Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 536 - 515 I’ve Collapsed

Molan used the Divine-Grade Green Bean, then fell asleep to undergo evolution.

Ninth Age Period Mountain Lord.

Awakened the ’Bean Vine Entanglement’ ability as usual, no other changes.

After completing the evolution, rested and recovered for two days, then ate the Divine-Grade Sea Insect Fruit.

The plan is to consume Water System Divine-Given Origin Force Food worth three million Source Stones at the ninth age period stage, to evolve to Evolution Lord Level and guarantee awakening of a Water System Talent. It just depends on how many Water System Abilities can be comprehended.

After following Dragon Cypress for so long, it shouldn’t be few.

...

Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, Black Cory had already led the ant colony to make preparations.

Dragon Cypress escorted Molan over, and timely sowed the fully matured Golden Key Tree Divine-Given Seed.

After soaking the seed in warm water, then planting it in the soil, it sprouted roots and shoots the very next day.

Dragon Cypress stayed to observe for two more days. Seeing the seedling grow to nearly ten centimeters in height and confirming there were no issues, only then did he feel reassured to leave.

Continued to complete the trade with the Flame Spider Roving Merchants.

This year’s spring tasks had been slightly adjusted.

First, transported Source Stones to Huagi Mountain, taking 19 days.

The Golden Key Tree Divine-Given Seed grew for 25 days in total, reaching just over a meter high, and smoothly survived the fragile seedling stage.

Black Cory guarded it with troops.

Dragon Cypress and Molan quickly traveled around the continent, completing the spring search for Divine-Given Seeds.

Molan settled on Southern Sour Jujube Mountain to take care of his Golden Key Tree Divine-Given Seed.

Dragon Cypress stayed on Xianglan Mountain, focusing on cultivating Specialized Green Soldiers, while also consuming Earth System Ant King Honey at a rate of ten thousand Source Stones per day.

...

Black Peach No. 4 Divine-Given Seed had already been bred successfully.

The large areas of Black Peach No. 2 saplings previously planted at Molan Mountain, Cold Orchid Mountain, Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, and Black Lotus Lake, were all removed.

Handled separately by Black Cory, Black Leaf, and Black Peach.

At present, there was no need for large-scale planting or focused cultivation of mutated varieties. On the cleared land, all sorts of trees were planted to restore biodiversity.

Seeds selected by Azure of Xianglan Mountain and Fragrant Cypress were sent everywhere.

Seedling raising and transplanting was handled individually by Black Cory, Black Leaf, and Black Peach.

...

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

End of Summer,

in the Black Peach No. 4 orchard, ordinary Peach Fruits were ripening one after another.

The fruits were on the small side, only about two-thirds the size of Dark Peach, Black Emperor Peach, and Ink Emperor Peach, but there were many, adding up to a decent yield.

Fruit coloration varied greatly, red tinged with light purple.

The taste was good—juicy and tender, just the right sweetness, and full of peach aroma.

The fruits nurturing Divine-Given Seeds matured about ten days later; judging from the Origin Force Fluctuation, it was no longer muscle strength enhancement, but had mutated to Wood Element, likely comprehensive Wood Element ability enhancement.

Not every mutation is for the better; quite the opposite, more often than not it goes downhill...

No such luck, Black Peach No. 4 was exactly like that.

Middle-tier enhancement type, which immediately ruled out the possibility of a top-level Divine-Given Seed.

Molan wasn’t on the mountain.

Dragon Cypress personally named it: Zihuang Peach.

Meant to echo with Molan’s Ink Emperor Peach.

With the Divine-Given Seed now in hand, Dragon Cypress sped up and continued to eat Earth System Ant King Honey at a rate of twenty thousand Source Stones per day.

...

Early winter,

Dragon Cypress and Molan returned from searching for Divine-Given Seeds on Wanglan Continent.

The temperature in the Areca Rainforest was nice, neither hot nor cold.

Dragon Cypress chose to split a nest in the Areca Rainforest, and entered sleep to evolve.

Molan, Black Leaf, and Tie Bush stood guard outside the cave.

...

Upon awakening from evolution,

he shed his old shell, and the new carapace quickly hardened.

Dragon Cypress spread out his spiritual power, charging out of the cave and extending through the tunnel.

meters?

At the First Age Period Lord stage, without eating any spiritual power-enhancing Origin Force Food, there had been improvements after Age Period Evolution, but they were negligible.

Activating the Soul-Setting ability for a test.

Likewise, the soul had improved, but only ever so slightly, so the sensing range of the Soul-Setting ability hadn’t increased much either.

Dragon Cypress turned his attention inward, feeling out the changes to his own elemental talent...

Sensing repeatedly...

Sweeping his spiritual power over himself again and again...

No changes at all!

Failed to awaken Earth Talent?

Dragon Cypress only felt a huge explosion in his head, like mountains collapsing and the earth cracking.

His soul wavered, and his spirit felt dazed for a moment.

"Dragon Cypress?"

Molan sharply sensed something was off, parted the bundle of dry branches blocking the entrance, and peeked in, "What’s wrong?"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress snapped back, quickly collected himself, and sighed, "Unlucky! My luck is as bad as it gets! I crashed."

Molan: "???"

