[Please choose the type of Messenger]
[Guardian of Strength]
[Producer of Agriculture]
Dragon Cypress chose Producer.
[Please choose the quantity]
[Quantity 1]
[Quantity 2]
Dragon Cypress chose 2.
A blue light swept over.
From beneath, the Dominating Throne exerted a suction force, and within a short span of about ten seconds, a significant amount of stored nutrients and energy was drained from his body.
Dragon Cypress felt completely drained. He took a good while to recover slightly before raising his claw to pull over some meat threads he had prepared earlier and started gnawing.
After consuming three strips and resting for a good while longer, he finally regained some energy.
He slowly climbed down from the Throne, wobbled his tentacles, and summoned the Worker Ants to transport the Ant Eggs into the Worker Ant Incubation Room.
Dragon Cypress also entered the Hatchery, releasing a round of Pheromone.
There were currently five Specialized Soldier Ants; he dispatched four to permanently station in Ink Orchid's Territory, dedicated to guarding the Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed.
He left one Specialized Soldier Ant accompanied by two Large Soldier Ants to guard the newly sown Cypress Life Seed saplings.
The Specialized Soldier Ants were just barely sufficient.
Now, Dragon Cypress focused on breeding Small Soldier Ants and Specialized Worker Ants.
Small Soldier Ants were merely 1 centimeter in size. With the suitable early summer temperature, the developmental time from Larvae to Adult Ants was reduced to approximately 25 days.
For every new ant that emerged, Dragon Cypress would send one to Ink Orchid's Territory.
In the forest, there were tiny pest insects like aphids, scale insects, red spiders, and thrips. Additionally, creatures like snails, mole crickets, and cutworms could also potentially harm the Life Seed Plants.
Using the Small Soldier Ants to deal with them was the most convenient.
...
「In the blistering summer heat.」
Dragon Cypress's Dragon Cypress, Garden Cypress, and Spiked Cypress, sown last year, had all grown to a height of sixty to seventy centimeters, having become large saplings.
This year's early-sown Giant Cypress Life Seed was growing rapidly and had reached close to 30 centimeters in height.
The Cypress sown at the end of spring was also over 10 centimeters tall, protected by enclosures, with Soldier Ants guarding them.
The situation in Ink Orchid's Territory was much the same, and there was virtually no need to worry about the safety of the Life Seed Plants.
It was time to consider exploring the Starship.
...
「After a heavy rain,」
Dragon Cypress operated the Dominating Throne. He took off with six Specialized Soldier Ants, three Specialized Worker Ants, and numerous bags, large and small. These included two Spider Silk Bags full of dried meat and freshly picked wild fruits of various colors. They flew off and entered the Starship.
"This is the room where I found the Dominating Throne."
Dragon Cypress naturally possessed an insect's memory, retaining the complex route, and led the way directly to the room where he'd previously discovered the Dominating Throne.
Ink Orchid immediately spotted an opening in the wall, flapped her wings, hovered in mid-air, peering inside, scanning with her spiritual power.
The vast room was empty.
Ink Orchid turned around and landed on top of the Dominating Throne.
"Dragon Cypress, what about the other rooms?"
"I've already looked around here. There's nothing else."
Dragon Cypress controlled the Dominating Throne to fly slowly.
A corridor about four to five meters wide, seven to eight meters high, and over a hundred meters long.
Along both sides, ten huge, round doors were tightly shut. They were symmetrically distributed and led to ten rooms of uniform size.
The walls of the other nine rooms had been damaged to different extents; the dark golden Metal partitions had been violently destroyed, and any movable items inside had been taken. What remained were the Metal cabinets integrated with the Starship, squarely built and fixed in place.
Ink Orchid was eager, checking each room in turn, only to quickly find herself disappointed as all the cabinets had been violently forced open, with nothing left inside.
They swiftly finished looking through everything and reached the end of the corridor.
There were two corridors about two meters wide on each side.
Dragon Cypress hadn't explored beyond this point going forward.
Dragon Cypress: "Ink Orchid, which way should we go?"
Ink Orchid: "Dragon Cypress, you decide."
Dragon Cypress: "I'm not familiar either. Let's just pick a direction."
"This way!"
Ink Orchid lifted her left wing, pointing to the left.
Dragon Cypress commanded the Dominating Throne to take off and fly.
After traveling several dozen meters, they reached another crossroad; corridors stretched to the left and right, while in front, a violently damaged, twisted Metal door led to a vertical shaft connecting upper and lower levels.
In the dark, enclosed space of the Starship, without any reference points, these complex crossroads could easily lead to getting lost.
Dragon Cypress left one Specialized Worker Ant behind, giving it some fruit and dried meat, and ordered it to patrol the passage they had just used at regular intervals, leaving behind Pheromone trails as a guide.
"Ink Orchid, which direction?"
To Dragon Cypress, it seemed the same whichever direction they chose.
"Right side?"
Ink Orchid was somewhat uncertain, choosing at random.
