The high-quality plants carefully cultivated by the Insect Clan were far inferior to wild plants in drought and barren resistance.
When planting fruit trees on a large scale, the first thing to consider is the drought issue during the peak summer season.
The Shanxi and Shandong Reservoirs were planned in the very first year after Dragon Cypress settled in Xianglan Mountain and encountered the dry season.
Dragon Cypress also intended to excavate these two reservoirs first.
But,
since both Azure and Ink Orchid demanded that the 'Azure Blue Reservoir' be built first, the original plan was slightly adjusted.
Round Cypress led a group of Worker Ants to dig the 'Shanxi Reservoir' at the foot of the mountain on the western side of Xianglan Mountain.
The ridge was sparsely vegetated, mostly rocks.
Spiked Cypress led the Soldier Ants, moving the excavated gravel down the mountain.
Dragon Cypress led a team of Worker Ants, digging at the foot of the mountain, first opening a channel to divert the stream at the low-lying valley exit, and then started excavating the foundation pit for the dam's base.
This task wasn't urgent.
The Worker Ants sensed the Ant King's unhurried pace, and followed suit, becoming slack themselves.
You dig first, I'll take a break. I'll dig, you watch.
Whole teams just collapsed in place, unmoving.
Dragon Cypress couldn't be bothered to manage them either.
The spring days were gentle and warm.
Time flowed by peacefully.
Suddenly, one night, the flower buds of the Deep Blue God-Given Seed developed rapidly, bloomed, withered, and bore fruit.
The seventy-five offshoots from the Southern Gorgon God-Given Seed's third batch fully matured, encircling the mother plant in a lush patch.
"Dragon Cypress~ Dragon Cypress~ Dragon Cypress..."
Under the silvery moon-disc night, the Southern Gorgon God-Given Seed roused Dragon Cypress from slumber: I'm about to bloom!
Ninety-three offshoots of the Southern Gorgon developed flower buds, swiftly turning into flower heads, emerging above the water's surface.
At the turn of late spring and early summer, ninety-three torch-shaped purplish-red flowers bloomed simultaneously.
...
The dam of Azure Blue Reservoir was about 35 meters long, with a foundation width of 8 meters.
The ant colony led by Dragon Cypress took a month and a half to excavate the upper layer of loose soil, 0.5 to 1 meter thick; below that was a hard, dry clay layer.
Round Cypress and Spiked Cypress led their ant colonies down the mountain to help.
Using the same method as with the North Gorgon and Southern Gorgon reservoirs, they divided into sections, dug a section, erected wood piles, backfilled with earth and stone, and compacted.
Building block by block.
Day by day, the weather grew hotter.
The Deep Blue God-Given Seed, evolved to advanced level, entered a vigorous growth period, shooting up node by node.
Azure could barely command the Soldier Ants and Worker Ants; she always had the Soldier Ants guarding nearby dig into the earth around the pond. Dragon Cypress simply assigned 20 primary-level Specialized Worker Ants to keep her company.
Gradually, a large shallow water area was cleared, planted densely with rice, lotus, gorgon fruit, and weeds of unknown origin.
More and more small animals were attracted over.
Azure: Dragon Cypress, what is that?
Dragon Cypress: A crake.
Azure: Tell Spiked Cypress and Giant Cypress not to hunt crakes.
Dragon Cypress: Alright…
Azure: Dragon Cypress, what is that?
Dragon Cypress: Black-Striped Snake.
Azure: Tell Spiked Cypress and Giant Cypress not to hunt Black-Striped Snakes.
Dragon Cypress: Fine.
Dragon Cypress couldn't help but remind: Black-Striped Snakes come here to prey on frogs.
Azure: Uh…
Azure: Dragon Cypress! Quick, drive it away!
Before Dragon Cypress could give the order, Azure released intense mental power fluctuations, prompting the Soldier Ants on guard nearby into action.
...
The God-Given Seeds each had their own personality traits.
Azure focused solely on her little domain, absorbed in tending to every creature on her territory.
Southern Gorgon was completely different; as she absorbed more knowledge, understanding the world, she became curious about everything beyond, and turned talkative, pestering Dragon Cypress to listen to her explanations every night into the late hours.
Southern Gorgon: Dragon Cypress, is there another God-Given Seed to the east?
Dragon Cypress: How did you know?
Southern Gorgon: I sensed it. It's absorbing my Origin Force.
Dragon Cypress: Its name is Azure.
Southern Gorgon: Oh——
Southern Gorgon: Have the Worker Ants dig a channel for me. I'll go finish it off.
Dragon Cypress: It's a Great Tall Tree over fifteen meters. You can't beat it.
