Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat points

“No problem, the granary is integrated with the main house. By putting in some extra effort, we should be able to complete the main structure of the granary by tomorrow. The carpenter has already made the doors and windows, we just need to install them. The damp-proofing on the floor is done, there just needs to be another layer of bricks laid on top. I’ve asked another one of my disciples to do that.”

Tang Fang immediately agreed.

Having sorted out the granary business, Qin Niu finally felt a lot more at ease.

Despite his considerable income now, he still needed to store enough grain.

That was the only way to avoid going hungry if a famine occurred.

He had a premonition that this locust disaster was severe and came at the critical moment when the crops were maturing. If the locust plague couldn’t be stopped in time, a major famine was highly likely to emerge.

Just a while ago, the flood had destroyed many crops.

Now, many people were planting their second round of crops, which were in the seedling stage.

Locusts could easily devour everything overnight.

With a grain reserve of over nine hundred jins, he and Xiao Qing would have nothing to worry about in terms of food.

Both of them had huge appetites because they practiced Cultivation Techniques.

That made it even more imperative to be well-prepared.

Qin Niu left his house, pondering how to deal with the locusts.

He had been considering this issue these past few days.

Today, he brought Xiao Nui with him, and for the first time, he didn’t rush to the mountain to cultivate or to breed insects; instead, he headed to the village entrance.

Along the way, he saw many villagers catching locusts in the fields beside the road.

This scene was something you might only witness once in a hundred years.

Qin Niu carefully observed the terrain of Shuangfeng Village.

It was shaped like a long, narrow pocket and was sloped overall.

The locusts mainly came into the village through this opening.

If they couldn’t stop the locusts from entering the village, no matter how many people were catching them, it would be like trying to extinguish a fire with a cup of water.

Xu Zhenchang saw Qin Niu standing at the entrance to the village, frowning as he looked around, and felt secretly delighted, thinking that Master Qin was determined to help everyone deal with the locusts.

He immediately put down his insect-catching net and walked over.

“Master Qin, the crops in the fields are getting worse by the day. I’m afraid our village is going to run out of food in the second half of the year,” Xu Zhenchang said with a look of deep concern.

As the village head, he definitely had to look out for the well-being of his villagers.

Being a major cultivator in the village, if he couldn’t contain the pestilence, his losses would be greater than anyone’s.

Years of hard work could be reduced to nothing overnight, which was a real possibility.

“I think we should block off the entrance to the village first,” Qin Niu said.

“That makes sense in theory, but there’s just no way to block it! Locusts can fly, and they can even fly over three to four-meter-high barriers. There’s no stopping them!”

Xu Zhenchang had thought of this method as well.

But it was simply not feasible.

“There is a way!” Qin Niu’s eyes were determined and full of wisdom.

“Just tell me, and I will do everything in my power to make it happen,” Xu Zhenchang said, his face lighting up with hope.

If they could just stop the locusts from entering the village, they wouldn’t have to worry.

“These two fields will have to be sacrificed and used as a buffer zone. We need to set up a one-meter-high dense net here first, and then another one-meter- high dense net over there, and then enclose both sides. If we also fill the area with chickens and ducks inside, we should be able to initially stop the majority of the locusts from entering the village,” Qin Niu said.

He had devised a practical method based on his own pest eradication and pest-catching skills, combined with the actual situation on the ground.

“Ducks have a large appetite, and there are ancient texts on using ducks to combat locusts. Master Qin, your idea is brilliant!”

After hearing the plan, Xu Zhenchang was not only excited, but also filled with anticipation.

“Let’s organize the villagers to implement this method and see how it works! If there are problems, we’ll figure something else out. I will personally take on the loss of these two acres of fields. As for the chickens and ducks, we can start by collecting them from within the village; after using them, we can return them. It should be easy to buy the dense nets. You and Uncle Wang will share the cost of that. What do you think?”

Qin Niu, seeking to increase his prestige in the village and win over the hearts of the people, volunteered to take on the loss of those two fields.

“Absolutely no problem. I’ll get right on it. These locusts have really been driving me insane.”

Xu Zhenchang didn’t even think before he agreed.

Buying fishing nets wouldn’t cost much, and with Wang Furen sharing the expense, it would be even less.

It was far more cost-effective than hiring a large number of people to catch locusts every day.

And as long as they truly could stop the locusts from entering the village, the disaster would be halted.

After giving guidance, Qin Niu took Xiao Nui to the mountains, he would come back tomorrow to see the results.

Once in the mountains, he returned the over two hundred termites that he had brought down from the mountain the previous night to their nests.

Now, the mountains had become his workplace.

“All new termites, come out to me,”

Qin Niu commanded the ant colony.

Every day, nine or ten new members would emerge, and he would then cultivate them using the Banyan Tree Blood.

Unlike before, this time a whole swarm of young ants came out all at once.

Qin Niu was completely taken aback.

“Could it be that the first batch of one hundred eggs laid by the Ant Queen has all metamorphosed into adult ants?”

He was excited.

On inspecting the ant colony’s attributes, they were indeed just as he had speculated.

Time flies so fast!

He had not expected that from the day the Ant Queen could lay one hundred eggs, more than twenty days had already passed.

All of them had managed to transform into adult ants.

“Sixty-seven regular Worker Ants, one Power Worker Ant, two Poison Worker Ants. Twenty-five regular Soldier Ants, three Poison Soldier Ants, one Elephant Nose Soldier Ant, one Breeder Ant,”

After inspecting the attributes of these one hundred young ants, Qin Niu was filled with endless surprise.

In the past, he had longed for the emergence of a termite with special attributes.

Now that the base number had increased, there was not only a Power Worker Ant but also two Poison Worker Ants and one Elephant Nose Soldier Ant, as well as a Breeder Ant—these were all very special existences.

That Breeder Ant, once it grew up, should be able to fly off to mate.

He wondered if it successfully established a new termite empire, would it still be considered Qin Niu’s pet?

Could he also command it?

These questions were yet to be tested.

The Elephant Nose Soldier Ant was a very special type of ant.

They could release chemical substances to attack the enemy.

They could be considered a superior version of the Poisonous Ant.

However, it differed greatly from the Poisonous Ant.

Theoretically, the Elephant Nose Soldier Ant could also manifest a poisonous attribute.

But the probability of that happening was extremely low.

Just imagine, it took a hundred young ants to produce one Elephant Nose Soldier Ant; probably five or six thousand young ants would be needed to have the chance of producing one with the poisonous attribute.

According to Qin Niu’s experience in cultivating ant colonies, the more attributes a termite had at birth, the greater its growth potential was.

For instance, a Power Soldier Ant, if cultivated successfully, could immediately become a Grade Three Tiger Striped Iron Armor Ghost Ant.

Whereas a regular Soldier Ant’s growth peak was a Grade Two Striped Phantom Ant.

There was also a vast difference in their combat abilities.

Ten Striped Ants were no match for one Tiger Striped Iron Armor Ant.

And as for a special existence like Fourth, it was even harder to come by.

He seriously doubted it could be replicated.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of them one by one to ensure that each is cultivated properly,”

Qin Niu was not worried about Banyan Tree Blood at all; it was the Thousand Eyes Tree Blood that was a bit more difficult to obtain. Because their numbers were few and the plants were small, he couldn’t harvest much at a time.

Fortunately, the amount needed to cultivate one termite was very little.