Astral Cockroach

The Black and White Flower Cockroach tribe awakened with plant and tree abilities, and the Autumn Maple Cockroach King was quite skilled at selecting seeds.

Banbu brought back nearly two thousand seeds of the Cave Crown Pear from Lizhu Peak. After sowing them, all of them sprouted and successfully grew into seedlings.

After Baba's selection, more than fifteen hundred seedlings were still retained.

The seedlings were densely planted in the nursery, and after a year, they appeared somewhat crowded.

In the second round of selection, the seedlings with particularly poor growth were pulled out, and the slightly inferior seedlings were transplanted to the opened pear orchard. Only the 500 best-growing seedlings were retained in the nursery for continued special care.

The Cave Crown Pear tree does not grow slowly, but because the tree is tall, it takes as long as 15 years to initially mature. The highest quality batch of seedlings retained in the nursery can be transplanted to the pear orchard in early spring next year.

Taking the Cave Crown Pear as the core, developing a pear tree forest is currently the most important thing in the Jinping Mountains.

It has always been managed by Guanli, with the help of Xiangfei Peak warriors, and Hongdao and Baba providing advice. Banbu is relatively relieved about this and only occasionally goes to take a look.

One derivative species, with enhanced fire element abilities, is named "Crimson Crown Pear."

The other derivative species is indeed somewhat inferior, close to the Guanli native species, with enhanced earth and stone element abilities, and is named "Orange Crown Pear."

… …

Holy Sound Mountain is a small hill that Banbu selected a long time ago, located on the east side of Fire Bamboo Mountain, across the river, five kilometers away. The Primordial Energy concentration is good, but it is a bit short and can only accommodate three warriors on the mountain.

Now that the two young warriors, Holy Sound and Thunder Sound, have gone to settle there, the various bamboo forests centered on Holy Sound Mountain can also be developed. These tasks are led by Duzhu, along with the Longzhu and Hongzhu Mountain warriors, as well as four bamboo rat warriors. They all have decades of experience in reclaiming land and managing bamboo forests, so there are no problems, and Banbu has no need to worry at all.

… …

The prototype plan for the Qinggang tree forest jointly developed by the Jinping Mountains and the Tiedao Mountains is located in the Tiedao Mountains north of Qinggang Peak.

Warriors from both mountain ranges are mobilized to work together. The warriors from Qinggang Mountain are few, so the warriors from the nearby Bitao Peak need to go to help.

With Princess Tiedao personally participating, Banbu doesn't need to worry about this even more.

In botany, the three closely related tree species, Quercus, Lithocarpus, and Cyclobalanopsis, should all be included in the Quercus genus, and further divided into three different subgenera. Oak is a species under the Quercus subgenus, and more specifically, it has 68 species.

Among them, black oak, white oak, red oak, cork oak, chestnut oak, etc., more than half are rare native species.

The best is the Dead Oak, a top-level tree species on par with Longevity Peach, which, when nurtured into a Fate Seed, also has the added benefit of extending lifespan with its acorns.

Since the Chijian lineage of the Red Cockroach tribe wants to jointly cultivate the three tree species of Quercus, Lithocarpus, and Cyclobalanopsis, and develop a large tree forest in the Hongju Mountains, it would be best to have a Dead Oak tree.

Banbu plans to focus on finding one.

… …

In the midsummer of May, the bamboo flowers of the Giant Dragon Bamboo, a God-given Seed, begin to wither and condense into bamboo fruits. Next is a six-year fruit growth period, and before maturity, the demand for Primordial Energy is not high.

After the end of the dry season, Banbu went to Chijian County, Chuirong County, the Huangyang Mountains, the Qinggang Mountains, the Hongju Mountains, and the Tiedao Mountains for a round of visits.

Too many tree species were collected from the Dragon Bamboo Continent, and Lizhu Peak was too busy to handle them all, so many were distributed to other mountain ranges for cultivation. Banbu mainly went to see if there were any achievements. If not, that's fine, but if there were, he couldn't be polite and would take some back.

The result was no.

Without further delay, he took Longzhu and set off for Chiwu Mountain.

… …

According to the plan, this year in July, the Northern Wilderness of the Dragon Bamboo Continent will cool down, and King Rat, Big Bear, Fire Bamboo, and White Bamboo will withdraw and recuperate in Chiwu Mountain for a winter. Snake Scale Fruit matured in Chiwu Mountain last year, and Ghost Mist Lotus matured again this year. Banbu exchanged two portions of each, and had already arranged for everyone to share them.

When Banbu and Longzhu arrived, King Rat and the others had already returned and were resting in the trading square.

Little White Bamboo is a high-level warrior who usually eats well and can easily grow. He is currently sleeping and is being promoted to a level 9 high-level warrior.

Because it is foreign territory, and there are often merchants and Chiwu Mountain warriors coming and going, the sleeping location was chosen in a remote corner of the square, and other warriors were surrounding it to help guard it.

After a brief greeting, Banbu asked, "King Rat, any gains?"

"Didn't find it," King Rat gently shook his head, his expression grave. According to the plan, the area within 5 kilometers of Daqing Mountain had been searched all over.

After five years of busy work, there were no gains.

Banbu slightly moved his antennae and simply said, "Then give up."

