Natural God's Gift

Long Ya asked, a bit puzzled, "What are you doing here?"

"Playing, ah."

"Playing, ah."

"Playing, ah."

Long Ya: "… …"

Ze Xie asked curiously, "Long Ya, when does Lord Che Qian's trade caravan depart?"

Long Ya: "Lord Ziyun Mountain and the others are discussing the route; it should be in the next day or two."

Si Ye asked strangely, "Don't they travel the same route every year?"

Long Ya: "They don't just take one route. Trade routes are very complex. Now it's the period of Origin Power recovery; many insects are very poor. It might take them three to five years to save up enough Origin Power food for trading.

Only insect tribes with lords are qualified to trade once a year, or even multiple times a year. If we always take the same route and only trade with small tribes, it's very likely we won't even break even."

"Oh," the little warriors said, seeming to understand, "So Lord Ziyun Mountain is discussing a new trade route with Lord Che Qian?"

"It's the five Flame Spider clans discussing a new trade route together," Long Ya explained the knowledge of traveling merchants to the little warriors. "Some large tribes, limited by their natural abilities, will ask other insect clans for help with many things, such as land reclamation, building nest chambers, building reservoirs, sowing seeds, mining, and so on.

Sometimes we Flame Spider traveling merchants will receive such projects. If there are fellow clansmen passing by nearby, we will transfer the project to them to complete.

Let me give you an example. Some insect clans are not good at building nest chambers due to their body structure, so they will find other insect clans to build nest chambers for them. If the Iridescent Flame Spider caravan, or other Flame Spider caravans, verify the order, they will discuss with that tribe to have our Watarase Flame Spider caravan go and build nest chambers for them.

Similarly, if the Watarase Flame Spider caravan encounters insect clans who want to reclaim land or mine, we will also introduce the business to the White-Legged Flame Spider and Purple-Colored Flame Spider caravans.

Everyone helps each other. Only in this way can we, who cannot produce Origin Power food ourselves, survive in this Origin Power Star Realm."

"Oh," after hearing Long Ya's explanation, Si Ye and the others finally understood why the five Flame Spider clans had to hold frequent meetings before traveling.

"Then how long will they have to meet?"

Long Ya shook his head, "I don't know. I've been relaying messages back and forth these past two days. It's possible they'll meet until dark."

Si Ye looked at him with a blank expression, "Then do you have to stay here until dark too?"

Long Ya said matter-of-factly, "Lord Ziyun Mountain wants me to guard here, so of course I have to guard here."

Ze Xie saw that Long Ya's carapace was empty and suddenly asked, "Long Ya, where's your cargo? Don't you have any cargo?"

Logically speaking, traveling merchants who go out should bring a batch of goods. Even poor, low-level warriors will bring some silk pouches or snacks that they usually weave to sell to other little warriors. There's no reason why a high-level Flame Spider wouldn't have any goods.

"I do," Long Ya said embarrassedly, "But not much. I just got promoted from a mid-level warrior to a high-level warrior, which cost a lot of resources.

Lord Ziyun Mountain said he would give me and Tiexian some small trade routes to manage. For this trade trip, I even borrowed five thousand Origin Points from the kingdom.

These past two days, I've been relaying messages back and forth, so I left the goods in the nest chamber and didn't bring them here."

Si Ye chewed on one of his claws, thinking, "Five thousand Origin Points doesn't seem like much. I saw Lord Ziyun Mountain spend tens of thousands of Origin Points just to buy a little divinely-bestowed Origin Power food."

"That's not the same," Long Ya said, between laughter and tears, at the little warrior's words. "Lord Ziyun Mountain trades with mountain lord-level and lord-level insect clans who possess divinely-bestowed seeds. Big insects have money. As long as it's beneficial to evolution, they're willing to buy anything good.

We trade with poor little warriors who buy Origin Power food in amounts of a few Origin Stones or a dozen Origin Stones. If we purchase things that are too good, the little warriors can't afford them, and we can't sell them."

"Learned something," Si Ye and the others now knew that there were so many twists and turns in doing business.

Bai Zhi: "I think I just heard Lord Ziyun Mountain say that they might depart tonight. Aren't you going to bring your goods?"

"Really? Isn't the Ziyun caravan going with the Che Qian caravan?" Long Ya asked, puzzled.

Bai Zhi: "I don't know. It seems like that's what they just said. Maybe there was a temporary adjustment. Si Ye, Ze Xie, you should have heard it too, right?"

"Mm-hmm," Si Ye and Ze Xie nodded guiltily.

"They always departed together in previous years," Long Ya muttered, not quite believing it.

"Who knows what Lord Ziyun Mountain will decide?"

"We're little spiders; we don't understand, ah."

Ze Xie: "No matter when you depart, you should always carry your goods, right? Otherwise, if you only go to carry the goods when it's time to depart, wouldn't that make the caravan wait for you?"

"That makes sense," Long Ya said, but he still felt that something was wrong. "You're not planning to steal something while I'm gone, are you?"

"What are you saying? What are you saying?" The little warriors felt greatly insulted and angrily accused Long Ya, "We kindly reminded you, and you still suspect us. We little spiders have Origin Power food distributed by our tribes to eat. Do we need to steal? You're questioning our credibility as spiders!"

"I'm sorry," Suspecting a spider's misconduct is a very serious matter in the kingdom. Long Ya also felt that his words were a bit harsh, but he didn't understand what these little spiders were trying to do. Could it really be a kind reminder?

He scanned the mountain of goods with his mental power. There were so many things that the little warriors couldn't possibly move. "Then I'll go back to carry the goods. Can you help me watch here?"

The little spiders nodded happily, "Okay, okay. We're most willing to help spiders."

Before leaving, Long Ya still reminded them worriedly, "Don't mess up the goods, or Lord Ziyun Mountain will hang you up and beat you."

"Got it, got it. We'll guard it for you; we won't touch anything," the little spiders waved their claws, sending Long Ya off.

"Hurry, hurry," As soon as Long Ya was fooled away, the three little spiders immediately took action. "Did you bring your Origin Power food?"

Si Ye: "I brought it. I brought fifteen jujube pits, twenty grape seeds, twenty tangerine seeds, and five divinely-bestowed pumpkin seeds. It's the Origin Power food that Lord Huzhang Mountain gave me for this age after I evolved to the third instar."

Bai Zhi: "I brought more. I have fifty watermelon seeds, fifty cherry seeds, and ten divinely-bestowed hawthorn seeds."

"That's enough, that's enough," They ran to the pile of goods and opened the golden teapot. The teapot space was very large. Bai Zhi drilled in first, and then Si Ye drilled in and stacked on top of her.

Ze Xie: "Don't make any noise while you're hiding inside. Come out after Lord Ziyun Mountain and the others leave the kingdom, or you'll not only be sent back but also hung up and beaten."

"Got it."

Ze Xie stuffed them with two dried plums that he bought from Lord Tongquan Mountain. "One for each spider. Eat some if you're hungry."

Si Ye muttered, "I'm a spider; I'll be fine even if I'm hungry for two months."

Bai Zhi refused to be outdone, "I'll be fine even if I'm hungry for half a year."

Ze Xie responded perfunctorily, "Okay, okay. I know you're amazing. Don't talk inside the teapot. Stay put, understand?"

"Okay."

Ze Xie put the lid on the teapot. To prevent the spiders from opening the teapot, he tied the pot and the lid with spider silk several times, leaving only a small spout for ventilation. Then he ran back to his original position and continued to wait for Long Ya to return.