Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

Chapter 82: Division and Growth, Exploring New Continents

"???"

The tree spirit was also rendered silent by Ye Zhi's nonsensical ramblings, and sent out a puzzled mental fluctuation.

"Little one, what are you talking about with the tree spirit?" Zuo Wang Qingyuan also cast a questioning mental attack. "The newly born divine seed is still very ignorant. Don't corrupt it."

Ye Zhi tapped her antennae, ceasing her jokes, and pondered that she should first give this second pitcher plant, a divinely bestowed seed, a name to facilitate future communication.

Just now, during the "Let me ask you, and you ask me" segment, the growth of the God-given Seed continued. On its underground stem structure, which is different from other pitcher plants, small buds have already extended out. The structure looks like... a pitcher.

Zuo Wang Qingyuan had already directed the worker ants to make another trip to water the rapidly growing God-given Seed and replenish its primal force. Only then did Ye Zhi realize that her second God-given Seed did not seem to have that instinctive nature of rejecting all living things.

Competition among plants may seem insignificant, but it is far more intense than among animals. In the struggle for a little light and nutrients, the roots of every growing plant are trampled under the corpses of other plants.

The King of the Cinnamon Ants once mentioned that the reason why the divinely bestowed seeds are exclusive is mainly due to the nature of such plants. Therefore, the weaker the herbaceous plant that becomes a divinely bestowed seed, the worse its character will be. On the contrary, those naturally strong tree-type divinely bestowed seeds tend to have better temperaments.

The pitcher plant is clearly not a naturally strong large tree. One "chimera" may be an exception, but the fact that both of these divinely bestowed species are like this can only be attributed to the unique characteristics of carnivorous plants.

"What...is this?" After another replenishment of primal force, bursts of pure primal force exploded outwards. The tree spirit seemed to only just react, stumbling as it transmitted its mental energy to ask Ye Zhi.

"This is a raw stone that can replenish your primal energy and is beneficial to your growth," Ye Zhi explained to the newly born divine seed.

"Original Stone." The tree spirit transmitted a joyful and affectionate spiritual power, repeating the words "Original Stone" once.

Ye Zhi personally picked up a raw stone with both jaws, drew out an extremely fine ant silk from her abdomen, injected primal energy to transform it into a flying blade for cutting, and released pure primal force to continuously replenish the primal force for the growth of the divinely bestowed seed.

......

Continuing to wait, the growth momentum of the God-given Seed was not as rapid as that of the "Chimera". After absorbing all the flesh and blood of the worker ants, the mother plant stopped at a height of one meter, while underground, a fairly developed underground stem was generated.

"Qingyuan Zuowang, look, this underground stem seems somewhat similar to the underground stem of the herbaceous divinely bestowed seed that Wuyuan Ant King mentioned?" Ye Zhi suddenly thought of a possibility.

"Um?"

Qingyuan sent out a questioning signal, then its antennae turned, and its lord-level mental power scanned the area. It then sent out a signal with some surprise: "It really does seem to be a bud of a branch, little guy, look."

Following the direction indicated by Zuo Wang Qingyuan's tentacles, Ye Zhi indeed discovered that five small buds were emerging from the main part of the underground stem. It was clear that these were not the kind of buds that would develop into insect traps, but rather more underground stems.

This growth pattern is somewhat similar to the herbaceous divinely bestowed seed mentioned by the King of the Cinnamon Ants, where a single mother plant produces numerous underground stems that continue to divide and grow as the insect warriors grow and evolve, eventually spreading into a large area.

"Qingyuan Zuowang, then, should the base number of my pitcher plant, which was bestowed by the gods, be five?"

As Qingyuan tapped its antennae, Ye Zhi continued to ponder – the Wuyuan Ant King had also mentioned that the number of divisions of the divinely bestowed seed that grows by division is determined by the "base number" of the first division and the "multiplier" of subsequent divisions.

Now, this divinely bestowed seed has five buds for the first time, so the base number for the first division will be five. The second time, it may generate fifteen more divisions based on the five buds, which is a threefold division.

Subsequently, with each major advancement of Ye Zhi, the Divine Seed would generate three more offshoots, fifteen would produce forty-five, forty-five would produce one hundred and thirty-five, and so on.

This is the lowest threefold division rate; higher rates include fivefold or even sevenfold, allowing better herbaceous varieties to at least achieve yields comparable to those of ordinary tree varieties.

Ye Zhi was aware of his own luck. He didn't believe he could encounter such a good thing as a five-fold or even seven-fold increase, but with a base of five divisions, a three-fold increase in the number of divisions wasn't bad. It was better than the vine pattern he had expected.

Several hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the tree spirit, which was born much earlier than usual, seemed to have finally stabilized and began to ask Ye Zhi about the situation nearby from time to time.

"What is that?"

"Those are my worker ants. They will take care of you and help you use the Primal Stones to replenish your Force."

"Worker ants? Oh... are those your worker ants too?"

"No, those are the worker ants of the king ant, they will take care of you too."

"Oh... what were those again?"

"..."

During the exchange, Ye Zhi could clearly sense that the tree spirit of this divinely bestowed seed was far less clever than the tree spirit of the "Chimera," and could even be described as somewhat dull-witted, perhaps because its consciousness awakened too early, which was equivalent to premature birth.

After some conversation, Ye Zhi only gained a general understanding of the tree spirit's perception of its own condition. Without further discussion, she sent out her mental energy, telling the tree spirit to rest well and focus on growing.

Seeing that the situation had stabilized, Zuo Wang Qingyuan led the worker ants away, and Huo Yun, who had been watching the excitement from afar, also left. Only Ye Zhi and the few large worker ants he brought remained to guard the newly born divine seed.

Thinking it over, Ye Zhi realized that there was no danger in the core territory of the tree ant kingdom. If there were any small birds or beasts, these large worker ants could handle them. Ye Zhi flapped her wings and took off, flying into the distance.

Because of the evolution of the Black Ant King, he hasn't had the opportunity to cross the interdimensional passage again to check on the situation on the mainland.

Ye Zhi, unable to stay still, immediately activated the spatial energy in her mind, located the ant colony in the interdimensional passage's branch nest, flapped her wings, changed direction, and flew straight towards the interdimensional passage.

It was also time to replenish the food supply for the ant colony in the interdimensional passage. Ye Zhi searched along the way, looking for small vertebrates that she could move nearby. She lashed out with ant silk blades, severing heads, and tied thick ant silk ropes around her body, carrying them towards the location of the interdimensional passage.

The first-instar intermediate-stage semi-primitive force ant queen, who was in the cross-boundary swarming nest, had already emerged from her molt. At this time, many larvae in the nest were at the age where they could eat, so Ye Zhi personally cut off pieces of flesh to feed them.

After settling the ant colony in the interdimensional passage's branch nest, Ye Zhi took flight again, passing through the narrow metal corridor of the interdimensional passage, and flew all the way to the new continent where the natural force was depleted.