Jiang Ye was in high spirits.
If the Mir people could be taken down, it would truly resolve a major worry.
After returning from Crane Star, he sometimes dreamt at night of the Mir people descending from the sky. Perhaps he wouldn't have to have such dreams anymore.
But a more serious question arose: if the subterranean worms were not the Mir people's weapon, then whose weapon were they?
The Galactic Separatist Alliance?
Unlikely. Although this terrorist organization had a large number of people, they were all insignificant riffraff with no money or capabilities, a mere mob.
If they had the ability to cause stellar diseases, would they still be engaged in banditry and murder everywhere?
Other alien races?
Jiang Ye logged into the military's internal website. As a General, his access privileges were very high.
There was a database called "Cosmic Power Star Map."
He opened it in holographic projection.
The vast expanse of the starry sky immediately enveloped Jiang Ye. Countless stars, all appearing as small as beans, emitted light of different colors. Planets the size of rice grains and asteroids like dust particles revolved like a swarm of small flying insects. Different regions were enclosed by cloud-like formations of different colors, each color representing a major sphere of influence.
Jiang Ye located Jiang Ye Star and looked outward.
Besides the Mir people, the nearest alien power was called the "Black Hole Tribe." They were separated from Jiang Ye Star by 480 star systems, a distance so vast that they would almost never meet.
Moreover, when Jiang Ye placed his hand over the "Black Hole Tribe's" region, the prompt indicated: "An alien race with whom a peace treaty has been signed. Technological level is average, credit is good, and threat level is extremely low." In other words, this was a neutral, gentle alien civilization, not an enemy at all.
Once the Mir people were eliminated, they would be invincible in their surroundings. So where was the hostile force?
Jiang Ye's head ached.
The little dogs were still diligently advancing along the underground tunnels. The岔路 (chàlù - diverging paths) were becoming more numerous, appearing on the screen like a large handful of hair, intricately interwoven.
After watching for four consecutive hours, Jiang Ye could no longer endure it.
It seemed he wouldn't be able to find the subterranean worms' nest anytime soon. It might take several days, and waiting here was useless.
Cen Yemeng had already fallen asleep on the table. Jiang Ye gently picked her up and carried her back to the bedroom.
...
Three days of exploration.
More than forty thousand little dogs had been deployed.
Two thousand subterranean mechanical soldiers had also been sent down. They were excavating temporary bases underground, with every 100 subterranean mechanical soldiers squeezed into a base, maintaining an even distribution. If any problem arose in any direction, they could quickly provide support.
Some flamethrower equipment, quick-drying cement equipment, and long-tube explosives were also installed to guard against possible subterranean worm tides.
These three days of work were not without results. A massive labyrinth belonging to the subterranean worms was slowly emerging.
Initially, it was thought that the subterranean worms' underground movement trajectories were completely random, crawling wherever they pleased on a whim.
But later, it was discovered that something was amiss. Although these worms did not encounter each other underground, their crawling routes were strictly planned, generally resembling candied hawthorn skewers or the root nodules of soybeans.
They would first disperse into a wide area of winding paths, and then converge at a certain point.
These convergence points were often quite spacious, even large enough to accommodate several buses. Jiang Ye personally named them "worm chambers."
The temporary bases of the subterranean mechanical soldiers were established within these worm chambers.
Firstly, it utilized existing space. At a depth of over ten kilometers underground, it was difficult for robots to excavate stable spaces.
Secondly, there were many peculiar features in the worm chambers that required research.
The subterranean worms seemed to have left some markings on the inner walls and ceilings of the worm chambers.
It couldn't be confirmed as writing yet, because the walls were covered with small dots of varying depths, like a honeycomb, making one dizzy. As soon as Jiang Ye saw them, he thought of circuit boards, because all the dots were arranged with such beautiful regularity that they were clearly not randomly drilled.
The subterranean mechanical soldiers meticulously scanned them bit by bit. After collecting all the wall dots, they indeed found some characteristics that should belong to a language.
First, the dots varied in diameter, with the smallest being only three millimeters, followed by five millimeters, ten millimeters, and fifteen millimeters, with no other diameters.
Second, the dots varied in depth, with only three depths: one centimeter, two centimeters, and three centimeters.
Within the depth of each wall dot, there were also pheromones of different compositions. Currently, there were four types: male pheromones, female pheromones, dual pheromones, and no pheromones.
With these three aspects varying, there were already 4 x 3 x 4, a total of 48 different types of dots. Each dot was quite regular. If compared to human writing, the subterranean worms' writing was all in a uniform, precisely printed style. It was even possible that they had used equipment to drill these dots onto the walls.
Considering that the English alphabet only has 26 letters, Jiang Ye felt that these different dots on the walls could already form a language.
The different depths and diameters might represent uppercase and lowercase letters in the subterranean worms' language, or tones, from the first to the fourth tone.
In addition to the dots, their arrangement also followed a pattern.
Every nine dots formed a group, like a Rubik's Cube, stacked on the wall piece by piece.
Jiang Ye didn't know what the walls actually meant. Considering that some dots contained male and female pheromones, he suspected it might be a matchmaking wall.
As different subterranean worms passed by, they would write their self-introductions on the wall in the form of these dotted cube patterns.
For example, how large their worm nest was, their foraging ability and stored food, whether they were larvae or adults.
Subterranean worms that arrived earlier and were strong and healthy could crawl to the top of the wall to write their self-introductions. Those that arrived later and were weak could only write near the ground.
If a subterranean worm of the opposite sex read a matchmaking introduction and became interested, it would leave some pheromones on it, equivalent to leaving a phone number. In the future, they could find each other by scent, gather for dates, and produce subterranean worm babies.
This was Jiang Ye's speculation.
He sent all the data and his conjecture to Li Nannan.
Li Nannan's reaction was, "Jiang Ye, you're going to make me laugh to death. I laughed for three minutes."
"What's so funny? Isn't my reasoning very rigorous? If it's not a matchmaking wall, why leave pheromones all over the wall?" Jiang Ye was very indignant.
"Jiang Ye, Jiang Ye, I didn't expect you to be such a love-struck person," Li Nannan mocked.
"You're the one who's love-struck. I'm too embarrassed to mention your old online alias," Jiang Ye retorted. "What's your conjecture?"
"Pheromones might not be for courtship," Li Nannan replied after a long pause, sending a large block of text. "For example, the walls might be territorial declarations. Each subterranean worm occupies a piece of territory and comes to write, 'This area is under my protection. Anyone who doesn't pay tribute will be killed!' leaving their scent as a threat and declaration."
"You really have a mind full of violence and barbarism," Jiang Ye said. "Do you have any experts in studying alien languages there? It's better to listen to the experts. If there are more subterranean worm writings later, I'll send them to you. With more data, it should be easier to study."
Li Nannan replied with an OK emoji.