White Lotus Lake.

All things withered, cold rain just cleared.

The Dominating Throne sped over, stopping beneath the Night Fragrance Divine-Given Seed tree.

"Dragon Cypress. Ink Orchid."

The Night Fragrance Divine-Given Seed greeted them warmly, asking, "Ink Orchid, Origin Force is overflowing around you—this is a sign you're about to enter evolutionary slumber."

Ink Orchid leapt to the ground, saying, "That's right. Once the northern roving merchant trade is over, I'll evolve into a ninth-age High-Level Flower Mantis Warrior."

Night Fragrance: "So you'll break into Evolution Mountain Lord Level next winter, or the following early spring?"

Ink Orchid: "It depends, either is fine."

Night Fragrance: "Then do remember to bring the Glinting Gold to me as soon as possible—I urgently need it here."

Ink Orchid: "...All right."

While Ink Orchid was conversing with the Night Fragrance Divine-Given Seed, Dragon Cypress lowered a wooden plank, instructing five Specialized Blue Soldiers—each just over two meters in length—to walk down the plank to the ground.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King!" Round Cypress, who was stationed here, sensed the activity and hurried over, surrounded by six Specialized Worker Ants.

Night Fragrance: "Dragon Cypress, are you here to fish?"

Dragon Cypress: "It's too early for fishing. These Mountain Lord Level Specialized Blue Ants are difficult to transport, so I brought five along the way."

"Oh."

Night Fragrance exclaimed sincerely, "You are the smartest insect I've ever met!"

"Of course!"

Dragon Cypress was fond of the honesty shown by the Night Fragrance Divine-Given Seed.

Dragon Cypress also felt that he was simply extraordinarily intelligent himself.

"Round Cypress, how is it going?"

Dragon Cypress waved his tentacles, inquiring toward Round Cypress.

Round Cypress replied, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, it's all good, no problem!"

"Ink Orchid, you stay and chat with Night Fragrance."

"Round Cypress, come with me, let's go have a look!"

Dragon Cypress leapt down from the throne, leading the way toward the mountain ant nest.

...

Round Cypress had been busy at White Lotus Lake for nearly a year.

The first task: within the ant nest, construct fifty highly independent nest chambers, dedicated to housing Specialized Soldier Ants, Specialized Worker Ants, and Specialized Blue Ants.

The second task: build ant tunnels connecting the orchards, and designate orchard boundaries. At the entrance of each orchard's ant tunnel, erect a stone stele engraved with the orchard's character code.

The third task: train the Mountain Lord Level Specialized Ants sent by Dragon Cypress, teaching them to recognize various plants and characters, instructing them in their work.

...

Each team consisted of one Mountain Lord Level Specialized Soldier Ant, accompanied by two Mountain Lord Level Large Soldier Ants, as well as several mid-, small-, and micro-sized soldier ants cultivated during the High-Level Stage, all residing in a single nest chamber.

The trained Specialized Soldier Ants could identify various plants and numerous characters.

Character instructions were engraved at the entrance of the nest chamber.

For example,

[Day One: Morning — patrol orchards No.1, No.2, and No.3 of Persimmon Trees; Afternoon — patrol orchards No.4, No.5, and No.6 of Persimmon Trees]

[Day Two: Morning — patrol orchards No.7, No.8, and No.9 of Persimmon Trees;]

[Day Three: Morning... ]

Each Mountain Lord Level Specialized Soldier Ant led its own squad in a three-day cycle, responsible only for one variety of fruit tree, and for a fixed set of about a dozen orchards, repelling birds and beasts, and exterminating pest insects.

Thus,

Ten Specialized Soldier Ants led ten ant squads, each day moving out in an orderly manner, marching through fixed tunnels at set times. In three days, they could patrol all the orchards of White Lotus Lake once.

Similarly,

Only five Mountain Lord Level Specialized Worker Ants and their five worker squads were needed to handle all the weeding work for the entire White Lotus Lake orchards.

In addition, there were Worker Ants responsible for collecting the weeds and delivering them to the marsh gas pool for fermentation into compost.

There were Worker Ants responsible for picking fruit at harvest time, carrying it to designated nest chambers of Specialized Blue Ants for refined sorting.

