Astral Gods

Chapter 93 Advanced Warrior Awakens Dual-Element Talents

Chapter 93 Advanced Warrior Awakens Dual-Element Talents

Winter is uneventful except for the growth of the yew seedlings.

After a five-day slumber, the Willow Catkin Mountain Lord successfully ascended to the 4th-age Mountain Lord stage, and can now use its rooting ability four times a day.

Throughout the winter, it became one of the busiest insects in the Rhinoceros Beetle tribe. In addition to cooperating with the Purple Black Jujube Mountain Lord and others every half month to use its abilities twice each on the two divinely bestowed species, the Liriodendron tulipifera and the Broadleaf Orchid, it also needed to use its abilities twice on the other 15 life-giving species of the Yew.

In addition, the divine seeds possessed by the Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors on each mountain peak also need to be taken care of, and the wild divine seeds also need to be enhanced.

After experiencing the enhanced abilities of the Willow Catkin Mountain Lord, all the Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors who possessed the God-given Seed praised it and expressed their desire to experience the ability more often.

Of course, the Lord of Willow Catkins joined the Rhinoceros Golden Turtle tribe to become a member, not to become a slave. He only needs to be responsible for the divinely bestowed seeds on Purple Ridge and the wild divinely bestowed seeds within the Rhinoceros Golden Turtle tribe.

The purpose of casting the ability on other Zerg warriors of the Rhinoceros Beetle tribe who possess the God-given Seed is to let them experience the effect, and also to address the tribe's concerns about giving resources to other Zerg warriors. If additional abilities are needed to strengthen the Life Seed, then a fee will be charged.

This is similar to how the owner of Zimashan Mountain creates humus cultivation ponds; both are done to increase their income.

However, since it has joined the Rhinoceros Tortoise Tribe, its fees are naturally not as high as those of the Black Date Mountain Lord and others. It also has a clear price list. Regardless of the level of its destiny seed, whether it is a divinely bestowed seed or an ordinary destiny seed, the price for it to use its ability once is 100 primal stones, which is quite reasonable.

Besides the willow catkin mountain master, the purple pearl and purple hemp also kept busy in winter, dismantling all the greenhouses that sheltered the early-stage yew seedlings.

The advantages of a greenhouse are numerous. It can isolate the soil from wind and snow, maintain a constant temperature, allow plants to grow even in winter, accelerate fruit ripening, and even advance the flowering period. It has countless benefits.

Despite the numerous benefits, Lord Zili insisted that Zizhu and the others dismantle the greenhouse.

The simplest reason is that a tree that hasn't experienced wind and frost, can it still be called a tree?

If they cannot even adapt to the external natural environment, then in the event of an emergency, they will have no ability to withstand the impact, and they will be the plants that die the fastest.

Furthermore, the natural god established the order of spring, summer, autumn, and winter to maintain the natural growth of living things, which must have its reasons.

After dismantling the greenhouse, the two mountain lords, along with a large group of mid-to-high-level Rhinoceros Tortoise warriors including Yew, reclaimed the land next to the hydroelectric power station and used earth and stone abilities to create a small trading square with an area of ​​one square kilometer.

At the end of December, the mulberries produced by the tribal warriors, pollinated by the divine seeds of the male mulberry tree at the beginning of the year, ripened.

These young warriors who produce mulberries are all in the mid-stage, and it's impossible for them to carry Force food to other tribes to trade.

Therefore, all the mulberries they produced, which were considered divinely bestowed, were collected by the tribe, and then the tribe distributed raw stones to them.

As per the previous agreement, after they produced Force food, half of the output value had to be shared with the three Yew brothers. Thus, the Yew brothers received Force food worth 4 Origin Stones.

Zishan replaced all the Force food with Primal Stones to prepare for the supply of Life Seeds to break through to the advanced stage.

To ensure that the yew tree would have enough primal energy for its seed advancement when it reached the advanced stage, they prepared a full 8 primal stones, and even the Purple Ridge also transferred 10 primal stones to prepare.

Time flew by and it was already mid-February of the following year. In previous years, everyone would have gone out into the wild to search for the divine seed at this time, but this year everyone stayed in the plains at the foot of Ziling Mountain to prepare for the breakthrough of the yew tree.

