CHAPTER 44: CHAPTER 044 YOU ARE ALREADY DARK ENOUGH

Ink Orchid isn’t completely clueless about numbers.

The caravan can sell Ghost Fan Seed Pods for 25 Source Stones, but buys them for 18, so that’s a difference of 7 Source Stones per pod.

Ink Orchid asked, "Dragon Cypress, one Ghost Fan Seed Pod makes 7 Source Stones of profit, how much if we have 637 pods?"

Dragon Cypress: "You can’t calculate it like that."

Dragon Cypress asked, "After collecting them, who do we sell them to? The caravan? If the caravan asks where you got them, how will you explain?"

Ink Orchid: "Uh..."

Right—Ink Orchid, who’d just lifted her head in excitement, drooped it, crestfallen.

Dragon Cypress: "Enhancing spiritual power helps with evolutionary growth, the awakening of elemental abilities, and with using those abilities. It also improves my ability to command the ant colony. Plus, strong spiritual power lets us search for Divine-Given Seeds in the wild much faster and more accurately, and allows keener perception of Origin Force Fluctuations, making it useful for us to find other Lands of Origin Force."

"Ghost Fan Seed Pods have a lot of benefits, let’s just get more and eat them ourselves first."

"Okay!" Ink Orchid suddenly lifted her head again, and with heavy emphasis added, "Most importantly, your control over the Dominating Throne’s flying speed will improve! Right now, it flies way too slow!"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Ink Orchid: "If it flies faster, we can search faster, find more Lands of Origin Force, and encounter more Insect Clan Warriors. Dragon Cypress, then you could rely on the Dominating Throne’s edge to travel between territories, buying Origin Force Food from here and selling it there—roving merchant trading, easy as that."

Smart!

Dragon Cypress had already thought of this, but wasn’t sure how many Lands of Origin Force there really were on the Cloud Trace Continent, how many Insect Clan Warriors existed.

Now it’s different,

Finding Ghost Fan, confidence soared.

Thinking of Ghost Fan, Dragon Cypress suddenly felt a little uneasy.

The hollow wooden stick holding 46 Ghost Fan Seed Pods is probably a kind of chronology—the batch increases by 2 each year of harvest.

It has survived alone in that mountain hollow for 23 years.

Thinking back to the year Dragon Cypress first arrived on Cloud Trace Continent, that helplessness, the agony of not being able to communicate with any other insects, the aimless frustration...

Dragon Cypress’s telekinesis pulsed with deep sorrow, speaking earnestly: "Ink Orchid, I never really understood how I got the Dominating Throne in the first place. But now, I get it. It must be Natural God’s arrangement! It wants me to save those Insect Clan Warriors scattered and surviving alone all across Cloud Trace Continent!"

Dragon Cypress’s emotion was straight from the heart.

"Huh???"

Ink Orchid jumped in fright.

"Natural God?"

"Dragon Cypress! Wasn’t that just a lie we made up to scare Ghost Fan? Don’t go believing it yourself!"

Dragon Cypress ignored Ink Orchid’s shouting and grumbled gloomily, "The Divine-Given Ghost Fan Seed Pod could be marked down to 15 Source Stones, but now I think about it—I really can’t bear to do that. Sigh. My heart is just not black enough."

Source Stones? The caravan sells for 25.

So that’s a net profit of 10 Source Stones per pod? That’s brutal, isn’t it?

Ink Orchid tried to comfort: "Dragon Cypress, don’t be upset. You’re black-hearted enough already..."

...

...

...

Leisurely as always, another 9 days of flying, carefully searching along the way, but no other discoveries.

Xianglan Mountain in sight.

"Dragon Cypress, I’m heading home to check on Fragrant Orchid!"

Ink Orchid grabbed a Keg Vine Seed Pod and a hollow stick, tossed out a line, and shot off at speed.

Over thirty days away from home,

Dragon Cypress was also a little worried about the territory, urged the Dominating Throne to speed up, and descended straight down toward the mountain’s pond.

The Deep Blue God-Given Seed’s broadleaf evergreen habit also means it likes warm, humid climates and basically stops growing in winter.

"Azure."

Dragon Cypress called out.

"Dragon Cypress. You’re back."

Azure replied, with a hint of happiness in its tone, and took the initiative to ask: "Dragon Cypress, did you and Ink Orchid find any treasures on your adventure?"

