In the end, the Flying Knight was not able to set off immediately to search for the escaped parasitic ants.

Experienced ants report that the humidity and pressure in the air have changed badly, and a long-lost rain is coming.

The protagonist looks up at the sky, it is dawn at this time, and the sky that should have begun to brighten is still gloomy, and there is a dazzling light on the horizon of the far east, but it cannot change the background color between heaven and earth.

Heavy rain is coming, and the protagonist has no choice but to abandon his plan to search for parasitic ants.

The entire stump fortress has been put into disaster prevention mode, and the big-headed ants are busy dredging the clogged trenches, digging drainage ditches, and waterproofing the important nest chambers where supplies are stored.

The worker ants who stayed behind in the original parasitic ant nest did not withdraw to the stump fortress because of the long distance, and took shelter from the rain inside the parasitic ant nest on the spot.

Not long after sunrise, the rain came as expected.

This time the rain was not a disaster, not as intense as the summer rains, which caused the flooding on the ground. It's more like a spring rain, delicate and gentle, with a gentle breeze.

This rain is a gentle willow and peach blossom rain for humans, making people more willing to put down their umbrellas and enjoy a moment of coolness in this summer.

But for the ants, even this drizzle they can't go out. Fine droplets of water can wet their shells and, if unlucky, clog or choke into the air holes. And the huge raindrops that gather on the tall leaves may also kill an ant.

The rain doesn't make it a disaster, but it prevents the big-headed ants from going out, and the protagonist can only hide in the warm and dry interior of the stump fortress and wait.

The only thing that comforted him was that under the drizzle, the parasitic ants could not migrate. Moreover, in the open field, parasitic ants without nest shelter will definitely be lost, and wet ant eggs, larvae, ant pupae and weak ants are also prone to illness and death.

"Wait until the wind and rain have subsided, and then come and clean them up." The protagonist thinks to himself.

The drizzle continued for half a day, and it was about noon when the clouds, which were already getting lighter and lighter, completely dispersed, and the scorching sun scorched the earth again, and the world, which had just been slightly cooled by the rain, quickly turned into a huge steamer.

The Flying Knights led their mounts to the top of the fortress, letting the warm sunlight dry the mist-soaked wings of the flies. Until the wings are completely dry, these flies will not be able to fly freely.

After another quarter of an hour, the nine flying knights, led by the Flyhawk, took off at the urging of the protagonist and flew in different directions, searching at a height of less than half a meter from the ground.

The protagonist asks them to search for a maximum of half an hour before returning. The flying knights flew in a straight line for a distance of half an hour, and the parasitic ants had to walk for more than a day on a normal march, and it would take even longer to move with their belongings. If the enemy has not been found in half an hour, then there is no need to continue the search from this direction.

The protagonist also sends the last flying knight to fly in the direction of "Dongyang City", urging "Dongyang City" to replenish the soldiers as soon as possible to fill the gap caused by the battle damage of the three Divine Envoy King legions.

With no external threat gone, the Stump Fortress is no longer busy with renovations, and the protagonist orders the worker ants to immediately go to the nest of the original parasitic ants and bring in everything they can carry. After a rain, the nest that lacks the maintenance of the worker ants must be flooded, and if the supplies inside are not moved away quickly, the spoils of the Divine Envoy King's army will have to shrink.

After an hour, the Flying Knights return to the fortress and report to the protagonist that they have found no trace of the enemy.

The protagonist counts that only eight Flying Knights have returned, and one Flying Knight who searched southeast has not returned.

After waiting for another quarter of an hour, the protagonist couldn't sit still, and he and the flying knights agreed to fly for half an hour at most and then turn around and come back, which was enough time for one hour back and forth. The flying knight did not return on time, either because of misfortune or because of some delay.

It is important to know that parasitic ants have the ability to attack flying knights through ambushes. The protagonist thinks of the scene where he rides Xiaoqing under a bush and is ambushed by a dense network of parasitic ants that fall from the sky, which cripples Xiaoqing, and may no longer be able to be the protagonist's mount.

The protagonist asks the Flyhawk to take off with the Flying Knights again, and every two Flying Knights is in a group, a total of four groups, and they go in the direction of the Flying Knights who have lost the news.

The protagonist also warns the Fly Hawks that they must fly at a safe altitude and not go near underneath bushes or trees to avoid being ambushed.

Not long after the Flying Knights flew away, the Flying Knights who were heading for "Dongyang City" reported that the 1,000 soldiers who had come to replenish the Soldier Ants would arrive at the Stump Fortress around evening.

This is good news, which means that the existing 71 squads of the Divine Angel King's Legion will be fully replenished and have strong strength. And under the leadership of veterans who have fought hard many times, the experience and combat effectiveness of the Divine Envoy King's legion will now even surpass that before the Great War.

As for the nineteen kings lost, they can only be replenished after the new male eggs laid by the queen grow up, receive education, and get married, and this time will be relatively long.

The 500 worker ants who went to the parasitic ant nest to carry supplies also came back one after another, and they carried back all the food and other materials from the parasitic ant nest.

What surprises the protagonist the most is that they even move the eggs, larvae and chrysalis of the parasitic ants, whether dead or alive.

The protagonist asks for a while, and learns that the big-headed ants will use the eggs and other items in the nest of the conquered enemy as trophies, even if the eggs are not of the same species as themselves.

Dead ant eggs, etc., are nutritious food, while live ant eggs, ant pupa, etc., are hatched. The offspring of these enemies who grew up in the nest are used as slaves, and because they are tainted with the scent of the nest, they consider themselves to be loyal to their kind.

Male and female ants are immediately killed when they hatch, and there is no new replenishment for soldier and worker ants at the end of their lives, so this type of ant slave is not common, and is only a one-time consumable.

Slavery used prisoners of war as slaves to produce and serve themselves, which was typical of slavery. It's just that this kind of slavery is still very primitive, and the source of slaves is only a by-product of war, and there is no deliberate acquisition of slaves.

In addition, when the slaves were depleted, the slave owners did not bother to replenish the slaves, and most of the slave owners (the soldier ants and the worker ants) had to do the same work as the slaves.

However, even if this kind of slavery is still very primitive, it is also a kind of progress in the social system, and the protagonist's evaluation of the big-headed ant kingdom is one point higher.

As for the behavior of ant slaves, the protagonist is not surprised, he knew that some ants, such as "slave ants", would rob and raise slave ants to feed themselves, but he didn't expect the big-headed ants to do this.