Bamboo is a miraculous plant, borrowing from its root and stem essence at the cost of its life to pass down to its descendants, its process of flowering and fruiting lasting only a short twenty days or so, which is unparalleled in speed compared to other plants.

Shortly after perfecting his cultivation technique, Banbu waited only a few days before various types of bamboo began to mature, and correspondingly, the bamboo leaves in the bamboo forest started to wither and fall, signaling the onset of decline.

As expected, amidst the bamboo forest, Banbu harvested a seed resembling a grain of rice with a greenish-yellow hue – a divine gift seed!

With the creation of the cultivation technique came the acquisition of a divine gift seed, but the good fortune didn't end there.

After harvesting the seeds from the bamboo brought from the Fengling territory on the north side of the mountain, it took several days for the leaves to show no signs of withering. Banbu noticed this anomaly and upon inspection, discovered that the vitality of the underground rhizomes was not only not diminishing but slowly recovering.

With the application of swamp sludge fertilizer and swamp water irrigation, miraculously, the vitality of the underground rhizomes was revitalized, and they began to grow laterally. As expected, this was a superlative bamboo variety with a short flowering and fruiting cycle that wouldn't wither after flowering and fruiting.

Banbu named it "Golden Thread Bamboo" and, along with the divine gift seed, carefully dried and stored the three seeds to ensure nothing went amiss.

After successfully crossbreeding the Golden Thread Bamboo with the Banbu bamboo, he also harvested a batch of seeds. However, due to the current season being unsuitable for sowing, detailed information could not be obtained, so they were temporarily unnamed.

Unfortunately, as predicted, the hybrid experiment between Moso bamboo and Reed bamboo ended in failure.

...

During his contemplation of refining the cultivation technique, Banbu had considered a method to absorb ownerless mental energy, drawing from his experiences with human meditation techniques as a reference, making the process relatively effortless.

It was soon deduced, awaiting verification of its feasibility.

The distance from Li Zhufeng to the landing site of the metallic core wasn't particularly close. Given Banbu's current flying speed, a round trip would take about half a day if he pushed himself to the limit.

As an intermediate warrior living alone on the mountain peak, it wasn't advisable to leave the territory for more than two days. If he stayed away for too long, his scent would dissipate, attracting various medium and small-sized predators into the territory, endangering the ordinary cockroaches under his protection. What's more, during the flowering and fruiting season of the divine seeds, some animals might be attracted to them and attempt to plunder the fruits.

Fortunately, it was late summer, and currently, only the divine seeds were heading. The ordinary cockroaches on the mountain had just hatched from their egg sacs, with small body sizes and few in numbers, so there was no need to worry too much.

Banbu anxiously attempted to ascertain the feasibility of his self-created method. After simple preparations, he chose to depart in the evening.

...

After half a year, the resonance force field of the metallic core had once again reduced its coverage area by about a hundred. The revealed land had turned into a sparse layer of gray-white dust, with the underlying soil transformed into hard plates, resembling smooth ceramic tiles.

Suddenly, Banbu no longer felt rushed. He took a stroll around the marshland, hunted down a python, and placed it outside the resonance force field as backup food before stepping into its range.

Unfurling his pulse wings and gently flapping them, opening and closing his air valves, he entered a state of serene meditation, his body naturally undulating with each breath.

Gradually, Banbu's own mental energy field resonated subtly with the resonance force field of the metallic core, and strands of cold mental energy seeped into Banbu's mental energy field, permeating his exoskeleton, and finally being absorbed by his soul.

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"It works!"

Banbu retracted his pulse wings, ceased absorption, and after a moment of contemplation, cautiously probed deeper into the resonance force field.

Upon confirming the experiment, it was evident that the cultivation of mental energy wasn't much different between humans and cockroaches. The absorption method he devised was indeed feasible.

Banbu's soul had undergone a mutation due to the close-range radiation from the metallic core, making it tolerant of the spiritual energy emitted by it. However, the absorbed energy couldn't be immediately utilized and required some time for assimilation and digestion.

The ownerless mental energy floating on the outskirts of the resonance force field was too sparse, resulting in low efficiency. Thus, Banbu planned to venture deeper. When his own mental energy field was compressed by the resonance force field to the point where he couldn't leave his exoskeleton, that would be the limit of his endurance, representing the peak efficiency point of absorbing mental energy with his current strength.

