Ant Lord in the Star Realm-Chapter 542 - 521 Nine-Leaf Huangqian
The half moon rises in the east, and darkness falls over the sky.
Hulan Mountain,
The Dominating Throne speeds along, descending vertically onto the snowy summit, coming to a steady stop. Dragon Cypress leans against the backrest, buries his head, lets his tentacles droop, and instantly sinks into sleep.
"Don’t sleep!"
Ink Orchid spreads her wings and pats Dragon Cypress. "Don’t waste time. I’ll look around first. Rest later in the middle of the night."
— Is your search for the Divine-Given Seed incompatible with me sleeping?
Dragon Cypress lifts his head, then lowers it again, ignoring her.
Ink Orchid flaps her wings and slaps him twice to help clear Dragon Cypress’s head, pushes off with her legs, and soars, diving down towards the dense forest at the foot of the mountain.
Near the base of the mountain, she suddenly slows down, flutters her wings, lands, activates the Youlian Step, and blends into a shadowy afterimage, flickering rapidly forward...
On the Dominating Throne, Dragon Cypress is roused from the verge of sleep, the Soul-Setting Ability unfolds, locking onto Ink Orchid’s location.
"Second King?"
"Great King! Something huge happened!"
"???"
"Divine-Given Seed!"
"!!!"
"Nine-Leaf Huangqian!"
"Oh!"
Dragon Cypress is shocked, his mind snapping awake, leaping up in excitement.
The communication cuts off.
The Dominating Throne takes off, plunging straight towards Ink Orchid’s location.
...
...
Back before the assault on the Termite Kingdom, Black Cory had once come to Hulan Mountain. Since this place already had many high-quality great tall trees, only half of the land was cultivated.
The main plantings were Nine-Leaf Huangqian, Huagi King Fir, and Silver Cypress, interplanted with some Large-Leaved Chinese Arborvitae, Cypress, Red Pine, and other cold- and drought-resistant arbors that required almost no daily care.
The original plan was to replant all the cultivated trees every 30 years, but later they discovered that even centenarian trees had a fair chance of birthing a Divine-Given Seed. Dragon Cypress, too, got lazy and pushed the replanting cycle of the tree garden to 100 years.
Now, before Dragon Cypress stood a tree over 50 years old, more than thirty meters tall, the main trunk nearly a meter in diameter.
Tracing back its origin, the Nine-Leaf Huangqian was bred from White Fir, also belonging to the pine family. Huagi Mountain had spent thousands of years selectively breeding this top-level great tall tree.
At the treetop, a freshly-finished, green pine cone gave off faint Origin Force fluctuations.
A sweep with spiritual power—it’s a malformed fruit, with only a single seed inside.
"Dragon Cypress? A top-tier Divine-Given Seed?"
"Mm—"
"Wow!"
Ink Orchid jumped and cheered.
Dragon Cypress appeared calm on the surface, but inside he was overjoyed.
No mutation—this Nine-Leaf Huangqian Divine-Given Seed was born purely by chance.
Dragon Cypress had always advocated for large-scale planting of various top-level plant seeds. Now, finally, it had paid off!
Even just this one—decades of effort were not in vain.
"Dragon Cypress! Quickly command the worker ants to prune all the extra fruit from the tree."
Ink Orchid, despite her excitement, didn’t forget to remind him.
"So late at night, little worker ants are clumsy with their work."
Dragon Cypress gave the tree a spiritual scan, examined its growth status—it was still good.
He checked the soil—spring rainfall was adequate.
He tapped with his tentacles, casting the Flourish Ability onto the trunk.
Two water spheres, each thirty centimeters across, condensed at his tentacles; they split in two, then four, then eight, quickly breaking into droplets. He activated the Boiling Ability, transforming them into water vapor that rose up like a mist.
Right after, he used the Tranquility Ability, blending refined Wood Affinity Life Primordial Energy into the vapor, which turned to a broad expanse of green mist, shrouding and swirling around the Nine-Leaf Huangqian, lingering and undispersed.
"That’s about it."
"After this treatment, give it a few days and it’ll be in peak condition."
Dragon Cypress leapt onto the throne.
Ink Orchid quickly followed and jumped up.
The Dominating Throne slowly ascended, hovering atop the tree, closing in on the fruit for a meticulous inspection up close.
"So beautiful!"
Ink Orchid sighed in fascination.
Dragon Cypress did not disagree.
In a bug’s eyes, this malformed pine cone was the most perfect form in the world.
"Ink Orchid, you stay here on guard!"
"Okay!"
"I’m off to Purple Tung Insect Nation to bring Black Birch over for help."
"Alright!"
"Ink Orchid, this top-of-the-line Divine-Given Seed is confirmed one hundred percent. We can’t afford any slip up. This year, you stay here on Hulan Mountain. Don’t let anything that could threaten the pine cone come within a hundred meters."
"Got it!"
"Alright, I’m heading out now."
Dragon Cypress traveled overnight, reaching Purple Tung Insect Nation late at night.
Cypress was guarding the White Poplar Divine Seed tree alone.
"Cypress? Where’s Spruce? And Black Birch?"
