Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 5: The Strange Flower

The chitinous exoskeletons clashed, and with a soft click, the intact left mandible struck the head of the large worker ant of the Spirochete schlegelii.

The thick defense, with its "skin" intact, faithfully served its purpose, blocking the attack, which wasn't directly fatal, but still making Ye Zhi's jaws go numb.

However, the opponent's size was less than one centimeter, barely half the length of Ye Zhi's current body. Under the impact, its six limbs slipped, and its body immediately detached from the stem, falling downwards.

The tiny size of the plant and the large leaves of the pitcher plant below saved the slightly weightless worker ant. It managed to stand up, wiggle its antennae a couple of times, as if it hadn't yet realized what had happened.

Behind them, four or five small worker ants, each only about three or four millimeters long, were also unaware of what had happened to the large worker ant at their head. They simply followed their instinct to drive away the intruders and continued to charge forward.

Seeing that the "shield" that had blocked the firepower had been shot down, Ye Zhi immediately raised his hindquarters, his slender nodules sticking out, and his oval hindquarters skillfully pointing forward like a scorpion's tail, and began a new round of spraying.

But something unexpected happened – what shot out from the end of the abdomen was not formic acid, but a milky white thread that quickly solidified in the air and turned into a real silk thread.

Ye Zhi was stunned for a moment - this was ant silk used to sew the leaf nest, but silk glands should only exist on maggot-shaped larvae, and since he was already an adult ant-shaped insect, he shouldn't have such a thing.

"Could it be because of the chimera that it even retained some of the larval organ structures?"

Unexpectedly, this round of sprayed ant silk had a good effect - the semi-solidified ant silk clung to the bodies of the small worker ants of the Spirochete schlegelii below, and then quickly solidified completely, tangling their six limbs and antennae together.

Ye Zhixin's mind started to wander. Regardless of why the silk glands were preserved, it meant that he had spider-like abilities. So now, could he play the role of a "failed man," or rather, a "failed ant"?

Details from my memory of the symbiotic relationship between Nepenthes diplossum and Paecilomys schrenckii emerge: Paecilomys schrenckii has a certain swimming ability, and can dive into the digestive fluid in the pitcher of the Nepenthes to retrieve drowned insects, and after digesting them, return them to the pitcher.

So, when the time comes, could I hang down a thread from the cage lid and try to catch a few drowned insects to have some meat?

While he was thinking, his abdomen bulged out again. This time, Ye Zhi carefully exerted his strength and sprayed out the remaining formic acid, which hit the chaotic flathead ant worker ants head-on.

This attack caused further losses to the already stagnant flathead ants. The thin exoskeleton of these worker ants could not withstand the formic acid, and their exoskeletons rotted away, causing them to convulse and fall downwards.

The air was still filled with a faint smell of formic acid. Taking this opportunity, Ye Zhi turned around again and quickly continued to climb up the stem.

Having decided to find a way to steal the drowned flying insects in the insect traps, Ye Zhi now decides to first find a place to build a temporary shelter.

His gaze locked onto a broad leaf at the top, which seemed to have just grown recently. The insect trap at the end was not yet fully developed, and it was small and quite cute. Ye Zhi then had an idea.

He quickly climbed upwards, glancing back to make sure no more ants were chasing him. He then swiftly made his way to the small trap and carefully climbed the vines.

Climbing upwards, Ye Zhi quickly found the entrance to the inner space of the enlarged cage-like vines. He extended his antennae, patting and exploring inside, confirming that there were no Shi's flathead ants inside, before disappearing inside in a flash.

Looking at the enormous hole she had entered, Ye Zhi pondered and secreted ant silk, recalling the textile scenes she had seen in her previous life. She swayed left and right, barely managing to block the entrance, leaving only a small opening for herself to pass through.

After the previous battle, he felt a little hungry. Then his abdomen twitched, and a crystal clear amber droplet was "spit out" from his mouth. Under the action of surface tension, it was trapped between his jaws and then quickly sucked into his stomach.

In the digestive system of ants, there is a separate "foregut" or social stomach, which is a space for storing food. When necessary, it can store a large amount of liquid food and regurgitate it in a manner similar to rumination to supply itself or other individuals in the nest.

Thanks to the "generosity" of his kind, Ye Zhi's stomach is now almost full of aphid honeydew, enough for him to go three days without having to forage again, which is good news for now.

After swallowing two drops of aphid honeydew and resting for a while, Ye Zhi felt his body filled with strength again. Thinking this, he once again crawled out of the cage's inner space and looked up.

It seemed there was still some time before dark. He had fairly good eyesight, so he figured it would be safer during the day. He decided to climb a little higher to see if there were any other issues.

Skillfully, he climbed up the stem along the broad leaf surface and continued to ascend—he was currently on the topmost leaf, but the stem continued to extend upwards, indicating that something else was going on.

As expected, a faint fragrance seemed to waft into the receptors on my antennae. Looking up, I saw clusters of pale yellow inflorescences coming into view through my compound eyes.

The flower was small, with four slender petals arranged in a cross shape. Its color was not bright either. The clusters were arranged in a spiral race, and the position was almost a full meter higher than the highest insect trap. This paradise of blooming flowers and the purgatory for flying insects below were thus separated by a bare stem.

But as Ye Zhi looked further up, he noticed something amiss—the dense clusters of flowers appeared lush, but most of them showed an unnatural, withered color.

Deep within the inflorescence, one flower stands out conspicuously, almost twice the size of the others. Even though it is hidden near the inside of the inflorescence and obscured by other withered flowers, its extraordinary nature is still evident.

quickened his pace and climbed swiftly to the bottom of the inflorescence. Ye Zhi shook his head and looked at the somewhat strange flower—it was not only different in size from the other flowers nearby, but its color was also more vibrant, changing from the originally inconspicuous pale yellowish-brown to a slightly gorgeous pale gold.

Most strikingly, on the four narrow, pale gold petals, there seemed to be a strange pattern appearing and disappearing, with a faint white light following the pattern, as if it were breathing.

Upon seeing the shimmering patterns, Ye Zhi felt an indescribable tremor emanating from the depths of his genes within his body.