Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 455 - 435: The Test That Doesn’t Satisfy the Insect Intentions

Chapter 455: Chapter 435: The Test That Doesn’t Satisfy the Insect Intentions

This spring has been really busy.

Dragon Cypress spent his days transporting fruit saplings from Xianglan Mountain to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain and Cold Orchid Mountain, then returned to Molan Mountain at night to rest, taking care of the Thunder Oak Divine-Given Seed.

Black Cory was in charge of directing the Worker Ants to plant trees.

By the time everything was done, it was already early summer.

...

Molan Mountain.

Two large Green Ants underwent Feather Transformation and emerged on the same day.

Led by Dragon Cypress, they came to stand beneath the Thunder Oak Divine-Given Seed Tree.

"Dragon Cypress!"

The Thunder Oak Divine-Given Seed sensed them, calling out affectionately and asking, "Dragon Cypress, are you done with your work?"

Dragon Cypress: "Nope. There’s a ton to do this year."

"What about Black Cory? Haven’t seen him in ages."

"Black Cory’s really busy too. He’s looking after Black Peach saplings on Southern Sour Jujube Mountain."

"Ohhh—"

"I probably won’t be able to come by much for a while. I’ll send Fragrant Cypress over to take care of you."

"Okay—"

The Thunder Oak’s attention was drawn by the two large Green Ants, and it asked, "Dragon Cypress, can they also release the ’Flourish’ ability?"

"They can! I actually brought them here to test that out."

As Dragon Cypress spoke, he shook his antennae to give a command.

One of the large Green Ants stepped forward, locked onto the Thunder Oak’s trunk, gathered Primordial Energy at its antennae, and activated the ’Flourish’ ability.

As expected, the ’Flourish’ ability cast by the large Green Ant was a grade stronger than what large Green Soldiers could manage.

Still, it wasn’t ideal—just about one-fiftieth as strong as Dragon Cypress’s own effect.

Using the ability once completely drained its Origin Force, and it immediately showed signs of weakness.

——Not great.

Dragon Cypress waved his antennae, giving another command.

The second large Green Ant came forward and used ’Flourish’ on the Thunder Oak.

Pretty much the same result.

"Dragon Cypress... Is that it?"

The Thunder Oak was a bit confused.

It had already grown into a little tree over six meters tall, looking fairly impressive now.

It could sense the abilities of the two large Green Ants—yet, somehow, it didn’t really feel anything.

The tiny, feeble power was negligible to the Thunder Oak Divine-Given Seed in its current form.

"Thunder Oak, these are large Green Ants—their ability is indeed a bit weak. It’s okay though, in another two or three months, the Specialized Green Ants will emerge. Based on my estimates, when they use ’Flourish’, it should be about one-twentieth as strong as my power. All I need is twenty Specialized Green Ants, taking turns, and that’ll match me. What if there are a hundred? Or a thousand? Thunder Oak, just think about it. The Ant Clan wins by numbers."

"I know. But..."

Thunder Oak: "Using this ability costs them a lot—they’ll need food to recover."

Dragon Cypress: "They need to eat meat."

Thunder Oak: "I remember you saying, food limits the size of the Ant Clan Kingdom."

Thunder Oak was probably the second smartest Divine-Given Seed under Dragon Cypress, right after Azure.

The other Divine-Given Seeds only knew how to nag Dragon Cypress to raise more Wood Element ants.

Yet Thunder Oak, whose soul consciousness had awakened just a month ago, already understood that without enough food, there’s no way to sustain more ants.

Dragon Cypress was quite pleased, saying, "Exactly. Because of food limits, I can’t raise too many Specialized Green Ants."

Dragon Cypress: "But it’s not a big issue. I’ll raise lots more Green Soldiers and expand the Kingdom’s hunting grounds south following the Divine Force Barrier."

Thunder Oak: "Why Green Soldiers? Can’t we use Blue Ants?"

Dragon Cypress: "In a few years, the Flame Spider Caravan will bring a Divine-Grade Fruit called ’Thousand-Layer Fruit,’ which grants a Wood Element Ability named ’Forest Symbiont.’ Kind of like a plant—they can get energy from sunlight and make the nutrients they need."

Dragon Cypress: "Judging by the pattern, this ability should be passable to Green Soldiers and Green Ants. For regular jungle hunting, Green Soldiers eat less rations than Blue Soldiers."

Dragon Cypress: "Same logic for easy tasks like pest control in orchards or pruning fruiting branches—medium or small Green Ants and Green Soldiers are best."

Thunder Oak: "Got it."

Thunder Oak drew an inference: "Dragon Cypress, if you get one or two more Wood Element attack abilities and pass them on to the Green Soldiers, then they can replace Blue Soldiers as the main combat ants of the Ant Kingdom."

Dragon Cypress: "That’s right!"

Dragon Cypress: "It’s a nice theory, but we won’t know for sure until I get the Thousand-Layer Fruit and eat it myself."

Thunder Oak: "Judging by the pattern, it’ll definitely work!"

Thunder Oak then casually asked, "Dragon Cypress, is it summer now? Is that dry season you talked about coming soon?"

Dragon Cypress: "It’s early summer now, not too hot just yet..."

Thunder Oak really liked to chat, and kept Dragon Cypress talking deep into the night—until he got too tired and fell into a deep sleep.

...

Dragon Cypress lingered at Molan Mountain, resting for five days before returning to Xianglan Mountain to bring Fragrant Cypress over to take care of the Thunder Oak Divine-Given Seed.

He himself hurried off to Snow Cedar Mountain to begin transferring Source Stones to Huagi Mountain.

