Underwater Breathing

Time had passed without Rowan Wen bothering to keep track of it.

The prolonged peace within their territory meant that many Worker Ant never went to the battlefield after hatching, giving them the opportunity to die of old age.

Worker Ant die in batches, but new Worker Ant immediately take their place, without affecting the operation of the Swarm in the slightest.

The Northern Army advanced along the river, and although it changed direction several times along the way, its general direction remained unchanged.

Just a few days ago, their queen Ant Queen sent word that their army was blocked by a very wide river. The Aquatic Army that had been following along the riverbank suffered heavy losses while exploring it. However, it seemed they hadn't encountered any enemy. The messages were contradictory and unclear, so Rowan decided to go and see for himself.

As they continued northward, the temperature dropped further and further.

However, because this planet has a large temperature difference between day and night, deserts like those on Cliff can even freeze at night.

Therefore, the plants and insects here are very cold-resistant, and the Swarm has various resistances as standard in its genes, so they will not have any problems due to low temperatures.

The plants along the way gradually changed, from large-leaved plants to coniferous plants.

The temperature was dropping, and Rowan even encountered a sudden blizzard on the road. Although it lasted only a short time, about half an hour, the snow stopped and the sky cleared.

In just half an hour, the snow on the ground reached a thickness of about 20 centimeters.

This thickness has virtually no impact on long-legged Rowan. However, for smaller insects, although they have some resistance to cold, being trapped in ice and snow is still very fatal.

After a long journey of several dozen days, Rowan finally arrived at the so-called "riverbank".

Is this the "riverside"?

Looking at the boundless water, the occasional ice floes drifting across it, and its salty taste, even though the queen Ant Queen the army had limited experience, it was clearly a vast ocean to Rowan, who had been bombarded with information and had even seen it with his own eyes.

The Swarm has already reached the coast?

This was Rowan's first question. For someone who spent his days eating and sleeping, he couldn't remember how much time had passed.

This planet even has oceans?

This was Rowan's second question. After all, this was an unfamiliar planet to him.

Then he became excited. Who knows how many species are hidden in the ocean? Maybe he could get some good genes.

Soon after, he found the Northern Army.

The secret to being able to quickly find them after traveling thousands of kilometers is that Rowan kept following the river from their lair. This river, after several turns, merges into a larger river and extends all the way here.

The Northern Army was stationed here, and their pheromones lingered all over the riverbank, guiding Rowan to the correct location.

When Rowan arrived at the base, a large underground base had already been dug out and mushrooms had been planted there. In the very cold place, the heat emitted by the mushrooms acted like a heater, making the cave warm and cozy.

Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten to build a passage for Rowan to get in and out, leaving Rowan to freeze outside.

The base actually houses only a small squad, numbering around five to six million.

The Northern Army had already left, as it would take hundreds of days and nights for information to travel back and forth. Given the size of the Northern Army, it was impossible for them to stay in one place for an extended period; they needed to constantly come in to replenish their food supplies.

This small team stayed here to wait for Rowan and, incidentally, to cooperate with some of his operations and experiments.

The moment Rowan saw the sea, he almost understood why the description of the queen Ant Queen was contradictory.

Those Sampan Bug and Diving Bug did not encounter any enemies, but they only possessed freshwater templates and lacked components for filtering salt. Therefore, when they entered seawater, they were most likely to die from salt poisoning.

Since we haven't encountered any enemies, the next step is exploration.

During the time they waited for Rowan, the team also made some progress.

They hunted several crustaceans that resembled Crab, hermit crabs, and Green Shrimp along the coast.

And these are exactly what Rowan needed most before he could explore the ocean.

It ate a little of everything, then dug a hole for itself. The Excavator Ant stationed there then dug a heat dissipation channel from the plantation in the base to the hole, essentially providing "heating" for the room.

Then he comfortably lay down inside.

When he woke up again, Rowan was puzzled to see that there were no shed carapaces in the cave.

After carefully examining its entire body, it seemed that nothing had changed; no Crab gills had grown, nor had any other strange things appeared.

Rowan awkwardly scratched his head.

"Strange? Why haven't any new respiratory organs grown?"

Then it occurred to me that there might have been a mutation in an existing organ, but that would require on-site testing to determine.

Fortunately, the beach wasn't far away, and Rowan quickly reached it with his long strides.

After thinking about it, I felt it wasn't safe enough; after all, I was using myself as a test subject. What if he couldn't handle excessive salt intake?

Actually, the safest way is to return to the Mother Nest and check the genes. But that would take too long, and Rowan didn't want to wait that long to find out the answer.

So he climbed towards the river estuary not far away. There was a transitional zone between fresh and seawater there, making it a much safer place to conduct experiments.

He first went to the freshwater area and slowly entered the water. Because he had already gained the ability to dive, he was not flustered.

As the river submerged him, he immediately sensed something was different.

This time, breathing was much easier than before, so there seems to be some improvement.

Next, he tried to seal the air vents in the air sacs connecting the carapace and abdomen. If he had dared to do this in the past, he would have immediately felt suffocated, but this time, he didn't notice anything unusual.

He can still breathe normally underwater.

This is true underwater breathing, drawing oxygen directly from the water, unlike the pseudo-underwater breathing that involves carrying an "oxygen tank."

Through careful perception, he finally found the source of the change.

Moreover, there were two locations.

First, its shell can filter water, extracting oxygen from the water to nourish its body.

Secondly, at the base of his Walking Leg, there are some thin, membranous structures protruding outward from the body wall, filled with capillaries. These structures also serve to filter water and salt and absorb oxygen.

Because their location was so well hidden, and in Rowan's blind spot, they hadn't been noticed before. The changes on their carapace were even more subtle; from the surface, it was impossible to tell the difference from before.

This is also why Rowan hadn't noticed the changes before.