CHAPTER 392: CHAPTER 377 CUNNING BLACK YELLOW

These days, Xianglan Mountain is just as busy in autumn as it is in spring.

In addition to the steady ripening and timely harvest of Origin Force Food from Dragon Cypress and the Molan Territory—which need to be picked and dried—there’s also an even more demanding task of harvesting ordinary plant fruits.

The harvest of ordinary plants is divided into three major categories.

The first: Fresh and dried fruits are harvested, refined into Ant Honey, and stored separately by type.

The second: The selection and breeding of superior seeds.

All types of ordinary fruit trees planted on Xianglan Mountain are now over 20 years old. Even the slowest-growing Green Torreya, Coarse Torreya, and Fragrant Torreya Trees entered their bounty period years ago, and now they’ve reached the stage of iterative optimization.

Once a fruit tree enters its fruitful period, its vigor, yield, and fruit quality are all assessed—and those that don’t measure up are eliminated.

The healthy, high-yield trees bearing fruits of excellent quality are kept for further observation; the truly outstanding ones become the "seed trees." Each year, the best fruits are picked from their most vigorous branches, with only the plumpest seeds reserved for planting.

The selected seeds are nurtured into seedlings, and after several rounds of elimination, the best ones are chosen to fill the spots of removed trees.

The Insect Clan’s crop breeding is a long, cyclical process of selection and elimination.

Now, Xianglan Mountain is gradually entering a virtuous cycle, though in the coming years, aging trees will still need to be removed.

This kind of work produces little result after ten or twenty years; after a hundred or two hundred years, there will surely be gains; in the Great Tribes, after a thousand or two thousand years of optimization, countless high-quality cultivar trees will undoubtedly be bred.

And in the autumns of Xianglan Mountain, there’s a third special task: harvesting seeds of plants produced through hybridization and grafting.

This is a clever approach suggested by the Night Fragrance God-Given Seed: breed high-quality, brand-new plants, trigger the Law of Nature to bring down Divine-Given, and thus obtain Divine-Given Seeds.

It seems effective, though it also seems not to have done much...

Chestnut Beans, Cuihua Hanlan, and Snow Orchid—these three Divine-Given Seeds appear to meet the criteria of the Law and are the result of a Natural Godsend.

But Round Cypress, focusing on hybridizing and grafting grapes and kiwi fruit, also created many new and vigorous varieties, yet failed to trigger a Divine-Given.

...

Autumn is busy.

This year, the first batch of Black Cory fruit from the Black Yellow Divine-Given Seed is almost ripe.

Round Cypress simply set up shop atop the hill where Black Yellow was rooted.

Silver Cypress instructed the soldier ant squads, led by Mountain Lord Level Specialized Soldier Ants, to take large, medium, and small soldier ants up the trees for the harvest, sorting everything and sending it all to Round Cypress.

Round Cypress directed the Worker Ants and Blue Ants in four simultaneous operations: searching for Divine-Given Seeds, refining Ant Honey, selecting ordinary seeds, and screening hybrid seeds.

Of all the Command Ants, Round Cypress most resembled Dragon Cypress, with a powerful ability to handle complex affairs.

Giant Cypress led a large force of soldier ants, standing guard around the Black Yellow Divine-Given Seed and guarding the fruit on the tree.

"Giant Cypress! My frogs!"

After a brief lull, Black Yellow suddenly burst out with a flurry of intense spiritual power and intent.

"Oh——"

Still busy helping Round Cypress check on seeds, Giant Cypress replied with some resignation, running personally down to the pond at the foot of the hill to take a look.

The Evolution Mountain Lord Level gave rise to spiritual power, allowing communication with Dragon Cypress Ant King’s Divine-Given Seeds—a real torment for an ant’s life.

Dealing with Southern Gorgon and Black Yellow was even more of a headache than waging war against Termites.

Black Yellow’s main vine intersected with the Azure’s Water System Primordial Energy Field.

Trying to imitate Azure, Black Yellow wanted to raise fish and frogs...

But it had no real understanding, nor could it direct the ant colony’s work.

Black Yellow asked Giant Cypress for help...

Giant Cypress could eat fish and frogs, but raising them? That was another story.

The frogs raised in the pond kept running away...

"Black Yellow. It’s getting cold—autumn’s here. The frogs need to find somewhere to dig holes and hibernate for winter."

Giant Cypress ordered the soldier ants to catch the escaped frogs and return them to the pond, painstakingly trying to reason with it.

"I know!"

Black Yellow was a tree that could be reasoned with. It said, "Giant Cypress, tell the frogs they can dig holes and hibernate in my territory."

Giant Cypress: "..."

Giant Cypress said, "By my calculations, the Great King should be back soon. He’ll certainly know what to do."

"Really?"

Black Yellow: "Dragon Cypress is back!"

Giant Cypress: "Hm?"

Black Yellow: "Dragon Cypress is back."

"Oh——"

Giant Cypress twitched his tentacles, didn’t dwell on it, kept helping Round Cypress, then sensed something odd and looked up at the sky.

The Dominating Throne was streaking through the air into Xianglan Mountain, banking down at a steep angle, speeding toward the Deep Blue God-Given Seed below.

—The Great King’s back!

Giant Cypress and Round Cypress issued orders to the ant colony, quickly packed up, and marched straight toward the Azure Blue Reservoir.

