The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 194 True and False Creeps

In Shadowfly's compound eyes, on the horizon, viscous liquid masses arced across the sky, falling towards the sea of ​​fire with a purgatory-like scenery.

The liquid fell and spread into a puddle on the ground. Immediately, the blazing flames extinguished, leaving only puddles of viscous liquid and two or three clusters of beating flames, which were quickly extinguished.

Thinking about it, Lin Yi controlled the shadow fly to take off slowly, flying for a distance in the direction of the ballistic trajectory. Looking in that direction, he saw several giant scorpion-shaped insects that were slightly larger than the giant horseshoe crab lifting up the fat and... The stubby tail, with the end like the opening of a cannon barrel, is spraying thick liquid.

It was a level that had never appeared before. Except for the shabby scorpion tail that had been modified by magic, these giant insects looked similar to the Carboniferous lung scorpions, but their abdomens were more bloated. But that scorpion tail doesn't look like any arachnid species.

While thinking about it, the flames were basically extinguished under the viscous liquid that these giant scorpion-shaped insects continued to spray. Then, another liquid began to spray out from their bodies. The color was gray-white, slightly purple-black, and seemed to contain some special ingredients. .

Sure enough, when the liquid fell, the gray-black and slightly purple color immediately spread at an alarming speed, and soon showed filamentous tissue - it was fungus, and it multiplied very fast, as if it was not an ordinary fungus, but something like Yes. Creep? !

While thinking wildly, those scorpion-shaped giant insects once again shot out more liquid. These liquids should contain spores. As soon as they came into contact with the liquid that extinguished the flames, the fungus proliferated in it, and soon grew something like spores. The construction of entities.

As soon as the elongated fruiting body is born, the structure that should be the cap at the end begins to expand, and then bursts open, spraying out a large number of spores contained in it, directly towards the Saw Ants in the front row.

Spores fell from the sky like snowflakes and landed on the exoskeletons of the Saw Ants. Lin Yi immediately felt that the hyphae were spreading along the gaps in the exoskeleton towards the Saw Ants' bodies - they were trying to resemble the ants. Control saw-toothed ants the same way you control a colony of terrestrial arthropods!

Lin Yi admitted that if he had just landed on land and encountered these fungi, the outcome would indeed be uncertain. But now, this method cannot threaten him at all, who has changed from what he used to be!

In the circulatory system of the whole body, a large number of special virus-like life forms began to operate - these are the key to control the self-dissolution of individuals at the cellular level, but if they can dissolve their own cells, they can also dissolve the invading mycelium!

At this time, these structures temporarily acted as immune cells, killing the invading hyphal tissue, directly dissolving it, and collecting nutrients, which in turn supplied the Sawtooth Ant itself.

The parasitism of these hyphae is basically equivalent to sending nutrients, and has no effect. Soon, the nutrients in the spores are exhausted, and the remaining hyphae that try to continue to multiply on the body surface and find other breakthroughs dry up and fall off.

At this time, those giant scorpion-shaped insects were still spraying viscous liquid containing spores from behind. Little did they know, the god of death was approaching.

A sharp and piercing scream suddenly sounded in the sky, echoing between heaven and earth. A giant scorpion-shaped insect raised its head in confusion, only to see a shadow shrouding it.

The scream stopped abruptly, and was replaced by the whirring sound of a warhead tearing through the air. Immediately, there was a violent explosion, and its body was completely blown away and torn into pieces, leaving only a pile of minced meat and a pool of blue blood in its place.

The angle of view was raised as the long-winged divers were pulled up. From behind, more long-winged divers swooped down one after another, throwing biological high-explosive aerial bombs on the heads of the giant scorpion-shaped insects.

After hundreds of millions of years, the screams representing death once again echoed over this continent. Once again, bringing shadow and death to the creatures below.

With just one strike, the opponent's "artillery position" was immediately wiped out, leaving only broken bodies lying on the ground and a large amount of liquid splashing out.

Taking advantage of an air strike by the Kuei-Wing Diver to paralyze the enemy's long-range firepower, a shadowfly rose up from behind, picked up half of the remains of the giant scorpion insect with its appendages, and threw it on the fungus carpet for absorption. and decomposition. At the same time, more Crazy-toothed Saw Ants took steps and continued to advance. Behind them, a large amount of fungus carpet continued to spread, and soon spread to the location where the hyphae grew on the ground after the opponent sprayed spores.

The roots of the fungi climb up the bodies of these fungal hyphae and become entangled with them, and a microscopic battle begins.

Those hyphae like muscle fibers are entangled and proliferating. In the carpet, a large number of special virus-like microorganisms continue to kill the opponent's hyphae, dissolve them, and turn them into nutrients for their own growth.

From time to time, tumor-like structures proliferate from the fungus blanket, which serves as the consciousness node of the nest to control the fungus blanket, spreading the nervous system to the surroundings, controlling the roots to wrap around and absorb more mycelium.

The battle lines between the purple-black fungal carpet and the gray-white fungal tissue were intertwined for a while, making it difficult to distinguish one from the other, but gradually, the fungal carpet gained the upper hand.

In front of the bacterial carpet that is a mixture of animal, plant and fungal gene sequences, these deadly parasitic fungi were slightly inferior. They quickly retreated in large areas and were turned into nutrients for their own proliferation by the bacterial carpet.

For a moment, it seemed that no more enemy-level individuals appeared. The carpet advanced and soon spread, swallowing up all the mycelium.

From the perspective of the tall-winged swooper in the sky, the area occupied by the fungus blanket appears to be a long strip, chewing up a large chunk among the dense fern forest.

At this time, under Lin Yi's control, these fungus carpets will continue to spread to the surroundings and gain a foothold in this special fern forest where plants and fungi coexist.

Some workers began to move forward and pupate towards the mother's nest. More terrestrial mother nests and various structures quickly completed pupation in the hinterland, more grade individuals were produced, and vigilance and cleanup began around this area.

The catapult take-off structure of the Kuai-Wing Diver has also begun to pupate slightly behind, preparing to establish a frontline airport to further increase control over this area.

Even so, the opponent did not send any more level individuals to hinder all this, as if all combat levels had been wiped out by the group, and there was no movement.

In the midst of such vigorous production and construction, Lin Yi also completed the analysis of the genetic sequences of those scorpion-shaped giant insects, and the point he was most interested in was answered. This gave him a new inspiration, inspiration for the nest to better expand.

While thinking, his consciousness locked on the genetic sequence of the mother nest and the fungus carpet, and began to continue editing.

(End of this chapter)