"Great King—"
Cypress, just startled awake from sleep, was still a little dazed: Great King, why have you come here in the middle of the night?
White Poplar was awake, and replied to help, "Black Birch and Round Cypress have finally bred a Blue Ice Cypress No. 3 that just birthed a Divine-Given Seed. Spruce and Ivy are there watching the commotion."
Dragon Cypress: "!!!"
Blue Ice Cypress finally triggered the Natural Godsend, birthing a Divine-Given Seed?
This year’s luck—utterly explosive!
"Good! Cypress, everything’s fine, go back to sleep."
"White Poplar, you’re still up this late? Hurry and rest."
Dragon Cypress swept out with Soul-Setting Ability, locking onto the location of Round Cypress, Black Birch, Spruce, and Ivy. The Dominating Throne shot skyward and raced away.
"Great King!"
"Dragon Cypress Ant King!"
The bugs greeted him.
Even deep in the night, the crowd gathering to watch the excitement was sizeable.
Chinese Clematis was also there.
Fuzzy Flower, Wuye, Pueraria, and a band of Barley Bug Warriors were gathered in the nearby woods, all roused by the Origin Force fluctuations from the Dominating Throne.
After a round of greetings,
Spruce asked in confusion, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, you... Didn’t Ink Orchid come over?"
Dragon Cypress: "We discovered a Divine-Given Seed in development on Hulan Mountain. Originally, I was going to bring Black Birch over to help..."
Dragon Cypress: "Never mind. I’ll head back to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain and bring Black Cory instead."
Another one on Hulan Mountain?!
Ivy kicked off with her legs and leaped onto the throne, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, thanks for your hard work. I’ll go with you!"
Chinese Clematis and Pueraria also crowded up to the Dominating Throne...
Dragon Cypress waved his tentacles to shoo them away, swept his wings, knocking Ivy down, "It’s just a Divine-Given Seed, nothing that rare. Ivy, stay put here in Purple Tung Insect Nation. Don’t run around, or be careful or the Linnan Divine Tree will skewer you to death."
"Chinese Clematis, Pueraria, you two stay as well. Round Cypress and Black Birch have plenty going on; help them out."
After speaking, he took a good look at the edge of the garden, the Blue Ice Cypress tree beside the ant path. The Dominating Throne rose straight up and vanished into the moonlight...
...
Dragon Cypress traveled day and night, making straight for Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, picked up Black Cory, and returned without delay to Hulan Mountain.
"Dragon Cypress? Black Cory?"
"Where’s Black Birch?"
Ink Orchid asked in confusion.
Dragon Cypress answered at machine-gun speed, "Over in Purple Tung Insect Nation, Blue Ice Cypress seems to have triggered the Natural Law, giving birth to a Divine-Given Seed that’s developing now. Round Cypress and Black Birch must stay and keep guard, so they can’t leave. That’s why I went back to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain and brought Black Cory over."
"Wow!"
Ink Orchid was amazed. "Our luck this year is unreal!"
Dragon Cypress felt the same, tapping his tentacles hard.
Black Cory waved his tentacles and shouted, "Second King, you are awesome!"
Ink Orchid waved his claw and urged, "Black Cory, hurry to the ant nest, get the worker ants over, be careful as you go, climb up carefully, and pick off any pine cones that don’t matter."
"Okay!"
Black Cory didn’t waste words, leapt to the ground, and charged towards the mountain...
...
The strengthening effect of Nine-Leaf Huangqian is in the muscle, specifically enhancing the muscle’s primordial energy storage capacity.
Almost all Insect Clan Warrior abilities require consuming the stored primordial energy within the body to activate.
Of the primordial energy stored within, about ten percent is in the blood, twenty percent in the carapace, and the remaining seventy percent is stored in the muscles.
Once primordial energy is used up, it takes time to absorb Origin Force from nature and slowly convert it back into primordial energy to replenish reserves. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
Raising the upper limit of primordial energy storage in the muscles directly increases the number of times abilities can be used, and also mildly enhances their potency.
Linnan Divine Tree’s warrior training has two core doctrines: [Use the least Origin Force to cause the most damage; in a mortal battle, aim to kill in a single blow]
Why is that?
Because all Insect Clan Warriors face the problem of limited internal primordial energy reserves, and therefore limited ability activations.
The enhancement from Nine-Leaf Huangqian has high combat practicality, produces pine nuts of both high quantity and quality, sells for premium prices, and is a top-tier plant on par with the Sky Blue Persimmon.
At the Lord-Level Stage, entering the abundant fruiting period, it can yield over 400,000 Source Stones annually—this is a top-level Divine-Given Seed.
Not a single mishap is tolerable.
Dragon Cypress lingered at Hulan Mountain for an extra half-month, leaving behind a group of small- and medium-sized Green Soldiers, which would feather and emerge in a month or two, stationed permanently in the tree to guard against birds and beasts that might eat the pine cones.
After setting all matters in order on Hulan Mountain, he hurried off to Purple Tung Insect Nation.
After checking on the development of the Blue Ice Cypress Divine-Given Seed, he stayed another five or six days at the tree before feeling assured enough to return to Xianglan Mountain.