Each Mountain Lord Level Specialized Ant, according to character instructions engraved on its nest's stone walls, was responsible only for a simple, singular task.

Forty Mountain Lord Level Specialized Ants, combined, completed nearly all the work in all the orchards of White Lotus Lake.

On ordinary days, no Command Ants needed to be stationed here.

White Lotus Lake was rainy, so the growing fruit trees no longer needed irrigation; only in spring and autumn did Command Ants need to regularly bring ant groups here to fertilize and loosen the soil for the fruit trees just once.

In all directions, seasons and climates varied, so the fertilizing schedules could be staggered.

In this way, a single Command Ant could be responsible for multiple Lands of Origin Force, all with less workload.

The spare time could be devoted to researching hybridization, grafting, and environmental mutation triggers in plants, focusing more energy on seed selection and seedling cultivation.

Strive to cultivate more Divine-Given Seeds.

...

The five Specialized Blue Soldiers Dragon Cypress brought to White Lotus Lake had already learned the characters and fish-catching.

Each Mountain Lord Level Specialized Blue Soldier led two High-Level Specialized Blue Soldiers, all residing in one nest chamber.

Characters were inscribed on the cave entrance stone wall: [Leave the nest in the morning, go to the lake, catch three big fish, and bring them back to the ant nest]

Dragon Cypress stayed, guiding and directing for two days, then secretly observed for another two.

Five Mountain Lord Level Specialized Soldier Ants, each leading two High-Level Specialized Soldier Ants, went to the lake every morning, caught fifteen big fish in total, and took them back to the ant nest for the Worker Ants.

The Worker Ants and Soldier Ants would consciously divide and share the food.

This was an easy task and could be handled effortlessly.

The food problem for the Soldier Ants and Worker Ants stationed at White Lotus Lake was thus solved.

...

Round Cypress stayed a bit longer to observe for a while.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid continued north.

First, they went to Huagi Mountain, informing Yellow Stem, Spruce, and the Quandong Divine Tree of the results from spring's meeting with the roving merchant caravans.

Then to Silver Cypress Mountain.

Then to Black Fruit Mountain, staying a few days at each.

Finally, they slipped into Purple Tung Insect Nation to contact Wuye and gather information.

Unfortunately, there was a ninth-age High-Level Barley Bug Warrior named 'Purple Aster' who, after failing to evolve to Mountain Lord Level, never awakened from evolutionary slumber.

No other significant changes occurred.

...

Returning to Xianglan Mountain,

Ink Orchid underwent evolutionary slumber once.

Without other matters to attend to,

Dragon Cypress focused on cultivating ant groups, though these tasks required little time; when idle, he would batch-train all the Mountain Lord Level Specialized Ant battalions, teaching them to identify various flora and fauna, instructing them in characters.

The garrison sub-nest by Shanxi Reservoir was close to its capacity of 800 Specialized Blue Soldiers—once again packed to the limit.

Round Cypress then led Worker Ants east from the Shandong Reservoir toward the mountains, establishing a second garrison sub-nest and planning to station 800 Specialized Blue Soldiers.

At the same time, Dragon Cypress was also cultivating some Mountain Lord Level Specialized Soldier Ants, Worker Ants, and Blue Ants, intending to send them to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain next year and retrieve Silver Cypress in exchange...

...

A tranquil, silent winter.

The blooming of Ink Orchid marked a new year.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid set out together in early spring, heading to Kiwifruit Mountain to inspect the territories of Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple; then to White Rice Mountain to gather nectar from the White Rice Divine-Given Seed; then to Scarletlight Mountain to fetch Areca back to Xianglan Mountain.

Having toured around,

It was time for the spring trade with the Flame Spider Roving Merchant. Compared with previous years, nothing had changed.

When trading ended, they delivered Areca back to Scarletlight Mountain. On their return, Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid stopped by Cold Orchid Mountain.

They had long planned to hold a banquet here, inviting Insect Clan Warriors from all the Origin Force Points to join.

This winter, after Ink Orchid's successful evolution to Mountain Lord Level, this idea could finally be put into action.

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