Astral Cockroach

Big-headed harvester ants possess a certain degree of memory, thought, and discernment. They remember Banbu's appearance and its dwelling.

The act of robbing seeds immediately aroused public outrage, and a large number of soldier ants set out from the ant nest, heading mightily towards Banbu's nest chamber.

"You stingy fellow."

"I picked the fruit for you guys yesterday."

Banbu stood at the entrance, shaking its antennae to release threatening pheromones. Under the pressure of the unique aura of a Force creature, the big-headed harvester ant soldier ants who came to make trouble hesitated and dared not step forward.

The two sides were deadlocked for a moment, and the ant colony sounded the retreat.

"Only remembering grudges and not gratitude, they can't be considered intelligent life, not even low-level intelligence."

Banbu shook its antennae helplessly.

Of course, it couldn't possibly haggle over every detail with these little fellows who were only one-tenth its size.

Having been together for a long time, it quite admired the survival wisdom of ants: working tirelessly day and night, diligence; elderly members of the clan being responsible for dangerous reconnaissance and sentry duty, sacrifice; able to perfectly cooperate without a commander, completing tedious tasks through division of labor, unity…

They possess all kinds of excellent qualities advocated by human society.

… …

Survival in the jungle is not easy.

The ripening grass seeds of the Xun grass field attracted a group of birds. Birds are the real robbers. They unscrupulously plunder the fruits of the big-headed harvester ants' diligent cultivation, and also make叽叽喳喳嘲笑 (叽叽喳喳) mocking sounds.

Of the few small snakes wandering in the Xun grass field, only one remains, and its body length exceeds 200. It had a good fortune, secretly lurking in the grass and successfully capturing a bird.

Similar predation and being hunted occur in the jungle all the time.

The birds came abruptly and left quickly. The Xun grass field, which had not been harvested in time, was ravaged by them, leaving only a small amount of seeds scattered on the ground.

The big-headed harvester ants were still so hardworking and dutiful, carefully searching and collecting the grass seeds one by one, drying them, and storing them. At the same time, more big-headed ants joined the weeding team, biting off the grass leaves with their mandibles and cutting them into small pieces.

After a heavy rain, the grass leaf fragments slowly rotted and settled, becoming organic fertilizer for the Xun grass field, maintaining the fertility of the field in this primitive way.

Banbu silently paid attention to everything in front of it, and observed an incredible phenomenon: the Xun grass, which had been almost cut off close to the ground, actually sprouted new green shoots after the rainstorm.

Banbu thought of a possibility: Xun grass can be harvested twice a year!

The more it thought about it, the more it felt it was possible. Under the management of the big-headed harvester ants, sowing in early spring and harvesting the first crop in midsummer, and harvesting the second crop in late autumn.

"The vitality of Xun grass is also very tenacious! After being cut off once, it can still grow new shoots." Banbu first thought of another question: "If the life seed I conceived with Xun grass seeds can survive the winter, can it continue to live on?"

Spring birth, summer prosperity, autumn withering, winter death, short lifespan is the fatal weakness of herbaceous plants, so in the inherited memory, it is not recommended to use grass seeds to conceive life seeds at all.

Banbu then observed for a whole day and found that the Xun grass shoots were not afraid of the scorching sun at all. On the contrary, under sufficient light, they grew rapidly.

After careful consideration, it came to the conclusion: Xun grass is not afraid of heat, and the mature root system buried in the soil can provide enough water for the shoots, so it can grow well.

Since this is the case, then it can be considered to sow its first life seed!

And it is very necessary to sow it.

When Banbu was L1, the rate at which the carapace absorbed cosmic Force was more than enough to maintain growth. Now at L2, the cosmic Force required for growth has increased, but the absorption rate of the carapace has not increased. According to this trend, it can be predicted that after about L4, the rate at which the carapace absorbs cosmic Force will not be able to keep up with demand, delaying growth.

There are two ways, the best is to eat Force fruits, which can not only obtain Force, but also strengthen gene abilities. Under normal circumstances, with the care of tribal elders, junior warriors spend their weak period in this way.

However, Banbu's situation is not normal. The tribal elders are gone, and it doesn't know where to find other elders in the vast jungle for help, so it can only rely on its own efforts. Then there is only another way, to sow the life seed as early as possible and use the life seed to assist in absorbing the Force needed for growth.

A thunderstorm strengthened Banbu's idea.

The life seed was placed under a Koelreuteria tree closest to the nest chamber, on the sunny east side.

The location is very particular. In the morning, the slanting sunlight can shine on it; the scorching sun at noon is blocked by the dense branches and leaves of the Koelreuteria tree; in the afternoon, the afterglow of the setting sun can also shine on it.

Two days after sowing, fresh shoots emerged from the soil, and the two established a very weak and wonderful feeling of "being connected and sharing their lives".

Banbu moved stones and arranged a fence around the life seed seedlings, guarding them around the clock to prevent them from being eaten by grass-eating insects such as sword-horned grasshoppers.

Luckily, it encountered another rainstorm, and with plenty of rain, the shoots successfully developed into three leaves.

According to the summer rainfall pattern in the jungle, it will face a "drought period" of several days, and the moisture in the shallow soil on the surface will soon be dried by the scorching sun.

Banbu prepared in advance, found a hollow plant branch, and collected dew from the leaves every morning to irrigate and maintain the humidity of the soil near the life seed.

As expected, the life seed has been maintaining vigorous growth, increasing its height by almost 5 points every day, and growing faster and faster, successfully passing the most fragile stage. As the grass plant grows, the wonderful feeling of "being connected and sharing their lives" becomes clearer and clearer.

After a thunderstorm, Banbu carefully dug it out and transplanted it to the entrance of the nest chamber.

For the soil at the entrance, Banbu specially looked for some bird and animal manure to mix in to increase fertility.

The transplant was also very successful, and the plant grew even more rapidly, even faster than those second-crop ordinary Xun grasses with mature root systems.

The leaves are slightly different from ordinary Xun grass. The leaf veins are purplish-black, and they are thicker and more resilient. Part of the Force absorbed by the plant is used for its own growth, and the unused part is stored in the leaf veins.

Life seeds and naturally born Force plants have a common characteristic: when the Force storage in the leaf veins is saturated, they will emit a hazy dark purple halo at night, which is their way of releasing excess Force.

This is very dangerous. Various phototactic flying insects are attracted, followed by small nocturnal predators, and then, large predators are likely to be attracted. In the fight, the fragile and small plants may be affected by the aftermath if they are not careful.

After close observation, Banbu speculated that the probability of Force plants being born in nature is not as low as imagined, but this characteristic leads to premature death.

The characteristic of Force plants glowing at night also has its rationality. The corpses of dead animals will become good growing nutrients after they rot.

Banbu does not need the Force of the life seed at present, but this problem is easy to solve. Every evening, it starts shaking its antennae, constantly releasing pheromones representing angry emotions. The aura of Force creatures lingers, which can well deter and drive away various flying insects.

Flying insects dare not approach, and subsequent troubles are naturally contained from the source.