In the evening, the already gloomy sky began to drizzle.

The rain could wash away the scents exhaled from spiracles, greatly reducing the likelihood of being discovered and tracked—a perfect kind of weather for jungle infiltration.

As night fell, Dragon Cypress signaled to Ink Orchid to set out.

Dragon Cypress ran ahead.

Ink Orchid activated her talent ability, merging into the dark forest, following behind.

Skirting the perimeter where Origin Force was thin, they circled halfway around and arrived in the southeast direction, heading toward the ridge lands.

Before entering the Land of Origin Force, still some distance from the ridges, Dragon Cypress halted.

Ink Orchid appeared.

Ahead was a vast area neatly planted with pine trees, with a few fallen ones vaguely visible—obviously the work of insects.

Getting closer to inspect, the break points were neat and very fresh, toppled just in the past day or two.

"Dragon Cypress, there really are Insect Clan warriors gathered here."

"They're cultivating pine trees? Looks like black pine."

"Over there, freshly planted saplings!"

Ink Orchid tapped lightly with her tentacle, pointing in a direction.

Dragon Cypress glanced over, his tentacle gently nodding as he asked, "Ink Orchid, do you sense any Primordial Energy fluctuations from Origin Force plants?"

"No."

"Then there shouldn't be any Insect Clan warriors settled nearby."

Dragon Cypress swiftly climbed a nearby pine tree, stood atop it to scan the surroundings through the rainy night, then climbed down, waving his foreleg to signal Ink Orchid to follow.

The surrounding area, in large swaths, was all neatly cultivated arbors.

Dragon Cypress led Ink Orchid cautiously around, entering the Land of Origin Force and ascending a hillock.

From the height, the sight was shockingly overwhelming.

In front lay undulating hills, with meticulously carved terrace forests.

This is the very edge of the Land of Origin Force!

If even the perimeter was all developed into forestland, then the entire center must have been cultivated as well.

How vast was this area? Several hundred square kilometers!

How many Insect Clan warriors would it take to manage all this?

Dragon Cypress assessed, "The number of Insect Clan warriors here probably exceeds fifty, maybe even over a hundred."

"Yeah——"

Ink Orchid echoed, then hesitated, "Dragon Cypress, do you think maybe there's an Ant King commanding worker ants to open and manage this area?"

Dragon Cypress: "Impossible. Not enough food."

Ink Orchid: "What about the Ant Clan that relies on fruit and plant seeds as their main food?"

Vegetarian ants who eat pine seeds, cypress seeds, birch seeds, and elm fruits?

Everything in sight were pines, cypresses, birches, elms, alders, and other great tall trees, rather than fruit arbors like apples or peaches.

At first, Dragon Cypress didn't believe it, but after a thought, considered another possibility: maybe this area focused on planting nut-producing arbors, while fruit-bearing arbors were planted elsewhere.

"Ink Orchid. Let's check over there."

Dragon Cypress took the lead, jogging along the ridge under the cover of night and rain.

Soon, they halted atop another small hill.

In the parkland below, a few mature great tall trees had been felled but left untouched.

Without lingering, they moved on, following the hills deeper into the Land of Origin Force.

Occasionally, traces of Insect Clan activity could be seen, but no Life Seeds of Insect Clan warriors were found, nor any sign of their burrows.

Each neatly cultivated forest plot had changing arbors; as they passed, they saw hundreds of different arbors, including persimmon and peach trees, though these were scarce, and all were native species of poor yield and quality, taken from the wild mountains and forests.

"Dragon Cypress, stop!"

Behind, Ink Orchid urgently called a halt.

Dragon Cypress braked to a stop, and turned around.

Ink Orchid raised her foreleg, pointing at the peak across the mountain gully, "Origin Force fluctuation from a plant!"

The distance was too great; in the rainy night, they could only dimly make out the black shadow of a peak.

"Ink Orchid, don't rush!"

Dragon Cypress looked around, led the way to a distant knoll, and hid beneath a lush purple tassel sophora bush.

"Dragon Cypress?"

Ink Orchid questioned.

Dragon Cypress: "Wait until dawn, observe in secret."

"Oh——" Ink Orchid also didn't want to act rashly.

