Dragon God, immortal

Are you a dragon god or a devil?

Just as Shushan was shocked, in the nest under the insect mother, in the hexagonal nests, the insects that had passed the egg, worm, and pupa stages slowly broke through the nests and crawled out...

Chapter 70 Charm Bee (Part 2), Pink and Purple Swarm

The insect queen is dead.

But not completely dead.

As a eusocial insect, the purpose of the queen insect's existence is reproduction, and as the queen insect of the original insect swarm, she copied herself several times, which are the second generation of queen insects.

After ensuring that these second-generation replicas safely pass through the larval and pupal stages, the first-generation insect mother will hastily build a nest to settle down in, causing her body to tremble and eventually die of exhaustion.

However, before her death, she left behind a lot of culture medium of Porphyridium. After her death, the hyphae of the saprophytic fungus penetrated her whole body and she grew slender saprophytic fungus mushrooms.

"It's Cordyceps sinensis." Shushan picked up the first-generation queen insect and played with it for a while, then put her back into the insect nest.

There are a total of six second-generation insect queens.

Almost the same as the first generation.

They all know how to work as soon as they are born.

Thanks to the legacy of the previous generation of insect mothers, these insect mothers do not need to cultivate purple algae and saprophytic fungi from scratch. They can directly decompose and utilize the mushrooms transformed by the insect mothers to expand the insect nest and create new culture medium.

For the insect swarm, there is nothing that cannot be eaten. Even low-energy plastics can be considered food. But... let me put it this way, if Shushan didn't force it, who the hell would like to eat these garbage?

Of course, it was also under the compulsion of the "macro-environment" of Shushan that the insect swarm gradually evolved a body structure that was adapted to plastic products.

Starting from the second generation of insect queens, they no longer completely digest plastics. Instead, they crush the plastics, stuff them into the hyphae of saprophytic bacteria to decompose them, and then eat them into their stomachs through the purple algae cycle.

After multiple reactions, the decomposed polyethylene merged with the chitin secreted by the insect swarm and gradually evolved into a... new shell.

"What an amazing evolution. If they can't digest it, they can just use it directly. This shell is indeed lighter and stronger than pure carapace. After death, it is also easier to be decomposed by putrefactive bacteria." Shushan picked up a mother insect, and the small mother insect struggled hard with its six claws.

Shushan ordered her not to move.

She just lay there on her paws in a daze.

Previously, Shushan said that the swarm looked a bit like cockroaches, but if you look closely, the swarm doesn't look like an insect of the order Blattodea.

Insects of the order Blattodea, such as cockroaches and termites, all undergo incomplete metamorphosis. They do not have distinct larval and pupation periods, and there is not much difference between adults and larvae.

The insect swarm undergoes complete metamorphosis, and the larvae and adults are so different before and after pupation that they look like two different species.

Shushan tapped the insect mother lightly with his fingernails.

Playing with this little bug.

Considering that the insect queen is less than one meter in size, and his claws are more than ten meters long... the comparison is no less than a human holding a house ant to play with.

Fortunately, the Dragon God has extraordinary senses and flexible body control ability, otherwise he really wouldn't be able to play with such a small thing.

The queen insect can be compared to a family ant queen.

Shushan's perception of it has changed.

House ants are very cute little creatures. When he was a human in his previous life, he raised a group of completely blind leaf-cutter ants, or polymorphic house ants.

The queen of this kind of ant is very big, and the heads of the soldier ants are also very big, but the worker ants are of different sizes. When the small worker ants and soldier ants stand together, it is like infantry and large tanks standing shoulder to shoulder.

In the wild, the worker ants of the completely blind leaf-cutter ants often climb on the soldier ants to collect and hunt together, so they are also jokingly called "army ants coordinated by foot tanks" by Shushan.

"Hmm...but insects don't have thin waists like ants and bees, so which type of insects should they be classified into?" Shushan thought.

Well, since we have the [Command the Swarm Magic], why don't we just ask directly?

Shushan: What kind of insect are you?

Mother Worm: Let me go, I want to eat.

Shushan: Do you know what kind of insect you are?

Mother Worm: Let me go, I want to eat.

Shushan: Ah, this... well, we shouldn't expect too much intelligence from the insect swarm. You have wings, right? Spread your wings.

Mother Worm: No.

Shushan: Be good, let me see!

