Force Astral Plane: Starting with the Chimera Ants

"Wu Yuan, I heard you've made a fortune, haven't you? You've brought out so many things to trade this year?" The lord-level giant spider named Chi Mai seemed to be quite familiar with Wu Yuan Ant King and teased him directly.

"I heard from the caravans trading with the Mountain Ant Kingdom that the Brown Ant King gave the Jialian Ant King a good dressing down. Did your Tree Ant Kingdom really manage to take over that raw stone mine? And a little guy with a divinely bestowed seed has been born in your territory. Aren't you going to give us some divinely bestowed primal force food?"

Wu Yuan, somewhat helplessly, waved its antennae, gesturing to Qing Yuan beside it. Qing Yuan then ripped open the large spider silk bag in front of it with a ripping sound, revealing a whole bag of divinely bestowed citron seeds underneath, and pushed it forward.

"A good harvest this year?" Lord Red Wheat pulled out a few thin spider silk threads from the end of his abdomen. He used his mental power to control the threads, which, like flexible tentacles, picked up the divinely bestowed citron seeds and examined them closely.

Ye Zhi stared intently at the spider silk being manipulated by the other party. This was exactly what he wanted to learn. He took in every change and movement of the spider silk, deducing and thinking in his mind how he could control the ant silk.

"Not bad, still the same price, three raw stones for each divinely bestowed citron seed. How many fruits have ripened this year, Cinnamon Ant King? Judging from the number of seeds, there are quite a few." Lord-level Flame Spider Merchant Chi Mai transmitted his mental power.

"There are two thousand seeds here. You can count them again if you're not sure."

Wu Yuan shook its tentacles, pointing to the remaining small spider silk bags: "These are the products of ordinary grapefruit and blood orange seedlings. According to the price in previous years, they are worth about four thousand primal stones. Including the price of the divinely bestowed citron seeds, it is exactly ten thousand primal stones."

"And these, replace them all with God-given Force food suitable for the growth and evolution of beginner to intermediate Ant Kings."

"Snap, snap!" The Crimson Wheat Lord's pincers rubbed together excitedly, making a sound. Then, several spider silk sacs on its back opened, and several strands of spider silk were deftly sorted, selected, and packaged before being handed to Wu Yuan. It then said mysteriously:

"A divinely bestowed azure persimmon seed, which strengthens the shell's toughness. It's an absolutely excellent item, produced in the territory of a mountain lord-level deep-mountain stag beetle warrior. It also comes with a slight strength enhancement and is perfectly compatible with ants. Its quality is definitely not low. One seed costs one hundred raw stones."

Azure Persimmon! Ye Zhi was startled. This was the top-grade food for strengthening shells, recorded in her inherited memories. Of course, the price was also incredibly high.

The Divine Seed produces Force Food, which has a strengthening effect three to five times that of ordinary Force Food. However, due to the solidified Force, it has greater side benefits for growth and evolution, and its price is often five to fifteen times that of ordinary Force Food.

The Azure Persimmon, a top-tier divine gift, is produced in a mountain lord-level territory and comes with a slight strength-enhancing effect, perfectly matching the abilities of the ant race. Naturally, its purchase price wouldn't be low. However, how much the price was inflated in the middle is known only to heaven, earth, nature, and the spider in front of us.

"There's such a good thing?" Wu Yuan was somewhat tempted. "How many can be sold in total?"

"These items are rare. I only obtained a small quantity from the Spider King, and the total number is not much. I can only sell a hundred of them to you at most," Lord Red Wheat said, seemingly reluctant, though it was unclear whether he was genuine or just putting on an act to raise the price.

However, Ye Zhi had other plans in mind at this moment - the mountain lord-level flame spider called "Chui Xu" did not participate in the transaction with Wu Yuan, but just watched silently from the side. Ye Zhi took the opportunity to go up and ask for some advice.

"Lord of Chuixu Mountain!" Ye Zhi flapped her wings and took flight, her antennae swaying as she transmitted her mental energy. "I've heard that the Flame Spider tribe is skilled at manipulating spider silk, and our Leafweaver Ant clan also possesses ant silk. You look like a strong Flame Spider warrior; may I learn a thing or two from you?"

......

After some discussion, Zuo Wang Qingyuan led the team of worker ants back, each carrying a bag of spider silk. This time, however, the contents of the spider silk bags were much more valuable.

One hundred divinely bestowed azure persimmon seeds, along with other accompanying primal energy foods, were packaged in groups of one persimmon seed and a certain quantity of other primal energy foods, each packaged in one hundred small spider silk bags.

The number of worker ants brought was not enough, so Qingyuan used a large spider silk bag to cover a small spider silk bag, and personally carried the largest spider silk bag behind Wuyuan. The team returned to the nest in a grand procession.

Ye Zhi also learned some techniques for using ant silk during her conversation with the mountain lord-level Flame Spider Warrior, Chui Xu, and benefited greatly. Now, she was calculating her gains and bid farewell to Mountain Lord Chui Xu and Lord Chi Mai.

After the transaction was completed, they naturally had to return to the caravan's gathering place to avoid being away from the Spider King Caravan for too long and encountering any accidents in the chaotic Dragon Bamboo Continent.

The Force food produced by the same type of Destiny Plant has an enhancement limit, and the enhancement effects of various plants are not the same. A single insect warrior can only rely on its own Destiny Plant to be self-sufficient, and it is very difficult to evolve into a Mountain Lord level.

Therefore, the existence of the Flame Spider becomes crucial. Although the Flame Spider maintains neutrality, if a localized version of the trade war from the previous life were to occur, such as a Force food embargo, it would be enough to cause most insect tribes to suffer.

In the Cloud Continent, where all races coexist, many insect tribes try to complement each other, or neighboring tribes form small trade circles to reduce their dependence on itinerant merchants.

On the Dragon Bamboo Continent, the Ant Kingdoms are constantly at war with each other, making it difficult for multiple kingdoms to complement each other. Instead, they rely more on traveling merchants, and no kingdom dares to openly attack the Flame Spider Caravan.

However, traveling on the mainland is always accompanied by danger, and accidents are inevitable. For example, if a lone Flame Spider is robbed, the perpetrator will make sure that no one survives and then frame other kingdoms, leaving no one to prove the crime.

Therefore, all the Flame Spider caravans entering the Dragon Bamboo Continent are guarded by top-tier Spider King-level combatants, and at the very least, Mountain Lord-level beings. Even when they need to split up, they are in pairs, looking out for each other to prevent such situations from occurring.

The two Flame Spider Warriors, one a Lord-level and the other a Mountain Lord-level, were traveling together to the Tree Ant Kingdom after the caravan temporarily split up. After completing their trade, they returned to the caravan's rendezvous point to reunite with the Spider King, the leader of the caravan.

But this was not important to Ye Zhi at the moment. He simply pulled out two strands of ant silk and, learning from the way the Lord of Chuixu Mountain used his mental power to guide and move them, compared them with his previous methods, and pondered how to improve the attack method of the ant silk flying blades.

The cypress below watched Ye Zhi perform on its back with great interest, only reminding, "Little guy, hold on tight."

As the sun began to slant, the long shadows cast by the citron and the leaf-woven webs on its back mingled with the shadows of the worker ants beside it. The sacks of cobwebs, laden with silk, seemed weightless in their mouths as they merely swayed their antennae, following the footsteps of the queen ant.

No matter how chaotic the outside world is, at least at this moment, the situation within the Tree Ant Kingdom remains as harmonious as ever.