When Shen Feng arrived at his destination, he saw a group of worker ants carrying the queen ant. These worker ants were specifically responsible for taking care of the queen. In times of danger, it was the worker ants that carried the queen, as the queen's body was too massive. Although the queen ant had legs, they were unable to support its movement.
The queen ant's body was white and appeared very bloated. From a distance, it resembled the body of a cabbage caterpillar. Without the care of the worker ants, the queen ant would have been unable to move at all.
Shen Feng was about to attack. If he could kill the queen ant, everything else would be fine. The remaining army ants would then be controlled by Long Qian.
However, just as Shen Feng was condensing the Gale Cannon, the ground suddenly changed. The previously solid ground cracked open, revealing a dark underground cave. The queen ant and the worker ants all fell into the underground cave. Shen Feng was stunned by the sight.
The ground, which had been intact moments before, suddenly split open. No one had expected there to be other passages underground.
At this point, Shen Feng had no other options and could only fire the Gale Cannon. With a "boom," the air cannon struck the ants in the cave. However, Shen Feng did not know the extent of the casualties among the army ants.
"Rustle, rustle..." At this moment, a change occurred among the army ants, which had been huddled together. One by one, the army ants dispersed and began to dig into the ground.
Judging by the synchronized movements of these ants, it was clear that the queen ant was not yet dead. Otherwise, these ants would have already lost control.
"I'm sorry, the mission has failed! I didn't expect these army ants to have dug tunnels underground. They don't usually dig nests. The queen ant has escaped, and I don't know what's going on underground," Shen Feng said to Long Qian after returning to the helicopter.
"It's not your fault. We didn't know that the habits of these army ants would change so quickly." Long Qian could only shake his head helplessly. Although he felt resentful, he dared not blame Shen Feng.
Generally, desert army ants spend their lives migrating. At most, they would stop for three to five days after migrating for a period. Army ants do not have fixed nests, so everyone habitually assumed that army ants would not dig holes. However, it seemed that all living things evolve, and in order to survive better, army ants had learned to dig tunnels.
"Don't be discouraged at this point. Since there are tunnels underground, there must be many more entrances in the surrounding areas. Through these exits and entrances, we can determine the location of the desert army ant nest. It will be much easier to formulate a strategy next," someone suddenly offered their opinion.
Shen Feng and Long Qian nodded in agreement after hearing this. They then dispersed to search for the exits and entrances of the ant nest.
The desert army ants also sensed the danger at this time. Taking advantage of the disappearance of the tornado in the sky, they all retreated underground. Small holes appeared on the ground. If one didn't look closely, they might mistake these holes for mouse holes. In reality, these caves were specifically for the ants to pass through.
After searching, everyone finally determined the central location of this network of caves. The helicopters converged in the central area. Looking down, they discovered that this was the area where the meteorite had fallen.
"Let's go down and take a look. With me by your side, you don't need to worry about your safety. Please rest assured," Shen Feng suggested.
Upon hearing Shen Feng's suggestion, everyone agreed. With a seventh-tier ability user accompanying them, what danger could they possibly encounter?
Ropes were lowered from the helicopter, and everyone descended to the ground. The helicopter could not stay in this cactus forest, nor did it have enough space to land. Therefore, the only way to reach the ground was by rope.
Shen Feng flew directly to the center of the meteorite crater and found many small holes there. These holes were neither too large nor too small, just large enough for a mouse to pass through.
"Now, I think I know where the meteorite went. The meteorite was not found inside the crater, but there were holes underneath the crater. It goes without saying that these meteorites were stolen by the ants," Shen Feng said.
"This crater is at least four to five meters in diameter. Calculating this way, the meteorite must also be very large, at least the size of a human head. Do these ants really have the ability to carry such a large meteorite?" Long Qian began to doubt the authenticity of this matter.
"Don't forget that these army ants have immense strength. Even if one army ant cannot carry the meteorite, what about tens or hundreds of them? Otherwise, how can we explain the whereabouts of the meteorite?" Shen Feng retorted.
Long Qian seemed to be convinced. He pondered for a moment and then said, "Even if there is a possibility, we won't be able to find this meteorite."
"How will you know if you don't try? If you're not interested in this meteorite, then if I find it, it will be mine," Shen Feng said with a smile.
"That won't do. I discovered this meteorite crater first. By rights, the meteorite within should also belong to me. If you want to snatch it away, that would be dishonest acquisition!" Long Qian said.
Long Qian had originally come to Central Asia to search for meteorites, but he had found nothing after many years. Although he had outwardly given up searching for meteorites, now that the meteorite was almost within his grasp, if he didn't try to claim it, he would watch it fall into someone else's hands.
