Dragon Cypress led the ant colony, finished harvesting the Life Seed plants of Yellow Vein Berry and Jade Ling Puto Peach, and bid farewell to Mulberry.
The Dominating Throne slowly departed from Scarletlight Mountain, flying toward the southeast.
First, check out the nearby mountains and forests, to see where the Golden Light Fruit Trees were, making note in advance, so at the end of winter they could co back to harvest directly.
On the way, bring the two little ones, Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, to the seaside to have a look, broaden their horizons, and witness the boundless blue ocean.
Then head to the Jianlan Plain,
spending four days to search the area thoroughly, looking for a Divine-Given Seed.
No results.
Not lingering any longer.
Departing from Jianlan Plain, making a detour, with the destination being Black Lotus Lake.
...
After two days of continuous heavy rain, the sky finally cleared up.
Bathed in golden autumn sunlight.
Atop the Stump Ant Nest, a large spider silk bag was spread out, with stones weighing down the edges.
Dragon Cypress directed the worker ants to take out the Divine-Given Southern Sour Jujube Seeds, placing them under the sun to dry.
Recently, it had been raining everywhere, the air was humid, so all the Origin Force Food needed to be aired out and dried to prevent spoilage and mold.
Ink Orchid lay at the edge of the throne, fully focused, watching the forest below.
The two little ones, Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, imitated hermit crabs, hiding inside sea shells picked up from the shore, poking just their heads out, dazing off at the distant skyline where pale blue t rich green.
An auburn-bellied hawk flew by, wheeled around, circling far away above the Dominating Throne, eyeing them for a while. It was very puzzled—how does sothing fly without wings?
Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple were so startled that they leapt out of their shells and quickly hid inside the Stump Ant Nest.
Ink Orchid spread its wings, releasing the aura of an Origin Force Life.
The auburn-bellied hawk instinctively sensed danger, gave a flap of its wings, and sped away.
Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple peeked their heads out from the nest entrance.
As noble Insect Clan warriors, they must never let other insects think they were cowards.
Blue Catalpa: "The weather is really nice today."
Snakebark Maple: "With the sun shining, it's really hot inside the shell."
Blue Catalpa: "It's cooler in the Dragon Cypress Ant King's nest."
Snakebark Maple: "Let's rest on the nest for a while; it's nice and cool."
Dragon Cypress acted as if unaware.
Ink Orchid kept staring at the forest below, as if not paying attention to the two of them.
The atmosphere seed a bit awkward.
Blue Catalpa: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, after visiting White Willow at Black Lotus Lake, where will we go next?"
Snakebark Maple: "Are we going back to Xianglan Mountain? There are so many larvae in the nest now, it can barely fit them all."
"Pretty much," Dragon Cypress replied absentmindedly.
Blue Catalpa: "And then?"
Snakebark Maple: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, will there be any more trade this year?"
Dragon Cypress: "There's still a bit left."
Dragon Cypress: "First, we'll return to Xianglan Mountain for a rest. When you two evolve into primary warriors at age period four, it should be just about ti; we'll set off for Molan Mountain, then to White Lotus Lake, and search both of those places. After that, we'll head north to Silver Cypress Mountain and visit Longhorn Beetle Warrior Mountain Persimmon."
Dragon Cypress: "After visiting Mountain Persimmon, this year's trading is finished."
Blue Catalpa: "Longhorn Beetle Warrior?"
Snakebark Maple: "Mountain Persimmon?"
Blue Catalpa: "From the na alone, you can tell it's a wealthy insect."
Snakebark Maple: "Does it like little warriors?"
These two little things were back to gathering information, scheming how to get benefits from Mountain Persimmon…
Dragon Cypress said indifferently, "Mountain Persimmon doesn't have any Divine-Given Seeds, it isn't wealthy, and it doesn't really like little warriors."
Blue Catalpa: "Oh."
Snakebark Maple: "The sunshine is really nice today."
Blue Catalpa: "Let's sunbathe."
Snakebark Maple: "A bit of sunshine is healthy."
With that, they crawled out of the nest, climbing up the stump toward the top.
"Dragon Cypress!"
Ink Orchid suddenly lifted its head, raised its forelimbs, pointed in the northwest direction, unable to hide its excitent, and exclaid:
"Origin Force fluctuation!"
Dragon Cypress: "!!"
"Good!"
Dragon Cypress gave a slight ntal command, steering the Dominating Throne to change direction.
Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, who were in the middle of climbing the stump, froze.
—Had they discovered a new Land of Origin Force?
