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Once the car came to a stop, Zhou Rui, Mijoe, and Gao Shu got out, bringing their gear with them, and began to trek into the mountains.

Their destination is the area where the lightning storm occurred the night before yesterday. However, they did not need a guide. They used the tablet manufactured by “Divine Technology” and followed the route it displayed.

Upon arrival, the trio proceeded according to the established plan, taking photos and collecting other samples.

The information they obtained naturally far exceeded that of the average person who watches the news. They clearly pinpointed the location where the two fugitive bodies were discovered, and even had photos taken at the scene by the police at the time.

Standing at the spot where the bodies were found and comparing it with the photos on the tablet taken at the time, Mijoe frowned and said, “Has anyone struck by lightning ever suffered like this?”

Zhou Rui nodded, “If struck directly by lightning, it’s possible… but the probability is rather small.”

However, his attention was not focused on where the bodies of the fugitives were found or the traces of lightning strikes, but on a patch of “untouched land” not too far away.

The location where the two fugitives were discovered had experienced multiple lightning strikes. The nearby trees were practically destroyed and the ground bore traces of lightning strikes.

It was clear that these two fugitives were merely casualties of the area of effect (AOE) of the lightning storm. At that point in time, this area was a death zone.

Curiously, there was a small section, distinctly different from the surrounding area, that was perfectly intact.

If this area was a bit further away, Zhou Rui wouldn’t have noticed, as lightning strikes aren’t like rainfall. They simply can’t cover every corner of a certain area. However, the area where the fugitive bodies were found was subjected to the most concentrated lightning strikes, with nearly every part affected, as if something was luring lightning to strike here. Thus, the existence of a perfectly intact patch of land amidst the center of lightning activity seemed strange.

Zhou Rui was about to walk over to take a closer look, but suddenly noticed a few insects fluttering up from the ground.

For a moment, he was stunned. His first reaction was that these insects resembled the “flying ants” he had caught on one of the pedestrian streets in Tongshi Town.

Zhou Rui rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things. However, after he walked over and squatted down, he discovered another insect crawling out of the ground.

He hurriedly grabbed it and took a closer look. Sure enough, it was the same strange “flying ant” he had caught on the pedestrian street.

Zhou Rui knelt on the ground, hunched over to closely inspect it, noticing that the soil here was particularly loose. Despite the heavy rain two days ago, it didn’t seem to have been “washed away”.

“What did you find?” Mijoe and Gao Shu moved closer, squatting beside him and whispering.

Zhou Rui showed them the “flying ant” in his hand, his voice containing a hint of excitement: “This is the same ‘flying ant’ I caught in Tongshi Town the day before yesterday. It crawled out of this soil. Could this… be the same creature we were investigating earlier — the ‘giant raptor’ and ‘invisible insect’?”

“The same creature?” Mijoe frowned as she looked at the winged ant in Zhou Rui’s hand.

Though the main reason they were investigating this area today was because the lightning storm that occurred here two nights ago was similar to the one that occurred on Zi Huan Mountain. They wanted to find out whether the “giant raptor” also appeared here when the lightning storm hit. After all, Wushu Mountain, where the “giant raptor” was spotted a year ago, was not far from here.

If they found evidence of other “blood-eating creatures” in this area, it wouldn’t be completely improbable.

However, the problem was that she knew much more about “blood-eating creatures” than Zhou Rui, so she understood that if this type of ant was a “blood-eating creature,” it wouldn’t have been captured so easily by Zhou Rui, let alone have several of them in such a small area.

Zhou Rui, sensing her doubt, quickly added, “These are likely worker ants! Special, flying worker ants! Our target might be the ant queen that produced these worker ants! And perhaps… they’re the same ‘invisible insect’ we were investigating before.”

“Remember how we didn’t find a single ant at Wushu Mountain’s Main Peak, the place where the ‘invisible insect’ appeared? That could’ve been because the ‘invisible insect’ is a special type of ant! They drove the rest of the ant colonies out of their territory! But due to some special circumstances… like being chased by that ‘giant raptor’, the other worker ants ‘moved house’ and left first. But the ant queen… or rather, what we call the ‘invisible insect’ was so large that it didn’t manage to evacuate in time and was caught up with by the ‘giant raptor’!

