The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 92 Mysterious Ritual
  After completing the task of blocking the floating mother nest of the Straight-horned Stone Nest Group, the swordfish-shaped Heard Shrimp Group continued to patrol the floating mother nest of the Straight-horned Stone Nest Group, swinging its swimming leaves, just in case.

Behind, the fearless soldiers, capable of destroying the entire floating nest, were also operating their water jet propulsion system, slowly approaching.

Under Lin Yi's control, the miniaturized spy worms had detached themselves from the appendages of the swordfish-shaped Herd shrimp and attached themselves to the surface of the floating mother nest of the right spiral stone nest group, continuing to guide the fearless soldiers behind. direction.

The foreign mother's nest pushed its own floating nest and slowly followed it, using the ordinary tools it carried and its own absorption ability to prepare for the final work of destroying corpses and eliminating traces.

At the same time, Lin Yi controlled a worker to wave its chelicerae at a three-eyed Hurd shrimp again, calling it over, and then waved its chelicerae to make gestures on the seabed.

The opponent's three compound eyes shone with a luster that represented doubt, as if there were three question marks in his eyes.

But under Lin Yi's gestures, it quickly understood. In front of it, the swordfish-shaped Hed shrimps used their sword snouts to pierce the soft main part of the right spiral stone floating mother nest, running the water jet propulsion system, swinging Youdong Ye slowly moved towards the rear base camp.

The fearless soldier and the swordfish-shaped Hed shrimp set off at the same time and faced each other head-on. The two sides soon appeared within each other's field of vision.

Under Lin Yi's control, the fearless soldiers waved their well-developed sickle limbs, stepped forward, and slowly used their sickle limbs to clamp the horn-like stone shells extending from the six directions of the floating mother nest of the Straight Helical Stone Nest Group. Structure, the triangular pyramid-shaped blades penetrated into it, and the two sets of chicken strip systems exerted force at the same time, crushing it.

Amidst the crackling sound, the horn-like shell structures extending in the six directions of the Straight-Helix Horn Stone Floating Mother Nest were all shattered under the violent crushing. The huge main part of the Floating Mother Nest could no longer maintain buoyancy, and had no choice but to float. Falling towards the seabed.

More fearless soldiers rushed forward and used their sickle limbs to tear apart the main part of the right-angled stone nest bit by bit.

In order to avoid the situation like the last starfish nest happening again, Lin Yi immediately controlled the floating mother nest at the rear to move forward. The workers on board fell off from the hanging whisker-like structure and swung their paddling feet to swim downstream.

The two pairs of claws waved and tore at the main part of the mother nest that had been torn apart by the fearless soldiers. They continued to cut it into smaller pieces and stuffed them into the holes on the surface of the floating mother nest for absorption, completing the destruction of corpses and traces. the process of.

With continuous cutting, the workers quickly completed the absorption of the floating mother nest of the right-angle stone nest group.

The genetic sequence of this brood contains the genetic sequences of the Orthogonal Anglestone, the Nether Occulus Anglestone, the Self-Explosive Anglestone and the Carrier Anglestone, but there is still no unknown Inkjet Anglestone.

In the previous analysis of the mother's nest, no other genetic sequences stored in the mother's nest have been found, and Lin Yi has no way of knowing whether the fearless soldier's genetic sequence has been absorbed by this mother's nest.

Several other floating nests that were not far from the battlefield were quickly destroyed by the fearless soldiers who arrived later under the tracking of the reconnaissance mother's echolocation system, and were subsequently absorbed by the floating nest.

The floating mother nests of the Straight Snail Nest Group that participated in this battle were all destroyed by Lin Yi. If nothing unexpected happened, the genetic sequence of the fearless soldier was probably saved.

But for some reason, he always had an ominous premonition in his heart. The mysterious inkjet hornstones and the abnormal behavior of the spiral hornstone nests made Lin Yi feel a little uneasy. On the other side, there is the hinterland of the territory of the Straight Spiral Stone Nest Group.

Filter-feeding hornstones float in the water and use their tentacles to filter plankton in the seawater. Even more are the larvae of Orthospermum, walking through the various parts of the nest taking care of themselves. The huge figure of the floating brood is suspended in the upper water, casting a large shadow.

And in this scene, there are several figures that are quite out of place - they are the carrier corner stones. But at this time, their shells were covered with scars, and the armor plates covering their tentacles and soft body tissues were also scarred. It looked like they had experienced a fierce battle.

And a tentacle with a suction cup on a carrier horn stone is dragging a piece of sheet covered by an exoskeleton - it is the paddling foot of the fearless soldier!

What Lin Yi didn't expect was that the opponent adopted a tactic of breaking it into parts to avoid the detection of the echolocation system, which was originally used to detect the floating mother nest and could not effectively and accurately locate a single horn stone at a long distance. Successfully Transport the Dreadnaught's paddling feet away from the scene.

The surrounding helical larvae all moved forward one after another, waving their tentacles and inserting their soft parts into the joints of the Dreadnought's paddling feet. Their horny beaks and radulas worked to eat the flesh below.

Immediately, these larvae of the Orthosphragmites tore off a large piece of flesh, grasped it in their tentacles, ran the water jet propulsion system, and slowly moved towards a strange-looking object among the group of hornstones.

But it's not a mother's nest, but something that looks like a mother's nest, but only has a larger hole at the top, without those honeycomb-shaped holes around it.

If Lin Yi saw it, he would recognize it at a glance. This was the hive-like life form he found in the middle of the Dikla Crater, which he named the Primitive Brood.

For some reason, there is also one in the Orthogonal Stone Nest Group - but this one obviously does not have the function of controlling the leader's ancient jaw.

These Orthogonal larvae are running water jet propulsion systems one after another, carrying the flesh and blood of the fearless soldiers and swimming into the holes on the surface of the original mother nest. Just like the operations of the ancient jaws at that time - except that this time it was their own volition, rather than being controlled by some means by the original mother nest.

The scene seemed to be carrying out some kind of mysterious ritual. More and more larvae were swimming into the opening at the top of the original mother nest carrying the flesh and blood of the fearless soldier. They were then absorbed by the original mother nest together with its shell.

Then, a yellow-brown liquid began to emerge from the side of the original mother nest and spread in the sea.

The Orthogonal Stones seem to have experience with this kind of thing. Above, a huge floating mother nest slowly lowers its height, connecting one of the holes around it with the huge hole on the top of the original mother nest.

The gushing yellow-brown liquid was all absorbed into the body of the floating mother nest. Immediately, the huge body of the floating mother nest began to undergo some changes - the six horn-like stone shell structures in the shape of a hexagram on the sides of the huge figure began to fall off. Only an oval body is left lying on the seabed.

Immediately, the body began to change, the honeycomb holes on the surface gradually closed, and the bottom of the shell seemed to be dissolving.

It's not like the mother's nest is preparing to give birth to something, but it's like it's turning into a pupa, preparing to become a brand new, reborn individual!
  (End of this chapter)