Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid had been busy running around for a whole year, so they stayed and rested on the mountain for a while.

There was a lot that needed to be done.

The first thing: searching for Origin Force Points and mineral deposits along the coastline of the Southeastern Continent;

The second thing: the ruins of major tribes from the last Origin Force Era were waiting to be excavated;

The third thing: the Lands of Origin Force scattered throughout the Eastern Continent, Western Continent, Northwestern Continent, and Northeastern Continent still needed to be found.

Any one of these things would take several years to finish.

So Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid simply decided not to rush—bug life is long, so take it slow.

Ink Orchid buried herself in the mountain forests, fussing over her Orchid Grass.

Dragon Cypress settled in at the Azure Blue Reservoir, teaching Azure and the seven Command Ants about all kinds of plants and animals; teaching them to recognize all the Origin Force Food harvested this year, how to judge quality and understand pricing patterns; and sharing knowledge that the Xianglan Mountain Ant Kingdom could actually use, all learned from the Knowledge Hall.

Dragon Cypress also told them about his childhood travels across the continent, what he saw and heard; and recounted the great events that once happened on Cloud Trace Continent, as depicted on the murals of Huagi Mountain.

There were also those symbol scripts from the Huagi Mountain Knowledge Hall—the ones for recording information. Dragon Cypress simplified, improved, and expanded them, condensing more than 1,500 pictographic and abstract symbols, and taught them to everyone.

These were carved on the stone pots at the South Mountain Restaurant, convenient to look up, and also handy for testing Spiked Cypress and Silver Cypress, those two who didn't like to study.

From now on, the Xianglan Mountain Kingdom would use these characters exclusively, recording and communicating everything on wooden planks or stone slabs.

Dragon Cypress planned to nurture the Deep Blue God-Given Seed into a wise tree, and hoped that Round Cypress, Spiked Cypress, and the others would all become ants full of wisdom and knowledge.

So much knowledge is too thin and general to just speak aloud. When there's a chance, he'd take Round Cypress, Spiked Cypress, and the others to the Huagi Mountain Knowledge Hall for firsthand study, plus take everyone traveling so they could see with their own eyes, and experience for themselves.

...

The Divine-Given Scarletlight Seed had bloomed; the flower nectar was not to be missed.

Along the way, Dragon Cypress dropped Black Cory off at Black Lotus Lake, sent Cypress off to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, and also checked in on Ghost Fan and its Life Seed Plant.

At last, just in time, he arrived at Scarletlight Mountain.

After strengthening his soul and spiritual power, Dragon Cypress could now control 15 Miniaturization Blue Ants at once to collect nectar, finishing all the work in a single day.

This year, Dragon Cypress didn't invite Mulberry along to White Lotus Lake to help use Fire System Ability for burning reclamation. The vegetation in White Lotus Lake was just too thick, and if it caught fire, it'd easily get out of control.

If a full-scale wildfire did break out, the consequences would be dire—even a divine punishment might be triggered.

Besides, in Dragon Cypress's plan, he'd only transform the flat and fertile land of White Lotus Lake into an orchard, about half the area. The other half would keep its primitive landscape, preserving the biodiversity of White Lotus Lake's ecosystem.

...

Spring arrived.

The Cuihua Hanlan Divine-Given Seed had bloomed even earlier than Ink Orchid. Each clonal shoot bore a single flower spike, each spike with 16 flowers—that meant 16 Orchid Seeds per plant.

156 offshoots meant 2,496 Orchid Seeds—a sizable amount; now to see about the blossom-fruit cycle, seed size, and quality.

There was nothing at Xianglan Mountain that needed Dragon Cypress's personal attention.

The Dominating Throne carried Round Cypress and a batch of Worker Ants, Soldier Ants, and Blue Ants and set out.

By the shore of White Lotus Lake.