Under Shushan's firm command, the insect mother reluctantly curled up her belly, connected her head and tail, and raised her back chest high.

The two hard front wings on the back of the insect queen opened, and the hind wings hidden under the front wings instantly stretched out, just like the complex solar panels of an artificial satellite, slowly opening along the folding lines.

"Huh?! It's Dermoptera? That's impossible. How can it have such complex wings while undergoing complete metamorphosis?" Shushan was shocked. This, this is not common sense.

Most insects can be classified by their wings, such as Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, etc., which are classified according to the differences in their wings.

The front wings of the Coleoptera are very thick and hard, protecting the hind wings inside like a scabbard, hence the name Coleoptera... Beetles and ladybugs are all Coleoptera.

The wings of Lepidoptera have hydrophobic scale-like structures, which look like scales at a microscopic level, hence the name Lepidoptera… Butterflies and moths are both Lepidoptera.

The wings of Hymenoptera are very thin, just like a film, very light but really thin, hence the name Hymenoptera... Bees, wasps and ants are all Hymenoptera.

Similarly, the wings of the Neuroptera are very similar to leaf veins, the forewings of the Orthoptera are very straight, and the Diptera have two pairs of wings.

And the insect swarm is the order Dermapteridae.

The most complex wings.

The material of their front wings is similar to leather, soft and tough, while the hind wings are hidden under the front wings through precise folding and neatly stored.

In other words, they rarely use their wings, but it’s not that they don’t use them… With wings, they have to maintain and protect them, but they can’t let the wings interfere with their work, so they can only find a way to keep the wings away…

Shushan's previous idea that the swarm's wings were like complex folded solar panels was wrong. It should be the latter that is like the former!

"No, you don't look like earwigs (yinqusou)!" Shushan scratched the dragon horn, put down the mother insect in his hand, and continued to observe the ecology of this insect.

Theoretically, complete metamorphosis would not be able to produce such a complex wing structure.

But the Swarm should be a magical species.

A little weird is reasonable, right?

After the insect mother returns to the nest, she continues the cycle of giving birth to babies, growing algae, raising babies, and growing mushrooms.

As time went by, the third swarm of insects began to emerge, with tiny insects wriggling in the hexagonal cells.

I don’t know if it’s because of the purple algae, but most of these insects are pink in color, which dilutes Shushan’s uneasiness about the crawling insects.

The shell color of the adult insects is a very dark purple-black. Perhaps it is some indigestible pigment in the purple algae that is absorbed by the insects?

"Hmm, why are these purple algae green... Oh, that's why. Under sufficient light and ventilation conditions, purple algae will also carry out photosynthesis... But in the end it will still turn purple." Shushan observed and took notes.

Without photosynthesis, purple algae grown in dark nest culture medium will remain purple.

However, Porphyridium cruentum, which is exposed to light, will turn green in its 'juvenile' stage.

The uncolored purple algae has a high protein content.

Shushan concentrated a little and tasted it.

Somewhat meaty.

As for the color-changed purple algae, the protein content is slightly lower, but it has a sweet taste. It should be the polysaccharides produced under the photosynthesis environment?

Soon, the third group of insects also grew into plump larvae, with their small chewing mouthparts facing outside the nest, waiting to be fed by the mother insect.

The six insect mothers worked tirelessly to grow algae and mushrooms. Finally, one day, the larvae pupated one after another and reached the stage of fasting.

“Some pupae have different shapes.” Shushan looked down at the insect nest and found that some of the pupae were larger and fatter than most of them.

Didn't let Shushan wait.

The pupae gradually emerged from their cocoons.

The first to emerge from their cocoons are the smaller pupae.

As soon as these insects crawled out of the nest, they spread their wings to dry for a while and stretched their limbs and antennae.

After they were completely dried, they took over the work of the queen insects. The queen insects no longer fed the larvae, but instead laid eggs and grew mushrooms diligently.

Finally, the larger pupae also successfully left the nest, dried themselves in the same way, and then joined the insect swarm society.

"As expected, they have differentiated. Different insects are responsible for different tasks." Shushan nodded. This was expected. After all, when they first met the insect swarm, they already had a social form of division of labor and cooperation.

The insect queen is responsible for reproduction. She is larger in size and dark in color, not much different from the first-generation insect queen. Her tentacles are shorter, hairless, and she does not have a thick carapace.

