At the invitation of the Northwest King Ants, many ants surrounded two great benefactors and entered the Ant Kingdom. The so-called Ant Kingdom is a huge ant nest, but the nest built by the Northwest King Ants is the largest. The mounds built on the ground alone are one person tall. According to the size of the ant, it is at least a hundred stories of buildings, which is equivalent to a height of 1.8 meters for humans. This is to pile up the excavated soil and leaves near the entrance to form a hill-like shape, and a nest is built in the mound, which can be used to live and protect the nest.

In the information stored in Wei Xinyu's mind, ant nests are in various forms. Most species are nesting in underground soil, digging tunnels, small rooms and residences, and piled up the excavated substances and leaves near the entrance to form a hill-shaped shape to protect it. This was the first time he saw the excavated soil and leaves piled up near the entrance and then used the mound to build a nest.

Wei Xinyu raised his head at the hole of the ant nest and looked over the mound. There were many small windows on the mound, just like windows of human houses and buildings, usually used for ventilation and lighting. He asked the King of Northwest:

"Is this mound of soil also your residence?"

The King of Northwest told him: "We are making full use of all resources to avoid wasting ant power. Our ethnic group has developed very quickly, with 100,000 people already. We have saved time and effort to build mounds into nests. Compared to underground, it is much dryer and the living environment is relatively comfortable. I will take you to visit our mound room."

The King of Northwest took Wei Xinyu and Heng Liya into the mound ant nest. The two found in the ant nest that although the entire nest was made of soil and was not supported by reinforced concrete, the structure inside was clever, strong and safe. Wei Xinyu tried to touch the hole wall with his hands. The hole wall was made very strong, and he said in admiration:

"No wonder we humans always praise you ants. We cannot compare to you in terms of architecture. The soft soil is so strong in your hands. You are definitely architectural experts when doing construction on the same materials."

The King of Northwest shook his head and said, "You have praised you. We will never catch up with humans. However, our ant group is like a social system of your human beings. We have different divisions of labor and have clarified different social responsibilities from each other. In our system, although the hierarchy is strict, we are united, united to the outside world, diligently, and contribute every effort to the group's territory and the building of a home. We are in the same group, we are united more than you."

Heng Liya nodded and said, "That's true. I feel that you know us humans more."

"Oh," the King of Northwest sighed, "Actually, my previous life was also a human being. Maybe it was because we did something we shouldn't do in our previous life. God injected my soul into the ant, making me an ant king. The most painful thing is that God did not purify my soul and let me know many things about human beings. This is very painful... Maybe God did not erase my memories of my previous life because he wanted me to use human wisdom to transform the ant kingdom."

"What is your pain," Heng Liya retorted, "You ants have very short lifespans, and it won't take long to inject your soul into other biological carriers."

The King of Northwest said: "We have a long life span. We can live at least 20 years, and we can reach 70 years. Perhaps God will make me immortal. However, I am used to it, and it is not bad to be an ant king."

The roads of the ant nest are well-connected and complex. Many ants are constantly busy. With the ant king leading the way, they come to a branch room without asking questions.

There are many sub-rooms in the ant nest, and these sub-rooms have their own uses. This sub-room is a place to store food, which stores many grains, fruits and other foods. After the ants collected food from outside, they all transported them here to store. What surprised the two humans was that the food piled here would not become moldy or spoiled. According to the Ant King, the indoor ventilation is cool, warm in winter, and cool in summer, and the food is not easy to break. These foods are for winter use.

When they passed a branch room, Hengliya saw many big belly ants in the room. Their belly was several times larger than the belly of other ants, and their belly was transparent. Hengliya asked curiously:

"Are these ants waiting to be born?"

"No." The Northwest King told her, "they are all honey ants."

"Honey ants?" Heng Liya thought for a while and said, "I know, they are also called honey storage ants. They are used to store honey and other ants. They live underground all their lives and hang upside down in the ant hole. During the rainy season, their stomachs are filled with nectar and swell like balloons. During the drought season, they excrete food from their stomachs to help the ant colony get through the difficulties. Their belly is a small storage room. They are not the same as you, so why do you take them as your storage room?"

The King of Northwest did not answer. They walked to the underground through the passage. Both humans were shocked when they looked at the underground buildings. In front of them was a "room" made of stones. If humans were asked to do this project, they had to rely on digging tools. However, the harder the ant's upper jaws would not be harder than the stones. This kind of ant nest is very wonderful and strong. The ants live inside, which is particularly safe and comfortable. Wei Xinyu knocked on the wall with his hand. He wanted to figure out how the ants built such a house, he asked:

"You must use other tools to build such a house, right?"

The King of Northwest shook his head and said, "No need, we ants can secrete a liquid that can corrode stones, which is what you humans call hydrochloric acid. This liquid is very corrosive. We use this acid, not only can we carve stones like sculptors, but we can also cut a whole stone into small pieces like a stonemason, and cut "rooms" of different sizes into stones. This is the famous "Stone City" in our kingdom. Many streets covered with small sand at our feet and the famous "stone rooms" built by thousands of worker ants secrete a liquid that can corrode stones bit by bit."

