Astral Cockroach

On the giant creature's skeleton, thousands upon thousands of cockroaches frantically scrambled.

Mother Roach successfully snatched a shred of meat, excitedly scurrying to Banbu's side, antennae gently patting Banbu's head, conveying joyful emotions:

"Eat, quickly eat..."

At this moment, Banbu yearned for growth more than ever, to quickly pass through the nymph stage, only the sub-adult stage offered hope of surviving the approaching winter.

"A sub-adult nymph grows into a fully mature adult, the next step is a 'Red Roach Tribe Warrior', absorbing Origin Power, achieving genetic evolution!"

Banbu didn't stand on ceremony, embracing the meat and devouring it, he desperately needed meaty food to replenish his nutrition.

Mother Roach, seeing this, happily touched Banbu's antennae again, turned, scurried away, chirping, and plunged into the army of cockroaches fighting for food.

After finishing the second shred of meat, Banbu felt much more comfortable in his head, his consciousness became clearer, he turned his head to look around, and unknowingly, the new limbs from his rebirth had grown completely.

The Red Roach Tribe Warrior hastily finished eating half of the serpentine creature's corpse, and its next action once again attracted Banbu's attention.

The hazy orange-yellow glow emitted by a raspberry fruit was slowly fading, a sign that the Origin Power fruit was fully ripe.

The Red Roach Tribe Warrior carefully used the sharp tips of its forelegs to cut off the fruit, and solemnly placed it in front of itself.

Each raspberry fruit is composed of many tiny particles, and it even more carefully peeled off a particle, trying to swallow it. Immediately afterwards, its whole body shook, its wing veins flapped, emitting a joyous "whooshing" sound, its antennae swayed, excited and delighted.

Judging by its appearance, it was clearly tasting an Origin Power fruit for the first time.

Combining this with those small Origin Power plants, it can be deduced that it hasn't been promoted to a Red Roach Tribe Warrior for long, and only after becoming a warrior did it learn to find and plant Origin Power plants. Raspberries are shrubs, and their growth cycle is shorter compared to trees, so they bear fruit first.

When Banbu was a human, he had the experience of swallowing an Origin Power fruit once, knowing its benefits, and even more clearly understanding the dangers involved.

The efficiency of Origin Power fruit in modifying genes is extremely powerful. A large number of somatic cells will die during the process of genetic evolution. During this period, physical energy will be consumed, dead cells will be expelled, and nutrients will be needed to supply cell division and proliferation, making up for bodily damage.

The Red Roach Tribe Warrior also seemed to be aware of the dangers involved. After eating one raspberry, it appeared even more cautious. Next, it bit each one in half, swallowing it in two portions.

Mother Roach snatched another shred of meat, ran back, placed it in front of Banbu, and gently patted the engrossed Banbu with her antennae, urging him to eat it quickly.

"Weak Origin Power creature, but mastering Origin Power is indeed stronger than ordinary beasts, enough to rule this jungle."

Banbu silently commented, burying his head and eating meat.

Mother Roach, seeing this, comfortingly touched Banbu's antennae, turned around, and plunged into the army of cockroaches fighting for food again.

There were simply too many cockroaches surrounding the wreckage. Each time squeezing in, grabbing food, and then squeezing out was extremely difficult. By the time the sky was dimly lit, Mother Roach had only made five trips in total.

After continuously eating five shreds of meat of varying sizes, Banbu finally had that drowsy feeling, a sign that he was about to molt and grow.

At this time, the Red Roach Tribe Warrior had also eaten the mature raspberry, leaving only one particle.

For the last particle, it hesitated slightly, lifted its leg and flicked it away.

Several adult cockroaches squatting not far away saw this and immediately took action, rushing forward, desperately fighting for the food. The raspberry particles were very small, just one particle, and several cockroaches argued and bit each other for it.

A clever cockroach stealthily, unexpectedly, suddenly pounced forward, forelegs embracing the raspberry particle, frantically gnawing on it.

Seeing this, Banbu suddenly perked up: The Red Roach Tribe Warrior was experimenting. It felt that the Origin Power fruit had the ability to promote genetic evolution, and it wanted to verify whether the Origin Power fruit could help ordinary cockroaches break through their limits and evolve into beings like itself.

