Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 541 - 520: Arrival of the Divine-Grade Winged Gourd
After four years of rigorous training, Black Persimmon successfully graduated from the Linnan Divine Tree.
Returning to Xianglan Mountain, taking over the former job of Giant Cypress, commanding the Specialized Green Soldiers Legion, and defending the mountain fortress alongside Spiked Cypress.
The Combat Ants of the Xianglan Mountain Kingdom have completed their iteration.
Dragon Cypress now resides permanently at Xianglan Mountain, focusing on cultivating Specialized Green Ants that assist in plant growth.
The plan is to equip each Divine-Given Life Seed with 200, totaling 4,000 in all.
Each Common Life Seed gets 30 Specialized Green Ants, totaling 1,470 needed.
Wild Divine-Given Scarletlight Seed and Divine-Given Southern Sour Jujube Seed also require 200 each.
The task ahead is long and challenging...
...
In the midst of Spring,
Trade Cave of Rednan Mountain.
Red Peach, Heliotrope, and Column Spotted were already there waiting early.
After a brief exchange of greetings, Column Spotted untied the Spider Silk Rope from its carapace, removed the Spider Silk Bag, took a glance inside, and pushed it through the Starship Rift.
Column Spotted gave a succinct introduction: "Divine-Grade Winged Gourd! Spider King Spurge only just got it two weeks ago, paying ten million Source Stones. But, since three other Spider Kings were involved in the deal, plus Spider King Spurge’s own commission... Dragon Cypress Ant King, the price offered to you comes to fourteen million Source Stones."
"Mn—"
Dragon Cypress opened it. Inside was a flat, round porcelain bottle bound inside and out with Multicolored Spider Silk, with a diameter of thirty centimeters.
He lifted the lid for inspection, and the packing was rather careless, just sealed with ordinary Origin Force Honey.
Submerged in the honey was an oval, flat seed about ten centimeters long, colored brownish-green, with transparent winglets. Including the wings, its total width reached twenty-five centimeters.
Winged Gourd, as the name implies, the seed has wings; it glides from high places, carried by the wind, allowing the seeds to spread far and wide.
This Divine-Grade Winged Gourd grants Wind System Talent, and also comes with a Wind System flying ability called "Wind Wings."
Insect Clan Warriors without their own wings, after acquiring this ability, can condense a pair of Wind System Primordial Energy wings to gain the power of flight.
Insect Clan Warriors with wings can overlay the Wind System Primordial Energy wings onto their own membrane wings, granting even greater flight capability.
If this can be passed on to Wind System Soldier Ants and Worker Ants, Dragon Cypress could develop flying ants.
The price of ten million for this item is fairly reasonable.
Exchanging for it from a powerful Termite Kingdom with which there are no stable trade ties, the process was indeed troublesome. Fourteen million is definitely expensive, but there’s no way around it.
Moreover, it’s said that the Ant Queen who bore the Winged Gourd Life Seed is now an eight-age Ant King and has been suppressing her evolution.
She’s held back for many years.
The production of Divine-Grade Winged Gourd is now in its final countdown stage. Dragon Cypress has caught this opportunity just in time; miss it, and there may never be another chance.
Dragon Cypress couldn’t bargain, so he skipped that and went straight to asking: "Red Peach, Lord White Ivy helped cover the payment?"
Red Peach: "Yes. Dragon Cypress Ant King, you originally owed twelve million, and adding the fourteen million for the Winged Gourd, that’s a total of twenty-six million Source Stones."
Dragon Cypress: "All right—"
Red Peach: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, the Divine-Grade Shashuo Fruit is expected to mature and be harvested within four to six years. Do you still want the Divine-Grade Shashuo Fruits?"
Suddenly it felt as if there were so many Divine-Grade Fruits granting Elemental Talent that one could never finish eating them all.
Dragon Cypress: "Shashuo Fruit should be a highly storable dried fruit."
Red Peach: "It’s best not to store it too long; if it loses effect, the loss would be huge."
Dragon Cypress: "Deliver it on time! And as for Wind System and Metal System Divine-Given Origin Force Food, send as much as possible."
Red Peach, Heliotrope, and Column Spotted agreed.
Dragon Cypress waved his tentacle, and Fragrant Cypress, Black Persimmon, and Ivy stepped forward, delivering last year’s Divine-Grade Baihe Fruit.
Inspection completed, all was well.
The most important trade for Divine-Grade Fruit agreed upon,
Column Spotted asked curiously: "Ivy, this Assistant King is...?"
"Black Persimmon."
"Oh—"
"Column Spotted, you’re already a nine-age intermediate warrior."
"That’s right. I’m evolving steadily; planning to rest for a year, then make the breakthrough to High-Level Warrior next year."
"I’m also planning to advance to High-Level Warrior next year. After that, I won’t be able to come to trades anymore..."
Ivy and Column Spotted chatted idly.
Dragon Cypress greeted everyone, quickly completing this year’s Divine-Given Origin Force Food exchange, and once done, hurried back to Xianglan Mountain to use the Divine-Grade Winged Gourd immediately.
...
A year passed without incident.
The new year arrives,
As usual, completing the trade with the Flame Spider Roving Merchant.
Transporting Source Stones to Huagi Mountain.
Hastily finished,
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid set off southward to begin the spring season search for Divine-Given Seeds.
