The evolved Ant Queen was several times larger than before, about the size of an adult’s entire thumb.
Its purplish-black cuticle had metallic flecks.
Its compound eyes glowed faintly, and its antennae moved agilely, capable of acutely detecting subtle changes in Qi.
Its six sturdy and powerful limbs steadily supported its massive body, and as it moved, it exuded an aura that made other ants submit.
“With such a significant increase in size, the new ants it breeds will definitely be more formidable,” Zhou Qi thought.
I still need to quickly strengthen it to a Five-Tier Ant Queen to see what talents it can gain then.
Zhou Qi then found a large glass bottle, picked up the Ant Queen, and placed it inside.
Currently, the Ant Queen only had Advanced intimacy with him, and he feared that if it betrayed him and ran away, the loss would outweigh the gain.
Zhou Qi then completely let go, allowing all his dependents to collect Evolution Points with all their might.
Soon, a short week passed, and it happened to be the week Zhou Qi’s pigs were ready for market.
Between herding pigs, tagging, and disinfecting, he worked from day to night, often falling asleep as soon as he finished.
The time also happened to be the end of the month, just before the October Golden Week holiday for workers.
Unfortunately, Zhou Qi was doing this year-round, non-stop work. Zhou Qi thought for a moment, he couldn’t continue like this.
He needed to find a way to make money, preferably having his own private place, so he could better utilize the Evolution Space.
Zhou Qi opened the light screen, looking at the changes of the week.
Host: Zhou Qi
Race: Human Race
Genes: Human-Ape Genes
Life Essence: Carbon-Based Lifeform
Life Strength: 3 (Universal Unified Calculation of Lifeform Strength)
Evolution Points: 13467.5
Talents: Human Brain (Has a very small chance of gaining innovative abilities)
Dependents: 10 Five-Tier Ants, 1 Five-Ranked Cockroach, 1 Five-Tier Mosquito, 1 Two-Tier Ant Queen
Seeing over 10,000 Evolution Points accumulated in just one week, Zhou Qi was not surprised.
In the past few days, Zhou Qi had also found an insect with a large number of Evolution Points: Earthworm.
Just by killing a 5mm long small Earthworm, he could gain nearly 5 Evolution Points.
There were large numbers of Earthworms in the pig farm’s manure and the moist soil next to it.
However, these larger Earthworms were not easy for ordinary ants to take down.
In the end, it was only by relying on the Five-Ranked Cockroach and Five-Tier Ants together that he was able to achieve over 10,000 Evolution Points in a week.
Immediately, Zhou Qi went to the Ant Queen, which he had put into a glass bottle.
Inside the bottle, the Ant Queen quietly stayed at the bottom, its abdomen trembling slightly. Not long after, crystal-clear eggs were laid one by one.
There were also dozens of noticeably larger ants crawling aimlessly inside the bottle. These ants were clearly larger than ordinary ants.
Their bodies were sturdier, their legs more powerful, crawling quickly within the glass bottle, their antennae constantly waving, exploring this new world.
This evolved Ant Queen was too bizarre; there was no male ant with her.
She could even reproduce autonomously, and as Zhou Qi expected, the offspring were much larger than ordinary ants.
Zhou Qi took out the Ant Queen and began to strengthen it.
“Ding, consuming 100 Evolution Points, the Ant Queen evolves into a Three-Tier Ant Queen. Congratulations, Host, for gaining the Elementary Loyalty of the Three-Tier Ant Queen.”
Then the Ant Queen’s body suddenly expanded by a factor of two, becoming as large as half of Zhou Qi’s palm, roughly 8 centimeters.
Zhou Qi’s heart trembled, and without hesitation, he continued to strengthen it.
“Ding, consuming 1000 Evolution Points, the Ant Queen evolves into a Four-Tier Ant Queen. Congratulations, Host, for gaining the Advanced Loyalty of the Four-Tier Ant Queen.”
