Using Stone Orchid as a Life Seed, the Origin Force Food it produces comes with the effect of strengthening the digestive system.
The Flower Mantis Clan's innate ability lies in the carapace; the Origin Force Food produced from nurturing Life Seeds comes with the effect of improving carapace color.
All things considered, the enhancement effect of Stone Orchid Seeds produced from Ink Orchid nurturing a Stone Orchid Life Seed is a combination of digestive system enhancement and improved carapace color.
Ink Orchid's bloated physique is clearly due to eating too many Stone Orchid Seeds. It probably realized that being overweight affects flying and fighting, so it dared not eat too much, which is why there's a surplus of Stone Orchid Seeds this year.
This stuff is rather useless for Mantis Warriors, and eating too much can even be counterproductive.
But, for the Ant King, especially for Dragon Cypress, Stone Orchid Seeds are without a doubt the best Origin Force Food.
Using the Dominating Throne to generate Ant Eggs requires consuming large amounts of stored nutrients and physical strength, so the fatter the Ant King, the better.
Saw off Ink Orchid.
Dragon Cypress charged the Dominating Throne once, and the second Ant Egg entered the third stage of Primordial Energy Breeding.
Ate to recover the energy spent.
Unable to wait, he took out the Stone Orchid Seeds and ate three in a row.
...
That afternoon, Ink Orchid did not arrive as promised.
Dragon Cypress guessed it must have detoured home and didn't think much of it.
After resting well, he continued digging the Ant Nest through the night.
The next morning.
The Dominating Throne gave feedback.
[Messenger·Producer·Agriculturality Generation Complete]
Just like last time, the rear of the Dominating Throne opened up a hexagonal honeycomb-like hole, inside of which an Ant Egg was produced.
Comparing the Guardian and Producer Ant Eggs, their size, shape, and color were the same, only their Origin Force aura was slightly different.
Could the Guardian correspond to the Soldier Ants of the Great-Headed Ant Kingdom?
Could the Producer correspond to Worker Ants?
It's hard to say for now, but solving this question shouldn't be hard—once they develop into adults, it'll be clear at a glance.
Not thinking about it further,
Dragon Cypress immediately tried to activate the Messenger function, and as expected, a blue light scan showed his body was in poor condition.
He ate another three Stone Orchid Seeds, sprawled across the Dominating Throne, and rested to recover.
...
Dusk was falling, the sky about to turn dark.
"Dragon Cypress?"
"Dragon Cypress!"
Ink Orchid's spiritual call echoed from the entrance of the Ant Nest.
Dragon Cypress jumped down from the Throne and trotted out of the nest.
Rip.
Ink Orchid deftly opened the Spider Silk Bag, buried its head in and rummaged, producing five cypress fruit balls.
"This is Dried Fragrant Cypress! Dragon Cypress, do you have any?"
"No..."
"Giving them to you!"
"Thank you..."
"No need to be polite." Ink Orchid raised her foreleg and pointed north, saying:
"I flew along the Divine Force Barrier, searching that way, and found a big mountain. On the mountain, I saw some Dried Fragrant Cypress, so I casually picked some seeds for you and brought them back."
"Unfortunately, although the mountain is large, it's very poor in Origin Force."
So it really went looking for Divine-Given Seeds~ Dragon Cypress swept his spiritual power into the Spider Silk Bag and asked:
"Ink Orchid, you collected quite a few orchid seeds? What kinds?"
Ink Orchid: "All are Snow Orchid. I already have this Orchid Seed. However, collecting seeds from different places and mixing them for propagation can produce hardier seedlings. Dragon Cypress, you should travel around whenever you can and collect all sorts of plant seeds."
Dragon Cypress: "Seed trading is actually one of the main trade items for caravans. The Flame Spider Caravan has all sorts of plant seeds from the Ten-thousand Tribes Continent and Wan Country Continent, all high-quality varieties cultivated by major Insect Clans over countless generations."
"Ink Orchid, how tall is the mountain you live on? If it's tall enough, I have two Large Fruit Hemlock Seeds here, I could spare one for you to try."
"Thank you... the mountain's not high... better not..."
Ink Orchid looked around guiltily, declined Dragon Cypress's offer, spaced out for a few seconds, then cheerfully leaped, asking, "Does the caravan have orchid seeds for sale?"
Dragon Cypress answered honestly: "The caravan I follow doesn't, nor have I heard that other caravans do. Never heard of an Insect Clan specializing in cultivating orchids."
Ink Orchid's head drooped in disappointment, then asked, "Then can I commission the caravan to help collect them?"
Dragon Cypress: "You can. But what they'll find are all wild orchid seeds. Caravans commission local Insect Clans to gather them from suitable orchid grass areas, so the prices are very high—really not cost-effective."
Ink Orchid: "Dragon Cypress, are you close with the Flame Spider, Melde, from your caravan?"
Dragon Cypress: "We're close. But even so, you still have to pay Source Stone for anything you buy."
Ink Orchid didn't have a single Source Stone left, and had finished this year's crop of Origin Force Food, so changed the topic, asking:
"Dragon Cypress, how did you get your Large Fruit Hemlock Seeds?"
Dragon Cypress: "I helped out when the caravan was trading in the Hemlock Grasshopper King's territory, and these were my wages."
"Oh." Ink Orchid: "Hemlock Grasshopper King? Insect King Level?"
Dragon Cypress: "Yes. Its territory is super huge, home to over a thousand Iron Grasshopper Warriors, a powerful and wealthy Iron Grasshopper Kingdom. When the caravan arrives, many warriors rush over with big and small bags of Origin Force Food, all hoping to trade—selling the output of their territory, trading for Source Stone, or buying other kinds of Origin Force Food they need."
