Astral Cockroach

Bai Zhu led the way, with the five bamboo rat warriors, including Ma Zhu, following behind.

The mountains were high and steep, with many precipitous cliffs and dense jungles, making the path difficult.

They walked until dawn, and Ma Zhu was the first to become impatient, demanding, "How much further?"

Sensing their leader's displeasure, the four bamboo rat warriors, Shui Zhu, Hong Zhu, Zi Zhu, and Jin Zhu, immediately surrounded Bai Zhu, ready to attack.

Hei Sang shouted, "Ma Zhu, Shui Zhu, you're not allowed to bully Bai Zhu!"

Bai Zhu was scared and nervous, replying, "Very far."

Ma Zhu ignored Hei Sang and continued to ask, "Specifically, how far?"

Bai Zhu lowered his head, thought carefully, and said, "We have to cross many, many mountain peaks."

Ma Zhu was annoyed and waved his paw.

Without another word, the other four bamboo rat warriors immediately started fighting, butting Bai Zhu with their heads and pushing him towards a nearby hillside.

"You're not allowed to bully Bai Zhu!" Hei Sang shouted angrily, rushing forward and pulling the four bamboo rat warriors away.

Typical bullying within the group. Ban Bu was speechless, opened his snakeskin pouch, took out six Chinese arborvitae seeds, and distributed them, saying:

"How about this, Hei Sang, you take Ma Zhu and the others to learn about different kinds of bamboo, and look for Mandarin Duck Bamboo along the way. I'll go with Bai Zhu to look for Hong Zhu. It's almost dawn, let's meet at the mine entrance at dusk."

"Okay, Bai Zhu, you take Ban Bu to find Hong Zhu." Ma Zhu was already impatient and readily agreed, pointing in a direction with his paw and saying, "Hei Sang, the bamboo over there is delicious… There's a lot of bamboo over there, let's go to the bamboo forest to shelter from the wind and rain."

Time to play!

Hei Sang cheered, moving his antennae and saying, "Let's go, I'll teach you to recognize different kinds of bamboo."

…

Ban Bu and Bai Zhu walked in the mountains.

Without the pressure of the five large bamboo rat warriors, Bai Zhu seemed much more cheerful.

"Ban Bu, what kind of bamboo is this?"

"Koshi bamboo."

"What about that one over there?"

"Sword-leaf bamboo."

"What kind of bamboo is in the bamboo forest down the mountain?"

"The most numerous is Pi bamboo, followed by Moso bamboo, and a small amount of Huanggu bamboo and Square bamboo. The tall bamboo species growing by the river is Shui bamboo."

"What is the name of that particularly tall bamboo?"

"Oh, you must be talking about Ma bamboo, which is relatively rare."

"What does Bai Zhu look like? A white bamboo pole?"

"Green bamboo pole, green bamboo leaves, with white stripes on the bamboo leaves. It's very short and is the smallest known bamboo species."

Bai Zhu thought for a while and said, "I don't like the name Bai Zhu."

Ban Bu asked, "Why?"

Bai Zhu said, "In the future, there will be even smaller bamboo rat warriors than me. I will grow up, and then I won't be the smallest one anymore, and I won't be bullied anymore."

Ban Bu said, "Your fur is white, which matches the name Bai Zhu quite well."

Bai Zhu said, "No, the color of the fur will gradually darken, and it will darken a little after each hot summer. White, silver-white, silver-gray, pure gray, and finally pure black like you."

The fur color of Ma Zhu, the largest of the six bamboo rat warriors, is silver-gray. How do they know that they will turn black in the future?

Ban Bu's heart stirred, and he asked, "Bai Zhu, are there any black bamboo rat warriors in Bishi Ridge?"

Bai Zhu realized that he had said something wrong, and stammered in a panic, "No… no…"

This undoubtedly confirmed Ban Bu's guess: There are other bamboo rat warriors hidden in Bishi Ridge! They have existed for longer than Ma Zhu and are larger than Ma Zhu.

These guys are not just timid and cautious, they are cunning and dishonest!

If that's the case, then it means that there is a high probability that there are still high-quality raw stones that they are unwilling to take out for trading.

Thinking carefully, it's still not right. It's true that bamboo rat warriors are greedy, but if they are greedy, there is no reason to rather guard the raw stones and gnaw on stones than take them out in exchange for primal force food when they are sure it is safe and reliable.

They may have had many high-quality raw stones before, but they have all been eaten, and now they really don't have any.

As for the unknown number of large bamboo rat warriors, the difference in combat power between the races is there, so they don't dare to be enemies with the Red Cockroach Tribe warriors.

Why are they hiding and not coming out? Probably because they still don't dare to fully trust them. They sent a few small fries to explore the way. Slowly, when they are familiar with each other, they will be lured by enough primal force food, and they will take the initiative to come to the door.

Ban Bu didn't ask any more questions.

Bai Zhu didn't dare to continue talking.

One white and one black, one in front and one behind, they crossed mountain after mountain and finally came to a waterfall at the foot of a majestic mountain.

There was little rain in winter, and the waterfall was almost dry.

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Below the waterfall was a pool, and on both sides of the pool were flat bamboo forests.

Standing above the waterfall, Bai Zhu pointed with his paw and said, "Ban Bu, that's the bamboo you're looking for."

Without being reminded, Ban Bu had already seen it.

"Bai Zhu, wait here for a while, I'll go down and take a look."

Ban Bu instructed, flapped his wings, and flew down to the bottom of the waterfall.

The bamboo pole was indeed red, a deep crimson purple.

It was a very small bamboo forest, with most of the poles only 300 to 500 cm high, and only a very few well-grown bamboo poles reaching about 600 cm.

This was not the Hong Zhu that Ban Bu needed to find. Their exact name should be "Seven-Colored Red Bamboo."

Seven-Colored Red Bamboo is also a precious bamboo species, but it belongs to a clump-forming, low-growing bamboo species. With the added gimmick of "seven colors," the name sounds cool, but in fact, its cultivation value is far inferior to Hong Zhu.

The pole height of Hong Zhu can reach 1500 to 2000 cm. When it grows up, its scale is much larger than that of Seven-Colored Red Bamboo. Hong Zhu condenses fruits, while Seven-Colored Red Bamboo produces seeds. This is also a very key difference.

When choosing a life seed, you must consider the size of the plant after it grows and the type of fruit, because this is directly related to future primal force and primal force food income.

After checking around, Ban Bu didn't rush to dig it up, flapped his wings and returned to the top of the waterfall.

Bai Zhu asked, "Ban Bu, how is it? Am I right?"

Ban Bu replied, "It's not Hong Zhu. Its name is Seven-Colored Red Bamboo. The colors are a bit similar, but the other aspects are very different."

"Ah?!" Bai Zhu panicked. The primal force food had already been eaten, but the bamboo species found was wrong.

"Ban Bu, then… what should we do?"

"It's okay, Seven-Colored Red Bamboo is also a precious bamboo species, it's pretty good." Ban Bu pondered slightly and asked, "Bai Zhu, have you seen red bamboo anywhere else? The bamboo pole color is bright red, taller and larger than the Seven-Colored Red Bamboo below."

Bai Zhu thought for a while and said, "I haven't seen it."

Ban Bu asked, "Bai Zhu, you bamboo rats sleep during the day and are active at night, right?"

Bai Zhu replied, "That's right."

Ban Bu said, "Thank you for your hard work today, let's go back and rest first."

…

Returning to the collapsed mine entrance, Ban Bu followed Bai Zhu and searched for a long time, but failed to find Hei Sang and Ma Zhu's group.

He returned to the mine where he was resting alone.