Astral Cockroach

The news of Banbu's promotion to Mountain Lord spread immediately.

Warriors from the Iron Saber Mountain Range, Red Tangerine Mountain Range, Water Banyan Mountain Range, and Goat Hoof Mountain Range arrived one after another to offer their congratulations.

The Red Cockroach King, who was clearing out beast warriors, also came for a visit, inspected the mountain, confirmed that the various God-bestowed seeds were growing smoothly without any problems, withdrew the 20 advanced warriors assisting in the defense, and even forcibly took away Oil Tea, entering the jungle to help search for traces of beast warriors.

County Princess Youli followed closely, toured around, and then withdrew 10 warriors from Youli County in advance.

The lively Lizhu Peak became deserted all of a sudden after a few days.

Banbu completely recovered from the weakness of his evolution in slumber, calmed his mind, and began to try to sort out the meridians and heart in his body.

The method of using inscribed patterns to assist in recording completely failed. It was too complex, a three-dimensional structure, impossible to draw at all.

Lacking the ability to do what he wanted, he temporarily gave up the plan to deduce cultivation techniques.

The bamboo sea was initially taking shape, and there was no need to expand it for the next two or three years.

The weeds on both sides of Lizhu Peak were cleared by the warriors stationed there, and the various planted tree species were slowly growing up, no longer afraid of weeds stealing nutrients.

Even the Origin Force food had been eaten clean long before he was promoted to Mountain Lord.

The beast warriors within the Jinping Mountain Range and Iron Saber Mountain Range had probably been almost completely wiped out. Perhaps there were some that slipped through the net, but they were no longer enough to pose a threat to Lizhu Peak.

It seemed like there was absolutely nothing to do, a cold and desolate, extremely boring winter.

Banbu informed Mountain Lord Huangwen, and set off for the swamp with Big Bear and seven bamboo rat warriors.

The energy of the Overlord-level metal core continued to dissipate, and with the absorption of Banbu, Big Bear, the seven bamboo rat warriors, and Oil Tea, the resonant force field accelerated its shrinkage, its range receding to the edge of the lake created when it fell.

Banbu had expected this, so he specifically brought a bag of hemp rope before leaving.

There were wild water bamboo and moso bamboo in the nearby hills, both large bamboo species. The bamboo poles were hollow and had strong buoyancy. He cut down a batch and tied them together to make a bamboo raft.

Paddling the bamboo raft, he entered the lake and absorbed the scattered, unowned mental power in the center.

Big Bear and the seven bamboo rat warriors were fine. Their souls had not mutated much. They forcibly absorbed it through cultivating the 'Soul Absorption Secret Technique', and reached saturation in a few days.

Banbu had been exposed to radiation at close range, and his soul had mutated severely. His compatibility with the metal core was extremely high. After being promoted to Mountain Lord, his absorption rate was extremely fast, and his capacity became like a bottomless pit, as if he could absorb endlessly.

The already small amount of unowned mental power decreased sharply, and the range of the resonant force field shrank accordingly.

Ten days later, when the diameter of the force field was less than 100 meters, the rolling black mist suddenly exploded, quickly diffused, then instantly faded and dissipated.

The force field collapsed!

Banbu flapped his pulse wings and ascended into the air.

The bamboo raft collapsed, turning into grayish-white powder that scattered in the water, floating for a while before slowly sinking.

Looking down, below was a clear lake with a diameter of about 1 kilometer.

"It's gone… my soul strength was only a little bit away from reaching the L1 County Princess level…"

Landing on the shore of the lake, Banbu sighed with regret as he looked at the lake water.

Sensing the movement here, Big Bear ran over, stared blankly for a while, and asked, "Banbu, why is it gone?"

Explaining it, Big Bear definitely wouldn't understand.

Banbu simply said, "The power has been completely absorbed by us."

Big Bear said, "Then we can't use the Soul Absorption Secret Technique in the future?"

Rat King also sensed the collapse of the resonant force field at the first moment and ran over.

The seven bamboo rat warriors stared at the lake, also in a daze.

Rat King asked, "Banbu, how exactly was this resonant force field formed?"

"Too complicated, it's hard to explain clearly." Banbu shook his antennae and said, "Big Bear, go hunt some food, I'm a little hungry."

"Oh, okay." Big Bear first agreed, and then said, "Banbu, we can look for prey while walking. We've been out for a long time, shouldn't we go back?"

"Not going back yet." Banbu said, "We have to take the thing at the bottom of the lake back with us."

Big Bear asked curiously, "What thing?"

Banbu said, "The Overlord-level metal life's brain core."

