BXBX NOVEL Chapter 66 Flower King
The corruption-consuming Pitcher Plants had the shelled creatures to eat. Whereas, the Nacre consuming Pitcher Plants only had the birds to rely upon for food. And, there just wasn't enough of them, not in comparison to the millions of shelled creatures that flooded out of the sea daily.
But despite that, the number of both the Pitcher Plants was the exact same.
Yihan remained in the air, counting further as he noticed the pattern. Even in any given area, the number of both plants was the exact same, as if they were balancing one another.
So, it was pretty strange, given the relationship the two energies had with one another.
"Wait, look at the bottommost part of their shoot…" Xuna said in surprise, "What's that?"
"Eh?" Yihan stared at the place she pointed at, noticing a small mound, akin to an ant hill. He hurriedly focused his strength into his eyes, staring at the scene with greater clarity, noticing that the mound was indeed an ant hill.
And surprisingly, in this case, they were just regular ants. But it was these ants that maintained the balance of the place.
Yihan observed thousands of ants form a line from the ant hill towards a corruption-consuming Pitcher Plant, beginning to eat its leaves. They were similar to weaver ants but sustained themselves by consuming the leaves of these Pitcher Plants.
But, they limited themselves to only the corruption-consuming Pitcher Plants. As their leaves were constantly eaten, the corruption-consuming Pitcher Plants expended their corruption to regenerate the lost body parts, which was done with a mixture of corruption and nutrients from the soil.
Thanks to this rich food resource that was pretty inexhaustible, the population of the ants exploded as there existed one ant colony per Pitcher Plant. These ants stored the food in their home, collecting it to feed their brood.
After that, the ants stored their excreta in one corner, turning them into tiny crystalised lumps that were later carried out during the night when they didn't consume food. These ants formed a trail as they then arrived at the shoot of the Nacre-consuming Pitcher Plant, dumping them in a deep pit dug there.
The pit spanned a radius of ten centimetres and a depth surpassing ten metres. Beyond a depth of two metres, tiny tendrils of the Nacre-consuming Pitcher Plant's root system jutted out, innumerous like a network of fibres, thinner than hair.
As the excreta dropped through the pit, they were caught by the hair-like root network and gradually absorbed over time.
There was no corruption within the excreta, but it was rich in energy, enough for the Nacre consuming Pitcher Plants to build up more Nacre this way.
It was precisely due to these ants that the Nacre-consuming Pitcher Plants could grow and develop on par with the corruption-consuming Pitcher Plants. But of course, there wasn't any external enemy for the ants here as neither Pitcher Plants tried to attack the ants even once.
So, without an external opponent, the number of ant colonies, including their own population continued to grow exponentially. It was bound to be a problem that would destroy all the corruption-consuming Pitcher Plants.
But, this was where nature's delicacy in balance came into effect, as on the morning of the next day, the shelled creatures exited the sea once again. Lured in by the scent released by the corruption-consuming Pitcher Plants, they entered the forest, jumping into the pitchers of the plants in the outermost region of the forest.
Once these pitchers became full, their lids closed, stopping their emission of the fruity scent. Following that, the shelled creatures proceeded deeper into the forest to find the next batch of pitchers to jump into.
This way, the shelled creatures eventually reached the lake at the centre before they all made their way into a pitcher or other.
There wasn't even a single excess shelled creature there as once the pitchers began to close at the outskirts, the fruity smell began to grow weaker, thereby luring less shelled creatures from the sea.
As time passed, with more and more pitchers closing up, the scent got weaker and weaker, eventually to an extent the adult shelled creatures were no longer lured in, pausing as they buried themselves in the ground, beginning to sprout a sapling.
And during this journey where they travelled through the forest, they of course trampled upon the ant hills, killing millions of ants along the way. And as this happened during the peak hours of the ants' food collection, it was a massacre every time.
This was how the ant population was kept in check.
This was just one layer.
There was furthermore. As, if the ants devoured too much of a Pitcher Plant's leaves, causing it to expend too much corruption, it would emit a stronger fruity scent the next day to lure in more shelled creatures to regain its lost corruption.
This meant more shelled creatures would trample upon the ground surrounding it while making their way through its stem to reach the pitcher. And all these would be through the ants' routes.
As every ant colony was limited to one Pitcher Plant each, this would mean that the moment an ant colony's population spiked, it resulted in greater food needs, which correlated to overfeeding over their respective Pitcher Plant.
This meant too much corruption losses for the Pitcher Plant to curb, due to which, it released a stronger aroma, attracting more shelled creatures which trampled the routes of the ants more, killing them, thereby reducing their population.
There were multiple layers to this setup, a reason such a bizarre place could exist and be functional in the first place.
Having spent three days in the place, Xuna and Yihan were amazed at the delicate control nature had over everything.
Following that, they finally embraced themselves, after rounds of pep talk to one another as they took flight. Xuna was in her Klock form, latched on his back as her multiple heads peeked from under his arms or coiled around them.
In his West Guardian form, Yihan took flight, hovering at a height of two hundred metres, looking down from above as he slowly made his way over the forest.
The leaves were indeed stirred up as a result as the leaves of both the corruption-consuming and Nacre-consuming Pitcher Plants shot up, clattering their beastly mouths when failing to reach them.
It wasn't just curiosity that drove them to enter this dangerous location, but a fervent desire to understand just what was happening, and if whatever was happening was to their benefit or not.
Currently, the Fornol Empire's development was faster than the Lerni Empire. It was simply due to the fact that Fornol Empress was more competent than the Lerni Emperor. Therefore, their development varied accordingly.
Yulna was actively helping the Fornol Empress, Feleokruna to understand her powers better, training her to grasp things faster and also making her strength grow the fastest.
In comparison, Rhizen too did the same, but his target was Xuna and not the Lerni Emperor.
Therefore, the Fornol Empire basked in the advantages originating from the Empress' development.
In contrast, the Lerni Empire didn't experience any such changes. But, the establishment of the secret villages was a whole other level of a game changer, especially the Guardian Beasts.
So, it couldn't be said whether the one in the lead was the Fornol Empire or the Lerni Empire. Both had only begun their development, after all.
Only the passage of time would verify their effectiveness.
With such a thought in their mind, the duo flew across the Pitcher Plant Forest, hoping to chance upon something beneficial that would help their side in the future and allow the Horned Humans to dominate the political sphere.
As they exercised caution, they journeyed at a slow pace, taking more than a couple of hours to reach the centre of the forest, now above the lake, only now noticing a tiny object located in its centre.
It resembled a platform in the first place, but upon a closer look, it was a pitcher. But, as only a tenth of the pitcher peaked above the water, they hadn't noticed it while gazing from afar.
"There's a Pitcher Plant underwater?" Xuna was surprised, intending to see it better when suddenly, Yihan flew backward, staring in shock as dozens of leaves jutted out of the lake, heading straight for them.
And this time, their length didn't seem lacking.
Boom!
The Klock heads unleashed canon balls of Nacre at the leaves, blasting them into smithereens as a couple of heads unleashed a fierce thrust, sending Yihan flying backward.
"What is this?" Xuna shouted in shock, noticing the pitcher gradually emerge out of the water while the leaves continued to dance and chase after them, "It's…damn big!"
Ten…twenty…thirty…fifty metres!
The pitcher of this Pitcher Plant spanned a height of fifty metres, a gargantuan that was in a class of its own. And judging based on how all the Pitcher Plants turned around to stare at it, with their pitchers slightly lowering themselves in response, as if a sign of submission, they were aware of one thing.
The entity before them was the king of flowers!