On both sides of the corridor to the right, there were many rooms, with rectangular single-door frames, all missing their Door Panels.
Ink Orchid ran ahead, checking each room one by one, constantly disappointed.
At the end of the corridor, to the left was the spiraling staircase leading to the upper and lower floors, while to the right the corridor continued but without any rooms.
"Dragon Cypress, this way!"
Ink Orchid led the way to the right, swiftly crossing the corridor and entering a desolate circular hall. Anything that couldn't be removed but could be broken had been destroyed, leaving nothing behind.
Across the hall was an exit. Continuing forward, they encountered repeated intersections, corridors, and empty rooms.
After Dragon Cypress's six Specialized Soldier Ants and three Specialized Worker Ants had been used up, he used Pheromone to mark the way himself. Despite having walked a long distance, he somehow ended up back on the main passage marked by the Flame Spiders.
The Starship's corridors were not only intricate but also interconnected in many directions.
Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid retraced their steps, choosing a new path to explore at the intersection where the Soldier Ants had been placed.
Twisting and turning for who knows how long, they confirmed that they had checked the entire area.
They took the stairs, up to the next level of the Starship and continued their explorations in the same manner...
...
「Darkness without sun or moon.」
Dragon Cypress still used 'the duration of the Pheromone' to measure time, biting marks onto leaves to keep track.
It wasn't very precise, but roughly five days had passed.
Nothing was found, not even a single Outworld artifact that had only collectible value and no practical use.
Ink Orchid had long lost her enthusiasm, lost confidence, and lay on the Dominating Throne, unwilling to move.
Dragon Cypress was much steadier, always calm and composed, observing along the way, assessing, and thinking about the layout pattern.
Gradually, he discerned that the Starship had seven main levels, each about nine meters high, with each level having a broad 'main passage' that ran from one end to the other.
Some areas were divided into two stories with a height of just over four meters, while other sections had 14 sub-levels.
There were also several exceptionally large rooms, twenty to thirty meters high, symmetrically distributed on both sides of the 'main passage'.
Dragon Cypress slowly deduced the core pattern:
The Starship belonged to an Outworld Civilization known as 'Humans.' When these 'Humans' arranged the Starship, they had likely organized it similarly to an Ant Nest, dividing it into resting areas, activity areas, dining areas, Starship control areas, and so on.
The Treasury that stored important materials should be located on the first, second, and third levels, concentrated in certain areas, with large items stored in one area and small items in another.
Moreover, these Treasury Areas were vertically symmetrical. This meant the layout of corridors and rooms on the first, second, and third floors was basically the same, and the position of the Treasury was also consistent.
The main passage connecting the Ten Thousand Nations Continent to the Cloud Trace Continent was located precisely on the third level. The Dominating Throne had been found in a Treasury for large items on that same level.
After clarifying these patterns, Dragon Cypress decisively moved downward to the second level.
He spent considerable time checking and verifying, and his deductions proved correct.
With the help of six Specialized Soldier Ants and three Specialized Worker Ants for marking, Dragon Cypress was confident he wouldn't get lost.
He spent a lot of time searching through several significant areas on the second level, pinpointing five Treasury Areas of various sizes.
Still, there was no gain.
He proceeded downward to the first level.
The Treasury Area on this level was vertically aligned with the room where the Dominating Throne had been found; it had the exact same layout.
As soon as he got close, the Dominating Throne abruptly sent a message:
[Detected the Azure Heart in critical condition, proceed with Healing?]
Hmm?!
Dragon Cypress was startled and subconsciously chose 'yes'.
The next second, the Dominating Throne reacted violently as the reserved Origin Force drained away rapidly.
A highly condensed Primordial Energy formed a white line. Like a serpent, it crawled along the floor, then snaked up the wall. It passed through a violently torn hole at the top of the wall and entered the room.
"Ah!"
Lying on the Dominating Throne, bored and drowsy, Ink Orchid was so frightened she leaped up, beating her wings rapidly to fly away.
"Dragon Cypress?"
"What's going on?"
"Did we find a treasure?"
Bewildered, questioning, then cheering, Ink Orchid flew towards the room.
Dragon Cypress was also stunned for two seconds before he reacted, controlling the Dominating Throne to fly towards the room.
Peering through the large hole, he saw that the Dominating Throne's Origin Force Line was connected to a huge blue heart-shaped object in the room.
"Wow!"
"Dragon Cypress? What is this? Is it a treasure? What kind of treasure?"
Ink Orchid stared intently at the object in the room, bombarding him with questions.
Dragon Cypress: "I don't know... It triggered a response from the Dominating Throne, so it must be something made by that Creator Civilization."
"Such a big treasure!"
Ink Orchid exclaimed in surprise, then quickly asked:
"Can it be made smaller? Can it fly on its own?"
Dragon Cypress: "..."
Ink Orchid: "How do we get it out? How do we carry it back?"
Dragon Cypress: "How would I know..."
Dragon Cypress: "Ink Orchid, don't be anxious, let's observe it first."