Then he checked the situation of Little White Bamboo. His breath was stable, so there should be no problems. He had eaten Giant Dragon Bamboo Fruit and Tata Fruit to strengthen his physique, so the growth risks at the high-level warrior and mountain master levels were very small.

He arranged for Longzhu to stay down the mountain to rest, and Banbu went up the mountain alone.

… …

Chiwu Ghost King and Haitang Butterfly King were both present.

Leizhu Ghost King hurried over upon hearing the news.

"Lord Banbu, I heard that King Rat and the others still haven't had any gains in the past two years?" Chiwu Ghost King asked.

Banbu said dejectedly, "My luck hasn't been very good lately."

Haitang Butterfly King asked, "Lord Banbu, is the sowing of the Cave Crown Pear going smoothly?"

Banbu said, "Everything is going smoothly. In at most 30 years, we will be able to build a prototype of a tree forest dominated by the Cave Crown Pear. After that, we will wait for young warriors who like pear trees to be born, and steadily expand the scale of the tree forest as the number of warriors increases."

Banbu then said, "Guanli hasn't even had a single ordinary God-given Seed, which makes me very worried. Do you, Chiwu Mountain, have any intention of selling God-given Seeds? It doesn't have to be very good, just any God-given Seed will do. I can exchange it for Giant Dragon Bamboo Fruit."

Haitang Butterfly King's antennae twitched, obviously tempted.

Chiwu Ghost King shook his antennae and said, "We do hope to exchange with you, but Chiwu Mountain really doesn't have any extra God-given Seeds."

"Oh, then forget it," Banbu knew there was no chance.

If they don't want to exchange, they don't want to exchange, but they have to say it so euphemistically.

Leizhu Ghost King said, "Lord Banbu, is it almost time for a new batch of Giant Dragon Bamboo Fruit to mature?"

Banbu said, "The bamboo fruit has just formed, and there is still a 6-year growth period."

Leizhu Ghost King asked, "Lord Banbu, how do you plan to exchange this batch?"

Banbu said, "Two portions each of Ghost Mist Lotus and Snake Scale Fruit will do. We don't need Azure Blood Longan and Tianmu Magnolia for the time being. In addition, you can bring four portions of Twin Star Apricot."

Leizhu Ghost King was silent and didn't respond.

The atmosphere suddenly became oppressive.

Banbu was inexplicably confused: 18 portions of Giant Dragon Bamboo Fruit, Lizhu Peak keeps 9 portions for itself, Autumn Maple County gets 3 portions, and Chiwu Mountain still has as many as 6 portions, which is not a small amount!

Chiwu Ghost King said heavily, "Chiwu Mountain no longer has Twin Star Apricots."

Haitang Butterfly King's telepathy was deep, "When the previous Chiwu Ghost King passed away, the Twin Star Apricot withered and died along with him. This kind of 'divine' God-given Seed that is naturally born under chance is impossible to appear a second time..."

"This... how..." Banbu wanted to ask how he suddenly died, but temporarily held it back. His thoughts were chaotic, and he couldn't say anything for a long time.

He was a little worried.

According to the original plan, there were still at least 10 warriors in the Jinping Mountains who were qualified to eat Twin Star Apricot, but as a result, suddenly, it was gone.

In addition, the Twin Star Apricot was considered the most valuable "divine God-given Seed" in Chiwu Mountain. In the future, what would they use to exchange for Giant Dragon Bamboo Fruit?

Chiwu Ghost King seemed to see through Banbu's thoughts and said, "Lord Banbu, we, Chiwu Mountain, still have other 'divine' God-given Seeds that can replace Twin Star Apricot and continue to exchange."

Still have? Damn!

Banbu waited for the following text.

Leizhu Ghost King waved his antennae, signaling the warriors who were arranging food nearby to leave.

In Chiwu Mountain, those who are qualified to go up the mountain and are qualified to listen to the Chiwu Ghost King discuss important matters, who look like they are doing hard labor, are actually core members who have nurtured important God-given Seeds, and excellent direct descendants born in Chiwu Mountain.

What is it? Why is the secrecy so strict? These warriors are not even qualified to know?

Chiwu Ghost King said, "We, Chiwu Mountain, have always had a special 'divine' God-given Seed. It is said that a long, long time ago, our ancestors spent a lot of effort to transplant it from the wild."

"The tree is named 'Ghost King Locust', a locust tree. The specific species cannot be verified, and the Ghost King Tree Spirit itself cannot explain it clearly either."

"The flowering and fruiting cycle is 120 years, with a flowering period of 99 years, a fruiting period of 3 years, and a flower and fruit dormancy period of 18 years. Only 1 portion is produced in each flowering and fruiting cycle, making it the 'divine' God-given Seed with the lowest known yield."

"The reason it is called 'Ghost King Locust' is because the yield is too low. We, Chiwu Mountain, only supply it to warriors who are confirmed to be qualified to be promoted to 'Ghost King', and even then, not everyone gets it. Priority is given to the Chiwu Ghost King, followed by the Butterfly King, and then the Ghost Kings and Butterfly Kings who command the tree forest."

"This thing, we, Chiwu Mountain, don't even have enough internally, so not only do we not publicize it to the outside world, but very few warriors within know about it either."

Banbu straightened his antennae and waited for the following text.