“That night at Wushu Mountain, we saw the ‘giant raptor’ dig up the ground and capture the ‘invisible insect’ and fly away. But we don’t know if there was a follow-up fight and whether the ‘invisible insect’ managed to escape again.”

“Maybe it ran to Zi Huan Mountain afterward, the ‘giant raptor’ pursued it, and now it’s here.”

Zhou Rui was somewhat excited as he explained his speculation. When he spotted the flying ants emerging from the ground earlier, an image suddenly popped up in his mind: several giant winged ants, covered in black armor, monstrously big, burrowing out of the ground as if they were creatures from another dimension or hell itself, rising into the air.

He had dreamt about this scene last night and remembered it clearly when he woke up, but he didn’t give it much thought at the time. He thought he had this dream because he had encountered the “invisible insect” before and had found a rather peculiar ant the day before yesterday.

But now, standing amid this area devastated by the lightning storm, looking at the possible anthill, holding the “flying ant” he just caught in his hand, thinking about their previous trip to Citong City to investigate the lightning storm on Zi Huan Mountain, remembering the video provided by the information department that showed what seemed to be the “giant raptor”, he felt like the images from his dream were inspiring flashes of insight, giving rise to these speculations.

These speculations evoked a mix of excitement and fear in him.

It would be accurate to say that the excitement was significantly stronger, as he always enjoyed studying ants and was potentially on the verge of discovering a novel, amazing ant species.

Mijoe, frowning, said, “But we didn’t find any trace of these ants in the area affected by the lightning storm on Zi Huan Mountain.”

Zhou Rui said, “Earlier, our investigation and sampling area was quite small, and due to the appearance of those two policemen, we missed many places which could have been overlooked.”

Mijoe could sense that Zhou Rui had an inexplicable confidence in his speculation, as if he had deemed it as a fact in his heart.

“So, you mean that the lightning storms that happened at Zi Huan Mountain and here are caused by the ‘invisible insect’ to fend off enemies? Can it control lightning?” According to Mijoe’s understanding of “blood-drinking creatures”, even the most drastic mutations would hardly enable a creature to trigger or control a lightning storm single-handedly.

“Not necessarily control… it’s possible that they change their physical traits under certain conditions, becoming extremely conductive, which then influences the landing point of a direct lightning strike, attracting the lightning storm. Moreover, in our folk tales, it’s often mentioned that after refining their skills, monsters need to undergo a heavenly tribulation… I’m not suddenly plunging into superstitious beliefs, what I mean is… could our ancient legends be describing similar creatures? Could these special lightning storms be the reason why creatures including the ‘invisible insect’ and the ‘giant raptor’ have shown up?” said Zhou Rui.

Mijoe recalled Zhou Rui’s earlier Godzilla analogy, and knowing that his quirkiness had once again ignited, she decided not to entertain his ideas. However, she also felt that Zhou Rui’s speculation was not entirely absurd. The lightning storms at Zi Huan Mountain and this place could indeed be related, and the ant with wings that Zhou Rui discovered was different from normal ants and other Hymenoptera insects, which was certainly suspicious.

Looking at the loose soil in front of her, which Zhou Rui believed to be an ant nest, she asked, “So you’re saying the ant queen could be underneath right now?”

“Possibly.” Zhou Rui paused, and then said something that made Mijoe frown: “Or it might have been annihilated in the lightning strike two nights ago.”

…

It was naturally impossible for Zhou Rui and Mijoe to find the ant queen inside that “suspected” ant nest since Xiang Kun never really “arranged” for the ant queen to be there. The so-called ant nest was actually just something made by Xiang Kun with the help of a few working ants, primarily to remove the traces he and Old Xia left behind.

However, he was indeed guiding Zhou Rui to connect the lightning storms, the ants, including the “mutated ants”, and the “mutated big bird”.

Previously, when they were at the pedestrian street, he intentionally made Zhou Rui discover the “flying worker ant” as he wanted to utilize the devices and personnel of “Divine Technology” to study the specific characteristics of the “flying worker ants” produced by “Zero Two”. By doing so, he could directly acquire these data through Mijoe or Zhou Rui, and also observe how “Divine Technology” would handle this potential “mutant creature”.

