Astral Cockroach

Even among vine plants, some are exceptionally suitable as life-bound plants, such as kiwis, grapes, and oriental bittersweet.

However, since vines are climbing plants, they are inferior to trees in many aspects.

Li Zhufeng planted tortoise-shell vines purely for novelty and ornamental purposes. Having mastered the Giant Dragon Bamboo and Sacred Bamboo, two top-tier plant species, and having seen the six tree seas of Chiwu Mountain, his horizons broadened. Plus, he's been busy in recent years, so he hasn't tested the specific advantages and disadvantages of this new plant species.

The tortoise-shell vine also has a drawback: slow growth. The one planted at the entrance of Banbu's cave has grown for more than ten years, and the diameter of its hemispherical tuber has barely exceeded 20 centimeters. It seems to grow slower and slower.

The high-quality species whose hemispherical tubers can grow very large also grow very slowly. Currently, their diameters are around 1 meter, far from the 5-meter diameter described by Camellia oleifera.

Their vitality is tenacious. They can survive well on their own without much care.

The tortoise-shell vine is not considered a particularly bad plant.

Banbu doesn't have any particular prejudice against different plants. Isn't nature diverse and colorful? The insects on this planet worship the God of Nature, and they like all kinds of plants, which is natural.

…

"Banbu, Datou said you went to a very far place. Did you come back from a very far place?"

"Yes, very far."

"Then you must be hungry, right? Belly Bamboo is in its Sacred Bamboo forest. You can ask it to hunt for you."

"I ate something on the way back, so I'm not hungry right now."

"Oh…"

The tortoise-shell vine wiggled its antennae, slightly turned its body, and its gaze fell on the cabinet drawer.

That was the cabinet where compressed biscuits were stored.

The little guy looked at Banbu with pleading eyes.

Banbu earnestly taught: "Compressed food is not nutritionally complete. You are young, so you should eat less of this kind of junk food. Usually, you should eat fresh meat, and appropriately eat decaying branches and leaves."

"I understand," the tortoise-shell vine drooped its antennae.

Interesting little guy.

Banbu was thinking about teasing it again. Outside the cave, Belly Bamboo and Pyracantha arrived one after another, landed, and hurriedly asked:

"Banbu, how's the harvest?"

"Did you find anything good?"

"I collected a lot of tree seeds. I don't recognize any particularly good ones, and the ones I don't recognize need to be planted and tested," Banbu said simply, and asked, "Is Baba down the mountain?"

Pyracantha said: "At Guanli Peak Reservoir."

Banbu instructed: "Pyracantha, go bring Baba back."

"Okay." Pyracantha knew there was something important, and left in a hurry.

Belly Bamboo introduced: "Banbu, this is a little warrior born in your territory. It's called Tortoise-Shell Vine. This little guy is a bit strange. It always follows Datou."

"Last spring, Camellia oleifera also found a wild little warrior in the bamboo forest. It's very wild, even more mischievous than Nan Bamboo. The peach fruits on the Prunus persica 'Fengling' tree were all picked by it before they were fully ripe."

The tortoise-shell vine seemed to recognize that little warrior, and seemed to have had a conflict. Hearing this, it immediately angrily shouted: "Honey Peach, bad!"

Belly Bamboo said: "That little warrior likes peach trees, so it was sent to Bitao Peak. It often runs back to freeload. This year, it wanted to pick your white jade mulberries, but the tortoise-shell vine discovered it, and the two little guys had a conflict."

"Banbu, you're back!" Datou also rushed back and greeted from afar.

"Datou!" The tortoise-shell vine immediately flapped its membranous wings, ran towards Datou, landed on Datou's head, waved its antennae at the nearby worker ants, imitated Datou's orders, and shouted: "I'm hungry! I want to eat! Go find me something to eat!"

The worker ants could understand, but they ignored it.

Belly Bamboo said helplessly: "We've been lucky in the past two years, and two little warriors have been born in succession, but… they're not very normal. The tortoise-shell vine always clamors to eat for some reason. We bring it back, but it doesn't eat it. It's all fed to the ordinary small cockroaches in the territory. It's just playing around and messing with us."

When Datou came back, the tortoise-shell vine's personality suddenly became cheerful, and it seemed to have confidence. It waved its antennae vigorously and retorted: "I ate it! Belly Bamboo, you're lazy. You don't find me anything to eat."

Belly Bamboo waved its antennae and said fiercely: "Are you looking for a beating again?"

The tortoise-shell vine shrank its head and shouted: "Datou, look, Belly Bamboo is bullying me again."

Datou said helplessly: "Belly Bamboo, you're about to be promoted to County Lord, don't be so petty with a junior little warrior."

"Belly Bamboo, you were more naughty than it when you were a kid," Banbu teased, opened the silk bag, and said: "Datou, specially choose two fertile seedling plots. Next spring, plant these seeds. Let Cattail help take a look. Plant the seeds you recognize in one plot, and the ones you don't recognize in another plot. Plant them in two forest areas later."