On the Purple Ridge Plain, Lord Purple Plum summoned a large group of insects to work. After all the insect warriors had arrived, he immediately assigned them tasks.

"The seventeen life seeds of the yew are all divinely bestowed seeds. The amount of primal force required for a divinely bestowed seed to advance to a higher stage is much greater than that of an ordinary life seed. At that time, the primal force of nature may not be able to supply it."

Please take note. If the natural Force supply becomes insufficient, we will break the Primal Stones to replenish the Force.

"Understood!" the insects responded in unison.

Those insects who came to assist Zishan in its breakthrough evolution were all familiar with Zishan's situation, so they didn't show any surprise or alarm, but simply waited quietly for Lord Zili to assign tasks.

Lord Zili began assigning tasks to everyone: "Zizhu, you are responsible for protecting the male mulberry tree, the female mulberry tree, and the three life-sustaining cypress trees of the yew."

These three life-sustaining plants have been growing for a long time and are thriving. The yew is starting to break through to a higher stage, so they shouldn't need much Primal Stone to aid their evolution. You can just watch over them with one insect.

"Okay, I can keep an eye on them." The three life seeds are planted in a triangular shape. As long as they don't require a lot of primal force, Zizhu can handle them perfectly well.

"Master Liuxu, I'm entrusting the three seedlings—the Green Heart Sunflower, the Multi-Seed Green Grape, and the Wisteria—to you. Is that alright?"

"No problem!" These three life-giving plants were also planted in an inverted triangle shape, and they have been growing for many years, so they are relatively easy to take care of.

Moreover, this was its first major mission after joining the Rhinoceros Beetle tribe, and it had to be done perfectly to make them feel that the price was well paid. Then Lord Purple Plum assigned Purple Pau: "Purple Pau, Sweetheart Kiwi, Green Soul Kiwi, and Three-lobed Snake Grape are your three life-sustaining plants."

Over the past two years, as the three Yew brothers have grown older, Zitong has gradually freed up its claws to manage its own territory, but it remains one of the insects that knows the secrets of the Yew brothers best. At this crucial moment, it is natural to entrust it with some trustworthy tasks.

"You are responsible for taking care of the three seedlings: the purple hemp, the pomegranate tree, the second male mulberry tree, and the red cherry tree."

"Okay!" Zi Ma readily agreed.

"I entrust you and the bee colony under your command with five divinely bestowed plants: Snow Grass Assisting the King, Fragrant Wood, Water Cloud Persimmon, Iron Holly, Liriodendron tulipifera, and Broadleaf Broad-eyed Orchid."

"yes!"

"Purple Locust, you guard it while the Purple Fir evolves. Purple Ai and I patrol among the many Destiny Seeds. If there are any problems, call us immediately."

"I see!"

Seeing the serious expressions on the faces of the insects, Lord Zili smiled instead: "Don't be too nervous, everyone. The risk of failure in advancing from the intermediate stage to the advanced stage is not high. Moreover, Zishan has eaten a lot of divinely bestowed primal force food. As long as the supply of primal force to the life seed can be guaranteed in a timely manner, there is basically no risk of evolution failure."

In fact, after so many years of growth, even the latest-sown broadleaf orchid species has been growing for seven or eight months, and with the help of various abilities, it is even comparable to other species that have been growing for more than a year. As for its other species, they have been growing for at least a year, which is enough to meet the scale required for advanced evolution.

Finally, it instructed the yew tree beside it, "You can go evolve and break through now!"

Zishan thanked the insects, saying, "Thank you for your hard work, Lord Zili, and everyone else."

Carrying a bag of ordinary fruit and divinely bestowed food, it slowly crawled into the solidified earthen chamber and began its breakthrough to a higher stage.

Upon entering the nest chamber, the yew finished a large bag of fruit to fill its stomach.

The dormant evolution process takes about three to five days, during which a lot of nutrients are consumed. If the body is depleted, the probability of evolution failure will be greatly increased.

If some Zerg warriors are not well-prepared in this regard, and their dormancy period is prolonged during evolution, they may even starve to death.

With similar precedents, the last meal before falling asleep becomes especially important.

