Ant Lord in the Star Realm

Spiritual power swept out, but was blocked.

——Is it just for blocking spiritual power detection? But with such an eye-catching color, it doesn't look like it's meant for stealth and sneaking around.

——Disguising itself as a bunch of roses? What a stupid disguise! I can see right through it with the Heavenly Eye.

Dragon Cypress was puzzled, unable to understand.

"Dragon Cypress! Isn't it pretty?" Ink Orchid called out loudly.

"...Pretty."

Dragon Cypress replied perfunctorily, then asked, "Ink Orchid, does this thing have any other use? Like defense? Or any other practical function?"

"I haven't discovered any yet..." Ink Orchid withdrew the Origin Force. The rose-bush pattern of primordial energy covering her body dissipated, she let go of her front claw tip, and handed the circular ring to Dragon Cypress, saying:

"Dragon Cypress, you try it!"

Dragon Cypress took it, scanning it with spiritual power—Outworld Civilization–made primordial energy metal and primordial energy gemstone.

Following Ink Orchid's style, he fastened the ring to the tip of his left front claw and tried injecting Origin Force.

Immediately, a feedback of primordial energy, with rose-patterned designs spreading along the left front claw, quickly covering the whole body.

Dragon Cypress lifted his leg and tried taking a few steps—very soft, it didn't hinder his movement at all.

The membrane wings were also covered with a layer, and when unfurled and flapped, a vibrant flash of crimson primordial energy shimmered like a dazzling spectacle.

"Beautiful! Beautiful!" Ink Orchid bounced and cheered.

"..."

What's the use of being pretty? Dragon Cypress folded his membrane wings, staring again at the circular ring, scrutinizing it further.

He increased the input of Origin Force, and all the excess was stored in the red gemstone.

When he stopped injecting Origin Force, the primordial energy patterns covering his body did not disappear, but instead continued to be maintained by consuming the stored Origin Force.

It's somewhat like the Dominating Throne, can store Origin Force and then release it steadily. But compared to the Dominating Throne, the storage capacity of this ring is dozens of levels lower—a mere trinket, no contest.

Dragon Cypress experimented several more times but found no other functions.

He basically figured it out,

This ring is just an Outworld Civilization artifact for covering the body with a pretty layer of primordial energy patterns—a decorative accessory.

Zero practicality.

Dragon Cypress evaluated, "Though this thing does nothing for combat abilities, it's pretty and novel. There must be bugs willing to pay a lot for it."

"Not selling!" Ink Orchid quickly snatched the ring back, "We aren't short of Source Stones, so why sell it?"

They really weren't short of Source Stones right now. If you like it, keep it for fun.

Dragon Cypress nodded his antennae in agreement, took a strand of spider silk rope, threaded it through the ring and tied a knot, hanging it around Ink Orchid's neck.

This way it's easy to carry and not likely to get lost.

"Ink Orchid, where did you find it?"

"Over by that gulley. I also found a pretty big piece of starship debris. We can put it on top of the stump ant nest so we won't have to worry about the sun in the summer."

Big debris? That's way more useful than this rose ring...

Dragon Cypress: "Great! Let's go take a look."

…

…

…

Dragon Cypress was estimating: if White Ivy's sales work went as smoothly as expected, he would need much more Origin Force Honey next year.

So here at Xianglan Mountain, enough ant honey would need to be processed and stored in advance.

The wild fruit gathering work had greatly increased, but without Ink Orchid as the capable helper, Dragon Cypress was a bit overwhelmed.

Dragon Cypress had come to Cold Orchid Mountain originally intending to bring Ink Orchid along.

But now Ink Orchid had found something interesting and was all excited, and Dragon Cypress didn't want to spoil her fun. So he hung around Cold Orchid Mountain for two days and then set out alone controlling the Dominating Throne.

About one tenth of the 'southwest region' charted by Dragon Cypress hadn't been explored yet, so he planned to sweep through it while passing by, to see if he could find another Land of Origin Force.

...

