The plantations and breeding farms were projects that William had started in recent years. With the increasing number of the insect swarm, the demand for food was growing daily.

  Thus, William began to try creating a self-sustaining ecological cycle aimed at sustaining the ever-growing insect swarm, minimizing resource loss along the way. This led to the current model of plantations and breeding farms, which operates in a three-step food cycle: plants absorb nutrients from the earth to grow; aphids feed on the plants, growing and reproducing; the insect swarm feeds on the aphids, and the waste they excrete fertilizes the plants, ensuring their continued growth. The plantation cycle is even shorter with just two stages.

  Recently, the wild rabbits and mice in the Divine Domain were nearly extinct. Outside a few hunting bans set by William on the domain's edge, mammalian creatures were rare across the 10,000 square kilometers of land. Even though he had begun planning for the future development of the domain, the area was fixed, and eventually, the insect swarm's population would surpass what the domain could sustain.

  Everything William did was to push that limit higher, striving to increase the strength of the swarm so that when the protection period ended, he could at least defend himself. But, if he were unlucky and ran into an invader with dragon-related minions right after his protection ended, there would be little he could do. Despite the massive numbers of insects, as ordinary creatures, the swarm's combat capabilities had serious limitations.

  Against a top-tier extraordinary species like a dragon, even a young dragon, the current insect swarm couldn't even scratch its skin. The swarm's size wouldn't matter—it would be easily incinerated in one dragon breath, with nothing they could do in response. Dragons and their minions were often what semi-gods hoped for when creating their domains, for their immense potential. From birth, dragons were extraordinary; by adulthood, they were elite, and with training and resources, they could become lords.

  In contrast, even a magical humanoid species' minions could only be ordinary until they reached the rank of apprentice mage, equating to the strength of a newly-hatched dragon. To be a qualified mage, they would need to master mid- to low-level spells and achieve elite status, capable of facing a young dragon. Becoming a grand mage with high-level magic could make them hero-level, with the power to challenge an adult dragon. The real lords, however, could cast world-shattering magic and had the power to obliterate cities single-handedly.

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  William thought back to how desperate he had been in his previous life. It wasn't just the ants that caused his misery—while he was painstakingly commanding his ants in battle against mice, other people’s newly hatched dragon offspring were tearing apart tigers and flying through the skies, burning entire ant kingdoms to the ground in a single breath of fire.

  "How despairing," William thought. "If not for my transmigration, the Divine Domain would've mutated. Otherwise, becoming a god would have been impossible." Putting these chaotic thoughts aside, he returned to his daily work.

  Another ten years passed in the world of the gods. William was now floating in the air, observing the transformed Divine Domain below. Large areas of the domain had been efficiently planned, with vast numbers of broad-leaved trees and sweet sap trees planted across the land. Depending on the size and growth of each tree, varying numbers of aphids were breeding on them.

  In the gaps between the trees, wild grass growing up to two meters tall had become abundant. This was a new species of plant William had discovered in the Divine Domain, possessing traits like a short growth cycle, strong vitality, and incredible reproductive capacity. He had named this grass "chives," as it grew quickly and could be harvested repeatedly, much like the real vegetable.

  During these ten years, William's ambitious "jumping insect" project had been temporarily halted. It failed due to the inability of the current insect species' genes in the Divine Domain to support such an endeavor. The research was paused and stored as technical reserves until stronger foreign genes could be introduced.

  In the decade that followed, the insect swarm's population had surged to nearly 10 million. The four main insect species had undergone several rounds of upgrades, improving their internal organs and functional systems, making them faster, more agile, stronger, and more advanced in bodily functions. However, the energy consumption had also increased.

  This made the swarm's food requirements skyrocket. With such an enormous number, the original ecological balance in the Divine Domain had been shattered. As William continued his planning, a significant number of species and plants had become extinct. Outside the original aphid breeding farms, the swarm had replaced most of the land with broad-leaved trees, sweet sap trees, chives, and other economic crops. Large-scale aphid breeding had also been established.

  However, as the primary food source for the insect swarm, the broad-leaved trees and sweet sap trees had a growth cycle, which meant food acquisition for the swarm was becoming increasingly difficult. Even if William planted every available plot of land with these trees, the total number of trees would only be in the millions, insufficient for sustaining the growing swarm.

  Given the current 10,000 square kilometer area of the Divine Domain, and the number of trees planted, it was clear that food would be a critical issue soon. The growth of the insect swarm had reached an unsustainable rate.