Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat points - Chapter 70

Chapter 65: A New Experiment_1

Translator: 549690339

“””

It was surprising that Fourth quickly made arrangements after returning to the nest.

He left behind a Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant to lead six Soldier Ants in defense at the entrance of the nest.

He then led two Grade Two Lightning Worker Ants, six Swift Ants, and eleven Soldier Ants quickly to the battlefield.

One would have thought he would bring this powerful reinforcement troop to help the Grade Two Tiger-striped Soldier Ants attack those black stench ants.

He did not do so.

Instead, he maneuvered to about five or six meters away from the battleground and forcefully cut off the reinforcement path of the black stench ants. They split into two groups.

Fourth led six Swift Ants and one Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant to intercept the incessantly arriving reinforcements of the black stench ants.

The remaining Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant led eleven ordinary Soldier Ants to chase and kill the those black stench ants whose retreat had been cut off.

This was a bloody battle.

Ordinary Soldier Ants required five or six to deal with one ordinary black stench ant.

If it were a stench ant soldier, then the Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant would have to take action personally. Three ordinary Soldier Ants fought with a stench ant soldier — it was supposed to be a siege, but an opponent managed to bite off a leg with a single bite.

If it had been a one-on-one fight, that Termite Soldier Ant would probably have already fallen.

Qin Niu watched quietly.

Just taking Fourth out for a day led to such an incident, which further highlighted how important it was for an ant colony to have a Worker Ant with intelligence.

Those who seek war shall perish.

The two Grade Two Tiger-striped Soldier Ants were indeed powerful, capable of instantly killing the soldier ants among the black stench ants.

But they would eventually exhaust their strength.

The number of the black stench ant colony was as high as tens of thousands, fully capable of using a war of attrition to overwhelm them.

Fourth’s handling of an accidentally invading black stench ant was excellent.

He cut off the enemy’s retreat, eradicated them, and allowed them no chance to signal for help.

At this moment, the great war continued.

Fourth appeared very cautious and rational. He did not charge into the frontlines, but had the Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant block in front, and the six Swift Ants assist from behind.

He dealt with some that slipped through the net.

It was evident that his combat ability was roughly equivalent to the Swift Ants. His biting force fell short compared to the Swift Ants.

But his upper jaws had stronger cutting capabilities.

After all, he had integrated some traits of Soldier Ants.

About a quarter of an hour later, the black stench ants whose retreat had been cut off and who had lost their reinforcements were virtually wiped out.

Fourth commanded the two Grade Two Tiger-striped Soldier Ants and ordinary Soldier Ants to return to the nest.

He himself led the six Swift Ants to retreat.

He only left behind two Grade Two Lightning Worker Ants to continue intercepting the black stench ants.

Soon after, the two Grade Two Lightning Worker Ants also swiftly retreated.

Their speed was very fast, simply unattainable for the black stench ants.

In the blink of an eye, they had retreated back into the nest.

The two sides had disengaged from contact.

The black stench ants, having lost their target, appeared quite agitated as they searched for the enemy everywhere.

But the clever Fourth had already ordered a withdrawal and was not conduction a fight to the death with them.

In the end, the black stench ants carried away the bodies of their companions piece by piece.

Many people think ants like to eat the bodies of their kind, or that they carry the bodies of their companions back as a special ritual of corpse collection, both of which are ludicrous notions.

Ants carry the bodies of their companions because, even in death, their bodies still emit the scent of food pheromones.

That’s why they treat the bodies of their companions as ‘food’ and bring them back to the nest.

But after being carried back, those food-signifying pheromones fade considerably after the commotion of the journey, and the pheromones of their own kind on the bodies become more prominent.

They will realize these are the bodies of their own kind and will not eat them.

Instead, they are transported to a special chamber designated for storing the bodies of their kind.

So, by a series of mishaps, they end up ‘collecting’ the corpses of their companions.

