Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 480 - 460: Arrival of the Divine-Grade Green Beans

Chapter 480: Chapter 460: Arrival of the Divine-Grade Green Beans

The total number of Black Peach Tree Seeds collected at the end of last summer exceeded five million.

They were divided into two batches.

About four million seeds were sent back to Xianglan Mountain and handed over to Azure.

About one million seeds were sent to Black Lotus Lake and given to Black Cory.

With the coming of the new spring,

the temperature at Black Lotus Lake warmed up early, so Black Cory took the lead commanding the ant colony to sow the Black Peach Tree Seeds.

Half a month later, Azure and Fragrant Cypress also finished sowing the seeds.

Soon, the results came out.

Total failure.

...

The situation in the Purple Tung Insect Nation was similar.

Round Cypress, Black Leaf, and Black Birch commanded mixed ant colonies numbering over ten thousand, opening up land parcels, and through grafting and seeding, rapidly expanded the planting range of Mutant Dome-Leafed Berberis to 10 square kilometers, with more than two million planted.

They still hadn’t managed to select an ideal sapling that could trigger Natural Godsend.

Pushing further,

the plan was to increase this year’s sowing area to 15 square kilometers, with 3 million trees planted.

Purple Tung Insect Nation had vast interconnected land, making things easier to handle.

And besides, this little arbor, Berberis, was tough as nails, resistant to pests and diseases, easy to grow, perfect for large-scale centralized planting.

Dragon Cypress analyzed rationally, convinced that his 8th or 9th age period Life Seed must be Mutant Dome-Leafed Berberis, so he set Round Cypress and the others an upper limit: 30 square kilometers, 6 million trees.

Each batch would be five square kilometers, and with a six-year cycle, old trees would constantly be culled and replaced by new select saplings, forming a cycle.

...

All sorts of things in spring continued to run in a methodical way.

Dragon Cypress didn’t have much to do himself, so he rode his Dominating Throne, making inspection rounds between Xianglan Mountain, Molan Mountain, and Southern Sour Jujube Mountain.

Swaying leisurely, it was soon the season of full bloom again.

Dragon Cypress organized the team a day early, heading to the Rednan Mountain sub-nest to prepare everything in advance.

Red Peach and Silvergrass came pulling the stone slab wheelcart, arriving right on schedule.

They greeted each other,

Silvergrass didn’t waste words, took a spider silk bag off her carapace, and stuffed it over.

Red Peach: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, this is the divine-grade Spotted Thicket Fruit from Cloud Crown Mountain, delivered by Lord White Ivy."

"Great! Thanks for your hard work."

Dragon Cypress took it, opened it to check, confirmed it was all there, quickly packed it away, and glanced again at Silvergrass’ carapace.

Silvergrass took down another spider silk bag from her back and handed it over, saying, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, this divine-grade Green Bean is from the Wormwood Spider King."

"Awesome! Please thank Wormwood Spider King for me."

Dragon Cypress took it and opened it for a look.

A strong Wood Element Primordial Energy Aura.

A plump, round giant bean, seven or eight centimeters in diameter, black with deep green original energy patterns.

Dragon Cypress asked, "Is this produced by the vinewood?"

Silvergrass: "Vinewood. Mutated from a Flower Insect Bean."

Silvergrass turned, took a large spider silk bag from the stone slab wheelcart, and opened it—inside were many smaller spider silk bags.

"The Wormwood Spider King is the pickiest of all the Flame Spider Roving Merchants. He also went to great lengths to help collect exactly 100 kinds of bean plant seeds."

Silvergrass pulled out another, peeked inside, and handed it to Dragon Cypress, saying, "This is Creeper Insect Bean."

She opened another bag for a look and said, "This is Caterpillar Bean."

"...This is Leaf Insect Bean."

"...This one’s White Insect Bean."

...

A neat hundred kinds, all varieties compatible with the ’Bean Vine Growth’ ability gifted by the Green Bean.

Half are vines, half are herbs.

Most are suitable for sowing at Xianglan Mountain.

Those not fit for Xianglan Mountain can be sent to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, White Lotus Lake, or the Purple Tung Insect Nation.

Wormwood Spider King really did the homework—north and south, whatever the environment, there’s always a few that suit.

Plant them near the Life Seed Plants, or at important passes in the territory—the "Bean Vine Entanglement" ability granted by the divine-grade Green Bean makes for a very practical defense.

