Dragon Cypress calculated the direction and set out at dawn.
Slicing through the sky at high speed, crossing the vast sea.
On a moonless, windswept midnight, he stealthily approached the mainland coast.
Lurking in the deep underwater, he quietly activated his Soul-Setting Ability.
Instantly, a chill ran through him.
Ant Nest!
Twelve kiloters offshore, belowground, countless soul fluctuations clustered densely together.
All sizes, strengths varying.
So King Level, so Mountain Lord Level.
Oversized Specialized Ants, and also ultra-small Micro Ants.
Once more, a highly differentiated Ant Clan.
Multiple Kings sharing the nest, jointly ruling a powerful Ant Kingdom.
Nearby, there were neatly arrayed souls of Divine-Given Life Seeds, a considerable number.
This was quite a rare situation.
Most Ant Kings and Bee Kings possess a high degree of independence and territorial awareness.
In most Ant Clans, the Ant King lives alone, forming an independent kingdom, perhaps allying with other Ant Kingdoms and certain Bee Clan Kingdoms to form a massive overarching kingdom.
Only a minority of Ant Clans can have multiple Ant Kings sharing a nest, such as Giant-Headed Ants, Leafcutter Ants...
"Don’t tell it’s another Leafcutter Ant Kingdom?"
Dragon Cypress guessed.
He exerted his Soul-Setting Ability, probing deeper into the nest.
A highly condensed, solid ant-shaped soul coalesced, almost tangible, within his perception.
Insect King!
A King Level Ant King!
The Ant King’s soul lay dormant and unmoving, apparently asleep at this hour of the night.
—The first ti using Soul-Setting to probe a King Level soul.
—A King-Level soul is actually solidified, taking on its real form.
Dragon Cypress’s curiosity peaked; focusing his consciousness, he tried to investigate further. Suddenly, it seed the Ant King sensed sothing—its slumbering soul jolted abruptly, startled awake, and began to move.
In an instant, chaos erupted in the nest.
The previously dormant, densely packed souls all awoke in alarm, frantically swarming, rapidly assembling, storming out of their underground chambers, surging in a massive tide toward the coastline.
—Peering with the Soul-Setting Ability can be sensed by the Insect King, and even traced back to pinpoint the observer’s location.
—Am I just too weak?
—Or is there a flaw in the Soul-Setting Ability?
Dragon Cypress pondered for a mont, but dared not linger. He steered the Dominating Throne to dive deep, heading towards the ocean’s depths.
He wasn’t that panicked.
Ordinary ants can’t swim; they couldn’t possibly chase him into the sea.
Still, it’s best not to be careless.
If an Assistant King of King Level pursued him, that could be trouble.
Dragon Cypress piloted the Dominating Throne, steering away from the coastline, sneaking through water two hundred ters below the surface.
He fled for hundreds of kiloters before daring to surface for air.
He sensed with his Soul-Setting Ability to confirm there was no pursuit.
The Dominating Throne hovered above the sea, gazing in the direction of the coast, lost in thought.
—Earlier guesses proved correct: the Molan Continent is indeed ruled by the Ant Clan and Bee Clan.
—A multi-kingdom, likely a Leafcutter Ant Kingdom, has at least one King Level Ant King. Its territory probably spans over ten thousand, maybe tens of thousands, of square kiloters.
—The southeast coastline of the Molan Continent shouldn’t be approached lightly.
—Pick another location—try the southwest coast instead?
—Tropical ant clans are ferocious...
—Or head east, to the warm-temperate or cold-temperate regions, and look for a suitable spot...
Dragon Cypress rely considered it for a mont before dismissing the idea of exploring from the east.
According to the map left by the Fla Spider Tribe, both east and west edges of the Molan Mainland face the sea, but the eastern sea is extrely narrow, even connecting by land to the neighboring Dragon Cypress Continent. At its widest, there’s barely a thousand kiloters before reaching the eastern Divine Force Barrier.
In such a cramped mariti space, landing on the east coast and attracting pursuit would make escape all too easy to cut off.
The west coast of the Molan Continent was much better—spacious ocean all around.
Dragon Cypress steered the Dominating Throne, flying low along the surface westward.
He estimated he’d flown over three hundred kiloters before turning south, diving deep again and sneaking up on the coast.
The Soul-Setting Ability swept out in all directions.
