Dragon Cypress resided long-term in the Purple Tung Insect Nation, beginning cultivation of Lord-level Specialized Blue Soldiers, and used Flourish and Tranquility abilities several tis to assist the growth of Purple Tassel Sophora. In autumn, the Divine-Given Seed was successfully harvested.
...
After Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid finished handling matters on Cloud Trace Continent, they set off on schedule in early winter, covertly heading into Wanglan Continent.
Following the advice of the Quandong Divine Tree, the Dominating Throne was minimized, hidden in the mouth, and they flew forward on their wings.
They detoured to avoid Fragrant Silk Island.
Cautiously approaching, they landed on Swinging Leaf Island to inspect the growth state of the Divine-Given Seed of the Swinging Leaf Iron Core Tree, pruning fruits from the tree, and continued the dormancy period for both flowers and fruit.
Ink Orchid searched the island and found nothing.
Then they set off again,
Quietly drew near the Fire Wheel Archipelago.
Still hiding deep in the sea during dayti and moving at night, they began with a 400-square-kiloter island.
Ink Orchid landed to search the island.
Dragon Cypress concealed himself, waiting by the shore.
After spending two nights, they quickly finished scouting the largest island with no gains.
Then ca the 150-square-kiloter great island, and then the nearby many small islands of over 10 square kiloters each...
Their luck this year was decent; no accidents happened, and in 13 days, they rapidly completed searching the total 2,500 square kiloters of the Fire Wheel Archipelago’s jungles.
Luck turned again—they found nothing.
Unwilling to give up, they checked four small islands in the northeastern sea area.
Still nothing.
...
Endless deep sea, isolated reefs and islands.
Dragon Cypress caught a fish from the sea and, together with Ink Orchid, squeezed atop a rock and simply sliced it to eat.
"Dragon Cypress, what do we do now?"
"Do what?"
"Where do we go now? We’ve checked all the relatively safe islands. Should we go back to Cloud Trace Continent?"
"Let’s go back. You rest at Xianglan Mountain, I’ll go to Purple Tung Insect Nation, and focus on cultivating Specialized Blue Soldiers, so the Soldier Ant Legion can be upgraded as soon as possible."
"What about the northwest sea area? Not going to check it out?"
"We’ll skip it for now. At present, our controlled territory has surpassed 3,000 square kiloters. Unless we find a pri place like the Fire Wheel Archipelago, these small nearshore islands won’t help us much."
Dragon Cypress emphatically added, "Won’t help much, and we’d have to take on unknown risks. Not worth it."
"Yeah, that’s true~"
Ink Orchid was still dissatisfied, and suggested:
"Dragon Cypress, we could fly at high altitude to the western sea area of the mainland and do a circuit, see if there are any large-scale island groups like the Fire Wheel Archipelago."
Ink Orchid added, "Far from the mainland! Search in the sea area more than 500 kiloters from the mainland."
Dragon Cypress waggled his tentacles and resolutely refused: "No way!"
Ink Orchid: "Let’s try searching in the waters over 1,000 kiloters from the mainland."
Dragon Cypress: "..."
Dragon Cypress was silent for a long while, then said, "From the Fla Spider Kingdom’s map left in the cave, the sea area west of Wanglan Continent narrows from north to south. In the northern warm temperate region, the width is about 2,000 to 3,000 kiloters. For safety, we can search from 1,500 kiloters out to sea, zig-zagging southward."
"1,500 kiloters? How much search area does that leave us?"
Ink Orchid was a bit speechless. "Dragon Cypress, aren’t you being a little too cautious?"
"It’s never wrong to be cautious."
Dragon Cypress flicked his tentacles. "Are you coming or not? If not, I’m heading back."
Ink Orchid: "I’m coming!"
Dragon Cypress: "Hurry up and eat your fill."
Ink Orchid: "Already done."
Dragon Cypress: "Rest up after eating, we’ll set out tonight."
...
They sped through the night, taking two nights to cross the vast sea, reaching the mainland’s western end under the Divine Force Barrier.
They adjusted their schedule, flying at high altitude during the day, taking a zig-zag route at a 45-degree angle, andering south to search.
At night they dove into shallow waters to rest.
...
Far from the mainland, in the endless deep sea, islands beca extrely rare. Occasionally, they’d co across a reef or small island, but none were of considerable scale.
They encountered a few islands over 10 square kiloters, but these were so remote that it wasn’t worth it to go that far to search.
After seven or eight days of flying, they essentially found nothing.
The farther south they went, the narrower the sea beca.
Dragon Cypress estimated they were about to enter the cold temperate zone and began contemplating turning back to Cloud Trace Continent early. But Ink Orchid...
"Dragon Cypress!"
"Unusual Origin Force fluctuation!"
Flying ahead, Ink Orchid suddenly flipped backwards and rolled sideways in midair, turning north and accelerating away at high speed.
Dragon Cypress stiffened, followed her lead, madly flapping his wings, accelerating to flee.
"Not Insect Clan Warriors, Dragon Cypress, don’t panic."
