Southern Hills, [Southern City].

Although it is still far from the battlefield for the time being, and there is not much chaos before the raging war, it is still busy. Whether on the ground or in their underground nests, the ants are in a hurry.

They were busy packing their bags, preparing to wait for the arrival of the army that had migrated by land in two days, to supply them with food, and then to follow the large army.

In the nest inside the stump, the protagonist ignores the ants scurrying around him, and instead leads him to the bottom of the underground part of the nest under the guidance of a large worker ant.

A remote passage, the intersection of which was guarded by a large worker ant led by a number of soldier ants, blocked the way with a light ball made of ant silk and fibers.

Seeing the Divine Envoy King and the Great Worker Ant, the guards confirmed their identities with their tentacles, and only then did they move the ball blocking the road, making it seem that this place was very heavily guarded.

Walking into this secluded and secluded place, there are many fluorescent bacteria on both sides of the passage and they are very bright, and there is a trace of fishy smell and stench wafting in the air, which makes this place even more unique.

Walking into the big nest room, there was not a single ant inside, only dozens of clay pots of all sizes placed on the ground.

The protagonist lifts the lid of one of the clay pots, and immediately a strong fishy smell wafts out, causing him to gause.

Inside the clay pot was half a jar of rotting meat and feces, wriggling like a nematode, glowing with a disgusting and threatening white sheen.

Here they are fed with rotting garbage feces, not bugs, but larvae of parasites.

It is the parasitic bacteria that once threatened [Dongyang City], and it is even likely to be the culprit of the mysterious disappearance of all the ants of the old [Dongyang City].

After fighting the parasite in the southern hills and eventually driving the enemy out, the protagonist captures some of the parasite strains.

Although these parasitic strains were very dangerous, the protagonist built a laboratory in the relatively isolated [Southtown] at the time to conduct research.

The protagonist is very interested in the ability of parasites to control almost all animals, and make different kinds of creatures live in harmony and even fight together.

But in the two years since the lab was established, little has been done in this area, and no progress has been made in other areas, such as how parasites confuse ants so that they are unaware of their presence.

The only result of this lab is to discover how to effectively raise parasitic strains, which is actually very simple, just maintain a suitable environment and put some organic matter, whether it is food scraps or ant droppings, these parasitic strains can absorb nutrients and grow into adults, and then quietly wait for the prey to arrive.

Because there was no result for a long time, the large worker ants engaged in research here were later transferred to [Dongyang City], which was almost semi-idle, and only four large worker ants and a few soldier ant worker ants remained.

Because adult parasites are so dangerous, extremely aggressive and parasitic, parasitic strains in the lab are killed once they are close to maturity, leaving only small strains.

Anyway, the large worker ants who participated in the experiment found that those killed individuals who were about to mature could quickly grow into new strains as long as they were twisted into longer segments and placed on the culture medium, and their asexual reproduction ability was very strong, so there was no need to worry that they would not be able to reproduce if there were no mature individuals.

Either way, this lab is full of demons, and if they leak out or get out of control without carelessness, it's a lot of fun.

Therefore, the security is heavily guarded, and the parasitic strains are all locked in clay pots, which can be difficult to open with their own strength, and the sound can also give the guards time to warn.

At the door, there is also a special ball to block the door, which is guarded by large worker ants who are not easy to be confused and disturbed by parasites with soldier ants, forming a second line of defense.

Anyway, there have been no parasitic leaks in this laboratory so far.

The protagonist examines it, orders more than a dozen clay pots containing near-mature instances to be lifted to the door, ready for action, and leaves.

In the afternoon of the same day, a large group of Worker Ant Fly Riders arrived in [Southern City], they were the only team of Flying Knights in the Divine Envoy King's Legion who used flies as mounts, and most of the Flying Knights' mounts had been replaced by bees.

Fifty soldier ants in the city were already ready, each of them carrying a small clay pot that had been sealed with ant glue, climbed on the back of the fly, and secured it with an ant silk harness with the assistance of the ground worker ants.

Then the flies took off and headed west.

Their target is the area around [New Salt City], which is the [New Salt City] that has just been lost, and several other side nests close to the salt marsh.

Crossing the Line of Actual Control of the Divine Envoy King's legion, the landscape of the ground immediately changed. There are no ants coming and going near the nest, no ant teams flowing along the ant path.

But without the picking, hunting and grazing of ants, the vegetation grew even more lush in just a few days. The vampire-like aphids have been almost wiped out by ladybugs and the like without the care of ant herders, and a large number of other insects have been unusually cheerful due to the disappearance of apex predators.

This scene is just like the fact that no man's land in the human world is a paradise for wild animals.

The Flying Knights and Soldier Ants on the mission did not pay attention to the slight difference on the ground, and they flew straight to an old battlefield on the edge of the salt marshes.

This battlefield is littered with corpses, and the corpses of giant cancers are everywhere, which is the same place where the destroyer and the crabs fought two days ago.

The Destroyer's body had now been taken away by the Lesser Destroyer, but the crab's body remained in place, and after two days, the air was filled with the strong stench of river fresh decay.

Many scavenging insects, such as flies and maggots, snails, turtles, etc., are feasting on many carcasses. Some of them also drilled in and out of the cracks in the carapace, revealing a sense of corruption and excitement.

There are even other crabs that come here to open their carapaces and eat the flesh of their dead kind, or to attack insects such as snails.

The arrival of a swarm of flies did not disturb the feast, until the ants came down and scared away many of the nearby insects.

Ignoring the panicked insects that fled, the ants avoided the few crabs that were alive, landed, and then placed the clay pot filled with parasites on the corpse and opened the lid.

The parasitic hyphae wriggled and crawled up the rotting corpse, took root, or in a few hours they would absorb nutrients and ripen quickly. In the case of parasites, animals that see ants return to eat after leaving are oblivious to the parasites.

Little do they know that a catastrophe is coming!