After finishing the fruit, Yew began to eat Force food. All along, the Force food it ate was purchased by Lord Purple Plum from the Flame Spider Merchant, and it was a luxury version of the divinely bestowed Force food set meal.

It contains five types of life-enhancing divine-given food, four types of strength-enhancing divine-given food, ten types of metal-elemental-enhancing divine-given food, five types of shell toughness-enhancing divine-given food, as well as many other types of divine-given food that enhance endurance and blood.

It even purchased five hundred Green Soul Kiwi Seeds from the territory of advanced warriors, just so that its soul burden wouldn't be so heavy during its evolution.

This Force Food Set alone costs 5 Primogems, which would be a painful expense for even a typical Mountain Lord-level Zerg warrior.

For the past few months, it has been eating the food from the Force Food Package, and it has almost finished it, with only the final step left.

After finishing the last bit of Force food in the spider silk bag, it lay down in the nest and fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, the other Zerg warriors stood guard outside the hive chamber and beneath its life essence, quietly waiting for its soul to undergo a qualitative change while simultaneously drawing its life essence to break through.

Three days passed in a flash. For the first two days, the insects were in a relaxed state of mind, and sometimes they would gather together to chat, appearing very relaxed and comfortable.

But by the third day, everyone took it seriously, and each insect returned to its post, keeping a close watch on the life-sustaining species.

By the third day, the Zerg warriors could undergo a soul transformation at any time, and the Destiny beings that had a soul bond with them would also break through and evolve at the same time.

Sure enough, at noon on the third day, when the sun was at its strongest and the spring breeze swept across the mountains, the mulberry male tree, the first to be planted by the yew and whose divine seed was most deeply bound to its soul, was the first to react.

The male mulberry tree, which was normally photosynthesizing, suddenly increased its rate of absorbing natural primal energy. The life force flowing around it was completely absorbed into its body in just a few breaths, and it frantically absorbed natural primal energy like a water pump in a hydroelectric power station.

"It has begun." Watching the divine seed of the male mulberry tree begin to absorb primal energy, Zizhu carried a large bag of primal stones and placed it 50 meters away from it.

Generally speaking, when a divinely bestowed seed breaks through to a higher level or when its fruit matures, it needs to replenish its energy consumption. Once the energy beyond 50 meters is drawn in and absorbed, it means that the energy of nature is no longer sufficient to replenish its energy consumption. At this time, it is necessary to consume the energy from the primal stone to replenish it.

Of course, this only applies to divinely bestowed seeds below the Mountain Lord level. Divinely bestowed seeds above the Mountain Lord level can grow to hundreds of meters tall and can easily influence the primal force within a radius of hundreds of meters with a single movement, so they cannot be used as examples.

Zizhu watched quietly as the divinely bestowed seed of the male mulberry tree frantically devoured the primal force, gradually forming a primal force vortex in the shape of a primal force vacuum around it.

When the Force vortex reached a diameter of 20 meters, drawing nearby Force sources to flow towards it, it opened its spider silk bag, took out a Primal Stone, and slowly ground it into powder.

The Force within the raw stones was instantly absorbed into the vortex. After crushing forty or fifty raw stones in succession, the range of the Force vortex was gradually suppressed to within 10 meters. The Force from nature also gradually flowed into this range, filling the original Force vacuum area.

The concentration of Force in nature is actually very low. In a normal outdoor environment, the Force contained in about 1000 cubic meters of air is roughly equivalent to the Force contained in a single Infinity Stone.

Purple Ridge has a relatively high concentration of Origin Force; approximately 800 cubic meters of air contain as much Origin Force as a single Origin Stone.

In the Astral Plane, Zerg warriors would fight over any place with a slightly higher concentration of Force, because for them, the higher the Force concentration in their territory, the more Originium they could save.

For example, a normal cubic kilometer of space contains about 100 million Origin Stones' worth of Origin Force, while a cubic kilometer of space on Purple Ridge contains 125 million Origin Stones' worth of Origin Force.

If the Zerg's life-sustaining seed can be planted here and the Force within this cubic kilometer can be completely consumed, then 25 Originium will be saved for nothing, which is more than the annual output of many Lord-level Zerg warriors.

