Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 442 - 422: Bud Mutation Branches, Bud Cultivation Technique

Chapter 442: Chapter 422: Bud Mutation Branches, Bud Cultivation Technique

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid, together with their group of insects, also withdrew from the Central Region alongside the Barley Bug Warriors, standing by the riverside and awaiting expectantly.

The time was already early autumn.

The nights of early autumn in the North Country had become somewhat chilly.

They waited like this for ten days.

In the deep of night,

The spiritual power of Linnan Divine Tree surged over, "Purple Tung has awakened!"

——Awakened?

——Finally awakened!

——Has evolution succeeded?

——Wonderful!

——Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed!

The insects burst into a frenzy, cheering and rushing towards the center of the Land of Origin Force.

"Stop!"

Dragon Cypress, running at the front, suddenly halted and called out.

"Everybody, don’t be chaotic!"

"It’s too messy!"

"Quiet!"

"I’ll go forward and communicate with Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed."

The swarm quieted down.

Following behind Dragon Cypress, they arrived at the base of the tree, lifting their heads to gaze up.

"Purple Tung?"

Dragon Cypress called out.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King."

Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed transmitted a somewhat awkward spiritual message.

——It actually recognizes me!

——A Wild Divine-Given Seed awakens soul consciousness at Mountain Lord Level. Since I often move about beneath the tree, it’s only normal it recognizes me.

Dragon Cypress was slightly surprised, and solemnly said, "Congratulations on your smooth Awakening and successful Evolution into Tree King."

Purple Tung: "Thank you for your help."

"You’re welcome—"

Dragon Cypress formally introduced himself, "I am the Great-Headed Ant King, an ant from the South. My Main Nest is on Xianglan Mountain in the South, and my kingdom is called Xianglan Mountain Ant Kingdom."

Ink Orchid pressed forward.

Dragon Cypress introduced, "This one is Ink Orchid, an Orchid Mantis, also a Southern insect, and the Second King of Xianglan Mountain Ant Kingdom."

"This is Yellow Stem, the only Shield Grasshopper Warrior of the current Huagi Mountain. This is Spruce, a Long Shield Grasshopper Warrior, the first power of Huagi Mountain. They are Northern insects. Huagi Mountain is both a mountain and a great tribe, once the most flourishing and prosperous place on Cloud Trace Continent."

"Purple Tung, you should be very familiar with these three. This is Magnolia Bark, the Mountain Lord of the Barley Bug Tribe..."

Dragon Cypress introduced them one by one.

After everyone got to know one another,

Dragon Cypress continued to tell Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed about the basic state of the world, as well as the current detailed situation on Cloud Trace Continent.

The ancient tree that had grown for over a thousand years had observed the world and accumulated a myriad of questions; Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed would raise all sorts of inquiries, and Dragon Cypress answered them all one by one.

From midnight all the way until dawn.

From morning, the story continued until noon.

Silver Cypress went to hunt at the edge of the Land of Origin Force. All the insects held a grand celebration under the tree, eating, drinking, and chatting until night fell.

The Barley Bug Warriors all gathered beneath the tree to spend the night, unwilling to leave.

Dragon Cypress found it difficult to drive them away.

Tracing back five hundred years, the Purple Tung Insect Nation was founded because of Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed.

In a way, Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed could be considered the ’Ancestor’ who sheltered the Barley Bug Tribe’s growth and development, just as the Huagi Divine Tree had done for the Huagi Mountain Shield Grasshopper Tribe...

...

The next day,

Dragon Cypress escorted the specifically visiting Yellow Stem and Ink Orchid towards Huagi Mountain.

The Barley Bug Warriors swarmed into the forest, collecting various animal and plant samples, vying to introduce them to Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed.

Round Cypress, Black Leaf, and Black Birch also led the ant hordes to help out.

Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed occupied the finest spot at the center of the Land of Origin Force, with a spiritual range exceeding 2,000 meters, able to chat with Huagi, Linnan, and Jinhe—the three old tree clan predecessors—at will. Should there be any questions unanswerable by the Insect Clan Warriors, it could ask them for advice.

Dragon Cypress did not meddle much, continuing to travel between the second Source Stone Mine and Purple Tung Insect Nation, transporting Source Stones for Jinhe Divine-Given Seed...

A busy autumn season.

...

Autumn passed into winter.

On Huagi Mountain, Red Phellodendron Divine-Given Seed successfully made it through its first winter.

...

Winter faded into spring,

Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed sprouted new branches, growing rapidly.

After successfully advancing to King-Level, it entered a prosperous growth period lasting as long as twenty years.

Purple Tung was itself a great tall tree; at King-Level, Purple Tung Divine-Given Seed was bound to surpass three hundred meters in height.

Time swept by,

and soon it was the spring Roving Merchant Trade Season again.

The Dominating Throne carried Red Moonseed, Chinese Clematis, and Pueraria, swiftly returning to Xianglan Mountain.

"Wow!"

"Oh!"

Chinese Clematis and Pueraria, upon seeing the Northern Gorgon Divine-Given Seed of North Mountain Reservoir, the Fruit-Scented Orchid near the entrance of North Mountain Ant Nest, and the Cold Orchid Divine-Given Seed beneath Shandong Reservoir, exclaimed over and over.

Crossing the mountain range,

they then saw the Deep Blue God-Given Seed, now over 120 meters tall.

And the Black Yellow Divine-Given Seed, its vine stretching nearly a hundred meters.

