Boiling Beast Bloodline
Chapter 1176 - 317 Ant Cow_2

Chapter 1176: Chapter 317 Ant Cow_2

The Bimon warriors resting inside the city had forgotten their pain and groaning as they gazed stupidly at the giant insects.

The ant queen, bound with three ropes around its tender, white flesh, was tethered underneath a large citron tree, belly up to the sky. It was unknown who had whipped it, but several distinct welts swelled on its limbs, oozing pale yellow fluid from the curled flesh. It continued to hum and chirp intermittently. Seeing the Milk Cow giant insects approaching, the ant queen awkwardly twisted its body and opened its plump mouth.

A particularly robust Milk Cow giant insect turned its body and aimed a shriveled part from under its belly at the ant queen’s gaping mouth. It inflated like a balloon, and with a muffled "pop", secreted a pumpkin-sized blob of amber-hued honeydew, which "thunked" into the ant queen’s mouth.

The Bimon warriors around murmured in wonder at this exotic scene, whispering to each other in discussion. Little Bell, of the Cicada People, could not hide his desire to share, and with foaming enthusiasm, explained the secret of ants shepherding herds of aphids.

Both the ancient Bimon Ant tribe and natural ants had the habit of cultivating fungi and farming aphids. When tending to these aphids, the ants were more dedicated than the most conscientious nannies, which is why aphids were also known as "Ant Cows".

The ants did this for a good reason. After feeding on plant sap, the aphids could convert it into sweet honeydew within their bodies, and this delicious honeydew happened to be the ants’ most favorite food.

In nature, only bees and aphids could produce honey. However, compared to bees, the production of aphid honey was frighteningly high. Every aphid could brew a honey lump as large as its body, regardless of what plant sap it sucked, while bees had to gather flowers to make honey, and a swarm of bees needed to consume ten million alfalfa flowers to produce just two pounds of honey.

"Damn it!" Liu Shock jumped in fright at Little Bell’s words.

Ever since the Bimon had lost the Pani Bee tribe ten thousand years prior, honey had always been a bona fide luxury on the entire Aegean Continent. The honey currently produced in the Bimon Kingdom was mostly used for export. It was the hard-earned result of the Pier people from the Southern Cross Star Forest toiling away in the old woods to gather wild honeycombs, and the annual yield was no more than two thousand pounds.

According to Little Bell, each Ant Cow produced honey equal to its body weight. The Giant Aphids in front of them, the size of small calves, probably contributed at least two hundred pounds of honeydew each day—that might even be an underestimate!

"We’re rich! There are at least one hundred and fifty Giant Aphids here! Think of how many tons of honey they produce in a day!" Fat Luo laughed wildly, his belly protruding: "With these aphid honey pots, when Vieri returns, he’ll laugh himself to madness! The Pier Bear Warriors would probably break their own skulls to join our Phelan Tree City!"

"Right! Let’s follow King Sal’s example and spend a few thousand pounds of honeydew to hire a group of jungle roamers to fight for us!" O’Neal joined in the frivolous cheering.

A group of Antelope Warriors kept it simple, finding lassos and swiftly piercing holes through the noses of the Giant Aphids, tying them all to the citron tree.

"What do the ants mean by sending these Ant Cows to us?" The Overlord was still confused about the situation. It was too bizarre; he simply couldn’t make sense of the cause and effect.

"Perhaps the ants are afraid the ant queen will starve. The ant queen only eats the finest foods—having not been sucked dry by Magnetic City proves it’s never eaten iron filings! Or perhaps the ants wish to use a tribute in exchange for the return of their queen. After all, ants are quite intelligent insects!" Cicada Person Little Bell shrugged: "I just saw a Giant Ant outside performing a ’9’ dance in mid-air. That must be the ants’ way of communicating with us. It’s a pity that none of us understand what it means!"

"Damn! Who would’ve thought ants could be as smart as the Koutao Merfolk?" Liu Shock kicked the plump ant queen with his foot: "Lead it on! We’re going to negotiate with the ants!"

"How will you negotiate? Ants can’t speak!" Fat Luo had a sudden inspiration: "How about this, boss? Since you don’t have a magical pet, why not take this ant queen? Let it command the ants to bite those Mulanese to death!"

"Dream on." Liu Shock’s face, which had just been cheery, was immediately clouded at the mention of the Mulanese. "If I bring this ant queen to the Donau Wasteland, just considering the number of eggs it lays each day, it won’t be a year before the new ant colonies formed from its divisions will eat us all. Eat the Mulanese? Save it!"

The loyal guards said nothing further but glared resentfully with the corners of their eyes at the bloodied corpses sprawling around the corner.

"Later, throw all those corpses into the ant swarm! Damn! First, come negotiate with the ants with me!" Liu Shock quickly untied the ropes from the citron tree, dragging the ant queen toward the city outskirts. The enormous, snow-white ant queen emitted strange shrieks, leaving shiny wet trails on the gravel.

Guoguo rode on the back of a small parrot, sniffing her nose, her little eyes "rolling about" while watching the nipples of the Ant Cows. Her pink tongue licked, and she flew towards the Giant Ant Cows.