The wise insect is responsible for delivering messages. Its body shape is similar to that of the mother insect. It has a furry scarf around its neck and two long tentacles near the top of its eyes like eyebrows. At the base of the tentacles there are light-emitting organs like those of fireflies.

Soldier insects are responsible for guarding. They are similar in size to the mother insect, dark in color, with wide upper and lower jaws, making their heads look very large. At the same time, their shells are harder than those of other insects.

The worker insect is smaller, only half the size of the mother insect, with long antennae and a collar, as well as large mandibles and armor, but both sides are average.

There are only these four types of insects at present.

Such a group is a complete life.

"It shouldn't be my illusion?" Shushan scratched his dragon horn in confusion, "It feels like the new insects are much lighter in color?"

The third generation of insect mothers was also born. She was formed by the intercourse of two second generation insect mothers... Well, there is no need to consider whether the insect mother is a female or not. In short, just treat her as a female.

The colors of the first two generations of insect queens were deep purple-black, and at first glance they looked no different from black.

But in the latest generation, the dark color turned into succubus purple, and there was a hint of pink at the ends of the short tentacles and six limbs.

With different species of insects...

The expansion speed of the swarm suddenly soared!

Intelligent insects are the loudest of the insect swarm. Their necks and long tentacles can emit pheromones. The roots of their eyebrow-like tentacles can glow, and they have the ability to accurately transmit information.

Even if the two intelligent insects are far apart, they can communicate quickly through pheromones and fluorescence, and quickly dispatch worker insects and soldier insects to specific locations to perform specific tasks.

The soldier insects are silent and hardly emit pheromones, but they will act immediately upon receiving an order, without any delay, and they always follow orders.

Workers are much more complicated...

Like an ant...

They appear wherever they are needed. They are responsible for feeding the larvae, keeping the culture medium nest warm, cleaning up the excrement to cultivate fungi, and turning fungi into nutrient solution to raise algae...

"Thank you for your hard work, worker insects." Shushan paid tribute to the worker insects. As the largest group in society, they eat the least nutrition and do the most tiring work. They are small yet great.

According to Shushan's observations, food during the larval stage affects differentiation during the pupation period.

The ones responsible for deciding what to feed are not the queen insect or the intelligent insect, but the worker insects.

Larvae that are fed more fungi will pupate into soldiers; those that are fed more algae will become intelligent insects; and those that eat a little bit of everything will become workers.

Only the larvae that continue to eat purified purple algae will fully develop and become mother insects.

By this time, the insect queen had reached the fourth generation.

The colors of the fourth generation are very beautiful.

Purple and pink are smudged alternately, and the junction between the chest and abdomen becomes slender.

The larvae born by the fourth generation of insect mothers also inherited the mother's color, each one turning purple and pink. The initial dark color was only temporary.

"Well, it won't turn black if there's no miasma accumulated? If you look at it this way... actually, it looks pretty good?" Shushan scratched his head, finding it a little hard to accept.

The swarm of insects gave him a bad first impression. Imagine what it would be like to be covered in cockroaches? Oh, cockroaches are really not good!

But Shushan thinks that the current swarm of insects can be kept as pets... They are not only beautiful but also obedient. They don't crawl around, don't bite other things, and will defecate in fixed places...

Shushan thought for a moment and came to the conclusion:

This is a race that has been well adjusted long ago!

Time passed again, the fifth generation, the sixth generation, the seventh generation, the eighth generation... The insect swarm reproduced very quickly, and it was not until the thirteenth generation that Shushan ordered them to slow down.

In this generation, the insects are no longer limited to building nests on the ground. They eat plastic, process these hard-to-use materials in their bodies, and then spit them out to cast them into hexagonal pyramids.

And under the high tower, several meters deep underground, there are cavity-like nests, which are the residences of the insect queens. They lay eggs here, which are then moved to the upper pyramid by worker insects for cultivation.

According to Shushan's calculations, such a building could stand for more than 500 years if maintained by the insect swarm.

But as long as the swarm gives up maintaining the nest, the nest will collapse and turn into mud within a year or two.

"Oh my god, these bugs are expanding too fast!" Shushan felt that the speed of development was a bit outrageous.

With just ten years of full development, they would be able to build dozens of hexagonal insect nests with a side length of more than 20 meters in his toilet. If they were allowed to expand outside... in the absence of natural enemies, they would be able to spread all over the world in a few hundred years, right?

At this point, the insect swarm cultivation on Shushan has been initially completed.