There were a few worries that were on Yin Na’s mind.
Yin Na did not want any stragglers to escape from their coalition and spread their culture of cooperation. As far as he was concerned, this “culture” of theirs was his secret weapon.
It was imperative that the ants remain within their fold, away from the opportunity to be alone and independent. Solitude in this realm, even though it was harsh and dangerous, allowed for one the freedom to think for themselves again.
Thus, Yin Na encouraged a culture of endless communication, trickling down the need to share emotions and the feeling of unity down to the tiniest 1-li ant.
He would prefer that the ants become addicted and dependent on dancing with each other so that they feared ostracizing and leaving the group.
There were regularly scheduled group storytime dances. Hope dances became a thing, where ants would take turns dancing all the things they would do once they left this realm and back into the living in short poetic stanzas. Even propaganda dances emerged in their culture- dances which express the joy of having been “found” after centuries of brutally scavenging and fending for oneself were a regular form of group Soul orb dances.
Under the watchful guard of Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei, after Yin Na split himself down many times to only 10-li in diameter again, he observed with satisfaction how unified in mind and heart the ants have become.
Yin Na included aspects of his Dao of Benefits into his dances, which were essentially massive lectures, but filtered the virtues praising individuality and critical thinking out of them.
To move and think coherently as a single unit was a success. As far as Yin Na was concerned, he considered himself to be already more than a million-sized Soul since the lives of the ants basically belonged to him.
Regarding the 3 Suns, Yin Na would also prefer that they avoid their attention at all costs.
At what size did the 3 Suns begin respecting the size of a potential competitor? Yin Na remembered centuries ago when he first began observing the planetary motions of the 3 Suns that they sometimes formed alliances when there emerged the presence of a Soul Orb totalling only 500,000 li in diameter.
How could they eventually reach the size of a Sun while avoiding the 3 Suns’ wrath?
A huge concern was the notion that if Yin Na and his entourage could obtain abilities like Soul identification, did larger and more experienced Soul orbs such as the 3 gigantic “Suns” possess them as well?
Who was to say that there weren’t more types of abilities?
Yin Na thought with a chill that if they were to make their assault on the 3 Suns, even if they theoretically had the mass or numbers advantage, that the 3 Suns’ ancient foundation meant that they hid many secret abilities to get them out of danger and conversely, even flip the tables on them.
It was possible that the 3 Suns were already aware of their anomalous coalition within this realm- that they already noticed how a group of 3 decent-sized Soul Orbs were trying to amass an entourage of followers as a unique strategy, but they were so insignificant in threat that the 3 Suns simply would not care to react.
There were too many secrets and unknown variables about this realm.
Yin Na gradually changed the culture of propaganda.
He introduced the content of the dances gradually, which took in total a thousand years. The ants’ sense of timing was such that they couldn’t even detect the change in indoctrination and morality.
Propaganda dances shifted from encouraging optimism to stories about noble sacrifice.
Over the course of a millennia the message shifted from “Lose a half to save your brother” to, “Better to be absorbed by friends than to be eaten by a stranger!”
Yin Na organized military dances, where the ants were drilled in coordinated movement which actively encouraged the splitting of their souls and losing them.
The ants were instructed to get used to losses, and of course, return the lost mass absorbed by the end of the drills.
After another thousand years of drilling, Yin Na and his two generals acquired a new ability.
Controlled Splitting!
The best way to describe it was like the tiny rabbit poops a mortal would sometimes experience during constipation. Except for a Soul Orb, it meant considerable concentration and ability to force only a tiny bit of their mass out, instead of the default splitting themselves in half.
It was an ability derived from the inspiration of overlooking the training and brainwashing of millions of ants over the centuries.
Every now and then, Ouyang Fang, Zhou Fei or even Yin Na himself would use Controlled Splitting to personally award an ant who displayed a particularly strong tendency for self-sacrifice, such as splitting himself to save multiple brothers or splitting themselves so much that they became incredibly diminished in mass.
A personal gift from the Gods themselves was the ultimate loyalty currency. It increased morale and encouraged even more zealous worship of themselves from the ants.
With the addition of this ability, however, Yin Na made a drastic order for Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei.
Stolen story; please report.
“Our armies have grown too big in size now,” Yin Na no longer danced, but used Controlled Splitting to vomit smaller particles of himself in readable characters for his two Generals to read. It was simply faster and much easier than splitting and reforming which took millenia to finish. The smaller particles were so insignificant in mass that he did not even bother to reabsorb them after finishing his sentences.
“We must go to the far corners of the realm to avoid the attention of the 3 Suns.”
After reading this, Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei were disheartened. However, they trusted Yin Na’s conviction. They knew that once Yin Na had made a decision, it was final.
They used Controlled Splitting to spell out:
“Yes.”
Yin Na then spelled out: “Go forth and grow your armies. We can recognize each other, if you ever need help, send your ants towards our direction.”
Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei spelled out poems declaring their sorrow and love for Yin Na, before splitting off in their separate directions.
