Astral Cockroach

The second batch of Saint Bamboo fruits: a fixed 4 portions for the trade caravan, and another 4 portions sold by Banbu within the Fire Ant Kingdom. One portion for the Flying Fire Ant Tribe, the principal tribe, one portion for the neighboring Emerald Ant Tribe, and two portions sold internally within the Red Ant Tribe.

One portion of 72 fruits was left at Lizhu Peak for everyone to share. Ten fruits were specially taken out as a gift for the Flower Cypress Mountain Master. The Flower Cypress Mountain Master was getting on in years, and Banbu was truly worried that it might die during its promotion to County Master.

Three years later, the next batch of Saint Bamboo fruits would be produced and sold externally, alternating between internal and external sales.

… …

Winter of Banbu's 30th year: the mountain reservoir was completed as scheduled.

The planned trade route and plank road had been completed early last year.

With cheap labor, the construction cost was extremely low, and more than 200,000 of the budgeted 1 million original stones remained.

Due to the large number of outsiders during the construction period, Banbu slightly slowed down its growth rate, timing it so that it could immediately enter hibernation upon completion of the project.

This time, the interval between evolutions was long enough, and it had been eating and drinking well at Lizhu Peak. According to Baba's calculations, the probability of failure was less than 0.1%, its condition was excellent, and the evolution was relatively smooth.

L9 Mountain Master, only the last step away from County Master.

The Dragon Bamboo God-Given Seed had completed its gestation and was scheduled to be sown in early February when the weather had completely warmed up.

The Dragon No. 0 gestated a life seed, with the largest bamboo pole exceeding 60 centimeters in diameter and a height generally exceeding 70 meters. Baba calculated that the diameter of the bamboo pole of the Dragon Bamboo God-Given Seed would reach 1 meter, and the height would exceed 100 meters.

The Dragon Bamboo God-Given Seed also consisted of 584 bamboo poles. What a magnificent sight it would be to form a bamboo forest like that?

Just thinking about it made him uncomfortable.

Lizhu Peak was a bit too small to accommodate this thing.

In addition, due to climatic reasons, both Dragon Bamboo and Giant Dragon Bamboo preferred sunshine and heat, and were not cold-resistant, making them unsuitable for planting on the mountain.

After comprehensive consideration, Banbu decided to open up an open space of 800 meters × 800 meters on the south side of Lizhu Peak.

He began to act in early spring. Banbu personally went to the ground, and Baba supervised the work next to him, digging out all the soil to a depth of 1 meter, mixing in an appropriate amount of swamp residue, ordinary wood chips, a small amount of plant ash, and powder ground from the remains of boundary trees, and then backfilling the soil.

The average daily temperature exceeded 18 degrees Celsius.

Banbu dug a small pit in the center of the open space and sowed the Dragon Bamboo God-Given Seed.

As soon as the seed entered the soil, it seemed to wake up from its slumber, greedily absorbing moisture and sprouting roots and shoots.

It was sown in the morning and broke ground at noon, with emerald green shoots, absorbing sunlight and natural original power, and entering a rapid growth mode.

The underground roots expanded and transformed into bamboo clumps.

The bamboo shoots also grew vigorously, rising and thickening at a noticeable rate.

Through the connection between souls, Banbu quickly felt that the natural original power at the foot of the mountain was not enough to support the growth of the Dragon Bamboo God-Given Seed.

"Big Head, replenish original power!"

"Okay." Big Head waved its antennae, and immediately, the ant colony moved large pieces of original stone forward, ground them into powder, and sprinkled them around.

The original power overflowing from the original stone powder was directly absorbed.

Its ability to absorb and release original power was even more exaggerated than that of the Blood Bramble.

Correspondingly, the bamboo shoots and underground stems developed more rapidly.

The soil was a little dry, and the soil fertility dropped sharply.

Banbu personally used its claws to carefully avoid the underground stems of the plant and dug three earthen pits.

"Big Head, swamp water and swamp residue!"

"Okay."

Big Head waved its antennae, and a large number of worker ants sent buckets of swamp residue forward, poured them into the pits, backfilled the soil, and then transported buckets of swamp water and poured it on.

By evening, the bamboo shoots had grown to 10 centimeters thick and more than one meter high. It stopped growing, but it was still absorbing original power.

Banbu felt that this was far from enough. The Dragon seemed to be growing fiercely, but in fact, it was much slower than other bamboo-type God-Given Seeds.

The next day, the bamboo shoots suddenly sprang to a height of 3 meters and a diameter of more than 20 centimeters.

The day after that, the bamboo shoots were more than 4 meters high and more than 30 centimeters in diameter… On the tenth day, the bamboo shoot shells changed from emerald green to gray and began to peel off, revealing emerald jade bamboo poles.

A whole spider silk bag, 10,000 original stones, was exhausted just like that.

Then came the branching and leafing, and the rate of photosynthesis and absorption of original power increased greatly.