His further guidance to Zhou Rui today served two purposes: to mislead “Divine Technology” about the correlation between the two lightning storms and to prepare a trap by creating a powerful “mutant creature”. This would aid him in testing how “Divine Technology” would deal with “mutant creatures”, and in the event of Mijoe and her team’s inability to cope, to see what reinforcements would be deployed. He also wondered if he could attract the arrival of “Mr. Liang” or other higher authorities with more information.

Of course, he would not set up his “experimental arena” in Chongyun Mountain, as it is close to Chongyun Village, which he has plans to develop in the future.

As for the “bait”, he would not use “Zero One” or “Zero Two”, ants that are already directly associated with him and have entered the “Super sensory Item System”.

He planned to command “Zero Two” to produce some new reproducing ants, give birth to a few new ant queens, and cultivate one or a few secondary ant colonies to serve as “bait”.

However, as of now, the ant queens produced by “Zero Two” do not live up to Xiang Kun’s requirements. He needed to further train and cultivate “Zero Two”, allowing it to understand his needs for the secondary ant queen and colony types, and finding ways to bestow more abilities on the secondary ant queens through “Zero Two”.

At this time, Xiang Kun and Xia Libing were standing on the roof of their house, gazing at the GL8 parked by the mountain path in the distance.

“Are you going into the mountains?” Xia Libing asked.

Xiang Kun understood that she was asking whether he would go into the mountains to observe the progress of Mijoe and Zhou Rui’s investigation, as well as to keep tabs on the arrangement of the “flying ants”.

“No, I’ll just inquire about the progress in Mijoe’s or Zhou Rui’s dream later. Today, I am just planting the ‘seed’, and I haven’t decided where it will sprout yet.”

As Xiang Kun spoke, he glanced at the “Zero One” in Xia Libing’s palm. The large ant was lying motionless, as if it were asleep.

“Zero One” had already shed its shell seven times, its body growing from small to large, and then from large to small again. Its entire body had become glossy and slick. It was clearly distinguishable from the other “flying ants” produced by “Zero Two”, not only in terms of size but also in its appearance that resembled a mech warrior in the ant world. These were all changes to adapt to Xiang Kun’s “transformation needs”, but these changes still haven’t exceeded the genetic limits of the ant, or the Hymenoptera itself.

Xia Libing had always been attempting to establish a special connection similar to that with the coin and the black circle graffiti with these ants associated with Xiang Kun, but she hasn’t succeeded so far.

Although Old Xia couldn’t establish a deep association or give orders to these ants like Xiang Kun could, they still felt a peculiar familiarity towards her.

Like now, “Zero One” could lie still in Old Xia’s palm, feeling absolutely at ease. The previous ant queen “Zero Two” could also be picked up, examined and photographed by Old Xia without resisting, fleeing or attacking. Moreover, this familiarity was not a result of Xiang Kun’s commands, it was their own intuition.

In fact, when they first appeared, neither “Zero One” nor “Zero Two” exhibited this intuitive behaviour, but then Old Xia tried a special method – she fed the two ants cake that she had materialized.

Of course, Xiang Kun could not confirm whether “Zero One” and “Zero Two”‘s familiarity with Old Xia was due to her feeding them the materialized cake, or it was just a result of them getting accustomed to Old Xia’s scent after living with her for a long time.

Generally speaking, ants do not possess the capability to be tamed by food or get used to certain creatures. Their level of cognition is much narrower compared to cats or birds.

At present, Xiang Kun only had “Zero One” and “Zero Two”, two associated ants, and no other associated ants to serve as a control group for experimentation. As for the other “flying ants” or “small ants”, their uniform behavior towards Old Xia was an influence of “Zero Two”.

Xiang Kun looked at the “Zero One” in Old Xia’s hand and said, “I’m going to the mountains today to try to establish an ant colony, integrate it into a small ecological circle, and adjust their forms and abilities. I’ll be back before the blood-drinking period. If Zi Cheng or Deputy Director Liu look for me, handle them for me, I will leave my phone with you.” Since he was going to conduct an overnight experiment deep in the mountains, Old Xia couldn’t follow him.

“Do you need to prepare the rabbit meat in advance?” Xia Libing asked.

“If I don’t return by Sunday morning, then you can prepare it for me.” Xiang Kun said.