The heart-shaped object in the room should be called the 'Azure Heart'.
It seems to be wood, deep azure blue all over, the surface covered with gem-blue fissured patterns that are wildly absorbing Origin Force.
Dragon Cypress simply dumped the soldier ants and worker ants from the Dominating Throne onto the ground along with half a bag of food.
He controlled the Dominating Throne with his mind, shrinking it down to pass through the entrance into the room, then expanded it to its maximum size, placing it next to the 'Azure Heart'.
The entrance was quite large; Ink Orchid had also run in, eyes filled with curiosity, quietly observing.
Dragon Cypress stood on the ground, watched for a while, and tried to use spiritual power to make contact—nothing happened. He unfurled his wings in a leap, landed on the Dominating Throne, and calmly sensed the depletion of his stored Origin Force.
Dragon Cypress was inwardly shocked.
He was used to flying the Dominating Throne all day with soldier ants, worker ants, food, and Ink Orchid, constantly burning through Origin Force, but the depletion seemed trivial compared to the Throne's immense reserves.
But this Azure Heart had drained nearly half the Throne's reserve Origin Force in just a short time.
After a while, the Dominating Throne's stored Origin Force was exhausted.
[Insufficient reserve Origin Force, insufficient environmental Origin Force, healing interrupted]
[Continue treatment?]
Dragon Cypress chose 'Yes'.
[Please select a healing scheme]
[Scheme One: Replenish the Throne's reserve Origin Force, continue healing, repeat five times]
[Scheme Two: Scan complete, Azure Heart's contractor is deceased. Remove Azure Heart original contractor gene information, remove Azure Heart original core information, reset to zero, rebirth]
—Contractor? Gene information? Core information?
Dragon Cypress extracted the key terms—kind of understood them, but not fully.
After a moment's thought, he decisively chose Scheme Two.
[Insufficient Primordial Energy, Origin Force recovering]
The Dominating Throne fed back a message, autonomously drawing in Origin Force.
Dragon Cypress waited quietly.
He waited and waited, but the Dominating Throne showed no further reaction.
Starving, he took off, flapping his wings, and flew out of the room.
"Ink Orchid, are you hungry?"
"No."
Ink Orchid followed him out.
"Dragon Cypress, how's it going?"
"No idea. Not sure. Let's wait and see."
Dragon Cypress wiggled his tentacles.
Two specialized worker ants opened a small spider silk bag, tore up a piece of jerky, and handed it to Dragon Cypress's mouth.
Another specialized worker ant picked out a soft, ripe kiwi from a large spider silk bag, peeled it, and a specialized soldier ant stepped up to slice it into small pieces, setting them in front of Dragon Cypress.
"The Dominating Throne transmitted the information—it's called the 'Azure Heart'."
"It seems to be something alive…"
Dragon Cypress shared all known information so far.
"Alive?"
Ink Orchid asked rapid-fire questions:
"An animal or a plant? It can't be animal, then it's a plant?"
Ink Orchid's eyes lit up, imagination running wild, "Dragon Cypress, doesn't it look just like a super-massive seed to you? Like a yew seed! The surface has Origin Force patterns—it's a Divine-Given Seed!"
Dragon Cypress: "..."
Dragon Cypress: "How big would the tree have to be?"
Ink Orchid: "Maybe the so-called 'Creator Civilization' is a species like the Diaphus Flame Spider. This Divine-Given Seed was continuously nurtured by them using a Life Pouch."
Dragon Cypress: "!!!"
Put that way, it makes perfect sense…
"No way. No way."
Dragon Cypress said, "A Life Seed five or six meters long? Then the Creators themselves must be massive—at least tens or even a hundred meters, right? How would they fit on the Dominating Throne? The Dominating Throne can't hold something that big."
"Uh—"
Ink Orchid was briefly stumped, then agreed, "Right! The Creators' bodies can't be bigger than the Dominating Throne…"
Ink Orchid paused, then questioned, "Dragon Cypress, is it possible that, as you evolve and get stronger, your body will get bigger, and then maybe the Dominating Throne will also get bigger?"
"No idea…"
"Could be!"
Dragon Cypress thought it over, his tentacles shooting straight up, "Ink Orchid, you're a genius! If that's the case, then everything fits!"
Dragon Cypress sped up, finishing off the meat shreds in his claws, flapped his wings, and crouched at the entrance, craning in to look into the room.
Watching from above.
The more he looked, the more the Azure Heart really did look like a gigantic seed, its surface patterned with Origin Force markings—definitely a Divine-Given Seed.
Dragon Cypress fluttered down, lightly landing, and continued eating.
Ink Orchid leaped up too, peeking into the room from the entrance, then glided in a spiral, landing next to Dragon Cypress.
"Dragon Cypress! It can't be wrong! It's a Divine-Given Seed!"
Ink Orchid brought up her earlier question: "But, how are we supposed to move such a huge seed? The wall entrance is too small—can the door open?"
She immediately raised a new doubt: "A Divine-Given Seed that's been nurtured repeatedly by the Creator Civilization—what use is it to us? As you said, if the Creator Civilization was wiped out by humans, then the Creators who tended this seed must be long dead? So is this seed… still alive?"
"Alive! The Dominating Throne is burning Origin Force to heal it!"
Dragon Cypress answered confidently, then added hesitantly, "The Dominating Throne can reset it, let it be reborn to zero. My guess is, it'll go back to its original seed form."
"Really?!"
"Reset to its just-born seed state? Then it'll be a tiny seed?"
Ink Orchid said in disbelief, "The Dominating Throne is too powerful! So many functions!"
Dragon Cypress: "Don't get too excited just yet…"
Dragon Cypress said calmly, "That's just my guess…"
"I think your guess is right!"
Ink Orchid was already daydreaming about the future.
"Dragon Cypress, if you also get a Divine-Given Seed, that'll make two!"
"How big will the harvest be each year?"
"Assume its yield matches the Divine-Given Fruit-Scented Orchid Seed—in the future, when you upgrade to Mid-Level Ant King, you'd get 1,540 Source Stones a year. Together we'd get… 3,080?"
"And when we become High-Level Warriors and High-Level Ant Kings, our yearly income would be…"
Complex calculations followed.
Ink Orchid did the math and looked at Dragon Cypress.
Dragon Cypress: "..."
Ink Orchid was daydreaming way too much; Dragon Cypress didn't want to waste mental energy on that.
"Ink Orchid, don't celebrate too soon—we don't even know if that's really a seed yet."
Dragon Cypress: "I'm going to eat my fill and rest up for a bit. Keep watching."
...
The Dominating Throne was still absorbing Natural Primordial Force, restoring its reserves.
Dragon Cypress wanted to move it into the hallway, where the Origin Force flowed better.
But after many attempts, he could neither shrink the Throne nor make it fly.
Scheme Two was still in progress—it seemed the reserves needed to be full before the process could properly start, and that would take a long time.
Dragon Cypress didn't want to sit around doing nothing, so he led Ink Orchid and the ant colony on foot to continue exploring the remaining 'Treasury Areas' on the Starship's first level.
Dragon Cypress was already familiar with the routine; in less than two days, he'd searched all of them.
All cleaned out, nothing left.
Returning to check the room, the Dominating Throne had only recovered a quarter of its Origin Force.
The carried food supply was almost gone.
This expedition had lasted eight days.
Leaving the ant colony to guard the entrance, Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid left the Starship and headed back for the mountain territory.