Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 661 - 577: Where is the Source Stone?_2

Spikemoss: "Oh—"

Spikemoss: "Ink Orchid wasn't cultivated by you, right?"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress: "...No."

Dragon Cypress: "Ink Orchid is my friend. Ink Orchid, like me, is a complete Insect Clan Warrior. It also possesses a Life Pouch, and can cultivate God-Given Life Seeds."

Spikemoss muttered, "I see. No wonder I can't communicate with Ink Orchid, there's no Soul Bond. No wonder these ants can understand me—it turns out all of them were raised by you, the Soul Bond connects everyone together."

Dragon Cypress: "???"

Dragon Cypress: "Spikemoss, you're saying, these ants can understand you?"

Spikemoss returns a questioning mental intent, answering, "Yes—"

Spikemoss asks in return: "Shouldn't it be understood this way?"

Dragon Cypress's heart flashed with sudden light, asking, "Spikemoss, when you awakened your Soul Consciousness, did you urgently need Origin Force? Did you burn through a lot of Origin Force?"

Origin Force?

Spikemoss instantly understood, replying, "Yes—"

Dragon Cypress: "I had prepared a lot of Source Stones, stockpiled nearby."

Dragon Cypress: "Source Stones are each individual stones, containing a high concentration of pure Origin Force. When broken, the Origin Force is released."

Spikemoss: "Yes. There were many earlier."

Spikemoss: "I felt they were beneficial to me, so I directed the nearby ants to break them and release the Origin Force."

Dragon Cypress: "!!!"

Good heavens!

Dragon Cypress knew, without instructions from self or Assistant King, the ant colony would never touch the Source Stones lightly.

In the face of sudden situations, ordinary Worker Ants lack the intelligence to discern, and cannot decide whether to defy the Ant King's orders to use the Source Stones.

Dragon Cypress had wondered why the Source Stones were used up.

So it was the Spikemoss God-Given Seed commanding the ant colony.

That's wonderful!

A tremendous and utterly unexpected piece of great news!

Dragon Cypress spun around, beating its membranous wings in excitement, "Ink Orchid! Good news! We have another God-Given Seed capable of commanding the ant colony! Spikemoss! Just like Azure! The Source Stones were used by Spikemoss to command the ant colony."

Ink Orchid: "Huh?"

Ink Orchid: "???"

Ink Orchid froze for a long moment before finally reacting, incredulous: "Spikemoss can also command the colony?"

Dragon Cypress: "Yes."

Ink Orchid: "Why?"

Right! Why?

Why can both Azure and Spikemoss command the colony?

Dragon Cypress activated the Soul-Setting Ability for perception.

Inside the cypress trunk, Spikemoss's soul was highly condensed, shaped like a cypress tree; every branch, every needleleaf, lifelike and vivid.

Dragon Cypress spoke in a deep voice: "I think it must be something to do with the soul level."

Dragon Cypress: "I suspect the cases of Azure and Spikemoss are different. Azure once evolved to a very high degree, so it's Superior Grade, with a strong soul. Spikemoss is another case, it's innately extraordinary, unique among others."

Ink Orchid gently touched its tentacles in agreement, asking hopefully: "So, we can confirm it? Spikemoss is Divine Grade?"

Dragon Cypress: "Definitely."

Dragon Cypress: "Spikemoss has terrifying learning and comprehension ability. I'll first teach it all the fundamental knowledge."

Ink Orchid: "I'll go check on Red Leaf."

...

Dragon Cypress commanded the ant colony, splitting into teams, entering the jungle and randomly gathering samples of various plants and animals to bring back.

Dragon Cypress waited under the tree, teaching Spikemoss to identify and explain each one.

Learning begins from understanding the myriad things of the world.

Seven days later,

Every plant and animal in the Areca Rainforest had been collected once over.

Spikemoss had learned them all.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid took their leave, continuing their spring expedition to search for God-Given Seeds.

After a tour around the continent, they returned once again to the Areca Rainforest.

Education work continued,

Dragon Cypress began to teach Spikemoss arithmetic, introduced it to the language of the Xianglan Mountain Kingdom, and explained knowledge related to territory cultivation and management, recounting interesting stories from across the various continents of the Origin Force Star Realm.

Spikemoss not only possessed extremely high learning and comprehension ability, but also an intense interest in and yearning for knowledge.

Over half a year, Dragon Cypress taught all it could, then took to the Dominating Throne, traveling across the continent's forests to personally gather plants and animal samples and send them back to the Areca Rainforest for Spikemoss to study.

While learning, Spikemoss also began applying its knowledge, commanding the ant colony and managing the nearby woodland.

In the future, the Areca Rainforest could be left in Spikemoss's care, including ordinary plant seedling cultivation, pruning, irrigation, pollination and harvesting, as well as the daily management of the God-Given Life Seeds of Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid, investing Source Stones during fruiting season, and tasks such as harvest, drying, and refining Ant King Honey—a host of complex operations.

...

This year there was another important event: the maturing and harvest of the Divine-Grade Baihe Fruit.

In deep winter, Dragon Cypress organized Insect Clan Warriors from every Land of Origin Force on Cloud Trace Continent for a grand feast in the Areca Rainforest.

Introduced them to Spikemoss.

Soon after, an even grander gathering was held under the Purple Tung God-Given Seed tree in the Purple Tung Insect Nation, inviting the Barley Bug Tribe warriors to join the festivities.

Amidst celebration and busyness, the winter days quietly passed by.

...

Silver Cypress Year 8, Spring.

Rednan Mountain Trade Cave.

Red Peach and Heliotrope arrived early. Red Peach had already run back and forth multiple times, transporting all the Divine-Given Origin Force Food to be sold to the Xianglan Mountain Kingdom this year.

Converted to Source Stones, the total was as much as 13 million, in large and small bags, piled into six heaps along the tunnel.

One pile each for the Spider King Caravans of Wormwood, Tiankui, Purple Jade, and Seven-Leaf; the remaining piles for the White Ivy Trade Caravan and Melde's Caravan.

By midmorning, Dragon Cypress and the Snow Velvet Spider King arrived on time.

The two sides greeted each other warmly and began to handle routine matters.

Once finished.

Red Peach formally reported: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, Lord Melde has confirmed plans to break through to Evolution King Level next winter."

"Is that so? Give my congratulations to Melde in advance, wishing it a successful promotion to Spider King."