Astral Sand Locust

"Mudou, I'm 7 years old."

"I know."

"How many days has he been asleep?"

"It's just nightfall. Is it exactly three days?"

"Three days? That's not bad."

"Evolve into the 8th instar in three months. Evolve into the 9th instar in three months after that. Three months after that, Sha Huai, you will also be promoted to intermediate warrior."

I hope everything goes well.

"With the enhancement effect of white thorn to boost vitality, the growth and evolution of a beginner warrior will almost never go wrong."

"Then we have to thank White Thorn!"

As it spoke, Sha Huai took off, gliding down the hillside and landing next to a clump of desert purple grass, where it picked out and ate the tender leaves.

Mudou walked on the ground and followed.

"Shahuai, what do you think we should do next?"

"What else can we do? Keep searching for the divinely given seed."

"OK!"

Mu Dou happily agreed, then turned and glanced down the mountain, asking, "Sand Locust, can we give up on the work of planting plants to cultivate an oasis?"

Sha Huai: "..."

Sha Huai's initial intention in proposing the creation of an oasis was to prosper the divine kingdom and accelerate the production of divine power.

Whether now or in the future, the divine kingdom will primarily rely on ordinary plants to produce divine power.

The improvement that a single ordinary plant can bring is negligible, but if the number reaches tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, forming a scale, the divine power gains will be considerable.

Therefore, the plan to create an oasis must continue no matter what.

Last year, due to a lack of experience, the survival rate of the common plants we cultivated was indeed too low.

Last year, 99% of the saplings planted from seed died during the long dry season, almost a total wipeout.

The method of sowing seeds can be abandoned for cultivating green plants in wastelands.

About half of the plants, such as sand willow and six-angled cycad, that were propagated last year have survived.

Sha Huai felt that the survival rate was acceptable.

Optimizing and improving the cutting method should work.

Last year, we also transplanted the divisions and offsets derived from succulents from the sand locust tree.

The survival rate is extremely high, with over 80% surviving.

Unfortunately, most of these succulents are small plants.

They can be used appropriately to fill the spaces between large trees, increase the variety and abundance of greenery, and create different levels of height.

Sha Huai had already planned out her method for creating this oasis: [primarily through cuttings, supplemented by transplanting succulents].

We need to expand the types of plants that can be propagated by cuttings in order to ensure biodiversity and maintain ecological balance.

The sand locust and the bean roam freely in all directions, searching for divinely bestowed seeds. While exploring the wilderness, they have encountered many plants suitable for cuttings in other places, so it is worth considering introducing some easy-to-grow trees.

"The beans that were sown from seed all died. But many of the ones propagated by cuttings have survived."

"Then let's propagate by cuttings. Let's not use seeds."

"Mudou, the inherited memories show that sea buckthorn cuttings have a very high survival rate near the Northern Fish Lake. Next time we return from searching for the divinely bestowed seeds, let's bring back a batch of branches along the way."

"OK……"

"How about we try propagating some white thorn branches during this rainy season?"

"This is not suitable for propagation by cuttings; it's not easy for it to survive."

"How about we get a batch of fake Bauhinia, Acacia, and Pterocarpus branches?"

"..."

These plants are not found in the Green Trees Mountains or the nearby wilderness.

That would require traveling to very far places to collect branches and then transporting them back.

It takes a lot of time and effort.

Moreover, the locust tree is not suited for this kind of physical labor.

It must be a large and powerful herring with a broad carapace and elytra.

After a long silence, Mu Dou reluctantly agreed, "Okay..."

After a brief discussion, we decided on what to do for the next period of time.

Mu Dou went to the north side of the mountains to hunt some food and returned, eating and resting.

The sand locust tree had just woken up from its slumber and was idly wandering around its territory, carefully observing the common plants until dawn.

The two insects set off early in the morning and once again entered the northern mountains, soaring and flying among the peaks.

Working in perfect harmony, the sand locust senses and searches for the divinely bestowed seed, while the shepherd bean observes and records the geographical environment, and also observes the distribution of plants and animals.

Extremely efficient.

However, more than half a month has passed, and there has been no progress.

It was dusk, and the sky was about to darken.

The locust tree and the bean tree were resting on the cliff of an unnamed mountain when suddenly a strong wind arose.

Dark clouds gathered, and the sky suddenly turned black.

Lightning flashed amidst the dark clouds, followed by a torrential downpour accompanied by thunder.

The rainy season is here!

...