"Okay." Datou shook its antennae and directed the ant colony to come forward and collect the seeds.

Pyracantha hurried over with Baba in her arms.

Banbu immediately opened the metal bottles one by one and placed them neatly according to their numbers.

"Baba, these are all remnant samples of God-given seeds. Please help me take a look."

Baba scanned them one by one and quickly gave a conclusion.

"Sample A1074 is a 'Divine Grade' God-given seed remnant. The others are just ordinary God-given seed remnants and have no great value."

The number A represents that large mountain range, and the number 1074 represents the specific coordinates.

Banbu immediately extracted relevant data from the first heart. Corresponding to it were two mountains of similar size to Li Zhufeng, located next to each other. Nearly a hundred residential caves were found on the mountains, as well as the remains of 14 tall trees, all of which indicated that this place was once extremely prosperous.

Having a "Divine Grade" God-given seed was within reason.

Banbu asked: "Baba, is this the only one?"

Baba confirmed: "One."

Banbu asked: "Can we use it in Li Zhufeng?"

"We can use it, we can use all of them. The difference lies in the benefits after use," Baba said, "It should be the red oak tree recorded in your inherited memories, a fire element type, and it still retains a bit of original force characteristics. It's best to use it for Camellia oleifera, followed by Cattail and Small Fire Bamboo, these two God-given seeds, followed by Quercus glauca, followed by Platycladus orientalis and Tatta, and then other ordinary life-bound plants."

"I understand!" Banbu couldn't help but feel a little happy.

That oak tree God-given seed was originally planted in the upper middle layer of the mountain, where the temperature was slightly lower, and the air and soil moisture were drier. The plant was 400 meters tall, the trunk was slender, and the diameter of the thickest part of the trunk was about 18 meters. It was relatively well preserved, the main trunk was completely preserved, and a small number of thick branches were preserved.

If we slice it all up and bring it back in bags, it can fill a whole warehouse, right? The best fertilizer in the universe, the more the better. We may not be able to use it all for a while, so we'll hoard it and use it slowly.

"By the way, I brought back two more Ghost Mist Lotuses. Belly Bamboo, you can eat one. The other one will be divided equally between Red Rice and Red Rice. There will be more in the future, and everyone will take turns according to age. The things are precious and rare. Except for Belly Bamboo, the other members will eat half a portion first, and then consider making up the other half if there is a surplus."

As Banbu spoke, he scanned and checked with his divine sense, and at the same time asked Baba: "Baba, when do you think Belly Bamboo can be promoted to L9 Mountain Lord?"

Baba said: "He was just promoted to L8 Mountain Lord not long ago. He'll have to wait at least until the winter after next year. L9 Mountain Lord, there must be at least 5 years between promotions to County Lord. It's best to wait a few more years."

Banbu calculated silently, and it was about the same, at most ten years.

Banbu then asked Belly Bamboo: "Is the sale of Sacred Bamboo fruit this year going smoothly?"

Belly Bamboo said: "According to your instructions, it is sold within the Fire Ant Kingdom. With the help of Flame Cluster Imperata cylindrica, everything is going smoothly."

Banbu asked: "What about Iron Saber Mountain Lord?"

Belly Bamboo said: "It is now Iron Saber County Lord."

Success!

Banbu tapped his antennae, not surprised, and continued to ask: "What about Autumn Maple County Lord?"

Belly Bamboo said: "According to Huabai Mountain Lord, it fell into a slumber in the autumn of this year, and no news has come back yet."

For a County Lord to be promoted to Ant King, the slumber time starts at half a year, so it won't be that fast.

…

Down the mountain, the Giant Dragon Bamboo God-given seed had just begun to bloom and flower, which was the season when it needed to replenish its original force. On the mountain, the blood thorn fruits of the Blood Thorn God-given seed were in a critical stage of ripening. Camellia oleifera was about to bloom, and the amount of watering and fertilization needed to be increased before the flowering period… Datou and several bamboo rat warriors were all relatively busy.

When Banbu was away, Giant Bear guarded the Giant Dragon Bamboo God-given seed on a daily basis. When he had free time, Red Rice, Dragon Bamboo, and Pyracantha took turns guarding it. Fire Bamboo Mountain currently had 4 cockroach warriors, and they shared part of the pressure of cultivating bamboo species. Moreover, the earliest born Fire Bamboo and Light Bamboo had successively been promoted to the Mountain Lord level. During the busy season, the two of them could also come to Li Zhufeng to help out in emergencies.

Currently, the biggest problem in the entire Jinping Mountain Range was still the scarcity of insects.

Many things were not easy to do, for example, how to bring back the oak tree God-given seed remains found in Dragon Bamboo Continent?

Ask Chiwu Mountain for help? That would definitely come at a price. There was a 99% chance that they would take away a certain share of the remains. Banbu was now reluctant to let go of even a tiny bit of such good things that couldn't even be bought with rough stones.