"Pretty lucky, brought home a nice haul."

Dragon Cypress lifted the Keg Vine Seed Pod he had brought back and said, "We found a really rare plant called Keg Vine. Azure, look, this is the pod—pretty big, right?"

"So big!"

Azure cooperatively transmitted a wave of surprise.

By convention, the next question should be about where they found the item.

Azure’s personality was always gentle and reserved, not much of a talker, hardly ever asked questions—so after the exclamation of surprise, nothing else followed.

Dragon Cypress waited a few seconds, found that the other’s conversation skills were abysmal, and took the initiative: "Ink Orchid and I found it in a southern rainforest, near the tropics."

Azure: "So impressive!"

Azure had zero interest in Keg Vine.

It was indifferent to all plant species.

Dragon Cypress put down the seed pod, picked up the hollow wooden stick and shook it hard, making a rustling sound, saying:

"Ink Orchid and I also found a Land of Origin Force, where a high-level Wooden Darkling Beetle Warrior named Ghost Fan lives. It has a Ghost Fan Tree Divine-Given Seed, and has cultivated lots of Ghost Fan Trees. Azure, look, these are the Ghost Fan Seed Pods it gifted us."

"We communicated with Ghost Fan and have established a preliminary trade. We’re buying these ordinary Ghost Fan Seed Pods for 0.5 Source Stones each..."

Azure: "Amazing!"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Tree and insect interests really don’t overlap.

Azure isn’t interested in plant seeds, and also uninterested in Origin Force Food trade.

"Never mind~"

Dragon Cypress, feeling embarrassed, put away the stick, and said: "Azure, spring is almost here. In a little while, once it’s warmer, I’ll come dig a channel to connect the small pond and big pond for you."

"No way!"

Azure was suddenly anxious: "Dragon Cypress, no! The little frogs are still hibernating."

Dragon Cypress never did end up getting rid of those frogs.

In winter, five burrowed into the mudbank by the small pond to hibernate.

"Once it warms up, they’ll come out of hibernation."

"You take it easy. I’m going back to check the Ant Nest."

Dragon Cypress gave a brief explanation, tossed out a sentence, then took off in the Dominating Throne, flying up the mountain.

...

The Soldier Ant on guard at the entrance saw the Ant King return and waved its tentacles to send the message.

The news quickly spread through the Ant Nest.

Round Cypress, surrounded by five Specialized Worker Ants, came out to meet him.

This guy’s arrival is even grander than mine as the Ant King~

Dragon Cypress wiggled his tentacles, sending a message, asking: "Round Cypress, are all the territory’s Life Seeds doing well?"

Round Cypress: "Everything’s the same as when you left."

Huh? No honorifics.

This guy’s speech seems odd lately.

"How about the Large Fruit Hemlock Life Seed up on the mountain? Have you checked on it?"

Round Cypress: "I check the mountain every morning, all is fine."

"Here’s a Keg Vine Seed Pod, have the Worker Ants shell the seeds for me."

Dragon Cypress wasn’t quite at ease, handed the seed pod to Round Cypress, and personally went out for a perimeter sweep of the territory to make sure all was well.

At the same time, Ink Orchid finished checking her own territory, grabbed the seed pod and hollow stick, and flew over.

Two seed pods, for a total of 17 seeds.

Dragon Cypress, still unwilling to give up, kept five, planning to try planting them on a small hill at the base of the mountains come spring.

The other 12 seeds, he carefully sliced open one side, excavated the kernels, polished the edges, and made them into dishes with smooth inner walls.

They used to eat with leaves holding ant honey, but with this improvement, they used Keg Vine seed shells as bowls.

After eating, the Worker Ants would take them to the mountain brook, wash them clean, and reuse them again and again.

A dry stone ledge was carved out of the dining room wall, dedicated to storing these new ’eating utensils’.

...

Inside the two hollow wooden sticks, there were 92 Ghost Fan Seed Pods. Dragon Cypress had the Specialized Blue Ants refine them, unhesitatingly eating 10 a day.

Ordinary Ghost Fan Seed Pods, single-use, made barely any difference to spiritual power, but after eating over a hundred, the cumulative effect was quite substantial.

The benefit would show after the next evolutionary sleep, when the Mid-Level 2nd Age Ant King stage is reached.

Dragon Cypress also needed to evolve again as soon as possible.