Creating a paradise in an ant nest

Chapter 29 The Queen Ant's Metamorphosis

Deep inside the ant nest.

The giant spirit stone, three zhang tall, emitted a bright, glowing light, illuminating the nest chamber.

The queen ant, which has just emerged from its cocoon, is larger than the worker ants and has a pair of soft wings on its back.

Her skin was pale, and her exoskeleton was not yet fully developed.

Newly emerged ants need to grow in the nest chamber for several days until their color deepens and their exoskeleton is fully hardened.

The new queen ant needs more time, requiring more than ten days to replenish and accumulate nutrients and develop wings to ensure flight ability.

At this moment, the worker ants are feeding the new queen ant, providing her with essential nutrients.

"In another ten days or so, she will be fully grown."

"The new queen ant needs to take her nuptial flight; hopefully, it will go smoothly."

Liu He was somewhat worried about the new queen ant's "nuptial flight" problem.

As a multi-queen ant colony, the red forest ant can choose to return to the nest or build a new nest after its new queen flies away.

This new queen ant was specially hatched by Liu He's queen ant to expand the size of the ant colony, so it will definitely choose to return to the nest.

What Liu He was worried about was her safety.

The nuptial flight of a new queen ant is very dangerous, and most queen ants "perish" during this process.

"We can only do our best to protect the new queen ants and ensure their safe return to the nest."

Liu He thought to himself.

After the new queen ant's nuptial flight, she no longer needs to mate and can continuously produce ant eggs.

His new queen ant was nurtured by the entire ant colony with great care, and was even fed with spiritual fruits.

After she returns to the nest, the ant colony will enter a new period of rapid development.

There are at least 100,000 ant soldiers, and 200,000 is also possible!

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Ten days later.

The new queen ant has not yet fully matured.

Liu He had been in the sect for nine months and received three spirit stones, bringing his total assets to twenty spirit stones.

"It's time to go to Wanqi Peak."

He was preparing to customize a defensive artifact for the ant nest.

His ant colony has now reached 40,000 members, and the area of ​​the ant nest has been further expanded.

During the trip, I encountered moles digging in the ground twice and mole crickets three times.

Fortunately, the mole was timid and fled in fright when it dug to the edge of the ant nest.

Mole crickets are also adept at digging burrows, but being insects, they are often bitten to death by a large swarm of ants.

As an omnivorous mole cricket, it is relatively large among insects and has strong fighting ability.

Although the ant colony eliminated the mole crickets, it suffered many casualties itself.

Some of the nest chambers were also damaged due to the mole crickets digging them out.

The "enemies" that the ant colony currently faces are just ordinary insects, snakes, rats, and the like.

If they go to the Spirit Plant Peak, the ant colony will face the threat of spirit beasts, snakes, insects, rats and ants nurtured by the underground spiritual veins and the spirit gathering array.

Therefore, Liu He was eager to customize a defensive artifact for the ant nest.

With the defensive artifacts, he and the queen ant could rest easy in the ant nest.

Wanqifeng.

Forging Hall.

The Qian Yuan Holy Sect does not have any spirit mines. All kinds of spirit iron ore, spirit aluminum ore, etc. purchased by the sect are sent to the Forging Hall for smelting and forging into raw materials for making spirit weapons.

Liu He wants to commission a magical artifact, so he needs to prepare the materials first.

Before he even reached the forging workshop, he felt the heat wave hitting him.

It is said that the fire used by the Forging Hall to smelt crude ore is drawn from the earth's veins, and the temperature is extremely high, which can be used to refine spirit metal ores.

As he drew closer, he could faintly hear the clanging and hammering of metal.

The forging workshop was very large and divided into various areas.

After asking some questions, Liu He arrived at the warehouse where the materials were stored.

The person in charge of guarding the area was an outer disciple at the fourth level of Qi Refining, named Lü Hua.

"Hello, senior brother."

Liu He bowed respectfully in greeting.

Lu Hua glanced at him indifferently: "You look unfamiliar. What brings you here?"

