Astral Cockroach

Red bamboo, like purple bamboo, is a rare species.

Some bamboos flower and produce seeds, while others bear fruit. Red bamboo bears fruit, known as "Red Bamboo Fruit," similar in size to Sunlight Fruit, with a shape somewhat like a peach and a faint inherent ability to enhance flames, making it suitable for warriors of the Red Ant Tribe.

The drawback is also fatal: it has a long lifespan, taking a hundred years to flower and bear fruit, which means that nurturing it into a life seed makes harvesting the fruit almost impossible. Taking this bamboo species back requires a difficult process of cultivation and selection.

… …

Bishi Ridge was riddled with mines and mine shafts. Reasonable exploration and mining resulted in the ore being completely extracted, but the mountain's structure was not fatally damaged and still stands after thousands of years of weathering.

Li Zhu settled with Banbu and Hei Sang in an exploration mine on the mountain peak.

After eating and drinking their fill, they assigned tasks.

Because it was drizzling outside and there was a cold wind, Hei Sang continued to stay in the mine, responsible for guarding the three snakeskin bags.

Li Zhu and Banbu went down the mountain to search.

They started from the inside of the "Y"-shaped intersection, walking along the bottom of the mountain, each responsible for one side.

According to the warriors of Yangti Mountain, they vaguely remembered flying past as a child and seeing a small patch of red bamboo forest at the foot of the mountain, but it was so long ago that they couldn't even remember the approximate location.

Having seen it with their own eyes meant it definitely existed; the only problem was that the mountain range was too large to find it.

After four consecutive days of hard work and running around, they had achieved nothing and were about to complete the inner search of the two "Y"-shaped intersecting mountain ranges, with the outer side next.

Banbu and Li Zhu's high spirits cooled down, and they were both in a bad mood.

Late at night.

The dark mine.

After eating a few bamboo rats and resting briefly to recover, Banbu and Li Zhu each took out Primordial Force food and began to eat.

Hei Sang's eyes wandered back and forth between Banbu and Li Zhu, finally settling on Banbu, and asked pitifully: "Banbu, can you give me a few cypress seeds?"

"Huh?" Banbu looked up and noticed that Hei Sang's snakeskin bag was missing, and asked, "Where are yours?"

Li Zhu also found it strange and asked, "Hei Sang, where's your Primordial Force food?"

Hei Sang said, "I finished it."

Lacking confidence, he was obviously lying!

Li Zhu said, "When we left, Mountain Lord Tiedao prepared a large bag of Primordial Force food for you; it's impossible to finish it so quickly."

Something was fishy!

Banbu stopped moving and watched Hei Sang with interest. For some reason, Banbu felt secretly happy watching this guy suffer.

"That, I..." Hei Sang stammered, unable to speak.

Li Zhu asked, "You wouldn't be playing around and lost it, would you?"

Hei Sang's antennae stood up, and then he nodded vigorously, saying affirmatively, "That's right, I was careless and lost it."

Li Zhu asked, "Where did you lose it?"

Hei Sang thought for a while and said, "Today I went up the mountain to play, and when I came back, I found that my snakeskin bag... was gone..."

After Hei Sang finished speaking, he lowered his head, his antennae shaking restlessly, and the tips of his left forelegs tapped the ground lightly, feeling uneasy.

Lying! Still lying!

Banbu was puzzled.

It wasn't lost, and it wasn't finished, so where did so many Primordial Force fruits go?

His mental power spread out, probing deep into the mine.

This mine originally led to the mountainside, but due to the passage of time, the front was blocked by collapsed rubble.

A sweep of his divine sense made it clear that there was nothing hidden... …

"Eh?"

Banbu suddenly exclaimed in surprise, observing Hei Sang's reaction.

He saw Hei Sang's two antennae, which had been uneasy, suddenly stand upright, extremely tense.

"Hehe!"

Banbu sneered and once again used his mental power to search the mine more carefully.

He really found something abnormal.