And it’s the ability Dragon Cypress needs most right now.

Provided the Specialized Green Soldiers can inherit it smoothly, that is. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Looking forward to the next Age Period Evolution.

...

"Divine-grade Green Bean goes for 1.5 million Source Stones?"

Dragon Cypress began to do the math.

"Yes."

Silvergrass replied.

Dragon Cypress waved his antennae, issuing a command—then a squad of worker ants carried two large spider silk bags into the trade cave.

"These are this year’s Divine-Given Purple Tung Fruit Seeds, same output and price as before, 500,000 Source Stones flat."

Silvergrass: "Thank you, Dragon Cypress Ant King!"

Dragon Cypress waved his antennae again.

This time two more worker ants carried in a big spider silk bag.

Inside was a thick stack of Spider King Promissory Notes, each in 10,000 Source Stone denominations.

An even 100 sheets, making one million in total.

Red Peach helped out, and together with Silvergrass, they quickly finished counting.

Silvergrass said, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, it’s all in order—you and Wormwood Spider King are all square."

"Mm——"

Dragon Cypress asked, "The divine-grade Spotted Thicket Fruit is going for 2.2 million Source Stones?"

Red Peach: "That’s right."

Dragon Cypress: "Put it on my tab, I’ll settle it all at the end of the trade."

...

Dragon Cypress was only responsible for trading Divine-Given Origin Force Food.

The rest of the Source Stone settlements and regular Origin Force Food trades were handled by Chinese Clematis, Fragrant Cypress, and Black Cory.

Dragon Cypress himself went back to Xianglan Mountain and ate the divine-grade Green Bean directly.

The divine-grade Spotted Thicket Fruit is of the Waterwood system. If you eat two divine-grade fruits of the same system in one age period, it can cause Primordial Energy conflicts and keep you from comprehending any abilities.

The Spotted Thicket Fruit was given to Ink Orchid to eat first.

...

A half-month passed, and the trades with the Flame Spider Roving Merchants wrapped up.

Dragon Cypress hurried to Purple Tung Insect Nation, finished the spring trade with the Barley Bug Warriors, then piloted the Dominating Throne, carrying Ink Orchid and setting off quickly, traveling between various Lands of Origin Force, searching for Divine-Given Seeds.

Done.

Dragon Cypress transported Source Stones.

Ink Orchid loitered at Huagi Mountain for a month.

Done.

Ink Orchid took up post in the Purple Tung Insect Nation.

Dragon Cypress stationed himself at Xianglan Mountain, working hard to cultivate Specialized Green Ants, while also tending to the other Origin Force Lands at Molan Mountain, Black Lotus Lake, Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, and Cold Orchid Mountain.

...

...

Same jobs, day in and day out.

Sometimes leisurely, sometimes hectic.

Year after year—it passed in a blink, three years gone.

Late Winter Season,

Dragon Cypress returned south from the Purple Tung Insect Nation, timing it right for the Divine-Given Keteng Seed’s ripening, and arrived at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain on the dot.

"Keg Vine!"

Dragon Cypress called out.

"Dragon Cypress."

Keg Vine answered, saying, "I can now use spiritual power to reach out to Red Cypress and Little Wild Chestnut, but they both don’t like talking."

Keg Vine’s personality was just like Linnan Divine Tree: irritable, combative, super curious, and loved to chatter.

Red Cypress didn’t talk much; not one for unnecessary words.

Little Wild Chestnut truly wasn’t talkative.

Dragon Cypress: "No biggie. Later I’ll plant a Divine-Given Seed at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain that likes to chat."

Keg Vine: "Send over Spiked Cypress, it talks a lot."

Dragon Cypress: "..."

There are four troublemakers on Cloud Trace Continent: Linnan Divine Tree, Round Leaf Keg Vine, Spiked Cypress, Red Moonseed.

Dragon Cypress: "Spiked Cypress is in Purple Tung Insect Nation, studying under Linnan Divine Tree—learning fighting and war techniques. When it’s done in a couple of years, I’ll send it over."

Keg Vine: "Good!"

Dragon Cypress checked the pods; he was right on time, just another day or two before the Primordial Energy Metamorphosis Period.

