CHAPTER 61: CHAPTER 061: THAT IS A DISGUISE

White Rice lived together with Red Fox and Black Rice. The three sapient beings communicated with each other; compared to Ghost Fan, they were clearly much more intelligent.

They looked really smart. Maybe, probably, actually, they were smart.

But for White Rice, this was the first time dealing in Origin Force food trade, and it felt cheated—wanting to haggle, but, alas, lacking experience and knowing too little. Every time they objected to the price, Dragon Cypress would defeat them with clever reasons and witty words.

Dragon Cypress had White Rice’s calculations pinned down to the last detail.

After setting the unit price, they finally counted the various Origin Force food items and tallied up the total price.

Dragon Cypress: "Altogether, that’s 1,648 Source Stones. To make it a round number, I’ll give it to you as 1,650 stones."

Dragon Cypress: "What I’ve brought on the Dominating Throne are only two kinds of goods: Ghost Fans and Southern Sour Jujube Seeds."

White Rice: "Ghost Fans! I’ll try a few Southern Sour Jujube Seeds too..."

Black Rice crawled onto White Rice’s head, waving its tentacles and patting White Rice’s head anxiously.

Red Fox helped ask, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, how do you sell that kind of ant honey? Little Black Rice likes it a lot."

Dragon Cypress had noticed long ago: this was a lively, cheerful Little Warrior, just as gluttonous as Ink Orchid, and appeared somewhat spoiled by Red Fox.

Dragon Cypress said regretfully: "Ant honey brewed from Origin Force food requires a special container for storage. Otherwise, if it’s exposed to the air, the Origin Force it contains will slowly dissipate. I’m sorry, but this time we didn’t bring that kind of container with us."

Ink Orchid said: "Although your gourds can be used as containers, they can’t store ant honey with Origin Force, only regular ant honey."

"Alright. Regular ant honey is fine too. Thanks." Red Fox agreed and reminded them:

"For next year’s early summer trade, remember to bring one of those containers that can store ant honey with Origin Force, and be sure to bring extra that will benefit Little Black Rice’s growth. I’ll buy them!"

"No problem!" Dragon Cypress readily agreed.

White Rice kept his head down crunching numbers, hesitated for a long while, and sighed, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, give me 60 Ghost Fans and 15 Southern Sour Jujube Seeds."

Oh! They sold.

Dragon Cypress was secretly delighted, but replied calmly, "That’s perfect—the total price is 1,650 Source Stones."

Dragon Cypress counted out 60 Ghost Fans and put them in one gourd, then counted out 15 Southern Sour Jujube Seeds and put them in another gourd.

At the same time, they directed the Blue Ant to prepare half a gourd of ant honey, and thoughtfully gifted a Multicolored Spider Silk Rope, tied around the gourd’s neck with a knot and a grab-friendly loop.

Ink Orchid picked up the gourd and handed it to the Small Pellet Scolopendra Warrior.

Dragon Cypress asked, "White Rice, you should have many gourd containers like this, right? Can you give me a few?"

White Rice: "I’ll give you five."

White Rice explained: "I only have one Gourd Life Seed, and it produces only 11 Gourd Fruits each year."

"Thank you."

Dragon Cypress kept five gourds and put the other five into a Spider Silk Bag.

Ink Orchid carried the Spider Silk Bag back to the Throne and handed it to White Rice.

The exchange was settled and the transaction was complete.

Dragon Cypress: "I can also get all kinds of rare plant seeds. After every trade, I can gift two seeds. White Rice, is there anything you want?"

White Rice: "Rice Tree?"

Dragon Cypress: "To be frank, of the 42 Rice Tree varieties recorded in Inherited Memory, only the White Rice Tree is worth cultivating. The rest are fairly mediocre. Since you already have a wild White Rice Tree Blessed by the Tree God, there’s no need to cultivate any others."

Dragon Cypress emphasized: "I can get much better plant seeds, superior in effects, quality, and yield. Choosing these top-tier plants on the continent as Life Seeds will greatly increase your territory’s annual income and benefit your future evolution and growth."

White Rice: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, I can choose the top-tier plants you mentioned as Life Seeds, but at the same time, I can also cultivate various ordinary Rice Trees on a large scale, hoping another Rice Tree Blessed by the Tree God will emerge. My preferences and Life Seed choices don’t conflict, right?"

