Chapter 26: Old Liu's First Experience (Seeking Recommendations)
Still the same place, same location.
The giant tree with a big hole opened by Old Liu is still so eye-catching, the new buds at the broken place are already taking shape, and the tender green branches have begun to show signs of recovery. Not far away, there is a clear stream, in the middle of which is Old Liu's close partner, an old tree that he regards as his confidant. Because of the last time the Golden King Beast's dying counterattack was too sudden, it almost broke its waist, so until now it has not recovered, and it hangs there with a look of being on the verge of collapse. This makes Old Liu sigh at the deep sense of justice of this good friend who does not seek reward, while also secretly making up his mind: he cannot let his tree brother down, whoever dares to snatch my little brother, I will destroy you first!
Old Liu, who was lost in thought, soon arrived at the vicinity of the giant tree. The blood-sucking mosquitoes that filled the sky gathered into a swarm, surrounding the giant canopy of the tree as if they were paying homage to it. Each of those guys who had been half-dead under Old Liu's command now seemed to be like grandchildren welcoming their grandfather, warmly and intimately surrounding a small kid... no, a small insect that was even smaller than Old Liu. Even their current leader didn't notice when he arrived. Luckily, Old Liu still walked confidently around the tree canopy, intentionally making some noise to attract their attention. Unexpectedly, every single bird joined in, including the few that had followed him and couldn't wait to join the ranks of the grandchildren. The sight made Old Liu's three corpses jump out of his skin, almost spitting out a mouthful of fire from his heart.
"It's really too much! It's really too much!!" Angry Old Liu immediately transformed into a violent state, wanting to rush up and grab that little female emperor and beat her severely to vent his anger. However, looking at the group of traitors surrounding her, Old Liu couldn't help but feel another wave of despair. He sighed bitterly: "Am I really born with a laborious fate? After finally stabilizing and having a home, now I have to give it all up to others?"
This new queen hasn't been born for long, but she's already incredibly powerful. As soon as she was born, she chased away her two other sisters, who left with a dozen or so newly hatched larvae to start their own families. Now, she's sending out signals to summon the remnants of this original swarm of blood mosquitoes, thinking that she can definitely take over the legacy left behind by her mother. She's excited and can't wait for Old Liu to hand it over, but as time passes, she becomes increasingly impatient. Just then, she sees a strange-looking mosquito flying around her in a suspicious manner. The new queen is furious and sends out an interrogative signal to the circling Old Liu: "Foreigner, leave this place..."
"Wipe it, this road is your home!" Old Liu's anger intensified, being made to laugh by this little brat who was even younger than himself; "Little guy, you can't even express yourself clearly, are you still not awake?"
The new queen said she couldn't understand what Old Liu was talking about. However, several guys next to him, who were comparable to dog-legged traitors, raised their antennae on their heads and excitedly reported to the new queen that this guy in front of them was the proxy leader of their tribe.
The new queen suddenly became excited and sent a message to the gloomy old Liu: Your task is complete, hand over the position of leader to me, and you can leave.
Kill the donkey after crossing the river! These bugs are too cruel! Liu Ting, who had a small hope in his heart, was thoroughly defeated by the new queen's confession, and for a moment, the flames of anger burned again in his heart. A pair of eyes smaller than beans turned bright red, and they could probably still light up the night.
"If I don't pay, huh!" Old Liu said with a sinister tone, facing the tens of millions of rebellious brats surrounding him, not only did he not show any fear, but his momentum surged wildly, and he started to splurge.
The new queen was stunned, never expecting such a situation to arise. Normally, this wouldn't happen under any circumstances. But with Old Liu around, can anything be considered normal? For the first time in thousands of years, this newly born queen encountered an unprecedented problem - it's unclear whether she was lucky or unlucky to have met Old Liu, a usurper without any sense of tribal loyalty. However, this new queen, whose consciousness is still incomplete, surprisingly proved to be more formidable. Unable to think of a solution, she directly categorized the situation as similar to when she and her two sisters competed for dominance, vying to become the strongest leader. With a slight pause, she immediately sent a duel signal to Old Liu, who was acting recklessly!