Just as Zizhu was replenishing the Divine Seed with its primal force, Lord Zili sensed the commotion and flew over with Zi Ai: "The Life Seed has begun absorbing primal force?"

"It's already started here, I wonder if there's any movement elsewhere?"

"There's no movement elsewhere yet." Even the same Zerg warrior's life form can have different evolutionary timelines due to various reasons.

Otherwise, if all the life seeds were to break through and evolve at the same time, even if Zizhu had six more legs, it wouldn't be able to keep up.

It seems that seventeen insects will be needed to protect the seventeen life-sustaining species of the yew.

In fact, the time it takes for most Zerg warriors to break through their destiny is not the same as that of all Zerg warriors. Some Zerg warriors' ordinary destiny can even last for one or two months before they slowly break through, which gives the Zerg warriors enough time to maneuver and adapt.

Lord Zili said, "Zi Ai, you stay here with Zi Zhu and keep watch. I'll go inspect the other areas."

Lord Zili patrolled the many life-seeds of the yew tree. When he flew to the divinely bestowed seed of the red heart cherry, he found that it had also begun to undergo a soul transformation and evolution. Zima was constantly scraping the raw stone here to replenish its primal power.

"Zi Ma, are you managing all the work?"

The Purple Hemp Mountain Lord said confidently, "It's alright, no major problem. However, the Red Heart Cherry Divine Gift Seed seems to consume a lot of raw stones."

It used its earth-based abilities to create two stone slabs, placed a dozen or twenty raw stones inside, and with a gentle press, all the raw stones were crushed into powder.

Even so, it was still difficult to stop the expansion of the Force vortex around the Red Heart Cherry Tree.

Lord Zili pondered for a moment and guessed that it might be because the Red Heart Cherry Divine Seed was a Super Grade Divine Seed, which required much more Origin Force to gestate than an ordinary Divine Seed, and its advancement was no exception.

"I'll go and bring you another 1 raw stones."

In the next half day, many of the yew's life forms began to undergo qualitative changes and breakthroughs, keeping all the insects busy.

Fortunately, from intermediate to advanced, the Life Seed only needs to absorb the original force once. However, when it comes to breaking through to the Mountain Lord level, the original force required by the God-given Seed is too large. There is a time required to convert the original force into original energy, and sometimes it may be divided into two or three breakthroughs.

By then, the number of life seeds will be large, and the time required to take care of them will be long, which will be the most troublesome thing.

As for the breakthrough from Mountain Lord to Lord, or from Lord to Insect King, the distance is too far, so there's no need to even mention it.

The insects worked for more than a day, basically replenishing the primal force of all the life seeds. Only the primal force required for the soul transformation of the Red Heart Cherry God-given Seed was too large, and it only stopped after absorbing primal force three times.

After all the life seeds were replenished, all the insects breathed a sigh of relief.

"The yew should be out soon, right?"

Lord Zili and the other insects smiled broadly: "Since the life seed has already broken through to the advanced stage, there shouldn't be any major problems later on."

There are three stages in the Zerg warrior's advancement period. The first stage is the soul aspect. If the soul barrier is weak and cannot drive the life seed to break through and evolve, the life seed will fail to break through or die, and the Zerg warrior itself will also die or be severely injured.

Now that all the life forms of the yew tree have broken through to the advanced stage, this problem no longer exists.

The second stage is the issue of breakthrough time. Some Zerg warriors have insufficient physical enhancement and lack the support of primal energy when they break through, which may extend the breakthrough time to seven or eight days.

The later the breakthrough, the higher the risk of evolution failure. However, the yew tree eats food given by the gods with primal force, and after three days, the seed undergoes a qualitative change, so this problem should not occur.

The third challenge for Zerg warriors is that if their carapace is not strong enough, or if they lack vitality and strength, they will not have the strength to shed their old carapace after completing their evolution, and will quietly die in the hive chamber.

Now that the first two problems are solved, all we need to do is wait for the yew to crawl out of its nest chamber.

On the evening of the fourth day, the yew slowly crawled out of its nest. Seeing this, the other insects were overjoyed, and the purple locust immediately took out a bag of fruit and gave it to the yew to eat.

After finishing the bag of fruit, Zishan took a breath and said, "Thank you all for your hard work. I've successfully completed the mission and finally broken through to the advanced stage!"

