Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 433 - 413 Little Wild Chestnut

Natsumi came to help too, together with Silvergrass and Red Peach, each pulling a stone slab wheelcart, delivering Origin Force Food load by load.

Red Moonseed and Areca were in charge of counting, recording, and receiving goods.

Spiked Cypress directed the Soldier Ants to transport goods.

Fragrant Cypress and Black Cory were directing Worker Ants and Blue Ants to do Refinement and packaging.

The Origin Force Honey trade was proceeding in an orderly manner.

This year, the transaction volume was huge, and it might take more than ten days to get everything done.

...

Dragon Cypress wasn’t idle either, taking a team of Worker Ants alone, heading to Molan Mountain.

The Molan Mountain Orchard had been cultivated for nearly ten years, and all the fruit trees planted there had entered their full fruiting period.

At this stage in orchard management, there were two things that had to be done.

First was pruning.

It wasn’t just to get more fruit. For ordinary plants, moderate trimming of branches guaranteed ventilation between the leaves and branches and was good for better growth.

While pruning, you could also carefully check if any bud mutations or mutated branches appeared.

The second was culling weak trees.

Some trees that were weak in later growth or had grown crooked needed to be cleared away in time and replaced with quality new saplings.

Springtime was short and precious.

There was too much to do in the Ant Kingdom, and the Command Ants couldn’t handle it all, so Dragon Cypress had to go down to the field himself and command the ant colonies to work.

Getting up early and returning late, staying busy for half a month straight, tidying up the whole Molan Mountain, before finally returning to Xianglan Mountain.

At the same time,

The caravan’s business had ended three days earlier, and Spiked Cypress, Fragrant Cypress, and Black Cory led their ant colonies back to Xianglan Mountain by themselves.

Dragon Cypress escorted Black Cory to Black Lotus Lake.

The Dominating Throne, carrying White Rice, Areca, and Red Moonseed, headed north toward Purple Tung Insect Nation.

...

Purple Tung Flowers bloomed, finishing the deal with the Barley Bug Warriors.

Chinese Clematis evolved into a 3rd Age Period Primary Warrior, and Dragon Cypress took its 1st and 2nd Age Period seeds to sow on Black Fruit Mountain.

Black Birch stayed at Black Fruit Mountain, leading the ant colony to help watch over and take care of Red Moonseed’s territory, and also helped them clear a nursery and cultivate a batch of quality saplings.

Red Moonseed stayed in Purple Tung Insect Nation to have fun, joining Spruce, Snakebark Maple, Ghost Fan, and Areca in taking battle training from Linnan Divine Tree.

Round Cypress was busy with nursery and transplanting work.

Black Leaf led the ant colony, assisting White Rice in digging and building the reservoir.

Dragon Cypress smartly arranged everything, then the Dominating Throne carried Ink Orchid and set off to start this year’s Divine-Given Seed searching job for spring.

...

...

...

Dawn, just after a rain, the sky newly clear.

"I’m off to work!"

As soon as the Dominating Throne got close to the Areca Rainforest, Ink Orchid flapped her wings and shot skyward, doing a fast dive, skimming low over the jungle searching around.

Dragon Cypress was in no hurry, piloting the Throne down, parking by the river upstream.

Linnan Divine Tree’s words might sound harsh, but its reasoning was on point.

Dragon Cypress started to consciously reduce his reliance on the Dominating Throne. He leapt to the ground and traveled on foot, following the river downstream, checking the Azure Trees and Sea Blue Trees planted on both banks.

Both originated from the Outworld Creator Civilization, both liked sunlight, heat, and water, but their growth was starkly different.

The Azure Trees planted on the left bank had all grown into twenty-to-thirty-meter tall trees, entering full production, their fruit fragrant and delicious—one of the staple foods for the Blue Soldiers and Blue Ants of Xianglan Mountain Kingdom.

The Sea Blue Trees on the right bank had grown for ten years too, but their trunks were only seven or eight meters tall, fruit yields weren’t high, and the fruit was just sweet—overly sweet, without much fragrance—sometimes used just to add sweetness when cooking.

Of course, Sea Blue Tree had its obvious feature: the trunks were heavy and hard, harder even than Black Birch, harder even than metal.

If you didn’t use Primordial Energy, you couldn’t even cut this kind of ultra-hard plant.

Human civilization used oversized metal cases to store Sea Blue Tree seeds, so you could guess this plant had its unique value, something worthwhile.

