CHAPTER 34: CHAPTER 034: THE SOLDIER ANT THAT DOESN’T EAT FROGS

Dragon Cypress hadn’t eaten for six or seven days, was starving, and hunted a half-grown wild boar piglet back to the cave.

Ink Orchid: "Dragon Cypress, when did you get here?"

Dragon Cypress: "Of course it’s according to our agreed time."

"Oh—"

Ink Orchid: "Did it rain over there? I’ve hit three torrential storms on Molan Mountain, almost caused a flood."

Dragon Cypress: "Yeah. It’s a wet year. There’ve been two torrential storms over Xianglan Mountain, and the day before I came, there was another shower."

Ink Orchid: "Oh! A rare year of good weather and timely rains."

"Yes."

Dragon Cypress asked, "Ink Orchid, why did you start your evolution sleep before I got here? That’s way too risky."

Ink Orchid: "I could sense the evolution coming days in advance, so I prepared a bit, kept myself going for two days, calculated you’d be here soon, but just couldn’t hold on, so fell asleep."

"What if something had delayed me, and I couldn’t get here in time?" Dragon Cypress looked around the cave.

The spider silk bag was empty.

Ink Orchid had eaten up all the Origin Force Food.

Origin Force Food worth 2000 Source Stones had helped Ink Orchid save about half a year of time.

Pretty cost-effective.

With the spider silk bag empty, this search clearly yielded nothing.

If Ink Orchid had found anything, she’d have told him long ago.

No need to ask more.

He buried his head and focused on eating.

Ink Orchid, as talkative as ever, asked, "Dragon Cypress, how’s your pond digging going?"

Dragon Cypress said gloomily, "Not so well. The second big pond got flooded twice and was abandoned. Now I’m digging a third one planned for the south—also got flooded once, so I had to dig a drainage ditch for it first. Just finished that."

"Now that’s rough luck..."

Ink Orchid wanted to laugh, then suddenly grew eager and pressed him, "Dragon Cypress, hurry up and eat! Go as soon as you’re done. I miss home."

"Alright!"

Dragon Cypress wasn’t at ease about his territory either. After filling his stomach, he controlled the Dominating Throne and set out on the return journey.

...

"Ink Orchid, are Green Torreya Seeds tasty?"

Dragon Cypress asked along the way.

Ink Orchid: "Delicious~"

Ink Orchid: "I just remember they’re tasty, can’t even recall what they taste like exactly."

Dragon Cypress: "I’ve got ten more, I’ll give you five when we’re back."

Give her a little benefit first,

Dragon Cypress continued with his own idea, "Last year, Melde gave me ten Green Torreya Tree seeds, but I only planted eight, kept two. When I advanced to the ninth Age Period, I used one, so there’s one left. Ink Orchid, you take it as your Life Seed."

Ink Orchid: "No need, really? Green Torreya Trees grow too slowly, Orchid Grass is better..."

Dragon Cypress: "We’re not short on ordinary Orchid Grass Life Seed output anymore."

Dragon Cypress: "Let’s plant them together, just like Large Fruit Hemlock. The two trees are next to each other, I’ll just tell the Worker Ants to take care of yours while I’m at it."

Ink Orchid tilted her head, thought for a moment, and readily agreed, "Okay!"

...

...

...

The Dominating Throne approached Xianglan Mountain, landing straight beside the small pond.

"Azure... Hm?"

Dragon Cypress called out, then his mind sharpened.

On the first broad leaf of the Deep Blue God-Given Seed, four little frogs that had just shed their tails were squatting.

"Wow!"

Ink Orchid noticed the frogs at the same moment, cried out in surprise, and yelled:

"Dragon Cypress, frogs! Quick! Kill them!"

"Ink Orchid, calm down!"

"Be careful not to damage Azure’s leaves."

Dragon Cypress controlled the Dominating Throne, inching closer.

Azure sent over a confused and questioning spiritual intent.

"Dragon Cypress, what’s up?"

Dragon Cypress: "It’s alright, Azure... there are a few frogs on you, I’ll shoo them away."

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid were both scared of injuring Azure’s leaves and didn’t dare make a rash move.

As the Dominating Throne closed in, the four tiny frogs were startled and jumped into the pond with loud plops, swimming for the shore.

Sweeping with spiritual power, Dragon Cypress found five or six more hiding in the pondside grass.

What annoyed Dragon Cypress was that the twelve Soldier Ants guarding the area seemed totally unfazed by the frogs’ presence.

Been gone this long, how the hell are you guys not starving yet?

Dragon Cypress waved his tentacles, giving the Soldier Ants a kill order.

Azure sensed Dragon Cypress’s murderous intent and anxiously asked, "Dragon Cypress, you’re going to kill the frogs?"

Dragon Cypress: "Yes. They’ll crush your leaves."

Azure: "They won’t..."

Azure: "Is it because Ink Orchid doesn’t like them?"

Dragon Cypress waved his tentacle.

The about-to-move Soldier Ants froze in place.

Dragon Cypress lowered his head to ponder, then looked up, speaking more seriously than ever: "Ink Orchid! I get it now."

