CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 041 MY NAME IS GHOST FAN

Dragon Cypress brought Ink Orchid and hid in a dense forest.

"Dragon Cypress, earlier you said seed trading is particularly complicated? We’ve got nothing else to do now, so explain it to me in detail, will you?"

"Sure."

Dragon Cypress agreed, gathered his thoughts, and said, "First, you need to understand which plant seeds are valuable."

"The first type, the very top tier, definitely excels in strengthening effect, quality, and yield—all three. These kinds of plants are the ideal choices for Life Seeds, like the Large Fruit Hemlock and Green Torreya that we already have."

"Next are plants that excel in two out of those three: strengthening effect, quality, or yield. For example, my Dragon Cypress, Round Cypress, Spiked Cypress and so on—they’re all Cypress Life Seeds with dual advantages in strengthening effect and yield; their quality’s decent, and their growth potential is pretty good."

Dragon Cypress: "Of course, the natural world already has a lot of dual-superior plants—take Dried Fragrant Cypress, which is pretty good but not worth much. My Dragon Cypress and Round Cypress Life Seeds are high-quality strains carefully bred by the Insect Clan, so they’re a bit better than the wild ones; that’s why they were purchased with Source Stones—affordable, not expensive."

Ink Orchid asked, "What about my orchid then?"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Ink Orchid: "..."

Such a dumb question—Dragon Cypress ignored it entirely and continued, "The third type of valuable plant is one like Keg Vine—it has great strengthening effects, and its yield and quality are certainly not low, plus it’s a rare plant variety not found on either Ten-thousand Tribes Continent or Ten Thousand Nations Continent. These plants are very valuable, the most valuable—even many insects are willing to pay high prices, or some great tribes might even offer sky-high prices to buy them out."

Ink Orchid: "Buy out? What does buying out mean?"

"I’ll explain that in a bit."

Dragon Cypress: "Then there’s a fourth type of valuable plant... Some tribes or insects focus on cultivating a certain large category of plants. Take cypresses for example—according to inherited memory, there are as many as 54 cypress species, some common, some rare, some possibly extinct or extremely scarce. If you can find these, then those tribes and Insect Clan Warriors specializing in cypress breeding would definitely shell out a lot of Source Stones to buy them. They might not use them as Life Seeds, but to enrich their orchard varieties or to try hybrid breeding."

Ink Orchid: "Dragon Cypress, wait up. What do you mean by hybrid breeding?"

Dragon Cypress: "To put it simply, you collect pollen from Stone Orchid and pollinate a Cold Orchid with it—that’s the most basic kind of hybrid breeding. This knowledge isn’t even in inherited memory. As for the specifics, I don’t know much either, so you can experiment on your own later."

Dragon Cypress paused, then continued, "Now, let’s talk about the taboos of seed trading. The biggest taboo is the triple-superior plants—that is, the ones with strengthened effect, quality, and yield—which take other Insect Clans generations, countless generations to painstakingly breed. There’s an inter-clan agreement that whichever tribe breeds this kind of superior plant, only that one tribe is allowed to cultivate it on a large scale..."

"Wait! Dragon Cypress, you’ve told me this already!"

Ink Orchid: "What about hybrid breeding? Tell me about that first."

Dragon Cypress: "Do you want to fully understand seed trading or not?"

"I do... but..."

Ink Orchid: "Explain hybrid breeding first!"

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress: "I haven’t actually seen it myself—I only heard Melde talk about it, and even Melde hasn’t seen it with her own eyes. She just heard it from other insects..."

...

...

...

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid hid out in the mountains for three days.

On the third night, Dragon Cypress controlled the Dominating Throne, flying low as he approached a secluded valley hidden among the mountains.

He circled the area first to lock in the target zone.

The main food source here is wood, and there are huge numbers of felled trees in these mountains.

The area is especially small, just two or three kilometers long and barely more than a kilometer wide—a long, narrow valley. The Origin Force Concentration was even a bit higher than at Xianglan Mountain.

The Beetle Warrior there lived right in the center, on a raised mound.

There was also a widened, dug-out river channel for flood runoff during the rainy season.

The Dominating Throne floated along silently, with no sign of Origin Force Fluctuation.

At this hour, that Beetle Warrior was likely sleeping.

All went smoothly; keeping to the shadows, he circled three times, searched all around, and only found two raspberry Life Seed plants growing on the hillside—most likely also nurtured by the Beetle Warrior.

There were no other Origin Force Plants.

That meant the Beetle Warrior was alone here.

He couldn’t fly.

So, nothing to worry about.

...

The sun shone brightly that morning.