Currently, the Dominating Throne could carry up to 60,000 Source Stones per trip, but was limited by capacity—no more than 60,000 at once.

Two round trips a day made 120,000.

With a total of 4.5 million Source Stones, it took a full 38 days to finish.

High summer, dry season.

Fragrant Cypress returned to Xianglan Mountain.

Dragon Cypress then went back and forth between Molan Mountain and Cold Orchid Mountain, staying busy in both places.

...

End of summer.

The third harvest of Black Peach.

The earliest batch of transplanted Black Peach Trees had entered peak fruiting season, producing a plentiful harvest—over 300,000 seeds this year.

...

Early autumn.

The Specialized Green Ant larvae, who had been developing for over half a year, were finally cocooning and undergoing Feather Transformation one after another.

Field tests matched predictions: their ’Flourish’ ability was just one-twentieth as strong as Dragon Cypress’s and two consecutive uses exhausted their Origin Force—they had to eat meat to recover, and rest a day to return to full strength.

Dragon Cypress really couldn’t afford too many of them, so he organized them into teams of five—one team for each Divine-Given Seed, just as a gesture.

...

Mid-Autumn.

The mutated Molan Seeds matured and were harvested.

After air-drying, the seeds were again split into three portions and sown at Xianglan Mountain, Molan Mountain, and Black Lotus Lake respectively.

With that done,

Dragon Cypress headed for Ghost Fan Mountain, picked up Ghost Fan, and set off north together.

Passing by Huagi Mountain, they picked up Yellow Stem on the way.

...

As soon as the Dominating Throne entered the Purple Tung Insect Nation, Molan swooped over to greet them.

"Dragon Cypress! Ghost Fan! Yellow Stem!"

Molan circled around the Throne, matching its speed on the left, looking like it wanted to say something but hesitated.

"Molan."

Ghost Fan responded, somewhat eagerly asking, "Has the Jinhe Divine-Given Seed’s fruit matured yet?"

Molan: "Not yet. When the Jinhe Divine Tree first revived, it wasn’t at peak condition. That delayed things a bit, so the Jinhe Fruit ripening is postponed by a month—won’t be ready until the end of autumn."

Yellow Stem tilted its head and glared at Dragon Cypress: "There’s still stuff unfinished on my mountain! Take me back."

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress: "Yellow Stem’s getting old, so how about letting it rest here in the Purple Tung Insect Nation for a month? Ghost Fan can swap with Spruce, and Spruce will go back to Huagi Mountain to work."

This arrangement wasn’t bad at all~

Yellow Stem gently tapped its antennae in agreement. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The Dominating Throne picked up speed, heading straight for the Jinhe Divine-Given Seed.

Upon meeting,

Dragon Cypress waved his antennae, striking twice with the ’Flourish’ ability—swish, swish.

Jinhe: "Little ant, stop showing off your pitifully weak Wood Element ability, it’s just a little tickle."

Dragon Cypress: "It’s not much, but it’s about the sentiment. Jinhe Divine-Given Seed, this stands for my respect and care for you."

Jinhe: "You hypocritical ant, you’re just here for my Jinhe Fruit, aren’t you? Hoping they’ll ripen quickly."

Dragon Cypress: "That’s Yellow Stem. I’m sincere, really."

Yellow Stem instantly said, "Jinhe Divine-Given Seed, I’ll stay here to keep you company. There are just some finishing touches left on Huagi Mountain—let’s send Spruce back instead..."

Jinhe: "You’re such a boring grasshopper, there’s nothing to chat about with you. Swapping in this ant is better."

The old Jinhe tree could really talk your ear off.

Dragon Cypress stayed and chatted a bit, then strolled about, paying visits to Linnan, Huagi, Night Fragrance, and Purple Tung in turn, until finally stopping under the White Poplar Divine-Given Seed Tree.

"Dragon Cypress—"

"It’s been a while."

White Poplar greeted proactively.

"White Poplar."

Dragon Cypress greeted, moved up to the trunk, and activated the Flourish ability, tapping his antennae four times in a row.

He looked up to inspect.

The six White Poplar Fruits on the tree had gone through four rounds of swelling and reached their molded shape.

Their forms were oval and sharply pointed at both ends, with Lemon-green skin and white patterns, about seven centimeters long.

In about three years, the first batch of Divine-Grade Baihe Fruit could be harvested and collected.

"Dragon Cypress—"

White Poplar called out, saying, "I heard someone discovered my mutated kin?"

Dragon Cypress: "???"

White Poplar: "Giant Cypress, Round Cypress, Black Leaf, Black Birch, and also Molan and the others."

Dragon Cypress: "Your kin? Poppet?"

White Poplar: "Yep."

Dragon Cypress: "!!!"

Dragon Cypress looked all around. "Where are they?"

White Poplar: "No idea—"

White Poplar: "I also overheard them discussing: Don’t tell the other insects just yet, wait for you to arrive and then talk it over."

Dragon Cypress suddenly understood. Just now when Molan came over looking all excited, clearly wanting to say something, but clammed up when it saw Yellow Stem. This was definitely it.

Giant Cypress, Molan, and Ghost Fan who’d just gotten here had all been dragged off by the Linnan Divine Tree for training.

Round Cypress, Black Leaf, and Black Birch were busy with the autumn harvest.

"Nice."

Dragon Cypress asked, "White Poplar, any idea where Round Cypress and the others are working?"

White Poplar: "In the east? I heard their chatter—seems like the last few days they’ve been harvesting pinecones."

White Poplar wasn’t the chatty type...

Sneaking around and eavesdropping, huh?

"Alright. I’ll be right back."

Dragon Cypress spread his wings and shot off.