beetles with ropes.
After everyone was seated, the star beetle where the male leafcutter ant was located took off first, followed by the other star beetles.
A group of star beetles are flying in the middle of the forest. The light here is slightly better than on the ground, but the light that can penetrate here from the canopy is still limited. The star beetles seem not to be affected by the dark light and fly very smoothly.
If the flying knights of the God Envoy King's Legion came here to try out the Star Beef, they might be envious of these Star Beef drivers.
"Little Flower"'s jaws even loosened the rope used to fix itself, and concentrated on observing its surroundings.
But she was soon forced to give up. Although the Xingtianniumen flew smoothly, its speed was not slow at all. I saw countless similar tree trunks moving backward quickly. "Little Flower" soon found that I couldn't remember anything. It seemed that the scenery along the way was like this and never changed.
In the afternoon, the star beetles flew for more than an hour, and "Little Flower" and his party finally arrived at their destination.
The sun shone down from the round hole, casting a holy light. "Little Flower" stared blankly at the "main nest" of leaf-cutter ants in front of her, as shocked as when she saw fire for the first time!