Most of the night passed as they traveled; everywhere they went, the mountains were covered with neatly cultivated forests.

An ordinary Insect Clan warrior wouldn't have this kind of capability—there was definitely a vegetarian Ant Clan running things here.

Maybe it was a collaboration between an Insect Tribe and the Ant Clan.

They waited in peace.

...

The rain stopped.

Dawn.

The golden sun hung slantwise on the eastern horizon.

On the opposite peak, a beetle with a black carapace glowing with a faint purple light strolled leisurely onto the clearing, entering the sight of Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid.

The beetle warrior climbed a cypress tree on the slope, clung to the trunk, carapace facing east, motionless, as if basking comfortably in the winter sun.

Ink Orchid was the first to judge: "About one meter long, a high-level warrior of some Ground Beetle Tribe!"

Ink Orchid: "There are also 18 Origin Force plants planted nearby, matching perfectly with its evolution level."

Ink Orchid: "Dragon Cypress, what do we do next?"

Dragon Cypress: "Don't rush. Keep watching."

Ink Orchid: "We really seem like we're stealing."

Dragon Cypress: "..."

Dragon Cypress: "It didn't leave the burrow until half the morning. After coming out, it doesn't do any work, just lies on the tree basking in the sun. These forests aren't managed by it—there must be other insects."

Ink Orchid: "!!!"

Ink Orchid: "Keep watching!"

At noon, with the sun directly overhead, the beetle across the mountain slowly retreated from the cypress tree and vanished into the dense forest.

After waiting a long while with still no sign, just as Dragon Cypress was considering whether to change their observation angle, he saw a group of black-and-white figures appear on the forest path below the gully.

"Ant Clan?" Ink Orchid's tentacle quivered excitedly.

"Not ants! Termites." Dragon Cypress warned, grave.

The marching termites numbered exactly fifty.

Leading the way were ten termite soldiers, their heads accounting for two-thirds of their bodies—an even more exaggerated ratio than the specialized soldier ants among the Giant-Headed Ants.

Trailing the soldiers were forty worker termites, with heads taking up half their bodies.

The soldiers and workers weren't much different in size or appearance, except for head size.

Black scissor-shaped mandibles, white heads, black thoracic carapace, white abdominal carapace, slender white legs, with black tips on the feet.

Distinctly black-and-white termites.

The soldier termites were about 1.5 meters in length, the worker termites 1.2 meters, with no size divergence.

There were no Command Ants in the team!

They marched in neat ranks to the foot of the hill, then automatically split up: one soldier termite for every four workers, forming ten logging teams, dispersing into the woods to select trees, circling the trunks and biting with their mandibles.

...

"Dragon Cypress, inherited memory says the conditions for establishing a Termite Kingdom are that you must have an Ant King and an Ant Queen?"

"Yes. One male, one female, two Origin Force Life-level termites, together forming a Termite Kingdom."

Those conditions were extremely hard to meet.

On the Ten Thousand Nations Continent, there truly were over ten thousand kingdoms established by the three great social insect species of the Natural God System. But Termite Kingdoms numbered only a few dozen. All the rest were Ant and Bee Clan Kingdoms.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid never expected to stumble upon a Termite Kingdom.

They stood dumbfounded for a while, then pondered for a long time,

Ink Orchid asked, "Inherited memory records more than three thousand termite species—which one is this?"

Dragon Cypress: "I can't tell at all. Their Ant King and Ant Queen probably used Divine-Given Origin Force Food for enhancement, which changed their bodies and coloration."

Dragon Cypress said gravely, "Termite Kingdoms also have Assistant Kings. But these soldier and worker termites at the foot of the hill are working on their own, away from the command of the Ant King and Assistant King. This means their intelligence is very high."

Ink Orchid agreed, "Big brains, right! They're much smarter than your worker and soldier ants!"

Dragon Cypress was taken aback, retorting, "It's not about big or small brains—even with big brains, you shouldn't be this smart."

Ink Orchid: "Are their Ant King and Ant Queen Mountain Lord Level?"

Dragon Cypress: "Not just that!"

So, Lord-Level?

Ink Orchid turned serious, a bit afraid. "Dragon Cypress, let's retreat for now?"

Dragon Cypress: "Retreat! We'll come back tonight."

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