Astral Cockroach

"Flowering?" Feng Ling's two antennae stood upright, her mental power sharp, carrying a joyful roar: "The golden-striped bamboo is flowering? And this bamboo species?"

Feng Ling scanned with her mental power and asked again, "Where? Where is it flowering?"

"Ignorant!" Yan Cu Ban Mao sneered, pointing with its antennae to an inconspicuous bulge on the bamboo stalk, and said, "Here, it's about to bear ears of grain."

Yan Cu Ban Mao continued, "I heard you're responsible for taking care of it? You're too irresponsible, you didn't even notice such a big change."

Feng Ling ignored Yan Cu Ban Mao's刁难 (diāo nán, deliberately making things difficult) and mockery, hurriedly and flusteredly checked the culm sheath, and shouted in ecstasy: "It really is a flower spike! The flower spike grows on the bamboo stalk culm sheath, it's a bamboo fruit! Ban Bu, our bamboo is going to flower and bear fruit."

"Our bamboo?" Yan Cu Ban Mao was extremely dissatisfied, thought carefully, and became angry again, but was speechless.

It was indeed Tie Dao Shan's (Iron Saber Mountain Lord) main request for Ban Bu and Feng Ling to jointly manage and cultivate the golden-striped bamboo.

Feng Ling keenly noticed that Ban Bu, Li Zhu, and Hei Sang's emotions were not right, they seemed even more excited than herself, a flash of inspiration flashed in her mind, and she tentatively asked: "Ban Bu, that, your emerald bamboo god-given species... is it bearing ears of grain?"

Ban Bu said, "It should be, there's no mistake."

Feng Ling then reacted and asked, "The golden-striped bamboo and spotted bamboo both produce bamboo rice, why does their hybrid bamboo species bear bamboo fruit?"

Ban Bu shook his antennae and said, "We haven't figured out why either."

"The reason is not important." Feng Ling reminded, "Ban Bu, you used the first year's output of the emerald bamboo god-given species to collect 1000 original stones as a deposit from the Chong Lou caravan... Bamboo fruit is not easy to preserve, what should we do?!"

Ban Bu pondered slightly and smiled, "It's easy to handle, not much trouble. I can sell the bamboo fruit to the Hei Bai Hua Lian (Black and White Flower Cockroach) tribe and exchange it for original stones. As for the caravan, we'll discuss it next year, they should be very willing to purchase bamboo fruit."

Li Zhu echoed, "Bamboo fruit is of high quality, there's no worry about selling it."

Yan Cu Ban Mao asked, "What should we do now? Should we notify the Iron Saber Mountain Lord?"

Hei Sang said, "Ban Bu, I heard that the higher the quality of the god-given species that bears fruit, the more original stones need to be invested during the fruit ripening season, do you have enough original stone reserves?"

"There are definitely enough original stones." Ban Bu's agitated mood calmed down at this time, paused, and said, "Such a big thing, we should report the good news to the Iron Saber Mountain Lord as soon as possible, then I'll trouble..."

Li Zhu suggested, "Ban Bu, recently there's nothing to do in my territory, I'll stay and help you keep an eye on things, I'm very experienced in planting bamboo, maybe I can help you."

"I'll stay and take a look too." Yan Cu Ban Mao waved its veined wings, pushed Hei Sang, imitated Ya Bai's scolding tone, and roared, "Hei Sang, you should be more diligent, go, return to Iron Saber Peak, and inform the Iron Saber Mountain Lord about this matter."

"Humph!" Hei Sang was dissatisfied, disdainful, and contemptuously said, "Yan Cu Ban Mao, you don't live on Iron Saber Peak, you don't have the right to lecture me."

Hei Sang turned his body, looked at Feng Ling, and praised, "Feng Ling, you are the most diligent, why don't you take a trip?"

"..." Feng Ling hesitated for a moment, and nodded her antennae, saying, "The emerald bamboo god-given species is about to flower, this is a great happy event for Li Zhu Peak, I really shouldn't neglect it, then I'll go."

Ban Bu looked a little speechless and said, "Feng Ling, thank you for your trouble."

Feng Ling nodded her antennae again, flapped her wings and ascended into the air, and disappeared quickly.

Li Zhu pointed to the hybrid bamboo species with his antennae and asked, "Ban Bu, this is a brand new bamboo species that you cultivated, you should give it a name."

Ban Bu said, "I've thought about it a long time ago, let's just call it Emerald Bamboo."

Naming it was a bit too early, normally, we should observe it for a few more years and name it after the unique characteristics of the basic bamboo species.

The bamboo stalks of the hybrid bamboo species have only been growing for less than half a year, and they are currently emerald green all over. In two or three years, when the bamboo stalks age, most of them will have斑纹 (bān wén, mottled patterns). However, those are things for the future, so we don't need to consider them for the time being.

