Enemy Reappears

The Insect Nest is located deep underground. Without digging legs, it would be difficult for ants to reach such depths based on their natural physiology alone. Therefore, Rowan built a temporary nest above the Insect Nest to serve as a transit point for supplies and a decoy; by creating a fake nest, he established a primary line of defense for the real one.

The distance from Ant Nest No. 1 to the Insect Nest is about fifty meters, roughly equivalent to the length of the Smuggling Tunnel at Ant Nest No. 2. For Rowan, who already had experience, such a project was naturally a breeze.

After spending some time completing this tunnel, the Insect Nest began stealing food from Ant Nest No. 1 once again. With the support of two ant nests, the food reserves in Rowan's own nest began to increase at a rate visible to the naked eye. Not only was the Hatching Room filled, but the Storage Room he had dug earlier also began to accumulate a surplus.

From then on, Rowan's daily routine consisted of heading to the two ant nests early in the morning, transporting enough food to sustain the Transport Team for a day's work into the tunnel, and then continuing to expand his reconnaissance range.

After some time passed, Rowan's body grew significantly, reaching the size of the original Black Armored Beetle "War God." Although he lacked the two giant mandibles and his combat power was slightly inferior, he was more than capable of taking on a Soldier Ant in a one-on-one fight.

At this point, his physique was even larger than that of a Soldier Ant, and compared to his robust, rounded build, the Soldier Ant's slender frame appeared somewhat frail.

Aside from having sharper fangs, a Soldier Ant is essentially just a Worker Ant magnified a dozen times. When its size no longer holds an advantage, it is naturally no match for Rowan's Combat Technique.

Rowan set a trap not far from Ant Nest No. 1 and led a large group of his subordinates to lie in wait. Using a "besiege the point to strike the reinforcements" tactic, he lured out a Soldier Ant. After a bit of effort, he slew it and harvested its genetic fragments.

By now, the Insect Nest had over two hundred adult Black Ants, with the total number of eggs, larvae, and pupae reaching over a thousand. It is worth mentioning that the second batch of ants, which had been bred with Digging Legs, had all entered the pupal stage. Meanwhile, the first batch of Black Armored Beetles remained in their larval state, though they had grown significantly larger—surpassing the size of many adult Black Ants.

However, considering the source of their template, their size upon reaching adulthood was understandable.

Having harvested the Soldier Ant template this time, Rowan did not intend to hatch any. Their function was similar to that of the Black Armored Beetles, but their combat effectiveness was far lower. Furthermore, Soldier Ants did not contribute to production and consumed a vast amount of food; hatching them would be pointless.

Once that batch of Black Armored Beetles matured, it would be time for the Insect Nest to emerge onto the surface and claim a territory of its own.

However, before that, he had to redouble his efforts to find new ant nests. As the number of insects in the nest increased rapidly, the supply from just two nests was already becoming insufficient.

Several days later, Rowan discovered a new ant nest about two hundred meters north of the Insect Nest. He immediately forged his identity information and infiltrated it.

The main tunnel of the ant nest, which had seemed spacious before, now appeared extremely cramped in the face of his current size. If he continued to grow, he would likely be unable to perform his espionage work in the future, unless he widened the tunnels as he went. However, he wondered if his forged identity would still hold up by then.

Back when he was eating and drinking in the Hatching Room of Ant Nest No. 2, he had once seen a Soldier Ant kill a Worker Ant. That Worker Ant was definitely not a secret agent like him, but a legitimate resident with a proper identity. Rowan still hadn't figured out why it had been attacked by the Soldier Ant.

However, this taught him that even ants within the same nest would attack one another; over-relying on forged identity information would cause him to lose his necessary vigilance.

From then on, he was no longer as careless when entering ant nests, opting instead to be cautious. However, as his body gradually expanded and the threat posed by various castes in the nest decreased, his mindset began to drift toward overconfidence once again.

The newly discovered Ant Nest No. 3 also consisted of Black Ants, similar in scale to Ant Nest No. 2, and no abnormal castes were found inside.

As usual, he rewarded the few Yellow Worms freeloading inside with a few mouthfuls of thick phlegm, then returned home to muster his troops. The Excavation Brigade set off in a grand, imposing manner.

The route to Ant Nest No. 3 required passing through the area between Ant Nest No. 1 and No. 2. Traveling on the surface might lead to encounters with scouts from those two nests, creating uncertain risks for the transport work.

Therefore, Rowan decided to start digging directly above the Insect Nest, creating a two-hundred-meter tunnel underground to connect the transit station above the Insect Nest directly to Ant Nest No. 3.

Given Rowan's current size, as long as he dug according to his own dimensions, it would be a comfortable, high-ceilinged tunnel for the other ants. He only needed to lead the way, while hundreds of ants behind him would continuously transport the soil he loosened to the surface.

Thus, although this 200-meter tunnel was the largest project Rowan had undertaken to date, its completion speed would likely be much faster than the 50-meter tunnel at Ant Nest No. 2.

A few days later, the new breed of ants with Digging Legs joined the team. The difference between these Digging Legs and ordinary arthropods when it came to transporting soil was like the difference between sweeping beans with a broom and picking them up by hand; the efficiency was self-evident.

Everything was progressing smoothly, and with the help of the digging ants, this new tunnel would be finished ahead of schedule. But just then, an accident occurred.

Rowan, having worked for a full day, returned first, while the Excavation Team continued to work on clearing the soil from the tunnel. A mound of earth over half a meter high had already been piled up on the surface above the Insect Nest, all of it carried out bit by bit by the Excavation Team.

Rowan climbed to the surface, intending to drink some tree sap and bring some back for Big Black. The Black Armored Beetle larvae, based on Big Black's template, had begun to pupate over the last few days. He didn't know if they would only eat plants after emerging, but regardless, he had stopped destroying plant roots and had begun to consciously protect the vegetation around the Insect Nest.

While climbing a plant, looking for a tender branch to bite into, several moving, earthy-yellow spots flashed across the corner of his eye.

He immediately became alert. With the growth of the Insect Nest, although he hadn't officially surfaced yet, there were basically no other living creatures in the vicinity, let alone the rare earthy-yellow ones.

Rowan moved in that direction until the figures entered his clear field of vision.

Ha, talk about a small world; these earthy-yellow figures were none other than the Desert Ants that had almost sent him to an early grave back then.