r18novel Chapter 25: "Chimera"
Chapter 25: "Chimera"
"That's actually a divinely bestowed seed from my two-toothed pitcher plant. It absorbed a lot of animal flesh and blood this morning. I feel that the flesh and blood of Force-based life forms might be beneficial to its evolution, so I plan to go with it and get some corpses of large-toothed ants to feed it..."
"Just this little thing?" Wu Yuan removed its forelimbs, glanced at Hong Yuan who was looking like it had been granted a pardon and ran to the entrance of the nest chamber in a flash, and casually ordered, "Hong Yuan, if a fight breaks out, leave some corpses for the little guy, give the little guy's divinely bestowed seed a try."
"Thank you, King Wuyuan!" Ye Zhi, surprised that things went so smoothly, immediately tapped her antennae to express her gratitude. "And thank you, Boss Hongyuan!"
"Huh?" Ye Zhi suddenly realized something was wrong, but Wu Yuan had already caught on. He looked at Hong Yuan, who thought the matter was over and had quietly slipped back to Ye Zhi's side, and raised his antennae. "Hong Yuan, did you teach the little guy some weird stuff again?"
......
"Your Majesty, please let me explain!"
"Snapped!"
Hearing the crisp sounds and the pleading signals from the nest behind her, Ye Zhi suppressed her laughter, ignored the exaggerated screams of her cheap boss behind her, and slowly flew out of the nest.
For ants, a type of primal life form with thick skin and an exoskeleton for protection, this kind of whipping is unlikely to cause any real pain. It is more of a symbolic, even slightly playful, form of punishment.
Through their time together, Ye Zhi had come to know that Wu Yuan was a good ant king. Not only did it take good care of him because of the late Qingzhi ant king, but it also treated its two subordinate kings quite well.
As a being with a higher life level than ordinary worker ants, Zoro can grow and evolve along with the queen ant, but it only needs half the resources of the queen ant and its evolution level cannot exceed that of the queen ant.
The Cinnabar Ant King is a first-age lord-level being, and the two assistant kings, Red Cinnabar and Green Cinnabar, have also reached the first-age lord-level, which is enough to prove that the Cinnabar Ant King has never shortchanged them in terms of resources for their growth and evolution.
"For the next few days, don't eat any food containing primal energy. Don't rush to evolve. Spend more time with the newly born divine seed, lest the tree spirit grow crooked."
The mental signal from Wu Yuan before his departure echoed in Ye Zhi's mind. She still remembered the slight lingering fear in Wu Yuan's mental energy when he mentioned "Chang Wai"—it seemed that the divinely bestowed seed from her unseen elder, the "Qingzhi Ant King," had left a considerable psychological shadow on this King Wu Yuan.
Thinking of this, Ye Zhi suddenly found the two-toothed pitcher plant's divinely bestowed seed, which was simply driven by its nature to want to eat anything it saw, quite pleasing to the eye.
He quickened his pace and flew swiftly towards the location of his two-toothed pitcher plant's divinely bestowed seed. The tree spirit, seeing his return, also emitted a joyful spiritual fluctuation.
Looking at the two-toothed pitcher plant's divinely bestowed seed, which seemed to have grown taller after absorbing a lot of animal flesh and blood, Ye Zhi had a thought that flashed through her mind, and she decided to start "teaching" it.
Previously, the tree spirit was too busy begging for food, and Ye Zhi was too busy being shocked and feeding it. They didn't even have time to name the tree spirit of the two-toothed pitcher plant's divinely bestowed seed. Now that they need to teach the new tree spirit, they might as well start from there.
Ye Zhi pondered what name to give the newly born divinely bestowed tree spirit.
Should he let the tree spirit take his surname, Ye? Or should he drastically change the name of the species *Nepenthes diplodocus*? Neither seemed quite right. For a moment, his "bad at naming" attribute from his previous life seemed to flare up again.
He gently bit his jaws, looking at his chimera jaws that weren't fully grown yet, and suddenly an idea struck him—that's right, he was a chimera, and the etymology of the word "chimera" in foreign languages is the famous mythical monster—Chimera.
Having made up her mind, Ye Zhi responded to the tree spirit with a friendly mental wave, and then slowly transmitted a signal: "My name is Ye Zhi. You should have a name too."
The tree spirit responded with another signal that it seemed to understand but didn't quite grasp. Its consciousness, newly formed and still somewhat rudimentary, sent out a mental signal: "Name? What is it? Can I eat it?"
Ye Zhi was speechless. He knew that the tree spirit, driven by its racial instincts, would still think of food. He could only helplessly explain, "No..."
"But it can bring you food." Seeing the disappointment mixed in the tree spirit's voice, Ye Zhi quickly reassured her, "With a name, I can easily tell those long, thin ants that you need to eat."
Without the presence of either Red Citron or Green Citron, Ye Zhi couldn't possibly communicate with the Floating Slender Ant worker ant across species. Just because the ant recognized his aura didn't mean the black guy could understand his language—well, the Floating Slender Ant was indeed entirely glossy black...
But the tree spirit knew nothing of this. Upon hearing there was food, it immediately became excited, and Ye Zhi seized the opportunity: "From now on, you'll be called 'Chimera,' how about that?"
The tree spirit's consciousness was still somewhat confused, after all, the words that Ye Zhi had brought up from her past life's memories were really hard to understand, but there was just too much that the newborn consciousness didn't understand, so it directly sent out a "agree" signal with joy.
Seeing that things had succeeded, Ye Zhi sent a mental signal to the two-toothed pitcher plant—which should now be renamed "chimera pitcher plant"—a signal that conveyed concern, reassurance, and joy, which can be simply translated as "good boy/girl." Then, she flapped her wings and took off, looking around.
As noon approached and the sun was high in the sky, the worker ants of the nearby slender ants sought shelter in the shade of the trees, but their compound eyes still vigilantly looked around, standing guard for the "Chimera".
With its compound eyes locked onto two unfortunate planthoppers clinging to the leaves of a distant plant, the leaf-woven body landed, and the mandibles swooped down to bite—while also practicing the ant-killing techniques learned from the red ivy. It twisted off their heads, wrapped them in ant silk, and flew up with their corpses.
"Chimera, this is a lanternfly. It feeds on plant sap, but it's unlikely to harm the divinely bestowed seed."
"Is it edible?"
"able."
As a plant, the "Chimera" has no facial features, but it can perceive the world through its still somewhat weak spiritual power. Ye Zhi showed the corpse to the Chimera for a moment, then casually tossed the headless corpse, which was still swaying under the residual nerve reflexes, into the insect trap.
Root-like structures extended, wrapping around and absorbing the headless corpse—his impression of this species had undoubtedly deepened. As for what kind of impression it was, Ye Zhi didn't care; she had already set her sights on her next target.
......
A day passed quickly, and Ye Zhi caught quite a few small arthropods from the neighborhood to teach "Chimera" about them.
Of course, all these "teaching aids" ultimately have only one outcome: their heads are twisted off and they are thrown into some kind of insect trap to serve as nutrients for the growth of the "chimera".
As dusk fell, Ye Zhi flapped her wings and left, following the somewhat reluctant mental signals from "Chimera." She returned to her nest, tended to her two larvae for a moment, and then lay down on her soft ant silk cushion, falling asleep.