novelhk Chapter 15: Can chimeras also lay eggs?
Chapter 15: Can chimeras also lay eggs?
into the night.
Ye Zhi quietly curled up in the small nest that had been violently carved out, recalling everything that had happened throughout the day.
More happened in this one day than in everything before his rebirth: the evolution of the Force, the divinely bestowed seed, the pursuit by the Dark-bellied, Giant-toothed Ants, and then being rescued by the Slender, Floating Ants, temporarily being treated as a junior member of the "Tree Ant Kingdom"...
Of course, he actually ate those fifteen Force Foods and absorbed them completely. At this moment, the Force energy was slowly flowing through his body, as if nourishing his limbs and bones, making him feel very comfortable.
At this moment, he was also sorting through the contents of his inherited memories, and combined with his own understanding of absorbing the Force, he began to gradually gain some understanding of the Force, a mysterious energy that did not exist in his previous life.
Insects' life sacs nurture life seeds, consuming some of the primal force they absorb. At the same time, the life sac seems to be the central hub for the operation of primal force throughout the body, acting as a kind of "battery".
The rest of the body uses tissue fluid as a medium for transmitting primal energy. Similarly, the exoskeleton also has good conductivity for its own primal force, just like the slender ant's innate ability [self-sharpening], which seems to be achieved by using the exoskeleton as a medium to transmit primal force.
There seem to be other ways to "release" the Force as a ranged attack, such as the "Lightning Whip" of the Dark-bellied Giant-toothed Ant, which can be considered half of one.
Of course, Ye Zhi now seems more concerned with another issue—the ant king at the Force level can, through a cloning-like process, produce ant eggs through parthenogenesis to hatch worker and soldier ants at the semi-Force level, while he himself...
Ants have a unique structure; only reproductive ants can ascend to become complete primal beings. In most cases, due to the weakness of male ants, it is the female reproductive ants that become queens, and laying eggs is perfectly reasonable.
But Ye Zhi's situation was something he didn't know either. The Chimera Ant's leap to become a Force life form was something that wasn't mentioned in the inherited memories at all, and even Wu Yuan had never heard of such a thing.
The existence of Flame Spider Wanderers in this world suggests that information is not particularly limited. The fact that they have never appeared before is a source of great confusion for Ye Zhi, who is unaware of how they have been integrated into her body.
On one hand, he hoped that he could also create an ant army - after all, who wouldn't want to experience the thrill of commanding thousands of troops to charge at a moment's notice, or personally directing the long-range weapon positions to move forward five meters... cough cough, let's forget about that.
On the other hand, as a male in his previous life, he felt somewhat strange about having children, especially since he, as a chimera, didn't even know how to calculate it.
After much deliberation, Ye Zhi bit his jaw and made up his mind to give it a try, trusting his innate instincts. He clenched his jaws and silently worked his body to see if he could find any relevant functions.
But with just a slight perception, he was stunned – this spliced, miscellaneous body could actually reproduce, but it seemed to be "producing" ant eggs in a very strange way.
With a little effort, a pure white, crystal-clear oval object, like a grain of rice, appeared between its mandibles—yes, it was "spit out" from its mouth, and judging from its shape and scent, it was undoubtedly an ant egg.
These ant eggs were expelled from a place that the leaf weaver would never have expected—a life sac!
This operation truly shocked Ye Zhi. The Life Pouch had actually "cloned" such an egg through a method that Ye Zhi could not understand, perhaps by extracting his genes.
Instinctively, he sensed that the egg still radiated vitality and faintly emanated primal energy fluctuations. The only problem seemed to be that this "synthesis" required time and would eventually consume some physical strength. For example, right now, he immediately felt even hungrier.
After a few drops of honey were swallowed with practiced ease, it took more than a dozen drops before Ye Zhi felt a little full. He lay on the ground, quietly looking at the ant eggs in front of him, still feeling uneasy and uncertain – this situation was not only counterintuitive, but there was also no similar record in his inherited memories.
Sensing a corner in the nest where the temperature and humidity were just right, Ye Zhi skillfully bent his abdomen, squeezed out ant silk, and wove a soft ant silk cushion - he had already woven one for himself before, so his technique was now incredibly proficient.
Then, he carefully picked up the egg that was placed aside again, put it in the center of the second "cushion", returned to his own cushion, and slowly lay down to recover his strength.
After advancing to the Force Life form, Ye Zhi felt that her threads seemed to have become more resilient, and the material was whiter and more translucent, making the eggshell of the egg appear somewhat yellowish.
But at this moment, because of the strange life sac "laying eggs", he was a little tired and finally couldn't help but fall asleep on the soft ant silk mat.
......
Ye Zhi was awakened by the sound of footsteps. He got up reflexively, picked up the ant egg that had been "laid" the night before, and quietly poked his antennae and head out of the hole. He glanced at it and saw a huge, slender worker ant standing at his "doorway" - it was Zuo Wang Hong Yuan.
Seeing that Ye Zhi had woken up, Hong Yuan was excited and transmitted her voice through telepathy: "Little one, you're awake? The King is looking for you, come with me." Then, she gently pinched Ye Zhi with one of her claws, ignoring Ye Zhi's protesting eyes, and placed it directly on her head.
Immediately, regardless of whether Ye Zhi could catch it or not, it strode forward with its six limbs, rushing in one direction, leaving Ye Zhi's tentacles somewhat disheveled in the wind - it didn't even have time to put the eggs back, and it didn't know whether the other party didn't see them or didn't realize something was wrong.
Actually, Ye Zhi was subconsciously preparing to move, but only after venturing out of the nest did she realize that the situation was different now, and she probably wouldn't need to hide everywhere for the time being.
While pondering, Zuo Wang Hong Yuan had already crawled through a huge hole. In front of him, the huge body of Wu Yuan Ant King appeared. Standing to the side was another Zuo Wang named Qing Yuan, and several ordinary worker ants were busy spreading out several large leaves and laying them on the ground.
Upon seeing Ye Zhi arrive, Wu Yuan immediately shook its antennae, pushed a spider silk bag forward, and gestured to Hong Yuan, who was carrying Ye Zhi.
Red Citron didn't hesitate and immediately placed its antennae on the ground, allowing Ye Zhi to descend from its head. Ye Zhi also shook its antennae, pondering where to place the eggs next, while looking at the Black Citron Ant King in front of it.
In front of its massive body lay a large banana-like leaf and several spider silk sacs of varying sizes. Seeing Ye Zhi arrive, it was about to open its "mouth" when it seemed to suddenly freeze, looking at Ye Zhi—or rather, Ye Zhi, with the ant eggs in its mouth, said:
"Little one, are those your eggs?"