Crawling through the still muddy and wet flood channel was not an easy task.
These spillways were not dug for traffic, and their angles can be 70 or 80 degrees, almost vertical.
Based on the physiological structure of ants, climbing is fine at ordinary times, but at this time, the road was slippery, and almost all the ants stumbled every few steps. The ants in the back kept knocking over the ants in front, rolled up a section like a gourd, and then stopped in front of a bump.
It didn't take long before each of these usually noble male ants turned into mud ants, including the soldier ants who followed and the worker ants who led the way.
Flying Eagle also fell a lot. With only five jointed limbs, he was still not used to it. In the past, he was already familiar with crawling on six limbs or walking on all fours with the front two limbs free. After becoming disabled, he still needs time to readjust to his body and adapt to his new life with five limbs.
At this time, the Flying Eagle and other male ants were covered in mud, which not only obscured their appearance and body, but also made it difficult to distinguish the smell of each ant. As long as their antennae did not intersect, it was difficult to identify each other.
This helps the flying eagle not to be discovered by other male ants that he has blended in. He does not want other ants to know that he is also following. Perhaps it is the instinct of self-protection after experiencing the life-and-death crisis just now.
Ants don't pay much attention to how many legs their companions have, not to mention the fact that many male ants have lost one or two limbs in the war. At this time, they have lost the basis for visual and odor identification, and it is difficult to detect the hawk that deliberately hides its identity. .
In this way, Flying Eagle arrived at the destination mixed in with the large army. It was already very deep from the ground, and it felt like it had been crawling for half an hour.
There is no water accumulated at the bottom of the spillway. The flood water has been fully absorbed by the soil on the four walls on the way down, so it is relatively dry here.
Here, the worker ants show off the wonder they just dug:
This is a flat object exposed from the soil. It is about the length and thickness of a soldier ant. The exposed part is approximately triangular in shape. Most of it is still buried in the soil, but only the excavated part is enough. There are more than 10 ants growing.
What attracted the attention of the worker ants was not just the unusually smooth "rock". When cleaning the "rock" in order to continue digging the spillway, the worker ants found that the "rock" was very solid. Then, the worker ants discovered that on the "rock", on the corner that had been excavated, a symbol was painted in bright red:
Patterns of circles and flames!
This is the talisman inherited by the God of Fire that the suzerain country and this clan believe in!
The underground was very dark at this time, but this strange "rock" itself exuded a dim light, especially the Vulcan Talisman, which was dark red and looked a little distorted in the dark background, as if the fire was burning, which also made this The pattern is displayed directly in front of all the ants!
King Stubborn and the other male ants, regardless of whether they truly believed in the God of Fire or not, suddenly believed that this was a miracle.
From the moment they saw the talisman, they quickly lowered their bodies humbly, their tentacles touching the ground, and were extremely respectful.
There were strange fires and fire moons in the night sky before, and now there were Vulcan talismans on the "rocks" underground. Isn't this a miracle?
The ants thought so.
Only the eagle still remained curious. He was very close to the "rock" and quietly touched the "rock" with his tentacles while other male ants were lying on the ground without paying attention to him.
The "rock" is cold, smooth, and hard, and the touch seems a bit familiar! ?
Flying Eagle quickly understood the material of this "rock". It was not a stone, but a metal very similar to the bronze used by the minions of the fallen God Envoy King.
But this is not bronze. It seems smoother than bronze. It does not feel cold to the touch, but has a warm feeling.
Is it really a miracle? Flying Eagle knew that except for the minions of the fallen God Envoy King, no ant clan had metal processing skills. Tingying himself didn't understand, so he could only teach the Northern Expeditionary Army to use stone tools instead of bronze ones.
The fallen God Envoy King must have mastered the power of a certain fallen god to know the technology of metal smelting. Then it is normal for the Vulcan to master this skill. Flying Eagle knows that metallurgy must use fire!
Could it be that Vulcan wants to...! ?
Thinking of this, Flying Eagle suddenly stood up and wiped the mud off his face with his tentacles and forelimbs, revealing his true colors.
He called the still confused male ants to gather in a circle for a meeting, and sent a message himself:
"I, Flying Eagle, have received the decree from the God of Fire!"
————
Almost at the same time, inside, the protagonist was looking solemn.
The Leafcutter Ant Nation sent a messenger to convey an official note from the Leafcutter Ant Clan: They requested the Ant Alliance to execute all the vassal Leafcutter Ant Clan ants...
The cause of this incident started about a week ago.
After the protagonist passed the new vice-hive governance system in the Ant Federation, he began to vigorously implement it. But in some newly built sub-nests, some of the original local ant leaders are resistant to the new system.
Especially in some sub-nests where leaf-cutting ants and abdominal ants are the main residents, after a winter of "free" life without the supervision of the big-headed ants, some bad signs began to appear.
The Minister of Transportation, "Lao Xin", secretly reported to the protagonist that several of his young subordinates in the Ministry of Transportation seemed to have close contact with some members of the Deputy Nest Meeting, and wanted to pass the "Old Heart" "Heart" persuaded the king to maintain the current system.
The protagonist is very interested in this information. Leaf cutter ants and belly ants are both vassal ant tribes that have not been conquered by the Ant Alliance for a long time. They have been placed on the north bank of Qinghe River for a long time. Under the eyes of himself and the big-headed ant tribe, they are pretty good. honest.
Therefore, during the large-scale colonization on the south bank of the Qinghe River last year, in order to supplement the insufficient number of big-headed ant immigrants, the two tribes of leaf-cutter ants and abdominal ants were ordered to form many colonization teams, in which no or only a few big-headed ants participated.
Others, such as burrowing ants and red forest ants, do not receive this kind of trusting treatment.
Unexpectedly, it was these two clans that started to act on their own in some sub-nests. After some understanding, the protagonist discovers that the problems in some sub-nests are so serious that he cannot just sit back and ignore them.
In a certain sub-nest dominated by leaf-cutter ants, the original sub-nest meeting was no longer in name only. All the power of the sub-nest was dominated by a queen and three female ants, and the instructions of the main nest were ignored.
In a certain secondary nest dominated by ants, as much as 60 to 70% of the aphid honeydew produced was withheld, and only a small amount was sent to the main nest. The honeydew that could not be consumed locally in the secondary nest was secretly given to some higher-status ants in the main nest...
When the protagonist learned the news, he was very surprised. He did not expect that in the seemingly simple ant society, abuse of power, corruption, and bribery were quietly happening in the corner of the ant alliance, even under his own compound eyes!
