Lin Mu and Little Shrubby sat on top of one of the large mountains while a flame blazed in front of them.
~Sizzle~
The corpses of the three Rock Biter Termites were being grilled on them and a pleasant scent could be felt.
"At least they smell nice." Lin Mu said as the beasts were close to being cooked.
And a couple minutes later, Little Shrubby took them off the flames. "They're done!"
"Let's see how they taste," Lin Mu said and peeled off the carapace of the termites.
It was the same as peeling shrimp and once done, the tender and soft meat inside it was revealed.
~munch~
Lin Mu took a bite, and the sweet and sour taste of the white flesh of the Rock Biter Termite spread through his mouth.
"This is new… the flesh is naturally sour and sweet. I don't think I've tasted anything like this before." Lin Mu was impressed.
~Crack~
Little Shrubby also did the same and ripped off the carapace with the swipe of his claws.
~Munch~
He took a large bite too, eating a quarter of the corpse in one go.
"This taste… It's suitable for stews and soups! It can balance out the savory and salty flavor!" Little Shrubby said excitedly.
"Indeed… Let's grab a few more before we continue onwards." Lin Mu said as he looked down.
The Rock Biter Termites were wholly unaware that three of their kin had been taken away. Though it was unlikely that they would care either. Their species did not have high intelligence and only the kings and queens could be compared to normal beasts at the Immortal realm.
All the other Rock Biter Termites below them may as well as mortal animal like instincts.
The two didn't mean to make a 'full meal' out of the Rock Biter Termites and as such were satisfied by just the three they had cooked. It was more than enough of a snack for them.
Lin Mu and Little Shrubby finished off the three cooked termites in just a few minutes and were now ready to capture more.
But just as Lin Mu was searching for them, he realized something.
"Hang on… do the tastes vary between the classes of the Rock Biter Termites?" He wondered.
As such he scanned further and found the Soldier class of the Rock Biter Termites. Unlike the workers, these actually had bigger mandibles and a few of them also had wings that allowed them to fly.
Looking at their cultivation bases, Lin Mu could see that those who had wings were at the First Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm while those without wings were False immortals.
'Just like becoming an immortal grants us the ability to fly, it does the same for them.' Lin Mu reckoned their change in physiology was related to this too.
But since the Rock Biter Termites did not like light, they rarely made use of their wings.
Only in times of conflict would they use them to fight.
"But the Soldiers are also deep inside." Lin Mu saw that, unlike the workers, the soldiers were resting deep within the nest.
None of them showed any signs of trying to come up either.
"Guess I'll just have to go down myself." Lin Mu said to Little Shrubby.
"I'll wait here." Little Shrubby said, knowing that if he went down the Termites would likely break out in chaos.
Even now the beast had to keep his aura contained or the entire colony would feel threatened.
"I'll be back in a bit." Lin Mu said and let his body sink into the mountain.
Phase!
Lin Mu felt refreshed having used the skill after such a long time.
'The space certainly feels a lot more 'clear' now. I guess this is the effect of the Spiral Flake crystal improving my sensitivity.' Lin Mu reckoned.
His immortal sense was extended and was scanning the Termites at the same time, finding that their numbers only grew as he went deeper. In a couple of minutes, Lin Mu had descended more than five kilometers deep into the ground.
"That's a lot of caves…" Lin Mu saw that this area was basically a giant labyrinth full of winding tunnels and caves.
But that wasn't all he saw, there were also food stockpiles that the Rock Biter Termites had set up.
"Rocks… well that was expected." Lin Mu muttered but then felt a faint energy coming from the cave next to the current one. "That… Metal Qi?" he muttered.
Lin Mu passed through the walls, staying hidden inside them to prevent the Termites from seeding him before appearing in the next stockpile.
"Huh, this is all ore." Lin Mu saw piles upon piles of metal ore that had been sorted out.
~Chitter~chitter~chitter~
He heard some sound and receded back into the wall. He only let his Immortal sense observe the cave and saw a few Worker Rock Biter Termites appear. They were all carrying chunks of rocks with them and brought them to this cave before putting them down.
~crack~Crack~crack~
They then started biting away at the rock chunks, skillfully removing the parts they disliked which were none other than the Metal ores. Once that was done, they threw the metal ores into the pile and took the 'edible' rock chunks to the other cave.
'Wait a second… this is their junk pile.' Lin Mu now understood.
This gave him some thought and he decided to try something. He stored all the metal ores into the ring and waited in the walls.
~Chitter~chitter~chitter~
More Workers appeared and looked at the empty cave.
They tilted their heads in confusion and rubbed their heads with their antennas.
They then chittered at each other for a minute before simply continuing their assigned work. They chipped away at the rock chunk and removed the metal ores before taking away the edible parts.
'Looks like they don't care about the metal ores at all.' Lin Mu confirmed.