"Every time the caravan enters a prosperous Insect King territory like this, it gets especially busy, so I help out with calculations and bookkeeping, and Melde gives me compensation accordingly."
"Wow!"
"Dragon Cypress, you're amazing!"
Ink Orchid's eyes lit up, excitedly asking, "Dragon Cypress, are there lots of Mantis Kingdoms too?"
"Of course! On the Ten-thousand Tribes Continent, Mantises are a major and powerful clan. I've visited five Mantis Kingdoms with the caravan."
Dragon Cypress paused, then said: "I've also visited the White Alder Mantis King. It owns three Alder Divine-Given Seeds—the largest one called 'White Alder', which has grown for five hundred years, with lush branches and leaves, standing like a mountain. Its blossom-fruit cycle is five years, and each cycle produces over thirty thousand Alder Seeds. The caravan buys them at 30 Source Stones each and resells them for 35 to 40 Source Stones to other Insect Kings..."
"That's so many Source Stones?!"
"The White Alder Mantis King is incredible!"
Ink Orchid cheered for her distant relative.
Isn't the caravan the impressive one here? Dragon Cypress kept chatting until night fell, and only then did Ink Orchid reluctantly say goodbye and leave.
The next morning, Ink Orchid came running again with an empty Spider Silk Bag.
"Dragon Cypress, your Ant Nest isn't done yet?"
"Nope."
Dragon Cypress took the initiative to ask: "Ink Orchid, do you still plan to search north for orchid seeds and Divine-Given Seeds?"
"Thinking about it, but it's too far..."
Ink Orchid hesitated, sped up and asked, "Dragon Cypress, yesterday you said the Sharp-Field Mantis Clan's Three-Spike Lord used some Outworld Civilization rangefinder to measure Melde's length? What kind of device is that? How does it work?"
Ink Orchid was full of curiosity and longing for everything outside, especially Outworld Civilization Artifacts.
It was obvious; today it had come just to hear stories from me.
"Oh~" Dragon Cypress thought about it, organized his words, and said: "That thing is called a 'Rangefinder,' it's a rectangular prism..."
As Dragon Cypress spoke, he walked and used his foreleg to draw a rectangle on the ground: "About this big, the front shoots out a kind of green beam, then here's a display screen. When the beam hits an object, the screen shows the distance. There are strange characters on it—only the Three-Spike Lord can understand them. Rumor is, it spent over a hundred years researching to decipher them, and won't tell anyone else."
Ink Orchid looked blank, then asked, "How exactly does it work then? What's it used for?"
Dragon Cypress: "..."
Dragon Cypress: "Ink Orchid, how long are you now?"
Ink Orchid: "About 20 centimeters, I think."
Dragon Cypress: "About? You're estimating based on inherited memory, using spiritual power to scan yourself, right?"
Ink Orchid: "That's right."
Dragon Cypress: "The function of a rangefinder is to measure your length exactly. If you record your body length at every age period, you can see directly how much you grew after each molting evolution. Similarly, you can accurately measure the height of Life Seed Plants, record it, and clearly understand how much your Life Seed has grown each year. There are lots of similar uses—very practical."
"As for how to measure..."
Dragon Cypress drew a horizontal line on the ground with his claw: "Ink Orchid, for example, if you want to measure your length, just stand here with your head aligned to this line..."
Ink Orchid immediately cooperated, stepped forward, lay down, and adjusted her steps to line up with the line.
Dragon Cypress: "Then set up a wooden board behind you, aligned with your tail, and shoot it once with the rangefinder. The device's screen will display the result—maybe 21.222, or 20.222, or some other value. In short, it's very accurate."
"Got it!"
Ink Orchid immediately asked, "So how do you measure the height of a Life Seed Plant precisely?"
Dragon Cypress: "For that, you just switch to another 'height-measuring' mode. Let's use that dead camphor tree example—just stand here and point the rangefinder to the treetop. The result appears immediately."
"Unfortunately, only the Three-Spike Lord knows the specific method of operation, and it won't tell any other insect."
"That's awesome!" Ink Orchid exclaimed, then complained, "The Three-Spike Lord is kind of stingy, huh?"
Dragon Cypress: "That's not stingy—that's a business. On the Ten-thousand Tribes Continent, whenever certain Insect Clan Warriors need to measure something precisely, they have to pay a hefty price to ask the Three-Spike Lord for help. There isn't just one rangefinder passed down, but many. If the secret got out, the Three-Spike Lord wouldn't make as many Source Stones, or there'd be competition and they'd earn less."
"I see!"
"Three-Spike Lord is so smart!"
"Dragon Cypress, you're smart too!"
Ink Orchid caught on to the logic, sighed in awe several times, and even admired Dragon Cypress even more.
Ordinary Insect Clans make money by running territory, Flame Spider Roving Merchants earn profits by trading, and unexpectedly, one can earn wealth by holding knowledge that others don't understand.
The outside world is just too wonderful.
Ink Orchid quickly asked, "Dragon Cypress, are there more? Other Outworld Civilization Artifacts like the rangefinder?"
Dragon Cypress: "Of course, and there are many."
Dragon Cypress thought for a moment, then said: "In the Bronze Click Beetle Tribe, there's a Click Beetle Mountain Lord named 'Flame.' It inherited from the previous Lord a set of Outworld Civilization Artifacts known as 'Firefly Eyes'..."