Slivers of sunlight reflected off the lake’s surface, creating a shimmering display. Along the lakeshore, slender stems and leaves of aquatic plants swayed gently in the breeze.
Luo Wen moved cautiously on his long legs, staying two to three meters from the water’s edge. His large compound eyes were fixed intently on the lake, scanning for any signs of suspicious activity.
The reflected sunlight on the lake was glaringly bright. With Luo Wen’s compound eyes being particularly sensitive to light, the intense glare caused a persistent throbbing and stinging sensation.
For several days, Luo Wen kept watch without any success. Just as he was beginning to feel both dejected and impatient, an unexpected development occurred. The prolonged exposure to the reflective glare seemed to have triggered an unexpected adaptation in his eyes.
His vision began to develop the ability to filter out certain light wavelengths.
With this newfound ability, his eyes functioned like wearing sunglasses. The sunlight reflected off the water’s surface became far less blinding, allowing Luo Wen to observe more comfortably.
Revitalized by his new ability, Luo Wen resumed his slow exploration along the lakeshore with renewed enthusiasm.
As he walked, he transitioned from the lake to a river. Though the river was less than ten meters wide, its rapid current and unknown depth made it seem like an insurmountable barrier to Luo Wen.
If he could figure out a way to cross the river, the vast lands on the opposite shore could become new territory for the swarm.
For now, he could only hope to encounter some aquatic species that would grant him new genes. With such an enhancement, crossing the river—or even exploring the depths of the lake and river—would become possible.
Days turned into weeks, yet Luo Wen found no evidence of life in the river. Lacking other tasks, he patiently continued his investigations.
As the saying goes, persistence pays off.
One evening, just as Luo Wen was preparing to return to eat and rest, he noticed ripples spreading across the river’s surface in the distance. A wave of excitement surged through him. Ripples couldn’t appear without something interacting with the water. This indicated that some entity had come into contact with the surface.
Though Luo Wen could clearly see the source of the ripples, he was unable to discern what lay beneath the water. The cause of the disturbance remained a mystery.
He kept watching for a while, but the river’s surface returned to stillness, making him wonder if he had imagined it.
Could it have been caused by underwater plant roots? The flow of the river brushing against aquatic vegetation could create ripples, but such occurrences were typically confined to areas near the banks.
The location of the ripples, however, was at the center of the river. No aquatic plants could possibly grow there.
Even as night fully descended, Luo Wen remained vigilant. He refused to believe his eyes had played tricks on him. Though he hadn’t identified the culprit, he had at least confirmed the presence of aquatic life, which was a significant discovery.
This realization reignited Luo Wen’s determination. The next morning, as he prepared to resume his observation with renewed vigor, a team of messenger bugs arrived with news from the front lines.
This time, the northern army had encountered an unusual situation.
Searching for aquatic life could wait. Investigating the swarm’s anomaly took higher priority.
Fortunately, Luo Wen had been exploring near the riverbank, not far from the northern army’s location. Though he slowed his pace to accommodate the messengers, he still reached the army’s position within two hours.
The morning was still young. Led by a reconnaissance team, Luo Wen caught sight of a familiar “crater” in the distance. He assumed it was yet another routine mission to exterminate a Red Ant nest.
But as he approached, Luo Wen noticed something unusual. Streams of ants were pouring continuously out of the “crater,” forming multiple unbroken lines as they marched hurriedly away.
“Have I been discovered? But the direction doesn’t match…” Luo Wen initially suspected he’d been spotted. However, despite his imposing size, Luo Wen had honed his stealth skills to perfection. He had altered his pheromones and coloration, rendering himself indistinguishable from a large boulder to the ants.
As he observed the army’s trajectory heading away from his position, Luo Wen realized he was mistaken. But their urgency intrigued him—what could they be rushing toward?
Curiosity got the better of him. Luo Wen dismissed the reconnaissance team, instructing them to return and order the army to camp in place and remain still. Meanwhile, he used his superior vision to maintain a safe distance from the marching Red Ants, trailing them discreetly to uncover their destination.
The Red Ant army marched north for about 300 meters. Soon, Luo Wen spotted a large-scale battle unfolding ahead.
Tens of thousands of combatants from both sides were engaged, scattered across more than a dozen skirmish zones.
On one side were the familiar Red Ants. Their adversaries, however, were an entirely new ant species.
These ants’ coloration was somewhere between the bright hue of Red Ants and the jet black of Black Ants. Their bodies were a subdued dark red.
The worker ants of this species were slender, with their heads, thoraxes, and abdomens of similar size. Their thin, elongated legs gave them a highly agile appearance. Their soldier ants, however, were strikingly unique. Their abdomens remained unchanged, but their heads and jaws were greatly enlarged.
The soldiers’ massive rectangular heads featured a wide central groove running from the rear edge to the forehead, giving them the comical appearance of a human backside. Their bulbous heads and jaws combined resembled overripe cherries.
Despite their amusing appearance, these massive jaws radiated power, suggesting formidable offensive capabilities.
What fascinated Luo Wen most was the significant variation in body size among this species. Unlike the uniform sizes of Red Ants or Black Ants, this new species displayed dramatic differences.
For example, their workers ranged from a few millimeters to over five centimeters. Among the soldier ants, the smallest were three to four centimeters long—smaller than the largest workers—while the largest soldiers approached 20 centimeters in length, veritable giants of the ant world.
To put this in perspective, the Transport Bugs of Luo Wen’s swarm, which carried hundreds of ants over long distances, were only about 30 centimeters in size. Even Luo Wen himself, having reached the limits of his respiratory system, was only slightly over 60 centimeters long. These gigantic soldier ants posed a tangible threat to him.
Feeding such enormous creatures would require staggering amounts of resources. Even Transport Bugs, sustained during wartime by abundant protein, numbered only in the hundreds. After battles, they consumed the bulk of spoils, drastically reducing their numbers during peacetime.
In Luo Wen’s branch bases of 5,000 members, maintaining just five Transport Bugs strained resources to their limits. When idle, these bugs even resorted to eating dirt to ease the burden on the colony.
Yet here, on the largest battlefield, there were over twenty of these massive soldier ants. Smaller giants numbered in the hundreds, and the ranks of large, medium, and small soldiers were uncountable.
Additionally, other battlefields nearby hosted similarly scaled conflicts, with over a hundred giant soldier ants in total.
Luo Wen clicked his mandibles in disbelief. Supporting such a vast army of soldier ants was beyond the capability of any ordinary colony. Moreover, the forces on display likely weren’t even the entirety of this unfamiliar species’ army.
Maintaining such a formidable force would require an extraordinarily vast territory.