“Shi Lin?” Bai Zemin blinked before nodding. “Then, allow me to call you Queen Shi Lin.”
The queen of the weaver ants chuckled but her chuckle was cut short as a pained expression crossed her face for a split second before fading away.
There were many things that could be faked in this world, but it was hard to simulate pain in front of a person who had already experienced all kinds of pain in his life like Bai Zemin. He could tell that the expression Queen Shi Lin had just shown was real and not fake, which confirmed his theory that something wrong was going on with the health of the queen of the weaver ants.
“Queen Shi Lin, it seems that your health is not quite right?” Bai Zemin frowned slightly and asked tentatively.
His words caused the expression of the burly weaver ant beside Queen Shi Lin to change. The creature looked at Bai Zemin with a flash of anger on its face and its aura went slightly out of control.
The expression of Bai Zemin stayed unperturbed, but only he knew how shocked he was in his heart. The aura of the blue-colored weaver ant in front of him was even stronger than the aura of Glineira whom Bai Zemin faced in Oblon World a little over a month ago! This meant that the corpulent weaver ant in front of him definitely was above the level 180!
The queen of the weaver ants turned her head slightly and let out a peculiar sound from her mouth at the same time as her elegant antennae twitched slightly.
The response of the blue-colored weaver ant was immediate and in a matter of seconds, it regained its calmness even though it still did not seem to be pleased with Bai Zemin in the room.
The queen of the weaver ants looked at Bai Zemin and sighed weakly, “Bai Zemin, would you like to hear a short but rather intriguing story?”
“Please.” Bai Zemin nodded respectfully.
Given that the other side was treating him kindly and it didn’t seem to be a fake attitude, then he had no reason why he should act disdainfully just because the other side was of a different race than him. Bai Zemin was the type of person that did not forgive offenses but repaid respect with even more respect, simple as that.
Shi Lin took a few seconds to organize her thoughts and words before she began to speak in a slow and soft voice: “A long long time ago, I don’t know specifically how long because countless generations have passed since then and only part of the history has been passed down from queen to queen, the human race was the lord of these lands. All other races had to behave themselves, but the king of these lands seemed to be an extremely bright person who did not discriminate just because of racial differences and in his own way tried to unite all the races of this country to avoid internal wars.”
Although Bai Zemin was not 100% sure whether he was right or not, the words of the queen Shi Lin made him think of King Kang Guiying.
“We weaver ants, despite not being particularly brilliant in any field since we have no special talents, are an especially strong race not only because of our numbers but also because our natural Strength is many times higher than most other races.” The queen of the weaver ants explained, her voice as soft as before but even slower as time passed. “It wasn’t easy, even with the then queen in charge there were many intelligent weaver ants who were unwilling to join the human race so they went their own ways. However, we could say that at that time humans and weaver ants at least were not in conflict.”
Shi Lin paused and gasped for air for a good few seconds before continuing:
“There is a lot of information that was lost in the process, among that information is the reason why this event happened…. The thing is that at some point in the past, something that practically annihilated all races occurred. The only exception seemed to be the human race for some reason. The king of that time was a brilliant person, and with the help of several mages whose power and knowledge we could not understand, he managed to create an enclosed space where he hid treasures, and among those treasures, there were also a few weaver ants among which was the queen… Of course, this did not mean that the queen of that moment and the rest of the weaver ants were part of the treasure but that the human king of that moment had hidden part of the weaver ants to prevent them from perishing like the rest.”
Bai Zemin frowned tightly as he heard the words of the queen Shi Lin and a flash of confusion shone in his eyes.
“Queen Shi Lin, if I may.”
“Go ahead.” She nodded and took the moment to catch her lost breath.
“This king you speak of, could he be Kang Guiying?” Bai Zemin asked with a frown, now almost 100% certain that the answer would be negative.
Indeed, Shi Lin gently shook her head and replied:
“No… Kang Guiying is a human who appeared much later, in a completely new era, and used the treasures left behind by a former king to gain momentum.”
The confusion in the heart of Bai Zemin only grew now.
If the king Shi Lin was talking about was not Kang Guiying, then didn’t this mean that something had happened in the past that practically annihilated all races more than one time? After all, the same thing seemed to have happened to Kang Guiying and surely to the rest of mankind.
Shi Lin did not linger after answering Bai Zemin’s question and continued: “Time passed, but with the loss of the world’s mana and without the Soul Record present, after the death of the last weaver ants, all the others that were born were just normal weaver ants. No more mutant weaver ants.”
What was the reason why all living things evolved? Mana! It was the Soul Record that modified everyone’s souls with mana and connected all living beings through an incredibly vast network in such a way that by absorbing the Soul Power of another existence which by nature was filled with mana, the absorbing living being could continue to evolve and grow.
Then, if the mana was lost and the connection to that massive network was severed, evolution was no longer possible.