Azure Trees and Sea Blue Trees also shared common strengths—no need for irrigation or fertilizer, no pruning or leaf-trimming required, and no pests had been found so far. Both were incredibly easy to care for: plant them and, as long as they survived, leave them alone till harvest time.

Dragon Cypress strolled along the river, quick check done, then his attention turned to the river’s bottom, just about to catch a couple of fish, when suddenly something caught his senses.

He activated his Soul-Setting Ability to locate Ink Orchid’s position.

At the same time, Ink Orchid locked onto Dragon Cypress’s position, passed on the message:

"Great King!"

"...Second King."

"Divine-Given Seed!"

Dragon Cypress: "???"

Divine-Given Seed?!

Dragon Cypress was so excited he jumped up.

After all these years, finally, another Divine-Given Seed!

"I’m coming right now!"

Dragon Cypress rushed back to the Dominating Throne, lifted off vertically, and zoomed straight to Ink Orchid’s location.

As he drew close,

his Lord-Level powerful spiritual power swept everywhere—and then he felt disappointed.

Under a low hill, Ink Orchid stood by a Little Yunmu Tree.

On the tree, a green, oval fruit was giving off faint Origin Force Fluctuations.

This wasn’t an orchard-cultivated plant.

It was a shrub or small arbor only 1 to 3 meters high.

A Divine-Given Seed of Little Yunmu Tree in the midst of maturing.

"Dragon Cypress!"

"See it?!"

Ink Orchid bounced excitedly, waving her forelimbs to point.

"I see it."

Dragon Cypress piloted the Dominating Throne to a slow descent, parked to the side, and ordered five medium Worker Ants to climb onto his carapace, then leaped down with them, walking over for a look.

After inspecting it over and over, it was just an ordinary Little Yunmu Tree, no mutations.

So, the Divine-Given Seed’s fruit from this Little Yunmu Tree would be average at best—basic Fire Element Ability enhancement.

"Mulberry and Areca will be very happy."

Dragon Cypress muttered, gently waving his tentacle, signaling to the Worker Ants on his carapace to dismount and instructing them to climb up the trunk.

Ink Orchid sensed a bit of disappointment in Dragon Cypress’s mood and insisted, "Arbor!"

Dragon Cypress: "Yeah! No matter what, it’s better than herb-type Divine-Given Seeds."

Ink Orchid was unhappy to hear that. "Do you want it or not?"

Dragon Cypress quickly switched to a cheerful, excited tone: "I can evolve into a 5th Age Period Mountain Lord."

Dragon Cypress: "I can use more Divine-Given Remains, and through later enhancements, it could still be cultivated into a giant towering tree."

Dragon Cypress: "Ink Orchid, you’re amazing!"

"That’s right!"

Ink Orchid immediately cheered up. "Dragon Cypress, I just thought, if we choose a Divine-Given Seed as a Life Seed for every Age Period, you could be the first to evolve to Lord-Level."

"There are three benefits."

"First, White Poplar Divine Seed yield goes up; next, ant colony combat power goes up, and defending that side of Purple Tung Insect Nation becomes a lot easier; and then..."

Ink Orchid lifted a forelimb and pointed south. "When it comes to exploring Molan Continent, it’s still mostly on you."

Dragon Cypress sincerely praised, "Ink Orchid, you’ve really got in the habit of thinking things through."

At the same time, he directed the Worker Ants to pick all the other fruit off the Little Yunmu Tree, leaving only the Divine-Given Seed.

Ink Orchid also used her claws to clear away weeds and vines nearby.

"Dragon Cypress, be careful, dig two holes under the tree."

Ink Orchid tossed a line, then dove into the jungle. Soon she came back dragging the corpse of a forest boa.

She chopped it up and buried it under the tree as fertilizer.

Once everything was tidy—

"There are still a few Origin Force Points we haven’t checked yet. Dragon Cypress, want to do a round of searching?"

"Of course."

"So what about here?"

"I’ll head right over to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain to get Black Cory here."

"And what about Southern Sour Jujube Mountain then?"

"You can go over and watch it for a while after. You’ll have more time to chat and interact with the Sea Blue and Chestnut Bean Divine-Given Seeds, help develop their intelligence."

"Nice arrangement!"

Ink Orchid flapped her wings to shoo him, "Then you better get moving! Go, go, come back quick."