Upon hearing Zishan's words, the other insects were simply delighted, while Lord Zili and Lord Zizhu were practically weeping with joy.

They've had it so tough these past few years, pouring in huge amounts of resources, but haven't seen results in a short time.

The already impoverished family of the Purple Pearl Mountain Lord was further burdened with hardship. It was only after Lord Purple Plum took over its duties and nurtured its three brothers that it was able to allocate some resources to advance to the Mountain Lord level.

After Lord Zili took over from Lord Zizhu Mountain in training them, their once prosperous life was about to be ruined by these three.

Now that all three of them have been promoted to advanced warriors, they no longer need to invest additional resources, which is a great joy.

Zishan spat out the Zhibai seed from its life sac and placed it into a spider silk bag, then looked at Lord Zili: "Lord Zili, what did I nurture as my life seed during my first instar?"

Lord Zili took out a spider silk bag, opened it, and poured out all the seeds inside—there were more than a dozen kinds of seeds in total.

"Now that you've been promoted to a high-ranking warrior, choose one of the seeds yourself."

I took a look; Lord Zili gave me seeds of large trees, including durian, giant jackfruit, elm, yew, ironwood, and chinaberry.

After pondering for a moment, it selected a multi-fruited durian seed and placed it into its life capsule to nurture it into a life seed.

The durian is a large tree whose fruit enhances flight speed. The fruit is huge with a hard outer skin; a single fruit can weigh over ten kilograms and is very durable for preservation.

The Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors have plenty of strength but lack speed, and they desperately need a divinely bestowed seed like this.

After placing the durian seeds into his life pouch, Zishan slowly said, "Lord Zili, I have gained a lot from breaking through to the advanced stage."

Lord Zili was slightly taken aback: "What harvest?"

Zishan didn't speak, but slowly mobilized the primal energy within her body, and an elemental power unique to metal-type insectoid warriors emanated from her. Seeing this, the insectoids all became unsettled.

"Has this awakened a metal-based elemental talent?"

"Yes. When I woke up, I discovered that I had awakened dual talents in the strength and metal elements."

"This...this—" Lord Zi Li was quite surprised.

Normally, after a Twin-Forked Rhinoceros Tortoise Warrior advances to the Mountain Lord level, it will always awaken a Strength-type talent, and randomly awaken either a Metal-type talent or an Earth-type talent.

Unexpectedly, Zishan awakened dual-elemental talents only when she was advancing to the advanced stage.

Over the years, the Force food that the three Yew brothers ate was prepared by it, even though the God-given Force food packages purchased from the Flame Spider Merchant included Power and Metal-type God-given Force food.

However, the main food sources are still the two types of divinely bestowed primal force foods: those that enhance shell strength and those that enhance vitality. It doesn't understand why this is the case.

Regardless, it's a great thing that Zishan awakened dual-elemental talents at a high level.

Then, as if remembering something, it quickly asked, "You've awakened dual-elemental talents, so do you have any awakened abilities?"

Normally, a mountain lord-level warrior will awaken at least one ability when they awaken their talent. However, Zishan awakened her talent at a high level, so it is unknown whether she will have an ability accompanying her.

After a moment's thought, Zishan replied, "I have awakened two metal-type abilities and one strength-type ability."

"What is a metal-based ability? What does it do? Let's try it out and see if it can be combined with a strength-based ability?"

"The most basic metal-based ability, metal manipulation, doesn't need to be demonstrated; all Zerg warriors who have awakened their metal-based talents possess this ability."

Another metal-based ability is called Steel Armor, which allows my body to become as tough as steel.

As it spoke, Yew activated its metal-based primal energy, and a layer of metal-based primal energy covered its surface. Then, its carapace seemed to be coated with a black film, and its elytra quickly transformed from their normal state into steel.

The purple locust and purple artemisia watched with envy. Purple artemisia stepped forward and tapped the yew's carapace with its paw, producing a crisp metallic clang.

Zishan explained, "This ability requires not only my own original energy, but also the consumption of various metal ores, which I then combine to form an extremely strong defense."