Shen Feng smiled and said, "Since we want to search for the meteorite, we will need to mobilize the strength of most of the people in the city. The location of these ant nests is very deep; we will have to dig three feet down to find the meteorite."
Long Qian vaguely felt that something was wrong. He had originally come to find Shen Feng to help him eliminate the army ants, but now the objective had changed. The two of them were now about to go to great lengths to search for the meteorite.
Returning to the city after this fruitless expedition, everyone would then discuss how to deal with the desert army ants. These desert army ants had learned to build nests underground and were very powerful in combat. Defeating them was not an easy task.
Upon returning to the city, Long Qian summoned the city's management personnel and asked them to gather in the conference room to discuss the situation. It was no longer easy to eliminate the desert army ants, but the imminent crisis had to be resolved. If Shen Feng left, there would be no one in the city capable of dealing with the mutated army ants.
"At this point, we know that the leader of the desert army ants is the queen ant. So, as long as we find a way to kill the queen ant, it will be very simple to deal with the rest of the army ants," someone proposed this viewpoint.
Everyone in the conference room was speaking Persian, which Shen Feng could not understand. Fortunately, there was a dedicated translator next to him. Whatever he wanted to know, the translator would accurately convey it to him in Chinese. Therefore, Shen Feng also wanted to know what these people were thinking.
"Before, the desert army ants did not pose any significant threat, so the queen ant dared to walk around openly. However, today, the Wind God did not kill the queen ant in one fell swoop. From now on, it will definitely become vigilant and will not easily leave underground," someone refuted.
"If the queen ant cannot be killed, then we can only choose other methods, such as killing all millions of army ants," someone suggested other means after realizing that killing the queen ant was not feasible.
Unfortunately, this suggestion was even less reliable than the previous one, as cleaning up millions of army ants was not a simple matter. It was even more difficult than killing the queen ant. Moreover, as long as the queen ant existed and was guaranteed sufficient food, it could continue to reproduce.
"Normal methods cannot eliminate these desert army ants. We might as well start from other aspects, such as using poisonous food to poison all these ants."
"I think poisoning is not effective and wastes food. We ourselves are not well-fed, so why use poisonous food to poison these ants? Therefore, I think we should use fire. Set a fire on the ground to seal all these holes. Even if it can't burn the ants to death, it can suffocate them all."
"This is a completely terrible idea. I really don't know how your brain came up with such an idea. To start a fire, you need fuel. Our fuel is barely enough for heating, so setting a fire would be even more useless."
"Since setting fire is not an option, why don't we use water? We have many wells here that can extract deep groundwater. As long as we pump water, we can drown all the ants."
"If so many ants could be dealt with by pumping water, that would be too naive. This ant nest is not an ordinary ant nest; a few buckets of water can't solve it! We don't know what the situation is like underground. If the underground space is vast, it would waste an unknown amount of water to achieve the goal."
The people in the conference room argued for a long time without reaching a useful solution. Long Qian was also speechless. Although he was the king, he had no capable subordinates. When faced with critical issues, no one could propose good solutions; instead, they were all undermining each other.
Long Qian looked at Shen Feng, who was sitting beside him, and asked in a low voice, "Mr. Shen, do you have any good ideas to help us resolve this crisis?"
Shen Feng shook his head seriously at this moment, clearly indicating that he had no good ideas either. He himself often explored underground conditions, but that was in underground areas where people could pass through. These ant caves were only about the size of a rabbit, so he couldn't investigate underground at all. Since he didn't know the underground situation, it was even more difficult to propose a solution.
"Since that's the case, the meeting is adjourned. Everyone should go back and think carefully about any solutions!" Long Qian announced the adjournment, seeing that there were no solutions at the meeting. Listening to people argue any longer would only worsen his mood.
Upon returning to his room, Shen Feng couldn't help but check the news. Shen Feng was currently residing in Long Qian's palace, where there was signal and internet access. In his free time, Shen Feng enjoyed watching the news to stay informed about major world events.
Currently, the oxygen concentration on Earth was rising. The mutated blue-green algae in the seawater had spread over a large area, and the rate of oxygen production had significantly increased. As a result, the oxygen concentration in the air had risen, providing opportunities for many insects to rise.
In prehistoric times, there were giant insects. Dragonflies at that time could directly lift a person. However, after several biological extinctions, the Earth's oxygen concentration continued to decline, and the size of insects also decreased. Originally, insects were at the lowest rung of the food chain; birds in the sky and beasts on the ground could all bully these insects. It was unexpected that in the apocalypse, these insects would have the opportunity to develop.
Through the news, Shen Feng discovered that giant insects had appeared all over the world. While they encountered desert army ants, North America was facing many fire ants. In the rainforests of South America, there was a giant butterfly that was also eating crops, making it impossible for humans to survive in South America.