The ants indeed have an astonishing ability in digging and building holes. Hundreds of thousands of acidophilic ants run back and forth, communicating with each other with only two tentacles on their heads, and they can coordinate and work neatly.
The ants expanded the narrow passage at the front, waiting for Zhou Qingfeng and others to pass through, and immediately blocked the passage at the back to prevent natural enemies from entering. During this period, they had to maintain ventilation with the outside world and be busy and orderly.
The ant guard carrying the ant queen marched slowly in front, and Zhou Qingfeng rode the 'Quick Shadow' and gradually entered the complex and exquisite kingdom of ant colonies. After going more than ten meters underground, the width of the passage suddenly expanded, and even a spacious underground tunnel appeared.
roads and buildings.
"How did you do it?" Even Zhou Qingfeng, who has seen the world, was amazed. Others around him even made "wow" sounds. Human beings' knowledge of ant nests is very limited. They are equivalent to stepping into an ant nest.
A completely unfamiliar country.
This is a huge and three-dimensional underground space, where the acidophilic ants have dug a big hole. The hole has a suspended transportation network extending in all directions, just like the blood vessels of the human body, allowing the ants to travel back and forth through it.
Just to support such a complex building system requires precise calculation and construction. This is by no means a task that ordinary wisdom can accomplish. Zhou Qingfeng curiously asked the ant queen repeatedly: "How did you do it?"
The queen ant took it for granted, "This is the instinct of the ant colony, we are born with it."
"Are the ant colonies here under your control?"
"Human, you look stupid. This is also my instinct, there is nothing to be surprised about."
The temperature of the underground space is higher than that of the ground, which isolates the harsh natural environment outside and blocks the invasion of various monsters. Zhou Qingfeng saw a large area of luminous moss and underground bacterial colonies, which acidophilic ants grew underground for food.
"Your life here is quite good." Zhou Qingfeng felt that if he was content with the status quo, life underground would be much better than above ground.
But the queen ant didn't think so. She led the way and said coldly: "I hope you can be so relaxed when you see the trouble you have to solve later."
The team kept moving forward, going deep underground. Zhou Qingfeng didn't know where he was, and finally stopped outside a pit-like building. The ant queen suddenly stopped and said, "Trouble is ahead, go and see for yourselves."
Eh...
Zhou Qingfeng suddenly realized that his current location was like a dividing line. There were a large number of acidophilic ants moving behind him, but there was not a single ant in the direction of the deep pit in front of him.
Everyone was puzzled and didn't know why. The queen ant didn't explain anymore, only said that she would know it by taking a look in front of the pit. Zhou Qingfeng had no choice but to say to the necromancer, "Light a fire, I want to see clearly."
A small trick of lighting ignited an eternal fire, which followed Zhou Qingfeng to the edge of the deep pit. The pit was more than ten meters in diameter and unfathomable, but standing at the edge of the pit, you could see a large number of ants piled inside.
To be precise...it's a huge amount of acidophilic ant corpses.
This is a huge corpse pit, filled with thousands or tens of thousands of ants. They are layered on top of each other, and the number is huge, and they are almost filling the pit. The ant corpses exude an indescribable sour smell.
Disgusting.
Xili glanced at it and turned away, and several other people also frowned when they saw it. On the other hand, 'Shiying' poked his long monster head and asked strangely: "What's wrong with these ants? I seem to have seen a white and fat one."
, that’s..."
"That was the last queen ant." The current queen said calmly.
The previous queen ant was huge, about the size of four or five cows. But the white body of the queen ant was covered with black spots. If you look closely, it looked like festering wounds, and some places were even dissolved.
'Jiying' was even more surprised, "Will you grow this big in the future? How much food will you have to eat?"
The queen ant ignored such silly questions.
Zhou Qingfeng turned around and asked: "What happened inside you?"
"There will be no colony in the ant colony, we are one." said the queen ant.
"Then this is..."
"It's a plague."
As a plague priest, Justen interrupted. He looked up again, and everyone discovered that there were a large number of pipes leading from the ant nest above the deep pit. From time to time, the body of an acidophilic ant would slide out of these pipes and fall into the deep pit.
In the pit.
Mondino waved, and a certain ant corpse was summoned to his eyes before it fell. Everyone watched closely - the fallen ant was not dead yet, and its tentacles were still dancing. But its body was ulcerated in many places and its limbs were weak.
, is already dying.
Is it really a plague?
Zhou Qingfeng was shocked. There was a plague in the closed space of the underground kingdom? He was so angry that he cursed in his heart, "No wonder the ant queen didn't say earlier, if I knew that there was a plague that caused such a large scale of death in this damn place, I might as well have been fighting outside."
never mind.'
but......
Zhou Qingfeng took a few steps away and shouted loudly: "Okay, don't be afraid anymore. We happen to have Pastor Justen of the 'Mother of Diseases' here. He is the best at this. He must have a way."
The Queen Ant's tone increased slightly, "It would be nice if the matter could be solved so easily, but the situation is probably worse than you think. The reason why I was caught by you is because the plague in the ant nest is out of control, and I must escape.
"
Justen also said in a deep voice: "I have never seen this kind of plague. Maybe I can study it, but I am not sure. And I believe that this is not a recent plague. I am afraid that the ants here have already been exposed to this plague.
I have been struggling for many years.”
Zhou Qingfeng suddenly felt a chill...
The queen ant continued: "We call this disease the 'curse of decay'. It has been with us since the birth of our acidophilic ants. Even the queen ant cannot escape the infection of this plague. We can only endure it.
, facing death.
You see that the deep pit is not the only one in the ant nest. In fact, since we have lived in it, dozens of similar deep pits have been dug. Each deep pit can last about a year. After filling tens of thousands of ant corpses, only
You can cover it and dig another one.
In order to fight this plague, we have thought of many ways, but none of them are effective. We have long been accustomed to living with this curse. A single death is not terrible, as long as the group is still there. But this time there is
New situation...
Cases have appeared in incubators that were never infected in the past, and they are spreading rapidly. If this continues, our tribe will be doomed. So I brought you in, hoping that someone can punish the curse that the ant tribe has endured. After all, abandoning the ant nest is harmful to us.
The loss is too great.”
Zhou Qingfeng forcibly interrupted and asked loudly: "What can we people do that you have been unable to do for decades? Don't you just want me to die?"
"To be exact, it's not decades, it's been like this for thousands of years." The queen ant remained calm, "Stop complaining, although I know your hope of finding a solution is slim. But don't expect a group that is about to perish.
Be reasonable."
"You..." Zhou Qingfeng felt really cold now. Everyone felt really cold. They were staying in an ant nest deep underground, or an ant nest wēn yì bào fā - God knows this plague
Can it be transmitted to people?
The Queen Ant said: "Ask whatever you need, and I will try my best to satisfy you. But if you want to escape, I will throw you all into the pit that is about to be filled. I will do what I say."
What a huge crisis!
Zhou Qingfeng can only use a trick now - Brother Cyric, hurry up, I know you must have a way. You are a super villain with "sores on your head and pus on the soles of your feet", an old monster who has lived for countless years.
, I definitely know how to solve it.
At this critical moment, personal conflicts should be put aside for now. Stop hiding your secrets and tell us what to do.
But Cyric also sighed, "I'm sorry, I don't know how to deal with the ant clan's curse."