Expanding his pulse wings, within seconds, he entered a state of meditation, and his mental energy began to increase at a perceptible rate.

In the dead of night, the total quantity of mental energy reached the limit that Banbu's soul could bear, and he withdrew from the resonance force field.

The influx of external mental energy affected his soul, inducing mutations in the brain cells. Many brain cells died during the mutation process.

Banbu's heart raced, pumping blood to carry away the residue of dead cells and supplying ample nutrients and energy to the successfully mutated brain cells, accelerating their growth and division.

The entire mutation process posed certain risks, with no sensation of pain, only a pervasive sense of fatigue and weakness.

Everything was as anticipated. Banbu endured the drowsy fatigue, slowly enjoying the prepared food to replenish his expended energy, while focusing his mind to carefully observe the subsequent changes in his body.

The mutation of the soul directly led to the mutation of brain cells, but subsequently, the influence on other parts of the body was very slow and weak.

Once his brain regained clarity, Banbu continued to perceive the changes in his body while pondering the reasons. Lacking technological means to collect detailed data, he couldn't arrive at a precise conclusion, only two conjectures: perhaps the soul mutation wasn't significant enough to cause noticeable changes in the body, or it might be a lengthy process requiring time.

After all, it was the remnant power of the Dominator Realm, and moreover, it was the power of a metallic lifeform radically different from carbon-based life, likely to trigger unbearable genetic mutations.

Banbu dared not continue recklessly. After his physical strength recovered, he decided to observe for a while before making specific plans.

...

To the north of Li Zhufeng, the newly hatched cockroach nymphs were mostly in their third instar stage. As Banbu landed at the entrance of the cave, these little creatures popped their heads out, observing from a distance.

They possessed a rudimentary intelligence, knowing that Banbu was of their kind's protector, so they cleverly chose to live near Banbu's cave. At the same time, they feared Banbu's immense size and the aura of a primal force being, so they dared not approach too closely.

Every time Banbu arrived, he would toss out bones with plenty of flesh residue, even directly

providing whole pieces of meat as food.

The cockroach nymphs quickly developed a habit. Whenever Banbu appeared, they would eagerly gather, hoping for food to fall their way.

However, they soon realized that Banbu returned empty-handed this time. After lingering for a while, they dispersed in groups of three or four, taking advantage of the night to crawl around, crawling until tired, nibbling on decaying leaves, then crawling again... The cycle repeated itself, obtaining nourishment through movement and frequent feeding, accelerating their growth.

By the onset of winter, these nymphs would have grown into subadults, with most freezing to death, leaving only a few exceptionally robust ones to survive. Come spring next year, they would rapidly mature, and by the following summer, they would enter the breeding season, spawning offspring on a massive scale.

An adult cockroach of the Redroach clan could reproduce between 3,000 and 5,000 nymphs in a year. In less than two years, Banbu's territory would be home to tens of thousands, even millions of ordinary clan members.

While ordinary cockroaches had weak combat abilities, their survival and reproductive capabilities were incredibly robust, so the warriors protecting the territory didn't need to expend much effort or time caring for them.

With his knowledge of human practices, Banbu naturally wouldn't neglect them.

The numerous female cockroaches didn't require much attention, but the male ones needed special protection.

Currently, there were only around 20,000 nymphs in the territory, with only about 50 male cockroaches among them. Banbu meticulously identified the location of each male's nest and intentionally provided them with meat every day to aid in their growth.

Cockroaches had two reproductive modes: prioritizing sexual reproduction to give birth to genetically superior offspring, and when the number of male cockroaches was insufficient, the female cockroaches couldn't find mates, leading to parthenogenesis, resulting in offspring that were essentially clones of the female cockroach.

Clones could either perfectly inherit the mother's genes, or suffer from genetic degradation, manifesting as a dual regression in physique and intelligence.

Conversely, sexual reproduction had a high probability of producing genetically superior offspring, with each generation stronger than the last. Superior genes would spread throughout the population, leading to the overall evolution of the species.

Banbu was certain that by ensuring the quantity of male cockroaches in the territory, the probability of producing new clan warriors would significantly increase.

With the abundant reproduction of ordinary cockroaches and the careful protection of male cockroaches, Banbu anticipated a rapid growth in the strength of his territory's clan.