Dragon Cypress let out a long sigh, saying, "Earth Talent awakening failed! Fourteen million Source Stones! Avalanche!"

Molan: "Uh..."

Molan was also stunned, not knowing what to say for the moment.

At the cave entrance, Black Leaf and Tie Bush, who had previously been all smiles waiting for the Great King to announce a celebratory feast, were also stunned, then quietly backed out, leaving the Ant Nest in one breath.

Molan hesitated for a long while, then tried to soothe him: "Dragon Cypress, calm down, it’s not a big deal. Just have the caravan find a Divine-Grade Fruit that grants Earth Talent."

The same Divine-Grade Fruit can only be used once; the Divine-Grade Mountain Pillar Fruit couldn’t be used again, so they’d have to find another Divine-Grade Fruit that grants Earth Talent.

Not to mention whether it could even be found,

even if found, it’d cost another eight to ten million Source Stones, maybe even more.

Massive loss!

However, it wasn’t a complete waste—the usage of the Divine-Grade Mountain Pillar Fruit had given Dragon Cypress some initial Earth potential. With another Divine-Grade Fruit granting Earth Element Talent, it would definitely succeed.

Dragon Cypress collected himself and said, "It’s really not a big problem. On the Northern Hemisphere side, let’s have Spurge and the Aconite Spider King help look for one—if they find it, great, if not, that’s okay too. Over on Wanglan Continent, we can be sure that the Snow Velvet Spider King has a way to get Divine-Grade Fruits granting Earth Talent. When the time is right, we’ll trade with Snow Velvet Spider King."

Molan entered the cave, fetched a metal can filled with Ant Honey, opened it and handed it over, saying:

"Exactly! Who knows, maybe Divine-Grade Fruits are sold cheap down in the Southern Hemisphere, four or five million each, then we’d only lose four or five million, we can afford it."

Possible?

No way.

If only things were that nice.

Dragon Cypress didn’t even bother to argue, just buried himself in eating.

Black Leaf hunted fresh meat in the jungle.

Tie Bush caught some fish from the river.

Dragon Cypress was in a bad mood, hastily filled his belly and set out overnight for Molan Mountain.

...

Divine-Grade Fruits that grant elemental talent at King Level— even with Divine-Given Origin Force Food at full blast, success rate is only about sixty percent.

Below King Level, the odds are even worse.

Theoretically, after enough attempts, failure is bound to happen eventually.

But Dragon Cypress hadn’t expected failure to come so soon—to suffer a loss right from the start.

To collect all Nine System Talents, it’ll probably be far harder than anticipated. The massive Source Stone cost is not the main problem—the real challenge is the Divine-Grade Fruits themselves.

Price is one thing; what if you just can’t find them, or there simply aren’t Divine-Grade Fruits with the right talent type on the continent?

...

Molan Mountain.

Gloomy weather.

Deep winter cold.

The Dominating Throne landed directly beside the Purple Poppet Divine-Given Seed.

The Thunder Oak and North Elm’s Divine-Given Seeds also sent out spiritual power, checking in.

"Purple Poppet. Thunder Oak. North Elm."

Dragon Cypress greeted them in turn.

"Oh——" Purple Poppet answered, listless.

"Dragon Cypress, you’ve evolved?" Thunder Oak asked.

North Elm followed with, "Did you awaken Earth Talent?"

"Don’t mention it."

Dragon Cypress replied gloomily, "Unlucky!"

—Failed?

—That’s such a huge loss!

—Can we still find a Divine-Grade Fruit that grants Earth Talent?

Purple Poppet, Thunder Oak, and North Elm all sank into gloom, mourning the loss.

"Not a big deal, we’ll find one." Dragon Cypress replied, activating Soul-Setting ability to sense around, and got annoyed again.

Middle of the day and Black Peach is still lounging in the ant nest sleeping.

Dragon Cypress waved his tentacle—two Flourish castings landed on Purple Poppet’s trunk—and said simply, "I’m here to plant the Zihuang Peach; you’ll soon have another companion, Molan Mountain will be livelier."

Dragon Cypress: "I’ll get to work now."

Purple Poppet couldn’t help asking, "Dragon Cypress, can you plant in such cold weather?"

Dragon Cypress: "I can use Hydrology Shield to build an anti-cold barrier, use Boiling Water Ability to warm things up. At Lord-Level Origin Force Life, environmental adaptability is already strong. If the seedling can just survive the most fragile early days, and make it through the coldest half-month, there’ll be no problem afterward."

Purple Poppet: "Oh——"

Thunder Oak: "Plants need sunlight; without it, it won’t work. From my years of watching, each midwinter, this kind of gloomy weather lasts for about half a month."

Dragon Cypress: "...Is that so?"

This guy Thunder Oak isn’t just any tree—he really knows how to track environment and climate changes.

Dragon Cypress’s mood improved a lot, and he replied off-handedly, "No big deal. Just means slower growth with less sunlight."

Thunder Oak and Purple Poppet didn’t say more.

Molan went to see the Great King Molan and the Two Kings Ink Orchid.

Dragon Cypress, meanwhile, went to the Ant Nest, woke up Black Peach, and led the team out to plant the Zihuang Peach Divine-Given Seed.