The Ant Queen on his palm expanded again, almost covering Zhou Qi’s entire palm, reaching a length of 16 centimeters.
Zhou Qi then placed the Ant Queen on the ground. When he was holding the Ant Queen in his hand just now, he felt it was very strenuous.
One should know that Zhou Qi usually exercised frequently and did physical labor daily, lifting and feeding pigs.
This Four-Tier Ant Queen weighed at least as much as three solid red bricks from the countryside!
Zhou Qi no longer hesitated and directly initiated the Five-Tier strengthening.
“Ding, consuming 10000 Evolution Points, the Ant Queen evolves into a Five-Tier Ant Queen. Congratulations, Host, for gaining the Undying Loyalty of the Five-Tier Ant Queen.”
“Ding, congratulations, Host, for successfully strengthening a Five-Tier Ant Queen and advancing to a First-Tier Apostle. You have gained the talents: Super Body Reproduction, Rapid Growth, Mental Network, Thought Imprint, Advanced Nesting, and Advanced Defense Enhancement.”
“Ding, after the Mother Insect evolves to Five-Tier, all ordinary ants it reproduces will automatically have Elementary intimacy with the Host.”
Zhou Qi looked at the Ant Queen at his feet, whose body had expanded again. It was now as large as a small dog, its length doubling again to 32 centimeters!
Zhou Qi held the Ant Queen in his arms, wanting to find a place to hide it first.
He didn’t expect the Ant Queen’s weight to be so astonishing, so he had to place it in his designated duty room first.
Zhou Qi locked the door from the inside, wanting to see how heavy the Ant Queen was, so he placed it on his weighing scale.
“45KG? So small, this is too exaggerated!” Zhou Qi was shocked.
The smaller the body and the heavier the weight, the greater the density.
Zhou Qi tapped the Ant Queen’s outer shell with his hand.
It only made a dull “thump-thump” sound, but his finger hurt from knocking.
Then Zhou Qi opened the light screen to check the various attributes of the Five-Tier Ant Queen.
Super Body Reproduction: Fertility increased tenfold. Currently, 1000 First-Tier ants can be reproduced daily. (Each time it is strengthened and Advanced, it increases by onefold on the basis of tenfold!)
Rapid Growth: The growth rate of ants reproduced by the Ant Queen increases tenfold.
Mental Network: The Ant Queen can control the ant colony in more detail through the Mental Network.
Thought Imprint: Ants reproduced by the Ant Queen cannot escape the Ant Queen’s control, and the Ant Queen can imprint other species with a Thought Imprint through the Mental Network for control.
Advanced Nesting: The Ant Queen can use its own secretions, mixed with soil, leaves, etc., to strengthen the nest, reaching a concrete level.
Advanced Defense Enhancement: The firmness of the Ant Queen’s surrounding cuticle defense is increased tenfold.
“This is too powerful! Reproducing 1000 First-Tier ants every day,” Zhou Qi exclaimed. “And this Advanced Nesting talent, now I don’t have to worry about being discovered by my family.”
Time passed as Zhou Qi continuously studied the Ant Queen.
Night deepened.
Zhou Qi stealthily opened the door, allowing the Ant Queen to follow behind him.
He looked left and right, confirming no one was outside, then walked to the furthest corner of the farm.
On the westernmost side of the farm, this was where Zhou Qi’s family piled manure.
This place was perpetually filled with a decaying odor, Earthworms wriggled in the damp soil, and groups of cockroaches licked residues in the dark.
It was the best breeding ground for insects.
Looking east, a dense forest was the famous large mountain in their area, called White Snake Mountain.
Legend has it that this was where the ancient Red Emperor slew the great demon White Snake.
Later, when the White Snake died, its body transformed into a mountain.
Looking up, White Snake Mountain stood within the dense forest. The continuous mountain ranges, strange rocks, and dense forests covered hundreds of thousands of acres.
And further beyond, its end connected to the Huangshi Mountain Range, which spanned several provinces!