Ant Lord in the Star Realm

Ten-thousand Tribes Continent, Southeast Mountain Range, Jade Peach Kingdom.

White Ivy's carapace was empty and bare, her steps heavy, as she walked along the winding mountain path.

At the foot of the mountain, peach orchards.

Yellow Peach looked up.

"White Ivy Mountain Lord!" Little Red Peach looked up too, happily cheering, tossing aside the tool in her claw, and dashing forward, but then suddenly realized something was off.

"White Ivy Mountain Lord? Where's your cargo?"

"You—"

"Did those vile Beast Clan rob you?"

"…No."

White Ivy looked crestfallen and asked, "Little Red Peach, do you believe I can earn Source Stones?"

Little Red Peach answered firmly, "Of course I believe!"

White Ivy didn't say anything, walked into the garden, and asked, "Yellow Peach, do you believe I can get rich?"

"…I do!" Yellow Peach asked worriedly, "White Ivy, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

White Ivy undid the spider silk bag on her carapace, took out a metal can, placed it in front of Yellow Peach, opened the lid, revealing inside a golden honey jelly radiating with Origin Force aura.

"Yellow Peach, give it a try."

"What's this?"

"…Origin Force Honey."

"Honey? This smells fruity. Even Origin Force Honey doesn't have such a strong Origin Force aura."

"Don't worry about that, just try it."

Yellow Peach stretched out her front paw, gently dabbed a bit, and tasted it.

"It's a bit like honey. But it definitely isn't honey."

"Tastes pretty good."

"Mixed with a lot of Origin Force food?"

White Ivy: "Yes. It's the mutant ability of the Mutant Water-Type Bee King—it can refine fruit and Origin Force foods together, mix them up, and turn them into this kind of Origin Force Honey."

White Ivy asked, "I buy it for 800 Source Stones per can, sell for 1000 per can. Yellow Peach, do you think I can make Source Stones?"

Little Red Peach jumped in, "200 Source Stones profit per can!"

Yellow Peach didn't answer White Ivy's question, but hesitantly asked, "Where did this come from?"

White Ivy: "That Little Ant King."

Yellow Peach: "If you store it like this, won't the Origin Force slowly leak?"

White Ivy: "Can last a bit over a year."

Yellow Peach: "What happened?"

White Ivy: "Melde said the risk was just too big; she thought I'd lose everything and didn't agree to let me go into this business."

Yellow Peach: "Then your goods…"

White Ivy: "We had a fight."

Yellow Peach: "A fight?"

White Ivy: "We split up."

White Ivy spoke with grief, "When we went over the numbers, I realized all my goods were gone. I even owe Melde 175,000 Source Stones now. I've been losing money all along, and without noticing, I've blown through the huge fortune Carpesium left me, and I'm 175,000 in the red on top of that…"

White Ivy: "Yellow Peach, am I just dumb and useless?"

Yellow Peach: "..."

Little Red Peach: "!!!"

All Yellow Peach had ever heard was that White Ivy's caravan always lost money, but never imagined she'd lost this much!

How did it go so wrong?

The just-cheerful Little Red Peach very sensibly slinked behind Yellow Peach.

Yellow Peach hemmed and hawed for a long time, then tried to comfort her, "White Ivy, don't get discouraged. Not all that Source Stone was a loss. You spent a lot helping me evolve into a Mountain Lord. You've used up a lot for your own evolution too."

White Ivy: "I've always lived frugally."

White Ivy, feeling downcast, said, "I kept telling myself, when I finally earn enough Source Stones, I'll finally treat myself. But after all these years, I'm still just a 3rd-age Mountain Lord."

Yellow Peach, talking against her conscience: "Honestly, I think your losses are still within a reasonable range—it's Melde who's being stingy."

"Yeah… yeah…"

Little Red Peach chimed in, trying not to make things worse.

White Ivy said nothing.

On the way here, she'd already cursed Melde in her mind ten thousand times.

But once she'd cooled off, thinking it through, if it hadn't been for Melde looking out for her all these years, she'd have fallen apart ages ago… In fact, she'd already gone bankrupt once.

Yellow Peach wanted to change the subject to something happy, but looking at White Ivy's situation now, there seemed to be nothing cheerful to talk about—the miserable topic was inescapable.

"White Ivy, you and Melde really split up?"

"Yep."

"Then… what about the Little Flame Spider from your caravan…"

"Lupine's a high-level 7th-age Flame Spider warrior now, and Grass Dragon's a high-level 2nd-age too. They want to try going out on their own as roving merchants."

Yellow Peach: "Oh—"

White Ivy drooped, "But as their elder, I have nothing. There's nothing I can give them."

Yellow Peach: "..."

Yellow Peach thought and thought, but just couldn't figure out what to say for comfort, worrying for her.

Flame Spiders can't plant Life Seeds, run territories, or harvest Origin Force food.

Flame Spiders can only get the Origin Force food they need for growth and evolution through roving trade.

And now, looking at White Ivy's empty carapace—it wasn't much to start with, and now she didn't even have her last bit of trading capital left.

"White Ivy, what are you going to do now?"

"What can I do?"

"Got any plans?"

"I'm thinking."

