At the same time, in an underground cave within the New Hope Assembly Site.

The river water flowing into the cave converged into a puddle in the ground, calm and without the slightest ripple, wisps of pale green mist drifted from the surface of the puddle, seemingly alive, slowly rising, and spreading through the soil to the New Hope Assembly Site—however, the New Hope Assembly Site had long been battered half to death by the first round of the Plague, so even if the toxic mist increased, it seemed to pose little problem...

And amidst this pervasive toxic mist, a white light point, imperceptible to the naked eye and detectable only through Soul Perception, slowly condensed, grew, and expanded. Around the light point, numerous extinguished Soul Fires continuously merged into the light point like swallows returning to their nest.

Until the white light point expanded to a certain extent, a newborn will slowly awakened within the light point.

…

Luo Luo only felt that he had a strange dream, where he was directing the ant swarm to dig holes; who would've guessed that while digging, a stream of pale green water would be unearthed, with a scent that intoxicated Luo Luo, causing him to involuntarily taste a bit.

And then, Luo Luo only remembered arriving in paradise, surrounded by delicious food within reach, while a huge sense of joy filled his heart, making his body feel so light as if he might float away...

And then...

What happened afterwards?

Without pondering these trivial issues, the moment of consciousness coming awake, Luo Luo suddenly discovered an utterly terrifying phenomenon—his body was gone...

"My body... My body..."

Although his original body was ugly and weak, nevertheless it was his guarantee for survival, but now, Luo Luo couldn't perceive the existence of his own self, surrounded everywhere by flowing white light and drifting, continuously entering his consciousness, white light points.

The white light points brought a peculiar feeling that reassured and comforted Luo Luo, constantly soothing his bewildered and panicked mind, allowing him to quickly calm down even in the strange realization of "body gone".

The newborn consciousness gradually spread, perception ability extended out, then Luo Luo perceived the external situation—surrounded everywhere by green river water and drifting toxic mist, while he had now become a purely white small sphere giving out dim glowing light, quietly floating in space, even if Luo Luo generated the thought of "move a bit," the small sphere remained absolutely still.

With only consciousness, no body, at this moment Luo Luo seemed to be isolated from the world, able only to see and hear but not interfere with the outside world at all.

"What should I do..."

Facing this unusual situation, Luo Luo was bewildered.

But soon, the sense of bewilderment disappeared—a hidden message emerged from the depths of his consciousness, the enormous amount of information causing his consciousness to oscillate for quite some time before Luo Luo managed to fully understand the information buried within his consciousness.

"Coalescence... Fusion... Heart of the Swarm..."

The newborn consciousness murmured some strange words, the next second, the pure white Amalgamated Consciousness Entity suddenly underwent transformation!

…

From the center of the Amalgamated Consciousness Entity—the white sphere—energy waves rapidly emanated; the conscious entity could naturally not source energy for this action, the energy used to emit the waves came entirely from a tiny, gray-white light point within the conscious entity.

This was precisely the "gift" Earth's will had left for Luo Luo at that time.

With the waves spreading, the formerly dead-silent puddle immediately surged with waves, countless tiny yet pure Soul Energies rapidly emerged, then at lightning speed poured into the Amalgamated Consciousness Entity.

Various emotions, memories, and complex thoughts amalgamated, subsequently with Luo Luo as the main body, flew, merged, and condensed under the energy supply of the gray-white light point, continually enlarging the Soul Energy of the newborn Amalgamated Consciousness Entity!

Until all the souls of the deceased Ant Tribe here completely merged into the Amalgamated Consciousness Entity, the next second, the gray-white light point abruptly collapsed and disintegrated.

The collapse of the gray-white light point was like a signal, driving some sort of mysterious power—an mystical energy emerged from underground, quickly surged into the gleaming green river water, subsequently, one by one tiny dark green figures began to coalesce.

With Luo Luo as the main body of the insect tribe Amalgamated Consciousness Entity—let's call it Luo Luo—spreading perception, observing the familiar figures reappearing in the river water, completely unaware of what had just transpired.

It seemed just like an 'instant change of thought', and in that instant, winds surge and clouds swirl...

Even though Luo Luo was rather naive, he understood that what had happened was not something he could accomplish by himself, however, astonishment and confusion did not last long, when in the river water there appeared the coagulation of an Ant Queen with a bulging belly, Luo Luo immediately 'cheered'.

"My... My body!"

Although the color had changed from the original black to an eerie green, still, one's own body is one's own body, no matter how unattractive, Luo Luo couldn't possibly generate feelings of dislike.

Seeing the green form coagulate and emerge, as Luo Luo was worrying about how to return to his body, a sudden massive force of pull emerged from the Ant Queen's form, drawing the Amalgamated Consciousness Entity closer to the Ant Queen's form.

Luo Luo was unwilling to resist, and could not resist, as the pull appeared in that instant, Luo Luo only felt his perception becoming blurred, a dizziness spreading endlessly from his consciousness, subsequently… 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

With a sound "blech", the newly coalescing dark green Ant Queen opened her mandibles wide, a stream of green liquid shot from the oral cavity, striking the cavern's walls, soon dissolving them into a large pit.

The regurgitating Luo Luo felt thoroughly weak all over, yet his eyes were filled with comfort and ease.

"Back again."

Reunited with his own body, Luo Luo was enveloped by an immense sense of security—indeed, one's own body is the greatest...

However, the time of comfort is always short, when he sensed the stiffness in his body slowly dissipating, Luo Luo then gradually crawled up from the riverbed wall.

Recalling the information emerging just now in his mind, after a while, Luo Luo turned around, gazing downward at the dense, seemingly lifeless, unmoving green ant swarm below.

A sense of familiarity, kinship, and command surged from the depths of his heart, Luo Luo instantly understood that the newly emerged green ant swarm underground was now completely under his control.

"The information was genuine."

Thinking like this in his mind, the next moment, Luo Luo couldn't help but focus his perception ability on himself.