The Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord has been roaming the world for decades—what kind of shaless insects hasn’t it t? A little Ant King and a Little Huatang are hardly a challenge. It handled all their sneaky tricks with calm order, defusing every single sche.
In the end, it only lost a few spider silk bags and a couple dozen seeds. No big deal.
It politely refused Dragon Cypress’s request to chat more, then returned unhurriedly to the plains at the foot of the mountain.
"Seven-Leaf, how’d it go?"
Aconite Spider King cared a lot about this young and promising direct descendant, even considering grooming it as a successor.
"The haul was way beyond expectations..."
The Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord couldn’t contain its excitent, leaned in close, reined in its spiritual power and thoughts, and whispered privately:
"Aconite Spider King, it’s not two Divine-Given Seeds—it’s three! Done deal. I got the lion’s share of the third Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed!"
"Three?"
"Three! That little Ant King called Dragon Cypress just got another one, brand new."
"That little Ant King favored by the Natural God."
"Yep. Judging by our conversation, that kid’s anything but simple. Way too steady for a little Ant King only a few years old, super guarded, super smart...and super slippery."
...
...
...
"Dragon Cypress, this Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord is even stingier than lde."
"Yeah. Old fox, tough to deal with."
"Shouldn’t have agreed to trade with it! White Ivy Mountain Lord is much nicer."
"Sigh...But it ca to us on its own, what choice do we have? Can we really say no?"
"What’s the plan for lde? How do we explain this?"
"Explain what? Explain what, exactly? I’m the one who should grill it! Why did Zeqi Spider King recomnd this? Why send a wily old bug like that? I didn’t manage to squeeze a single advantage out of it."
"Uh—"
Ink Orchid said heavily, "Makes sense!"
Ink Orchid shook the spider silk bag and asked excitedly, "Dragon Cypress, what do we do with all these? Hide them?"
"Hide them?"
Dragon Cypress: "Of course we take them! Let lde see for themself just how stingy this Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord is. The Six Paths Wood seed is rare, I get only sending one, but this Purple Kiwifruit—at best it’s a top-level plant seed, nothing amazing, and they only sent thirty seeds."
Ink Orchid: "Exactly..."
Ink Orchid started chuckling, hehehe...
...
The Zeqi Caravan still hadn’t arrived.
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid, worried about attracting the Fla Spiders beneath the hill again, hid deep inside the Starship for a whole day and night.
The next morning,
The rising sun in the east painted the Divine Force Barrier in dazzling rainbows.
Dragon Cypress crawled out of the cave, scaled the hill, and hid behind a bush to spy in secret.
Didn’t have to wait long—
Zeqi Spider King led the caravan into view, slowly approaching.
"Ink Orchid!"
"Let’s go!"
Dragon Cypress turned around to alert Ink Orchid who was hiding at the Starship Passage exit, and together, they dashed straight to the small grove behind the hill.
...
Following the caravan to the destination, they planted the Life Seed—roots went down, shoots rose up, and soon a giant lde grass stood seven or eight ters tall.
Of course, the mont lde turned around and saw Seven-Leaf from the Caowu Caravan watching, the mood took a real nosedive.
Just couldn’t be helped.
Dragon Cypress wasn’t an idiot—actually, far from it. Even if the Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord hadn’t co looking, and even if no other caravan had shown up, once it evolved into a High-Level Ant King, Dragon Cypress would totally have reached out to a second, or even a third caravan to stir up so competition.
What really bugged lde was that these rchant negotiation tricks—all self-taught...to Dragon Cypress.
—If I’d known it would turn out like this...
—No more inviting a third caravan next ti.
This ti, lde didn’t rush. It just hung back, trailed the other Mountain Lord Level Spider Kings around the other trade circles, mingled, asked questions, sized up the goods.
It wasn’t until afternoon
That lde dragged itself up the hill, and from way off, swept its spiritual power over and imdiately spotted Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid carrying their spider silk bags—and all the seeds inside.
"Mountain Lord lde!"
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid waved them over, all friendly enthusiasm.
lde squinted: "How co you two have such strong spiritual power these days?"
