Ant Lord in the Star Realm

Starship Wreckage was easy to identify by its unique silvery-white sheen and faint Primordial Energy fluctuations.

The Primordial Energy Metal made by the Outworld Civilization was very light. When dropped from a height, it slowly drifted to the ground like a feather.

However, the descent had taken a very long time, and the wreckage might have sunk deep into the soil due to geological shifts.

Dragon Cypress followed the stream up the mountain until he reached the spring halfway up but found nothing.

Crawling through the mountain forest, he extended his spiritual power to scan the soil layer, searching inch by inch until sunset. Still, he found nothing.

He returned to the foot of the mountain.

Black Cory had already led the team back.

On the Throne, this creature was sharing the spoils of the hunt with the Soldier Ants, Worker Ants, and Blue Ants. The feast was quite rich, including crabs, frogs, fish, and a snake segmented into pieces.

This creature had led the ant colony to forage for food!

Dragon Cypress was inwardly annoyed. He waved his Tentacle, emitting a questioning Pheromone.

"Black Cory, any discoveries?"

"...No."

"I told you to lead them in searching for this kind of Starship Wreckage! Who told you to look for food?"

"...I didn't."

Black Cory pointed his Tentacle at the Soldier Ants. Tapping his Tentacle repeatedly, he indicated each of the 10 Large Soldier Ants: They caught it! It has nothing to do with me.

Seeing this, the Worker Ants quickly formed a line, standing beside Black Cory, their Tentacles unanimously pointing at the Soldier Ants.

The Soldier Ants were momentarily bewildered but, unwilling to be outdone, pointed their Tentacles back at Black Cory, conveying: Great King, it was him! He told us to look for food.

The Blue Ants quickly retreated, signaling: This has nothing to do with us; we're just responsible for eating.

Dragon Cypress was rendered speechless by their antics.

The High-Level Worker Ants and Soldier Ants were clearly much more sentient, having learned to shirk responsibility onto each other.

Especially this fellow he had named 'Black Cory' just this afternoon; its cleverness was a bit much.

"Enough!"

"Hurry up and eat."

"After eating, return to the nest to rest."

Dragon Cypress waved his Tentacles impatiently.

—The Great King eats first!

Black Cory brought the juiciest piece of snake meat to Dragon Cypress.

Dragon Cypress was once again taken aback by this Worker Ant's unsettling intelligence. This Worker Ant was almost too smart.

A thought suddenly struck Dragon Cypress.

Black Cory was only about 90 centimeters long, slightly smaller than other High-Level Specialized Worker Ants.

The development of ant Larvae was influenced by factors such as Pheromone stimulation, food intake, and ambient temperature. Typically, the body length of High-Level Specialized Worker Ants ranged from 1 to 1.3 meters.

Black Cory was indeed rather small, but it appeared particularly robust. Its head was proportionally slightly larger, and its Mandible Teeth were more developed than those of a typical Worker Ant.

Was it cultivated around the same time as Cypress and Fragrant Cypress?

Back then, the hatching nest of the Specialized Worker Ants was sandwiched between the hatching nests of Cypress and Fragrant Cypress.

Could it be that it was contaminated with Pheromones that stimulated development towards Giant Ants and Intelligent Ants?

As Dragon Cypress pondered, he extended his spiritual power and swept it over Black Cory.

It turned out to be true!

The Origin Force Fluctuation from its body was indeed slightly stronger than that of other Worker Ants.

There were signs of mutation.

However, it had not undergone focused cultivation nor consumed Origin Force Food, so it was fundamentally different from Giant Ants and Intelligent Ants.

Ultimately, it was just a Specialized Worker Ant.

Dragon Cypress thought no more of it.

He hadn't eaten for days.

He took out the oversized Metal Can, 50 centimeters in diameter, specially made by White Ivy, and fetched water from a nearby ditch.

He then went into the jungle himself to hunt wild rabbits and pheasants, instructing the Worker Ants to butcher them.

He boiled the meat in clear water.

He ate his fill and rested for the night.

Early the next morning, Dragon Cypress set out and parked the Dominating Throne in an area where five Black Cory Grape vines grew in concentration. He then issued his instructions:

—Black Cory! You lead the Worker Ants to pick the Black Cory Grapes.

—The Soldier Ants are to remain on the Throne and are responsible for the Ant Nest's security.

—The Blue Ants are to stay inside the Ant Nest and handle the Refinement work.

