blogombal Chapter 81: Then let me ask you, are you a male or female plant?
Chapter 81: Then let me ask you, are you a male or female plant?
Several 30-centimeter-long leaf weaver workers formed a circle. In the center, a worker with a swollen abdomen and external life sac began to dig with its six limbs under the control of the leaf weaver, burying itself in the soft humus layer.
A spiritual force of "growth" entered through the spatial energy, and the aura of the external life sac worker ant immediately stopped. It no longer seemed like a living thing, but rather like an ant-shaped seed.
The somewhat horrifying scene unfolded once again: a crack appeared in the exoskeleton above the worker ant's abdomen, and a tender sprout emerged from the flesh, breaking through the soil and unfurling its cotyledons.
"The Leaf-Weaving Ant King, its growth rate is so fast."
With the two factors combined, the sprout grew at an alarming rate, causing Huo Yun, who was watching from the sidelines, to express her surprise with her mental energy.
A faint, invisible vortex of primal force formed from the tender sprout breaking through the soil. Zuo Wang Qingyuan waved its antennae, and its two slender mandibles shattered the lustrous, milky-white primal stone it was holding in its mouth, releasing pure primal force.
After using two or three Primal Stones, the Seed of Gods slowed down its absorption of Primal Force, as if its internal Primal Energy had reached saturation. Seeing this, the Citron continued to wave its antennae, and two other worker ants stepped forward, carrying bamboo tubes filled with water in their mouths, and poured the water evenly over the ants.
A mental scan revealed that the roots had pierced through the worker ant's exoskeleton, completely enveloping the body of the worker ant with its external life sac. A large clump of ant-shaped, dense roots was freely absorbing nutrients from the flesh and blood and moisture from the soil.
The life force of a Divinely Gifted Seed is ten times that of an ordinary plant, and this is by no means an exaggeration. This was true for the original "Chimera", and it is also true for this second Divinely Gifted Seed. After being covered with the flesh and blood of the external life sac worker ants, its growth rate can only be described as terrifying.
In just one hour, the main stem of the God-given Seed had grown to a height of half a meter, but then it stopped growing. Below the main stem, the root system began to proliferate, which seemed to be different from the pattern of ordinary pitcher plants.
The root system of ordinary pitcher plants is relatively shallow. Even the "Chimera," which is also a divinely bestowed species, does not have a very developed root system compared to the plant itself. However, the divinely bestowed species in front of us has already developed a well-developed root system.
A mental scan revealed that it wasn't just the root system, but a structure that could be called an underground stem, which made Ye Zhi feel strange - neither her inherited memories nor her past life memories mentioned that pitcher plants had a similar underground stem structure.
"Qingyuan Zuowang, do you see, has this divinely bestowed seed sprouted an underground stem?" Ye Zhi asked the experienced Zuowang Qingyuan with her mental power, uncertain.
"It seems so?" Zuo Wang Qingyuan's tentacles swayed, his mental energy scanning the area. "Little guy, don't rush. The change in growth pattern may not be a bad thing; the yield might be even higher."
Ye Zhi tapped her antennae, intending to continue waiting in silence, but then seemed to remember another rather serious problem. She sent out her mental energy to ask Zuo Wang Qingyuan again:
"Qingyuan Zuowang, pitcher plants are dioecious. If a male plant is a divinely bestowed seed, can it still flower and bear fruit?"
This is a very practical question. Just as the queen ant can reproduce parthenogenetically to produce semi-force worker ants, normal force plants do not need pollination to produce non-reproductive force fruits. However, while parthenogenesis exists, parthenogenesis has never been heard of.
If the male plant is a divinely bestowed seed, wouldn't it be useless? Ye Zhi pondered to herself. What if the divinely bestowed seed she had harvested turned out to be a male plant that couldn't flower or bear fruit? Wouldn't that be embarrassing?
"Little one, don't worry. Although the male plants of the God-given Seed cannot bear fruit on their own, it doesn't mean they don't produce anything. In fact, they can bring more benefits than the female plants."
As if knowing what Ye Zhi was worried about, Zuo Wang Qingyuan sent a comforting mental message: "This is something that is not recorded in the inherited memories, but the Tree Ant Kingdom has related inheritances. The male plant, which is a divinely bestowed seed, can pollinate the female plants of the same species, allowing ordinary plants to also produce divinely bestowed primal force food."
Is this even possible? Using pollen from a male Divine Seed to pollinate a female of the same species, thus improving the quality of the Force food produced by the ordinary species and yielding higher profits than from a single female Divine Seed? Ye Zhi was shocked; Force was indeed amazing.
"Then, King Qingyuan, can you tell whether my divinely bestowed seed is a female or male plant?" Ye Zhi asked curiously. He had observed it for a long time by comparing it with the inherited memories, but he couldn't see any difference. He could only ask someone who knew more about it.
"I can't tell. We can only wait for it to bloom and distinguish it by the shape of the stamens, or wait for the tree spirit of the divinely bestowed seed to be born. The tree spirit may know its own situation." Qingyuan regretfully transmitted his mental power.
"?"
Ye Zhi also felt regret, but suddenly, a questioning and curious mental force entered his mind, startling him. He subconsciously asked the question that concerned him most at that moment:
Are you a female or male plant?
"?"
Still a question lingered in Ye Zhi's mind, it was only then that she realized that the second divinely bestowed seed had actually given birth to a tree spirit.
This speed is astonishing. Normally, it would take at least one to several months for a seed of destiny bestowed by the gods to give birth to a tree spirit. Even the "Chimera" in its special circumstances did not grow this fast.
Feeling the "space" energy in his mind and that faint connection, Ye Zhi wondered if it was because his external life sac worker ants had accelerated their growth, and at the same time, the structure left by the space energy in the worker ants' brains allowed the tree spirit to communicate with him earlier.
"Little fellow, a tree spirit has been born from the seed bestowed by the gods?"
Although he couldn't know the specifics, Qingyuan could sense the tree spirit emitting mental fluctuations. He looked at Ye Zhi and the divinely bestowed seed in front of him with some surprise, his compound eyes scanning back and forth, as if trying to discover something.
Ye Zhi turned her head and tapped her antennae, then looked again at the main stem of the Divine Seed, which was nearly a meter tall, and slowly sent out a kind and caring mental message: "Hello?"
"Are you... a female plant, or... a male plant?" The tree spirit seemed equally confused, completely clueless about the situation, and simply repeated, haltingly, the question that Ye Zhi had subconsciously asked earlier.
"I am Ye Zhi, the queen of the Emerald Leaf Leaf Ant tribe," Ye Zhi replied. "You are the gift of the pitcher plant."
"Then... I'll ask you, then I'll ask you..." The tree spirit kept repeating nonsensical words, seemingly not very bright.
Ye Zhi: "..."
"Then let me ask you, are you a female or male plant? If you are a female plant, why are your flower stamens pointed? If you are a male plant, are your flower stamens also pointed?"
Ye Zhi couldn't hold back any longer, and blurted out another string of incomprehensible ramblings from her past life, causing the newly born tree spirit to fall silent for a moment...