" and Ink Orchid both have a Ghost Fan Tree Seed, you know."
Dragon Cypress replied offhandedly, then asked with a tinge of grumbling, "lde, what was that about? The Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord from the Caowu Caravan showed up saying Zeqi Spider King recomnded them?"
lde: "Yes...but also no."
lde: "It’s that Seven-Leaf had already noticed our deals, figured out you guys have Divine-Given Seeds. You two are special cases, rooted in Cloud Trace Continent right next to the Ten Thousand Nations Continent. For safety’s sake, Zeqi Spider King really couldn’t turn down Aconite Spider King’s request."
Dragon Cypress sighed, "Yeah, Ink Orchid and I couldn’t exactly turn down the Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord’s trade request either."
lde tensed up, tentatively asked, "Ink Orchid, what’s your age period now? You’ll evolve into a High-Level Warrior soon, right?"
Ink Orchid deftly opened the spider silk bag, pulled out a Divine-Given Black Emperor Peach Core, and said, "Once I get ho and eat this peach core Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord gave , I should be able to go into sleep evolution and advance to High-Level Warrior."
Dragon Cypress complained, "That Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord was way too stingy—only gave two Divine-Given Black Emperor Peach Cores."
Then Dragon Cypress tilted its head, faking a deep ponder, and said, "Mountain Lord lde, you’ve also got a fixed Black Emperor Peach Divine-Given Seed quota with the Grave Burying Beetle Tribe, right? Actually, not a bad share either. How many peach cores did you give us again?"
Not a single one~
I just wanna throttle you~
lde snorted, "That Seven-Leaf sure is generous! Way more generous than White Ivy! Even gifted you a Six Peaks Mountain Six Paths Wood seed. Do you know how many insects would trade Source Stones for that and still not get one?"
Dragon Cypress: "lde, you’re mistaken. I think Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord is even stingier than you. Only gave us two Six Paths Wood seeds, and even then, one per year—split across two years."
"Cut the sarcasm!"
lde was starting to lose it, asking, "How’d the Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed negotiations go? How much share did you agree to give Seven-Leaf?"
Dragon Cypress: "Hey now, I’m a loyal ant, okay? lde, you may be a bit tight-fisted, but you really did help and Ink Orchid a lot. So, until and Ink Orchid evolve into Mountain Lords, only ten percent of the Fruit-Scented Orchid and Azure Divine-Given Seed Origin Force Food goes to Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord, just to use as samples for promotion."
"Ten percent?"
lde instinctively didn’t quite believe it—there was surprise, happiness, and so confusion, too. "Ten percent? Seven-Leaf’s okay with that?"
Dragon Cypress: "All set and agreed! While Ink Orchid and I are High-Level Warriors, you and White Ivy get ninety percent of the Fruit-Scented Orchid and Azure Divine-Given Seed production. Of course, and Ink Orchid need to eat a bit, but we won’t hog too much."
"Guess you do have a conscience, kid."
lde was all smiles now.
"I knew it—you’re the kind of ant worth a lifeti friendship."
"Of course!" Dragon Cypress nodded, flicking an antenna.
lde still couldn’t fully believe it, asking, "So you two just fobbed off Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord with all those goodies for ten percent? Seven-Leaf’s got a bit of a reputation in the Dulai Fla Spider Tribe, that’s no small feat. How’d you pull that off, Dragon Cypress?"
"It was simple..."
Dragon Cypress paused, then said, "Because I promised it half the share of the third Divine-Given Seed!"
lde: "???"
lde: "Third Divine-Given Seed?"
Dragon Cypress: " and Ink Orchid spent years building dams, blocking up the low-lying valleys, and made a massive reservoir. We planted rice, lotus, gorgon fruit, and all kinds of stuff at the reservoir’s edge. Then, last autumn, totally by chance, we harvested a Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed."
Dragon Cypress stuck to the sa story: "So then, this spring, we just planted it—first ti, three divisions; second ti, fifteen..."
lde: "!!!"
lde was so choked up, it couldn’t find any words for a very, very long ti.
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