Wei Xinyu saw such a dungeon house and continued to ask:

"You have spent a lot of energy and time to see this dungeon?"

The King of Northwest told him: "We have been here for 20 years."

Heng Liya exclaimed: "Humans all think that ants are brainless animals, and I never thought that you ants can have such wisdom."

Wei Xinyu corrected Heng Liya's statement: "This is not called wisdom, it is called instinct."

The King of Northwest disagrees with Wei Xinyu's statement: "This is not instinct, it is because humans do not understand us. I think as long as there is a carrier of life and injected into the soul, they are all wise creatures, but you humans cannot communicate with them."

As they said that, they entered a hall, which was particularly different. It turned out that this was the place where the queen of the ants met. Unlike other ants, the queen of the ants was several times larger than the Northwest King, and her whole body was white, like a worm pupa. There were more than a dozen ants serving him, some feed him, and some were busy cleaning him.

The King of Northwest walked forward and saluted to the queen of the ant and said:

"Reporting to the Queen of Ants, two humans came to visit."

The queen of ant opened her eyes lazily and asked, "What are they doing here for us? They won't want to destroy the peace of our ant kingdom, are they?"

The King of Northwest hurriedly explained and replied: "No, they also helped us eliminate the King of Southeast. They accidentally broke into our space, and they had no malice."

Wei Xinyu and Heng Liya saluted to the queen of the ant, and Heng Liya politely said: "We accidentally entered your kingdom and disturbed your tranquility. Please forgive me."

The queen of the ant was still lazy and said, "Since you have no malice, I heard that you humans are very powerful. Can you help us a favor and cure our sick people?"

When Wei Xinyu heard the queen of ants ask them to treat the ants, he waved his hand and said, "Mr. Ant, you can ask us to do anything else. We have never done this to treat the ants, for fear of losing their lives."

The King of Northwest said: "Don't worry, these ants are going to die. Just treat dead horses as living horses. The best result can be cured. If you can't cure them, you won't blame you."

"Okay!" Heng Liya agreed, "You can take us to see."

They bid farewell to the queen of the ant, and the Northwest King took the two to a group of ants whose brains were "mentally controlled", pointing to them and saying:

"Every time, there are some ants in our kingdom who are mentally ill. They risk their lives to walk towards the death cemetery, just like ghosts entangled them. As long as our ants arrive at the death cemetery, none of them can come out alive. This time, I asked the soldiers to stop them and prevent them from going to the death cemetery."

Heng Liya asked curiously: "Have you been to the Death Cemetery?"

The King of Northwest replied: "No, I dare not go. No ants who have ever been there can come back alive."

Wei Xinyu and Heng Liya decided to go to the death cemetery for on-site inspection. They found the death cemetery in less than half an hour in the direction pointed by the King of Northwest. They found a lot of ants and zombies in the death cemetery. Each ant died was terrifying. Seven ants were biting the leaf veins alone. They left the last mark on this world with such force. They used the small holes produced by their jaws on the leaves, forming a very special bite mark, which was clearly in the shape of a dumbbell. This leaf made an "ant grave". They could find many such "ant graves" on this death cemetery, and some ants had their heads sprouted.

Heng Liya quickly made a judgment and said: "These ants died after being infected with fungi."

Wei Xinyu also nodded in recognition and said, "They are indeed infected with fungi. It is said that these fungi are very powerful."

"Yes." Hengliya said, "These zombie fungi will spread spores in different ways, forming fine "infection nails" that extend from the victim ants to infect passing ants. Some of them grow "explosive" spores in the bodies of infected ants. When other ants approach the corpse, they shoot spores and hit these uninformed passers-by, further turning them into zombies."

Wei Xinyu took over the topic and said: "The fungus that live in the brains of zombie ants "directed" the dying ants to find leaves or other stable areas to settle down. When the fungus is ready to kill the ants, the ants will bite down any object at the position of their standing like crazy. It seems that it is difficult to treat the ants after being infected with the fungus."

After they returned to the Ant Kingdom, Heng Liya truthfully reported the results of the on-site inspection at the death cemetery to the Northwest King. She said that this disease cannot be cured. The Northwest King asked disappointedly:

"You really can't think of a solution?"

Heng Liya answered truthfully: "There is a solution, but we can't do it. In my memory, there is a fungus that can save these poor ants, a fungus that can castrate "zombie fungi" ("anti-zombie fungi") called dual parasites. It is an ant infected by zombie fungi and then infected by double parasites, which is double parasites. This dual parasite can parasites on "zombie fungi", destroy the spores of most "zombie fungi", and make zombie fungi" only

About 6.5% of the spores can survive. However, we do not have modern means to find these double parasites, let alone use them. The only way now is to set the death cemetery as a ban on ants, and not allow any ants to pass there; lock infected ants in a room and isolate them, and not allow them to walk outside under the influence of fungi, so that the fungus in their bodies will not have a suitable growth environment and will naturally die in the infected ants."
Chapter completed!