He recognized all the Wanqi Peak disciples who frequently came to the warehouse to pick up materials, but he had never seen Liu He before.

"I want to buy some materials to make magical artifacts, so I can have them custom-made."

Liu He truthfully explained his purpose.

"What?"

Lu Hua raised an eyebrow, as if he'd heard a joke: "You, a mere Qi Refining Level 1 servant, commissioning a magical artifact? Haha~~"

"..."

Liu He came to buy materials, not to be a laughing stock.

He suppressed his displeasure and asked, "Senior brother, could you tell me the price?"

"Not for sale."

Lu Hua shook his head.

"Not for sale?"

"Yes, we don't sell them individually. Even the most ordinary spirit iron, a single ingot weighs three jin and costs ten spirit stones. We sell in minimum of ten ingots. Other materials are even more expensive."

Lü Hua was not discriminating against Liu He; it was simply the case.

This is the sect's warehouse for spiritual artifact materials.

Aside from Wan Qifeng's own use, he sells them in large quantities.

Not selling in smaller quantities?

Knowing that one ingot of spirit iron is worth ten spirit stones, why not sell them in smaller quantities?

Liu He secretly realized that he hadn't prepared enough spirit stones.

Wasn't it Hung Kin-hsiung who asked him to prepare the materials?

Why aren't the materials sold individually here?

He forced a smile, thinking that saying a few nice words might get the man to sell him a single ingot of iron: "Senior brother, I only need one ingot. One ingot weighs three jin, which is more than enough, so please sell it to me."

Lu Hua shook his head, his tone stern and unforgiving: "Not for sale."

"this……"

Liu He was at a loss. Could it be that this person wanted a bribe?

But with only twenty spirit stones in assets, he still had to give a kickback to the outer disciple in front of him.

Besides, this person might not necessarily want any benefits.

Just as he was in a dilemma, a familiar, rough voice rang out.

"Junior Brother Lü Hua~~"

Following the sound, a tall and robust figure entered the room.

He held two iron balls in his right hand, and his feet stomped on the ground with a "thump thump".

It's Hung Kin-hung.

"Senior Brother Hong."

When Lü Hua saw Hong Jianxiong, he put on a smiling face and greeted him: "What materials are you here to pick up?"

"Do you have Crimson Flame Copper?"

"Yes, how much do you want?"

Hong Jianxiong handed over a talisman: "Take ten zi."

Lu Hua respectfully accepted the talisman with both hands, glanced at its contents, and asked, "Senior Brother Hong, are you going to join forces with Senior Brother Chen to create a spiritual artifact?"

The term "joining forces" is a way of expressing high emotional intelligence.

Actually, Hung Kin-hung was assisting Senior Brother Chan.

"It's not certain yet, Senior Brother Chen has very high standards."

"Brother Hong is definitely capable. I wish him all the best."

Lu Hua flattered him.

"Haha, I appreciate your kind words."

After some polite exchanges, Hong Jianxiong received the Crimson Flame Copper he needed.

As he walked out the door, Liu He hurriedly chased after him, saying, "Senior Brother Hong, please wait."

Despite his rugged appearance and fierce-looking face, Hung Kin-hsiung is actually a friendly person.

Liu He discovered that his senior brothers and sisters, who were also highly skilled in cultivation, treated him differently.

Friendly people like Hong Jianxiong would answer almost every question Liu He had when he was newly promoted to a permanent position.

Another type, like Lü Hua, is somewhat cold and indifferent.

Hong Jianxiong stopped and looked Liu He up and down: "You are... Oh, I saw you before when I was punished to work shifts."

He thought of Liu He, but couldn't remember his name.

"Brother Hong, I am Liu He, and I work as a caretaker in the outer mountain forest farm."

Liu He introduced himself again, further solidifying Hong Jianxiong's impression of him.

"I remember you. What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

Hong Jianxiong is a cheerful person who treats senior brothers and sisters with high cultivation levels and junior brothers and sisters with low cultivation levels in roughly the same way.

He neither flatters his superiors nor bullies his subordinates.