BXBX NOVEL Chapter 72 - 67: The Onset of the Insect Calamity_i
Chapter 72 - 67: The Onset of the Insect Calamity_i
You should know that Blade Qi is dubbed the ‘King of Armor Breaking’; it’s nearly the bane of all shields, armors, and helmets.
Although Sword Qi is powerful too, it isn’t as domineering as Blade Qi.
The sword is known as the sovereign of weapons, renowned for its heft and ferocity, extremely domineering.
The Blade Qi nurtured similarly possesses some of the sword’s characteristics.
As for the spear, it is called the ‘thief of weaponry,’ with attributes similar to that of the staff. It really isn’t comparable to the sword and blade at all.
Ordinary martial warriors and fighters often use spears, but among cultivators of their level, spear wielders are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
The only two weapons that truly have outstanding potential and can be cultivated over the long term are the sword and the blade.
They are the mainstream weapons of ordinary cultivators.
The most widely known abilities include Sword Flight, wielding the sword to decapitate an enemy chieftain from thousands of miles away, and splitting Mount Hua with a single blow, and so on.
Qin Niu stowed the Treasured Sword carefully, taking a little Thousand Eyes Tree Blood and some Ancient Banyan Tree Blood with him, along with several large jars, ready to head into the mountains for cultivation.
On the way, he encountered the drunken Zhang Banzui, leaning against a poplar tree by the roadside, squinting his eyes, still clutching his beloved flask of liquor.
“The insect disaster is coming, the insect disaster is coming…”
He saw Qin Niu passing by and kept muttering these words.
“Uncle Zhang, what insect disaster is coming? Please be clearer.”
“Insects bring harm, disaster signifies difficulty, an insect disaster is an approaching calamity…” Zhang Banzui shook his head and swayed, sounding like a bookworm who had gone foolish from reading too much, speaking in a mix of arcane sayings.
Qin Niu knew that Zhang Banzui always spoke like this, telling half while leaving the other half unsaid.
This year saw abundant rainfall, while last year’s cold winter came without snow, all of which provided favorable conditions for the breeding of insects.
His corn field didn’t have nearly this many bugs last year.
The number of mature insects and eggs cleared this year was frightening.
This was all before the pest outbreak had taken form; otherwise, the number of insects would have been at least tenfold.
Where did Zhang Banzui even hear such news?
Now that Qin Niu had a termite colony and had subdued a Queen Bee, he wasn’t very afraid of the insect disaster.
At worst, he figured it would just take two more nights of effort to clear them out again.
What Qin Niu was most worried about was the possibility of a famine following the insect disaster, or even greater secondary calamities.
This also made him determined to accelerate the cultivation of the ant colony.
To assist them in evolving quickly.
After entering the mountains, he went straight to the front of the Ant Nest.
Almost unfailingly, the number of ants in the colony had increased by ten.
Eight Worker Ants, two Soldier Ants.
Which type of termite to breed is decided by the Ant Queen.
It possesses moderate intelligence and can flexibly adjust according to the current state of the colony. If there are too few Worker Ants, it will breed a large number of them. If it feels old or wants to expand the colony, it will produce Breeder Ants.
He called out the ant colony.
One by one, they lined up and crawled out.
The number of Swift Ants had increased to 11, the number of Grade Two Lightning Worker Ants had risen to 8, and the number of Grade Two Tiger-striped Soldier Ants had grown to 7.
These were the substantial results of Qin Niu’s mass cultivation efforts.
Currently, there are still five termites undergoing evolution.
They are two ordinary Worker Ants that were fed Ancient Banyan Tree Blood yesterday, one Strong Soldier Ant, and one Worker Ant and one Soldier Ant that were fed Thousand Eyes Tree Blood.
Their evolution requires time.
He could only wait patiently.
Based on Qin Niu’s insect breeding experience, the two termites fed with Thousand Eyes Tree Blood should have completed their evolution in just one day.
But they still hadn’t succeeded, which puzzled him greatly.
At the same time, it added to his anticipation.
Because the longer the evolution takes, theoretically, the stronger the new abilities they acquire will be.
Now that he had 11 Swift Ants, he planned to mass-cultivate another 19 to reach a total of 30 ants.
