novelraw Chapter 781 - 617 Fire Crystal Persimmon
Chapter 781 - 617 Fire Crystal Persimmon
Silver Cypress, Year 94.
The initial construction of the underground escape tunnel and water vein network of Rainbow Island has been completed.
Black Birch has taken over the task of directing the ant colony, excavating and building "Azure Lake."
The lake is crescent-shaped, circling the mountain peak, with an outer boundary about 2000 meters long and up to 500 meters at its widest point. In the center, there is a lake island for the Deep Blue Divine-Given Seed to take root.
Southern Gorgon and Northern Gorgon are both troublemakers. In the future, they'll be planted at opposite ends of the lake, with the Deep Blue Divine-Given Seed in the middle, separating the two.
The amount of excavation required is quite large.
With the work halfway done, some water is stored ahead of time, and Deep Blue is relocated early. Deep Blue can also command a portion of mountain ants and worker ants, essentially digging the lake for itself.
Ink Orchid and Tie Bush follow along to help out.
They stay busy right up until late winter,
when Ink Orchid enters evolutionary slumber and awakens as an eight-age-period Lord.
...
Silver Cypress, Year 95.
As spring begins, as expected, King Cypress consumes 400,000 Source Stones and easily completes its second fruit expansion.
At this point, it can be confirmed: at King-Level, the blossom-fruit cycle is 37 years.
This spring, Dragon Cypress is very busy.
Running back and forth between Xianglan Mountain and Rainbow Island, it carries out the migration of both Southern Gorgon and Black Yellow Divine-Given Seeds, then moves a sizeable batch of 25 common Life Seed Plants.
With this, all of Dragon Cypress's Life Seed Plants—except the White Poplar Divine Seed at Purple Tung Insect Nation—are relocated to Rainbow Island.
The placement of Life Seeds is an intricate affair.
Divine-Given Seeds capable of fully adapting to the equatorial tropical climate—such as Elephant Foot King Orchid, Rift Leaf Orchid King, Island Banyan, Four Spikemosses, White Wax Tree, Multi-seed Blue Ice Cypress, Zihuang Peach, Purple Poppet, Two Kings Ink Orchid, Red Cypress, Black Yellow, Little Wild Chestnut, Round Leaf Keg Vine—all take root around King Cypress, near Wangbai Mountain.
Northern plants, which cannot adapt to the equatorial tropics—such as Thunder Oak, North Elm, and Nine-Leaf Huangqian—are assigned to take root around Azure Lake.
The Deep Blue Divine-Given Seed shelters the area with its Water System Primordial Energy Field.
This includes common Life Seed Plants, which also take root beside Azure Lake.
Azure Lake still has many available spots; in the future, other ordinary Life Seed Plants—such as Ink Orchid and Mountain Persimmon, among others—will also need the water system protection provided by the Deep Blue Divine-Given Seed.
There are two things to note about the placement of all Divine-Given Life Seeds:
First, maintain a minimum safety distance of 1000 meters—those with volatile tempers have to be kept far apart, in isolation. This prevents them from bickering and getting aggravated, and actually extending their roots or above-ground vines to fight.
Second, consider each Divine-Given Seed's fruiting time. Stagger them as much as possible to avoid simultaneous fruiting, thus wasting Source Stones for no good reason.
At King Level, there's no longer an issue of massive Origin Force consumption for growth and evolution; each Divine-Given Seed can comfortably occupy a square kilometer of land—more than enough.
The only issue: with so many Divine-Given Seeds in such high density, from before dawn until late at night, it's nonstop greetings, debates, arguments, quarrels, and invective toward each other.
The zones where Divine-Given Seeds are rooted are pretty much forbidden areas; anyone going in is guaranteed a whole slew of infuriating insect encounters.
Best to keep your distance; otherwise, there's not much else to worry about.
...
Silver Cypress, Year 96.
The number of Specialized Blue Soldiers has reached twenty thousand, divided into the first and second legions, commanded by Cypress and Silver Cypress, respectively.
Dragon Cypress next begins cultivating a batch of Specialized Green Soldiers, to be commanded by King Cypress and Deep Blue.
Between the Divine-Given Seeds around Wangbai Mountain and Azure Lake, various legumes are planted as materials to supply the Green Soldiers' combat abilities.
If invaded, Green Soldiers can effectively pin down and delay the enemy, and coordinate with Blue Soldiers in battle, buying time for the Life Seed Plants to gather their Tree Hearts and retreat.
There are also plans to train a batch of Wind System Air Soldiers, for routine air patrols and for countering the Bee Clan's aerial invasions in times of war.
When cultivating Green Soldiers, Dragon Cypress switches to a body form adept at mountain forest combat.
For Air Soldiers, it switches to a flight-optimized form, modeled after the Bee Clan.
...
Silver Cypress, Year 97.
Purple Tung Insect Nation.
It's lush spring, with blossoming flowers everywhere.
Ink Orchid's figure flickers as it dashes into the Land of Origin Force, plunging straight into the vast forest.
Dragon Cypress follows close behind, riding the Dominating Throne, heading straight for the heart of the Land of Origin Force.
Next year is an Expedition Year; the Divine-Grade Baihe Fruit matures this year. After harvesting, it must be relocated to Rainbow Island as soon as possible.
"Huh?"
Dragon Cypress reflexively activates its Soul-Setting Perception, and unexpectedly, Round Cypress, Huangqian, Ivy, as well as the Barley Bug Tribe's Fuzzy Flower, Wuye, Pueraria, and other Insect Clan Warriors are all gathered together in one place.
Such a nice time of year; why aren't they working but instead huddled together?
A Divine-Given Seed has been born!
The location is on the communal lands of the Barley Bug Tribe.
Dragon Cypress vaguely recalls: there's a huge persimmon garden over there.
The Dominating Throne turns and draws near.
"Great King! Great King!"
"Dragon Cypress Ant King!"
"Dragon Cypress Ant King! Divine-Given Seed! Fire Crystal Persimmon!"
...
The insects are all calling out in greeting.
Sure enough, it's a Divine-Given Seed!
On a persimmon tree more than ten meters tall, a greenish-blue flower bud is emitting faint Origin Force fluctuations.
On the ground, there are numerous ordinary flower buds trimmed off by the worker ants.
Judging by this, the Divine-Given Flower Bud must have just appeared in the past few days.
On close examination, there's no sign of any mutation; it looks just like an ordinary Fire Crystal Persimmon.
The Seed itself was acquired by Dragon Cypress through a caravan from the Ten-thousand Tribes Continent.
Dragon Cypress isn't in a particularly good mood.
Purple Tung Insect Nation isn't great as far as places go. The territory is huge—six or seven hundred square kilometers—and Origin Force is abundant, especially in the Central Region, where it's about twice as rich as elsewhere.
Yet in the past nearly two hundred years, only a handful of Divine-Given Seeds have emerged.
The Barley Bug Tribe harvested two: the previous one was Purple Tassel Sophora, nearly 140 years ago; it was sowed and cultivated into a Wild Divine-Given Seed and has since evolved to an advanced level.