"Eating metal ores!" Lord Zili wasn't too surprised to hear Zishan's words. The abilities of the Zerg warriors were all kinds of strange and wonderful. Some of the Zerg warriors with metal-type talents did indeed need to eat ores to strengthen themselves.

Thinking of this, it sold the Green Bamboo Armor King without hesitation: "I remember that the Green Bamboo Armor King has collected a lot of different kinds of ores. I'll get some from him for you and see how you want to combine them."

"What about strength-based abilities? Let me see those too."

"Strength-type abilities are relatively ordinary. What I awakened is the same immense strength ability as the Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain. By using the original strength-type power, I can lift objects twice as heavy as I can already lift."

However, I can sense that this ability still has potential for development. Perhaps after I advance to the Mountain Lord level, the power I can lift will increase several times over.

Hearing this, Zizhu was somewhat dissatisfied: "Ordinary? Zishan, are you getting cocky? My ability is extraordinary. On the Thousand Star Islands, with this ability, there are few insects that can match my strength. Even lord-level insect warriors wouldn't dare to directly withstand my full-force attack."

Lord Zili also commented: "Zishan, don't underestimate strength-based abilities. Although many of our Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors have awakened this ability, it doesn't mean it's weak."

Once you advance to the Mountain Lord level, consume more strength-type divine-given primal force foods; this ability will definitely be enhanced.

That's what I think.

"Alright, you've just been promoted, take a break first. Don't rush to focus on developing your skills; you have plenty of time!"

As the yew trees advanced to the advanced stage, they needed to plant life seeds, so everyone decided not to linger and prepared to leave.

However, before leaving, everyone should take stock of how many Primal Stones were consumed when Zishan advanced to the advanced stage.

In the end, the calculations showed that the initial stage of its life seed cultivation consumed relatively few raw stones, while the male mulberry tree life seed and the female mulberry tree life seed each consumed 2000 raw stones.

Red Cypress seed costs 1500 Primogems, while Green Heart Sunflower, Multi-Seed Green Grape, and Sweet Heart Kiwi cost a total of 6500 Primogems.

The Wisteria Life Seed consumed 500 Primogems, the Azure Kiwi Life Seed consumed a larger amount, costing 3000 Primogems, and the Three-lobed Snake Grape Life Seed consumed 1000 Primogems.

The intermediate stage requires quite a lot of resources. The Gem Pomegranate life seed consumed 3000 primal stones, while the male mulberry tree and the fragrant wood life seed each consumed 3500 primal stones.

The two seedlings, Water Cloud Persimmon and Iron Holly, consumed a total of 8300 Ore Stones, while the two seedlings, Goose Feather and Broadleaf Orchid, consumed 1 Ore Stones.

The one that costs the most Primogems is the Red Heart Cherry God's Blessed Seed, which consumes 42000 Primogems per tree.

In total, it cost 86800 raw stones. In other words, not only did they spend all of the 8 raw stones they had prepared, but Ziling also lost some money.

The Lord of Purple Hemp Mountain brought 100,000 raw stones down from the mountain. Before leaving, he left behind another 23,000 raw stones and instructed the three Zishan brothers: "Now that you have all advanced to the advanced stage, your own life seeds will gradually produce. The tribe will no longer support you. In the coming time, you will have to rely on your own life seed production to maintain your evolution."

The three brothers were quite embarrassed by this: "We have troubled the tribe a lot over the years. Our life seeds are about to produce primal energy food, and we are already able to be self-sufficient. We will no longer trouble the tribe."

Lord Zili also spoke up: "From now on, you will be in charge of your own affairs. You will need to be more frugal with your Force food and Primal Stones. You should be careful with your spending."

Although you possess a considerable number of divinely bestowed seeds, you must also consider the vastness of the world as described by the Mountain Lord. You cannot be complacent simply because you have a few divinely bestowed seeds.

The three brothers honestly replied, "We will certainly follow Lord Zi Li's orders."

"Okay, let's quickly plant the life seed now!"

"There's one more thing. Which of the three of you will be going to the Thousand Star Islands this year?"

The three Zishan brothers looked at each other, exchanging bewildered glances. Last year it was Zihuai who passed away, and according to the established order, it should be Ziai who passes away this year.

"Lord Zili, who are you planning to send?"