The Dominating Throne was enlarged to about two meters in diameter, drifting leisurely between two towering peaks, slanting downward as it slowly approached the center of the valley.

A slender Beetle Warrior burst from the forest below.

Its dark green carapace glinted with a metallic sheen; it looked hard as steel.

With its mandibles included, its body length was at least 1.2 meters.

"Wooden Darkling Beetle!"

This time, Ink Orchid recognized its species.

"Wooden Darkling Beetle?"

Dragon Cypress thought hard, uncertain: "I think... there aren’t any of these Insect Clans in the Ten-thousand Tribes or Ten Thousand Nations continents."

Ink Orchid: "Really? So, it’s a rare insect, huh? Is it valuable?"

Dragon Cypress: "Not at all. In fact, it’s not even worth a single Source Stone."

The Dominating Throne hovered at twenty or thirty meters above the ground.

Below, the Wooden Darkling Beetle Warrior seemed to notice Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid poking their heads over the edge and making jokes—their elytra slowly unfolded, revealing membranous wings. The wings beat furiously, making a loud "buzz buzz buzz"; its six legs gently left the ground.

It had wings—it could fly.

But clumsily, shakily, not nearly as fast as the Dominating Throne.

"Hello!"

Dragon Cypress was here for a friendly trade, so he greeted the beetle politely.

The Wooden Darkling Beetle Warrior was startled, frantically beating its wings, swaying in the air as it looked up at the Dominating Throne.

"I am the King of the Creator Civilization, Dragon Cypress Ant King."

"And this is Ink Orchid, King of Xianglan Mountain."

Dragon Cypress made the introductions.

He made sure to attach an impressive "King" title to both himself and Ink Orchid.

Dragon Cypress apologized: "A few days ago, Ink Orchid accidentally trespassed into your territory. We’re truly sorry."

The Beetle Warrior struggled up to about ten meters in the air, but after hearing this, circled back down and landed.

Seeing this, Dragon Cypress boldly lowered the Dominating Throne to around eight or nine meters above ground.

"May I ask how you would like to be addressed?" Dragon Cypress asked politely.

"Ghost Fan."

The Wooden Darkling Beetle Warrior replied, its spiritual communication was clumsy, emotions mixed: fear, delight, anger.

Faced with the gigantic Dominating Throne—which inherited memory didn’t record—it was instinctively afraid.

Seeing another Insect Clan Warrior for the first time besides itself, and finding them very friendly, it was overjoyed.

But then it recognized the Flower Mantis Warrior who had previously entered its territory and tried to steal the Ghost Fan, and felt angry.

"Last time, I didn’t mean to..." Ink Orchid apologized, then couldn’t help but ask: "So, your first Life Seed Plant is a Ghost Fan?"

Ghost Fan hesitated, clumsily replied, "No."

Ink Orchid: "Then what is it?"

Ghost Fan: "Woodberry."

Ink Orchid: "Then your name should be ’Woodberry’."

Ink Orchid enthusiastically explained, "My first Life Seed is Ink Orchid, so my name is Ink Orchid. Dragon Cypress’s first Life Seed is Dragon Cypress."

Ghost Fan: "I’m just called Ghost Fan."

Ink Orchid: "You’re wrong, it should be Woodberry. So what about your Divine-Given Ghost Fan Seed? What’s that called? Woodberry?"

Ghost Fan: "It’s also called Ghost Fan."

Ink Orchid: "Then your names will be the same, won’t they?"

"Stop!"

Dragon Cypress hurried to interrupt: "Ghost Fan is a great name. Naming after the Ghost Fan is even more appropriate. When you become an Insect King, your title can be ’Ghost Fan Insect King’."

This Ant King has a nice way with words~ Ghost Fan asked, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, where do you come from? Are there many insects where you live?"

Dragon Cypress hedged, "We know lots of insects."

Dragon Cypress: "We live on Xianglan Mountain."

Dragon Cypress took the initiative to explain, "What we’re traveling in is the highest creation of the Creator Civilization—the Dominating Throne. Only this can cross endless Origin Force Vacuum Lands."

Ghost Fan asked, "Creator Civilization?"

Ink Orchid helped explain, "A civilization from the Outworld, destroyed by the Natural God. The Natural God gave the Dominating Throne to Dragon Cypress. Dragon Cypress is the new king of the Creator Civilization, inheriting their abilities."

"With Dragon Cypress controlling the Dominating Throne, he can travel freely between all the Origin Force Points on Cloud Trace Continent."

This was the story they’d planned ahead of time—to intimidate and impress other insects.

These words sounded best coming from Ink Orchid.

Ghost Fan fell silent, apparently awed.