Astral Cockroach

Familiar pattering of light rain.

It was evening, and the temperature was slightly chilly.

Spotted Orb had experienced this season once last year: early autumn!

This time, after molting and growing, he had slept for about a month, transitioning directly from the alternating late summer and dry season to the rainy early autumn season.

At the entrance of the nest chamber, a green grass plant at least 300 tall swayed gently in the wind and rain, especially the pale purple flower spike at the top, which emitted a faint purple light in the dimness, extraordinarily bright and eye-catching.

Xun Grass life seed!

It not only survived the drought but also grew to an unimaginable height and had already flowered.

Spotted Orb looked again, feeling more amazed than surprised.

Previously, due to the drought and locust plague, the Xun Grass fields seemed to be destroyed, but after a month, they not only survived but also grew vigorously, with many of them even flowering.

Xun Grass is a grass species with super tenacious vitality!

A miracle of life!

Spotted Orb was amazed by it.

While lost in thought, a gentle force of nature, as if venting, surged into Spotted Orb's body, causing him discomfort for a while.

The Xun Grass life seed had accumulated too much natural force and needed to release it, so it was roughly transferred to Spotted Orb.

Spotted Orb's current ability to absorb and digest is limited. His carapace glowed with a pale purple light. After this force entered his body, only a small portion was absorbed by his cells, and most of it dissipated back into nature.

"Currently, my rate of autonomously absorbing natural force is just enough to sustain my own growth. As expected, to advance to L4, I will need the assistance of a life seed."

"In late autumn, I can still harvest a batch of Xun Grass seeds, and also, on the mountain range…"

On the mountain range, there was also the legacy of the red cockroach tribe warrior: more than a dozen saplings of arbors, and a raspberry plant that had already begun to bear fruit.

A year of harvest, just thinking about it made him a little excited.

In the future, when he was strong enough, he could return to the mountain range and rightfully claim those life seeds as his own. The life seeds nurtured by other warriors could not assist in absorbing natural force, but they could harvest a batch of natural force fruits every year, which would be a considerable income.

Rainy weather was very suitable for going out because at this time, all kinds of insects were hiding, and threatening predators were also lurking, making it relatively safe.

Spotted Orb considered it for a few seconds and then dismissed the idea of going to check on the situation.

The journey was long, and running back and forth was a waste of time and energy for no reason.

He estimated that the raspberry fruits would not begin to ripen until a month later, so it would not be too late to go up the mountain to harvest them then.

The leaden clouds were thick, and the rain was getting heavier and heavier. Based on experience, it would last for a day or two before stopping, so he simply returned to the nest chamber to continue eating dried meat and recuperate.

He could now nurture a third life seed. White Jade Mulberry and Sunlight Fruit... After careful consideration, Spotted Orb decided to prioritize the Sunlight Fruit.

…

After the rain cleared, the big-headed harvester ants were busy moving the damp seeds out to dry in the sun.

Spotted Orb habitually checked their inventory, and although he didn't find any God-given seeds, he wasn't disappointed. He couldn't expect good luck to always be with him.

The number of Swordhorn Grasshoppers in the Xun Grass fields had become scarce, and hunting had become an urgent problem.

Searching through the grass on both sides of the stream, he unknowingly came to the mulberry forest, where the rice-white oval silkworm cocoons hanging on the mulberry trees caught Spotted Orb's attention.

Cutting open a cocoon revealed a fresh, plump silkworm pupa, sleeping and waiting to emerge as a moth.

When picking mulberries in the summer, he had noticed grayish-white silkworms active on the trees. Later, during the drought, the mulberry leaves turned yellow, and they were also shriveled and on the verge of death, but he didn't expect them to survive.

It's good that they survived!

Free food.

Spotted Orb began to work, cutting open the cocoons, killing the silkworm pupae inside, moving them back, drying them in the sun, and storing them.

Many insects lay their eggs in the late autumn season and then quickly age and die. The insect eggs sleep through the cold winter and hatch in the spring of the following year, thus propagating from generation to generation.

This meant that there would be nowhere to hunt insects in winter.

Spotted Orb didn't want to go hungry in the winter, so he had to stockpile food for the winter in advance.

The growth of natural force creatures requires a lot of food. Silkworm cocoons could not meet the demand, and the number of Swordhorn Grasshoppers was insufficient. Spotted Orb expanded his hunting range, adding two new regular hunting targets.

