The brainworm gave a clear answer to Montezuma's doubts. "Lin, this is unprecedented. The power of creation is incomparably powerful. You can't understand it. Montezuma, you can only destroy."
"Lin …? The attackers … were not your race. " Montezuma suddenly changed into a strange mood. "Your race was indeed destroyed … … At that time, I had succeeded."
Lin suddenly felt very strange. Montezuma's words seemed to imply that Bechymos and the other troops that attacked the forest of sharp pillars were the brainworms' race. Moreover, he seemed to know about the destruction of the brainworms' race.
In fact, Lin also had some doubts about the destruction of the brainworms' race. She had asked the brainworm about the event many times. According to the brainworm's description, it should have been an underground earthquake, followed by lava being squeezed out from the ground and destroying a large area of the nearby forest.
It was just that this was too strange when she thought about it. Lin had never seen any creature that couldn't sense an earthquake. The underground fluctuations before an earthquake were too obvious. Generally speaking, it was just a slight tremor or something similar to an electric current. Any multicellular creature with normal senses would be able to predict it in advance. Even plants should be able to sense it.
The most powerful prediction could have been made a year ago, and the dullest creature could have predicted it a day and a half ago. It was impossible for a creature with such a huge brain like the brainworm not to know about earthquakes. They should have been able to easily avoid the lava.
Or perhaps because the race was too big, they couldn't evacuate in a short time? But judging from the brainworm's commanding ability, this seemed impossible.
Now, it seemed that Montezuma knew something … … Could it be that he used the Deep Sand Bus to squeeze out the lava? Let's not talk about how the Deep Sand Bus withstood the lava. If that was the case, since they won. Then why did the Aztec race stay in the desert all this time?
The brainworm itself didn't have any doubts about this. Lin discovered that the brainworm's brain was so large because it needed to precisely control each troop. The brainpower it used for its own thoughts was relatively small, but of course, it was still much larger than ordinary creatures.
"The destruction of my race?" The brainworm appeared surprised. "Montezuma, at that time, you were frightened and ran away, leaving the forest of sharp pillars. You had already escaped into the deep sand. How did you know? "
"Maya was foolish and ignorant." Montezuma began to feel smug. "Your destruction was caused by fire and lava, and the lava was caused by me."
"Lava surged, tumbled, and was filled with destruction. The weak Aztec couldn't have done that," the brain worm said. "The foolish and weak Montezuma couldn't have harmed our race."
"You. They are the weak ones. " Montezuma said, "Your race is close to destruction. Even if Lin appears, she can't stop it. No matter how strong Lin is, it's futile. You will regret it and die because of your own strength … Kekekekeke …"
Then Montezuma made a long series of monotonous noises. Reen didn't know what they meant, but Montezuma was in a state of excitement.
"Filled with questions and incomprehensible." The cephalopod looked at the excited Montezuma and said: "Lin, whether or not you bring Montezuma here, life or death, is not important, but I need the brain, I can obtain its secrets"
Lin couldn't understand what Montezuma meant. 'Does a brain worm have such a fun ability?' If the brain worm could read her thoughts, Lin would really like to take a look.
"Alright." Reen said as she injected some anesthetic into Montezuma with her tentacles. Montezuma soon became quiet. Reen then turned off the image on the monitor, and had Bechymos fly towards the head's rocky mountain.
While flying, Reen did some research on Montezuma. Montezuma wasn't like the cephalopod, which had a brain all over its body. Its body had strong muscles for controlling its two pairs of wings and six limbs, and its mouth had serrated teeth. Despite retaining so many mobility and hunting functions, Reen felt that it hadn't fully evolved into the role of 'brain' in its race.
The most important part was that Montezuma's brain was located on its head, and only took up about 5% of its body weight. It was quite small compared to the cephalopod, but it was still far beyond the range of ordinary creatures. Reen deduced that Montezuma would usually only send some simple messages to the Aztec worms, while the rest of the time the Aztec worms would act on their own.
Apart from the Deepsand Bus, the other Aztec worms all had brains. Although they only had less than 0.1% of brains, that was the value of ordinary creatures. It could be said that the specialization of the Aztec worms wasn't that comprehensive.
Reen believed that their race didn't need to be commanded. They would usually plant moss and other things on their own. Only the Deepsand Bus was a little special.
Montezuma had many hardened hairs on its back that were connected to the nerves in its body. Perhaps it relied on these hairs to control its troops. Reen then conducted some research on electric currents in Montezuma's body. She found that Montezuma did indeed rely on these hairs to send out small signals. Every Aztec worm had some small nerve receptors on its body to receive signals.