Southern Gorgon: Why? How tall is fifteen meters? Is it taller than me?
Dragon Cypress: You're about three meters tall right now.
Southern Gorgon: ...
Southern Gorgon: Is it Ink Orchid's God-Given Seed? Is Ink Orchid your friend? In that case, I'll let it off.
Dragon Cypress: On behalf of Ink Orchid, thank you for your mercy, then.
Dragon Cypress was already finding this flawlessly foolish God-Given Seed a bit much.
But the gorgon fruit flowers hadn't withered yet, their condition wasn't fully stable, so Dragon Cypress still had to keep watch beside her at night.
…
…
…
The blazing peak of summer, with cicadas and frogs alternating their song.
A cloudless sky in the parched dry season.
Work schedule adjusted: labor at night, rest by day.
After advancing to High-Level Ant King, Dragon Cypress bred one of each ant type for observing the changes.
They hatched and emerged one after another.
After around eighty days—the longest cultivation cycle—the Specialized Blue Ants, Specialized Worker Ants, Specialized Soldier Ants, and Specialized Blue Soldiers had all hatched.
All differentiated ant types showed varying degrees of size changes.
Miniature Worker Ants grew from about 1 centimeter at mid-level to around 1.5 centimeters, still tiny.
Small Worker Ants increased from about 2 to 3 centimeters.
Medium Worker Ants went from about 3 centimeters up to 5 to 7 centimeters.
Large Worker Ants saw a big leap, from roughly 5 centimeters up to just over 10 to 15 centimeters.
Specialized Worker Ants had an even more extreme change, shooting up from 20–23 centimeters to about a meter, much larger even than Dragon Cypress the Ant King.
Soldier Ants, Blue Ants, and Blue Soldiers changed much as the Worker Ants did.
With the evolution to advanced life level, strength, speed, carapace strength, etc. all improved by a leap, and once the numbers were up, the overall power of the Ant Kingdom would be transformed.
Dragon Cypress always held high expectations for Blue Soldiers.
On the High-Level tier, the Blue Soldiers also had three blue ring patterns on their abdomens, in sync with the Ant King, and began to master Water System Abilities.
The strength of the Blue Soldiers' Water System Abilities was closely related to their body size.
Small and medium Blue Soldiers could not use any such abilities.
But they had an exclusive Blue Soldier talent: running swiftly atop water, and diving.
Large Blue Soldiers mastered Water Control Ability, and at their peak could manipulate a water sphere 5 centimeters in diameter, making it float and shape-shift.
Specialized Blue Soldiers were huge and likely much stronger in ability.
The moment the first Specialized Blue Soldier feathered and emerged, Dragon Cypress picked it up, took it to a pool near the Ant Nest, and began testing its abilities.
Dragon Cypress shook his tentacles and gave the command: Watch. Learn.
Dragon Cypress demonstrated himself first: the surface water surged up, detached, and condensed into a great water sphere 50 centimeters in diameter, morphing shapes.
He gave Specialized Blue Soldier a full demonstration.
Dragon Cypress gave the command: Try it out.
The Specialized Blue Soldier did as told; the pool water boiled, forming a 30-centimeter-diameter water sphere on the surface, rising slowly and changing shape.
Not bad!
Dragon Cypress praised, quite pleased.
Specialized Blue Soldiers could take over the orchard irrigation duties!
Dragon Cypress shook his tentacles and gave the command: Learn.
Dragon Cypress' body surface surged with a layer of blue Primordial Energy Shield: Hydrology Shield.
After demonstrating, he gave the command: Try it.
The Specialized Blue Soldier stood still for a long while, then figured it out: Hydrology Shield covered its body.
Dragon Cypress stepped up and poked gently with his toe.
The fragile blue film shattered.
Almost no defense at all—a completely useless ability.
Dragon Cypress shook his tentacles, motioned for a Worker Ant to bring a bamboo tube with half a tube of clear water.
Gave the command: Learn.
He then demonstrated the ability, continuously channeling Origin Force Energy, making the water inside the bamboo tube boil and bubble.
Dragon Cypress focused his thoughts, and the boiling water in the bamboo tube flashed into the pool, instantly replaced by a mass of cool water flying back into the tube.
Gave the command: Try it.
The Specialized Blue Ant did as told, channeling Origin Force Energy for a long time, until the water in the bamboo tube finally began to boil.
After a round of testing, Dragon Cypress had a clear assessment in mind.
The Specialized Blue Soldier had inherited about a third the strength of his own Water Element Ability.
It inherited all three water system abilities: water control, Hydrology Shield, and hot water.
For the time being, the only one useful he could think of was Water Control Ability.