In addition to those insects that died accidentally, many new ones were born every day.
With the hive’s territory now vast, the insects were busier than ever, working tirelessly day and night. Gone were the days when only a few hundred insects would huddle together at night. Back then, Luo Wen could easily count their numbers in a matter of moments when he had nothing else to do.
He sighed nostalgically at the simplicity of those earlier days, now long past. Today, he could only make rough estimates—the insect population had grown to at least fifty thousand.
As time passed, Luo Wen began experiencing some headaches in recent days, as many insects had fallen ill.
It was unclear when it started, but small white dots had appeared on the once shiny exoskeletal armor of the insects.
At first, these white spots were few and scattered, appearing on the carapaces of just a handful of insects. But in a very short time, the dots spread rapidly, covering the insects’ entire bodies. Before long, those afflicted with the white dots inexplicably perished.
The worker ants followed protocol, recycling the dead into protein, but in doing so, they inadvertently spread the white dots to others.
The white dots behaved like a plague, rapidly infecting more insects.
By the time Luo Wen noticed and focused on the issue, hundreds of insects had already died from the affliction.
Recently, he had been preoccupied with perching on tree trunks and enjoying the scenery. Furthermore, as his size increased, he had stopped living among the other insects.
To accommodate his growing size, creating a tunnel large enough for him to access the underground would require substantial excavation, introducing potential risks to the hive, such as flooding during rain.
The hive entrance was built atop a raised mound, which the worker ants had modified over time to resemble a miniature volcanic crater. This design allowed them to seal the entrance quickly during rainfall, preventing water from entering the nest or pooling around the entrance.
If a larger tunnel were constructed for Luo Wen, sealing it during heavy rain would be nearly impossible for the worker ants, potentially endangering the entire hive.
With his limited insectile experience, Luo Wen hadn’t considered such issues in advance.
Several weeks ago, a torrential downpour had drenched the area. At that time, his size was still manageable, and the tunnel wasn’t excessively large.
Even so, rainwater still flooded the hive, drowning a significant number of worker ants.
Since then, Luo Wen had dug out a separate chamber near the hive for his own use, choosing to live alone.
This isolation was the primary reason he failed to notice the white dot outbreak sooner.
After identifying the problem, Luo Wen carefully observed an infected worker ant. To his surprise, the white dots weren’t a disease but rather tiny insects.
These minuscule parasites clung tightly to their hosts, using their mouthparts to pierce the exoskeleton and feed on bodily fluids. They reproduced rapidly, and once their numbers reached a critical mass, they could kill the host.
Though Luo Wen identified the cause of the outbreak, he had no effective solution.
The insects’ combat abilities were designed for larger-scale threats, rendering them useless against the microscopic white parasites. While the adhesive hairs on Luo Wen’s legs could pick off these pests, treating thousands of infected insects by himself was an insurmountable task.
Hatching new insects equipped with adhesive hairs? The time required for eggs to develop into mature insects was far too long. By then, the infected population would likely be wiped out. Directly producing adult insects from the Brood Nest? The process was inefficient, yielding too few to make a significant impact.
Luo Wen had no choice but to isolate the infected insects and think of a plan.
Just as he was about to hit a mental wall, a breakthrough occurred.
He recalled the worker ants’ formic acid, which was highly effective against enemies lacking acid-resistant genes. He decided to test it.
The results were astonishing. The white parasites had no resistance to formic acid and were easily exterminated.
A single “acid rain” session later, the hive was free of infections, and the insects returned to health.
However, the root of the issue remained unresolved—where had the parasites come from?
Luo Wen, living in a monotonous world, found himself ruminating on the problem. Eventually, he formed a hypothesis.
He had already dismantled over twenty ant nests but had never seen these parasites on ants. Likewise, the hive had been free of them until recently.
This suggested that a recent change in the hive’s environment triggered the outbreak.
Luo Wen recalled the wood chips used by ants to keep their nests dry. These chips were made by gnawing on plant roots to create dried wood, which the ants extracted.
Previously, the hive had similar wood chips. But since Luo Wen moved out, moisture control in the hive had been neglected. This was the only notable change in recent times.
Whether this was the true cause required further observation.
Luo Wen quickly issued new orders.
The worker ants thoroughly cleansed the hive with formic acid and collected fresh, dry wood chips from nearby dried wood sources. Once arranged, the hive returned to its former dry and comfortable state.
Over the next several days, no new white dots appeared, confirming that moisture was indeed the culprit.
With the issue resolved, life returned to its usual rhythm.
Months later, the hive’s influence expanded outward by another hundred meters.
Meanwhile, Luo Wen faced a familiar problem.
When Luo Wen first decided to emerge from the underground and eliminate the surrounding ant nests, it was because the transport routes had become too long. Worker ants spent more energy traveling than they could harvest.
This problem hadn’t been fundamentally resolved, and now it had resurfaced.
With the expanded territory, the hive’s outermost boundaries were nearly 500 meters away from its core.
Round trips were time-consuming and energy-intensive for the worker ants.
This distance was already their operational limit. If the hive were to expand further, the issue would need to be addressed.
Thus, the old plan to relocate the hive was revisited.
This time, however, circumstances were different. The hive was now the dominant force in the area, able to migrate across the surface without risk.
After careful consideration, Luo Wen selected a new hive location 50 meters from the current boundary.
This site offered a safe buffer and room for future expansions.
Even so, the relocation only provided a temporary fix. Once the hive expanded another 400–500 meters, the same problem would arise again.
By then, relocating the hive alone wouldn’t suffice.
Luo Wen needed to devise a lasting solution during this period to resolve the issue once and for all.