Astral Cockroach

The lychee stink bug possesses the ability to fly and has a strong reproductive capacity. It prefers to live in clusters on camphor trees, sucking the sweet sap from tender leaves. Its alertness is relatively low, especially towards slow-moving insects, against which it hardly defends itself, making it easy to approach and successfully ambush.

In one afternoon, Banbu hunted nearly a hundred lychee stink bugs in one go.

After tasting them, it discovered that the lychee stink bug's shell was thin and brittle, and the meat was tender and fragrant, making it a decent delicacy. It's just that they are too small and the flavor is very light. Of course, quantity can make up for the lack of size, making them an excellent food choice.

Banbu changed its strategy, spending time dissecting the corpses, extracting the odorous scent glands, crushing them with small stones, and then arranging the stones near the nest. The lychee stink bug corpses were used as food, and those that couldn't be finished were dried and stored.

Banbu covered the black boulder and the Xun grass field with stones tainted with the lychee stink bug's odor. The deadly smell spread wantonly through the air.

The next day at dawn, the Crimson Serpent's silhouette appeared in the distance, crawling back and forth in search of a breakthrough, only to be choked by the stench. Finally, it coiled up under a Chinese Pistache tree in the distance, head drooping, mouth tightly shut, looking listless.

A snake's tongue is its most important sensory organ and is particularly sensitive to smells. The Crimson Serpent couldn't stand the smell. Out of instinct, it was unwilling to give up the Xun grass's seed of life, which was about to mature.

Banbu was relentless. That day, it produced another large batch of stones tainted with the lychee stink bug's odor, using the Xun grass's seed of life as the center, and continued to expand the defensive perimeter.

Snakes are all nearsighted. The Crimson Serpent was forced to a range where it couldn't see the Xun grass's seed of life. For the first few days, it was still unwilling to give up, wandering around, searching for a breakthrough, trying to get closer. After several fruitless days, it finally gave up.

The lychee stink bug's stench only lasts for about two days. To maintain the "defensive circle," Banbu had to spend half of its time every day busy hunting, dissecting, producing, and arranging.

The exploration and research work on the cockroach's cultivation methods was thus delayed.

The first nest chamber was filled after carving 9 pictures on the ceiling. Banbu continued to open up a second research nest chamber deeper inside. The black stone on the ceiling was smoothed, and detailed illustrations of the six limbs and wing bases were carved separately.

The six legs and four wing veins are the most flexible, most frequently moving parts, and the most useful and easiest parts to explore and deduce.

One movement affects the whole body. Cultivation begins with the legs, feet, and wing veins, starting from the shallow and moving towards the deep.

While repeatedly performing the movements, trying to sense, and recording, the second nest chamber was quickly filled, with a full 53 pictures, each with a concise text description, named "Basic Movement Atlas."

Then, it opened up the third nest chamber…

With something to do, it was busy every day. Even living alone, a bug didn't feel lonely, and time passed unnoticed in the busyness.

The state of evolution appeared again, and this time it came very quickly. It couldn't hold on for two days and fell into a deep sleep.

…

"Strong flying birds and walking beasts have a high probability of evolving into warriors after swallowing Primal Energy Fruits. They often possess more powerful combat power than insect warriors."

"If beast warriors are discovered within the territory, they must be annihilated at the first opportunity, otherwise it will brew into a serious disaster."

"During the season when the seeds of life mature, flying birds and walking beasts may be attracted to snatch them. Do not be soft-hearted, and even more so, do not be afraid to fight. Kill them at the first opportunity after they are discovered, otherwise they will snatch your fruit and become a scourge that threatens the tribal rule."

…

During the deep sleep, various inherited memories awakened.

Knowledge engraved in the genes is triggered during evolutionary transformation, intermittently, chaotically, and vaguely.

This time when it woke up, its condition was better than any previous time. There was no obvious weakness. After eating and replenishing, it quickly became energetic.

It put away the 3rd Sunlight Fruit seed of life, swallowed a mulberry seed as the 4th seed of life, and began to nurture it.

