Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid had been busy on Scarletlight Mountain for over ten days before bidding farewell and setting off.

The Dominating Throne headed west, picked a batch of Keg Vine Seeds from the Origin Force Vacuum Land, and then continued to Ghost Fan Mountain. The batch of Keg Vine that had been entrusted to Ghost Fan for planting years ago had already blossomed and borne fruit. Another batch of Pod Fruit was picked from Ghost Fan Mountain.

All four large bags were filled.

Heading north, they arrived at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain.

In the small hilly range, Round Cypress and Black Cory were directing the Worker Ants to dig soil, level the grounds, and transform the land into terraced fields.

Silver Cypress was leading a group of Soldier Ants to help clear out and stack the various sized stones being dug up.

Great King, you're finally here~ As soon as the Dominating Throne landed, the three guys swarmed over.

Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid each carried a big bag of Keg Vine Seeds and leapt down.

"Spring is almost here. Round Cypress, find a suitable spot and sow these Keg Vine Seeds. Keg Vine is a natural top-level plant seed and can be one of the primary crops for Southern Sour Jujube Mountain."

"Understood…" Round Cypress opened the bag, pinched a Keg Vine Seed and examined it.

Dragon Cypress continued, "Black Cory, you go back to Black Lotus Lake and rest. While you're at it, direct the Worker Ants to dig out the nursery saplings; I'll transport them over here, and Round Cypress can coordinate the Worker Ants to plant them."

"Alright…"

Black Cory was so moved he almost cried.

This is called rest? Isn't this just working in a different place?

There was supposed to be job rotation, but over the past year, there's only been one turn and only a month of rest. All the other time was work, work, work.

Great King, is it really this hard to earn your 1,000 Source Stones?

"Great King…" Silver Cypress cautiously asked, "Does this mean I can go back to Xianglan Mountain too?"

Dragon Cypress: "What are you going back to Xianglan Mountain for? You stay here, learn from Round Cypress, and help command the Blue Soldiers in charge of irrigation."

"…" Silver Cypress's tentacles drooped, looking listless.

Dragon Cypress grumbled, "Those two little jerks, Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple, both managed to find Divine-Given Seeds. I, the Great King, haven't found even a single one so far. All of you better work hard, hurry up and reclaim Southern Sour Jujube Mountain, develop the orchard, and produce results sooner; otherwise, I might not be able to keep feeding you."

Silver Cypress: "Got it."

Black Cory: "Okay."

Round Cypress: "Dragon Cypress Ant King, this is different. What we're cultivating are all top-level plant seeds. As long as we produce just one Divine-Given Seed, we'll earn a huge income. That's not something Orchid Grass, Gorgon Fruit, or Kiwifruit can compare with."

Round Cypress really knows how to talk...

Dragon Cypress glanced at Ink Orchid beside him, lightly twitching his tentacles to gesture, "Let's go! Let's go take a look at the Southern Sour Jujube Divine-Given Seed."

Wild Divine-Given Seeds grow slowly. Even with insect management and heavy Source Stone resource investment, evolving from Mountain Lord Level to Lord-Level still takes hundreds of years.

The Southern Sour Jujube Divine-Given Seed had only recently evolved to Mountain Lord Level, and its environment wasn't great—there was still a long way until Lord-Level.

Dragon Cypress planned to invest a modest amount of the Dragon Cypress Divine-Given Seed Exuviae to observe the effects first, and only invest further within limits if things looked good.

After a few hundred years, either Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid would return to the embrace of the Natural True God, or they'd successfully evolve to King-Level.

If they died, everything would be for nothing.

If they evolved to King-Level, they wouldn't care a bit about the output from a Lord-Level wild Divine-Given Seed with a rather mediocre enhancement effect.

So there was no need to waste too many resources and energy on the Southern Sour Jujube Divine-Given Seed.

...

After making an inspection and arranging the next tasks, Dragon Cypress took Black Cory and a group of Worker Ants and headed off, dropping Black Cory at Black Lotus Lake along the way, while he and Ink Orchid returned to Xianglan Mountain.

Right after that, they set off again, making a trip to Xinghu Lake to fill eight bags with chopped branches and leaf powder from the Fruitful Dragon Cypress Divine-Given Seed and brought them back to the mountain.

By this time, it was late winter and early spring.

Both Dragon Cypress's and Ink Orchid's Life Seed Plants had grown to scale, no longer needing painstaking care—just some fertilizer and watering would do. There wasn't much critical work on Xianglan Mountain, so Fragrant Cypress and Cypress could handle it.

