Astral Cockroach

After being promoted to County Lord and waking from slumber, Banbu received some less-than-good news: the young warrior born this year in the Light Bamboo territory of Fire Bamboo Mountain actually preferred peach trees, contrary to everyone's expectations of bamboo.

There was no choice but to send it to another mountain peak to survive.

The young warrior was named "Bitao" (Green Peach).

Northwest of Qinggang Mountain, about 5 kilometers away, was a mountain peak of considerable size, named "Bitao Peak". Next spring, Bitao would move there to live, becoming a neighbor to Qinggang.

The peach tree was a very popular tree species, widely spread, and cultivated to varying degrees by many races.

County Lord Chijian planted many peach trees, and every year, many young warriors who liked peach trees were born. Banbu specifically instructed the Chilian Ant Queen to select two young warriors who liked peach trees to send over.

Banbu was also very optimistic about the development potential of peach trees, and made a special trip to communicate with the Fire Peach Ant Queen. Using a Sacred Bamboo fruit, he exchanged five original peach tree species – Bitao, Maotao (Hairy Peach), Shoutao (Longevity Peach), Qingtao (Clear Peach), and Qianban Huatao (Thousand-Petaled Flower Peach) – as well as 20 derivative species cultivated in Changsheng County that were not particularly outstanding.

If there were enough young warriors who liked peach trees in the future, he could open up a small-scale peach tree forest for them.

If luck was on his side and he cultivated a top-tier peach tree species similar to Changsheng Longevity Peach, Blood Peach, or Fire Peach, he could use it as a foundation to open up a formal peach tree forest.

Including Guanli Peak, Xiangfei Peak, and Qinggang Peak, Banbu would also pay some appropriate price to exchange for a batch of high-quality tree species from other mature counties to help them open up a small-scale prototype tree forest.

… …

During the month-long recovery period after Banbu was promoted to County Lord, he wasn't idle while lying on the mountain. He was constantly thinking about the future development of the Jinping Mountain Range.

The bamboo forest under Lizhu Peak now had three iconic bamboo species: Giant Dragon No. 0, Giant Dragon No. 3, and Sacred Bamboo. The foundation of the bamboo forest had already been laid, and the next step was to expand the scale of the bamboo forest step by step.

At the same time, there was another problem: he had only moved to Lizhu Peak for a short time, and there weren't enough warriors who liked bamboo and could manage the bamboo together. Therefore, the expansion of the bamboo forest's scale wasn't so urgent.

The bamboo forest was designed as small bamboo groves of 300 meters x 300 meters, with small ponds of 30 meters x 30 meters in the middle. The next development would be to open up 3 small bamboo groves each year.

Daxiong and the six bamboo rat warriors were constantly growing in strength, and their ability to reclaim wasteland increased accordingly. There was a surplus of labor, so Banbu thought of helping other mountain peaks establish a prototype tree forest.

This was to give the younger generation of warriors a space to freely develop.

Banbu was now accustomed to considering issues from the perspective of the race's long-term development.

The population of insects was steadily increasing, and the bamboo forest would eventually be completed.

Banbu wasn't satisfied with just one bamboo forest. He also wanted to build a pear tree forest and other tree forests, comprehensively and thoroughly imitating the development and management model of Chiwu Mountain.

Currently, the tree forest managed by Chiwu Mountain was one of the most successful paradigms on the Ten Thousand Race Continent. Copying it directly and making slight deletions and modifications based on one's own situation would be very practical.

Banbu considered a more long-term and crucial question: If he wasn't around to preside over it, what would become of the Jinping Mountain Range?

This was a question that would inevitably arise.

There were only three possible endings for Banbu:

First, he could suddenly die during a slumbering evolution. With Baba watching over him, the possibility was close to zero.

Second, after being promoted to L9 Ant King, he would be unable to break through the shackles of the genetic lock and would die of old age after a thousand years. In a thousand years, Banbu was confident that he could develop the Jinping Mountain Range to a level of prosperity similar to Chiwu Mountain.

Finally, he could be promoted to L9 Ant King, break through the limits of the genetic lock, break through the level of Origin Power life, and be promoted to the cosmic life level. At that time, he would definitely consider leaving this planet. Banbu was now very young and very wealthy, and the time he needed would be less than 500 years. This time wasn't long enough, and many things had to be arranged early.

Banbu hoped that if he was no longer around one day, the Jinping Mountain Range could continue to develop.

… …

Most warriors, after being promoted to County Lord, would give up on continuing to grow without high-quality God-given seeds. Even if they didn't grow, simply eating ordinary Origin Power food to maintain their current state would still cost as much as 8,000 Origin Stones per year.

The growth effect of Origin Power food condensed by ordinary life-seed plants on County Lord-level warriors became negligible. If they wanted to continue to grow, they had to use Origin Power food condensed by God-given seeds. Depending on their financial resources, they could be roughly divided into three grades.

