Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat points - Chapter 55

Chapter 50 Capturing the Queen Bee_1

Translator: 549690339

After feeding two young worker ants with the banyan tree blood, he didn’t wait for them to regurgitate but immediately used it to feed the two soldier ants.

It had to be done this way.

Because after the young worker ants consumed the banyan tree blood, they would soon be unable to move.

Using four termites for the experiment was a bit like squandering resources.

This was equivalent to half a day’s egg-laying capacity of the Ant Queen.

He had been forced into this situation, as the banyan tree blood was about to run out, the Treasured Sword needed nurturing, the ant colony needed to evolve, and he himself was desperate to experience twenty times the cultivation speed every day.

So it was normal for him to take bigger steps.

If all four ants used for the experiment were lost, he could bear the outcome.

Just like the last time, after the two young worker ants and two young soldier ants ate the banyan tree blood, they all lay motionless. Their abdomens gradually inflated like balloons, swelling up.

They appeared to be in great pain.

To become stronger, enduring such pain was really nothing at all.

He didn’t dare to let Fourth drink the banyan tree blood again; it was not easy to evolve a Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant, and he naturally cherished it like a treasure.

Only after groping for a safe use of the banyan tree blood would he let Fourth, Fifth, and even the Ant Queen consume the banyan tree blood.

Boom!

The abdomen of one of the young worker ants exploded, and it died tragically on the spot.

He had been very careful, yet an accident had still happened.

Qin Niu’s expression was serious as he carefully analyzed the reasons for this young worker ant’s failure. It had consumed the same amount as the other worker ant.

This dosage was also the safety dosage tested using Fifth.

One young worker ant did not burst, but the other did.

It showed that each young worker ant had a different limit to what they could endure.

Just like humans, some are strong and more resistant, while others are frail and cannot withstand even the slightest hardship.

After a thorough summary, Qin Niu came up with some new grooming ideas.

He decided to conduct an experiment with another young worker ant, this time feeding it only about a tenth of the safe dosage.

Their intelligence was extremely low; they couldn’t possibly understand how much a tenth of a dose was.

Qin Niu cut off one of his hairs, then dipped the hair in a little diluted banyan tree blood to feed it. This amount was roughly about one tenth.

Their appetite was actually very small.

However, their digestion speed was very fast.

After eating, this young worker ant swayed unsteadily, spinning around on the spot like it was drunk.

This was clearly different from the other worker ants and soldier ants that lay motionless after eating.

It seemed the smaller the dosage, the safer it was.

After a while, its abdomen also swelled somewhat, but it was not significant.

It too began to lay motionless.

“Fourth, drag them in.” Qin Niu ordered, “Watch them closely, and don’t let them feed other termites.”

After becoming proficient in Insect Speech, his communication with the termites became much smoother.

Especially since Fourth and the Ant Queen possessed medium intelligence.

They could understand more complex commands.

When communicating with Fifth, he noticed that after Fifth advanced to a higher grade, its intelligence seemed to have grown as well.

This was another method to enhance the intelligence of insect pets.

That is, to help them continually advance in grade.

After dealing with the termites, he slung the basket over his shoulder and walked towards the direction of the beehive.

He brought special tools with him and after further observation, he prepared to directly poke the beehive.

However, when the beehive fell, the bee swarm would become chaotic and the hive would be greatly damaged and squashed together, making it difficult for him to find the backup Queen Bee.

Under normal circumstances, as long as he found the royal cell he would be able to capture the reserve Queen Bee.

Such a large beehive might have multiple royal cells.

Arriving at the spot where he observed the beehive yesterday, he sat down and began to carefully observe the bee colony.

A large number of worker bees were busy at work.

Occasionally, a few darker-colored honeybees would fly out, which were the drones.

Their job was to mate with a new Queen Bee.

Typically, after mating with a new Queen Bee, the drones would soon die off.

Qin Niu, based on the knowledge from the Green Demon Beekeeping Manual, carefully distinguished the bees in the colony.

For every bee he identified, his insect identification proficiency increased by +0.01.

This was very good.

As an Insect Master, he must not only understand Insect Speech but also learn to identify insects.

For example, an Insect Master specializing in beekeeping could identify various bees like the back of their hand, knowing their habits, characteristics, reproduction methods, flight distance, and speed, among other things.

Qin Niu had bought the Green Demon Beekeeping Manual and was definitely seeking to follow this development path.

Learning to distinguish the types of honeybees now was necessary.

At this moment, a black drone bee tumbled down from the sky.

After falling to the ground, it didn’t die immediately.

