In the blink of an eye, five years had passed.
Over those five years, Jianmu's canopy had completely covered all of East Cang Town, yet the houses and streets beneath it were no longer shrouded by its shadow.
Because Joyful Sprites, flapping their wings, hung Dawnlight Bells from Jianmu's drooping branches.
Those exquisite bells swayed gently in the breeze, scattering pleasant chimes and radiant light wherever Jianmu's protection extended.
And wherever the dawnlight fell—
The crops growing atop the houses were kissed by the Joyful Sprites, and flowers of joy bloomed.
They had long forgotten Old Master Chou, who still wandered about, and diligently drew in the Compassionate Embrace power surging from the earth, bearing their own Auspicious Fruit.
There were no seasons beneath Jianmu's protection.
So long as they had sufficient spiritual power and vitality, their output was practically endless. Harvesting seven or eight times a year was no problem at all.
The Bamboo Wood Ants carried those ripe crops into granary after granary built by Li Ye. Food had piled up into mountains.
The matured "Auspicious Fruit" was no different from naturally grown fruit. It even carried a trace of a strange aura belonging to "longevity," bestowed by Compassionate Embrace.
That aura was exceedingly faint.
Yet the Bamboo Wood Ants responsible for carrying the fruit benefited from it.
Originally, Bamboo Wood Ants only had a lifespan of around three years. It was only thanks to the ant colony's absurd ability to pass down knowledge that they could nearly turn the construction of all kinds of buildings and objects into instinct.
Now, that batch of ants which should have died had no way to exchange with the outside world. Coupled with their extended lives, they naturally developed a measure of "spirituality" that ordinary ant clans did not possess.
"Never