Ink Orchid had picked up some knowledge of hybrid breeding on Huagi Mountain and, full of confidence, busied himself with his Orchid Grass breeding experiments.

Dragon Cypress went alone to Black Lotus Lake.

Black Cory commanded the Worker Ants to dig up the nursery saplings along with their soil and prune excess branches.

They tilled the land, sowed the seeds, and raised new seedlings.

Dragon Cypress was responsible for transportation, piloting the Dominating Throne back and forth between Black Lotus Lake and Southern Sour Jujube Mountain.

Round Cypress's planting duties were the simplest—Worker Ants dug holes, threw in the saplings, set them upright, refilled with soil, and tamped it down. Silver Cypress followed behind, leading the Blue Soldiers in a line to pass along Water Spheres. As the Worker Ants planted a sapling in front, the rear would just give it a splash of water.

Once planted, the saplings basically needed no management until midsummer.

Transplanting and establishing was the lightest work—within ten days, the previous year's newly reclaimed land was filled with saplings right on schedule.

On the final trip, Dragon Cypress picked up a well-rested Black Cory and brought him back to Southern Sour Jujube Mountain to continue land reclamation.

The Dominating Throne carried Round Cypress, Silver Cypress, and a group of Worker and Soldier Ants straight for Kiwifruit Mountain.

Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple were busy on the ridge, preparing to plant the evolved Green-Red Kiwifruit Divine-Given Seed. The two of them had reclaimed a five-meter-square plot, dug out the soil and stones, and refilled it with rich humus dug up from the forest below.

"Snakebark Maple, how's it going?"

"No sign of falling into evolution sleep yet…"

"Nurturing a Divine-Given Seed uses extra Origin Force and slows your growth and evolution. It's not a big problem, though. Next, you'll just stay on the Dominating Throne. Its auxiliary functions can offset the Origin Force drain of the Divine-Given Seed."

"Got it!"

"Blue Catalpa, you get on the throne and rest up, prepare to evolve. Leave the territory's chores to Round Cypress and Silver Cypress."

"Yes—"

"About some questions regarding the male Divine-Given Green-Red Kiwifruit, I can answer them for you now."

"Uh…" Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple were confused.

Dragon Cypress explained one by one: "First, the pollen from a male Green-Red Kiwifruit Divine-Given Seed can't be used for the Purple Kiwifruit Life Seed—it must be the same species."

"Second, one male Green-Red Kiwifruit Divine-Given Seed, if properly cared for, can in theory pollinate more than fifty Common Green-Red Kiwifruit Life Seeds. But there's an efficiency problem—wind and bee pollination has limitations. In reality, you'll barely manage two or three dozen, unless…"

"Unless what?" asked Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple.

Dragon Cypress: "Unless you find a Bee Clan Bee King skilled in honey-collecting and mead-brewing, and have them direct the Worker Bees to pollinate precisely."

Blue Catalpa: "..."

Snakebark Maple: "..."

Dragon Cypress continued, "Third, the quality increase will be up to four or five times, and your profits will rise by the same amount."

Before Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple could get excited, Dragon Cypress said quickly, "Don't celebrate yet, there's a fourth point—the Source Stone investment…"

"When fruit is set—in spring and summer—you'll need to use Source Stones once every ten days or so, adjusting irrigation according to rainfall. In autumn, the frequency goes up; you'll need to use Source Stones every five or six days. The amount per use… well, that depends on the actual situation."

Blue Catalpa: "Roughly how much?"

Dragon Cypress: "About a quarter of your revenue. To raise Divine-Given-level fruit on a Common Life Seed, you're definitely going to pay a Source Stone price."

That's a huge investment—Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple were speechless again.

Snakebark Maple asked, puzzled, "Dragon Cypress Ant King, didn't we still have to trade with the Flame Spider Caravan? Where did you get all this information?"

"Pack up, get ready to leave. I'll explain it to you on the way…"

Dragon Cypress put down the plank, had the Worker and Soldier Ants disembark, and began to organize the work tasks.

Round Cypress and Silver Cypress stayed at Kiwifruit Mountain, while Blue Catalpa and Snakebark Maple followed Dragon Cypress back to Xianglan Mountain to prepare for evolution.

The sooner the Divine-Given Seed is bred, the sooner it can be sown and the sooner you can reap the harvest.

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