Chapter 100: Chapter 100 Withering and Rebirth
Molan shed its old shell, and the newly grown snow-white carapace rapidly hardened, while its body kept swelling and stretching longer.
After a while, the carapace fully hardened, and its body length stabilized at about 80 centimeters, appearing slender and elongated.
Molan twitched its tentacles.
The insect is fine.
Evolution successful!
Influenced by the Dominating Throne, the carapace automatically adapted to the environment and changed color, gradually turning to a deep azure blue.
This is the Flower Mantis Warrior’s talent ability. After evolving into a high-rank warrior, this ability had clearly undergone a qualitative change and could shift rapidly.
"Dragon Cypress?"
Molan sounded a little weak.
"Molan, just rest."
Dragon Cypress picked up a metal can filled with ant honey, jumped onto the Throne, opened it, and placed it in front of Molan.
Wiggling its tentacles with effort, a swarm of worker ants crawled out of the tunnel ant nest, lining up and carrying fresh meat.
Molan dipped its tentacles in the ant honey, ate some, and regained a little strength. She brushed her body with spiritual power to inspect the changes, and said joyfully:
"Dragon Cypress! I got thinner."
"That’s just temporary. Eat well, and in a couple of days you’ll plump up." Dragon Cypress never lied.
Molan: "Oh—"
Molan fumed, "You can’t slim down either!"
Dragon Cypress: "Then that’s a real problem."
Molan buried herself, focusing on licking the ant honey with her tentacles. After eating a bit and regaining some strength, she spit out the cultivated Sky-Blue Persimmon Life Seed and asked:
"Dragon Cypress, where should we plant this?"
"North Mountain, mid-upper slopes of the range. Soak it first. Tomorrow morning I’ll go up and scout for a good spot to take root..."
After speaking, Dragon Cypress hopped down from the Dominating Throne, fetched a Purple Kiwifruit Seed, and handed it to Molan to store in her Life Pouch, to nurture as the Life Seed for a stage-one high-rank warrior.
...
Following Molan’s successful advancement to high-level Flower Mantis Warrior, both the Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed on the mountain slope and the Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed at the reservoir at the mountain’s foot broke through their limits at the same time, completing a leap in life level.
In a single night, the mother plant withered first, yellowing and shrinking away.
The next day, it quickly sprouted again, growing new leaves.
The divided shoots soon followed, each withering and then sprouting new buds, embarking on a new round of growth.
Time was pressing.
Dragon Cypress ate a batch of Origin Force Food, then fell into sleep.
Awoke.
Shed the old shell smoothly and donned a new one.
With relative ease, evolved to an 8th-stage mid-level Ant King!
Evolve again in autumn to 9th-stage, and by next spring, he’d become a high-level Ant King.
Dragon Cypress spit out the cultivated Sky-Blue Persimmon seed, called worker ants to collect and soak it, then headed off to plant it next to Molan’s Sky-Blue Persimmon Life Seed.
He took out the precious Six Paths Wood Seed, swallowed it, placing it into his Life Pouch.
Using spiritual power to scan his physique, there was still an innate shortcoming: his body length hadn’t yet reached 50 centimeters.
His once round and bulging abdomen had slimmed and lengthened a bit.
The optimization effect of the Silver Cypress Seed on his body structure was showing results.
In order to squeeze through Starship’s narrow gaps, Dragon Cypress consciously, with strong intent, longed for "a more slender abdomen" within his spirit and mind.
This soul-deep desire lasted a long time, so at the next evolution, the strengthening effect of the Silver Cypress Seed optimized him as needed.
If there had been no subjective intent, the Silver Cypress Seed’s effect would have simply optimized according to survival environment and daily activity needs.
...
There were too many Southern Sour Jujube Seeds to eat, with no way to handle them all, so Dragon Cypress devoured thirty with every stage of evolution.
This time, the originally transparent membrane wings turned black to match the carapace. When tucked in, the blue ring pattern on his abdomen aligned as a blue horizontal stripe.
Southern Sour Jujube Seed and Silver Cypress Seed used together made for a near-perfect evolution!
Once again, Dragon Cypress felt he might have underestimated the effect of the Divine-Given Southern Sour Jujube Seed.
It was still night outside.
He called for worker ants to bring food, resting and recovering while eating, slowly munching until dawn. Only then did he leave the ant nest, traverse the tunnel, and arrive directly at the Molan Territory of North Mountain.