"Huh? One-on-one? Did I hear that right, doesn't it know I can kill it with just one hand? Is this little bug really stupid to this extent?" Old Liu was stunned for a moment, and on the other side, the new queen was already trembling and trying to fly over. How long had she been born, anyway? She couldn't even fly steadily, yet she wanted to duel with him. After all, Old Liu had also been a bug for so many days, and he knew how important a proper leader was to a group. Take himself as an example, this temporary leader, although he had cunning and treachery that most magic bug leaders didn't have, with a thick face and a black heart, just one flip of his belly full of bad water could make people eat their words. But what if his abilities were strong? He couldn't give birth to children, couldn't let the group constantly update and replace itself. Even the largest creature would decline and eventually disappear. A true leader was generally a powerful queen who had given up other evolutionary directions to develop her reproductive ability, such as the queens in real life, like peak queens and ant queens. They were the basic units of a group's continuation, the reproductive machines that had abandoned all other evolutionary paths. No matter how badly you messed with this group, even if you destroyed ninety percent of it, as long as the queen was not exterminated, it meant that the group would have a chance to recover and even grow stronger one day! (Friends who used hot water, firecrackers, matches, and insecticides to ravage ants when they were young should be deeply aware of this.)
In this world, all queens are evolved from ordinary female insects. Although ordinary insects can also reproduce, they cannot compare with the queens in terms of quality or quantity, and are even dispensable roles. Take the lump where Old Liu was born, for example. Those guys were born just to improve the diet of the vast number of organisms in the Jiaya Rainforest. It's already a rare occurrence that someone like Old Liu emerged after millions of years. In human society, it would be a legendary story that could be made into an eight-part series broadcast on CCTV. So, no matter what kind of group you are, as long as you are social, only the strong queen is truly powerful. This is an iron law that goes without saying. Even if Old Liu was more cunning and sinister, he couldn't compare to a queen who could only reproduce. If this branch of mosquitoes had to choose between the two, Old Liu would be eliminated first. Although he still holds the temporary position of leader and has some influence among these mosquitoes, it's clear that these rebels are biased towards someone else (Of course, if Old Liu could change his sex and become a female, this tribe would still accept him as their leader).
"Is there really no other way?" Old Liu fell into deep thought, and at the same time, he slapped away Fei who had flown to his side in an attacking posture. He slowly considered the feasibility of each method.
"Don't worry, don't worry, there must be a way. A clear mind is not disturbed by the collapse of heaven. Amidst countless changes, I remain calm and serene... With my brain, no matter what, I'm smarter than these insects." Time passed second by second, surrounded by tens of millions of onlookers - mosquitoes, which scared away the nearby demonic beasts that came out to hunt for food. Old Liu silently recited Old Nie's Ice Heart Incantation while unknowingly slapping away the Blood Mosquito Queen for who-knows-how-many times, when suddenly a flash of inspiration struck his mind, and it dawned on him!
"Haha, yeah, what's the point of thinking so much? Just subdue it and be done with it. Didn't Holker and those barbarian black demons do the same thing?! Old Liu suddenly had an epiphany, was overjoyed, and saw that the seemingly indestructible Queen was flying towards him again, trembling. He couldn't help but laugh, as if she was flying too slowly or something. Old Liu even preemptively attacked, swooping past with a whoosh, and grabbed the dazed Queen with one hand, his forelimb grasping the struggling Queen like a tiger bullying a bear, letting out a hearty, evil laugh."
"Right, gotta be careful. Although I know how they did it, after all, this is my first experiment, and I don't know if it'll work or not. If I'm not careful and end up killing it, that'd be a big problem." Old Liu, who knew just how important the existence of this female emperor was, rarely became serious and decided to find an experimental subject to try it out on. After looking around left and right, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he didn't know what he saw, but he excitedly started dancing with joy: "You're not dead yet! You were actually hiding here without making a sound. Are you trying to sneak attack me? Gotcha, it's you! Ah, I say, stop looking around, it's definitely you!"
I've finally finished that damn theory exam, NND, this pressure is finally off.
