This Black Wire Worm might not have been an accidental parasite; it was more like a survivor of some evolutionary selection, finding a gap for survival under the Iron-Blooded Queen's life shackles, much like deep-sea fish evolving bioluminescent organs under high pressure, illuminating a glimmer of life in the darkness.
Suddenly, Ke Si on the metal platform let out a low growl, and his empty eye sockets glowed with a bloody hue.
The Iron-Blooded Queen's life shackles, free from the Black Wire Worm's interference, re-submerged the Bugman's consciousness like a tide.
He suddenly tried to break free from the Mingling Devil's grip, but found that he couldn't budge an inch.
Zhou Qi's gaze, like a precise scanner, locked onto the violently struggling Ke Si on the metal platform.
Fine cracks erupted from the dorsal carapace of this four-tailed Ironblood Bugman, and green blood seeped through the fissures, staining the platform with strange patterns—those patterns resembled sacrificial symbols on an ancient altar.
With each twist, contraction, and expansion, he released the faint green glow belonging to the Iron-Blooded Queen's life shackles.
As Ke Si's antennae curled into spirals from pain, Zhou Qi clearly perceived an energy fluctuation from the depths of his Soul; it was the war directive imprinted in the Iron-Blooded Queen's genes, attempting to re-weave the network of confinement.
"As expected, this little guy is causing trouble."
Zhou Qi murmured, his fingertips lightly stroking the Five-Order Black Wire Worm suspended in the quartz vessel.
This microscopic creature was currently tapping the vessel wall with nano-scale tendrils, its body's reverse-order runes and the internal confinement array producing a faint blue resonance, each energy ripple outlining patterns similar to brain neurons in the air.
He recalled that when Ke Si fled on the Iron-Blood World battlefield, the look in his eyes wasn't just simple fear.
Instead, it was a complex emotion mixed with survival rationality—this spark of wisdom, transcending racial instinct, precisely confirmed the terrifying potential of the Black Wire Worm's 【Wisdom Enlightenment】 talent.
The vessel was carefully placed into a specially made Mental Energy constant temperature chamber, and the hexagonal array inside the chamber slowly closed, sealing this "spark of wisdom" tightly.
The fluorescent crystals embedded in the chamber wall suddenly lit up, projecting a holographic image of the Black Wire Worm under a microscope:
Its neural network was vibrating at a frequency of three hundred times per second, each fluctuation forming a faint resonance with Ke Si's brainwaves outside the chamber.
"I must find more Five-Order Black Wire Worms before I can attempt combined strengthening," Zhou Qi thought to himself, "Right now, I only have this one; if I use it and it fails, it will be a complete loss."
His gaze turned to the Evolution Points panel; 112 Origin Points, like pulsating stellar cores, reflected a galaxy-like brilliance on the light screen.
Zhou Qi no longer hesitated, opening the spatial teleportation, and in the next instant, he stood in the center of the underground palace where the Army Ant Queen resided.
The enormous body of the Fourteen-Order Army Ant Queen lay coiled like an obsidian mountain range, her 800-meter-long body covered in a flowing runic luster.
Each breath she took caused violent fluctuations in the surrounding energy field, and even the stalactites hanging from the dome seeped fine water droplets due to this pressure.
"Let's begin," Zhou Qi said in a deep voice, pressing his palm onto the crown-like thorny horn on the Army Ant Queen's head.
"Ding, consuming 100 Origin Points, the Army Ant Queen has been strengthened to a Fifteen-Order Army Ant Queen. Congratulations, Host, the Fifteen-Order Army Ant Queen's overall attributes have been greatly improved."
In an instant, Origin Points poured in like a breached Milky Way, transforming into an inexhaustible white stream of light.
The light of evolution swallowed the Army Ant Queen's body at a visible speed, the runes on her carapace rolling like living things, emitting a deafening energy roar.
The entire underground palace vibrated violently, golden lava seeped from the stone pillars supporting the dome, and the dripping magma instantly crystallized upon contact with the light stream, forming countless suspended energy prisms.
The strengthening process lasted for a full quarter of an hour, during which a muffled sound like a collapsing star emanated from within the Army Ant Queen's body.
When the white light dissipated, the Army Ant Queen's body had expanded to 1600 meters long, her 700-meter-tall body resembling a moving mountain covered in flowing metal.
Her compound eyes were now like two small black holes, emitting a biological pressure capable of distorting space; the Bug Clan Family within a hundred meters around her prostrated themselves, and even the dust in the air solidified into brilliant stellar rings due to this power.
"Ding, congratulations, Host, the Fifteen-Order Army Ant Queen has advanced to a Third-Order Apostle, gaining new talents: Biological Force Field, Gene Matrix."
Zhou Qi eagerly opened the Bug Clan Family panel and found that her life strength had increased to 100 points, reaching the planetary level of life, which was the existence of the Titan.
He began to examine the new talents gained by the Army Ant Queen:
Six-Star Talent:
Biological Force Field: The higher the life strength, the stronger the biological power generated. The Biological Force Field can actively influence surrounding organisms, causing them to undergo mutations, and can also control gravity, magnetic fields, etc., within a certain range.
Six-Star Talent:
Gene Matrix: Through quantum information biological gene fragments, construct a multi-dimensional gene model, which can actively optimize the gene chains of Bug Clan Family and has a chance to directionally catalyze the Awakening of hidden talents.
Zhou Qi's eyes burned with excitement as he looked at the colossal Fifteen-Order Army Ant Queen.
"Planetary level…" Zhou Qi's breathing suddenly quickened. The moment the Army Ant Queen's life strength broke through three digits,
the entire Geocentric Base's energy network resonated, and the fluorescent crystals in the distant ore veins began to pulsate rhythmically, as if performing an ode for the newly born planetary-level life.
What made his heart pound even more was the 【Gene Matrix】 talent, which could allow the Bug Clan Family's evolution to enter a controllable quantum era, where every reproduction could give birth to a mutant that would overturn cognition.
Subsequently, the Army Ant Queen, who had advanced to Fifteen-Order, directly transmitted a message to Zhou Qi's mind through Mental Energy.
Daily reproduction:
10.24 million Eleven-Order Army Ants
102,400 Eleven-Order Four Fiends Insect Soldiers
102,400 Eleven-Order He Bo Insect
51,200 Eleven-Order Spiked Horned Tyrant Bugs
5,120 Eleven-Order Zhu Yan Demon Insects
64 Eleven-Order Mingling Devils
102,400 Eleven-Order Mind Control Demon Bug.
"Reproduce one of each Eleven-Order Bug Clan Family," Zhou Qi's command had just fallen when the Army Ant Queen's massive abdomen lit up like a stellar furnace.
Seven insect eggs of varying shapes and sizes rolled out of the reproductive orifice; each egg's surface flowed with chaotic energy bands, and within, life forms could vaguely be seen undergoing superluminal evolution.
Battle patterns of Ironblood Bugmen occasionally appeared on the eggshells, and at times, the scale structures of Lizardmen flashed. Various species that the Army Ant Queen had devoured seemed to converge at this moment, ultimately being covered and reconstructed by the Army Ant's gene template.
First insect egg: Eleven-Order Army Ant
The moment the insect egg cracked, an Army Ant the size of an adult mini poodle broke out of the shell. Its exoskeleton presented a dark golden, glazed texture, reflecting six rainbow-like halos when illuminated.
Its mandibles produced a crisp sound like colliding diamonds when biting, and the air even generated tiny plasma sparks when it came into contact with the gaps in its mandibles.