The Night Fragrance God-Given Seed seemed to have stopped growing, its trunk holding at just over 100 meters high. Its leaves breathed, slowly and quietly pulling in Natural Primordial Force, creating a zone of Origin Force vacuum within forty to fifty meters around it, and its overall Origin Force influence radius was about 500 meters.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King."

The Night Fragrance God-Given Seed had a powerful spiritual presence, greeting him from afar: "It's been a while, did you dig up anything good?"

"Nope."

"Ink Orchid and I took a break for a bit. We'll resume digging in the summer."

Dragon Cypress piloted the Dominating Throne closer to the trunk, raised a claw and pointed at Round Cypress next to him for an introduction:

"Night Fragrance, this is Command Ant Round Cypress from the Great-Headed Ant Kingdom. This spring, he'll be leading the ant colony on the land reclamation work at White Lotus Lake."

"Alright."

The Night Fragrance God-Given Seed didn't seem too interested in the Ant Clan's Assistant King and asked instead, "Have you and Ink Orchid gone to the southeastern coast? What's it like? Still arid and barren as before?"

Dragon Cypress: "We went. Bugs roasted by blazing suns, barren hills and jumbled rocks everywhere, no rain at all—not a single blade of grass."

"So, still nothing's changed…"

Night Fragrance mused, then said, "I suddenly recalled some really important info—it's worth a billion."

Wow, you sure are 'wealthy'~ Dragon Cypress: "Is the tip for free?"

Night Fragrance: "I'd like some Source Stones from you, but could you even afford that?"

Night Fragrance continued slowly, "The Flame Spider Roving Merchant once had an ancestral land, deep in the southeastern tropical rainforests of Cloud Trace Continent. Is it marked on Huagi Mountain's map?"

Dragon Cypress was startled, thought it over carefully, and shook his antennae: "Nope—"

Night Fragrance: "Just as I thought!"

Night Fragrance: "Maybe the Huagi Divine Tree knows a bit. Try to find out. The Flame Spider Roving Merchant not only hid limitless wealth, but owned a great many Wild God-Given Seeds. If you could dig up their treasury…"

Dragon Cypress: "I get it—"

Information is as good as treasure!

Chatting with an experienced old-timer, you can gain endless riches.

After much conversation, he got all the details.

Dragon Cypress brought Round Cypress down to the ant nest at the mountain's base and settled the Blue Ants in.

Round Cypress stayed behind to command the Worker Ants as they expanded the nest.

Dragon Cypress headed to Xinghu Lake, and, on the way, transported ten big bags of mature-fruited Dragon Cypress God-Given Seed exuviae back to Xianglan Mountain.

Then from Xianglan Mountain, he sent more Worker Ants and Blue Ants over to White Lotus Lake.

So he cycled between Xianglan Mountain, White Lotus Lake, and Xinghu Lake.

500 Specialized Worker Ants and Large Worker Ants.

200 Specialized Blue Ants and Large Blue Ants.

30 Specialized Soldier Ants and 50 Large Soldier Ants—enough to guard the ant nest.

Three round trips took half a month to finish.

The rest of the workload was handed over to Round Cypress.

The plan was to finish White Lotus Lake's transformation within three years.

…

…

…

There were about twenty days left until this year's roving merchant trade.

Xianglan Mountain.

Ink Orchid just had to personally oversee the hybrid breeding of Orchid Grass.

Dragon Cypress, with nothing to do but unable to sit still, sat by the reservoir at the mountain's foot, telling stories to the Deep Blue God-Given Seed.

He soon ran out of material—his reserves weren't endless.

With nothing left to do, he felt restless all over.

So he simply set out on his own, and headed early to White Rice Mountain…

The White Rice God-Given Seed had pushed out another flower spike.

No surprise—the blossom-fruit pattern had shifted to blooming and bearing fruit every year.

This year there were 654 flower buds, a slight increase compared to last year.

It was a very high-yield God-Given Seed.

