Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 494 - 474 White Rice Lord

The Common Life Seed Plant is a slow transition to a higher realm after Insect Clan Warriors break through and evolve. Compared to the God-Given Life Seed, it’s actually easier and simpler.

The Elm Life Seed that White Rice sowed during its 8th Age, boosted by a large amount of Divine-Given Remains and aided by Specialized Green Ants, quickly grew and broke through the 40-meter height mark, reaching the standard of Evolution Lord Level.

...

The weather was still hot at the end of summer.

The Dominating Throne, loaded with Source Stones, rocked its way into the territory of White Rice Mountain.

Ink Orchid kicked off and leaped into the air, flying alongside the Throne. As it approached, it accelerated, then dove and landed beneath the Divine-Given Seed tree of White Rice.

"Red Fox!"

Ink Orchid called out.

"Ink Orchid. Dragon Cypress Ant King."

Red Fox responded, and asked, "You two came to help White Rice break through to Lord?"

Ink Orchid: "Yep."

Red Fox suddenly sighed emotionally, "Back then, my biggest wish was just for White Rice and Black Rice to evolve to Mountain Lord Level. I was full of longing and curiosity about abilities awakened at Mountain Lord Level. At that time, even being a Mountain Lord was just a dream. Can’t believe that so soon, White Rice is about to evolve into a Lord."

Ink Orchid also followed with a heartfelt sentiment, "Yeah. When I was little, having just one Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed was enough to make me happy. The Divine-Given Fragrant Orchid Seeds it produced, I’d carefully count them, eat one in the morning, one at noon, one at night, and I’d set an alarm to wake up at midnight and happily eat another one. Hard to believe... now we have so many Divine-Given Seeds, Divine-Given Origin Force Food is so plentiful we can’t finish eating it, but it doesn’t have the taste from back then..."

"Oh——"

Red Fox suddenly lost interest in chatting.

Dragon Cypress was also speechless listening in, choked up for a few seconds, then asked, "Red Fox, where are White Rice and Black Rice?"

Red Fox: "Heard this morning that the White Mulberry Life Seed fruits matured, probably watching over the harvest now."

Sensing Origin Force fluctuations, White Rice and Black Rice were rushing this way, climbing up the hill and racing down.

They greeted each other upon meeting.

White Rice took the initiative, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, I’m ready. I had meat just last night, don’t need any more, and just a few mouthfuls of ant honey to recover some stamina will do—ready to begin any time."

"Great!"

"Then let’s not waste time, let’s get started."

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid set to work together, unloading the 40,000 Source Stones they’d brought.

The Dominating Throne docked at the residential cave. White Rice boarded the Throne to rest, scarfing down a lot of Origin Force Ant Honey, pushing for the final sprint.

Dragon Cypress, Ink Orchid, and Black Rice worked together, using 1,000 Source Stones for each of White Rice’s Common Life Seed Plants.

Experience from Huagi Mountain proved this method minimized the risk of Common Life Seed breakthrough failures.

Dragon Cypress also applied Flourish Ability to several Life Seeds of White Rice’s that were growing weakly.

It took a full day to finish all the preparations.

Meanwhile, White Rice’s side was also fully prepared.

By twilight,

waves of Origin Force fluctuations rumbled from the cave, lasting until deep into the night before settling down.

There was already precedent and experience with Ghost Fan successfully evolving to Lord Level.

Everyone felt quite reassured.

Dragon Cypress, Ink Orchid, and Black Rice waited outside the cave with peace of mind.

Fourteen days later,

in the cicada-screeching, chill early autumn, fierce Origin Force waves erupted from within the cave.

They settled after half a day.

Another half-day later, by dusk, White Rice awoke from deep sleep, shed its old shell, and donned a new carapace.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid used Soul-Setting Ability from time to time, constantly keeping tabs on the situation inside the cave.

"It’s done!"

Ink Orchid lifted a forelimb high and announced, "Thanks to the hard work of Dragon Cypress and me, the Cloud Trace Continent now has its second Lord—Lord White Rice!"

"Oh~woooo~"

"Much appreciated, Mountain Lord Ink Orchid~"

Black Rice cheered, leapt up, tossed out a sentence, and turned around sprinting off in the direction of White Rice’s Divine-Given Seed: "Red Fox! Red Fox! White Rice did it!"

After nearly half a month asleep, White Rice had used up all its stamina and was left weak and spent.

Ink Orchid dove into the forest to hunt.

Dragon Cypress ran into the cave, grabbed the ant honey that had been prepped long ago, helped open and pour the stone bowl, and gave White Rice emergency energy replenishment.

...

...

...

Late at night.

Under White Rice’s Divine-Given Seed tree, an oversized stone pot boiled snowy-white broth, its aroma wafting through the woods on the night breeze.

Having not eaten in half a month, Ink Orchid and Black Rice were famished, sitting around the pot and gulping food down by the mouthful.