There were fresh chisel marks on the rocks on the ground deep in the mine, and probing deeper, he faintly felt a wave of Primordial Force.

His keen spiritual sense immediately judged that it was the Primordial Force wave emitted by raw ore!

Banbu didn't say much, quickly climbing towards the depths of the mine.

"Banbu! Stop!"

"Zhi zhi!"

Hei Sang cried anxiously, his wings vibrating, making an angry hiss as he rushed towards Banbu.

Li Zhu raised his foreleg and pressed down on Hei Sang's head, asking, "Hei Sang, what bad things have you been secretly doing?"

The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥ ⊥ book ⊥ ⊥ bar ⊥ ⊥ first ⊥ hair!

"Let go of me! You're the bad one!" Hei Sang was furious, watching helplessly as Banbu dug away the rubble and pulled out a snakeskin bag, roaring, "Banbu is the worst! I hate you!"

Banbu ignored him, curiously opening the bag and exclaiming in surprise, "Damn! Hei Sang, where did you get this?!"

Banbu took out a crystal clear emerald green raw ore from the bag.

The raw ore was irregularly shaped, large enough in volume, and judging by its weight, it could probably be cut into 50 standard-sized raw stones.

Banbu's divine sense swept through the bag, and there were still 5 more pieces of similar size. Calculating them, that would be about 300 raw stones, a windfall!

Li Zhu watched in a daze, releasing the foreleg pressing down on Hei Sang.

Hei Sang rushed in front of Banbu in a puff of smoke, snatched the things, put the raw stones back into the snakeskin bag, and reburied them underground.

Banbu asked, "Hei Sang, these are raw stones, where did they come from?"

"I won't tell you!" Hei Sang roared angrily, "Banbu, you're the worst! I hate you!"

Banbu didn't care whether he hated or liked him, his eyes only fixed on the emerald green raw stones.

What did Li Zhu say yesterday?

A long time ago, Bishi Ridge was rich in raw stones!

Could it be that there were still some that hadn't been completely mined?

Or, over the long years, new mineral veins had formed?

He was going to get rich!

Damn, Hei Sang was so dark-hearted, could he be thinking of keeping it all to himself?

That's not right. If he had really discovered a mineral vein, he wouldn't have only dug up these 6 pieces.

Still not right, judging by the shape, they should have been cut from a large piece of ore.

It was likely that this little guy had discovered a huge piece of ore. He had just discovered it in the afternoon, and there wasn't enough time, so he only managed to dig up this much.

He was sneaking around, definitely thinking of continuing to dig tomorrow.

But, where did the Primordial Force food go?

He wouldn't have thrown it away, would he?

Why would he throw it away?

This little thing isn't stupid!

… …

Banbu's mind raced, various guesses flashing through his mind. For a moment, he couldn't figure it out, so he tried to make his mental power gentle and friendly, and continued to ask, "Hei Sang, where did the raw stones come from?"

"Banbu is bad! I won't tell you!" Hei Sang turned his head, ignoring Banbu.

Li Zhu also felt his heart burning with excitement, and took out the majesty of an elder, asking seriously, "Hei Sang, tell me quickly, where did the raw stones come from?"

Hei Sang roared, "Li Zhu, you're bad too! After we go back, I'm going to tell Mountain Lord Tiedao that you and Banbu are ganging up to bully me."

Li Zhu was really a little afraid of Hei Sang complaining, hesitated for two seconds, then lay down again, taking out Primordial Force food and slowly swallowing it.

Seeing this, Banbu also returned to his position, peeled open a cypress seed, swallowed the seeds inside, and deliberately smacked his lips, making a sound.

"Bad!"

Hei Sang simply faced the stone wall, ignoring Banbu and Li Zhu.

PS: I'll add another update today. The only manuscript I had is gone. I've been a bit busy these past few days, and the manuscripts are all coded late at night. If I can't handle it, I'll consider slowing down the update speed to ensure quality.