The Dominating Throne wasn't exactly slow in flight.

Most of the time was spent gathering. In an Origin Force Vacuum Land, Worker Ants couldn't operate away from the throne for a long time, so Dragon Cypress had to use his own claws.

Stopping and starting along the way, constantly busy—enough to wear an ant out.

As long as nothing went wrong with White Ivy's cooperation, yearly sales of Origin Force Honey would keep rising, and demand for all sorts of fruit would go up every year too.

So flying all over the wild collecting fruit couldn't be a permanent solution.

The pace of orchard construction had to be sped up!

And now they'd more or less met the conditions for expanding beyond Xianglan Mountain.

First stop in Dragon Cypress's expansion plan: Southern Sour Jujube Mountain!

Southern Sour Jujube Mountain was mainly for planting Keg Vine, Southern Sour Jujube Fruit Trees, peach trees, pear trees, woodberries, and the like.

He could raise seedlings at Black Lotus Lake and Xianglan Mountain, then move them over there.

...

Thirty days passed.

The southwestern region's map was fully revealed, and no eleventh Origin Force Point was found.

All ten Specialized Blue Ants brought on this outing were stuffed full, and so were another seventeen Large Blue Ants.

Dragon Cypress steered the Dominating Throne, circling around to Scarletlight Mountain.

Sang's Territory's mature mulberry, lychee, longan, fragrant leaf, and other Life Seeds had all been completely harvested.

Black Cory led Worker Ants and Blue Ants to rest in the cave where Mulberry lived.

"Black Cory, the tasks were all completed smoothly, right?" asked Dragon Cypress.

"Completed." Black Cory waggled her antennae in reply.

Her communication was very limited—she released a burst of mixed pheromones, conveying the muddled message: I didn't slack off!

If you didn't slack off, why are you panicking? Dragon Cypress went up to check the Blue Ants' abdomens—pretty good, all sorts of Origin Force Ant Honey carefully sorted and stored in the various Worker Ants' bellies, not a single mishap.

Black Cory could barely serve as a 'Command Ant'.

But who knows if she was born by accident, or could be deliberately bred?

When opening up other Lands of Origin Force, the biggest challenge was the shortage of 'Command Ants'.

If it were possible to stably breed Black Cory–type ants—'command-type Specialized Worker Ants' that didn't need to consume Origin Force Food but could help command the ant colony—that would revolutionize the Ant Kingdom's command system.

In the future, when expanding into other Lands of Origin Force, there'd be no need to breed Intelligent Ants or Giant Ants, saving masses of resources.

How did Black Cory come about? It was worth testing to figure it out.

There were 7 newly bred Specialized Worker Ant larvae in the Stump Ant Nest. Dragon Cypress had already begun experiments, releasing a large amount of pheromones that provoked specialization into Specialized Worker Ants, and a small amount to promote differentiation toward Gigantification Soldier Ants and Intelligent Worker Ants.

...

"Dragon Cypress Ant King!"

A call of spiritual power came from outside the cave.

Sensing Origin Force fluctuations, Mulberry brought Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple back from working on the other side of the mountain.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King, we can evolve!"

"It's my turn to evolve first this time!"

"Where's Ink Orchid?"

"Did Ink Orchid find some Outworld Civilization treasure?"

"Of course she did! Ink Orchid is favored by the Natural God."

"She must have found something! Ink Orchid has the strongest Origin Force perception."

Mulberry also curiously asked, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, did Ink Orchid have any gains over there?"

Dragon Cypress: "...A little."

Dragon Cypress explained, "She found an Outworld Civilization artifact. A tiny ring—after injecting Origin Force, a layer of pretty primordial energy patterns show up on the carapace, but it only has this one function that isn't actually practical."

Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple froze and exchanged glances: She really found one?

They turned in perfect unison, eyes blazing, looking at Dragon Cypress: We want to hunt treasures too!

Dragon Cypress waggled his antennae and called out, "Mulberry, help me unload the Mobile Ant Nest first. Blue Catalpa evolves first."