Crickets, similar to Swordhorn Grasshoppers, have a pair of developed hind legs with extremely strong jumping ability, which are a delicacy. They are the most common small insects in the jungle. They are numerous, but their bodies are small, and they often travel alone or in twos and threes to forage. They are very alert and must be ambushed to be successful, which is difficult.

Another type is called the Marsh Frog, which is brown and has tree trunk-like brown patterns. They are amphibians and like to be active and hunt in the forests on both sides of streams at night. Spotted Orb aimed at the juvenile Marsh Frogs that had just hatched in the summer, with a body length of only about 30. They are less vigilant and easy to hunt, but the disadvantage is that their numbers are small.

Spotted Orb also discovered a large number of adult insects called "Yellow-spotted Longhorn Beetles" laying eggs. They lay their eggs under the bark of tree trunks, only one egg per location. A female longhorn beetle can lay more than a hundred eggs continuously.

Longhorn beetles are a scourge of the jungle. Their eggs will hatch in late autumn, and the larvae will burrow into the tree trunks, gnawing on the wood, and develop secretly in the cold winter, growing to a certain size by spring.

The plump and juicy longhorn beetle nymphs are nutritious and delicious.

Spotted Orb paid attention to the egg-laying patterns of the adult longhorn beetles, planning to go and harvest them before next spring.

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…

He didn't spend much time hunting every day, and most of the time he was idly lying at the entrance of the nest chamber, guarding the Xun Grass life seed, digesting food, absorbing cosmic natural force, and feeling his own growth.

Spotted Orb was still not used to the passive growth and evolution that was not controlled by his own will. He searched his whole body, and the cockroach body really had no meridians.

After racking his brains for a long time, Spotted Orb finally realized one day: he had been entangled in the lack of meridians, but ignored the essential meaning of the existence of meridians.

Human meridians are used to store and guide cosmic natural force, follow one's own will to transform the body, efficiently use natural force, and promote gene evolution in the ideal direction.

The cockroach's blood can perfectly accommodate and release cosmic natural force, which in essence has the same storage and guidance capabilities as meridians. The difference is that the cockroach's blood automatically flows throughout the body uncontrollably, and the natural force it carries is released naturally uncontrollably.

Spotted Orb's thinking changed, and a door opened before his eyes: controlling blood flow is equivalent to meridian cultivation?

Humans certainly cannot control their blood flow, but cockroaches are not necessarily the same.

Humans only have one heart, while cockroaches have three large hearts in their chest and abdomen, and many small hearts are distributed in the body's blood vessels, especially at the key nodes.

The large and small hearts work together to pump blood.

The numerous hearts also have another wonderful purpose, which is to cut off the flow. For example, if a leg is broken, the heart near the leg segment will immediately stop beating and close the gate, so cockroaches only spill a small amount of blood after being injured.

Spotted Orb also discovered a wonderful thing, that is, every time he molts and evolves, his body grows, but the size of the heart hardly changes. In order to maintain blood flow, more hearts will grow in the body's blood vessels.

This is Spotted Orb's discovery of his own changes. The soul mutation induces physical mutation, and it is not yet certain whether the physical changes of other cockroaches are the same.

Spotted Orb's idea is very simple: there are countless large and small blood vessels in the body, which seem to be intricate and complex, but in fact have great regularity. If he can control the beating and stopping of all the hearts, he can guide the blood to flow in the body, which is indirectly equivalent to guiding the natural force to circulate and cultivate in the body.

It is very difficult to implement. Whether the heart beats or not is regulated according to the body's condition and hormone stimulation, and is not manipulated by will.

Spotted Orb has had a lifetime of cultivation experience and mastered a large amount of high-end technology knowledge and advanced cultivation secrets. After figuring out the key, he immediately thought of a solution, or rather, found the method of cultivation.

Every movement of the large and small muscles will affect the muscles. Muscle movement consumes physical energy and nutrients, and will stimulate certain hearts to accelerate movement and timely transport the blood full of energy, nutrients, and oxygen, and carry away the waste discharged by the cells.

If the movement is too intense, the hearts associated with other non-moving parts will slow down or simply stop beating, in order to ensure that the moving parts get sufficient replenishment in time.

After finding the right direction, the next step is a huge exploration project: racking his brains to make all kinds of movements while feeling the changes in his own heartbeat rhythm.