Astral Cockroach

Currently, there are as many as four mountain lords in the Iron Knife Mountains.

During the harvest season, Mountain Lord Iron Knife dispatched the Cliff Cypress Faction to help guard against accidents.

Various kinds of bamboo rice and bamboo fruit were successfully harvested.

The third bureau of Reeds Bamboo Peak successfully held an autumn harvest celebration banquet.

Following that was the ripening of the Zijin bamboo rice.

After the autumn harvest, it was the silent winter season.

Oil Camellia and the seven bamboo rat warriors entered the jungle to search for God-given seeds.

Red Rice, Belly Bamboo, and Red Rice, these three fellows, having grown in strength, were also forming teams to enter the jungle and try their luck.

Bambu stayed in the territory, desperately burning brain cells to deduce cultivation methods.

… …

“Bambu…” Bai Zhu hugged a section of bamboo, gnawing on it as he walked, swaying towards the mountain.

Bambu watched speechlessly and asked unhappily, “What’s wrong with you again? What did you eat?”

“I, I’m probably going to be promoted to mountain lord.” Bai Zhu pitifully asked, “Bambu, can you give me one of those golden origin power foods? I need origin power.”

“Mountain lord!” Bambu stood up from the ground, walked forward, unfolded his mental power, and carefully checked.

It really was!

“Where are Rat Overlord and the others?”

“Rat Overlord and the others are looking for God-given seeds, they told me to come back on my own…”

Bambu was silent for two seconds, then turned and walked into the cave, took out an origin power food from the metal box, handed it to Bai Zhu, and said, “Eat your fill and then go to sleep, I’ll have Big Bear watch over you later.”

“Oh.” Bai Zhu took the thing, swallowed it in one gulp, hugged the bamboo while gnawing on it, swaying towards the bottom of the mountain.

In the past two years, Bai Zhu had evolved and grown at an extraordinary speed, quickly surpassing Ma Zhu and the other 5 bamboo rat warriors, and was about to catch up with Rat Overlord.

Not only had his strength soared, but he had also awakened an additional metal ability, which broke the original balance of the bamboo rat team. Rat Overlord and the others used to bully Bai Zhu, but now they had become repulsed and alienated.

“It’s time to resolve the internal conflicts of the bamboo rat warriors, it’s not good to have infighting like this all the time.”

Bambu pondered, went down the mountain, explained a few words to Big Bear, and arranged for it to guard Bai Zhu’s growth and evolution.

Returning to the mountain, he continued to deduce cultivation methods.

With the assistance of the dominator-level metal core’s super storage capacity, the deduction of cultivation methods had some achievements, and it was estimated that it would take another two or three years to complete.

But it was only limited to cultivation methods.

Without finding a special origin power food to strengthen brain nerve cells, it was impossible to deduce more complex gene martial arts.

… …

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

“Bambu!” Bai Zhu hopped up the mountain.

“Bambu, look, I’ve been promoted to mountain lord!”

“So fast!” Bambu was a little surprised, but quickly calmed down and greeted, “Bai Zhu, come over here!”

Without Bambu’s greeting, Bai Zhu quickly ran to him, touched the mutated silver-white fluff on his forehead with his front paws, lowered his mental power, and mysteriously said, “Bambu, look, they’ve come alive!”

Bambu carefully checked, the silver-white fluff on Bai Zhu’s forehead had formed origin power patterns, the color was bright, and it had the function of quickly absorbing natural origin power to supplement the consumption of metal abilities, it could indeed be described as “coming alive”.

“Bambu, I’ve also awakened a new ability!”

Bambu didn’t let Bai Zhu show off his metal ability, but Bai Zhu couldn’t help it, so he made a special trip to show off to Bambu.

With a thought, his whole body bristled.

On his forehead, a silver-white fluff suddenly detached, a silver light flashed, and it pierced into the stone wall next to the mountain cave.

“Bambu, amazing, right?”

Bai Zhu was proud, trotted forward, dug out the fluff from the stone wall, stuffed it into his mouth, and explained, “If I eat it, it will grow back, there are 300 in total, not one more, not one less.”

“Amazing! Bai Zhu, now you have combat ability.” Bambu praised and said, “In the future, you will go to the south of the mountain, live with Big Bear, and join the battle formation of Reeds Bamboo Peak.”

“Reeds Bamboo Peak will form a combat squad, with Big Bear as the captain and you as the vice-captain.”

“Captain? Vice-captain?” Bai Zhu was puzzled for a moment, roughly understood what Bambu meant, and asked, “Does it come with a raise?”

“Not for now.” Bambu said, “When I have more origin stones in the future, I’ll give you a raise.”

“Uh, in the future…” Bai Zhu rolled his eyes and asked, “Bambu, who else is in the combat squad?”