But because the general Aztec worms didn't have degenerated brains, they would still act on their own even without Montezuma's command. However, Reen believed that the Deepsand Bus might be in a state where it couldn't move.
Sure enough, Reen believed that the evolution of the Aztec worms wasn't as high as that of the cephalopods. Whether it was in terms of control ability or other aspects, the cephalopods had more types of troops than the Aztec worms. Although they were only infantry now due to their destruction, if they continued to grow at this rate, other types of troops would definitely appear.
Reen asked if the Aztec worms had other leaders. The cephalopod replied that there was only Montezuma. This made things much easier. Reen didn't need to look for other leaders. Otherwise, it would be too troublesome in such a large desert.
While Bechymos was flying towards the cephalopod, Reen began to pay attention to the fliers in the air above the desert. They flew across the desert covered with vines and ferns, and finally arrived at the gigantic pit.
The Flyer flew above the giant pit where the Inca insect swarm was, only to see that half of the pit was submerged in water. This was most likely caused by the melting of the snow during the winter. Beside the giant pit, there were many beetle-like creatures that were over a meter long. Their forelimbs were serrated like blades.
Reen observed these creatures cutting up the surrounding vines and ferns. They cut the vines and ferns into half a meter long pieces, then carried them to the edge of the pit and threw them down. These small pieces of vines rolled down the stairs on the pit wall and into the water.
The entire edge of the pit was filled with these insects cutting up the vines and ferns. However, unlike the Aztec worms, they didn't gnaw on the vines and ferns. Instead, they cut them up very slowly and neatly, before finally throwing them into the pit.
These insects should be a type of Inca swarm, but Reen had never seen them before.
Large amounts of vines and ferns floated on the surface of the pit. Reen observed that there seemed to be a type of small creature chewing on these vines. Some of them were already gnawed to pieces.
What are they breeding this time? The Inca swarm's actions were truly interesting. There didn't seem to be anything special here, nor were there any Aztec worms nearby. Reen couldn't deduce the relationship between the Inca swarm and the Aztec worms.
Following that, Reen observed the Inca swarm that Reen referred to as' Black Bees'. However, Reen felt that it might be better to call them 'Engineers'. They once again carried those plump worms that could spit out silk as they walked out from the stairs. They then tied the silk into a net, before throwing it into the water. After waiting for a while, they dragged it back.
Reen discovered that the net they pulled back contained many small worms. They seemed to be the same kind that Reen had seen before. 'Do the Inca swarm like to rear worms that much? Why don't they rear some … that's … '
Suddenly, Reen discovered that the net they pulled back not only contained worms, but also fishes. They were flesh-finned fishes that Reen had seen in the sea before.
Could it be that they caught these fishes from the sea? However, there shouldn't be any living fishes in the nearby sea. How strange ….
The Inca swarm removed the net and threw the worms back into the water. They only moved the fishes back into the cave on the stairs.
They didn't seem to eat the worms. Reen recalled that they used these worms to attract the Great Vein Dragonflies to lay their eggs. In other words, they fed these worms to attract other creatures?
Although it seemed interesting, Reen's main objective was to discover if the Inca swarm was interacting with the Aztec worms. However, it was evident that there weren't any. The other Aztec worms or the Deep Sand Buses that escaped didn't appear here.
She might have to continue observing for a while.
After that, Reen discovered the Inca swarm's activity.
The Inca swarm's activity seemed rather simple. They spent their days cutting up ferns and throwing them into the water for the worms to eat. Then, the fishes would eat the worms. When the fishes grew, the Inca swarm would use the net to bring them back.
After observing for a day and a half, Reen felt that this activity wouldn't change for a long time.
In that case, Reen decided to leave the Flyer here to observe them. Reen's Bechymos was now approaching the location of the Overmind.
As she approached the Overmind's rocky mountain, Reen saw a few other rocky mountains below. Those were the rocky mountains built by Muketu. He stayed not far from the Overmind's rocky mountain. He had very few troops, but even so, he managed to survive through the winter. Reen felt that he was rather formidable.
Reen's Bechymos flew above the Overmind's rocky mountain. This wasn't a suitable place to land. Reen stuffed the paralyzed Montezuma into the airborne pod and dropped him down. There were already a large number of infantry waiting below. It seemed that the Overmind was also looking forward to it.
Let's see what was hidden in Montezuma's thoughts. Floating astronomy.