To avoid affecting Round Leaf Keg Vine’s growth, they steadily produce 50 pods and 300 Divine-Given Keteng Seeds a year, each priced at 550 Source Stones, with 15,000 Source Stones invested at fruit maturity, and a net annual income of 150,000 Source Stones.

Aside from Divine-grade White Poplar, Round Leaf Keg Vine was Dragon Cypress’s biggest money maker among his current Life Seed Divine-Given Plants.

He checked every pod, made sure all was well, waved his antennae, used the Flourish Ability twice, then walked over to Little Wild Chestnut’s Divine-Given Seed tree.

The tree had finally broken 50 meters in height and was bearing fruit for the first time.

The trunk wasn’t large, but the yield was huge—over 5,000 blossoms burst out at once, Dragon Cypress kept 3,000 of them, and now the tree carried 3,000 petite green fruits.

Little Wild Chestnut’s Divine-Given Seed had a blossom-fruit cycle of four or five years, and bloomed and fruited all at once.

"Little Chestnut."

Dragon Cypress called, tilting his head to check the fruits on the tree, retracting his gaze and twiddling his antennae—two Flourish Abilities in quick succession.

"Dragon Cypress——"

Little Wild Chestnut’s Divine-Given Seed responded, unusually with a bit of questioning emotion, and politely asked, "Dragon Cypress, how do you keep controlling the ant colony after you’re gone?"

Dragon Cypress: "???"

Dragon Cypress: "You mean here on Southern Sour Jujube Mountain?"

Little Chestnut: "Yeah. The Specialized Green Ants."

Dragon Cypress: "The Specialized Green Ants live five to a cave, and I leave a character instruction at the cave entrance. They follow that instruction and regularly release the Flourish Ability on the Divine-Given Seeds assigned to them."

Little Chestnut: "..."

Little Chestnut: "So if the character instruction breaks, the Specialized Green Ants won’t work?"

Dragon Cypress: "Of course."

Dragon Cypress: "Little Chestnut, what’s the matter?"

Little Chestnut: "The Specialized Green Ants who give me the Flourish Ability haven’t shown up for a long time."

Dragon Cypress: "Uh—"

Dragon Cypress: "Then maybe the character instruction is broken? Let me check."

The hundred Specialized Green Ants assigned to Little Wild Chestnut’s Divine-Given Seed lived just on a hill, three hundred meters away.

Dragon Cypress swept the area with his spiritual power.

The character inscription at the cave mouth was intact, not damaged.

It was a sunny morning, and all the Specialized Green Ants had piled out from the ant nest in clusters, lying on the hilltop and basking in the glorious dawn.

Looked like everything was fine, nothing amiss.

In fact, for over twenty years now, they’d been using character instructions to direct ant colony activities; most of the Origin Force Lands were running this way, and no major screw-ups had ever happened before.

Dragon Cypress flapped his wings and flew up fast to land at the hilltop, checking at close range.

——Great King.

——Great King.

——Great King is here!

——Long live the Great King!

...

The Specialized Green Ants, basking and lazy in the morning light, all scrambled to their feet and saluted the Ant King with waving antennae.

"Line up!"

"Don’t move!"

Dragon Cypress observed carefully, sensing.

And sure enough!

All the Specialized Green Ants were at their peak state.

By the looks of it, they hadn’t used the Flourish Ability for quite some time now.

"Why aren’t you looking after Little Wild Chestnut’s Divine-Given Seed?"

Dragon Cypress asked in puzzlement.

The ants all looked blank, stood frozen, like they’d just thought of it, then spun around and dashed off toward Little Wild Chestnut’s Divine-Given Seed.

"Stop!"

Dragon Cypress shouted, suspicious.

——Where’s the problem?

Dragon Cypress thought quickly, his mind flashing—then expanded his Soul-Setting Ability to sense.

Amidst the crowd, one nondescript Specialized Green Ant had a soul that was stronger, more solid than the rest.

Another one like Black Cory.

Pretty clear this guy had been leading the others to slack off.

The disguise wasn’t half bad, either.

If not for the Soul-Setting Ability, even he wouldn’t have caught it.

"You! Step forward!"

Dragon Cypress pointed with his claw.

The chosen Specialized Green Ant shuffled to the side, bewildered, turning this way and that, as if checking whom the Great King was singling out.

Heh!

Still pretending?

Dragon Cypress marched over, pinned it down with a claw, and whapped it with his antennae: Yes, I mean you!