The scouts approached the entrance to Waterfront City, and they stopped.

The hole is wide enough for four or five paver ants or an equal number of large-headed worker ants to burrow into at the same time, and if it is a large-headed ant soldier ant, it can only accommodate three at the same time.

The scouts of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army smelled the scent of the enemy from the mouth of the cave. The message of this breath is transmitted to them by the male ants through their antennae when they become adults. The scouts know that this is the smell of an old enemy, God is above, and only one of the paving ants and the big-headed ant can live in this world after all, this is what it means to be a old enemy!

The thick aura of enemies emanating from the cavern slowed the scouts down, and after a brief exchange, some of the scouts continued to search for other parts of the trunk to see if there were any other exits.

Now, only twelve scouts are left guarding the entrance to Waterfront City. Then, four of the scouts who remained behind made their way into the cavern, and the other eight circled around the perimeter of the cavern, keeping their heads down and holding their tentacles close to the trunk of the tree, so that they could sensitively pick up signals or sounds coming from inside the trunk.

The four scouts burrowed into the interior of Waterfront City through a wide opening, the walls of which were made of bark and xylem, giving them a very different style from the dirt nests.

The passages dug by the ants are always crooked, and there will be many nests. The "Waterfront City" is expanded on the basis of the cavity eroded by the moths, so the passage retains the characteristics of the moths and appears relatively straight. Only in the areas where the trees themselves are decaying do they have expanded nests.

These nests, which are close to the bark layer, tend to be larger than regular ant nests, and the scouts burrowed into one of the first nests they found, which not only has a huge amount of space, but also contains strange materials - small rocks and clay.

The scouts didn't understand the role of the stones and clay, but they did understand that the supplies in the nest weren't of any use to the Paving Ant Barbarian Army. So, after inspecting the massive nest, the scout left.

The passage then turned in a direction, from parallel to the bark to deeper into the trunk.

The scouts didn't hesitate, they got in. After a short climb, and after turning a corner, they entered a flat nest.

The nest is not small, about an irregular circle, about a decimeter in diameter. But the height is very low, and the ants can reach the ceiling if they stand upright, and if they lie on their stomachs, it is about the height of two or three ants.

The nest was already deep into the trunk of the tree, and there was no light to be seen except for the faint light from the sporadic malnourished fluorescent bacteria on the distant walls.

The scouts of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army were a little curious, knowing that the fluorescent bacteria should have died a long time ago in this season, after all, they could not withstand the cold temperatures, and only the remaining mycelium could germinate in the following year. However, they soon realized that the temperature in this location was relatively high, which was enough to support the survival of fluorescent bacteria.

The scouts of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army are just ordinary worker ants, generally selected from experienced veterans who have participated in many wars. The Scouts, though experienced but not very intelligent, do not understand the pros and cons of a warm nest for both sides of the population, they just find the temperature comfortable - even ants that are active in the winter hate the cold underground nests during this season.

They were going to search this flat nest room, and they felt that the smell of enemies here was even stronger, not the smell that spread from the mouth of the cave, but the smell of enemies in every corner of this nest.

Their feelings are not wrong, and their scouting journey will end here.

With a silent command, there was a sudden and dense noise in the depths of the nest, like the sound of a broom sweeping across a plank.

The scouts of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army immediately stopped what they were doing, and they quickly lay down and pressed their tentacles to the ground. The movement of the tentacles surprised even the most experienced veterans, so they turned around and ran.

As a rule of thumb, these scouts shouldn't have been so embarrassed.

Due to the eyesight of the ants and the fact that the big-headed ants are not tolerant to cold, the scouts of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army in previous years can easily enter the interior of the "Waterfront City".

In Waterfront City, scouts will usually only encounter half-frozen big-headed ants, and the agile scouts will always be able to dodge the opponent's slow-motion counterattack and pass the information back.

The half-frozen big-headed ants in Waterfront City are often unable to withstand the attacks of the Paving Ant Army, and in a short period of time, this secondary nest, which is not conducive to winter defense, will change hands. If you're lucky, sometimes scouts will find that the entire defenders of Waterfront City have frozen to death, and that's when it's even easier.

Now, though, the scouts read the information from their tentacles that they were being pursued by dozens of agile big-headed ant warriors.

Without any hesitation, these scouts turned around and ran, but it was too late. Soon, the pursuers behind them caught up, and what was even more desperate was that the figure of the big-headed ant also appeared in front of him - this was the soldier of the Divine Envoy King Legion who came to intercept him by a detour.

The four scouts were killed quickly, and perhaps to their deaths wondered how this year's enemy was not the same as usual.

What they don't know is that the protagonist has already ordered the Divine Envoy King's Legion to prepare for battle after seeing the ice bridge early in the morning, and that flat nest is the defense line specially built by the Divine Envoy King's Legion. This is the line of defense against the scouts, and it is also the line of defense against the Paving Ant Barbarian Army in the future.

Roll personally led a small number of elites to guard here, and the scattered scouts were naturally not the opponents of the Divine Envoy King Legion, which had a unified command and a numerical advantage.

And this time, thanks to the heating and insulation, the big-headed ants are no longer in a semi-frozen state as before, they are as flexible as the paver ants.

The movement of the cave ** was undoubtedly picked up by the eight scouts waiting at the entrance of the cave, and the Divine Envoy King's legion had no intention of going outside the cave to attack these scouts - it was still too cold outside.

However, the scouts had apparently sensed that something bad was happening under their feet, and some faint smell of blood had wafted out. The scout began tapping the bark with his right foreleg, signaling his companions.

The other scouts on the trunk rushed back as soon as they received the signal from beneath their feet. They waited a little longer, confirming that no information had been passed out from the cave.

So the scouts turned around and climbed down the banyan tree, and fled to the north bank of the river!