When soaked by rainwater, plant seeds will awaken, take root, and sprout. However, most of the seedlings will die under the scorching sun the next day, and even the divinely bestowed seedlings are no exception.

The search for the divinely ordained seed has been suspended.

...

Green mountain range.

The locust tree flew ahead.

Mudou, carrying a large bundle of sea buckthorn branches bound with simple ropes made from the fibers of agave leaves, moved quickly, crossed the mountains, and charged down the southeast-facing ridge.

Mu Dou truly lived up to his awakened system talent. With his extraordinary strength and endurance, he could carry a weight ten times his own body weight and still move swiftly, running without even taking a breath.

He ran all the way back to his cave.

The sand locusts used their jaws to tear and bite, cutting the ropes binding them to unload the cargo.

Ten sea buckthorn branches are bundled into one small bundle, and a total of 10 small bundles are bundled into one large bundle consisting of 100 branches.

These branches were collected from 100 different sea buckthorn trees.

According to the records of inherited memory, natural ecology not only requires a rich variety of species, but also a sufficient number of individual samples of the same species.

Within a species, if the bloodline sample is too homogeneous, the entire population can easily perish due to a single disease.

Conversely, the more diverse the bloodline groups of a population, the stronger its resistance to pests and diseases.

"Sand locust trees, shouldn't we plant them quickly?"

"Of course! Let's use our claws now."

"Okay...shall we dig a hole first?"

"Dig a hole!"

There are only 100 branches in total.

"Then let's dig 100 holes first!"

It was still late morning.

Mu Dou turned around and rushed out of the cave, with Sha Huai following closely behind.

At the foot of the mountain,

Next to the bean plant, choose a good location, plan the row spacing, and reserve space for other plants to be planted. Then the two insects begin their work.

Dig almost vertically into the ground, drilling a hole 1 meter deep.

Both the Desert Locust and the Giant Transformer had racial talents for this task, and it took most of the day to dig 100 deep pits before nightfall.

Small bundles of branches were carried out from the cave, inserted into the pits, and the soil was backfilled to complete the propagation.

No need for much management.

It is the rainy season now, and natural rainfall will complete the irrigation work.

Shahuai and Mudou worked through the night to complete the seabuckthorn cuttings. Mudou then went out and hunted a black and white taiga lizard, adding another meal to their diet.

Eat well and rest well.

After inspecting their territory and confirming there were no problems, the two insects set off again, heading due east.

In less than three days,

Mudou returned carrying a large bundle, a full 100 oilwood branches.

The two insects busily dug holes and planted the cuttings overnight.

After a short rest, we set off again.

...

...

"oh--"

"oh--"

Returning from collecting cuttings,

From afar, Mudou could see the Mudou Life Seed within its territory, where flowers bloomed like a tree ablaze with flames.

The bean pods are growing very well and have already started to bloom as the rainy season begins.

Carrying a bundle of honey bean branches ten times its own size, the bean sped off, heading straight for the bean seed.

The sand locust tree glanced around a few times, then kicked off, flapped its wings, and took flight. It arrived at the foot of the tree first, unleashed its spiritual power, and flew over to scan and count the number of trees.

According to the inherited memory, there are six different species of bean trees: bean tree, white bean tree, black bean tree, red bean tree, honey bean tree, and velvet bean tree.

This particular bean tree is a red bean tree. It gets its name from its bright red flowers.

The inflorescence is a raceme with dense flowers and exposed stamens. When viewed up close, they resemble bright red caterpillars that are more than ten centimeters long.

"Sand locust tree!"

"The mesona tree is so productive! It has 117 inflorescences in total!"

"Based on the yield of four pods per inflorescence, it could produce approximately 500 pods, or two to three thousand soybeans?"

"We definitely can't leave so many. The fruits will compete with the tree for primal energy and nutrients, which will hinder the growth of the life seed."

"That's right. The Mudou Life Seed has only been planted for a year, and at this stage, the focus should be on its growth and evolution."

"I'll leave Shuhua behind and use the raw stones to quickly replenish its energy. Mudou, go dig a hole and propagate it."

The sand locust leaped onto the bundles of honey bean branches, buried its head in its jaws and tore at them, untying the ropes binding it.

"good!"

Mu Dou readily agreed, slung his load over his shoulder, and sprinted toward the planned cuttings planting area. After running a short distance, he stopped, still uneasy, and turned back to ask:

"Sand locust tree, how many flowers do you think are appropriate, and how many fruits should be left?"

