The Mother of All Ants was the sovereign of the Formian Ants, one of the three great races of Clockwork Nirvana. The Formian Ants were spread throughout the entire plane.
If Ioulaum really was in Clockwork Nirvana, the Mother of All Ants would very likely know where he was.
Normanus the Adjudicator was actually even more widespread than the Formian Ants. These constructed beings, born to uphold the laws of Clockwork Nirvana, were everywhere.
But they had no self-awareness, nor did they have a sovereign controlling them.
They were more like Clockwork Nirvana's antivirus programs. They scanned every outsider who entered the plane to determine whether they might disrupt its Order and rules. Once they judged that an outsider would do so, they hunted them relentlessly.
When Jiang Hao and the old man appeared before a huge Formian Ant, the creature known as Clockwork Nirvana's number-one killer immediately followed its predecessors' example. It stretched out its two little claws and began digging into the ground.
It was an ant, not a mouse, but it dug almost as fast as one. Before long, it had made a hole large enough to fit its body and crawled inside.
Seeing the familiar routine, the old man chuckled. "If Normanus the Adjudicator is a mindless construct that charges at any enemy it sees, then the Formian Ants are the perfect example of bullies who pick on the weak and fear the strong."
"When they see an outsider, they assess their strength first. If the outsider is weak, they contact other Formian Ants and attack together."
"But if they find the outsider is strong, they burrow away."
"Unless the Mother of All Ants gives an order, of course. Once she does, every Formian becomes utterly fearless."
When the Netherese Empire first marched into Clockwork Nirvana,