Seeing that the battle had ended, Qin Niu called forth a regular Worker Ant and a regular Soldier Ant and fed each of them a bit of the pale-green tree blood collected from the small tree covered with countless gray-white eyes.

He wanted to see what kind of changes this tree blood would bring to the Termites.

Having previous experience with feeding Ancient Banyan Tree Blood, he chose a conservative safe dosage when it came to the amount.

“””

After consuming the blood, the two termites started circling around as if bewitched on the spot.

Then, after a while, their heads began to swell, while their abdomens only bulged slightly.

This scene filled Qin Niu with amazement.

He was even more excited about the changes the ‘Thousand Eyes Tree’ blood could bring to the termites.

Once their heads had swelled to nearly twice their original size, they slowly stabilized.

After observing for a while and noticing that neither had exploded or died, Qin Niu also quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

He had Fourth drag them back into the nest.

He would come back to check on them tomorrow.

Having observed for a moment, he returned home, laden with the collected Ancient Banyan Tree Blood.

By the time he got back, it was already getting dark.

With an ample supply of Ancient Banyan Tree Blood, he no longer had to use it sparingly.

An idea struck him, what would happen if he soaked the Treasured Sword directly in the Banyan Tree Blood?

After all, applying a layer to it every day was a considerable time waste.

And it would absorb it very quickly.

It felt as though it had not had its ‘fill.’

If he could just submerge it in the Banyan Tree Blood, letting it absorb the energy within at its leisure, it would certainly speed up the nurturing process.

With this idea in mind, Qin Niu began preparing for it.

Conveniently, there was a stone trough in the backyard for feeding livestock.

He grabbed a hoe and dug a shallow pit in a corner of the backyard, sizing it to the stone trough and placing it inside.

Then, he found some discarded wooden planks and fashioned a lid for it.

Once that was done, a crude and concealed ‘Soldier Nurturing Pond’ was built.

He poured in the Ancient Banyan Tree Blood collected for the day.

He deliberately reserved a small jar for feeding the termites.

Perhaps because the stone trough was somewhat large, even after pouring all five jars of Ancient Banyan Tree Blood into it, it only filled the trough with a thin layer.

He tested it, and it just covered the blade of the sword.

A small part of the hilt remained exposed.

After placing it in, fine bubbles could be seen rising.

The Treasured Sword seemed to be particularly excited.

After observing for a while and seeing no issues, he covered it with the lid, took a bath, and then sat down to cultivate beside the well in the backyard.

As the energy of the moonlight was continuously absorbed into his body, transforming into the power of the Everlasting Spring Technique, his cultivation began to climb once again.

However, it was much slower than when he cultivated under the Ancient Banyan Tree.

Around four in the morning, he felt the cool energy inside his body become quite abundant, almost permeating his limbs and bones. At this point, if his body were a container, it was nearly filled with the power of the Everlasting Spring Technique.

But as his cultivation continued, new power still squeezed into his body.

When the power inside became too crowded, some of it was absorbed by his lungs with his breath.

As his alveoli contracted, they exhaled the body’s waste gas.

The crowded cool energy surged into his lungs. When inhaling, the alveoli expanded, and the cool energy pressed inside squeezed forcefully into the lungs. Thus, as he continued to breathe, the concentration of the Everlasting Spring Technique’s power in his lungs gradually far exceeded that in other parts of his body.

His breathing became increasingly difficult.

It was a very stifling feeling.

When this feeling of suffocation reached its limit, the cool energy inside his lungs also reached its threshold.

Boom!

When he forcibly inhaled once more, his chest shuddered slightly.

It wasn’t very strong.

However, he felt as if after the potential of his lungs had been squeezed to the limit, they underwent an unknown transformation.

Their capacity expanded by more than tenfold in an instant.

A vast amount of the Everlasting Spring Technique’s power was greedily absorbed by them.

They were becoming increasingly powerful.

The stifling sensation disappeared without a trace, replaced by an intense feeling of refreshment. As he inhaled, it was like a whale swallowing the sea; as he exhaled, the energy flowed long and steady.