“The weaver ants became small creatures as they were in the past and many of them starved to death by being underground. With the magic circles surrounding the entire cave, it wasn’t possible to go outside to look for food anymore as well so every era that passed had been extremely challenging.” Shi Lin sighed as she narrated to Bai Zemin her memories passed down from the previous queens. She looked at him with her big black eyes and finally a trace of a smile appeared on her face, “But…. We ants are a hard-working race…. Although it took us countless generations and countless sacrifices, one of us finally managed to find by pure fortune a place free of magic circles, runes, and magic. It was then that we were able to return to the surface.”
“Even though the weaver ants were finally able to return to the surface and obtain food by creating tunnels, the nest was still the same.” Shi Lin smiled slightly and opened both arms as she said softly, “This place has been our home for countless eras. It’s just that when the human named Kang Guying took advantage of part of the ruins left from ancient times he didn’t notice the insignificant little weaver ants that had just begun to evolve and ignored them.”
A glimmer of understanding shone amidst the enormous confusion that filled the eyes of Bai Zemin. He finally got one or two answers to one or two of the many questions he now held in his heart.
Shi Lin slowly closed her arms and let her hands rest in her lap as she said in a soft voice, “Bai Zemin, now you know approximately the story. Do you still think we are the invaders here?”
Bai Zemin’s expression changed several times as he listened to the words of the queen of the weaver ants and finally had no choice but to shake his head.
The weaver ants had been here even before Kang Guiying’s great-great-grandparents were born, this was their home. However, that did not change one thing that was very important to Bai Zemin.
“Queen Shi Lin, neither my people nor I intend to be enemies of you weaver ants. In the forest, it was your race who attacked us first.” Bai Zemin pointed out with a serious expression on his face.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to point that out when I asked you that question.” Shi Lin shook her head softly and her lustrous black hair moved in sync. She looked into his eyes and said in a gentle voice, “I simply want you to understand that while all of us are networked, it is not easy for a single individual to control tens of millions among which there are thousands of intelligent beings at the same time as you nurture the larvae with Soul Power.”
Bai Zemin thought for a moment, finally understanding what she meant. Basically, while Shi Lin was the queen of this colony, that didn’t mean she was an omniscient and omnipresent being. As was the case with humans, although Bai Zemin was the founding leader of the Transcendent faction, this did not mean that he knew what was happening at every moment in every corner and could control everything 100%; such a thing was impossible.
“We, the queens, usually have a life expectancy of 800 years when we step into the Third Order and at birth we are already existences in the First Order.” Shi Lin began a new explanation. “However, to nurture new larvae, we, the queens, sacrifice our life expectancy slowly for which it is not wrong to say that while we have advantages, we also have disadvantages. When a weaver ant deposits eggs, the only one who can grow the larva inside that egg is the queen and for every egg, we nurture our lifespan decreases a little more.”
Bai Zemin frowned slightly and hesitated as he looked at her in confusion, “Queen Shi Lin, you…”
“Em. I have about 30 minutes left to live at the moment.” Shi Lin smiled gently as if what she was saying was no big deal.
Bai Zemin stared at her and was a little at a loss for words. He still didn’t understand where she was going with telling him all this.
“Bai Zemin, I will hand over control over this Sky Destroyer to you in exchange for you promising me something.” Shi Lin said suddenly.
Before Bai Zemin could say anything, Shi Lin showed him a jet-black ring with golden runes and explained, “This ring is the command control, only the existence who owns it can be the commander of the battleship. The ring was without an owner before, but since I claimed ownership not long ago, now I have to pass it to the next commander or else the Sky Destroyer will obey no one else.”
The expression on Bai Zemin’s face turned white, then green, black, and finally red. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry so he simply stood silently for several seconds while his mind processed what was happening.
Finally, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly and mutter under his breath, “Doesn’t that mean I’m arm tied here?”
If Bai Zemin wanted to obtain the Sky Destroyer, then he needed Shi Lin to give him the commander’s ring, but for her to give him the ring, Bai Zemin first had to agree to some kind of unknown favor… It really was a headache.
If it was someone else then there wouldn’t be so much of a problem, that person could just tell Shi Lin that yes they would do whatever the favor was and that was it. However, Bai Zemin was precisely the kind of person who kept his word or at least did his best to keep his promises; there was no way he would be left with a guilty conscience for acting as a treacherous liar.
Shi Lin clearly heard Bai Zemin’s little mutter even though he had spoken low enough that no other evolved human would hear it even if they were next to him; he forgot that Shi Lin was not a human but a weaver ant whose antennae heightened her senses and allowed her to detect waves at a distance.
The queen of the weaver ants let out a soft chuckle that lasted for several seconds before she said in a calm and melodious voice, “Bai Zemin, actually, you don’t need to worry…. You’ll be getting a lot out of this. Even the favor I’ll ask you to promise me to fulfill will benefit you more than you probably think.”
