Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 505 - 485: Escape

At the moment the Dominating Throne plummeted into the dense clouds, Dragon Cypress sensed grave danger.

The world spun, light and shadows flickered.

The scene before his eyes changed, suddenly entering a dense forest of towering ancient trees.

Clearly, he was controlling the Dominating Throne’s descent.

Yet now it became a direct ascent into the heights of the sky.

Azure sky and scattered clouds, Purple Sun at its zenith.

Flying upward, scorched by the blazing sun, the Hydrology Shield shattered, his whole body uncomfortable, as if even his carapace was about to ignite.

Strangely, no matter how he flew, he remained above the dense forest, unable to go any higher.

Hallucination Ability?

Rather similar to the Mottled Remnant Realm granted by Spotted Thicket Fruit.

"Petty tricks!"

Dragon Cypress sneered coldly, severed his connection to the Dominating Throne, gave up control and let it fall freely, then raised a claw and slashed Origin Force Energy sharply at the Purple Sun in the sky.

The Purple Sun flashed and vanished.

"Ah!"

Purple exclaimed, "What a crafty ant!"

Whoosh~la~la~

Purple’s figure appeared to the left of the throne, wings snapping violently as a cloud of purple powder billowed toward Dragon Cypress.

Dragon Cypress leapt up, charging midair.

Furious Rage!

A deafening boom as the air exploded.

The purple powder was hurled backward.

"Ah!"

A piercing shriek, Purple’s form blinked and vanished instantly.

Light and shadow whirled and changed.

The dense forest disappeared.

The Dominating Throne was still inside a cloud bank, plunging rapidly downward.

The clouds clung like silk netting, sticking to the throne as it fell, wrapping around and refusing to disperse.

Dragon Cypress understood: the foe at least possessed Water, Fire, and Metal elemental talent potential, with an awakened Water System Talent, manipulating cloud mist to create the Illusion Realm.

Lord-Level Flash Butterfly warrior, mediocre battle power.

It was now quite puzzled, unable to understand how Dragon Cypress had accurately locked onto its position through the Illusion Realm.

Frightened, it hid motionless in the clouds.

—Should I kill it?

—Flash Butterfly warriors are agile in flight, Rend Abilities are hard to land.

—The violent boom of Furious Rage has surely alerted the Bee Clan on the island.

—If targeted by King-Level bees, that would almost certainly mean death.

Dragon Cypress’s thoughts raced, cycling rapidly, then he pointed a claw at Purple, who was hiding in the thick clouds, and growled viciously:

"Today I’m alone, won’t tangle with you. If I run into you again, I’ll rip your wings off and hang them as ornaments in the King Nest."

"You—"

Purple was stunned, dumbfounded, "You can see me?"

"Ignorant island bug."

Dragon Cypress scoffed.

"Impressive! Impressive! Looks like I misjudged you, Ant."

Purple no longer bothered to hide, blinked to the left side of the throne, "That was just a misunderstanding. Yellow Stem Ant King, don’t take offense. We Insect Clan only bully the weak, we respect the strong—you’re a powerful Ant King worthy of respect."

Dragon Cypress raised a claw, Primordial Energy gathering at his clawtip.

Purple flashed behind the throne, warmly said: "Yellow Stem Ant King, you come from the Central Continent, right? You must want to see the tropical rainforest’s wonders. I formally invite you to visit Fire Wheel Island. Don’t worry, you’ve proven your strength, we won’t trouble you again."

Dragon Cypress: "Do I look like an idiot to you?"

Dragon Cypress: "If I wanted to tour Fire Wheel Island, it would be leading a hundred thousand Ant Kingdom troops ashore, smashing your nests, harvesting your Life Seeds, twisting your heads off and hanging them atop the island’s highest peak."

"Dominating. So domineering."

Purple reminded: "Fire Wheel Island United Kingdom has a King-Level Ant King, two King-Level Bee Kings, a number of King-Level Assistant Kings—one hundred thousand Ant Army might not be enough."

Dragon Cypress responded politely: "Thanks for the reminder."

Purple also offered kindly: "Careful, you’re about to crash into the sea and die."

The Dominating Throne was only two or three hundred meters from the sea’s surface, in free fall, plummeting at such speed that it nearly ignited from air friction.

Dragon Cypress’s six legs tensed, a thought controlling the throne to decelerate.

Purple followed tightly; when the throne was merely twenty or thirty meters above the water’s surface, it blinked ahead, diving into the sea first.

The thick clouds shrouding the Dominating Throne churned, rapidly expanding...

Dragon Cypress: "..."

This thing’s banking on its Water System Talent to pick a fight on the sea.

BOOM! BOOM!

The Dominating Throne, unable to slow in time, smashed into the sea at high speed, towering waves shattering the surrounding mist.

The thick mist, almost elastic, scattered and quickly regrouped into clumps.

At the same time,

Below the surface, seawater like tentacles attacked from all sides, wrapping around the Dominating Throne, attempting to bind it.

Dragon Cypress remained calm, activating his Freezing Ability.