Round Cypress was stationed with a large group of worker ants beside the Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed. The surrounding plot had already been cleared, with plenty of humus and marsh slag mixed in, and swamp water fertilizing the soil.
"Dragon Cypress Ant King!"
"Round Cypress. How many days did I sleep?"
"Two days."
Before the sleep-evolution, the new leaves on the Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed’s offshoots had only just peeked from the buds. In just two days, they had almost fully grown—over a meter tall, with noticeably tougher, stronger foliage.
Once the newly grown divided shoots fully formed, they’d store up energy for the third division.
The Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed sensed Dragon Cypress approaching, immediately sending out angry and threatening mental power fluctuations.
It was in a critical period of growth now, so Dragon Cypress didn’t dare stimulate it. He backed up to a respectful distance and asked Round Cypress:
"How’s the situation down the mountain?"
Round Cypress replied, "The divided shoots of the Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed... Molan’s Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed all have their fifth leaf now."
"What about mine?"
"...Still hasn’t flowered."
"How’s the Deep Blue God-Given Seed?"
"Very good. The Giant Cypress is guarding it."
"Spiked Cypress?"
"It’s leading the soldier ants to gather rocks."
Dragon Cypress curled his tentacles, summoning a mass of soldier ants out of the nest to assemble nearby.
He waved his tentacles, issuing orders.
The soldier ants dispersed, spreading out around the Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed.
"Round Cypress, take the worker ants and let’s head downhill to work."
...
...
...
The spring breeze was gentle, the sunshine brilliant, a great season for all things to grow.
"Dragon Cypress!"
Molan called from afar, spread her wings, and landed on the Dominating Throne.
"The new divisions from my Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed are about to mature. It won’t be long before they go through their third split."
"I know. Round Cypress has the worker ants heading down the mountain. Let’s speed up and build the dam two more layers higher."
"Hurry! Hurry!"
"Once Round Cypress leads the ant colony down..."
Dragon Cypress steered the Dominating Throne to float above the Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed.
Right now, the reservoir was only half-built, with the water level just above last year’s dug pond.
The third division of the Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed should yield seventy-five shoots, enough to spread out, but the uphill side might not have enough water depth.
"Has it awakened consciousness yet?"
"No. How about your Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seed?"
"Haven’t checked, but probably not either."
"Dragon Cypress, there’re two Divine-Given Gorgon Fruit Seeds—what should we name them?"
"You decide."
"Mine’s planted in the North Mountain Reservoir; let’s call it Northern Gorgon. Yours is in the south—Southern Gorgon."
"Uh—"
Dragon Cypress: "Sounds good! So it’s Southern Gorgon and Northern Gorgon."
Piloting the Dominating Throne, he flew low, circling the reservoir on an inspection round.
Round Cypress led 300 specialized worker ants and 600 large and mid-sized worker ants down the main ant trail to the reservoir dam, in grand procession.
Get to work! Get to work! Get to work!
Duties unchanged.
Dragon Cypress and Molan brought a small group of specialized worker ants to transport big stones and build up the sides of the dam, haul timber, and lay it horizontally as a framework. They steered the Dominating Throne up and down for tamping earthwork.
Round Cypress commanded huge groups of worker ants, hauling clay.
Spiked Cypress, noticing the activity at North Mountain Reservoir, also promptly arrived with soldier ants to move stones.
The reservoir dam was trapezoidal, planned at 8 meters high, 10 meters wide at the base, and designed for a 2-meter wide top.
It would be built in 16 layers, each 0.5 meters high and with the width shrinking by 0.5 meters per layer.
Layer by layer, the profile formed a 45-degree slope.
Currently, construction had reached layer 7, width from 7 to 6.5 meters.
It was finished in just 4 days.
Continuing upward, layer 8’s width reduced further from 6.5 to 6 meters...
...
At night,
Dragon Cypress didn’t return to the ant nest either; the Dominating Throne stopped, and he kept Molan company, guarding the Northern Gorgon Divine-Given Seed.
It was the middle of the night again.
Molan suddenly woke with a start, beating her wings against the still-sleeping Dragon Cypress.
"Dividing! Dividing!"
"Dragon Cypress! Northern Gorgon is dividing!"
"Fivefold rate!"