The result was immediately revealed: When the cockroach that swallowed the raspberry was halfway through eating it, its six legs went limp and it collapsed.

Dead!

However, the low intelligence of the fighting cockroaches could not understand the situation before them. They only instinctively felt that the raspberry fruit would help their evolution.

The cockroach that won the fight unceremoniously snatched the remaining half of the raspberry from the corpse, swallowed it whole, and immediately, its six legs went limp, and it lay on the ground, and after a brief twitch, it lost its life.

In the jungle, it is too difficult for small insects to obtain protein. Over the long years, cockroaches have evolved the habit of devouring the corpses of their dead companions.

After a while, the cockroaches watching nearby confirmed that the two cockroaches that had swallowed the raspberry fruit had died, and without any hesitation, they stepped forward and began to gnaw on the corpses.

Soon, a large group of cockroaches collapsed on the ground twitching, dying.

Origin Power fruit, for Origin Power creatures, is a rare treasure that promotes evolution, but for ordinary creatures, it is a deadly poison.

Mother Roach, standing beside Banbu, saw a large number of corpses of its kind, and instinctively wanted to run over and grab food.

Banbu was terribly frightened and hurriedly stopped her, waving his antennae vigorously, constantly conveying "danger" information. It took a lot of effort to dissuade Mother Roach.

After this commotion, Banbu was stunned to discover that half of Mother Roach's hind leg was broken off at some point.

With such terrible injuries, Mother Roach did not have the ability to immediately regrow the limb. She was already a 19th instar adult and could no longer achieve limb regrowth through molting and growth.

Mother Roach had laid several egg cases, and her body was starting to age. It was already difficult to survive this winter, and now with the injury, it was even worse.

Banbu felt a little guilty and sad, waving his antennae to send caring inquiries.

Mother Roach waved her antennae, comforting: "I'm fine, eat."

Mother Roach was still reluctant to leave those cockroach corpses: With her low and simple intelligence, she only knew that meat could promote her son's rapid growth.

The purest and most primitive maternal love.

Banbu only felt a strange piercing pain in his soul, and could only keep waving his antennae, repeatedly sending danger signals to Mother Roach.

At the same time, Mother Roach, who was obsessed with food, suddenly became frightened and sent out a danger signal.

With his wide compound eye view, Banbu noticed a big commotion behind him. He turned around vigilantly and looked intently, only to see the Red Roach Tribe Warrior, who was lying next to the raspberry bushes, flapping its wings and flying up, landing next to the corpses of the cockroaches that had died from eating the Origin Power fruit, and flapping its wing veins to drive away the eager cockroach swarm.

Mother Roach nervously dragged the somewhat dazed Banbu backwards.

The Red Roach Tribe Warrior quickly dug a large pit, threw the corpses into it and buried them. Its intelligence grew with evolution, knowing that simply burying the corpses in the soil might still be dug out by the greedy and ignorant members of the tribe, so it flew to a distance, brought a stone, and suppressed the burial pit.

The surrounding, tigerishly watching cockroach swarm dispersed.

The Red Roach Tribe Warrior was very satisfied, shook its wing veins, took off, and landed again next to the raspberry bushes, guarding and waiting for the raspberry fruit to ripen.

The experiment failed, and it had no intention of continuing to study it in depth, nor did it grieve for the death of a large number of its tribe members.

The sky was about to dawn.

The feast was coming to an end, and a skeleton that had been gnawed clean was revealed.

"Leave."

Mother Roach reminded Banbu that he should hide in the nest during the day to avoid being hunted by forest birds.

"Go over there."

Banbu was still worried about Mother Roach's injury.

Even lower reptiles have genuine feelings, let alone a human soul. Banbu was unwilling and decided to make a final attempt, trying to save his "mother."

"Over there, over there..."

Banbu kept urging, dragging Mother Roach, came to the stone next to the corpses of the cockroaches that died in the experiment, and dug hard.

Mother Roach thought Banbu was planning to dig out the corpses, and let out a joyous cry, following along and digging.