Ant Lord in the Star Realm

Chapter 756 608: Hydra_2

There's actually an ability like this~

Dragon Cypress immediately thought of various ingenious uses, opened the interface to check, and exclaimed in delight, "Excellent! Spider King Tiankui put a lot of effort into this! Chasing Wind, thank Spider King Tiankui for me!"

Dragon Cypress asked, "What's the price?"

Chasing Wind: "It's set at three million Source Stones."

Dragon Cypress: "Payment directly in Source Stones?"

Chasing Wind: "Paying with Source Stones is fine. Spider King Tiankui is about to retire, and Spider King Goodyera will be taking its place. Spider King Tiankui hopes the Dragon Cypress Ant King will look after it."

"Understood—"

Dragon Cypress: "Spider King Wormwood and Spider King Purple Jade are still young, right?"

Heliotrope: "Spider King Wormwood is still young, it can go another hundred years. I've heard Spider King Purple Jade has been planning for retirement for a long time—it probably won't be long now..."

The elder generation of Spider Kings are almost all retiring.

Dragon Cypress gently tapped its antennae, gestured to Fragrant Cypress to handle the payment, and turned to look at Red Peach.

Red Peach stuffed over a Spider Silk Bag and said succinctly, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, here's the Divine-Grade Fruit that bestows the 'Vortex Worm' ability."

"Great!"

Dragon Cypress took it and inspected it.

Now it could start trying to combine the 'Vortex Beast Devouring' ability; with the addition of the 'Hydra' ability, it would be even closer to perfection than anticipated.

Dragon Cypress' heart burned with excitement, waggled its antennae, and together with Black Sophora and two Worker Ants, handed over the Divine-Grade Kunlan Seed.

Both parties verified everything was in order, settled the payment, and thus the most important Divine-Grade Fruit transaction of the year was complete.

The rest of the work could be left to Fragrant Cypress and Black Sophora.

Dragon Cypress sped back to Xianglan Mountain, heading straight for the King Nest.

First, use the Divine-Grade Hydromedusa Fruit.

Enter slumber once.

Woke up from the slumber, successfully comprehending the 'Hydra' ability.

Bowed its head, briefly familiarized itself, thought it over, and roughly figured out how to use it.

Dragon Cypress willed, and Water System Primordial Energy flowed from both antennae, transforming into two invisible tendrils, each extending outward five or six meters long.

With a flick of its antenna, the invisible tendrils lashed the top of the cave.

Turning around, it aimed at the earth and stones blocking the cave entrance, jabbed fiercely, and pierced two holes.

— Pretty impressive strength!

Dragon Cypress focused again, summoning another six invisible tendrils, this time extending from the six leg femurs.

Another thought, and four more shot out from the base of the membranous wings.

In total, twelve tendrils could be extended, even softer than antennae, or as hard and sharp as legs. With frequent use and training, they could probably match the flexibility of antennae and legs—or perhaps even surpass them.

Dragon Cypress paused, withdrew the 'Hydra' tendrils, and unleashed Water System Primordial Energy again, stretching out two transparent, water-formed tendrils.

This ability has two output modes:

One: pure energetic form of Water System Primordial Energy;

The other: a biomimetic form, combining Primordial Energy and water. However, this ability itself doesn't generate or gather water; it needs to be used in a watery environment, or combined with a Water Creation Ability.

In the biomimetic mode, the tendrils are much more tenacious and agile.

— Awesome ability!

Dragon Cypress praised enthusiastically.

After eating and a brief rest, next up was using the Divine-Grade Fruit that granted the 'Vortex Worm' ability.

Slept through the night, woke up the next morning, and had learned it successfully.

Dragon Cypress shifted a bit, creeping to the edge of the Dominating Throne, tapped its antenna to the ground, focused, activated its Water Creation Ability to conjure a mass of clear water, willed again, injected Primordial Energy, and the water mass changed form—becoming a headless, tailless, colorless and transparent 'worm' that, directed by mind, wriggled forward across the ground with difficulty.

It really did look exactly like a 'Vortex Worm'.

Its movement was so slow it was exasperating for an ant.

Dragon Cypress willed again, and the 'Vortex Worm' curled into a ball, rolling along awkwardly.

"Rolling along the road is just too low-level..."

"The ideal is to use the 'Hydra' ability to give it six legs, for crawling on land..."

"When in the water, I could mimic fish—use the 'Hydra' ability to generate fins and a tail..."

Having these thoughts, Dragon Cypress immediately set out to try it.

It soon discovered that the Hydra power could only extend tendrils through its own antennae, six legs, and wing bases—it couldn't generate them remotely.

— Looks like combining these two abilities isn't going to be easy~

Dragon Cypress quickly walked out of the cave and arrived at the Shandong Reservoir.

Standing on the reservoir's shore, it did its utmost to activate its Vortex Worm ability.

Ripples spread across the gentle, wind-swept surface, and a gigantic 'Vortex Worm' over thirty meters long slowly emerged.

This was the largest 'Vortex Worm' it could currently make—still a far cry from the dreamed-of 'Kilometer Vortex Beast'.

Dragon Cypress controlled the worm to writhe and swim in the water.

Its speed was still pitifully slow.

With a thought, Dragon Cypress split the Vortex Worm in two, then into four, then eight...

In a flash, dozens of small Vortex Worms, each barely over a meter long, appeared en masse, all wriggling desperately, struggling up onto the embankment.

Dragon Cypress randomly selected a few worms and flared its Water System Primordial Energy.

The chosen worms became completely transparent, burrowing into the embankment's mud.

Two more rolled to the cypress tree atop the mountain, climbed up the trunk, and wriggled into the wood.

Turning away, Dragon Cypress focused its senses.

Through the connection to the worms, it could faintly sense nearby vibrations and Origin Force Fluctuations.

As a reconnaissance power, 'Vortex Worm' was hardly ideal—at most it could pick up indistinct vibrations and Origin Force signals.

Dragon Cypress crawled along the ridge away from the worms, testing the ability's range.

The information transmission distance was actually pretty far—over ten kilometers.

However, beyond the range of spiritual power, it couldn't actively control the worms—the connection was reduced to a faint sensory link.

Not the ideal Water System scouting ability.

...

After a round of tests, Dragon Cypress now thoroughly understood the characteristics of both the 'Vortex Worm' and 'Hydra' abilities, and had formed a preliminary plan for constructing the 'Vortex Beast Devouring' power.