"Exactly right! Clever insect!" Dragon Cypress praised generously.

Ink Orchid: "You want us to help you collect Rice Tree seeds? That’s a very troublesome task—you’ll need to pay us, you know."

White Rice: "That’s only right... So, how do I pay with Source Stones?"

Ink Orchid: "Do you want to collect specified Rice Tree varieties? Or do you not care about the variety and just want them all?"

White Rice: "I want all varieties except for White Rice and Black Rice."

Ink Orchid looked at Dragon Cypress.

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress: "Alright, let’s count by variety. I’ll find at least 10 seeds per variety for you and charge a labor fee of 50 Source Stones each..."

...

They spent a long time discussing other trades and casually shared some territory management experience and techniques.

They rested for the night.

At dawn, Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid took their leave and departed.

They watched as the Dominating Throne turned into a blue speck of light and disappeared into the western mountains.

White Rice withdrew its gaze and asked, "Red Fox, what do you think of this Dragon Cypress Ant King?"

"Good!" Black Rice replied before anyone else, standing atop the gourd while vigorously waving its tentacles: "Ant honey tastes great! I like Dragon Cypress!"

Red Fox gently lifted a paw and patted Black Rice’s tentacles, saying casually, "There’s no malice. Very shrewd. They came to make a profit."

Red Fox said comfortingly, "We have a wild White Rice Blessed Seed, White Rice, Black Rice, with a roving merchant for trading, you’re sure to grow smoothly into Mountain Lord Level Sphere Insect Warriors."

White Rice felt a touch of sadness and said, "But they came a little too late..."

...

The fierce wind howled, making waves in the forest sea.

Ink Orchid asked excitedly, "Dragon Cypress, how much did we earn from this trade?"

Dragon Cypress: "We collected 1,650 Source Stones. Once we add a little, we’ll mark it up as 2,000 Source Stones and sell it to Ghost Fan."

Ink Orchid: "Add a little?"

Dragon Cypress: "Add in Stone Orchid and Jianlan Seeds worth 50 Source Stones, round it up, and enrich the product varieties too."

Ink Orchid calculated for a while and said, "So that’s a profit of 300 Source Stones? That’s a bit little."

"Little?"

Dragon Cypress waggled its tentacles, a bit speechless, and asked, "Ink Orchid, with 2,000 Source Stones, how many Ghost Fans can we get from Ghost Fan?"

Ink Orchid: "They buy Ghost Fans at 18 Source Stones each—2,000 becomes..."

Dragon Cypress: "111 pieces."

Ink Orchid: "If we sell to White Rice and Red Fox at 25 Source Stones each, that’s..."

Dragon Cypress: "2,775 Source Stones."

"Wow!"

Ink Orchid exclaimed in sudden enlightenment.

Buying and selling both ways and trading back and forth—now that the profit was clear, it was quite considerable.

Ink Orchid said happily, "Dragon Cypress, I think we should give the place where Red Fox and White Rice live a name."

Dragon Cypress: "White Rice Mountain?"

Ink Orchid: "Should be, right?"

Ink Orchid paused, then said, "Dragon Cypress, the ant honey brewed by Blue Ant is really popular! We could get caravans to bring more metal cans and simply mix various Origin Force foods together to make ’Ant King Honey,’ pack and sell it by the can."

Dragon Cypress had thought of this long ago.

Dragon Cypress: "We’ll have to wait until the year after next, after we see White Ivy, before we can plan that."

Ink Orchid: "Why? Melde doesn’t have any?"

"None!"

Dragon Cypress said: "The carapace of the Flame Crossing Sparse Spider can only carry so much cargo."

"Melde has a set trade network with many wealthy insects and is very rich itself. Its carapace is always loaded with Source Stones and Origin Force food. Everywhere it goes, it’s welcome."

"White Ivy is the opposite. It’s poor, and among the Insect Clan Warriors with whom it has regular deals, most are few and also very poor. As a result, White Ivy put together these ’metal cans’ that are heavy, bulky, and not worth much. It makes its carapace look like it’s carrying a lot of valuable cargo."

Dragon Cypress concluded: "It’s a disguise designed to make itself seem powerful, which helps win other insects’ respect and trust and establish stable trading relationships."

Ink Orchid: "Uh..."

Didn’t you say White Ivy was really dumb?

The Flame Spider Caravan sure has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.

Ink Orchid was speechless.