Ant Lord in the Star Realm

——Law Primordial Energy?

——Condensing Divine Mark?

——An ant is condensing Divine Mark?

——The Great King is condensing Divine Mark!

Cypress, Silver Cypress, and Black Birch sensed it one after another and rushed back to the main nest at Xianglan Peak.

...

It started mid-morning and didn't end until late at night.

Dragon Cypress walked out of the King Nest.

Ink Orchid led all the ants to greet him.

"Dragon Cypress? Divine Mark? Explosive Jet?"

"Second water system Divine Mark, Explosive Jet!"

"You succeeded this fast?"

"Great King, mighty as always!"

"Great King, hurry, show us!"

...

Dragon Cypress straightened its antennae, and at the tips of both, a ring of crystalline white veins glowed.

Ink Orchid: "That's two marks?"

Dragon Cypress: "Strictly speaking, it's just one mark, but distributed on both antennae, symmetrical left and right, basically splitting into two ring patterns."

Dragon Cypress shook its antennae and formed an ice pillar, half a meter long, floating in front of him.

The appearance had changed drastically.

The front was a sharp cone, able to pierce air, flying even faster, without that harsh sonic boom.

The tail featured a hollow tube with four tailfins, making its flight more stable.

Dragon Cypress briefly explained, "The auxiliary effect of the Explosive Jet Divine Rune is quite impressive! Then, by attaching a Primordial Energy Imprint of another control ability onto the ice pillar, it can greatly boost the range and speed of flight, and it can even make turns mid-flight."

"It's like an added ability: once my spiritual power or soul consciousness locks onto a target, the launched ice pillar can adjust its flight path as it flies, homing in to attack the target."

"???"

The insects didn't quite get it.

Dragon Cypress looked at Ink Orchid and asked, "If I use my ability to attack you, once you realize it, you'd definitely dodge, right?"

Ink Orchid: "I wouldn't dodge. Why should I?"

Ink Orchid: "Explosive Jet has a critical flaw. I can just use any random small ability to intercept and explode it ahead of time, right?"

"Uh..."

Dragon Cypress froze for a second, then praised, "Second King, you're clever and brave."

Dragon Cypress continued, "Simply put, it lets you chase a locked target and hit them."

That sounded fun~ Ink Orchid waved his antennae and called out, "Come on! Let's test it!"

They all left the nest, heading to the foot of the mountain, and picked a flat clearing.

Cypress, Silver Cypress, and Black Birch worked together, activating their water making and freezing abilities to create an ice wall over five meters thick.

"You all stand back, just in case!"

Dragon Cypress beat his wings and took off, flying a kilometer away before stopping, then powered up his antenna slightly to create a giant ice pillar over three meters long and around seventy centimeters in diameter.

From a kilometer away, he poured in all his strength, launching the ice pillar straight up, sending it shooting off.

It traced a beautiful parabolic arc from the sky, accelerating, targeting, adjusting the angle, and in one flash, slammed into the ice wall.

The moment the ice pillar struck the ice wall, it exploded with a thunderous boom.

A jet of blue metallic water burst out the other side of the ice wall.

Water splashed everywhere.

The ice wall was pierced through by a sharp cone shape.

The insects and trees froze for a moment, then burst out cheering and analyzing what they'd seen.

Ability advantages: long range, powerful penetrating and destructive force.

Drawbacks: any minor ability can intercept it and cause it to detonate early.

Tracking attacks and ultra-long-range strikes are granted by the Divine Mark; they can't be passed down to the Blue Soldiers.

But if you gave this ability to the Blue Soldier army, it'd just be a storm of ice pillars raining down on the enemy...

...

Dragon Cypress successfully condensed his first purely offensive Water System Divine Mark.

Accordingly, the Blue Soldiers' combat power jumped up a major tier.

Just in time, the required Green Soldiers and Air Soldier squads had basically taken shape.

Now, time to go back and begin mass-producing Specialized Blue Soldiers.

...

Successfully migrated to Wanglan Continent.

From now on, they'd be Wanglan Insects.

Immediate news was sent to the insects of Cloud Trace Continent, so no one would worry.

...

Cloud Trace Continent, golden autumn.

The Dominating Throne set off from Xianglan Mountain, beginning the annual autumn trade, and also brought the good news of the successful migration.

Black Lotus Lake.

As soon as the Dominating Throne came close, Ink Orchid left the throne and sped up with his ability.

Sensing Origin Force fluctuation, White Willow became a sleek black blur, coming straight over.

Both sides slowed down at once.

White Willow did a backward flip plus a sideways roll, turning midair.

"Ink Orchid!"

"That's awesome! I just knew nothing would go wrong."

White Willow cheered.

"Of course!"

Ink Orchid: "White Willow, and, another piece of good news: Dragon Cypress just finished condensing his second Water System—Explosive Jet Divine Rune. Now, the Specialized Blue Soldiers he's been training can inherit water system Divine Mark attack abilities; the Ant Army's fighting strength has skyrocketed."

"Oh——"

White Willow: "Didn't they say it'd take twenty or thirty years to get that second Divine Mark? How come it was so fast? Dragon Cypress Ant King is awesome!"

Ink Orchid: "Not awesome. Just lucky. All thanks to Snow Velvet Spider King, Linnan Divine Tree, plus Azure's guidance."

White Willow: "Oh——"

White Willow: "Ink Orchid, I've got good news too! The Black Lotus I planted finally produced a Divine-Given Seed!"

Ink Orchid twitched his wings and tilted, surprised: "Black Lotus Divine-Given Seed?"

White Willow: "Black Lotus Divine-Given Seed! Black Cory says it'll be ready to harvest in as little as ten days, or two weeks at most!"

"Let's go see!"

Ink Orchid swept out his Soul-Setting ability, locked onto Black Cory's location, and shot off at high speed.

White Willow flapped his wings and sped after him.

Behind them, Dragon Cypress also drove the Dominating Throne to catch up.

In the lake,

A deformed lotus pod, with a single green lotus seed, giving off a faint Origin Force fluctuation.

There was already a Primordial Energy breath; it could be told it was similar in nature to a normal Black Lotus Seed.

White Willow knew nothing about plant cultivation, at best just gathered Black Lotus Seeds each year, picked the plump ones, and tossed them in the lake to plant.

Native Black Lotus, randomly appearing, with its boost effects unchanged.

"Great King, can White Willow evolve to the 7th Age Period now?"

Black Cory asked.

Dragon Cypress gently shook his antennae, "No rush, wait three more years. When White Ivy Spider King's Divine-Grade Leilian Seed arrives and you've eaten it, then you can evolve."

Black Cory: "About this Divine-Given Seed..."

Dragon Cypress: "Seal it in the metal case and save it. Let White Willow use it after evolving to the 7th Age Period."

The Dragonfly tribe simply wasn't suitable for managing crops.

White Willow never farmed, so getting a Divine-Given Seed was pure dumb luck—might only happen once in a lifetime—a rare shot at turning everything around.

White Willow was already dirt poor.

Dragon Cypress was embarrassed to ask, wanting to borrow the seed to let Ink Orchid evolve.

Ink Orchid clearly had the same idea, but was also embarrassed.

They rested a day at Black Lotus Lake, then set off south to check the status at Southern Sour Jujube Mountain.