Beast Control: Starting from raising silkworms and becoming the King of Insects.

Chapter 183 Facing the Soldier Ant Squad
"This secret realm is probably the nest of crystal ants..."

Unexpectedly, Russell felt a sense of ecstasy as he did not expect crystal ants, a highly valuable pet beast, to live in this secret realm.

After all, General Mo Lin has publicly agreed to let him share part of the development rights of the secret realm. The higher the development value of the Black Dew Secret Realm, the more benefits Russell will receive.

However, based on the information he obtained from exploring the secret realm, he also had new doubts.

Passing through the desolate mountains outside and encountering some tomb-themed beasts, Russell originally thought this secret realm was a tomb.

However, in this area filled with huge tree roots, everything seemed to be coming alive again.

These tree roots are not only huge in size, but when he gets close to them, Russell can feel the majestic and deep life force in them.

In addition, He Qiuer also said before that after killing sweet sap aphids, their bodies will remain on the ground instead of dissipating into energy.

While Russell was thinking for a moment, the tail of a mature sweet sap aphid above them squirmed and laid a row of green eggs.

This further proves that the sweet sap aphids in this area are not resurrected secret beasts, but real living beasts living here.

"Could it be that...the outer edge of the secret realm is the cemetery, and the inside of the secret realm is the living area of ​​the pet beasts that is still functioning, which is the ant nest?"

Combining the existing intelligence, Russell couldn't help but come up with a new speculation.

Judging from the map provided by He Qiuer, this area is indeed close to the middle of the entire secret realm.

Walking deeper for another two hours, you can see the door that requires amber fragments to open.

Moreover, the other two areas that she did not explore were also located around the gate.

Thinking about it this way, it is very likely that those areas that are difficult to explore using parasitic methods are also home to real living pet beasts.

The outer tomb is dotted with secret beasts that can be infinitely resurrected, while the inside is the root system of a giant plant, and there are crystal ants and other living beasts living there...

From the perspective of distribution and organization alone, this configuration can not only resist foreign enemies, but also leave sufficient space for the development of the main races. It can be said to be a quite perfect nest.

Of course, to prove the idea that the Black Dew Secret Realm is an ant nest, and that the inside and outside are layered, seeing only one crystallized ant is definitely not enough.

"The matter of the crystal ants is of great importance. We have to go and take a look."

After thinking for a moment, Russell turned to several teammates and said.

After all, the crystal ant is one of the ancient pet beasts that is officially recognized as extinct, and it is an ultra-rare resource that is linked to mineral veins and regenerated crystals. It is impossible to report it to the Beast Control Alliance just by relying on a video.

"Are crystal ants so ferocious?"

Hearing this, Chen Yuan seemed a little hesitant and turned to He Qiuer to ask.

Now the Fighter Unicorn has almost no fighting ability, and ant-like beasts have never lived alone.

The bloodline level of crystal ant soldier ants is gold level. Normally, the strength after adulthood should be around level four or five.

The crystal ant in front, whose energy fluctuations reached the sixth level, was probably leading a group of subordinates to herd sweet sap aphids.

If they attack anyone on sight like He Qiuer said, and then the lord and his subordinates swarm them, then Chen Yuan will really become a burden to the team.

"Ant pets have the habit of domesticating aphids. Because they have been together for a long time, they know the status of aphids very well. It may be that the aphids are parasitized and they regard them as sick bodies."

Russell gave his own opinion on this issue.

After seeing the crystal ants, he basically guessed the reason why He Qiuer's parasitic Gu was instantly spotted and attacked.

The social structure of ant-like pets is well-deserved No. 1 in the insect world. Not only does it have a clear division of labor internally, but it also usually domesticates some symbiotic pets that are beneficial to the development of the group.

Such a race of pet beasts that knows how to cooperate and coexist will definitely not attack other pet beasts indiscriminately.

The reason why the parasitized sweet sap aphid was attacked was most likely because it triggered the ant-like pet's protective mechanism against domesticated pets.

Although the parasitic Gu is very good at hiding, the life aura of the parasitized beast will still change slightly, and it will be in a state where it cannot recover independently and continues to decline.

This change is obvious to the eyes of crystal ants who live with sweet sap aphids day and night.

The strength fluctuates up and down, and the vitality continues to lose. From the simple point of view of wild beasts, they must be sick.

If the disease is allowed to spread unchecked, there is a risk of population collapse.

In the wild animal world, the way to solve the risk of infection is not to treat the disease, but to directly eliminate the possibility of disease transmission from the source.

