Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Leading the Ant Army, Wen Jing cut a swath through everything, scattering all insects in her path.

First, she explored the area centered on the ant nest, and on several large nearby branches, she discovered various insects and a number of slug-like things shimmering with a prismatic luster.

Notably, near the white mutated branch where Wen Jing had previously eaten the fruit, a new occupant had moved in—a big pale green mantis.

Wen Jing took a distant look, confirmed no new fruit had grown, so she backed off.

Fine, let the mantis keep it—she'd come back when fruit grew again.

After exploring the area, Wen Jing realized that how much territory a creature held on the giant tree was a rough gauge of its power. The Ant Kingdom, ruling the main trunk, was the top dog in this stretch.

But the ant army's social structure meant they expanded slowly—no all-out war on neighbors, so other strong creatures still held their ground on various branches.

Now, having found a bug exploit, she finished scouting and led the ants upward along the main trunk.

After advancing about seven or eight meters, the bark got lighter, and tiny holes like woodworm damage started showing up, growing denser.

The ants behind her started releasing red 'danger' pheromone signals, and their pace slowed.

Seeing this, Wen Jing stopped, used her Gravity Silk to glide to the nearest hole.

The hole seemed to have been created by a wood-boring insect. She approached and tentatively bit the edge of the hole.

"..."

The Blue-Purple Bug retracted its mouthpart and shook its head. If the tree trunk in the ant nest area was like biting into an alloy with human teeth, this seemingly fresher piece of bark was like biting into gold—softer but thick and tough.

No wonder the ants built their nests through natural tree holes. Even enhanced, her Level 2 mouthpart was only a bit stronger than an ant's—nowhere near efficient enough to chew bark.

Of course, if she kept her mouthpart reinforced and chewed at a piece of bark stubbornly, she might eventually carve out a small piece, but the effort would not be worth the reward.

Angling toward the hole, she hesitated—should she poke in and gnaw on the heartwood? Ants could build nests, so the core couldn't be that hard.

The next moment, her antennae snapped upright as she sensed something rushing up from under the hole.

"Shwoosh!"

The moment she pulled back via Gravity Silk, a circular mouthpart bristling with interlocking fangs shot out from the hole, like a precision cutting tool, all thin and dense, striking like lightning.

Energy Shield!

A white light glowed from the Blue-Purple Bug’s body, blocking the attacker just in the nick of time.

"Creak..."

The impact made the energy shield screech horribly.

Leveraging the shield's recoil to put distance between them, Wen Jing finally got a clear look at the creature’s owner.

It was a slender, pitch-black thread-like creature. Its head had nothing else—just that disc-shaped razor mouth.

To an insectoid it looked like some sanity-draining black snake; to a human, like a horsehair worm?

Wen Jing had a vague memory of these gross parasites from her past life.

This must be some ancient variant, feeding on the giant tree's trunk. Its mouthpart's sharpness needed no further demonstration.

If she hadn't thrown up an Energy Shield, catching that bite would've let it climb onto her and chew right through her exoskeleton—which was way too soft for that.

After missing, the Blackline Worm dropped to the trunk, wriggled fast, and dived into another hole.

But this ruckus had already tipped off the local wildlife.

The next moment, Wen Jing, safely back, saw a sight that made her skin crawl—

Countless Blackline Worms poked their heads out of the holes, twisting in the air, hunting. Their circular mouths flowered open and shut, creating a nightmare thicket.

No wonder the ants gave out danger signals. Nothing holding its own on the main trunk was a pushover.

And they didn't look scared of resin bombs—they'd just duck into the trunk. The ant army's path was a dead end.

Wen Jing stopped pushing the ants and looked up at the thick canopy above.

The worm jump range was short. Should she go solo up there with Gravity Silk?

Just as she was hesitating, a powerful gust hit from the southwest.

"Chirp!"

The bird's cry came before the bird itself.

With this crisp cry, the ant army, which had been hesitating, instantly flooded red with pheromones and beat a fast retreat without Wen Jing needing to say a word.

As for Wen Jing, her mind went blank and her body locked up—a classic freeze response to sudden danger.

As a bottom-feeder, insects were on lots of animals' menus, but this was the first time she knew a single bird call could lock her up.

Was it natural predator instinct, or did this prehistoric bird have some special ability?

Time seemed to slow. At the edge of her compound eyes, she saw frame by frame—long black beak, red-and-white feathers, gold-black ringed pupils... Her dynamic vision plotted the bird's glide path straight at her.

"No time left to evolve..."

Her mind icy clear, she shot out the only thing she could still move—her Gravity Silk—aiming for the bird's spread wing.

The next moment, the black beak, riding the wind, snapped at the rigid Blue-Purple Bug hovering in midair.

Wen Jing maxed out her Energy Shield and yanked her Gravity Silk tighter.

"Crack..."

With a clear crack of her shield breaking, she scraped past the sharp beak and stuck onto the Red-White Bird's wing—a spot the bird couldn't reach in flight.

"Smack!"

