Dragon Cypress woke from deep slumber, weaker than ever before, struggling to shed its old carapace, its body swelling, new shell hardening, body length settling at around 1.8 meters.

The molting had drained all physical strength, and it lay atop the throne for a long while before finally mustering a bit of energy, shakily waving its tentacles to give commands.

"Great King?"

The Giant Cypress guarding the entrance exclaimed, rushing in. At the sight of Dragon Cypress's condition, it immediately panicked.

"Great King, are you all right?"

Dragon Cypress was too weak to answer.

Luckily, the smartest Giant Cypress had been assigned to stand watch.

Giant Cypress quickly calmed down, soon grasping the situation, leaped atop the throne, opened a metal can prepared nearby, dipped its tentacles in, and fed it to Dragon Cypress's mouth.

Dragon Cypress opened its mouth and licked.

Ant honey entered its stomach, absorbed instantly, transforming into a gentle stream of warmth coursing through its body. With the energy injected, its exhausted six limbs regained power.

Extreme hunger and thirst followed immediately.

Dragon Cypress took the metal can, cupping it in both claws, and poured it straight onto the throne's cushion, burying its head to eat voraciously.

"Giant Cypress, how many days did I sleep?"

"Five days? Great King, not quite five. To be precise, exactly four days, plus one night and half a morning."

"…Less than five days."

"That's not a long time~"

Dragon Cypress understood: This time, it was caused by overconsumption of Divine-Given Origin Force Food.

Compared to ordinary Origin Force Food, Divine-Given Origin Force Food was costly because its strengthening effect was superb, and its upper limit much higher.

Normally, to evolve from Age Period 6 to 7, it only required around 40,000 Source Stones in regular Origin Force Food, picking out the cheapest options—even less than 40,000 at times.

But this time, Dragon Cypress's evolution cost over 100,000 Source Stones, expensive because of the Divine-Given Giant Plate Fruit, Fenghuai Seed, Black Emperor Peach Kernel, Snake Blood Apricot Kernel…

"It's fine now. Giant Cypress, go notify Round Cypress and Spiked Cypress: We'll hold a banquet and celebrate tonight."

"Yes, Great King."

Giant Cypress jumped off the throne, leading the Soldier Ants swiftly out of the ant nest.

Dragon Cypress tilted its head. In the bamboo tube in the cave corner, fresh water rose in a slender stream, flying toward and entering its mouth.

Fresh water flowed into its stomach and was absorbed, filling the somewhat empty body beneath its carapace quickly to fullness.

After finishing three pre-sleep prepared cans of ant honey, the hunger in its belly disappeared, its physical strength soared steadily, and the strengthening effects became apparent.

Dragon Cypress extended its spiritual power, scanning itself.

A bit annoyed—it had gained another layer of fat.

The effect of ordinary Silver Cypress Seeds to optimize body shape was no match for the Ant Clan's inherent urge to grow fat and bulky.

It pushed its spiritual power to the limit, extending it along the tunnels.

The 20,000 Source Stones worth of Six Daozi procured this year were still uneaten, and so its spiritual power had not increased noticeably.

It took out the metal case, infused it with Origin Force to open it, then spat out the carefully nurtured Coarse Torreya Life Seed, pinched up a backup Binmu Seed, and put it in its Life Pouch.

The Binmu Seed had been bartered from Seven-Leaf Mountain Lord by Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, a cultivated and optimized sapling, with the rare effect of enhancing water system affinity, benefitting the comprehension and use of Water System Abilities.

Dragon Cypress tidied up its Life Seeds and redirected its spiritual power to communicate with the Dominating Throne.

[Please select Messenger Type]

[Guardian of Strength]

[Guardian of Hydrology]

[Producer of Agriculture]

[Producer of Refinement]

Dragon Cypress casually picked [Guardian of Strength]

The Dominating Throne followed with a message to select quantity.

[Please select quantity]

[Quantity 1]

[Quantity 2]

[Quantity 3]

...

[Quantity 9]

With evolution into a High-Level Age Period 7 Ant King, the maximum number of ant eggs the Dominating Throne could produce per batch increased to nine.

This improvement didn't matter much anymore.