But before they reached the foot of the hill, the Dominating Throne swooped low overhead, trailing along Black Yellow’s main vine.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King!"

"Great King!"

Round Cypress and Giant Cypress greeted.

After half a year apart, their reunion was heartfelt; they were also anxious to hear about the situation in the Purple Tung Insect Nation.

"Dragon Cypress Ant King, all went well? Did the White Poplar Divine Seed grow smoothly too?"

Round Cypress asked.

Dragon Cypress replied succinctly, "Everything’s smooth—current tree height over 30 meters."

Thirty meters?!

Round Cypress and Giant Cypress both shuddered with shock: That fast?

Dragon Cypress said gravely, "Composting with Origin Force Life corpses was far more effective than expected."

Ling Chong found that very unsettling.

Dragon Cypress issued strict orders: "From now on, ants in the kingdom that die of old age are not to be buried under Life Seed Plants anymore."

"Understood."

"Yes, Great King."

Round Cypress and Giant Cypress promised.

Dragon Cypress veered off the topic, raised a claw, and pointed at the grape vine, asking, "What’s this about frogs? Drain-digging for hibernation? What’s Black Yellow up to?"

Round Cypress explained briefly, "Black Yellow is imitating Azure—wants to raise small animals. But it can’t direct the ant colony and doesn’t understand ecosystem construction."

Giant Cypress pointed to a nearby pond. "Over there. I caught a few frogs for it, but they keep trying to escape."

Dragon Cypress: "Uh..."

Dragon Cypress flicked its tentacles. "Don’t spoil it."

Giant Cypress: "..."

Giant Cypress hesitated, thought for a while, and said, "Black Yellow does get noisy. It’s a hassle."

Dragon Cypress: "Ignore it."

Giant Cypress: "Great King, Divine-Given Seeds have their own minds. They’re stuck in the soil and can’t go anywhere—it’s boring. Black Yellow and Southern Gorgon love to pull weird stunts to get our attention."

Giant Cypress: "If we ignore them, I fear over time it will affect their healthy growth."

"...True!"

Dragon Cypress considered seriously, then said, "When I’m away, Round Cypress and Giant Cypress, make sure you drop by to talk with them more often."

Round Cypress: "Alright. But, Dragon Cypress Ant King, when will I evolve to Mountain Lord Level?"

Dragon Cypress: "There are a lot of Divine-Given Seeds to harvest this autumn. When I’m finished, the Xianglan Mountain harvest should be over. Then you’ll come with me to the Purple Tung Insect Nation, evolve there in sleep, then return to swap with Fragrant Cypress."

Round Cypress exclaimed joyfully, "Understood, Great King!"

Giant Cypress raised a foreleg and gingerly pointed to the nearby pond, asking tentatively, "Great King, do you have a way to get those frogs to stay for winter?"

Dragon Cypress: "No."

Dragon Cypress addressed the ever-nagging Black Yellow, "Next year, scatter duckweed and other aquatic plants in the pond. Plant all kinds of weeds around the pond so insects come to forage, and naturally, frogs will come. Then, they’ll stick around the pond."

Dragon Cypress didn’t allow objections, then asked, "Black Yellow, Azure’s Water System Primordial Energy Field helps your growth, right?"

Black Yellow: "???"

Black Yellow’s main vine stretched straight toward the Azure Blue Reservoir, lush and leafy. No need to ask—the answer is clear. Obviously, it’s beneficial.

Dragon Cypress ignored it and ordered a Small Soldier Ant up the tree to pick a grape and tasted it.

Small seed, lots of pulp.

Not fully ripe yet—a bit tangy.

Round Cypress watched Dragon Cypress’s reaction and timely asked, "Great King, how is it?"

Black Yellow also asked, "Dragon Cypress, tasty?"

Dragon Cypress gently tapped its tentacles, "Pretty good—the aroma’s strong. Sun it for two more days and the taste will be even better once fully ripe."

"Decent quality. The seeds are small. Sold to the Flame Spider Caravan, they’ll only fetch 4 Source Stones per seed. The pulp will also sell for 4 Source Stones each..."

Black Yellow quickly cut in, "So here’s the question... Dragon Cypress, let me test you. A single grape seed for 4 Source Stones, one grape has 4 seeds, a bunch has 21 grapes, and there are 184 bunches. How many Source Stones in total?"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

You really are bored~

Did you think such a low-level question could trip me up?

Dragon Cypress: "77,280 Source Stones. The blossom-fruit cycle is 4 years. Subtracting Source Stone inputs for fruit maturity, it averages out to an annual yield of about 18,000 Source Stones..."

"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!"

Black Yellow: "Wrong! I was asking about the grape seeds, not the pulp! Dragon Cypress, you’re so dumb!"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Black Yellow: "???"

Dragon Cypress: "Yeah, yeah, you’re a real brainiac."

Dragon Cypress asked, "Black Yellow, you can communicate with Azure, can’t you?"

Black Yellow: "Yeah, but it doesn’t like to talk."

Wrong!

It’s not that Azure doesn’t like to talk.

It’s that you’re so annoying, Azure doesn’t want to talk with you.

Dragon Cypress thought for a while and said, "Next spring, I’ll arrange for Silver Cypress to evolve to Mountain Lord Level. Black Yellow, I’ll get Silver Cypress to play with you."