When the blast furnace of the Divine Envoy King Legion smelted iron, a lot of silicon was added, which could increase the popularity of molten iron, even if it was a small casting such as a jaw knife.

These siliceous sand formations are the crystalline sand and gravel commonly found on river beaches, and their main component is silica, which is very easy to collect. This experience also comes from the experience of smelting copper in the homeland.

The silica sand used in [Dongyangcheng] had to be transported from [Dahu City] all the way before, and [Xinyangcheng] was convenient, and there was a river beach for sand mining not far from the city.

The smelting of iron continued until November, at an average rate of one kiln a week, until all the charcoal was exhausted.

The Legion of the Divine Envoy eventually obtained a large number of iron tools and weapons, and both the 1st and 2nd Legions were able to replace them with better iron weapons, which were given to the 3rd Legion or stored in warehouses for later use.

Outdoors, although the early snowfall in October forced the ants underground, in early November, the weather improved a lot for a while, and the temperature during the day could reach as high as 10 degrees, as if it was autumn again.

At this time, even if it is warm, the ants of the Anxin Cat Winter generally will not go out.

The protagonist took advantage of this opportunity to form and send three paving ant exploration teams to explore the neighborhood.

In other seasons, the Divine Envoy King's legions did not dare to go too far from the nest, and only in areas free of ant activity, such as the peninsula and the woods to the north, were they safer.

A little further east will lead to the territory of the Leggings, who have profited from the trade even though they have not been able to defeat the Divine Envoy King. But that doesn't mean they can tolerate the Divine King's warriors operating in their own territory.

The Legion of the Divine Envoy King did not intend to provoke this important partner for the time being, so they never crossed the area of Golden Beach.

Crossing the woods to the north is the territory of the red fire ants, and walking west along the riverbank is the territory of the leafcutter ants, and the Divine Envoy King Legion also does not want to come into contact with these two forces too early.

Therefore, the dormant Divine Envoy King's legion has been snuggling on a small territory for several months, not daring to take a step beyond the thunder pool. However, the protagonist is not willing to do this, and for the sake of the future, he also urgently needs to have information about the vicinity, rather than relying only on the selective information provided by the bellied ants.

So taking advantage of the good weather in this winter, the paver ants who are good at outdoor activities in winter come in handy.

- I'm the dividing line -

The protagonist is at the entrance and exit of the nest and says goodbye to the three male paving ants who lead the team in turn.

The king of these three paver ants will each lead twenty paver ants to explore in three directions: east, west and north, collect geographic information and search for resource distribution.

The paver ants are equipped and fed according to the specifications of previous winter operations, which is about enough to sustain them for about four days.

According to the plan, they will explore the farthest distance possible over two days, and then spend more than a day returning to report back to the protagonist with the results of the investigation.

After saying goodbye, the paving ants came out of their burrows.

When they leave the cave, the protagonist can't see them, and if it goes well, they can meet again in four days.

The paver ants come to the ground and stretch in the morning sun, filling their bodies with heat.

At this time, there is no snow on the ground, and the previous thick layer of snow is gradually disappearing under the continuous warming.

But even if there is no snow, when you look up, you can recognize that this is a winter world.

The previous snowstorm had made it impossible to see a trace of green on the trees and the ground, and there were no pine or fir trees in the vicinity, only bare trunks everywhere. Only on the peninsula, a small holly stubbornly retains dirty, barely visible leaves.

Winter is grayscale, expelling all colors: the green of the vegetation, the snow reflecting the golden sun, the colourful fruits, flowers and life, leaving only monotony, tedium and silence, like a black and white silent film.

The paving ants quickly warmed up and headed in their own direction under the leadership of their respective captains.

The whole world seemed to be pressed the pause button, and even the wind was stingy with its strength to stop teasing the twigs. In the whole world, there are only three teams of small ants, and they are making a few marks on the ground.

- I'm the dividing line -

Three days later, in the evening, the protagonist welcomes the first team of returning Paving Ant Explorers.

They spent the day in the woods to the north, spending the night in an abandoned wormhole, and the next day, they found a large and majestic ant nest.

This nest is consistent with the information provided by the bellied ants about the main nest of the red fire ants, and it turns out that the main nest of the red fire ants is not far from the north of the woods, and it is so close to the [Dongyang City] of the Divine Envoy King Legion.

Before winter, the Divine Envoy King Legion had been unaware of this, and out of self-interest, the Bellied Ants did not reveal the existence of foreign ants to the Sect Lord's Red Fire Ants, nor did they inform the Divine Envoy King Legion of the specific information about the Red Fire Ants.

The protagonist is glad to have discovered this in the winter, otherwise he would have continued to build a secondary nest in the woods next year, so that if he gets too close to the territory of the red fire ants, he will definitely be spotted by wandering scouts.

Knowing this information and getting a map of the woods provided by the exploration team, the protagonist decides to make the northern half of the woods a forbidden area as a buffer against the territory of the red fire ants.

The team also described a strange feature near the main nest of the red fire ants, which was the large number of circular pits surrounding the anthill, but the team found nothing unusual about these pits.

The protagonist speculates that the pits might be ditch-like obstacles, but doesn't give much thought to it.

The next morning, the westbound exploration team returned for the second time.

Only half of them will come, and the rest will die outside.

According to the male ants in the group, they were marching along the river bank when they were attacked by the reeds.

The attacker was dragon lice, and the previous snowfall did not freeze the Qing River, and some aquatic insects survived under the protection of the relatively warm water. The recent warm weather has made these hungry survivors even more brutal.

Fortunately, most of the exploration team still ran out, as long as they stayed away from the water, even if they were as strong as dragon lice, they were useless.

The expedition team eventually discovered the woods and saw the nests of the leafcutters when they were close to the limit of their exploration, and determined that this was the territory of the leafcutters. This leafcutter ant colony is supposed to be the one that competes with the red fire ants for local supremacy.

The eastbound expedition was the latest, the shortest but the most difficult to walk.

After crossing the golden sand beach and the wooded territory of the bellied ants, there was a large shallow dry lake bed, full of pebbles and lack of vegetation, which the expedition team wandered around for two days without finding anything before returning.