Li Zhu agreed, "It's the same variety as the emerald bamboo god-given species, naming it 'Emerald Bamboo' is very appropriate. If we sell ordinary emerald bamboo fruit in the future, we can also take advantage of the name of the emerald bamboo god-given species to appropriately increase the selling price."

Ban Bu said, "Li Zhu, Yan Cu Ban Mao, shall we go to the north of the mountain to rest first? Let's eat and chat."

...

The group returned to the north of the mountain.

Ban Bu generously took out 20 five-leaf redwood pine cones to entertain Li Zhu and Yan Cu Ban Mao.

Late at night, Ban Bu went to check again, and the buds on the culm sheath of the emerald bamboo god-given species bamboo stalks had become tiny.

In the early morning, I went to check again, and the buds had grown a little bit more.

The growth was very small, and it was still impossible to be 100% sure that it was a flower spike.

As if it was deliberately going against Ban Bu, the more anxious he was, the less it wanted to grow.

After fertilizing, watering, and carefully caring for it, I looked at it again at noon, and there was almost no change.

Ban Bu checked the ordinary emerald bamboo stalks down the mountain, and it was the same, the buds were developing slowly.

In the evening, Feng Ling led the Iron Saber Mountain Lord to arrive.

The Tie Dao Shan Mai (Iron Saber Mountain Range) Ya Bai (Cliff Cypress), Yun Tao (芸桃, a type of peach), Hu Po (葫桲, quince), Pu Tao (蒲桃, rose apple) and many other advanced warriors heard the good news and ran over to visit.

Ban Bu couldn't afford to entertain this kind of battle, so he simply led them to visit all the plants on the mountain, and finally gathered together to chat all night.

Late at night and early in the morning, Ban Bu went to check once each time.

The buds developed into tender buds, and using divine sense to investigate the internal structure, it could basically be determined that they would indeed develop into flower spikes.

Ordinary emerald bamboo, each bamboo stalk draws out 2 to 5 flower spikes, the specific number is determined by the height of the bamboo stalk, the taller the bamboo stalk, the more fruit it bears.

The emerald bamboo god-given species has a consistent pattern, each bamboo stalk draws out spikes from the 8th节 (jié, section) culm sheath counting upwards from the ground, and each bamboo stalk only draws out 1 flower spike.

After continuing to observe for a whole day, the final conclusion was reached: 72 bamboo stalks, a total of 72 flower spike buds were drawn out, each bud would fork and grow into 2 flower spikes, each flower spike would bloom 1 flower and bear 1 bamboo fruit.

Calculated down, in the first year that the emerald bamboo god-given species was planted, Ban Bu would harvest 144 bamboo fruits.

There is definitely no problem with the quality, the quantity is a bit less than ideal, it depends on the size of the bamboo fruit, if the size is large, the price per fruit will definitely be high.

The size determines the final total income.

After figuring out the general situation, satisfying their curiosity, and estimating that Ban Bu would not encounter any trouble, the Iron Saber Mountain Range warriors said goodbye and left.

Li Zhu Peak, which had been lively for a few days, returned to peace.

Ban Bu gritted his teeth, accelerated the speed of eating original power food, and decided to advance to become a L7 intermediate warrior as soon as possible.

The annual dry season arrived as scheduled, and all insect warriors became busy, busy irrigating and watering the life-bound plants and ordinary plants in the territory.

The 3 ordinary golden-striped bamboos and one golden-striped bamboo life-bound species planted on the mountain successively drew out flower spikes.

The emerald bamboo god-given species flowering and bearing fruit in the first year of planting gave Ban Bu great motivation and further strengthened his determination to plant and cultivate bamboo species. Every day, in addition to being busy watering, there were new things to do: using golden-striped bamboo to hybridize with spotted bamboo and strong bamboo respectively.

It is known that golden-striped bamboo pollen is授与 (shòu yǔ, granted) to spotted bamboo to obtain the emerald bamboo species. Emerald bamboo blooms once a year and condenses bamboo fruit.

Golden-striped bamboo and strong bamboo are two extremely similar bamboo species, which is a completely new hybridization experiment, and there are still many problems that need to be tested and verified in the future. Lacking scientific instruments, all the methods are the most primitive, and whether it can cultivate a high-quality bamboo species like emerald bamboo depends entirely on luck.

Strong bamboo is drought-resistant, and Ban Bu spent a lot of effort to dry the soil around it, and thanks to this year's dry season, 10 consecutive days of scorching sun exposure, it was finally stimulated to flower.

Collecting pollen and授粉 (shòu fěn, pollination) are delicate jobs, and the small worker ants of the big-headed harvesting ant can do it very well. Their antennae are flexible, they沾 (zhān, dip) the pollen, and then precisely授与 (shòu yǔ, grant) it to the target flower.