Bambu said, “No one else, it’s just you and Big Bear for now.”

Bai Zhu scratched his head, feeling that he might have been deceived.

“What about Rat Overlord and the others?”

“They are the exploration squad and still live in the north of the mountain.”

Bai Zhu was sure that he had been deceived, his eyes rolled around, he tilted his head, and said embarrassedly, “Then if I want to bully Ma Zhu and the others in the future, wouldn’t I have to run from the south of the mountain to the north of the mountain? That’s so troublesome…”

Bambu knew that this guy would definitely take revenge on Ma Zhu and the others who used to bully him once he had strength, he flicked his antennae and slapped Bai Zhu hard on the head, sternly warning, “You are not allowed to use metal abilities indiscriminately, otherwise I will kick you out of Reeds Bamboo Peak!”

“Oh… I won’t…” Bai Zhu stretched out his claws and said, “Bambu, give me another one of those golden origin power foods?”

Bambu said indifferently, “None left! Scram!”

Bai Zhu had been honed to be shameless since he was a child, he touched the silver-white fluff on his forehead and pleaded bitterly, “Bambu, I feel that that kind of golden origin power food can promote their growth, my metal ability can be even stronger.”

“Hmm?” Bambu asked, “Are you sure?”

Bai Zhu affirmed, “I’ve tried it several times, Zijin bamboo rice is also okay, but the effect is far less than that of the golden origin power food.”

“You… you really are a little genius!” Bambu burrowed into the cave, counted out 100 Zijin bamboo rice grains, handed them to Bai Zhu, and said, “There’s only so little of that golden origin power food, I’m keeping it for important use, use Zijin bamboo rice instead.”

… …

Bai Zhu gave Bambu an important inspiration: what would happen if he used origin power food that strengthens metal abilities to light up the supernatural power patterns in the heart position?

Bambu had never thought about it before, the reason was very simple: origin power food was precious, it wasn’t even enough for evolution and growth, so he instinctively didn’t think about that aspect.

The quality of origin power food No. D-391 was super high, the biggest benefit of high-quality origin power food was to accelerate the speed of growth.

Bambu had eaten 1 box of it intermittently during this time, and felt a significant improvement in his strength. There were still 2 boxes left. If he mixed it with other origin power foods and slowly finished eating it, he would almost be able to be promoted to L3 mountain lord.

“Is it too wasteful to use this thing for experiments?”

“Anyway, it was tricked, how about trying a few?”

Bambu didn’t hesitate too much, took out a metal box from the standing cabinet, opened it, and ate one.

The origin power food entered his abdomen and turned into pure origin power, mixed into the blood. As the blood flowed, it quickly came to the heart position.

Manipulating with mental intention, he forcibly injected origin power into the heart’s supernatural power patterns.

A supernatural power pattern in the lit state absorbed this high-quality origin power!

It seemed not enough, have another one.

Origin power was injected into the heart, and once again absorbed by that supernatural power pattern.

There was a clear reaction, but it didn’t reach the threshold for triggering.

Swallowing the 3rd… the 4th…

After consuming 8 D-391 origin power foods in one breath, this supernatural power pattern finally reached saturation.

Bambu waved his antennae, first happy, then had a toothache: after absorbing the high-quality origin power that strengthened metal abilities, the supernatural power pattern was no longer as “lifeless” as before, and had that “come alive” sign, which was exactly the change Bambu was looking forward to.

What was causing a toothache was that it cost 20,000 origin stones to light up a supernatural power pattern, and it took 8 high-quality origin power foods to activate it, the cost was too high.

Mobilize the power of this supernatural power pattern in the activated state and continue to observe.

Unfortunately, it still could not autonomously absorb natural origin power to replenish consumption.

The number of lit and activated supernatural power patterns was too small and had not yet formed an origin power operation system.

Bambu replaced the origin power food with Zijin bamboo rice and continued to try.

Zijin bamboo rice also had an effect, but because of its low quality, the effect was minimal. After swallowing 3,000 grains in a row, he finally activated the second supernatural power pattern in the lit state.

Bambu then replaced the origin power food with tallow fruit and continued to try.

After consuming 500 tallow fruits, he activated the third supernatural power pattern in the lit state.

The experiment was over.

Calculate the cost: D-391 origin power food value (practical value) 1200 origin stones; Zijin bamboo rice value 3000 origin stones, tallow fruit cost 2500 thousand origin stones.

The higher the quality of the origin power food, the better the activation effect, and the more money it saves.

Bambu made up his mind and used another 16 D-391 origin power foods to activate the remaining two supernatural power patterns in the lit state.

Still not working, not enough quantity.

Getting ruthless again, he called Big Head and went down the mountain with 1 origin power crystal.

PS: Today’s 5th update is complete, everyone have a happy May Day!