At present, the Ant Kingdom's Specialized Soldier Ants and Large Soldier Ants already numbered over 2,000, with plenty of combat strength;

Specialized Worker Ants and Large Worker Ants 1,000 strong—enough for reclaiming land;

Specialized Blue Soldiers and Large Blue Soldiers, 500 in all, taking care of irrigation and fishing with ease.

Specialized Blue Ants and Large Blue Ants, 1,000 strong, had maximized the food storage capacity of the ant nest.

Food constraints made it unwise to further increase the number of large ants.

Over the past year, Dragon Cypress had mostly focused on cultivating small and micro Worker Ants and Soldier Ants, boosting the nest's logistical power, and keeping the orchard pests under control.

—As an Evolution Mountain Lord Level Ant King, I can raise the first batch of combat Soldier Ants at a pretty fast rate.

—But the large ants I raised during my High-Level Ant King phase have lifespans of 50 to 100 years, so none will die of old age soon. Food's going to be a major problem!

Deep in thought, Dragon Cypress suddenly gained new insight.

The Ant Clan was naturally warlike.

In some cases, the Ant King might simply cull a batch of ants through warfare, accelerating the kingdom ant colony's renewal.

It's a cold-hearted yet unavoidable method of handling things.

—After I evolve into Evolution Mountain Lord Level Ant King, maybe I can breed more herbivorous Blue Soldiers as the main fighting force of the kingdom.

Dragon Cypress mulled it over, found it feasible, and grew visibly happy.

It waved its tentacles, summoning.

A Specialized Blue Ant with a belly full of ant honey walked into the cave.

It continued eating to recover.

...

"Dragon Cypress."

Ink Orchid appeared at the cave entrance, peering in and entering. "How are you?"

Dragon Cypress: "Overdid it with the Divine-Given Origin Force Food. Almost got myself in trouble."

"Huh?"

Ink Orchid jumped in fright, staring at Dragon Cypress up and down.

"You look fine—seems it went well."

Dragon Cypress explained: "The strengthening effect was too intense. Too many nutrients and too much stamina consumed during evolution; I woke up extremely weak."

Dragon Cypress reassured: "Good thing I ate a lot of Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seeds. Nothing serious happened."

So, was it something or nothing after all?

Ink Orchid: "..."

Ink Orchid asked, "How about your strength? Any improvement?"

Dragon Cypress: "Let me recover first."

Unhurried, it finished all the ant honey stored in the Specialized Blue Ant's belly, eating from morning until twilight.

Body brimming with stamina and Origin Force, it reached a peak state.

"Ink Orchid, let's leave the nest and try it outside."

Dragon Cypress leaped to the ground, the Dominating Throne shrinking rapidly to half a meter in diameter, floating behind it.

Dragon Cypress waved its tentacles, sending a command to the Worker Ants deep in the nest.

The Worker Ants began carrying Source Stones from the treasure vault outside.

"Back in Age Period 6, my strength was enough to carry about 12,000 Source Stones, and the Dominating Throne's limit was just 6,000."

"Right now, I can probably lift 20,000 Source Stones."

Dragon Cypress gave Ink Orchid a brief explanation. The biggest change was to the Dominating Throne's form.

The Worker Ants brought bags of 1,000 Source Stones each to the cave mouth—ten bags in total, 10,000 Source Stones.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid put in some claw work, loaded the stones onto the throne, and stacked them in the center to avoid shaking from unbalanced weight.

With a thought,

The Dominating Throne lifted gradually, rising smoothly into the air, plunging down toward the Azure Blue Reservoir at the mountain's base.

Before Azure could ask, and amid Ink Orchid's cheers, the Dominating Throne shot straight upward, flying sideways back to the southern entrance of the mountain nest.

Azure's guess was absolutely right.

The Dominating Throne's carrying capacity grew in step with Dragon Cypress's strength.

Moreover, its maximum load was roughly half Dragon Cypress's own strength.

With that rule clear, moving nine million Source Stones to Huagi Mountain wouldn't be so tough after all.

The Ant Clan's real talent was their strength. Upon awakening at Evolution Mountain Lord Level, there would be a huge spike, and combined with Origin Force Food strengthening, a single trip could move fifty to a hundred thousand Source Stones, no problem.

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