Qin Niu ran over to check and found that its tail seemed “prolapsed.”

Its intestines were exposed.

The male bee is a very interesting bee species in the bee colony; it’s the standard pretty boy, a pampered pet, a king of living off others.

First of all, both the queen bee and worker bees have stingers, which can hurt people.

However, when a worker bee’s stinger pierces the enemy’s skin, it can’t be pulled out because of the barbs on it. Eventually, the venom sac connected to the tip of the abdomen is also torn off and left in the enemy’s body.

This is the result of their millions of years of evolution.

This kind of attack, killing 800 enemies at the cost of 1,000 to themselves, is meant to deter anyone from messing with the bee nest.

The honey in the bee nest can attract many animals to prey on it.

Such as bears, humans, ants, and so on.

The weak bees, in order to drive away these powerful enemies, had to evolve spikes and venom sacs.

After stinging the enemy, to ensure that all the venom is injected into the enemy’s skin for maximum lethality, the bee will harm itself in this way. After a worker bee stings a person, it won’t survive either and will die soon.

The male bee is much larger than the worker bee; it is born a foodie and consumes more than three times the amount of a worker bee from its youth.

That is to say, the food consumed to raise one male bee is enough to raise three worker bees.

And the male bee never works; it doesn’t have the organs to collect pollen and naturally cannot gather pollen and honey.

The male bee also has no stinger and no capacity to attack.

It has a large body, a big appetite, does no work, and also has a long lifespan, about twice as long as that of worker bees.

If it is the blooming season, especially in the summer, the lifespan of worker bees is often only around sixty days or even shorter.

Because they work hard every day to collect pollen to “feed the family.” They have to provide for the queen bee, the young bees, and the male bees. They are really too hardworking.

In the end, they die prematurely due to overwork.

Because male bees are lazy and gluttonous, they naturally live longer.

Their sole purpose is to mate with the new queen bee.

So it’s fair to say that male bees are the epitome of living off others. They have a very comfortable life.

However, since male bees have no stinger, they are not as combat-capable as worker bees. When a hive has an excess of male bees, the worker bees will drive them out.

They are kicked out of the home.

As you can imagine, after being driven out, they can only starve to death.

In addition, worker bees can limit the number of male bees. If there are enough male bees in the hive, the worker bees will stop feeding the young male bees, letting them stop developing or even starve to death.

Qin Niu picked up the male bee and examined it closely.

It’s really big, the size of two worker bees.

Its six legs are strong and powerful, and its wings are extremely robust. At this moment, it is at death’s door, without even the strength to struggle.

After mating with the new queen bee, it ended up in this ghostly state.

Its strength was exhausted, and the essence stored in its body was all given to the new queen bee; it was waiting for death to come.

“It seems the information I got from that newbie worker bee yesterday is accurate; after mating, the new queen bee will soon lead a part of the worker bees out of the nest to establish a new kingdom.”

Qin Niu subconsciously touched the wooden box in his bosom containing two low-grade Contract Charms.

I need to make a move quickly, or once it flies out of the hive, it’ll all be over.

But with such a huge bee nest, where could the new queen bee be?

He immediately flipped to the third page of the Green Demon Bee manual and read through the content carefully again.

The royal platform is a temporary nest chamber constructed by the bee colony to raise a new queen bee, often liking to build it on the lower edge or sides of the comb.

Occasionally, in special circumstances, it would be built in the center of the comb.

Isn’t that the same as saying nothing?

It means that the royal platform could be built anywhere in the bee nest.

When the worker bees construct the royal platform, they first build a circular cup-shaped base with the opening facing downward. Only when the queen bee lays fertilized eggs inside the base and starts raising a new queen is it the real royal platform.

Some royal platforms are pseudo royal platforms because they have not yet been used, or have been put aside…

The beekeeping manual that cost ten Silver Money has been somewhat useful.

After repeated study, Qin Niu applied his knowledge, starting to look for the existence of a royal platform on the bee nest.

Because of the distance, it was not very clear.

He put on his makeshift armor made from old account books and then approached the pine tree for a closer look.

This time he made a discovery.

At the bottom of the comb, he saw two royal platforms.

One of which was surrounded by numerous black male bees, all waiting to mate with the new queen bee.

The other was much quieter.

Only a few worker bees were moving around, which meant the new queen bee inside that royal platform was probably still in the larval stage.

“That’s it! The new queen bee must be inside.”

Qin Niu was already contemplating how to capture the new queen bee.

He needed to catch her without causing any harm.

The difficulty was extremely high.