The seawater tentacles clinging to the throne froze solid, cold spreading swiftly.

Crack~crack~crack~

Ice shattered.

Above the Dominating Throne, seawater turned to ice, rapidly spreading, freezing a vast area of the sea.

Hidden in the dense mist, Flash Butterfly warrior Purple lost all perception under the sea, dazed for two seconds, then erupted with Primordial Energy, a blazing purple light engulfing it as the frozen seawater melted rapidly.

However,

It was too late.

Having broken out of the Freezing Ability,

When it again tried to sense deep into the sea, Dragon Cypress was already gone.

—Escaped?!

The thick cloud dissipated with the sea breeze, leaving only a small wisp of pale purple lingering.

Purple stood on the cloud, looking around in confusion, stewing in frustration, fluttered its wings, then turned into a flash of purple-black light, shimmering as it sped toward the roaring bee swarm rushing over.

"Purple, what’s going on?"

The leading Bee Clan Assistant King inquired.

"Nothing serious. Just an ant, hiding in the clouds, spying on our Fire Wheel Island. I’ve already driven it away."

"Driven away?"

The Bee Clan Assistant King sounded displeased, "Why didn’t you kill it?"

"It has both Water System and Strength System dual talents. It escaped from the deep sea."

Purple circled the bee swarm and said, "This is serious business. I need to report to the Volcano Ant King immediately."

...

Mainland center.

An extinct volcano dormant for a trillion years had its guts hollowed out, turned into an immense Insect Nest.

There were three entrances.

Purple lightly beat its wings, landing at the cave entrance atop the mountain, representing the kingdom’s supreme ruler’s nest chamber.

Groups of fiery-red Worker Ants bustled in and out in an orderly flow.

From deep within the ant nest, a powerful spiritual mind transmission emanated.

"Purple, what happened?"

"Volcano Ant King, I found a male Ant King with wings, dark green carapace, big head, called ’Yellow Stem.’ He claimed to be a Hump Cutter Ant from the Central Continent’s Huagi Kingdom, serving under Ant King Flower Flag, but—doesn’t look like any Leafcutter Ant to me..."

"There are no Hump Cutter Ants in the Central Continent, nor an Ant Clan Kingdom named Huagi."

"Of course! I knew it was a lie at first glance."

Purple continued: "That fellow’s Evolution level is only Mountain Lord Level, but he wields two extremely sharp, formidable Strength System attack abilities. He also has something called the ’Dominating Throne’—an Outworld Civilization Artifact, a Water System God-Level Creation. It grants him Water System Talent and a pretty potent Freezing Ability."

The Volcano Ant King’s spiritual will tightened sharply, asking: "Dominating Throne? An Outworld Civilization Artifact that bestows elemental talents? A divine artifact?"

Purple: "Yes. A God-Level Creation. I’m a hundred percent sure. I saw it with my own eyes— the thing is crazy strong: it can fly, it can dive deep into the sea. That guy hid in the clouds, spying on our kingdom, I noticed him, he plunged straight into the sea to escape."

Volcano Ant King: "Mountain Lord Level? You didn’t stop him?"

Purple: "Useless me, couldn’t stop him..."

Purple: "But that male Ant King also had some unknown detection ability. Somehow he could ignore Purple Sun’s reflection and the sea of cloud mist, locking directly on my position."

A long silence,

Volcano Ant King sighed: "It’s probably an ability granted by the God-Level Creation, isn’t it? Your sea of cloud mist is Water System too; it’s not strange for him to see through your trail."

Volcano Ant King asked: "Spying on our Volcano Island?"

Purple: "Yes. I think it was out of simple curiosity, not reconnaissance. No kingdom would send a Mountain Lord Level Ant King carrying a God-Level Outworld Civilization Artifact on a spy mission. I asked him, he said he was traveling for experience, another lie—no Mountain Lord Level would venture out solo on a journey like that."

Purple summed up: "Has considerable power, origins unknown, motives unknown, a male Ant King that even insects can’t figure out."

Another silence,

Volcano Ant King: "Which way did he escape?"

Purple: "Judging by vague Origin Force Fluctuation, probably west."

Volcano Ant King: "All intelligent life, when threatened, will instinctively flee in the direction their subconscious deems safe. His old nest must be westward. Roaming the sea, he’s likely from the West Coast, one of the Beach Kingdoms."

Volcano Ant King: "When insects lie, they still reveal a bit of truth. He claimed to hail from a Central Continent kingdom, so most likely his kingdom is somewhere in the central continent."

Volcano Ant King: "All things considered, it’s probably the continent’s West Coast, Central Coast region."

Volcano Ant King: "Purple, take Gooseberry, Sea Red, Blood Root, Cherry Lotus, Orange Blossom, Yellow Solitude, Eryu, intercept him in the central section of the West Sea. And keep your chatter to a minimum—if you catch him, kill him and take the artifact immediately. If you miss him, do not approach the mainland lightly. Don’t let the land kingdoms pick up your trail."

"Wise, Ant King!"

"I’m on my way!"

Purple’s antennae perked up and it turned to leave.