Missing its bite, the Red-White Bird glided a bit and landed on the worm swamp.

The Blackline Worms that had poked out instinctively bit the bird's feet, only to get shredded by its sharp claws.

The next moment, the bird's beak plunged down like slurping noodles, biting them in half and sucking them down.

As green blood dripped, the nearby worms finally seemed to get it and shrank back under the bark.

"Chirp—!"

The Red-White Bird let out another cowing cry, then aimed its beak at the trunk holes.

A rapid series of pecking sounds rang out. It wasn't just a physical attack; energy surged on the bird's beak, lightning crackled unexpectedly as it electrocuted the Blackline Worms beneath the tree trunk, leaving them helpless as the Red-White Bird feasted.

Wen Jing, who escaped using Gravity Silk while the bird landed, retreated downward, her compound eyes which acted like rearview mirrors watching the scene unfold, letting out a relieved but still shaken sigh.

Good thing the Red-White Bird hadn't used lightning on her back then; otherwise, she'd have been a snack before being slurped up.

Retreat, retreat, retreat! No time to hang around here!

Wen Jing's first campaign as Ant General was a failure. Landing in the center of her army, she fled over ten meters down the trunk in her ant chariot, back to the main nest in the middle layer.

The upper part of the giant tree was not a place to explore at this stage. And judging by the looks of it, the Blackline Worm swamp was basically the bird's cafeteria. Closer to the treetop, there were who knows how many more birds.

With a debuff that weakened her against predators, even a massive Ant Army stood no chance, no matter how many ants. She'd have to wait until she evolved and became stronger.

Having made that decision, Wen Jing wasn't planning to just call it a day. Her gaze shifted to the lower part of the trunk, and she flicked her twin ponytails:

"Charge!"

The Ant Army didn't care about their lives in a real fight, let alone mere fatigue. At her command, they surged forward once more, full of energy, heading down the giant tree's lower section.

The bark below was the opposite of the upper layer—darker in color, thicker in texture.

After descending about seven or eight meters, she could clearly feel the moisture in the air rapidly increasing. The trunk became slippery, and moss started to appear. Not just below the tree, but even the branches spreading outward were shrouded in grayish-white mist, making everything hazy.

The excessive humidity kept the Ant Army constantly twitching their antennae. Wen Jing, like the ants, would instinctively wipe off the tiny beads of water that formed on her body with her forelegs.

Pressing on for a while, they broke through a layer of mist, and a breathtaking sight opened up before them.

"Wow..."

Wen Jing marveled to herself. Thick green moss carpeted the ground like a lawn, and on it grew an unknown type of vine. The leaves and roots of the vines were blue-gray, appearing like a shrubby jungle from an insect's perspective.

On the vines grew white flowers emitting a faint blue fluorescence.

In the light mist, the glowing white flowers looked like mysterious, dreamy lanterns, beautiful and magnificent.

But the Ant Army, of course, couldn't appreciate the scenery. They halted before the vine jungle, twitching their antennae nervously, hesitant to advance, yet not retreating like they had from the Blackline Worm swamp.

Wen Jing saw them releasing pheromones that displayed both red dots of danger and white dots of attraction.

Her gaze fell on the white flowers on the vines. Not just the ants, but she too felt a dual attraction—chemical signals and energy—emanating from the flowers, specifically the pistils.

Flowers that could glow were definitely not ordinary...

After a brief moment of distraction, Wen Jing snapped out of it, restraining the impulse to rush to the flowers. After her earlier failure, she couldn't let her guard down.

So, she manipulated her Gravity Silk and mercilessly tossed the two leading ants into the vines.

Unexpectedly, no biological ambush occurred, nor did the vines move to coil around the ants.

The large ants that had been thrown in scrambled to their feet, bewildered. After waving their antennae around for a moment, they found nothing abnormal. But they didn't venture deeper either, quickly running back to the group.

Seeing that the ants dared not go further and that she couldn't see the flowers from this distance, Wen Jing hesitated, then decided to investigate herself. If she encountered danger, she would retreat and let the ants pelt it with resin bombs.

Having extended her Gravity Silk to nearby vines and anchored several suitable landing points like a spider web, she dashed toward the nearest glowing white flower.

As soon as she landed on a petal, the attraction from the pistil intensified.

So it was nectar...

The sweet scent made her mouthparts twitch involuntarily, but she forced herself not to crawl in and taste it right away. Cautiously waiting in place for a moment, she also bit a petal with her mouthparts to confirm she could break it. Then, looking back every few steps, she climbed into the pistil.

The nectar was clear and faintly blue. Wen Jing dipped a foreleg in and brought it to her mouth.

The next moment, she felt a jolt of energy.

Fragrant, sweet, refreshing... and energizing! Not as jolting as the blue-purple fruit, but definitely a treasure.

After waiting a moment to confirm no adverse reactions, Wen Jing excitedly lowered her head and began chugging it down.

"Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp!"

But just as she had downed more than half the nectar, suddenly, the petals outside moved, snapping closed, trapping her inside.