Areca Rainforest,
Sensing the Origin Force Fluctuations from the Dominating Throne, Giant Cypress, surrounded by a troop of Soldier Ants, rushed towards the woods guarded by Black Leaf and Tie Bush.
Dragon Cypress swept with Soul-Setting Ability and immediately detected: Why is Giant Cypress running?
Dragon Cypress perked up, "Looks like Giant Cypress and the others found something!"
"Oh!"
Ink Orchid, lazily sprawled on the throne, flipped over and climbed up, spreading Soul-Setting Ability to sense that Black Leaf and Tie Bush, with a large group of Soldier Ants and Worker Ants, were standing guard at the southern end of the Land of Origin Force.
"How many years has it been—finally something found?"
"Did we directly discover a developing Divine-Given Seed?"
"Not sensing any Origin Force fluctuations..."
Ink Orchid was puzzled, kicked off, lifted off from the throne, and sped up toward Black Leaf’s guarded position.
Getting closer, confirming that it’s not a developing Divine-Given Seed.
Circling down onto the anthill path among the trees, cutting off the running Giant Cypress.
"Giant Cypress? Some new discovery?"
"Yes! Second King! We’ve discovered a mutated Rain Tree branch, it’s been growing for many years."
"It’s been growing for many years?"
"Yes..."
The Dominating Throne swept past above the heads of Giant Cypress and Ink Orchid, not pausing, flying straight for the Rain Tree grove.
Ink Orchid waggled her tentacles, "Let’s go check it out!"
...
All these years, Giant Cypress has searched at White Lotus Lake, Black Lotus Lake, Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, Molan Mountain, Cold Orchid Mountain, and Jianlan Plain.
Nothing new had been discovered.
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid had suspected that his three previous finds—Black Peach, Purple Poppet, and Blue Ice Cypress mutated branches—were just luck...
Fortunately, it wasn’t luck, but real skill.
A Rain Tree over twenty years old, standing over twenty meters tall, was now covered in green pods.
A thick branch, four or five centimeters in diameter, upon close inspection, bore pods that were subtly different from those on the rest of the tree.
The Rain Tree is a classic giant tropical arbor species, blooming in early autumn, with pods maturing in late summer the following year.
The pods on the tree were currently in the mid-development stage—neither large nor small,
The rest of the pods were pure green.
The pods on this branch, however, had faint red veining in their green.
The difference was very subtle—if you weren’t paying close attention, you’d almost never notice.
Giant Cypress’s powers of observation are far from ordinary.
This Rain Tree grows right by the anthill path on the edge of the gardens and has been there for many years.
Black Leaf and Tie Bush tend to the Areca Rainforest annually, and Ink Orchid visits twice each spring and autumn, yet none had noticed a thing.
Giant Cypress spotted it right away.
"Exactly right! A mutant branch. Giant Cypress, you truly are amazing."
Dragon Cypress nodded his tentacles repeatedly, praising, "Giant Cypress, well done! An excellent giant tree!"
Rain Tree, when it bears a Life Seed, typically enhances Comprehensive Water Element Ability—a pretty standard effect.
Still, Rain Tree has very high yield, is a giant arbor, and its quality is quite superb; amongst all plant species, it ranks as the cream just beneath top-tier varieties.
As for mutation...
If a powerful enhancement could arise from mutation...
Dragon Cypress asked, "Black Leaf, have you been harvesting Rain Bean Seeds on schedule every year?"
Black Leaf: "...Yes."
Black Leaf: "Great King, the Rain Tree hasn’t been planted long enough yet to reach your prescribed age for culling, so all the seeds harvested I’ve given to the Blue Ants for Refinement as food."
Black Leaf: "I did glance over the collected seeds, but perhaps because there were so many, I didn’t notice anything unusual."
Tie Bush admitted sheepishly, "I checked, too, but didn’t spot anything abnormal either..."
The Areca Rainforest covers about 25 square kilometers, and the harvested fruits and seeds are packed in giant Spider Silk Bags, hundreds of bags every year. There are just too many; only the most important few kinds can be checked carefully.
Dragon Cypress waved his tentacle and said, "No problem. The fact you found it now is what matters."
Dragon Cypress: "The branch has mutated, but hasn’t triggered a Law Divine-Given..."
Dragon Cypress: "Perhaps, it’s just that the pods have a slight mutation but nothing else has changed, so it’s not enough for the Natural God to bestow a blessing?"
Ink Orchid agreed, "I wanted to say from the start, this mutated branch grew for so many years without a Divine-Given; something’s clearly lacking."
Black Leaf: "Maybe it’s the same issue as Black Peach and Blue Ice Cypress—the seeds can’t normally develop after sowing..."
"..."
Long silence.
Dragon Cypress gave instructions: "Black Leaf, Tie Bush, keep watch carefully. When the pods mature, send the seeds directly to the nursery for planting. For ease of distinction, temporarily label them ’Rain Tree No.1’. First, test if the seeds can germinate and grow into a new plant. Afterwards, decide next steps as suits the circumstances."
"Okay! Great King!"
"Understood, Great King."
Black Leaf and Tie Bush responded.
Dragon Cypress then asked Giant Cypress, "Any other discoveries?"
Giant Cypress: "Nothing yet."
Dragon Cypress praised once more, "Giant Cypress, well done. Keep looking!"