Mu Dou added, "Whether or not I can find the divinely bestowed seed, I have to hurry up and evolve by this time next year."

"Press down half of the flowers first. Once the fruit has formed, press down half of the fruit as well. Leave one-quarter, which is 100 to 120 fruit pods."

"That makes perfect sense!"

Mudou, go and get to work without worry.

The locust tree also took flight, landing on the trunk and crawling along it, carefully selecting and removing some of the inflorescences.

Handle it well.

They quickly returned to the cave to retrieve the raw stones, breaking them one by one to urgently replenish the original energy.

After a busy day,

The seedlings of the bean plant were handled properly.

All the collected honey bean cuttings were planted.

This time, Shahuai and Mudou stayed in the territory for an extra day, observing under Mudou's seed tree for a day before setting off again to venture into the depths of the wilderness.

...

...

With the guidance of the sand locust tree and the transport of beans, they made one long journey after another to collect cuttings, bringing back a total of 10 kinds of tree branches suitable for cuttings.

"Is it alright now, locust tree?"

That's all for this year.

"The rainy season isn't over yet."

"Next, let's collect some white thorn branches near the territory and try propagating them by cuttings."

"Alright!"

Mu Dou readily agreed and asked, "Sha Huai, what do you want to eat? I'm going hunting."

"Wait, there's one more thing..."

The sand locust bent its antennae, pondered for a moment, and said, "Mudou, we still have a divinely bestowed seed."

"The rain tree's crown-shaped seed is a gift from God, of course I remember. Locust tree, no rush. Once the rainy season ends, let's set off immediately to search for the new year's divinely bestowed seeds. Let's look again, and if we can't find them, we'll see."

"Mu Dou, that's a divinely bestowed seed with water attributes."

Sha Huai analyzed, "According to the description in the inherited memories, when choosing a destiny seed, it is best to choose one with a system attribute or one that matches the elemental attribute. In this way, the enhancement effect of the destiny pouch can be maximized."

Mu Dou: "..."

Mu Dou nodded seriously, agreeing, "That's one way of putting it!"

That's a possibility; the situation is quite complicated.

For example, if the Force Food enhancement effect of a certain plant produced by a normal seed is 1, then the Force Food enhancement effect produced by a wild Divinely Gifted Seed is usually 2.

For the same type of plant and the same type of enhancement, the enhancement effect of the Divine Force Food produced by Wild Divine Gift Seeds is twice that of the Force Food produced by Ordinary Life Seeds!

If the divinely bestowed seed is incorporated into the life sac and nurtured into a divinely bestowed life seed, then the enhancement effect of the divinely bestowed primal force food produced can reach 2.5 to 3.5.

If the attributes match, for example, if the herdsman bean is a system attribute, then if a system-given seed is placed into the life sac for nurturing, then the life sac will provide the greatest enhancement to the seed, and the enhancement effect of the divine force food produced by the nurtured life seed will also reach the best of 3.5.

If the attributes don't match, for example, the Rain Tree Flower Crown Pillar God-given Seed is a water-type seed, which doesn't match either the Bean or the Sand Locust. If it's incorporated into the Life Sac to grow into a Life Seed God-given Seed, the enhancement effect of the God-given Force Food produced can only reach 2.5, which is only slightly higher than the 2.0 of the wild God-given Seed.

The seeds of the Rain Tree Flower Crown Pillar are indeed not a suitable choice for one's destiny.

Mu Dou said, "That black lotus container is a divine artifact specifically designed for storing plant seeds. Divinely bestowed seeds are very safe inside and can be stored for a long time. Let's just keep them there. We won't consider it for now. In the future, once we make contact with the insectoid tribes in the south, we'll see how things go and decide whether to nurture them into life-sustaining seeds."

"No... Mu Dou... you misunderstood..."

Sha Huai paused, then said, "What I mean is, to sow the seeds directly and cultivate them into wild, divinely bestowed seeds!"

Mu Dou: ? ? ?

Mu Dou's antennae suddenly stood erect, and she jumped up and down excitedly, "Cultivate it into a wild, divinely bestowed seed?"

"Sand Acacia, haven't you awakened your inherited memories yet? Wild divinely bestowed seeds grow and evolve at an extremely slow rate, 5 to 10 times slower than our Zerg warriors!"

Sha Huai calmly replied, "They awakened the relevant knowledge during their fourth evolutionary stage."