"???"
"It’s a terrestrial Origin Force fluctuation."
"Terrestrial?"
"There’s a subtle difference between Origin Force fluctuations on land and in the ocean. If we keep going, it could be land, or a particularly large island."
You can tell that just from Origin Force fluctuations?
Dragon Cypress: "Er——"
Dragon Cypress: "Next ti, be clear with ! You nearly scared to death."
Ink Orchid calmly said, "You’re just too timid. If there’s danger, I’ll alert you."
Dragon Cypress: "Brave ones usually die very quickly."
"Cowardly ant."
Ink Orchid muttered, accelerating again.
They flew a hundred kiloters in one go before finally nosediving, landing on the sea’s surface.
Ink Orchid: "Dragon Cypress, do we get closer to check?"
Dragon Cypress: "According to the map left by the Fla Spider Kingdom, this is definitely not the continent. To the distant south, only Antarctica has land."
Ink Orchid: "Then it’s a super-large sea island?"
Dragon Cypress: "There are no islands marked on the map."
Ink Orchid asserted, "A super-large island over 3,000 square kiloters! Bigger than the Fire Wheel Archipelago!"
Dragon Cypress: "The map from the Fla Spider Kingdom didn’t mark any islands, not even the Fire Wheel Archipelago or the Great Island."
Ink Orchid: "Archipelago?"
Dragon Cypress: "Unknown."
Ink Orchid: "How far is this from the mainland?"
Dragon Cypress: "Only 1,200 kiloters."
Only?
Ink Orchid: "Then I think we can consider approaching to take a look. The climate and temperature here perfectly suit our Life Seed plants’ growth. If we ever relocate, this might be an even better choice than the Fire Wheel Archipelago."
Dragon Cypress pondered, bobbed his tentacles, spat out the Dominating Throne, expanded it, jumped on, called for Ink Orchid to join, and they dove under the sea to lay low.
...
They moved at twilight, sneakily setting off below the deep sea.
By late night, they reached the front of an island.
Dragon Cypress activated his Soul-Setting ability for rapid perception, then imdiately deactivated it.
Ink Orchid only had a Lord-level soul at present, with limited perception range. Dragon Cypress reported the findings:
"Ants! Within my sensing range, there are three Ant Clan sub-nests, a Lord-level Assistant King, possibly with a Water System Talent? The ant colony shows three body-size divisions: large, dium, and small, without clear distinction between Soldier and Worker Ants."
"The island is fairly large, over thirty kiloters long, though width is hard to determine."
Dragon Cypress steered the Dominating Throne to dive two hundred ters deep, slowly circled along the island’s coast.
Soon they figured out more details.
"A narrow, curved, irregular-shaped island less than ten kiloters wide. Not small—over 300 square kiloters."
"Unknown Ant Clan has taken over: three sub-nests, total ant population just over five thousand."
"Based on their numbers and size diversification, they’re likely omnivorous or herbivorous ants."
Dragon Cypress shared his survey results and judgnts with Ink Orchid.
Ink Orchid raised a claw, pointed southeast, and said, "It should be an archipelago. This one is just a fringe islet—the main island is over there."
Dragon Cypress: "Not far?"
Ink Orchid: "Over a hundred kiloters away; from the Origin Force fluctuation, there are many small islands in between."
"That’s a very large archipelago, then!"
After thinking, Dragon Cypress piloted the Dominating Throne to steer clear of the small island and head directly to the largest one.
They chose a close-approach with enough water depth, and Dragon Cypress unleashed his Soul-Setting ability to its fullest, but found no ant nest.
They prowled along the coast for thirty kiloters, then used Soul-Setting ability again to search, and finally discovered sothing. He promptly reported to Ink Orchid:
"About thirty kiloters from the shore, found a huge Ant Clan sub-nest, colony population over thirty thousand. There are King-Level, Lord-Level, and Mountain Lord Level ant groups cohabitating, with four Assistant Kings, and even a Mountain Lord Level Ant King."
"I’m one hundred percent sure—the entire ant clan here has mutated. They possess Water System Talent! It should be Divine God-Given Seeds bestowing Elental Talent of Water!"
Ink Orchid perked up, "Water System? Divine Grade? I really need that!"
"Don’t get excited. Sothing’s strange..."
Dragon Cypress hesitated, analyzing, "Ordinary ants—even of the sa clan, different Ant Kings have pheromone differences, so it’s difficult to cohabit. The ant colony here is unique—their internal compatibility is very high."
Ink Orchid: "Oh——"
Ink Orchid: "So this ans it’s a huge kingdom ford by an alliance of many Ant Kings."
Dragon Cypress: "Yes."
Dragon Cypress: "We’ll keep circling the coast to map out this island’s size first."
With that, he controlled the Dominating Throne to move forward.
...
The first rays of light at the eastern skyline shone through the sea, illuminating the seabed.
After over a hundred kiloters of stealth, the coastline still showed no sign of noticeable turning.
Surprised, Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid quietly distanced themselves and lay low in wait.
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