Dragon Cypress scouted the vicinity to ensure no large predators posed a threat to the Ant Nest's safety. Alone, he then descended the mountain, following the stream downwards.

The stream meandered onward, joined by smaller rivulets from the nearby hills, gradually widening into a river two to three meters across.

Dragon Cypress followed the river and soon reached the boundary of the Origin Force-rich area. Further on, the Origin Force gradually thinned until it became an Origin Force vacuum.

He found nothing.

Dragon Cypress turned around and raced back to the foot of the majestic mountain in the center of the Land of Origin Force. Starting from where he had found the Starship Debris the previous day, he began searching the nearby woodlands.

Searching this vast Forest Sea was like finding a needle in a haystack.

The search gradually became aimless.

Under the midday sun.

Suddenly, the Heavenly Eye atop Dragon Cypress's head keenly detected a glint of light reflecting from a distant hill.

There's something!

Dragon Cypress soared into the air, flying straight towards it.

Beneath an old, sparsely-leafed, half-dead Cypress tree, a small corner of something was exposed in a layer of mud on a slope.

Starship Wreckage!

Dragon Cypress scanned beneath the surface with his spiritual power, but the soil soon obscured his senses.

It appeared to be a fairly large, intact piece, embedded at an angle in the rocks and mud.

Dragon Cypress began to dig and quickly recognized it. It was a Door Panel from a room in the Starship!

On the Ten-thousand Tribes Continent, Insect Generals would often dismantle Door Panels from Starship Wreckage and install them at the entrances of their dwelling caves.

A Door Panel could be worth quite a few Source Stones!

He considered taking it back to install at the entrance of his or Ink Orchid's nest.

Dragon Cypress dug vigorously.

Soon, he was disappointed.

One of the other corners of the Door Panel was torn.

Installing a 'door' from an Outworld Civilization at the entrance of one's dwelling cave was mainly for aesthetics—to look high-end and display taste. If it was damaged or incomplete, it wouldn't look good once installed and would therefore be worthless.

He continued to dig, spending the better part of half a day to finally unearth the object.

It was originally a rectangular Metal Plate, about 3 meters long and 1.2 meters wide. One corner was bent, and another was torn.

It was about 5 centimeters thick. Looking at the tear, only a few millimeters of the surface layer were solid; the interlayer was full of pores. This was one reason for its light weight.

Dragon Cypress could lift it with a single claw and easily hold it with his Mandible Tooth. However, it was too large to carry while flying and too cumbersome to transport through the dense mountain forest.

Dragon Cypress took flight, returning to where the Dominating Throne was parked.

Under the Black Cory Grape vines, Black Cory was lounging comfortably with the Worker Ants and Soldier Ants, while a few Blue Ants lazily performed Refinement on the freshly picked grapes.

Seeing their Ant King return, they all stood up. Sensing the Ant King's irritation, they all pointed their Tentacles at Black Cory, indicating: It was his command!

"Great King!"

"Hot!"

Black Cory pointed his Tentacle skyward.

It's too sunny during the day to work, too dark at night to work, too hot in summer to work, and too cold in winter to work.

Lazy Worker Ants could always find an excuse.

It wasn't the only one; many Worker Ants were lazy, and many even formed groups to slack off together.

However, a Worker Ant capable of tempting diligent Worker Ants into laziness, and even leading Soldier Ants and Blue Ants astray, was a first.

Maybe it's time to get rid of this one, Dragon Cypress silently mused.

He waved his Tentacles, issuing the command:

—Return to the nest.

「…」

The Dominating Throne took off and landed on the slope where the Door Panel had been excavated.

Dragon Cypress directed four Worker Ants to come forward. They lifted the Door Panel by its four corners. He then commanded another Worker Ant to take one end of a Spider Silk Rope and thread it underneath the panel.

They used one rope horizontally and another vertically, tying them securely in a cross pattern.

Dragon Cypress grabbed the ropes, took off, and carefully placed the panel on top of the log structure of the Ant Nest.

He then went to the stream at the foot of the hill and controlled a Water Sphere to wash the panel clean.

After all, it was a Door Panel. He would transport it back to Xianglan Mountain.

「…」

Dragon Cypress personally supervised the work for a full day, having the ants extensively pick Black Cory Grapes and other wild fruits, which were then refined into Ant Honey.

「He set off on the road.」

This location wasn't far from Kiwifruit Mountain.

He decided to first notify Ink Orchid of the good news.

When it came to finding treasures, it was still best left to someone like Ink Orchid, who was naturally hypersensitive to Origin Force Fluctuations.