The Molan flowers bloom—another spring.

Northern Gorgon Water Reservoir.

"Northern Gorgon, give me back the Glinting Gold."

"That's my Glinting Gold."

"Hurry up and return it. Dragon Cypress Ant King is about to evolve to Evolution Mountain Lord Level—Southern Gorgon urgently needs it."

"My Glinting Gold."

"Ooooh——"

Ink Orchid left, wandered up and down the mountain for a round of inspection, then came back again to Northern Gorgon Water Reservoir.

"Northern Gorgon, give me back the Glinting Gold."

"My Glinting Gold!"

"Then, lend it to me."

"Not lending."

"Come on, lend it. It's urgent. Dragon Cypress Ant King is about to evolve to Evolution Mountain Lord Level and Southern Gorgon really needs it."

"...Not lending."

"Aww——."

Ink Orchid left, returned to the cave, ate some ant honey, took a nap, then went down the mountain again to Northern Gorgon Water Reservoir.

"Northern Gorgon..."

"Ink Orchid, I was wrong. Take it. Go away already. Stop bothering me."

At the center of the reservoir, at Northern Gorgon's mother plant, with a splash, the Glinting Gold shot out of the water and flew straight at Ink Orchid.

"I'll visit you later."

Ink Orchid caught it with a claw, feeling smug and happy.

Weighing it in the claw—heavy—it was, as requested, brimming with Origin Force, stuffed with a huge amount of energy and nutrients by Northern Gorgon.

Ink Orchid contentedly stuffed it in the Spider Silk Bag and went back to the mountain to hand it to Dragon Cypress.

Dragon Cypress went down the mountain, passed it to Southern Gorgon, reminded it to accumulate power and get ready to evolve together.

Life Seed plants on the mountain and in the valley burst out flower buds in spring, and all were snipped off at the very first moment.

All was ready.

Dragon Cypress calmed himself, sprawled on the Dominating Throne day after day, adjusting both mind and body to peak condition.

"Great King!"

"Great King!"

"Great King..."

Deep inside the ant nest, Spiked Cypress led a battalion of soldier ants, running at full speed towards the royal chamber, antennae waving fiercely, sending out agitated signals all along the way.

"Spiked Cypress? What's the matter?"

Dragon Cypress was in a good mood and asked calmly and gently.

"Great King! Look!"

Spiked Cypress shoved one soldier ant forward from the ranks behind.

A specialized soldier ant, just over one meter long, waved its antennae nervously at Dragon Cypress on the Throne: Greetings, Great King!

"Eh!"

Dragon Cypress stood up.

Spiked Cypress: "Great King, this soldier ant is different! Last night, two wild boars broke into our orchard, and this one actually knew how to command other soldier ants to hunt. With just eleven specialized soldier ants under its lead, they managed to take down two adult wild boars!"

Spiked Cypress: "Great King, is this the kind you were looking for, an ant like Black Cory?"

Dragon Cypress: "...Maybe?"

Dragon Cypress was not sure either.

Back then, Black Cory had some really notable traits: petite size, lazy, cunning, able to entice others to slack off together.

First off, this specialized soldier ant wasn't small at all—if anything, it was even sturdier.

Dragon Cypress swept his spiritual power over it and detected nothing unusual.

"Spiked Cypress, do you know it? Is it usually lazy?"

"I know it, but haven't paid much attention… Great King, we've got so many ants in the kingdom—eighty percent are slacking off… I can't possibly keep tabs on every single one."

—Could it be that, all this time, the standards and method for picking out exceptional ants were wrong?

Dragon Cypress leapt down from the Throne, walked up to the soldier ant, studied it carefully, and waved his antennae to signal: follow me.

The Origin Force Food treasury still had plenty of Black Lotus Seeds set aside for Ink Orchid and the Command Ants.

Dragon Cypress took one seed, peeled it, handed it to the specialized soldier ant, and gave the command: Eat.

The specialized soldier ant seemed a bit slow and silly, glanced around hesitantly, then ate the Black Lotus Seed.

Spiked Cypress darted over to observe closely.

After a long wait, only a tiny trace of Origin Force seeped out from the joints in its carapace.

Almost all of it was absorbed by the body, gathered at the brain—ending up strengthening the brain.

"Great King?!"

Spiked Cypress asked excitedly.

"That's right!"

"Just like Black Cory—can evolve into an Assistant King–type specialized soldier ant via Black Lotus Seed and molting."

"Spiked Cypress, you did great."

"You did an excellent job! I reward you with 1,000 Source Stones."

Dragon Cypress turned, marked symbols for the reward onto the cave wall with a claw.

"Thank you, Great King, for the reward!"

Spiked Cypress was delighted and quickly stopped him: "Great King, no need for the trouble, don't bother to keep an account—just let me take 1,000 Source Stones worth of Origin Force Food."

Dragon Cypress: "That's fine. Your choice."