It went out to check. It was morning, and the Crimson Serpent, still not giving up, coiled at the entrance of the cave, blocking the exit, peering cautiously. The grass seeds of the Xun grass's seed of life were still light purple, not yet mature. Judging from the grass seed's swelling and the Crimson Serpent's body growth, this evolutionary sleep was very short, probably only four or five days.

Appropriate strenuous exercise can eliminate aging and damaged muscle cells and promote the division and proliferation of somatic cells. Appropriate exercise can also train and strengthen newborn cells. The various movements when studying the cultivation methods played a certain role in exercising the body, so the fourth evolution was much smoother than before.

Banbu retreated into the nest chamber and waited patiently.

At noon, the Crimson Serpent meandered away.

Banbu went out, hunted lychee stink bugs on a large scale, dissected the corpses, and used their scent glands to remake and arrange the defensive circle. It was busy all afternoon and all night, directly restoring the defensive circle to the scale it was before the evolutionary sleep.

…

Advancing to L4 Elementary Warrior, body length 26. With sufficient food, the rate at which the shell absorbs Primal Energy is already somewhat unable to keep up with the growth demand. The efficiency of the Xun grass's seed of life in absorbing Primal Energy is actually not high. After being used for its own growth, there is not much surplus Primal Energy, only enough to barely meet Banbu's growth needs.

There is also a defect, which is that it must lie within the range of the seed of life's root distribution to absorb its Primal Energy, and the leaf veins have a very limited capacity for Primal Energy, so it must absorb it every once in a while, otherwise it will overflow and be wasted.

Banbu's eating habits changed accordingly. It ate 5 times a day, resting under the Xun grass's seed of life for a period of time after each meal.

…

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The third research nest chamber depicts internal organ patterns.

The "rest" after eating was actually not idle. By controlling the opening and closing of different spiracles to control breathing, bulging the abdomen, and performing various special movements, it observed and studied the reactions of the internal organs, and then recorded them in the form of pictures and texts after thorough research.

The structure of the internal organs is much more complicated than that of muscles, and it is difficult to move, making research difficult and slow to progress.

The color of the Xun grass's seed of life became deeper day by day, and the halo emitted at night changed from light purple to purplish-black.

This is a sign that the seed is about to mature. The Crimson Serpent clearly could judge the imminent state of the grass seed and became restless day by day, even neglecting hunting, and running around nearby from time to time, ready to make a move.

When the Xun grass seed matures, the lychee stink bug's foul odor barrier will fail, and it will definitely run up to snatch it at all costs.

Banbu was troubled by this. The awakening of the inherited memory always came after the fact. If it had known there would be such a calamity, it wouldn't have hurriedly sown the Xun grass seed of life.

The seed is about to mature, and regret is useless, so let's think about how to solve the trouble.

Banbu came up with three methods, none of which were very appropriate:

The first method is to harvest it in advance while the grass seed is not fully mature. This is the safest loss-limiting solution it can think of at the moment. A not fully mature Primal Energy Fruit has efficacy, but it is a notch below a fully mature one.

The second method: wait for the Xun grass seed to mature and watch helplessly as the Crimson Serpent swallows it. The immature Crimson Serpent will most likely die violently after swallowing the Primal Energy Fruit, and there is a small probability that it will fall into a deep sleep and evolve into a Primal Energy creature. In short, Banbu can kill this hateful big snake and eliminate future troubles forever.

The third method: Banbu bravely stands up and fights the Crimson Serpent. Now an L4 Elementary Warrior, although small in size, its comprehensive qualities such as strength, speed, and shell hardness far exceed ordinary creatures, especially since the recent training has been effective, and it is not completely without a chance of winning.

Banbu was born into a large family and received some training in war command. It doesn't fight battles where the known win rate is less than 50%, so the third method was first rejected.

After struggling back and forth between the first and second methods for several days, it finally decided to adopt the second method.

There is more than one seed of life, so there is no need to rush. If this year's harvest is destroyed, there will be more seeds of life to sow next year. If it is managed well, the income will increase year by year. The Crimson Serpent is constantly growing stronger, so it must be eliminated early to live in peace in the future.