The low-end grade cost about 100,000 Origin Stones per year. It would take about 20 years for an L1 County Lord to evolve to L3 County Lord, and about 50 years for an L4 to L6 County Lord. 100,000 Origin Stones couldn't sustain the growth of an L6 County Lord. Therefore, County Lords whose territory's annual income was less than 100,000 Origin Stones had no chance of being promoted to Ant King.

The mid-range grade cost about 100,000 to 200,000 Origin Stones per year, using less in the early stages and more in the later stages. There was hope of growing to L9 County Lord before entering old age. Without the assistance of Origin Power food condensed by "God-tier" God-given seeds, the probability of successfully being promoted to Ant King was very low.

As for the high-end grade, Banbu would definitely grow in this way. He had already eaten Ghost Mist Lotus, Fire Scale Pine Nuts, and Tata Fruit, and would soon eat Giant Dragon Bamboo Fruit, Snake Scale Fruit, and Bixue Longan. If he operated properly, he could also exchange for Yunshan Pine Nuts from the Saber Mantis tribe. With the strengthening blessing of more than six "God-tier" God-given seeds, first of all, the probability of successfully being promoted to Ant King in the future would be very high.

As for the annual cost of Origin Stones during the growth period, Banbu was different from others. The First Heart had fused with the metal core of the Dominator Realm, and the Second Heart position had fused with the Heart of Origin. Continuing to light up and activate their supernatural power patterns and using them to transform his physique meant that, barring accidents, he could maintain a super-fast growth rate without consuming a large amount of high-quality Origin Power food.

Banbu lay on Lizhu Peak for a month, thinking about it, and decided to act on the supernatural power patterns in the Second Heart position.

There was no need to rush for the time being.

One promotion had almost exhausted Lizhu Peak's Origin Stone reserves.

Moreover, because ordinary life-seed plants and 8 God-given seeds were also molting and growing, they were resting from flowering and fruiting this year, resulting in zero income. Next year, he might have to purchase Origin Power food on credit from the merchant teams.

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After a year or two, when his life-seed plants resumed production, he would basically be able to maintain the balance of payments for the entire Jinping Mountain Range and Jinping Mountain Range.

The fourth batch of Sacred Bamboo fruit would be produced and sold, and 4 million Origin Stones would be credited, and Lizhu Peak would become wealthy again.

Without other expenses in the short term, he could consider taking out some to light up and activate the supernatural power patterns in the Second Heart position.

… …

This year, the God-given seeds in Banbu's territory were resting from flowering and fruiting. After the dry season, Datou began to have some leisure time.

In early August, Mountain Lord Tiedao fell into slumber and was successfully promoted to L9 Mountain Lord (BUGG, modified in previous chapters), planning to be promoted to County Lord within 8 to 10 years. Baba helped check Mountain Lord Tiedao's condition, and it had always been good. If he proceeded steadily, he should be able to succeed.

The Blood Thorn God-given seed had zero output, and the autumn harvest celebration dinner was cancelled.

The expansion of the bamboo forest was completed in the autumn. In winter, the members of the mountain all entered the jungle to search for God-given seeds.

In the late winter season, the ground grass of the Zijing God-given seed began to wither, followed by the bamboo-type God-given seeds. The nutrients accumulated in the bamboo poles were completely transferred to the underground stems, the bamboo leaves turned yellow and withered, and from top to bottom, the bamboo branches and bamboo poles began to wither.

In the coming spring, the Zijing God-given seed would be the first to sprout again.

After cutting down the dead old bamboo poles, various bamboo species successively sprouted new shoots.

The number of leaves on the new grass plants of the Zijing God-given seed became 18, thicker and larger, taller, and stronger, growing a bit like sorghum, and the stems also showed signs of lignification. Obviously, it would be able to condense a greater number of bamboo rice this year, and the quality would be slightly improved.

The bamboo species were also the same, accumulating a year's worth of power and exploding completely in the spring, with new bamboo shoots rapidly growing into taller bamboo poles.

The change in the Giant Dragon Bamboo God-given seed was the most significant. The new main pole was the same height as the 584 branches of bamboo poles, all over 120 meters high, all the bamboo poles were neatly arranged, octagonal in distribution, covering an area of 640,000 square meters, with lush branches and leaves, covering the sky and the sun, forming a dense bamboo forest, magnificent and spectacular.

Not only were Zijing and various bamboo-type God-given seeds changing, but the Fire Oil Tea and Blood Thorn God-given seeds were also sprouting and branching after the spring, growing rapidly, and the less than 1 million Origin Stones left on Lizhu Peak were consumed by seven or eight tenths.

Almost as planned, this year, the purchase of Origin Power food could only be done on credit from the merchant teams.

The wealth of Lizhu Peak had long been known among the merchant teams, and the news of Banbu's promotion to County Lord had also begun to spread. This spring, more than a dozen merchant teams, large and small, made a special detour to come. Unfortunately, they were destined to be disappointed, as the output of God-given seeds had long been divided up by the Zhonglou, Yuzhu, Xianghun, and Zijing merchant teams. Lizhu Peak had few Chilian ant warriors, and there were also 10 beast warriors. The output of ordinary life-seed plants was barely enough to maintain self-sufficiency and there was no surplus to sell.