At last when Yin Na lost “sight” of both of them, he “looked” at the closest “Sun” out of the 3.
Yin Na thought to himself: “Are you satisfied, 3 Suns? Did you notice what just happened? Will you take action, or is it simply beneath your concern?”
The motions of the 3 Suns were still too slow to observe an immediate response.
Yin Na would be able to read their reaction, or lack of one, within about fifty years.
After sending off his two generals, Yin Na immediately began training his ants for war, as they descended upon nearby Soul Orbs like locusts.
Their advantage was overwhelming. Lone Soul Orbs had no concept of cooperation or a “culture.” From their perspective, they were simply being surrounded by much larger Soul Orbs from all sides, and were helplessly absorbed.
However, one out of every Soul Orb was given the opportunity to surrender.
The ants were able to master formations which were arranged in readable characters.
They read simply: “Give a Half and Join.”
Not a single Soul Orb refused this offer. They surrendered by splitting their soul mass in half and allowing it to be absorbed.
Then they were initiated and nourished by the army as their reward for joining them.
Yin Na’s army grew steadily, but not rapidly. At least, that’s how it would occur to an observer.
This is because Yin Na consistently kept his army under the size of a million.
Yin Na raised new generals from scratch, appointing them positions of leadership and having them command hundreds of other Soul Orbs under themselves.
He did the same thing he ordered Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei to do centuries ago, and had them split off in far directions in order to grow their armies independently and silently to avoid the attention of the 3 Suns.
Another two thousand years passed since Yin Na initially saw off Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei. Across these two thousand years, they reunited only three times, which were preceded by the sending of ants from each others’ armies. The ants would arrive bearing messages from each others’ armies, expressing the desire to communicate and bond again.
Since the reunions had to be short in length and also scarce in frequency, Yin Na made sure to entertain Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei whenever they made the request. Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei also made sure to please Yin Na during these celebrations, as they knew how busy Yin Na was.
They made up for taking up Yin Na’s time by performing sacrificial gifts, such as escorting the prisoner of multiple 10,000 to 100,000 li sized souls in order to be directly absorbed by Yin Na.
Each time Yin Na accepted each sacrifice, it was a joyous cheer that rippled down the hierarchy of Soul Orbs. They danced in circles in coordinated worship and joy. Sometimes, Yin Na would gracefully refuse and have Ouyang Fang or Zhou Fei eat the sacrifice.
None of the ants saw anything wrong with the picture. They felt like they belonged and were therefore saved by this community which they belonged to.
During each celebration, Yin Na’s concentration was focused mostly on the reaction of the 3 suns.
He was probing them for a reaction by accepting these reunion celebrations in the first place.
It was only during the third celebration, which lasted slightly longer of about 150 years as opposed to the previous 100 years did Yin Na finally see what he was looking for:
The nearest Sun had been observed to grow slightly larger.
“I’ve caught your attention, haven’t I?” Yin Na thought.
If he could laugh, he would have laughed triumphantly into the glaring surface of the Sun. He was massively pleased with this observation.
By approaching them, the 3 Suns signaled their disapproval. It also meant that Yin Na’s forces were now identified as a threat that warranted their attention; a threat that was far more dangerous than the fourth Sun emerging and contending for a spot among the 3 giants.
“The time is nigh,” Yin Na spelled out using particles from himself using Concentrated Splitting to Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei. The call for action was perfectly timed at the end of their third and final reunion.
“We must reveal the truth about the existence of the 3 Suns to our armies!”
Yin Na had instructed his generals to not explicitly inform the ants about the existence and game of cat-and-mouse which the 3 Suns played with each other. Yet, he also did not command them to forbid or censor discussion about the presence of 3 suns.
For most of the ants, there was only one “Sun” in this world, as their mass was too tiny to observe the farther reaches of the realm and see the other 2 suns which this Sun competed with.
Yin Na allowed the 100,000-li sized Soul Orbs and above observe and make their own conclusions.
There were certainly rumors spreading among the ants that their Sun was not the only one in this world.
However, the propaganda machine was so well-ingrained over the vast couple millenia that the overall attitude towards this one Sun was negative.
It was generally understood that the goal was to eventually devour the Sun.
Now, Yin Na not only wanted to make it explicitly clear the presence of the 3 “Suns,” but to absolutely vilify them.
The general gist of the Yin Na’s decree was such:
“There are not only 3 Suns, but they have been fighting amongst themselves for eternity. Unlike us, they have no communication. Yet they would not cooperate among themselves, except to annihilate us.”
This message was passed down, and accumulated in depth and vitriol down the hierarchy of Soul Orb sizes, to the point that the tiniest 10-li soul was full of blind rage and unfounded confidence towards his own capacity against the 3 Suns.
“The 3 Suns are our enemy!” One of the propaganda dances spelled out. “Vilify the three Suns! Destroy the three Suns! The three Generals against the three Suns! Long Live the three Generals!
“Long live Yin Na!”