Simply put, this means killing diseased aphids as soon as they are discovered.

Anyway, this kind of silver-level pet breeds quickly, and can give birth to a litter in two to three months, so there is no need to worry about the reduction of the population.

Therefore, when the parasitized sweet sap aphid approaches the crystal ant, it will kill it without hesitation.

"Although soldier ants are not fighting machines that attack indiscriminately, they still have a sense of territory, so we still have to be careful."

The value of the crystal ants lies there, and it is imperative to explore forward. Russell no longer hesitates, and after giving instructions to his teammates again, he takes the lead in climbing over the tree roots in front of him.

Beyond the cover of the tree roots, he indeed saw a large ant patrolling around the sweet sap aphid.

Just like in the video, the carapace of this crystallized ant is dark brown, and except for two clusters of shimmering crystals on the top of its antennae, there is nothing special about its body structure.

Considering that he was likely to fight with it, Russell immediately used the "Cocoon of Evolution" talent to check its information.

"Crystal Ant (Soldier Ant Leader)
Attributes: Insect, soil
Bloodline Level: Platinum
Life energy level: Level [-]

Skills: Call of Ant Colony, Active Crystal, Energy Siphon, Energy Surge, Stone Armor, Bite to pieces"

Sure enough, this lord-level crystal ant's bloodline level is one level higher than that of ordinary soldier ants, and its strength is also better. It also has the command skill "Ant Colony Call" to call and command some ant colonies.

However, the survival pressure of highly gregarious pets such as ants and bees is usually not very high, so their individual strength is not too outstanding.

Although this soldier ant leader stands out from the crowd in terms of level, his skill set seems a bit ordinary.

In addition to the crystal ant clan's most signature "active crystal" racial talent and two supporting skills for swallowing energy, it only masters the two conventional low-level skills of Stone Armor and Crush.

For a sixth-level pet beast, it does not know any high-level skills except the standard skills of the race, so it is really difficult to use it.

Before the leader of the soldier ants noticed him, Russell quickly felt the energy flow in the area ahead.

Sure enough, following the rule that the key to the secret realm must be near the lord-level beast, he soon felt the scent of amber from the gap in the tree roots behind the leader of the soldier ants.

But that direction was not only blocked by the leader of the soldier ants, but also several ordinary crystal ant soldier ants were moving nearby. It was impossible to sneak in quietly.The communication method of ant-like beasts is mainly a special language of touching tentacles. Even if the parasitic Gu successfully controls a crystal ant, it cannot confuse the fake with the real one in this "foreign language".

In other words, if you want to seize this secret realm key, you may have to fight it.

At this moment, the tentacles of the leader of the soldier ants shook a few times, and finally found Russell, who was less than ten meters away from it.

Kaka…

"Outsiders, leave..."

With a hint of anger, it coldly sent a driving message to Russell.

However, the soldier ant leader immediately sensed the aura of secret keys on several people.

Holding those ambers seemed to trigger some conditions for a secret realm challenge. The attitude of the leader of the soldier ants was no longer simply to drive them away, but instead said to Russell in a serious tone:
"You have a token...accept the challenge!"

As it spoke, it flapped its tentacles and summoned all the nearby ordinary soldier ants that looked similar to itself but were a bit smaller.

"Get ready to fight!"

Seeing this scene, Russell also immediately issued combat instructions to several teammates.

After experiencing the previous battles, the remaining people knew each other's strength, and without Russell having to say anything, they each performed their duties and took action.

Since the injury of the fighter Unicorn had not yet recovered, Chen Yuan switched from forward to rear guard, guarding the backline of the team with He Qiuer's parasitic rusty snail and Jiang Xue's nurse spider.

As for the team's frontal battlefield, it was naturally left to He Qiu'er, who had the strongest physical strength.

Under her command, the sword-footed centipede relied on its flexibility to climb and constantly wandered among the tree roots, looking for opportunities to entangle the leader of the crystal ants and strangle them.

Russell's mission is to get rid of several other ordinary soldier ants around the late fourth level as soon as possible.

The battle was about to break out, and the Crystal Ants, who had the home field advantage, took the lead in launching the offensive.

Kaka-!
With the sound of stones rolling and rubbing, their abdomens continued to shrink, and yellow-green crystals appeared in their mouthparts.

Directly regurgitate the energy crystals stored in the body, enhance the strength of offensive and defensive attributes, and continuously replenish energy. This is the application of the "Active Crystal" skill in combat.

After eating the insect energy crystals in their mouths, the ordinary soldier ants opened their mouths and shot out dense yellow-green light towards Russell and others.

