The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 36 Strange

The weak light penetrated the sea water and reflected in [Eye]'s three eyes. "Qi" once again looked at the abyss of the sea and fell into memories.

Once upon a time, within three eyes of [Eye], the figures of groups of [Claws] dyed the waves blue and black, causing the insects on the bottom of the sea to flee. [Sift]'s huge body plunders every inch of nutrients in the world. Even the toughest opponent is vulnerable to the thrust of [Front], and is eventually absorbed by the nest mother and becomes a source of nourishment for the expansion of the group.

In "Qi"'s memory, since his birth, there has been a void space above the heaven and earth.

And every time when the heaven and earth fall into darkness, countless flickering bright spots will appear above the nothingness, and every time they see these bright spots, there is always some inexplicable throbbing from the depths of consciousness, wanting to break through the heaven, earth and nothingness and go there. .

But above the heaven and earth, the matter that filled the space disappeared without a trace, leaving the individual with nowhere to draw on. No matter how much he flapped his leaf feet, he could not move up half a body, and could only be pulled back to the world by an unknown force. .

Even if the strongest [Front] thrusts towards the sky and the earth, it can only jump into the void for a moment, let alone touch the bright spot above the void.

However, in my memory, during that time, above the nothingness, there were always bright spots trailing across the sky and falling into the sky and earth.

This became the only way for "Qi" who was curious about those bright spots to get in touch with them.

During that time, "Qi" gave birth to a large number of [Fronts] through the nest mother, chasing the bright spots falling on the sky and the earth, trying to get a glimpse of them.

It was also at that time that [Eye] was created by it, using its specialized third eye to search for the bright spots falling above the void to point out the direction for [Front].

But from that time on, things became different.

When [Front] swung its leaf legs, cutting through the waves day and night, and reached [Eye] to observe the direction where the bright spot might fall, what caught the compound eyes were several strange yet familiar figures.

"Qi" recognized this creature with a long and slightly curved shell, but only covered half of its body, and several soft legs growing under its body.

But in the "Qi" impression, their body shape is often only the size of a [claw], and most of them crawl on the seabed carrying their shells on their backs, and rarely swim in the water.

The ones presented in front of them were already close to the size of the [claws], and their legs were expanding and contracting, and they were swimming in the water together with their bodies.

If Lin Yi's consciousness had awakened at that time and he had seen these creatures, he would have been able to tell their identities at a glance - a species called stilts, which is the earliest horned stone with the ability to swim discovered by later studies. And may represent the form of the common ancestor of all cephalopods in later generations.

However, the size of the short-horned hornstones is still small, but the few that appeared in front of "Qi" already have the average size of later generations of orthogonal stones.

Moreover, when faced with [Feng] coming through the waves, they showed no fear at all. Instead, they swarmed up and wrapped their soft legs directly towards [Feng]'s head!

Although the [Front] is powerful, it comes from a long distance and does not have the cooperation of the [Claw]. However, the opponent is waiting for work, and there are many "people". After a lot of fighting, they were finally exhausted and defeated.

Those creatures have mouths comparable to the mouth cones of the [Claw], and even the [Front], which was born for fighting, has a soft and unprotected back part of the body, and can be torn apart easily. "Qi" lost a [front] in this way. The aggression and organization shown by the other party made "Qi" vaguely feel that he seemed to have met someone of the same kind.

It immediately controlled the nest mother to produce a large number of [Fronts] and [Claws], and gathered in a group to rush towards the place where the last [Front] died.

But "Qi" had some bad premonitions. When [Feng] arrived near the sea area again, a scene that shocked Qi appeared in his compound eyes.

White lines streak across it, and the conical shell below is looming among the waves. But this time, the enemy "Qi" encountered, including its shell, was twice as long as [Feng]!

But before "Qi" could react, the opponent was already charging towards [Front]. That half of the shell was unexpectedly strong, and [Feng], who had always charged with overwhelming force, was defeated and died on the spot.

"Qi" will never forget the scene that day - when the thick waves of blood dissipated in front of the surviving [Claw], what appeared in his eyes was a purgatory-like scene.

The seabed was almost completely covered by [Claw]'s bodies that had been violently torn into two pieces, their flesh and blood surging and floating in the waves. The leaf legs of some corpses have not even completely stopped swinging, and are twitching from time to time.

The huge corpse of [Front] was mixed between [Claws], and the sharp head shell was broken off and buried in the sand. It could no longer launch a fatal charge against other creatures. Behind the head, the slender and elegant streamlined body was gone, leaving only a large, ferocious, everted flesh scar.

The instigator was swinging his legs, cruising back and forth on the sea of ​​​​blood on the mountain of corpses. A pair of eyes that were different from any other level in the "Qi" ethnic group turned and glanced down, as if the old gods were coming to the world with contempt.

It was from then on that "Qi" remembered these narrow, contemptuous eyes and their appearance.

Whenever I see such eyes, each [Claw] body is pierced and torn apart by the conical shell, a massacre-like scene will appear in "Qi"'s consciousness again - just like [Feng] 】Like when piercing other creatures.

From that day on, "Qi"'s tribe unleashed its full war potential. A large amount of food resources filtered out by [Screen] were transformed, and [Claws] and [Fronts] were produced by the nest mother one after another.

The war broke out, and the other party gradually encroached on the territory of the "Qi" ethnic group. "Qi" responded, and targeted tactics and individuals came into being - the improved [Purpose] and the tactics of using its vision to monitor the entire field, That's when it was born.

But it was still to no avail, and the tribe was still retreating step by step. In a swarm battle, the opponent's only weakness is covered by each other, leaving [Front] and [Claw] unable to find any flaws, and can only use [Claw] or even [Front]'s life to block the opponent in vain.

During this period, "Qi" confirmed the fact that the other party was half the same species as it - it saw the other party's nest mother. The difference is that their nest mother is floating, not fixed to the seabed like "Qi". And the nest mother floating under the guard of a large number of enemy individuals was also deeply ingrained in "Qi"'s memory.

In the end, "Qi", who was forced into a desperate situation, gathered the last remnant soldiers, carried the larvae of the nest mother, and headed towards the abyss in a part of the territory. He escaped into the abyss and only surfaced in the shallow sea at night.

It once thought that the tribe would never have a chance to see the light of day again, until another group of "similar people" arrived.

(End of this chapter)