"???" Big Bear scratched his head.

Banbu was too lazy to explain, impatiently waving his antennae, driving him away, "Go hunt for food quickly."

Big Bear turned and ran towards the hills behind, disappearing into the jungle.

Rat King wanted to ask, but held back.

Banbu approached the lake, scanning with his mental power, exploring the underwater structure and depth:

Affected by the resonant force field, the original soil had become as solid as sintered tiles.

The metal core was small, and the impact of the fall created a pit that was not large in area but very deep. Mental power couldn't even reach the bottom of the central location.

Rat King watched, suddenly becoming scared, and asked, "Banbu, you're not planning to go into the water to salvage it, are you?"

"I have that idea." Banbu said, "We'll see in a couple of days. If it doesn't work, you guys go down and fish it out. The thing is a spherical shape, black metal, not very big, and very light…"

Rat King waved his paws vigorously, saying, "Banbu, I can't swim, let alone dive."

"Me neither!" Mazhu quickly stated his position.

"Me neither!"

The remaining five bamboo rat warriors answered almost in unison.

Baizhu smacked his lips and asked cautiously, "Is it me again?"

"It's you." Rat King confirmed, "Banbu, let Baizhu go."

Mazhu and the other five bamboo rats stepped forward and pushed Baizhu out.

Seeing this, Banbu shook his antennae and said, "There are two possibilities."

"First, that thing's energy is exhausted and it will float up automatically, no need to…"

Baizhu stretched out his paw, cautiously pointing to the center of the lake, and asked, "Banbu, is that it?"

Banbu turned his head to look. A black dot was floating in the center of the lake, with ripples still spreading.

"That's right, that's it. It floated up by itself!"

Banbu didn't say much, flapped his wings and took off, skimming over the water, clasping his two hind legs together, scooping up the sphere, turning in mid-air, and landing back on the shore.

A black metal sphere with a diameter of 28 centimeters.

The surface was not smooth, like a brain, covered with folds and grooves, and many tiny silver-gray lines.

Banbu held the metal core with his forelimbs, held it up in front of his eyes and examined it. The contained unowned mental power and participating high-level energy had been completely dissipated. Without the support of soul power, the supernatural patterns had also been extinguished.

Very light, almost weightless.

For metal lifeforms, the metal core is both the brain where the soul resides, the central heart for energy transfer, and also functions as an auxiliary storage for backup energy.

In theory, the weight of an Overlord-level metal core is infinitely close to zero. It is also easy to form energy convection with the external environment, and can absorb various types of energy. After absorbing energy, the weight increases.

Now in winter, the metal core weighs about 0.1kg.

Placed in strong light, the weight will increase.

If it is a hot environment in summer, the weight will also increase.

"This thing is used to make information storage for cosmic supercomputers… I don't have that technological ability."

"What other uses are there?"

Banbu pondered.

Due to his soul, he seemed to be able to establish a bit of connection with the metal core, plus the newly awakened weak metal control ability…

"Inject energy, increase weight, and at the same time use metal manipulation to control it to shoot out and smash it as a weapon…"

Banbu's thoughts moved, and the Origin Force in his body was converted into flame heat energy, injected into the metal core. At the same time, he manipulated it to move forward.

He saw the metal core swaying and floating out of Banbu's forelimbs, drifting two meters away, and then lightly falling to the ground.

"My current burst of energy and metal control ability are not enough… Judging by the looks of it, County Lord level is still not enough. Promotion to Cockroach King might be useful… Cockroach King is already the highest combat power on this planet, what do I need it for?"

A useless thing!

Banbu thought about what other uses the metal core could have.

Baizhu saw Banbu standing there in a daze, trotted forward, picked up the metal core, weighed it, and said, "Banbu, it's so light!"

After speaking, he threw it hard.

The metal core was like a cotton ball, floating towards Banbu.

Of the seven bamboo rat warriors, Baizhu was still the smartest and most enlightened.

"The more energy is injected into this thing, the heavier it becomes." Banbu decided to demonstrate the magic of the metal core to it, opened his mouth, aimed at the metal core, and spat out a pillar of fire.

The flames were all absorbed by the metal core.

Banbu shook his antennae and said, "Baizhu, you try again, see if you can move it."

Baizhu had a dazed expression, his mouth half-open, stretched out his forepaws, gently pointed at the metal core, and stammered, "Banbu, you, you burned it…"

"Huh?" Banbu looked down. After absorbing the flames, the surface of the metal core had melted into a viscous liquid like ice cream, and the whole thing was rapidly melting away.