—Were there other warriors there?
—Was it dangerous?
—Was there a Divine-Given Seed?
—Wow!
—Ink Orchid is amazing!
Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple sped up the climb to the top of the stump, their tentacles waving, standing high and looking into the distance.
…
…
…
A landscape of half-mountains and half-hills.
The Dominating Throne slowly descended, landing at a natural lake nestled among the mountains in a region of Origin Force Vacuum Land.
Another one or two thousand ters to the north lay an area of thin Origin Force, and about five or six kiloters away was the newly discovered Land of Origin Force.
Since they had the two little ones, Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, with them, Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid dared not act recklessly.
Patiently, they waited until midnight.
Ink Orchid advised them not to wander about.
Dragon Cypress sternly warned them.
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid left the throne, flying in stealth into the Land of Origin Force.
They circled high above, first confirming there was no Divine-Given Seed.
Descending to a lower altitude, they swept past in scouting flight, finding no Origin Force Plants either.
Dropping lower still, they zipped through, searching at speed.
By mid-morning, they had searched the whole area.
It was confird to be another Land of Origin Force with nothing in it.
It was elliptical in shape, five to six kiloters along the long axis, and three to four kiloters wide at its widest point.
A fairly large area, with decent Origin Force concentration.
Hilly terrain, with rivers running through; abundant flora and fauna, and plenty of wild fruit trees in the forests.
"Dragon Cypress—"
Ink Orchid landed, circling down to a kiwifruit tree that was particularly huge, with a trunk two or three ters in diater.
This was an ordinary kiwifruit tree, but it had grown here for who knows how many years, changing from a great vine wood into a tree, like an enormous arbor.
The wooden vines climbed upwards, covering a slope over a hundred ters in radius above.
In the wild, being able to grow to such magnitude was simply incredible.
The tree was still covered with kiwifruit, which were ripening in season.
The fruit were tiny, only three or four centiters long, slender, just a bit over two centiters in diater.
"This is—"
Dragon Cypress carefully examined the branches, leaves, and fruit, trying to determine the exact species.
Ink Orchid was also racking its brain in thought.
Inherited mory recorded 51 native kiwifruit species and over 87 varieties. There really were too many, so easy to mix up, making it impossible to figure out for now.
Dragon Cypress picked a kiwifruit, slicing it open with a sharp claw tip.
Green flesh.
Compared to the common kiwifruit, the seeds were slightly larger.
The fruit themselves were small, with relatively large seeds…
Dragon Cypress thought for quite a while, waving its tentacles.
Ink Orchid followed, waving its tentacles too.
Neither could identify exactly which kiwifruit it was.
Looking around,
nearby there were a dozen more big kiwifruit trees of the sa kind.
A very vigorous tree species.
The one in front of them was the "Tree King," dominating nearly the whole hillside, with few plants able to survive in its shadow.
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid took to the air again, circling the area for a closer inspection.
On this entire hill, there was a large number of these kiwifruit trees growing.
Nearby hills all had so of them, more or less, their numbers exceeding what was reasonable for nature.
They could be almost certain this was an unknown mutant species.
Extrely vigorous, with no natural enemies, they were reproducing crazily, almost out of control.
Mostly growing on the southern or northern slopes, indicating a requirent for sunlight; their wild expansion also limited by the sunlight.
"Dragon Cypress, if we use this species of kiwifruit as a Life Seed, the yield shouldn't be too bad, right?"
"The yield definitely won't be low! Just not sure about the enhancent effect…"
"Maybe…"
"It's possible…"
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid exchanged a knowing nod of their tentacles.
They could arrange for Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple to pick a seed, nurture it into a Life Seed, and then test it out.
If the enhancent was good, then this kiwifruit species would be a natural top-level plant seed, worth mass cultivating and promoting widely.
Dragon Cypress picked two kiwifruits.
Took off and returned to the Dominating Throne.
Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple were pretty clever, but both were timid bugs; not only did they refrain from wandering, they'd even cautiously hidden deep inside the ant nest.
"Blue Catalpa! Snakebark Maple!"
Ink Orchid called out.
The two little ones quickly ran out.
"Ink Orchid! Dragon Cypress Ant King."
"Did you find a Divine-Given Seed?"
"No."
"Did you find any Insect Clan warriors?"
"Nope."
"Then…"
"Is this a kiwifruit? It's so small."
"Too small for you? Co on, I'll show you sothing amazing!"
Dragon Cypress piloted the Dominating Throne into the air.
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