Grass Dragon: "Last autumn, Lupine successfully advanced to Evolution Mountain Lord Level. From now on, myself, Lupine, and Silvergrass, we form a brand-new caravan."

Grass Dragon: "We must also plan to bring the Origin Force Honey trade into the Mountain Lord Level, Lord-Level, and even Insect King circles."

Dragon Cypress touched his antennae to show understanding, "That's inevitable. Only in this way can you gain sufficient profit."

Dragon Cypress: "I can offer the same conditions as for White Ivy Mountain Lord. According to the marked sale price, for a total within one million Source Stones, I take a 10% production fee; for more than one million, I only take a 5% service fee. No upper limit."

Grass Dragon: "Alright! Thank you!"

Grass Dragon: "Dragon Cypress, after I return to the kingdom this autumn, I plan to advance to the 8th-Age Period High-Level Flame Spider Warrior..."

Grass Dragon's high spirits gradually waned, and he said, "Over at the Starship, that tunnel, now I have to curl up my legs just to squeeze through. After I advance, I definitely won't be able to get through anymore."

Grass Dragon sighed, "Dragon Cypress, I'm afraid we may never meet again."

Everyone has a day when they must grow up.

Dragon Cypress raised his antennae upright and pointed upward, "We will meet again."

Grass Dragon: "Yes!"

Grass Dragon: "Since I won't be able to get through, and I've earned a lot these past few years, I plan to advance to Mountain Lord Level at a pace of 1 Age Period every two years."

Dragon Cypress: "You've eaten the Divine-Given Sky-Blue Persimmon Seed, right?"

Grass Dragon: "Of course. After all, I am a Flame Spider Roving Merchant, and with two direct elders, Melde and White Ivy, both successful in business, advancing to Mountain Lord Level is surely not a problem. As for the relevant Divine-Given Origin Force Food, I have everything needed."

Indeed!

Dragon Cypress felt fairly reassured about this, paused for two seconds, then asked, "Then next year's trade... will Silvergrass handle it?"

Grass Dragon: "Yes."

Grass Dragon: "Red Peach will help for two years, transporting goods. Silvergrass will follow along to get familiar with our trade. In two years, once Silvergrass advances to High-Level Warrior, he can complete the trades independently. If we have more goods, we'll use stone slab wheelcarts, transporting batch by batch."

Grass Dragon: "From now on, Melde's trade will also be assisted by Silvergrass. During Silvergrass's High-Level Warrior stage, he will advance by one Age Period every three years. For the next twenty-three years, both my and Melde's trades will be handled by Silvergrass."

Grass Dragon: "After twenty-three years, our line should be able to groom another Little Flame Spider. If luck is lacking... we'll just have to recruit another Little Flame Spider for cooperation."

"Alright!"

Dragon Cypress: "Grass Dragon, regarding 'Ant King Jelly', at present I need some myself, with little surplus. However, as the many Divine-Given Seeds of Cloud Trace Continent grow, the production of Bee King Jelly will rise rapidly, eventually reaching a considerable harvest. I can also provide you and White Ivy with large quantities."

Grass Dragon: "Good!"

Grass Dragon raised his foreleg and tapped Silvergrass, who was curiously staring at the Dominating Throne.

Silvergrass: "Thank you for your care, Dragon Cypress Ant King!"

Silvergrass: "Wormwood Spider King said he can provide you with some Divine-Given Origin Force Food."

Dragon Cypress immediately understood.

The matters of the Cloud Trace Continent must have spread among the Flame Spider Roving Merchants.

The Wormwood Spider King intends to participate in Cloud Trace Continent trade.

However, as a dignified Spider King, he certainly can't jump in personally to compete with Seven-Leaf, Natsumi, Melde, White Ivy, and these juniors, so he leverages his stock of 'Bee King Jelly', using Origin Force Honey as an entry point to place his own direct descendants in the business.

This is a good thing!

Dragon Cypress gains another channel to procure high-quality Origin Force Food.

Unallocated shares of Divine-Given Seeds such as Ghost Fan, Green Shura, Rattan Leaf Snake Grape, Sky-Blue Persimmon, Black Fruit Huckleberry, and so forth can simply be distributed more to Grass Dragon.

Dragon Cypress: "Alright! Silvergrass, thank the Wormwood Spider King for me."

Dragon Cypress asked Grass Dragon, "Has Melde sent over any Divine-Given Origin Force Food this year?"

Grass Dragon: "Yes. But not much."

Grass Dragon looked disappointed, saying, "Melde is too conservative. Your plan to attack the Termite Kingdom has been approved by both the Spider King Spurge and the Aconite Spider King, they think there's a 99% chance of success. But Melde is still not reassured. Even though you've confirmed distributing a Divine-Grade White Poplar Fruit to Melde, he doesn't dare to announce it externally."

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress: "What about White Ivy Mountain Lord?"