Within a fourteen-kiloter radius, he found three separate nests, all in the mountains, each densely packed with souls of various sizes.
In one, he simultaneously sensed blurred bee-like and ant-like souls.
Bee Clan and Ant Clan King-Level Command Ants.
A symbiotic kingdom, ford by cooperative Bee and Ant clans!
Such a kingdom had virtually no weaknesses.
This one was even more untouchable.
Can’t provoke it.
If he were pursued by a King-Level bee swarm, even diving deep into the ocean might not be enough to escape.
Wisely, Dragon Cypress retreated in silence.
He kept close—twenty or thirty kiloters off the shoreline—flying low over the water.
Before dawn, he arrived at the southwest coast.
He approached,
Used his Soul-Setting Ability and quickly made a judgnt.
An Ant Kingdom.
Only three castes: Specialized Ants, Large Ants, and Micro Ants within the nest, tending to ant eggs and larvae.
This one was weaker, only Lord-Level.
Many branch nests.
Within perception range, there were fourteen branches, each garrisoned by just two or three hundred individuals, mostly Large Ants, with only a few Specialized Ants, and no Assistant King found.
Dragon Cypress imdiately determined this was an all-soldier, purely carnivorous Ant Clan.
Food limited the size of the colony.
They built many branch nests for convenient hunting and defending their territory.
To survive the tropical rainforest surrounded by powerful clans, their individual combat power must be formidable.
But what kind of ant clan exactly?
Dragon Cypress controlled the Dominating Throne, trailing the coast, diving deep and watching attentively using his Soul-Setting Ability.
He made a loop.
For over a hundred kiloters on either side, there were several similar carnivorous Ant Kingdoms, apparently a multi-national alliance.
No wide-ranging Bee Clans.
The depths of the Ant Kingdoms were hard to scout.
Dragon Cypress picked a spot, surfaced, and the Dominating Throne shot straight up through the atmosphere, hiding above the clouds.
Dawn arrived.
Dragon Cypress cautiously peeked his head out, surveying below with all his eye power.
Ard Venom Sting Ants!
The whole area was dotted with Ard Venom Sting Kingdoms, so strong, so weak.
Nasty creatures.
Dragon Cypress decisively turned the Dominating Throne around and quietly slipped away.
Two to three hundred kiloters out from the coast, he found a densely forested, narrow island.
Gazing from the sky, it was a dozen kiloters long, just two or three wide.
The Dominating Throne dove deep undersea, sneaked ashore.
With his Soul-Setting Ability confirming no Origin Force Life, he dared climb onto the island, choosing a safe seaside cliff to rest in a shallow slumber.
When night fell, he set out westward again.
Late that night, he reached the southwest tip of the continent.
Lurking at the bottom near the coast, using Soul-Setting to probe.
A pure Bee Clan Kingdom.
King-Level Worker Bees.
He didn’t hesitate, just retreated decisively—staying far away.
He hugged the continent’s west coast, heading all the way south.
Soul-Setting repeatedly furtively scanning kingdom after kingdom; unsurprisingly, not one was weak.
On a continent ruled by Ant and Bee clans,
The weak Ant Kings or Bee Kings were either protected by strong kingdoms or had perished—there was no way to survive wedged in the cracks.
The Molan Continent didn’t have a single unclaid territory.
"Scattered along the continental coast, there are many small islands only a few or dozens of square kiloters in size. None of these seem to be occupied by insects; all together they amount to a considerable area."
"Secretly check them out and morize their locations—bring Ink Orchid around each year to search for Divine-Given Seeds..."
"For now, I could establish branch nests as forward observation outposts on islands where Swinging Leaf Iron Core Trees with Divine-Given Seeds have taken root."
"Once I thoroughly understand this continent, then when I evolve to King Level, I’ll consider migration..."
Brooding over this, Dragon Cypress quietly departed.
This expedition had already taken over four months. By now, it was high spring on Xianglan Mountain, and the scheduled trade with Fla Spider Roving rchants was approaching.
The others must be worried by now.
Better return first and report the situation to everyone.
Will return again later.
Dragon Cypress hurried overnight, back to the island where the Swinging Leaf Iron Core Tree Divine-Given Seed had taken root, eting up with White Rice.
He gave Tie Bush a round of instructions as well.
The Dominating Throne set off for ho.
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