"and you……"

Mu Dou paused abruptly, composed himself, and said calmly, "Sand locust, this means that once planted, it may take 5 to 10 years to evolve into the intermediate level. It may take 30 to 50 years to evolve into the advanced level. It may take hundreds of years to evolve into the Mountain Lord level."

"I understand... I get it..."

The sand locust tree twitched its antennae.

Under normal circumstances, it is not a wise move to directly sow the divinely bestowed seeds and cultivate them into wild divinely bestowed seeds.

The main problem is that wild, divinely bestowed seeds grow and evolve too slowly.

The seed of destiny, bestowed by the gods, is bound to the soul of the Zerg warrior, sharing a common destiny and undergoing a transformation of its soul, allowing it to evolve and grow in sync with the Zerg warrior.

From another perspective, the most remarkable aspect of the life capsule nurturing life seeds lies in compensating for the slow growth and evolution of primal force plants.

But this shortcoming can be solved in the case of the sand locust tree!

The sand locust tree has two ideas:

Firstly, planting within the realm of the divine kingdom can consume divine power to accelerate the growth and evolution of wild divinely bestowed seeds.

Secondly, wild divine-given seeds growing within the divine realm must accelerate the production of divine power, right? Divine-given seeds must have a better acceleration effect than ordinary life-giving plants, right?

Currently, the increase in the production rate of divine power in the Divine Kingdom by the Mudou Life Seed is quite significant, equivalent to ten thousand ordinary Mudou trees!

However, the divine kingdom and divine power are special gifts from the true God of nature, and this is not something that can be explained to Mu Dou, so it is not appropriate to tell him.

From Mudou's perspective, it is completely unacceptable to sow God-given seeds into wild God-given seeds.

That's so stupid.

Sha Huai stubbornly argued, "Mu Dou, believe me, we'll definitely find another divine seed this year, at least one. If we're lucky, we might find two, or even three. With me, this insect blessed by the true god of nature, divine seeds are nothing rare; we have plenty."

Mu Dou: "..."

That's what I meant.

Mu Dou Ning choked back tears and said, "The inherited memories clearly state that divinely bestowed seeds are extremely rare, with a very low probability of birth. Last year, we searched diligently for a whole year and only found one. We may not be so lucky this year."

"As for the true god of nature, if it truly favors us, it should hurry up and send the white thorn back."

Sha Huai: "..."

Mu Dou is quick-witted. Sha Huai didn't know how to refute him for a moment. He buried his head, raised his paws, and groomed his antennae. His brain was working like crazy in secret, and he quickly came up with a new excuse.

"Mudou, the inherited memories say that intermediate warriors have a lifespan of 30 years, and only begin to age at 20, right?"

"right."

"How old are we? Why are we in such a hurry to evolve?"

"..."

"Look, all year round, we have nothing else to do but search for divinely bestowed seeds, right? If we're unlucky this year, there's always next year. If we're unlucky next year, then the year after. We just have to find divinely bestowed seeds with compatible attributes to use as our destiny seeds."

"As for this Rain Tree Flower Crown Pillar God-given seed, its attributes are incompatible, so let's plant it directly."

"this……"

Mu Dou could tell that Sha Huai was determined to plant the seeds bestowed by the Rain Tree Flower Crown Pillar today.

Sha Huai continued, "In the future, we will definitely find more divinely bestowed seeds with incompatible attributes, and we will plant them all as wild divinely bestowed seeds."

"As life forms evolve and grow, their life level increases, and their lifespan continues to rise. Mu Dou, as long as our evolutionary level is high enough, we will be able to wait for the wild divine seed to grow."

"The sooner we plant the seeds, the sooner we can reap the rewards. In the future, we can take them out and trade them with other Zerg warriors."

Sha Huai added, "In the time to come, we'll stay in the vicinity of the territory, collecting white thorn branches for propagation. At the same time, we can also take care of the wild, divinely bestowed seedlings."

"Um--"

"All right."

Mu Dou reluctantly agreed, then asked, "So, where should we plant it?"

Sha Huai raised its claw and pointed to the small hill to the south, saying, "If it is a seed bestowed by the Rain Tree Flower Crown Pillar God, it is more suitable to plant it on that kind of hillside, the south side of the mountain is the best."

"good……"

Mu Dou said, "If nothing unexpected happens, it's a seed bestowed by the God of Rain Tree Flower Crown Pillar."

Sha Huai waved his paw and said, "Come on, let's go over to the hillside and check the situation. If there are no problems, we can plant them directly."