The main pole of the bamboo was where the tree spirit resided, and the demand for nutrients and original power was the greatest during growth. It was fine to consume a large amount of swamp residue and swamp water every day, but it also needed to invest at least 2,000 original stones.

On the 20th day after the seeds were sown, the first bamboo pole was finally completely grown, a single pole standing proudly, about 35 centimeters in diameter and about 40 meters high.

The corresponding bamboo clump finally grew, and the Dragon Tree Spirit's consciousness awakened.

Its mood was not very good. The Dragon Tree Spirit hated the ant colony busy around it.

Banbu quickly ordered Big Head to withdraw the ant colony. From the experience of gestating the previous seven God-Given Seeds, it was best to indulge the tree spirit at the beginning of its birth. No matter what its innate temperament was, the relationship would definitely not be bad in the future.

If he went against it from the beginning, like the tree spirit of the Purple Gold God-Given Seed, which had always been against Banbu, it had now grown into an old rogue fly proficient in all kinds of scolding, impervious to reason and coercion, and could not be persuaded no matter what.

With the ant colony withdrawn, the tree spirit's mood improved.

Banbu picked up a piece of original stone, shaved off powder, and sprinkled it around.

The tree spirit sent a kind thought, it now needed original power to grow.

Banbu tried to communicate with the tree spirit.

"My name is Banbu."

"Banbu."

"Your name is Dragon."

"Dragon."

"This is an original stone, it contains a lot of original power."

"Original stone. Original power."

… …

The Dragon Bamboo God-Given Seed had shown various extraordinary qualities when it was still in the seed state. Now that it had been gestated into a life seed, sown and grown into a plant, the awakened tree spirit was even more extraordinary.

Unlike the tree spirits of the other seven God-Given Seeds, the Dragon Tree Spirit was born with a strong soul, exhibiting memory ability no less than that of a newborn insect warrior and elementary thinking ability.

Banbu taught it to recognize various things, and it could remember them immediately after being taught once, and sometimes even understood how to draw inferences.

It quickly formed an independent consciousness and self-thinking ability.

Banbu told the Dragon Tree Spirit that the worker ants of the Big Head Ant Colony were helping it grow, and it immediately understood that these big-headed guys would not threaten its safety, and no longer rejected them.

Banbu also introduced Big Head to the Dragon Tree Spirit, telling it that it was the king of the ant colony, and all the worker ants were commanded by Big Head. The tree spirit immediately recognized Big Head and allowed Big Head to approach itself.

Banbu introduced the Dragon Tree Spirit to its territory, explained the Red Ant Tribe, introduced Lizhu Peak, introduced Jinping Mountain Range, and taught it some basic knowledge.

Soon, the Dragon Tree Spirit had a preliminary understanding of the world, and also recognized all the members of the Jinping Mountain Range, remembering each member. It did not have that kind of blind exclusionary nature, and could allow every member of the Jinping Mountain Range to approach its territory.

The Dragon Tree Spirit could be said to be a complete intelligent life. As the various common sense and knowledge it absorbed increased, its mind quickly matured.

Plant growth consumed a lot and was slow.

Sown in early February, and by mid-March, after consuming more than 100,000 original stones, the first bamboo clump finally accumulated enough nutrients, derived 8 underground stems, drew out 8 bamboo shoots, and generated 8 bamboo clumps.

From early April to early May, for a whole month, the 8 bamboo shoots completely grew into 8 bamboo poles.

The poles were about 1 meter thick and more than 100 meters high, centered on the main pole where the tree spirit was located, maintaining a distance of about 40 meters, standing in an octagonal position, neatly distributed in eight directions, with lush branches and leaves, guarding the main pole, which seemed somewhat "slender and short" in comparison.

Baba had also been observing next to Banbu, roughly estimating that continuing to derive underground stems and grow bamboo poles would require about 20,000 original stones per pole. It would take a year to accumulate, and next spring, it would be able to continue to derive underground stems. The natural original power outside Lizhu Peak was seriously insufficient, and on average, each bamboo pole would need to consume about 10,000 original stones to replenish original power.

Next year should be the derivation of 64 bamboo poles. Baba suggested slowing down a bit, investing 640,000 original stones each month, and continuing for 5 months should be about the same.

What made Banbu's heart ache was the growth the year after next.

The year after next was the derivation of 512 bamboo poles, which would require an investment of about 5 million original stones.

Lizhu Peak had just earned less than 7.5 million original stones from selling Saint Bamboo fruits. The accumulation had just increased a little, and after this expenditure, there would be basically no balance left.

A slightly better piece of news was that Baba's detection confirmed that the Dragon Bamboo God-Given Seed would bloom the year after the next.

The flowering period would last for 1 year, and the petals would assist in absorbing natural original power, gestating embryos, and requiring a small amount of investment in original stones to replenish original power.

After that, it would take a long 6 years for the fruits to completely mature, and the mature season would also require a large investment in original stones to replenish original power.

Then there would be a 3-year recuperation period.