"Eat that much and you might burst,"

Dragon Cypress couldn't help but scold severely. He counted off: There were still 127 Black Lotus Seeds left this year. Doing some mental math, he separated 20 and loaded them into a petite Spider Silk Bag, then said to the specialized soldier ant:

"The Great King is giving you an official name. From today on, your name is Black Leaf!"

"Black Leaf!"

The specialized soldier ant vibrated its antennae in excitement.

Dragon Cypress tossed the Spider Silk Bag to Spiked Cypress. "Spiked Cypress, help keep these Black Lotus Seeds. Give Black Leaf one seed per day, no extras. Watch closely, and don't let it fight anymore."

"Understood! Great King!"

Spiked Cypress answered crisply.

Dragon Cypress was about to send them off, but got another idea, bent to the ground, and drew a long string of symbols, then gestured for Black Leaf to come forward, issuing the command:

—Follow me and learn!

—Remember these symbols.

Dragon Cypress pointed to one symbol, "This is 'one'; the number 'one.'"

He shook a Black Lotus Seed, "The 'one' in one Black Lotus Seed. Understand?"

Black Leaf tapped its antennae, "I understand."

Dragon Cypress took another Black Lotus Seed, put it in front and said, "Two Black Lotus Seeds."

Dragon Cypress lightly touched with the antennae, pointed to the symbol for 'two' on the ground, "This is two."

Black Leaf: "Two."

Very good!

Dragon Cypress taught the symbols for numbers one to nine one by one.

After finishing,

He randomly picked symbols from the wall that recorded the Command Ants' private wealth, for a test.

This Black Leaf looked dumb, but its memory was fantastic: a simple lesson and it could both understand and remember everything.

Dragon Cypress told Spiked Cypress, "Go inform Round Cypress, Fragrant Cypress, Giant Cypress, and Cypress to come over. Go through every ant in the nest again and check if there are more we missed."

"Great King, how are we supposed to check?"

Spiked Cypress pointed at the symbols on the ground, "Like this? That's a lot of trouble, isn't it?"

Dragon Cypress: "For now, the only thing Black Cory and Black Leaf have in common is being smarter than the rest. Gather all specialized ants and have them learn the symbols in batches. Those who can learn them are definitely clever."

Spiked Cypress: "..."

Spiked Cypress: "Great King, are you sure this will work? I haven't even learned them all myself…"

Dragon Cypress roared in anger, lashing furiously with his antennae, "Idiot! And you have the nerve to say it out loud!"

...

Round Cypress, Fragrant Cypress, Giant Cypress, and Cypress soon arrived. As instructed, they organized the specialized worker ants, soldier ants, Blue Ants, and Blue Soldiers into groups of thirty-six for short lessons.

Dragon Cypress discovered in delight that most of the specialized ants could learn the simple one-to-nine symbols.

So he switched to teaching a set of eleven symbols, representing the names (and plant names) like Dragon Cypress, Ink Orchid, Round Cypress, Spiked Cypress, etc.

Round Cypress, Fragrant Cypress, Giant Cypress, and Cypress were responsible for teaching. After the lessons, the specialized ants lined up and entered the South Mountain Restaurant.

Dragon Cypress had carved a variety of symbols randomly on the restaurant's stone walls, personally tested each ant, pointing with a claw and having the specialized ants identify them.

After the first round of testing, over a hundred smart specialized ants passed.

He then taught even more symbols for round two of the tests.

Fourteen specialized ants were selected.

Dragon Cypress gave each one a Black Lotus Seed and observed their reactions...

After half a month of effort, the result was disappointing—not a single one was truly qualified.

There were still many specialized ants garrisoned at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, Black Lotus Lake, and White Lotus Lake nests—they'd be tested next time.

After Black Leaf finished the twenty Black Lotus Seeds, it molted and evolved once. Just like Black Cory at the beginning, its body shrank, the high-level specialized soldier ant aura diminished, and it gained some attributes of a Command Ant.

One hundred percent certain now that Black Leaf could evolve into a Command Ant like Black Cory.

So Spiked Cypress couldn't keep leading it around.

Dragon Cypress needed to focus on evolution, so he arranged for Black Leaf to learn various skills from Round Cypress and Cypress first.

In the future,

Black Leaf would pioneer and develop new land in the Areca Rainforest, build orchards, and specialize in cultivating Golden Light Fruit, Azure Fruit, mangoes, starfruit, rambutan and other tropical fruits.

This would enrich Ant Kingdom's Origin Force Honey with fruity aromas and also provide delicious food for the ant nation.

...

Before he knew it, the time for annual trading with the Flame Spider Roving Merchants had come again.

Dragon Cypress made a trip to Scarletlight Mountain, to fetch Areca and the one hundred subadult Primitive Flame Spiders of its choosing.

Rested two days at Xianglan Mountain.

Dragon Cypress rallied the ant colony and set out in great numbers for the Rednan Mountain ant nest.

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