Ink Orchid was stunned for a second, puzzled, "Get what?"

Dragon Cypress: "I figured out why the Creator Civilization went extinct."

Ink Orchid: "Huh?"

She was dazed again but followed up, "Why?"

Dragon Cypress: "The Creator Civilization should’ve been a pure Water System race. Their nature was as soft as water. When other civilizations made up their minds to destroy them, they got destroyed."

Ink Orchid pondered, then asked, "And what’s that got to do with these damn frogs?"

Dragon Cypress said, "Azure, unlike our Natural God System’s Divine-Given Seeds, has a warm and kind nature. Azure asked me not to kill these little frogs."

Ink Orchid: "..."

All that preamble for this? Ink Orchid snapped, "Little frogs will grow into big frogs, and big frogs will hop around and crush all the leaves!"

Dragon Cypress: "We’ll deal with it when they’re bigger. Azure watched them change from tadpoles to frogs—slaughtering them in front of him would be pretty inappropriate."

Ink Orchid turned away, pissed off, but her mind spun quickly and came up with an idea:

"Dragon Cypress, I know what to do! These frogs are hiding in the pondside grass eating bugs, right? Have the Worker Ants cut all the grass. No grass, no bugs; no bugs, the frogs will naturally leave, then we..."

What a ruthless mantis~

"Alright..."

Dragon Cypress reluctantly agreed, then hurriedly changed the subject: "Ink Orchid, you’ve been away from your territory for twenty-three days, go check on the Fruit-Scented Orchid."

...

...

...

He sent Ink Orchid off.

Dragon Cypress stayed by the pond, getting more puzzled the more he thought about it.

The riverbanks had lush marsh and dense woods, food everywhere. The 12 Specialized Soldier Ants by the pond hunted for themselves, eating whatever they caught.

So why hadn’t any of them hunted these frogs right next to them?

Dragon Cypress made the Dominating Throne rise up, hovered above, not disturbing the Specialized Soldier Ants, silently observing them.

After two days he noticed that

Every morning and evening, the Specialized Soldier Ants would go out in teams to forage everywhere, but if they came upon frogs in other places, they wouldn’t hunt them either—they’d even let toads go.

Previously, they used to gobble these down, so this must be a recent change.

But why?

Dragon Cypress thought of Azure.

"Azure, can you command the Specialized Soldier Ants?"

"No..."

"So why have the Soldier Ants nearby stopped hunting frogs?"

"I keep using spiritual power to repeat an instruction, stopping them from hurting frogs, and so they don’t hurt frogs anymore..."

"Spiritual power?" Dragon Cypress asked, confused.

"Yes." Azure replied with certainty.

How could that be?

Worker Ants and Soldier Ants are ’copies’ without soul or independent mind, and have no spiritual power.

How is it possible to communicate spiritually with the ant colony?

Dragon Cypress turned and immediately issued a "come here" order via spiritual power to a nearby Specialized Worker Ant.

The Specialized Soldier Ant keenly sensed the mental fluctuation, looked at Dragon Cypress in confusion, then stood still.

Dragon Cypress repeated the order.

No response.

Repeated again.

The Specialized Soldier Ant simply ignored Dragon Cypress now.

As expected, no go.

The Ant King commands the colony in only two ways:

First, with close-range pheromone signals, which have strong control.

Second, by releasing invisible signal waves through its tentacles, to transmit commands at greater distances.

Worker Ants and Soldier Ants lack independent will and spirit, can’t communicate with spiritual power, and so can’t be commanded that way either.

"Azure, is this your ability? Some kind of spiritual power-based mind control over other lifeforms?"

"Ability?"

Azure sent over a wave of puzzled spiritual fluctuation.

Dragon Cypress: "Azure, can you control the frogs, make them not hop into the pond?"

Azure: "Don’t know..."

Dragon Cypress: "Give it a try!"

"Okay."

Azure agreed.

Started trying.

Tried for ages, but nothing happened.

A few little frogs hunted bugs in the grass, got their fill, then jumped back into the pond and up onto Azure’s leaves, squatting there contentedly to rest.

Frogs are ordinary lifeforms, and can’t even perceive spiritual power.

Suddenly Dragon Cypress had a hunch:

—The ant colony was raised by ’Messengers’ generated by the Dominating Throne.

—Azure was reborn through the Dominating Throne’s reset.

—Is it because of this Throne connection?

—If Azure could control the ant colony, that would be great; he could order them to dig the pond himself!

Dragon Cypress waved his tentacle and summoned all the Worker Ants resting in the distant hills to gather by the pond.

"Azure, use your spiritual power to try ordering the Worker Ants, get them to dig at the pond over there."

"Okay."

Azure repeated, using spiritual power to send the message ’go dig the pond.’

After several repetitions, the Worker Ants grew restless, scurrying around in confusion.

"Azure, that’s enough... Forget it. You can’t really command them."

Dragon Cypress gave up directly.

Azure could indeed use spiritual power to trigger movement in the ant colony, but it was so slow and required constant repetition. Precise control was impossible, let alone anything even a little complicated.

Perhaps when Azure has grown into a towering tree, and its spiritual power is much stronger, it might just work.