And the lush clusters of Emerald Flower Cold Orchid Divine-Given Seed and Southern Gorgon Divine-Given Seed.

As good as Huagi Divine Tree and Linnan Divine Tree might be, those belonged to Huagi Mountain.

But these all belonged to Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid’s God-Given Life Seeds, and in fact, these were only a portion of the many Divine-Given Seeds.

The two little ones kept gasping in admiration, voicing their delight.

"Azure!"

The Dominating Throne flew straight toward Azure Blue Reservoir.

Though Xianglan Mountain had many Divine-Given Seeds, only one—Deep Blue God-Given Seed—could communicate normally.

"This is Chinese Clematis, a Dry Stone Green Ground Beetle Warrior. She’s here to study the roving merchant trade."

"This is Pueraria, a Barley Bug Warrior, who follows me on travels across the continent to expand her experience, and has come to Xianglan Mountain for a tour."

Chinese Clematis and Pueraria waved their antennae, greeting Azure.

Azure responded with a polite wave of spiritual power, then turned serious, "Dragon Cypress, there’s a new discovery!"

Azure said, "Dragon Cypress, check my leaves! At the top! The second-to-last, third-to-last, and fourth-to-last leaves."

Dragon Cypress: "???"

Dragon Cypress was puzzled, expanding his spiritual power to scan Azure’s topmost leaves.

The second, third, and fourth broad leaves from the top were covered in a faint blue layer of primordial energy.

Azure could now use the Hydrology Shield!

Impressively, it could even block Dragon Cypress’s spiritual power.

——Is that it?

Dragon Cypress was still confused and directed the Dominating Throne to fly straight up for a visual inspection.

Inside the trumpet-shaped cup, there was a pool of murky liquid, and among the dense aerial roots, numerous tiny green specks floated.

Looking closely, they were leaf-bud fragments, like seeds, sprouting roots and leaf buds.

Bud Cultivation Technique!

This was the most difficult and highly specialized plant propagation technique recorded in the Huagi Knowledge Hall.

Collect plant leaves or bud tips, chop them into pieces, put them into a secret nutrient solution, and seal and protect them with a Wood Element or Water System Primordial Energy Shield. After a certain period, each slice could develop into an entirely new and complete seedling.

This advanced technique was mostly used for ’bud mutations’.

In orchards, a rare mutation could occur: a branch of a tree might mutate and produce larger or tastier fruits.

This is an optimized mutation, and many high-quality cultivars are thus born.

But usually, this kind of mutation is accompanied by malformed seeds, or an inability to obtain new seedlings through normal seed propagation.

In such a case, using ’Bud Cultivation Technique’ allows one to quickly produce a large number of mutated seedlings for wide-scale cultivation. With mass flowering and fruiting, one can gather an ocean of seeds for sowing and, from subtle odds, select out plants that could naturally reproduce, thus obtaining a stable new cultivar.

"Azure?"

Dragon Cypress’s eyes lit up. "Have you discovered a superior mutated bud branch?"

Azure explained, "It happened back in autumn the year before last. Giant Cypress found an especially large and sweet peach fruit in the North Mountain Black Peach Orchard. He especially kept the seed, but after sowing, it grew into deformed seedlings. Last autumn, he checked again—on that same branch, the peaches were still extra-large and sweet, a clear mutation."

Azure: "But you couldn’t propagate it by seed, and grafting was too slow. So we thought of using the ’Bud Cultivation Technique’."

Dragon Cypress: "What about the nutrient medium? There’s no record of it in Huagi Knowledge Hall..."

Azure: "It’s simple. Just dilute Ant Honey with water at the right concentration."

Dragon Cypress: "???"

Azure: "I’m a plant; I can precisely control the concentration. The water needs to boil and then cool. Use a primordial energy shield for all-day protection so invisible pathogens don’t invade. Nothing else is important."

Azure: "When Blue Ants brew ant honey, they secrete a substance that kills pathogens but doesn’t impact plant growth. Tests show that high-sugar fresh fruit, seeds, and meat-mixed ant honey is the best base."

Azure: "With my Water System Energy Field promoting plant growth, it’s really easy to succeed."

Azure: "We’ve already succeeded with one batch, managed to cultivate 131 seedlings, and transplanted 97 successfully. This second batch has some optimizations; it seems we’ll be able to cultivate 898 seedlings in this round."

Dragon Cypress: "!!!"

Dragon Cypress was stunned for a long moment and sincerely praised, "Azure, that’s impressive!"

Azure gladly accepted Dragon Cypress’s compliment and continued, "Fragrant Cypress and Cypress have already prepared three plots in the nursery. We plan to first cultivate 1,000 seedlings and then select the best for transplanting."

Dragon Cypress: "Excellent!"

Dragon Cypress: "The Black Emperor Peach was bred from a mutated strain of Dark Peach. Judging by your description, we also have high hopes of cultivating our very own ’Black Emperor Peach’ variety!"

Azure: "Fragrant Cypress and Cypress think so too. And we have a good chance of triggering a Natural Godsend!"

Just as they were speaking,

The ever-busy Cypress and Fragrant Cypress of North Mountain Orchard, surrounded by the ant hordes, crossed the mountains and rushed down the ant path toward Azure Blue Reservoir.

Now, Azure Tree stood over 120 meters tall, its spiritual power covering a radius of more than 1,200 meters, commanding the ants to manage most of the territory south of the range.

Fragrant Cypress and Cypress spent most of their time in the North.

"Azure, keep at it."

Dragon Cypress piloted the Dominating Throne, flying toward the mountains.