Chapter 390 - 375 I Want to Hear the Details

White Ivy strode briskly at the very front.

Red Peach bounced along right behind.

Grass Dragon, Lupine, and Silvergrass clustered together, constantly glancing around, dawdling and gradually falling behind.

They climbed over a hill three kilometers from the Cloud Crown Mountain pass once more.

White Ivy halted, turned, and shot a cold glare at the three laggards below, who were skulking along behind—definitely gossiping and mocking her.

Grass Dragon jogged to catch up.

Lupine and Silvergrass followed close behind.

"You all travel around trading—haven’t you ever been refused entry by other insects?"

White Ivy was furious.

Silvergrass: "Never—"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Grass Dragon and Lupine quickly hushed the honest Silvergrass.

White Ivy interrogated, "Then why are you all dragging your feet back there?"

Red Peach followed up, "Do you three even want to tag along with Mountain Lord White Ivy or not?"

"Want~ want~ want~"

"Of course we do~"

Grass Dragon, Lupine, and Silvergrass straightened up their act.

Silvergrass: "That Lord Spiny Mulberry is just too stupid."

Grass Dragon: "Its brain is stiffer than a block of wood."

Lupine: "Way too stiff... But honestly, we’re out of tricks here, can’t get in at all."

Grass Dragon asked, "Mountain Lord White Ivy, so what do we do now?"

Silvergrass: "Head back to Yellow Peach Mountain?"

Lupine: "We can’t delay the Hidden Wing Mountain deal."

Listening to them, White Ivy’s anger subsided a little, and she said, "We’re not in such a rush for this year anyway."

Red Peach chimed in, "We came over this year just to test how hard Cloud Crown Mountain is to get into."

Bootlicking mantis!

Grass Dragon, Lupine, and Silvergrass fell silent with disdain.

Weren’t you two all full of confidence before coming here, swearing we’d definitely get in, and daydreaming about how wealthy Cloud Crown Mountain must be?

But in the end, we didn’t even get in...

Now suddenly it’s just a "test" and "no rush," huh?

Stared at by three Spiders, Red Peach got a little annoyed and said, "Next year let’s run faster and get here a few days earlier."

White Ivy ordered, "Right now, let’s run faster—don’t delay the Hidden Wing Mountain trade. There’s almost no chance anything will go wrong with the White Poplar Divine Seed, so now we can confidently inform Hidden Wing Mountain about the precise maturation and harvest time of the Divine-Grade Baihe Fruit."

Red Peach immediately waved her arms and shouted, "Let’s go! Charge!"

White Ivy: "Charge! Charge! Charge!"

Grass Dragon, Lupine, and Silvergrass didn’t move.

Grass Dragon murmured, "We’re all adult insects here..."

Lupine: "Do we really have to be so childish..."

Silvergrass: "Be steady!"

Red Peach: "Mountain Lord White Ivy, these three said you’re childish!"

White Ivy was instantly enraged.

Grass Dragon quickly said, "Let’s talk business!"

Lupine: "Seriously, time to discuss business."

White Ivy fixed them with a cold, penetrating stare.

Grass Dragon blurted out, "Mountain Lord White Ivy, regarding Divine-Grade Kunlan Seed, even the Soul-Setting Fruit...I wracked my brains and exhausted a lifetime’s knowledge, and I’ve come up with a brilliant idea!"

Soul-Setting Fruit?

Red Peach had seen before just how impressive Soul-Setting Ability was.

White Ivy and Red Peach were instantly intrigued.

Grass Dragon analyzed, "White Ivy, Red Peach—when we assessed Huagi Mountain’s needs, we missed a crucial point."

Red Peach asked, "Which point?"

Grass Dragon: "Life span!"

Grass Dragon sped up, "According to Dragon Cypress’s accounts, there are two key facts. First, Huagi Mountain is tiny, not even twenty square kilometers, and there’re often gaps in Insect Clan Warrior succession. Huagi Mountain needs to stockpile massive amounts of Source Stone and Origin Force Food to endure the long Origin Force Silent Period."

"Second key point: on Cloud Trace Continent, the Natural Law changed, and Evolution King Level insects can leave. So here’s the crux: Huagi Mountain mainly relies on trading with Dragon Cypress to collect resources. Once Dragon Cypress evolves and leaves as a King Level..."