Dragon Cypress wasn’t hungry, busy directing the stationed Specialized Blue Soldiers in White Rice Mountain’s branch nest to take turns using Boiling Ability, and directing mid-sized and small Worker Ants to cut meat and skewer it on sticks.

Seeing everyone nearly done eating, Dragon Cypress timely asked, "White Rice, how do you feel?"

White Rice said excitedly, "I comprehended two abilities!"

Then looked a bit disappointed, "They’re both rather standard pure combat abilities, though actually I’d prefer a support ability to help with territory management."

Dragon Cypress: "Two abilities is already great..."

But that wasn’t what Dragon Cypress really wanted to know...

What he meant to ask was whether the ’Soil Improvement’ ability had gotten an ideal upgrade.

But seeing White Rice so overjoyed after evolving to Lord Level, he’d clearly forgotten about business.

Dragon Cypress was still pondering how to tactfully bring it up,

when Ink Orchid cut in, "Aren’t combat abilities pretty good? Hasn’t Linnan Divine Tree said it before? No matter where you go, strong individual power will never be underestimated."

Ink Orchid: "White Rice, what abilities did you get, specifically?"

White Rice stood up, "Let’s go up the mountain and test them."

Together they moved up to a clearing along the mountain ridge.

Dragon Cypress, Ink Orchid, and Black Rice stepped back a bit for safety.

White Rice bowed its head in thought for a while, then gathered Primordial Energy at its antennae.

The antennae touched the ground.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...

On the flat ground ahead, starting from the two antennae, earth and stone erupted in explosions, fragments shooting skyward.

A straight trench was blasted out, forty to fifty meters long, nearly two meters wide, and more than a meter deep.

That ability...

Dragon Cypress, Ink Orchid, and Black Rice were momentarily stunned.

Black Rice waved its antennae and shouted, "Lord White Rice, you’re mighty!"

Ink Orchid praised enviously, "That’s a seriously strong attack ability!"

Dragon Cypress tapped its antennae, "This ability would be really handy for digging water channels and irrigation ditches."

White Rice: "..."

White Rice: "It eats through a lot of Primordial Energy, not as efficient as digging by hand."

White Rice raised its antennae, pondered, then surged with Primordial Energy. Sharp stone-and-earth spikes shot up all around.

White Rice waved an antenna,

whoosh— the spiky stone-and-earth thorns blasted into the air.

Another wave of the antenna,

and the spikes spun around, raining down rapidly toward the ground.

One more wave,

and the falling spikes all shattered, turning into fine crushed gravel, rustling as they scattered down.

The second ability, ’Earth Thorn’, is one of the most easily mastered Earth System abilities. However, White Rice’s smooth, flowing performance left Dragon Cypress, Ink Orchid, and Black Rice staring in amazement, showering him with praise and compliments.

This is just as the Linnan Divine Tree said: practice makes perfect.

White Rice, after years of using Earth System abilities for work, had achieved a certain realm in manipulating Earth Primordial Energy. Even with a newly comprehended ability, he could play all kinds of tricks with it right away.

Dragon Cypress walked up, inspected the fine sand on the ground, and asked, "White Rice, did you use ’Soil Improvement’ ability to break up the stone thorns?"

White Rice: "Of course."

Dragon Cypress: "Looks like your Soil Improvement ability has improved a lot after the Lord Level evolution. Do you think the stone wall blocking us from getting to Molan Continent can be breached now?"

White Rice looked up, thought carefully, and answered seriously, "It’s still tough, but no longer unbreakable."

That’s exactly what he’d been waiting to hear!

Dragon Cypress: "Excellent! Come on, let’s head down and keep eating."

Dragon Cypress: "White Rice, get some rest for two months. As soon as autumn trade is over, we’ll immediately make an attempt."

White Rice: "Okay!"

Black Rice raised a claw hopefully, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, shall we go in winter? There’s nothing urgent in my territory then, could I come along?"

Dragon Cypress refused bluntly, "No way!"

Ink Orchid raised a claw, "I want to go!"

Dragon Cypress explained, "Right now, we know absolutely nothing about the situation on Molan Continent. We have to consider the possibility of running into danger and having to make a quick escape. The Dominating Throne can only take one Insect Clan Warrior across the seafloor tunnel at a time. So on each trip, I can only bring one warrior. If anything unexpected happens, no need to think twice—we turn and run, immediately."

Ink Orchid and Black Rice looked discouraged.

...

It was just the start of autumn.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid lingered at White Rice Mountain for half a month before leaving, mainly for Dragon Cypress to use Flourish Ability to help White Rice’s Life Seeds evolve toward Lord-Level.

The White Poplar Divine Seed ripened and was harvested this autumn.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid arrived punctually at Purple Tung Insect Nation, also taking the chance along the way to tell the Huagi Divine Tree of White Rice’s successful evolution, and to discuss their plans.

Nothing else to do.

Just like every previous year, finish autumn trade, and search for Divine-Given Seeds along the way.

No gains.

Ink Orchid went back to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain to guard its Ink Emperor Peach Divine-Given Seed.

Dragon Cypress set out with White Rice.