Later that day, the various armies of the civilized ant tribe arrived at [Black Fire City] one after another. Under the guidance of the messengers, they entered the city separately or stationed themselves at strategic locations outside the city according to Zhu Jue's plan.
The commanders of all ethnic groups were also invited to the conference room one after another. Zhu Jue presided over a military meeting and brought out the plan just introduced to King "Hei Tan". Since it had the support of the landowner black fire ant clan, other clans had no objections, so it was passed.
The main force of the civilized ant alliance began a three-day rest in [Black Fire City]. Apart from appropriately expanding the warning range outwards, there were no plans to launch a new offensive for the time being.
————
That night, Zhu Jue, who had been on the march for a whole day, was exhausted and was led to his temporary palace.
This is a nest room located almost at the deepest point underground of the nest. In the ant’s mind, the deeper the nest is, the higher the status. In an underground nest, the opposite is true. The higher the nest is, the higher the status. .
King "Hei Tan" originally wanted Zhu Jue to rest in the highest-level and deepest male ant dormitory, but Zhu Jue declined. However, the male ants who originally lived in this dormitory obviously had a high status. From the position of the dormitory nest, he could figure it out.
After walking through a short passage in front of the door and standing at the only entrance and exit of the palace, Zhu Jue looked at the nest room with his night vision eyes.
The black fire ant clan is not an ant clan that likes to decorate their homes. Compared with the homes of other ordinary ants, this dormitory is larger in space and has fewer ants living together. The four walls are painted with ant concrete. There is no difference. Not big.
The chamber space of the bedroom is about the size of half a walnut, with a flat floor, four walls that arc upward and gather at the top, and the internal space is hemispherical.
There are traces of repairs on the ant concrete walls on the four walls of the nest. The traces are still very new. It is estimated that King "Black Carbon" asked the slave ants to repair them urgently.
Apart from a layer of waterproof ant concrete, there is no other decoration in this nest. The only thing that reflects the identity of the occupants is a fluffy and soft ant silk mat in the corner of the nest, and some pottery scattered in other corners.
Each of these pottery vessels has a rough shape, thick walls, and large size. The largest one is enough for Zhu Jue to take a bath in it. Some of the pottery was broken, and the pieces, large and small, were piled together and were not cleared away.
These are pottery made by the Black Fire Ant Nation. They are the only ant tribe that Zhu Jue knows of that can make pottery except for the Ant Alliance Nation. However, the technology is still very primitive and they cannot make thin pottery.
Zhu Jue took a look at these pottery vessels. They were all empty, but water and food might have been stored there. Some pottery vessels had dark unknown traces remaining on the bottom, and some contained some sticky liquid.
Zhu Jue asked the "Celestial Immortal" to lead the guards to place all the pottery and pottery fragments in a corner. He had no need for these pottery for the time being, and he had no intention of using these vessels that contained unknown items.
Then, Zhu Jue came to the ant silk mat. For some reason, his heart suddenly trembled and his whole body became cold. Suddenly, in front of his eyes, a parasitic big-headed male ant covered with mycelium and with a huge head appeared, but it was not " roll".
This parasitic male ant, covered with mycelium, was lying on the ant silk mat in front of him to rest. He rolled his eyes again, looked at Zhu Jue with his compound eyes, and opened his big jaw suddenly.
Zhu Jue shook his head, and the phantom in front of his eyes disappeared. He felt that he was so tired that he had hallucinations. However, what was in the hallucination may not be the real thing that happened. Zhu Jue still asked the "celestial beings" and the imperial guards to throw the ant silk mat where the parasitic ants lay outside the nest room.
Finally, the "celestial being" went to the place where the insect beasts were detained, took the felt from the saddle of Zhu Jue's royal mount, the two-pronged rhinoceros beetle, and spread it on the ground for Zhu Jue to sleep.
The tired Zhu Jue lay on the somewhat hard ant felt and quickly fell asleep. Other guardsmen also lay down on the ground and fell asleep. Because the nest room was not large enough, some guardsmen even slept outside the door.
————
Chase, fight, explore, and decipher!
I don’t know what happened in the dream! Zhu Jue woke up suddenly, breathing heavily. He felt a burning sensation in his body and his limbs were a little sore, as if he had just gone through a violent exercise.
At this time, Zhu Jue came to his senses and the scene in front of him became clear, but his heart tightened.
The huge nest is the same as before sleeping, with walls, floors and pottery.
However, now he is the only one in this nest!
"Celestial Immortal", the other guards, the ants sleeping on the floor of the nest, and the ants at the door, all disappeared one by one!
Zhu Jue hurriedly turned over and suddenly realized that what he was sleeping on was not the ant felt at all, but the ant silk mat that should have been thrown away. The ant silk mat was extremely dirty, covered with blood, soil and filth, and was very disgusting. .
Zhu Jue turned over in disgust and brushed himself. Fortunately, there was no dirt on him.
At this time, Zhu Jue realized that it was impossible for the "celestial beings" and the others to leave him quietly. They were his bodyguards and would rather die than leave. Why have they all disappeared now?
Zhu Jue looked around the palace. There was no place to hide, and there seemed to be nothing unusual. But all this in itself is the biggest anomaly!
Zhu Jue looked at the only dark entrance and exit, which seemed to be the mouthparts of a huge insect beast, darkly leading to its intestines and stomach.
Zhu Jue put his tentacles against the wall, feeling the movement. There were slight vibrations in the soil, some of which were like the vibrations of earthworms digging in the soil in the distance, some of which were the movement of dead branches on the ground rolling under the night wind, and some of which...we couldn't hear them clearly.
No meaningful information was found in the tentacles. Zhu Jue looked around the nest again, but still found nothing.
So, he made up his mind, picked up his own heavy copper rod that had appeared here at some time, bit his jaw, and got into the huge mouth-like entrance.
The entrance and exit were not real mouthparts. The confused and alert Zhu Jue was not chewed up and swallowed. It was just an ordinary hole.
Arriving outside the palace, there was a long passage. Zhu Jue groped along the dark passage and explored the nests along the way.
There were no ants, not a single ant was seen. After walking for a short distance, Zhu Jue suspected that the current [Black Fire City] seemed to be an empty nest, and none of the tens of thousands of ants that had settled in it were gone.
Are you still in a dream?
Zhu Jue suddenly pinched his tentacles hard and it hurt.
Feeling pain is not a dream! ?
What happened here just now when I fell asleep! ?
Zhu Jue fell into great doubts, and at the same time, being separated from the group made him feel very insecure.
At this moment, in the peripheral vision of the compound eye, a black shadow flashed past!