Grass Dragon: "Let’s calculate life span now. Lord-Level lives 500 years, best to break through and evolve before 300, otherwise the body goes into decline year by year and the success rate for Molting Evolution plummets."

"Dragon Cypress is about forty, with 260 years left. Divine-Grade Baihe Fruit adds 90 years, totaling 350. So for Huagi Mountain, at most there’s only 350 years to gather resources."

"Huagi Mountain maintains its tribal lineage in this way: if there are Shield Grasshopper Warriors, they inherit one after another; if not, the Huagi Divine Tree is awakened from dormancy, takes root, and waits for the next Shield Grasshopper Warrior to emerge. According to Dragon Cypress, when the Huagi Divine Tree grows without blooming and fruiting, just its routine respiration costs 400 to 500 Source Stone, and each year it needs 150,000 Source Stone. Over millennia, the total Source Stone needed climbs into billions."

"Let’s tally up Huagi Mountain’s returns: after expenses, annual income from Quandong Divine Tree is about 1 million, from Linnan Divine Tree about 1.8 million, for a sum of 2.8 million, multiplied by 350 years, gives a total income of about 980 million."

Grass Dragon: "Is that a lot?"

Silvergrass: "A lot!"

Grass Dragon: "Is it enough?"

Silvergrass: "Probably not! Might need to double it."

Grass Dragon: "Doubling is impossible."

Red Peach raised a claw, interrupting, "Can life-extending Divine-Grade fruits be stacked?"

Lupine: "Of course! There are no two identical trees in the world. Origin Force Food produced by different Origin Force Plants can more or less be stacked, and the more distantly related, the stronger the synergy. This rule applies to all Origin Force Food, including life-extending Divine Good."

Grass Dragon summarized, "Huagi Mountain needs life-extending Divine Good—not for itself, but for Dragon Cypress. And Huagi Mountain needs the Dominating Throne deal."

Grass Dragon added, "Huagi Mountain needs life-extending Divine Good to make Dragon Cypress and Ink Orchid live longer—to keep them from leaving as long as possible."

Lupine chimed in, "Heard Dragon Cypress has an ant colony, with Assistant Kings? Probably can’t bear to part with those, either. So Huagi Mountain’s demand for life-extending Divine Good is huge! This is a long-term deal."

White Ivy: "You three got word? Know where to find any life-extending Divine Good?"

Grass Dragon and Silvergrass looked at Lupine.

Lupine drawled, "That starts with another one of my elders..."

White Ivy pressed, "Where?"

Lupine: "..."

White Ivy waved her pincer limbs, aiming at Lupine’s head, threatening a smack.

Lupine hurriedly said, "Green Torreya Kingdom, Yuezuo Mountain—Mountain Lord White Ivy, you know it too."

White Ivy fell silent.

White Ivy was extremely familiar with Green Torreya Kingdom.

A vast kingdom made up of more than thirty Burying Bettle clans, large and small.

Back when Carpesium died, he left two major inheritances: one was the trade share with Purple Back Mountain, inherited by White Ivy; the other was the key trades with the Grave Burying Beetle and Spotted Burial Beetle Tribes of Green Torreya Kingdom, inherited by Melde.

Melde inherited smoothly, and has always focused trading on Green Torreya Kingdom.

White Ivy had also been there, very familiar, with lots of insect acquaintances.

Yuezuo Mountain she knew too—a settlement for the Sun Burying Bettle Tribe, as wealthy as Cloud Crown Mountain and run with the same ultra-conservative, closed-off model.

White Ivy asked Lupine, "Your other elder managed to sneak into Yuezuo Mountain?"

Lupine: "Not really—"

Lupine: "But Melde’s cunning; had Lord Cangtao of the Tree Burying Bettle Tribe lead the way..."

Lupine: "Lord Cangtao got stuck outside the mountain with him."

White Ivy: "???"

Lupine: "The Sun Burying Bettle Tribe doesn’t even give the likes of our little caravan the time of day. Even the Tree Burying Bettle Tribe is just a little offshoot that split from the Wood Burying Beetle Tribe."

White Ivy: "You tagged along too?"

"Uh-huh~"

Lupine snorted affirmatively.

This really was a sad story~

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

White Ivy burst out laughing, all the gloom from being refused at Cloud Crown Mountain lifting instantly. She pressed a foreleg down on Lupine’s head and said:

"So? Details! Tell me everything!"