In the early morning, the torrential rain ceased. Flame Cluster Mottgrass didn't linger and returned to its own territory.

Banbu stepped out to check on the condition of the Gifted Seed. Having broken through to become an intermediate warrior, both he and the Tree Spirit had undergone significant changes. The Tree Spirit's soul intensity had greatly increased, and upon seeing Banbu, it immediately projected a flurry of complex emotional thoughts—joy, anger, disdain, urgency, and more.

The 39 offshoots guarding the mother plant had already sprouted panicles, about to bloom. Meanwhile, the 27 outer offshoots were brewing, sending out roots and shoots, indicating they were about to sprout. Following a pattern, this round of offshoots should amount to 81 in total.

As Banbu evolved and broke through his limits, the Gifted Seed also grew, with the most significant change being the maximum limit of offshoots.

Banbu could roughly analyze the principle behind it: the number of offshoots was determined by the Tree Spirit's soul intensity. Only with a strong soul could it control more offshoots. Conversely, the quantity of offshoots directly reflected the strength of the Tree Spirit's soul.

The Gifted Seed was currently in a critical period of rapid development. With careful antennae swaying, Banbu sensed that the original force on the mountain could barely keep up. Upon inspecting the soil, he noticed a significant decline in fertility. Hastily, he retrieved a large amount of sludge from the biogas pool for fertilization, ensuring nutrient supply.

After fertilizing, the emotional turmoil of the Gifted Seed subsided, replaced by simple expressions of ridicule and disdain directed at Banbu.

Unconcerned, Banbu moved to the north side of the mountain to inspect various ordinary species.

After advancing to an intermediate warrior, the ordinary species did not exhibit the pronounced changes seen in the Gifted Seed; their growth remained steady.

The new shoots of Xun Grass had grown to a height of 400, showing rapid progress. Barring any mishaps, they would yield 96 grass seeds by autumn.

Yingri Fruit, White Jade Mulberry, Sideways Cypress, and Iron Knife Tree saplings were all growing, albeit less noticeably—typical for trees, they exhibited slow growth in the early stages.

Li Bamboo, on the other hand, showed a completely different picture. Its underground rhizomes proliferated wildly, with the number of bamboo shoots reaching as high as 6, of varying heights, with the tallest nearing 800 units, forming a canopy. After the downpour, another bamboo shoot emerged from the ground, soon to grow to maturity.

In terms of original force supply, Li Bamboo far surpassed other plant species as a gifted species.

When Banbu was a Level 8 and Level 9 junior warrior, he had chosen Hemp Bamboo and Golden Bamboo as gifted species, planning to sow them next year due to missing the spring planting season.

Now, as an intermediate Level 1 warrior, he still chose Li Bamboo as his gifted species, having planned it from the start. He had obtained 5 seeds from Hei Sang, the Black Mulberry. In the future, he intended to choose bamboo for all his gifted species during each advancement, with Li Bamboo as the preferred option.

Lastly, he inspected the pitiful bamboo discovered in Wind Chime's territory: newly born this year, its underground rhizomes had yet to develop, and the aboveground bamboo shoot was thin and low. This frail state, induced to flower by the drought, was in dire straits.

The flowers had emerged from a node on the main shoot, only one cluster in total, with 3 tiny flowers, likely directly forming seeds rather than fruiting.

Yet, these 3 small flowers were enough to doom the entire bamboo.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Drawing upon its rhizomes, the bamboo mobilized all its stored nutrients, expending its entire life force to support flower growth.

The flowers would soon bloom, pollinate, wither, and seed, completing genetic inheritance in a short time.

"Pollination..."

Banbu thought, suddenly perplexed.

With only one bamboo shoot on the mountain and a mere 3 small flowers, with no other specimens nearby, how on earth would pollination occur?

"Is this fortuitous new bamboo species doomed to extinction in my hands?"

