Ants generally do not eat the carcasses of their own family, for the simple reason that it is simple.

First, the corpses of the same kind often have germs that can infect themselves. Since these germs can infect or lurk in dead ants, they can also infect ants who eat them, especially if the ants are eating raw, most of the germs cannot be killed.

Like the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom, when the Paving Ant Barbarian Army launched a counterattack and was forced to retreat, and the nest was short of food, it had to feed on ant carcasses, which caused a serious epidemic, and a large number of soldiers died of illness.

Second, it is too cost-effective to obtain ant carcasses as food. Regardless of whether they are of the same race or different races, wars between ants tend to be very fierce. Compared to the easily obtainable insect prey, the carcasses that can be obtained specifically to attack an ant nest or tribe as food may not be worth the wear and tear caused by war. Naturally, ants do not choose such uneconomical food.

Therefore, only in the special predicament of the Northern Expeditionary Army at that time, and the corpses were readily available, would there be a large-scale phenomenon of feeding on the corpses of the same kind.

This is true not only in the ant world, but also in the human world. The vast majority of ethnic groups regard the eating of the same kind and the corpses of the same kind as a heinous crime, which is a warning from genes to raise the harm of eating the same kind of corpses to a moral level.

The only cannibals are often those who have difficulty obtaining enough animal protein, and these races have to rely on the flesh of their own kind as a necessary nutritional supplement for environmental reasons.

For example, some tribes living in the interior of the island of New Guinea have no domestic animals, and the island lacks suitable prey, and their diet is mainly potatoes. These tribes are severely lacking in protein sources, with potatoes having the lowest protein content in staple foods, and a lack of animal protein from prey and livestock, and even plant protein is not available to these people.

As a result, these tribes, known to the outside world as "cannibals", have evolved some peculiar customs, such as the corpses of the deceased being eaten at funerals, women and children eating brains, and men eating their bodies, which they believe is a way to commemorate the dead. In fact, this is also a tradition that has to be done due to the lack of protein.

But this tradition also brought with it epidemics. Laughing death, also known as bitter disease, is a mysterious disease that occurs only in the Fore tribe of New Guinea. This disease is characterized by sudden laughter, both men and women, and people with this disease will shake their limbs, and the symptoms will be reduced after resting for a while, however, after 1 to 3 months, the patient begins to sway, stagger, unsteady standing, squinting eyes, incoherent speech, and finally dies. In addition, the infected people are mainly local women and children.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health found in an autopsy of the deceased that what caused their death was the sudden appearance of a small hole in the brain, and the whole brain became like "Swiss cheese".

No one in the local area knew why this strange disease occurred, until scientists discovered that the local villagers had a custom of eating the corpses of their dead relatives, which allowed the virus to spread throughout the village. The virus is latent in the brains of the deceased and is harmless if eaten after cooking, but the locals often put the raw brain pulp in their mouths before cooking the deceased's brains, and the virus also enters the patient's body.

Since it is mainly women and children who come into contact with the brains of the deceased, the disease is more likely to infect women and children. The rate of adult men is very low because they rarely eat brain.

With the efforts of the local government, these tribes obtained other meat, and the bad habit of eating human flesh disappeared, and with it, the death of laughter disappeared, which has been recorded as a typical case of the impact of cannibalism on the epidemic.

So, looking back, the protagonist thinks: Is the mysterious ant really an "anteater" who feeds on the corpses of its kind?

Since the mysterious ants can defeat the Japanese bowback ants and suppress the paving ants, their combat effectiveness is very considerable, so they should not lack meat in this prey-rich area, and there is no need to eat ant carcasses as a nutritional supplement.

Eating the corpses of the same kind often brings about diseases that are difficult to eliminate, which in turn will limit the growth of the race, so it is almost impossible for the mysterious ant to be so powerful if it does so.

These questions haunt the protagonist.

- I'm the dividing line -

The "world situation" on the north bank of the Great River is changing dramatically, but fortunately there is a large river across the protagonist's territory.

As long as there is a large river, no ant can easily climb over, and the protagonist's territory is safe. Even if this powerful force that suddenly appeared seized the hegemony of Hebei, which originally belonged to the paving ant barbarians, it would be difficult to threaten the Divine Envoy King Legion.

In contrast, the information coming back from the southern hilly areas needs more attention from the protagonist in the near future.

Previously, during the military campaign against the Old-fashioned King, the Divine Envoy King's legion found signs of the resurgence of parasites, and then the protagonist asked the scythe hunters of the "Southern City" to form a force and explore the depths of the southern hills, which had suffered from parasites.

The man who was ordered to organize the troops was a male ant who was not strong in combat, but he surrendered early and proved his loyalty for more than a year.

This reconnaissance operation requires a commander with an online IQ, and it is difficult for the big-headed ant male ant to command these scythe warriors, and the protagonist finally decides to use this scythe male ant.

After naming him "Kite", the protagonist asks him to organize a small unit of three squads, and then set off from "Southern City" and follow the route of the parasitic ants retreating all the way.

This force will inevitably pass through the territory of some Scythe Hunting Ant Tribes, but the size of more than a hundred Scythe Hunter Warriors is enough to make most of the Scythe Ant Hunting tribes retreat.

The southern hilly area was previously cleared by the Divine Messenger King's legion, and at one point almost all the local indigenous ants were killed or expelled.

However, the local resources were poor, and the Divine Envoy King's legion did not completely occupy this place, but built several bases as a peripheral defense circle with the "Southern City" as the center, and adopted a point-to-area control method.

After the Divine King's army retreated, the ant races that migrated from elsewhere soon controlled the vacuum created by the withdrawal of the Divine King's army, which was still dominated by hunting sickle fierce ants.

Fortunately, these tribes have just relocated, and they are all small and medium-sized tribes, and in the face of the small troops of kites, they only dare to bluff and intimidate, and do not dare to take the initiative to provoke conflicts.

From this point of view, the hunting sickle ants are still very aware of current affairs.

Kite's troops arrived at the Great Lake, where the parasitic ants had fled, and finally found some clues.