Since there were only two or three types of attack methods, in the first wave of attacks, they directly used the racial talent "Energy Surge" skill.

This skill looks very ordinary. It seems to simply compress energy and then attack it in the form of an energy beam.

However, what is special about this skill is its compatibility. No matter what attribute of energy is accumulated in the body of the crystallized ant, all of it can be released through the energy spurt.

To put it simply, energy spurt can be understood as a collection version of low-level energy long-range attack skills such as insect needle, fireball, water bomb, electric ball, hail, etc.

Facing the strafing attack from insect needles, Ayou unfolded his phantom, using his floating ability and erratic flight trajectory to attract a large number of attacks on his own.

Daolang put up a blocking stance and slashed, relying on his precise three-dimensional vision to easily smash most of the flying needles fired at it.

Although occasionally a few insect needles would hit its body after passing through the blade arm, the damage of this low-level skill with the same attribute was already low, and if it was reduced by the mithril armor, it would be equal to no damage if rounded off.

As for the sword-footed centipede controlled by He Qiuer, he ignored the insect needle's completely incapable of breaking through the attack and concentrated on dealing with the leader of the soldier ants.

With these three pet beasts blocking the front, there were not many insect needles left, and they were all blocked by the rusty snail's bronze shield.

"Ayou, seize the shadow arrow and connect with the Netherworld blast!"

Relying on the "Active Crystallization" skill, the Crystal Ant's battery life is exceptionally good. Knowing that passive defense is not the answer, when the first wave of attacks slowed down slightly, Russell immediately issued a classic combo order to Ayou.

Having cooperated with each other so many times, Ayou is also familiar with this combination of punches.

After receiving the order, it immediately flew into the air and shot several slit shadow arrows at the ordinary soldier ants in front.

Probably because they had never seen such a shadow control skill before, the three crystal ants at the front of the team were unable to dodge and were firmly rooted to the spot.

Although the strength of the ant-like beasts is not small, the crystal ants still prefer the energy control route. Without the blessing of strength-based skills, it will take at least three seconds for them to break free from the Seam Shadow Arrow.

However, Ayou's skill charging time is only three seconds.

Three seconds passed in the blink of an eye, and just when these crystal ants finally got rid of their restraints, the gray energy group from the Netherworld Explosion Skill had appeared beside them.

With Ayou's current attack power, coupled with the corrosive effect of the nether poison, as long as these few nether blasts can hit accurately, these three crystal ants will definitely not be able to jump around like they are now, even if they don't lose their combat effectiveness on the spot.

However, how can a clan of crystallized ants that can build such a giant nest be so easy to deal with.

Just when the Nether Explosion was rapidly taking shape and the ghost-type energy was about to explode, the leader of the soldier ants suddenly spit out a large ball of energy to repel the blade-footed centipede, and then turned in the direction of several of its younger brothers.

call----!
It opened its mouth and its abdomen expanded instantly, creating a powerful suction force.

Pulled by this suction force, the energy of the Nether Explosion poured into the mouth of the soldier ant leader before it had time to explode.

After this operation, although Ayou's fierce attack was not completely defeated, its power was only reduced to [-]%.

However, the hard power of these ordinary crystal ants is still at the late fourth level. They were hit by the greatly weakened Nether Explosion and basically only suffered minor injuries.

This ability that strongly interferes with energy skills is the "Energy Siphon" skill shown in the information just now.

Relying on the passive effect of this skill, the Crystal Ant can continue to absorb free energy from the air and condense energy crystals in its body.

When used actively, the energy siphon skill can directly partially swallow up the opponent's energy attack skills based on the strength gap between the two parties.

Because the leader of the soldier ants suppressed Ayou by two levels, even if it released the energy siphon hastily, it successfully reduced most of the power of the Netherworld Explosion.

What's even more terrible is that after swallowing a large amount of ghost-type energy, the leader of the soldier ants did not stop moving, but pointed his mouthpart at the sword-footed centipede wandering near him.

The next moment, what spewed out of its mouth was no longer insect needles, but shadow arrows with more destructive power and more bizarre attack methods.

This is the combination of talents that the crystallized ants are best at and rely on for their livelihood.

Using energy siphon to plunder the opponent's energy, and then blasting it back with energy spurt, it has a feeling of "repaying the enemy with his own way".

It has to be said that this combination of skills is extremely restrained against energy-attacking pet beasts.

Ayou's fierce attack not only failed to gain much advantage, but instead created a crisis for the Blade-Footed Centipede.

(End of this chapter)