Yellow Peach pointed at the metal can on the ground, asking, "That came from the Ant King on the Cloud Trace Continent?"

White Ivy: "Yeah. I think it can sell, I think it can make me rich, but Melde didn't agree."

White Ivy said with determination, "I still think this is a chance for a comeback!"

Yellow Peach: "..."

Yellow Peach was at a loss for words.

Yellow Peach wasn't a Flame Spider, didn't really get roving merchant deals, and for the moment had no idea what to say.

Little Red Peach crept over, dabbed her tentacle in the can of Origin Force Ant Honey, brought it to her mouth with her front paw, and tasted, "Delicious!"

Yellow Peach contemplated and analyzed, "But a one-year storage period is honestly just too short. Just getting it over from the Wan Country Continent takes you half a year, so you've only got half a year left to actually sell it. This kind of cargo, it's fine in small amounts, but if you have too much and can't sell it in time, then…"

Maybe… Melde has a point.

Yellow Peach didn't dare say it out loud.

White Ivy helped fill in the blank, "Even if you sell it, if it isn't eaten soon enough, there'll be quality issues as well."

You realize how serious the problem is too, huh? Yellow Peach bobbed her tentacle up and down in agreement.

Little Red Peach stretched out two tentacles, dabbed some Ant Honey, hugged them and licked, smacking her lips, and couldn't help but exclaim:

"So tasty!"

"Little Red Peach! We're talking business here! All you care about is eating." Yellow Peach scolded her.

"I'm just tasting…"

Little Red Peach quickly cleaned her tentacles and seriously said, "So the issue is, the short storage time makes trading this 'Origin Force Honey' risky, right?"

White Ivy and Yellow Peach both ignored her.

Little Red Peach: "So why not find a way to increase the storage time?"

White Ivy: "I'm thinking about that too."

Little Red Peach: "Why is it only good for a year?"

Yellow Peach: "Because there's a gap between the can and the lid. Origin Force leaks through the gap. When enough leaks away, the Origin Force Ant Honey inside goes bad, its quality drops."

Little Red Peach: "What about the threaded cans you made last year?"

Yellow Peach: "I'm afraid that won't work either. If the can and lid are separate, there will always be a gap. No matter how tiny, as long as there's a gap, Origin Force will leak."

Now into the technical brainstorming, White Ivy composed herself and said, "Yellow Peach, Little Red Peach, help me think—come up with a way to perfectly bind the lid and the can, and completely seal in the Origin Force."

Yellow Peach: "I could use my Metal Ability to seal it, but then the lid wouldn't come off."

Little Red Peach: "I have an idea!"

Yellow Peach snapped, "Little Red Peach, go play somewhere else!"

White Ivy asked, "Little Red Peach, what's your idea?"

Little Red Peach: "White Ivy Mountain Lord, when I was small, didn't you feed me some Bee King Jelly? That stuff keeps just fine in a clay jar; the Origin Force doesn't leak out."

White Ivy: "Yes. That's made only by the rare few water-type bees, and only by gathering pollen and nectar from the Divine-Given Seed. Bee King Jelly is as stable as Source Stone and won't go bad even after ten thousand years."

Yellow Peach suddenly caught on to what Little Red Peach meant, tapped with her tentacle, pointing at the metal can, "If you coat the surface with Bee King Jelly, it'll will completely seal the Origin Force in."

After saying that, she quickly added, "But wouldn't that be way too expensive? White Ivy, last time that tiny bottle of Bee King Honey—didn't you say it cost you 3000 Source Stones?"

White Ivy, just a little cheered up, fell back into gloom and sighed, "Yeah. It's one of the most delicious and also expensive Origin Force foods on the continent. If I use Bee King Jelly to seal it, the cost would double—the 1000 per can Origin Force Honey would have to sell for at least 2000 Source Stones. No bug would buy that."

Bee King Jelly is just rare and tasty, but doesn't offer any special boosts; even the Bee Kings who make it don't always eat it themselves.

Only the rarest wealthy bugs buy it—to treat honored guests, or show off their own strength, money, and status.

"That won't work. That way I'd just lose even more." Yellow Peach shook her tentacle stiffly, shooting the idea down.

"You're both wrong!"

Little Red Peach pointed her tentacle at the rim of the metal can, "What I mean is, use a bit of Bee King Jelly on the threading of the can's mouth, then screw the lid on tight, sealing the thread gap with the Bee King Jelly."

Little Red Peach asked, "That way, you'd only need just a tiny bit, right?"

Yellow Peach: "!!!"

Yellow Peach stood her tentacle upright.

White Ivy jumped up, "That's it!"

An ingenious solution that's not even so hard to understand.

The more they thought about it, the more doable it seemed.

White Ivy started bouncing with happiness.

One sentence snapped the bug from a dream, parted the mist, and let the rainbow through.

"Little Red Peach, you really are a genius mantis!"

"Once I strike it rich, you can bet I'll share the fortune with you!"

"No, I'll take both of you with me! You too, Yellow Peach!"

Little Red Peach cheered, "Yay! Yay! Thank you, White Ivy Mountain Lord. This time you'll definitely make a fortune!"

Yellow Peach: "..."

Just starting to feel relieved, Yellow Peach suddenly got a sense of dread rising in her heart.