Ant Lord in the Star Realm

——Oh beautiful and kind Ink Orchid, blessed by the Natural God.

——Oh brave and wise Ink Orchid, luck always accompanies her.

——See, under the protection of the Natural God and the guidance of good fortune, Ink Orchid is sure to find the treasure!

——This is fate's arrangement; the treasure was prepared for Ink Orchid by the Natural God all along.

——And let's not forget the diligent Dragon Cypress Ant King!

——And the pure and kind Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple.

At the mention of treasure, before Dragon Cypress could speak, Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple's flattery rolled in like crashing waves.

Pa! Pa!

Dragon Cypress swung his tentacles and gave each of them a knock on the head. "Move aside! Quit making trouble!"

Dragon Cypress asked, "Ink Orchid, treasure?"

Ink Orchid: "An entire treasury!"

Dragon Cypress: "!!!"

Dragon Cypress got excited for a moment, then froze, sensing something off, and asked, "The treasury door won't open, right?"

Ink Orchid: "Don't know..."

Ink Orchid: "There should be some kind of gap..."

Dragon Cypress: "A standalone treasury?"

Ink Orchid: "At least one..."

Ink Orchid gave a brief explanation: "It's a very large room for storing treasures. My guess is, it smashed into the ground, making a big pit. The earth shifted, creating a patch of marshy lowland."

Ink Orchid lifted a front claw to point the direction, and said, "That way!"

...

To the direct east of Cold Orchid Mountain, on the edge, at the end of a chain of hilly mountains, surrounded by hills with a sunken flatland in the center. There was a small rivulet running through, and in the middle a depression about forty to fifty meters in diameter.

It's winter. The rivulet has dried up.

Ink Orchid dug a drainage outlet at the bottom of the depression and already drained out the standing water.

The water grasses that used to grow in the lowland were all uprooted and tossed aside on the shore.

Ink Orchid, using a bearskin as a pouch, was busy scooping out the silt.

The lowland had been churned into a black mire.

"The treasury's below!"

Ink Orchid said, "You can't see it, but if you calm your mind and sense carefully, you can pick up a faint fluctuation of Origin Force. That's the unique pulse of high-strength Primordial Energy Metal used only for Starship Treasury walls. I know it well."

"Got it!"

Dragon Cypress parked the Dominating Throne to the side, leapt down first, came to the edge of the mud pool, stood still and focused to sense.

Indeed, under the mud there were faint Origin Force fluctuations.

Whenever Dragon Cypress explored a Starship, he'd split its rooms into two types: ordinary rooms and treasuries.

Ordinary rooms used that silvery-white Primordial Energy Metal for walls and doors, covered in tiny pores, extremely light. The stump ant nest itself was laid with a wall panel and a door panel made of this type.

The treasury's walls and doors used a completely different kind of metal—an ultra-high-strength Primordial Energy Metal. Especially the treasury doors—not even an Insect King with Metal System Talent could break them.

The Origin Force fluctuations between the two types of Primordial Energy Metal were quite different. You could tell by perception: this was indeed a treasury.

It fell here, buried deep in the mud. As long as things inside aren't ruined, they're definitely still there!

Dragon Cypress stepped through the muck to the middle of the pit. His spiritual power probed down, but couldn't reach beyond one meter deep.

He tried using Water System Ability to push the mud aside.

But his Water System Ability wasn't strong enough; even at full effort, he could only open a crevice about two meters deep, and the treasure chest was still out of sight.

Dragon Cypress withdrew his Origin Force and looked at Ink Orchid.

Ink Orchid took off the circular ring hanging from her neck and said, "Dragon Cypress, I'll use this!"

Saying this, she injected Origin Force into it, letting the Rose Halo pattern of Primordial Energy cover her whole body. Under the dazed gaze of Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, she leapt straight into the mud.

After a while, Ink Orchid emerged from the mud, a little disheveled, struggling to crawl out.

The Primordial Energy pattern released by the Rose Halo blocked all muck—there was not a speck on her.

"It's deep! Over ten meters down. I dove about three or four meters and could roughly make out the outline of the treasure chest. About eight meters wide, four meters tall, wedged at an angle in the earth—I can't tell how long."

"Dragon Cypress, want to try?"

"...No need."

Dragon Cypress hung his head in thought.

"Good job, Ink Orchid."

"Ink Orchid, you're amazing!"

Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple grabbed Ink Orchid's front claw and dragged her ashore.

"Ink Orchid, that circular treasure is awesome!"

"Ink Orchid, can I see it?"

The two of them stared at the ring in Ink Orchid's claw, four compound eyes gleaming—this wasn't flattery, this thing was really incredible!

And it's so pretty!

Ink Orchid hesitated a bit, then handed it to Blue Catalpa: "Blue Catalpa, you play a bit, then Snakebark Maple, but no fighting over it."

Ink Orchid turned and asked Dragon Cypress, "Dragon Cypress, this mud is so annoying. Do you have a way to dig it out quickly?"

Dragon Cypress: "It's a real pain! Hard to handle."

He thought about it, sighed, and said, "No time this winter. We'll have to come back next summer."

Dragon Cypress: "This thing has been stuck here for who knows, thousands or even tens of thousands of years. No rush at this point."

"Oh——"

Ink Orchid: "Then I'll stay here and keep searching for other treasures? There are so many places I haven't checked yet."

Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, who were fighting over the ring, froze mid-action and said in unison, "We'll stay and help!"

How long have you two been away from your territory?

Your Life Seeds were just planted a year ago, aren't you worried something might happen?

Dragon Cypress glanced at them grumpily, thought for a bit, then helplessly turned to Ink Orchid and asked, "Ink Orchid, what do you think?"

Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple instantly mirrored him, their hopeful gaze fixed on Ink Orchid.

Ink Orchid: "You can stay, but you must stick by me, no running off, and you can't go more than five meters away."

Blue Catalpa: "Three meters!"

Snakebark Maple: "One meter."

Blue Catalpa: "I'll be on your left."

Snakebark Maple: "I'll be on your right."

...

They even managed to find a treasury buried more than ten meters deep under swampy mud.

Ink Orchid's treasure-hunting skills are just too OP.

Originally, Dragon Cypress had come to pick Ink Orchid up and bring her back to Xianglan Mountain, and drop Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple off at their territory on the way.

Now that there was such a big haul, Dragon Cypress couldn't bear to dampen Ink Orchid's excitement, and ended up keeping Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple along, too.

The two of them were always coming up with ways to persuade Dragon Cypress to take them treasure-hunting—if he didn't give them a chance, they'd be disappointed and cranky for sure.

...

Dragon Cypress alone piloted the Dominating Throne north, crossing vast and perilous mountains to reach Kiwifruit Mountain.

Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple's home cave and temporary ant nest.

The Dominating Throne slowly approached and came in for a landing.

Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple's Life Seed plants were just a handful, their territory this tiny patch, a glance could take stock of everything—it was all crystal clear.

Round Cypress had perfectly inherited Dragon Cypress's steady nature—meticulous in everything, managing the place neat and tidy.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King!"

Round Cypress, flanked by two Specialized Worker Ants, came out to greet him.

Dragon Cypress pondered a moment, then asked, "Round Cypress, your food supplies are okay, right?"

Round Cypress: "Soldier Ants are out hunting, we're barely scraping by."

Hearing this, Round Cypress immediately felt uneasy—then, looking again at the Dominating Throne and realizing Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple hadn't come back, he grew worried and said:

"Dragon Cypress Ant King, do I still need to stay here?"

Dragon Cypress gave a brief explanation: "Ink Orchid found a treasury, but it'll take a lot of effort to dig it out... Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple got excited and wanted to keep searching. I'll come spring to pick them up and switch you out."

Round Cypress: "..."

Round Cypress: "Understood."

Round Cypress: "As long as you get something, that's good!"

Dragon Cypress: "I'll spend two days hunting large animals, have the Blue Ants refine and store them, and help you and the ant colony stockpile enough food for the winter."

…

…

…

Dragon Cypress worked two busy days at Kiwifruit Mountain, then set off back for Xianglan Mountain.

The end of autumn had arrived, and the Common Life Seed plants were ripening one after another, with Fragrant Cypress organizing the harvest. Everything had been stored away by now.

This year, all the produce from the Common Life Seeds, added together, calculated at the caravan's selling price, brought in more than five thousand Source Stones.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid's Common Life Seed yields were in a period of exponential growth. Next year's total should hit seven thousand Source Stones, and the following year even nine thousand Source Stones.

Dragon Cypress estimated that at the High-Level Warrior stage, the total Common Life Seed income for himself and Ink Orchid would surpass twenty thousand Source Stones.

And that's with Ink Orchid, during her Primary-Level Flower Mantis Warrior stage, having chosen way too many Orchid Grass Life Seeds, which lowered the income...

...

North Mountain Territory,

The Divine-Given Northern Gorgon and Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid seeds matured one after another.

Dragon Cypress oversaw as supervisor, Fragrant Cypress handled supplementing the Source Stones, and the harvest, sun-drying, and bagging for storage all went smoothly.

It's now deep winter—the annual fishing at Black Lotus Lake can begin.

The Dominating Throne loaded up with Cypress, sixty Specialized Blue Soldiers, sixty Large Blue Ants, twenty Specialized Blue Ants, twenty Large Blue Ants, and twenty medium-sized Worker Ants.

Overloaded on the road.

After two days in the air, they wobbled into Black Lotus Lake territory.

Unusually, White Willow didn't spot them right away.

Not until the Dominating Throne crossed the ring-shaped mountains did a black shadow zoom up to greet them.

"Cypress!"

"Dragon Cypress Ant King—"

White Willow leveled out beside the Dominating Throne, wanting to speak but hesitating.

"What's up?"

Dragon Cypress asked, "Did Black Cory slack off again? Don't bother about him."

You know Black Cory slacked off?

White Willow: "No—"

White Willow: "Black Cory was very diligent, he helped me tidy up my territory thoroughly."

Dragon Cypress: "???"

Dragon Cypress was not pleased.

At home, he slacks off every day. But you work hard at someone else's territory?

Ungrateful little guy!

He was already thinking of dumping this guy somewhere.

All right, decided—leave him with White Willow.

Dragon Cypress pondered, guiding the Dominating Throne to descend.

White Willow hurriedly said, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, well, Black Cory helped me with work and I gave him Origin Force Food, and then he..."

Dragon Cypress: "Died suddenly?"

White Willow: "...No."

White Willow: "He evolved."