Dragon Cypress spent time chatting with Red Fox, helped Black Rice and White Rice with their work, stayed for four days, waited for White Rice to bloom, finished harvesting nectar, then said his goodbyes.

...

Kiwifruit Mountain.

Snakebark Maple and Blue Catalpa guarded a freshly sprouted Green-Red Kiwifruit seedling each.

They'd both just completed a round of evolution after a deep sleep: age period 6, mid-level warriors, about 60 to 70 centimeters long now.

Since Sky Oxes are large, once they reach advanced evolution age period 1, they might not be able to fit through the Starship Wreckage gaps anymore. Dragon Cypress had them slow their evolution rate to one age period per year, so they could keep helping with trades for another four years.

The Dominating Throne landed straight at their mountain cave residence.

Dragon Cypress set down a wooden plank, waved his antennae, and 12 Specialized Soldier Ants, 30 Large Soldier Ants, 80 small and mini Soldier Ants, 10 Large Worker Ants, 10 mid-size Worker Ants, and 10 Specialized Blue Ants all lined up and marched along the plank into the cave.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King!"

"Dragon Cypress Ant King, you're finally here!"

Snakebark Maple and Blue Catalpa rushed back excitedly.

Dragon Cypress: "Round Cypress is working at White Lotus Lake and can't come. This year I'm leaving a batch of smart Soldier Ants to guard your territory."

Dragon Cypress: "I'll stay here for two days, help these ants get used to the area, get to know your Life Seed Plants, and have the micro and small Soldier Ants wipe out the pests around your territory while I'm at it."

"Thank you, Dragon Cypress Ant King!"

Snakebark Maple and Blue Catalpa replied.

Dragon Cypress pointed at the two Green-Red Kiwifruit Life Seeds that were just taking shape not far away, and asked:

"How much do the Divine-Given Green-Red Kiwifruit improve the fruit quality for regular Green-Red Kiwifruit?"

Snakebark Maple: "Fivefold!"

Blue Catalpa: "Now a single kiwifruit can sell for 1.5 Source Stones apiece."

Dragon Cypress: "And the Source Stones?"

Snakebark Maple: "Just mid-level so far, but there's enough Natural Primordial Force."

Blue Catalpa: "Last year, we only left 100 fruit each for the earliest-planted two Green-Red Kiwifruit Life Seeds."

Snakebark Maple: "Of the 200 Source Stones you left us, we have 160 left."

Blue Catalpa: "We used 40 when ripening the fruit."

Snakebark Maple: "We ate all the fruit pulp."

Blue Catalpa: "We saved a batch of kiwifruit seeds!"

Snakebark Maple: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, I'll get them for you to see!"

Snakebark Maple and Blue Catalpa dashed into the cave, each retrieving their metal case.

Opening them up, they revealed 400 sesame-sized kiwifruit seeds inside.

Dragon Cypress swept over them with his spiritual perception and tasted one.

Not bad at all, though the seeds were a bit small.

Dragon Cypress: "Let's go, let's check out the mountain."

On the mountain, the main vine of the male Green-Red Kiwifruit Life Seed was growing along the ridge under the guidance of tree stumps and spider silk, already reaching over 20 meters in length. There were 47 secondary and tertiary vines—dense and thriving.

The male plant doesn't bear fruit, so it's full of vigor, and now a huge number of buds were forming. This year they'd have a bumper bloom of flowers.

It's just a pity the ordinary Green-Red Kiwifruit Life Seeds owned by Snakebark Maple and Blue Catalpa still hadn't matured, so fruiting would have to wait.

The flower buds on both the divine and regular Green-Red Kiwifruit were all trimmed off.

Until the Sky Ox Warriors had evolved to advanced level, there'd be no flowering or fruiting—focus on vine growth, accumulate force.

Anyway, with Mulberry providing resources to support you, there's no rush—store up energy, and once you're advanced warriors, you can make a big splash.

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