Banbu quickly devised two solutions:

First, with the three flowers, pollination among them might be possible, though success was uncertain. If successful, the offspring would inherit the mother plant's genes almost entirely, akin to "genetic cloning."

Second, if possible, he could find similar species among the bamboo stimulated to flower during the dry season, collect pollen, and attempt hybridization. Perhaps a new hybrid species could be produced.

Banbu decided to try both methods, with only 3 flowers, extreme caution was necessary.

After much deliberation and revisiting scientific knowledge from his past life as a human novelist regarding carbon-based plants and genetic inheritance, he deduced that self-pollination had a higher success rate than hybridization.

Hence, the three flowers were self-pollinated, while simultaneously, pollen was collected and generously distributed among the bamboo flowers downhill, for hybridization experiments in the bamboo forest.

The other two bamboo species stimulated to flower during the dry season, named Hairy Bamboo and Reed Bamboo, were both tall and robust.

Unfortunately, after a cursory examination, it was determined that they were not closely related, possessing significant genetic differences, resulting in a low probability of successful hybridization.

Approaching the experiment with a trial-and-error mindset, Banbu selected a few specimens for cross-pollination.

...

Upon hearing of Banbu's promotion to an intermediate warrior, the Iron Knife Mountain Master continued to fulfill his promise. Every day, Iron Knife Blade patrol warriors would bring Banbu a fresh mountain pear fruit.

However, high-level warriors no longer provided food; Banbu had to hunt for himself. As a junior warrior, he had been semi-independent, hunting alone for food, but true independence meant entirely self-sustaining.

Once truly independent, he could begin sheltering ordinary cockroaches and cultivating his own subordinates. According to tradition, Banbu went to the Iron Knife Mountain Range and selected batches of egg capsules from each elder's territory.

This practice made sense; cockroaches from different territories had greater genetic differences, preventing inbreeding and producing offspring with superior genes. With superior genes came stronger individuals, increasing the likelihood of evolving into tribal warriors.

...

Lower down on Li Bamboo Peak, there were many wild rabbits, snakes, rodents, and birds. Hunting required no extensive travel, as there were no significant dangers. It also didn't require much time or effort.

Breeding bamboo required only a small amount of time for observation.

Banbu devoted most of his time and energy to deducing the practice he was about to complete.

After half a month, he finally made preliminary progress.

Attempting to practice, it was barely feasible, albeit with some minor issues that he could rectify while practicing. It took another four or five days to achieve complete success.

Though much later than expected, success was still achieved.

Banbu formally named it "Fundamental Practice Method: Intermediate Level 1," corresponding to his intermediate Level 1 warrior status. When he advanced to Level 2, the practice would be slightly modified, and the name would change accordingly to "Fundamental Practice Method: Intermediate

Level 2," and so forth.

Efficiency was greatly enhanced; after absorbing original force, the practice allowed for rapid digestion, increasing the utilization efficiency of cells by approximately 150%, though not at the limit.

Ordinary cockroaches had an original force utilization efficiency of less than 20%. Banbu's practice raised it to over 40%, leaving room for further improvement.

Improving the practice was much more challenging than creating it, requiring practical experience, as well as more time and effort. Banbu decided to shelve it for now and tackle it gradually in the future.

According to the plan, the next step was to deduce a special practice that could absorb the core of a Dominant Realm metal and then proceed to absorb it, rapidly enhancing his mental power.

However, Banbu's attention was entirely captivated by the slowly declining Blotched Bamboo Grove after it flowered and seeded.

One flower, pollinated with pollen from a bamboo species discovered in Wind Chime's territory, absorbed original force at a slow rate, gradually emitting its own original force fluctuations.

Banbu was so excited that he couldn't sleep for several days, spending two days and nights in the bamboo grove, observing the entire process of seed development with patience. In the end, he was 100% certain that this was a naturally occurring original force seed, which Banbu preferred to call the Gifted Seed!