The work efficiency of Swift Ants was quite good, with one equating to several ordinary Worker Ants.
With the current insufficient number of Worker Ants, having a large number of Swift Ants would allow Qin Niu to take more Worker Ants to cultivate into Grade Two Lightning Worker Ants.
This way, he could quickly mass-produce Grade Two termites.
The value and abilities of Grade Two termites as well as their potential for growth far surpass those of Swift Ants.
Now, he had quite mature experience with breeding these termite varieties. He easily finished breeding 19 Swift Ants, 30 Grade Two Lightning Worker Ants, and 10 Grade Two Tiger-striped Soldier Ants.
The Tiger-striped Soldier Ants were indeed powerful, but they seemed to have become especially temperamental and aggressive after evolving.
It was necessary to have Fourth manage them.
“Ant Queen, Fourth, we’re going to spend another day at the temporary ant nest today.”
With yesterday’s experience, Qin Niu only brought four Tiger-striped Soldier Ants, ten Swift Worker Ants, and two Lightning Worker Ants to the location of the Ancient Banyan Tree today.
Regular worker ants were not of much use there; it was better not to bring them at all.
Knowing the way, he arrived under the pine tree, settled the Ant Queen down, and looked up at the beehive above.
“Master, I have laid eggs!”
The Queen Bee reported to him.
“That’s great!”
Qin Niu was excited to hear the news.
He had been busy all day recently, and after subduing the Queen Bee, he had barely managed it.
Counting the time, it had been three days.
It was about time for her to lay eggs.
He checked the Queen Bee’s attributes, Breeding Skill Grade One 0.01/10.
She had laid… one bee egg.
This Queen Bee was truly a talent.
Qin Niu had thought she would lay at least ten eggs, but she had only laid one.
It was better than nothing!
He could only comfort himself this way.
If her breeding skill continued to be this weak, she would probably be eliminated by the bee colony.
He didn’t pay further attention to the Queen Bee, instead walking straight toward the interior of the Ancient Banyan Tree.
In the blink of an eye, he had penetrated into the area enveloped by the Ancient Banyan Tree.
Now, with many successful trips in and out and a clear understanding of the habits of the Ancient Banyan Tree, he was exceedingly bold.
It was like coming back to his own home.
He approached the trunk and chopped down with his sword.
The blade went more than five inches deep into the wood, startling him greatly.
Chopping again, he produced the Explosive Slash Effect, delivering a wound eight or nine inches deep. It was terrifying.
The formidable power of his chop was due to three factors: first, his cultivation had advanced to Twofold Mortal Realm; second, the special effect of his martial technique, Critical Chop; and third, his Treasured Sword had nurtured a thread of Blade Qi.
These multiple factors combined enabled him to inflict a nine-inch deep wound with a single chop.
The Ancient Banyan Tree was incredibly powerful.
Even with such a deep wound, it remained utterly still.
Only droplets of green Banyan Tree Blood continued to ooze out.
This was a treasure; Qin Niu quickly took out a jar to catch it.
Just like yesterday, he filled five large jars with its blood, creating five wounds.
He was ruthlessly exploiting the value of the Ancient Banyan Tree, collecting its blood while sitting cross-legged and cultivating beneath it.
As soon as he began practicing the Everlasting Spring Technique, he felt a surge of cool energy pouring into his body.
The speed was twice that of his cultivation under the tree yesterday.
“It seems that my Everlasting Spring Technique has advanced to the second level, and my cultivation speed has indeed doubled.”
In the past, cultivating under the tree for one hour would increase his power by 10 points, equivalent to the gains from five nights of cultivation elsewhere.
Now it was more terrifying: at this rate, he could gain 20 points of power in one hour.
Reaching the Threefold Mortal Realm could be achieved in just one day.
Since he had entered very early today and there were at least five or six hours left until dark,
Qin Niu was, of course, cultivating with all his might, not to be mentioned elsewhere.
In the past, even reaching Twofold Mortal Realm had seemed unthinkable; now, reaching Threefold, even Fourfold… was as easy as playing.
Cultivation was indeed fascinating.
It was like rolling a snowball; the stronger the cultivation, the more energy could be obtained, increasing exponentially..