Lord Zili said, "Let Ziai go there today. Let it train for a year and see how it differs from the tribe's internal situation."

Yew fluttered its wings gently, its eyes sparkling: "Lord Purple Plum, may I go and see too?"

The purple locust tapped the yew with its antennae: "You've only just been promoted to a high-level warrior. Your life seed still needs to be planted and grow. Stay obediently within the tribe and don't wander off."

As the time required for advancement lengthened, the three brothers finally returned to their initial state and evolved to the same age.

Zishan retorted, "Won't you take care of the seed once it's planted? You can also communicate with the divinely given seed. I'm just going to take a look and then I'll come back."

"You want me to take care of all the life-seeds, huh? I, a single insect, can't handle it all."

Zi Huai objected, but unexpectedly, Lord Zi Li thought about it and did not refuse: "When the warriors go to the Thousand Star Islands in a while, King Qingzhu Jia will also be going. You can go and play with King Qingzhu Jia for a few days."

"Thank you, Lord Zili," Zishan cheered happily.

Zihuai and Ziai, standing to the side, didn't understand why Lord Zili would agree to Zishan's capricious request, but since Lord Zili had spoken, they naturally couldn't say anything.

After the insects left, the three brothers planted the Zhi Bai Life Seed. Since it was springtime, the Lord of Zizhu Mountain did not build a greenhouse and let it grow in the open air.

Moreover, because of the abundant spring rains, it rained as soon as the seeds were sown, saving them the trouble of watering.

The three brothers guarded the seed of Zhibai for more than half a month until it sprouted and grew to be fifty or sixty centimeters tall, at which point the insects were relieved.

While the three brothers were protecting the Zhibai Life Seed, Lord Zili brought Zishan a lot of metal ores for it to eat.

Among these metal ores, the most common are iron ore, copper ore, and lead ore.

The Rhinoceros Tortoise tribe used to enjoy collecting various ores, but when they built a hydroelectric power station a couple of years ago, most of the ores were consumed because they needed to build many supporting facilities. However, for them, who have metal-type abilities, collecting ores is just a matter of time.

Zishan is currently only a first-age advanced warrior. Although it can eat various minerals, it can't eat too much. It can only eat ten or twenty kilograms at a time, and then retain the refined metal substances in the minerals in its body and excrete the waste.

This amount sounds like a lot, but after being promoted to a high-level warrior, Zishan's size had grown to over two meters three or four. Even with the refined metal material added to the back armor, it could only cover an extremely thin layer.

Interestingly, the color of its carapace changes depending on the metal it consumes. When it consumes iron ore and activates its steel armor ability, its carapace turns bright white.

When consuming copper ore, its carapace turns copper-yellow when activated.

When it consumes gold ore and activates its power, its carapace turns golden yellow.

However, among the many metal ores, the hardness and toughness of a single metal are not sufficient. Following the teachings of the Master of Zehui Mountain on metals, Zishan combined various metals to form new metals.

For example, lead and brass, when combined in a certain proportion, can form a harder bronze.

Reducing the carbon content in iron can create stronger steel.

Initial tests showed that the shell formed by metal fusion provided even stronger defense.

With the arrival of March, as is customary, the tribe will send ten Mountain Lord-level Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors and thirty Advanced Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors to the Thousand Star Islands training grounds.

Lord Zili summoned Lord Zizhu Mountain, Zi Ai, and Zishan to meet at Hualing.

As they were about to leave, Zishan earnestly instructed Zihuai: "Zihuai, we're going to the Thousand Star Islands. You must take good care of the house, especially everyone's life seeds. Ziai's life seeds have started to produce this year, so you have to be careful."

Purple Locust waved its antennae at Purple Fir with annoyance: "You talk too much nonsense. If you hadn't gone off to play in the Thousand Star Islands, I wouldn't have needed to do so much work. Since you're so worried, then stay here."

"Hehe," Zishan laughed awkwardly, "I'll go there for a while and then come back. It won't be long."

Anyway, my horoscope doesn't include any mulberry fruit this year, so going away for a while shouldn't be a problem. I'll be back in a month or two at most, and then we can work together.

Zihua didn't want to say more: "Be careful, and remember to come back quickly."