Ant Lord in the Star Realm

Chapter 776 615: The Ghost King Grasshopper Pulling the Cart_2

Ghost King Woonyoung: "Something this important is used with the utmost caution even within the Flame Spider clan; they certainly wouldn't just trade it away to outsiders."

At the scene, there was only one Little Flame Spider, Heliotrope, so they spoke without much concern.

Dragon Cypress said directly, "The Flame Spiders always put profit first; as long as the price is high enough, there's nothing they won't sell."

Ghost King Woonyoung chuckled, tapping his tentacle in agreement.

Heliotrope: "Shanglu Fruit is arranged by the Shanglu Divine Tree!"

Dragon Cypress: "Weren't all of you Flame Spiders taught by the Shanglu Divine Tree? Generation after generation, that greedy, profit-seeking nature is etched in your very blood."

Heliotrope: "…"

Dragon Cypress: "Red Peach, when will the Divine-Grade Fruit that bestows Life System Talent be delivered?"

Red Peach: "...In two years."

Dragon Cypress: "Good! Black Birch is waiting. Send one over and I'll test it again."

Dragon Cypress: "Red Peach, also help relay a message to Melde: arrange it quickly and send over a Divine-Grade Mountain Pillar Fruit."

Red Peach: "Ah?"

Dragon Cypress: "It's not for me, it's for the northern Mountain Persimmon Lord. Last year, Mountain Persimmon obtained a 'Stone Persimmon' Divine-Given Seed. Its evolution resources will be greatly in excess, so after Insect King, it plans to evolve solely by eating Divine-Given Origin Force Food, which requires opening up another one or two talent systems. Tell Melde, the entire share of the Stone Persimmon Divine-Given Seed will go to them."

Red Peach: "Alright——"

Dragon Cypress: "After Mountain Persimmon breaks through to Insect King, the share of Sky Blue Persimmon Bee King Honey will be redistributed. If the caravan needs any, they can trade Divine-Grade Fruits for it."

Red Peach: "…"

Heliotrope: "…"

Red Peach: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, Ghost King Woonyoung, let's get to work first."

"To work! To work!"

Dragon Cypress called out.

Red Peach unloaded the goods.

Ghost King Woonyoung, Heliotrope, Fragrant Cypress, and Black Sophora counted the numbers.

Large, medium, and small Worker Ants shuttled through the Starship Rift carrying loads.

Dragon Cypress stood by observing, making small talk, "Red Peach, Ghost King Woonyoung, this shipment, a full load is 400,000?"

Ghost King Woonyoung: "Yes."

Red Peach: "One trip is 800,000, we run ten trips a day, and plan to finish in thirteen days."

Dragon Cypress: "Four hundred thousand Source Stones, that's no light load—it's a strain even for me to haul. Red Peach, have you also awakened the Strength Talent?"

Red Peach: "I have——"

Red Peach grew wary; this ant was obviously fishing for information now.

Dragon Cypress tilted his head and asked sharply, "Red Peach, the fruit that grants Strength Talent, did White Ivy arrange for you to eat it first and only then pass it on to Ink Orchid?"

Red Peach: "...No~ we had it together~"

Dragon Cypress: "Together? You're already a 2-Age Period Insect King?"

Ghost King Woonyoung couldn't stand it anymore and explained, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, you might not know, but the blossom-fruit cycle for the Divine-Grade Dragon Bamboo Fruit is as long as fifty-five years. Last batch, we exchanged three at once with White Ivy Spider King. White Ivy Spider King kept one for personal use, one for Red Peach, and the other was sent to you."

"Oh——"

"So it was really just a misunderstanding. Sorry for the trouble, White Ivy Spider King."

Dragon Cypress said, then turned to Ghost King Woonyoung, surprised, "The blossom-fruit cycle is fifty-five years? Isn't that even longer than for Ghost King Sophora Seeds? What about yield? Ghost King Woonyoung, are you able to share any details?"

Ghost King Woonyoung chuckled, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, I heard that all the Assistant Kings you raised with the Dominating Throne only have a single-system talent, right? You must be thinking: if they could awaken the Life System Talent, then you'd want to try trading a few Dragon Bamboo Fruits for them—after that, awaken Strength Talent, am I right?"

Dragon Cypress: "...That was the plan."

Ghost King Woonyoung: "Each batch of Divine-Grade Dragon Bamboo Fruit produces ten. By agreement, every harvest, the Red Cockroach Tribe takes five, the Narrow Butterfly and Crimson Dragonfly tribes take one each, and the remaining three go to our Ghost King Grasshopper tribe. We'd also like to trade for a few more good things."

Dragon Cypress: "Divine-Grade Molan Seed?"

Ghost King Woonyoung: "Divine-Grade Molan Seed is indeed a fine thing, but in the first batch, we already traded to get it from Red Crow Mountain. Now there's a stable exchange agreement. Dragon Cypress Ant King, you've already given all the shares to the caravan; it wouldn't look good to backtrack, right?"

Dragon Cypress: "Of course, no way I'd go back on something like that…"

Dragon Cypress switched the topic, "Ghost King Woonyoung, what about Ghost King Sophora Seeds? Do you think the Dogtooth Violet Great Leader would agree to trade for Wild Divine-Given Seeds?"

Ghost King Woonyoung hurriedly shook its tentacles and replied, "This is a serious matter. What I think doesn't matter—I have no say in it at all."

Dragon Cypress changed topics again, "Ghost King Woonyoung, I don't get it—why must half of the Divine-Grade Dragon Bamboo Fruits go to the Red Cockroach Tribe?"

Ghost King Woonyoung: "It's simple. At the start, our two tribes cultivated the Dragon Bamboo plant together, and there was an agreement…"

…

In the back-and-forth probing during their idle chat, it became clear that this Ghost King Woonyoung's temperament did not match his fierce appearance.

Ghost King Woonyoung was cheerful, calm, and quite steady. He was open about what could be said, and said nothing about what couldn't.

An extremely capable insect, and a close junior relative of the Dogtooth Violet Great Leader. An insect like this wouldn't hold a low position within the tribe.

Initial assessment: For the matter of King Cypress trading for Ghost King Sophora Seeds, it would be possible to communicate directly with Ghost King Woonyoung.

…

Source Stones themselves aren't exactly a rare commodity.

However, a hundred million Source Stones—that's an enormous amount.

Every year, a hundred million Source Stones are shipped in; it's a staggering figure.

And with the generous reward from Snow Velvet Spider King, Dragon Cypress dared not be careless about this, and had to supervise personally.

It wasn't until half a month later

that Dragon Cypress personally led the ant swarm and transported a hundred million Source Stones to store safely in the sub-nest treasury at Red Banyan Mountain, only then daring to leave.

He headed to Cold Orchid Mountain to pick up Ink Orchid, first finishing this spring's caravan Divine-Given Seed search, before turning back to transport Source Stones to Huagi Mountain.