Grass Dragon looked even more exasperated and said gloomily, "That didn't go smoothly either. Our exchange with Hidden Wing Mountain ended with Lord Heartwing. But that Lord Heartwing has a low status in Lightwing Mountain, so talking to him about buying Lightwing Seeds in advance is pointless. And as for the Mantis King who manages the Lightwing Divine-Given Seed, we didn't even get to meet him."

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Grass Dragon: "I suspect Hidden Wing Mountain may have secretly investigated White Ivy Mountain Lord? Dug up his wretched early days of bankruptcy and collapse."

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress: "The Divine-Grade Night Fragrance Fruit will mature the year after next; have White Ivy Mountain Lord take one and give it a try."

Grass Dragon: "That's the only way. We'll just have to see when the time comes."

Grass Dragon picked up a stone slab, handed it over, and said, "Dragon Cypress, let's trade first. In the end, the Flame Spider Roving Merchants have to depend on regular Origin Force Food for profit..."

...

Currently, Dragon Cypress's main income also comes from regular Origin Force Food trading.

According to list price, this year Grass Dragon customized 280,000 Source Stones worth of Origin Force Honey, from which Dragon Cypress earned 28,000 Source Stones; White Ivy ordered 1.4 million Source Stones' worth, from which Dragon Cypress took 120,000 Source Stones.

Through origin force honey trading with Grass Dragon and White Ivy, the net gain was 148,000 Source Stones, far more than what he earned from managing Divine-Given Seeds.

However, Dragon Cypress's expenses are also large.

He must allocate 120,000 Source Stones each year to enable Blue Catalpa, Snakebark Maple, and White Willow to accelerate their evolution to Mountain Lord Level.

The evolutions of Black Rice and Mulberry also require lending out twenty to thirty thousand Source Stones' worth of Origin Force Food per year.

Within the Ant Kingdom, for those confirmed to participate in the war against the Termite Kingdom—Spiked Cypress, Giant Cypress, and Cypress—Dragon Cypress invests seventy to eighty thousand Source Stones a year to assist in their rapid advancement to Mountain Lord Level.

Other Assistant Kings' growth also comes at a significant cost.

This year, Dragon Cypress's total income only just manages to keep a balanced ledger.

It's expected there will be a deficit next year.

Excavating the Cold Orchid Mountain treasury only yielded six extra-large metal cases. Unwilling to sell them, with no other options, Dragon Cypress has to borrow from caravans again, running the business at a loss.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid only eat a bit of Divine-Given Origin Force Food, waiting for the Soul-Setting Fruit to mature two and a half years from now, so they can achieve a major boost via consuming Divine-Grade Fruit, completing an Age Period evolution.

...

Origin Force Honey trade volumes are massive, and the transaction flow is complex.

Dragon Cypress must categorically blend Origin Force Food produced on Cloud Trace Continent into the Origin Force Honey, carefully replacing the Origin Force Food shipped by Grass Dragon and White Ivy.

What was used, and how much; what was replaced, and how much; all must be meticulously considered by Dragon Cypress and clearly reported to Grass Dragon and Natsumi.

The exchange took seven days to complete.

…

…

…

Ink Orchid just advanced to Mountain Lord Level this year, so she must stay at Xianglan Mountain, overseeing the ordinary Life Seed plants and guarding their transition to the Mountain Lord Level.

Dragon Cypress ran around for several days, completed the spring internal caravan trade on Cloud Trace Continent, and finally arrived at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain.

He settled down here for a long stay, returning to Xianglan Mountain every few days to check in, sending back stabilized larvae to the main nest for further cultivation.

Every day, he fed the Red Cypress Divine-Given Seed with one hundred Source Stones. When three thousand Source Stones had been used, the tree trunk was more than four meters high.

Time entered early summer.

The growth momentum of the Red Cypress Divine-Given Seed had clearly slowed.

Dragon Cypress sent Silver Cypress and Black Leaf to the Areca Rainforest to continue reclamation, and on the way stopped at the second Source Stone mine, hauling forty thousand Source Stones at once back to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain.

Dragon Cypress cared for the Red Cypress Divine-Given Seed alone at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain.

He continued to feed one hundred Source Stones a day for a whole month, and the result was good: the tree trunk reached a height of six meters.

Any problem that can be solved with Source Stones is no problem at all.

He was completely unstinting and increased the input, shifting to 150 stones a day.

At the same time, Dragon Cypress continued to cultivate Specialized Blue Ants, leaving them at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain so that, when all kinds of fruit in the orchards matured for harvest, ant honey could be refined on site and stored locally.

When garrisoning troops in the Desolation Plains in the future, Dragon Cypress didn't plan to deploy too many Blue Ants there.

Fruit ant honey made from highly concentrated, high-sugar fruit is not prone to spoilage.

Fruit bottles produced by the White Rice Life Seed gourd can be used as containers for storing ant honey, which also makes transportation convenient.

Black Lotus Lake, White Lotus Lake, Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, Molan Mountain—each Origin Force Land that had been developed—all required a contingent of Blue Ants to be stationed. Not many are needed at each location; about 200 of varying sizes are enough.

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