Astral Gods

Chapter 132 The Sunflower, a Divinely Gifted Seed, Ripenes

After Zi Ai finished trading her Force food this year, there was nothing more for them to do. Zi Ai also took the God-given Three-lobed Leaf Snake Grapes and sold them to the tribe at a price of 10 Originium Stones each, earning 1200 Originium Stones in return.

Normally, it would be very difficult to buy God-given Force food with such a small amount of raw materials. The reason why God-given Force food is so precious is that, unlike ordinary Force food, it does not have a fixed price and rarely has a premium.

The reason is that there are too many ordinary Force foods, and if you charge too high a price here, I can always buy cheaper alternatives elsewhere.

However, God-given Force food has a premium price. Ordinary Trilobite Grapes produced by Advanced Warrior Life Seeds, which are the same size and weight as God-given Trilobite Grapes, can be sold for 5 Grapes for 1 Originium.

The price of the God-given Trilobite Snake Grape has increased 50 times, and that's only calculated based on the lowest standard of God-given Force food under normal circumstances.

If word really got out that their tribe possessed divinely bestowed Trilobite Grapes, and if insects desperately needed them, they could sell them for 14 or 16 Originium per grape, potentially making a 70 or 80-fold profit compared to ordinary Trilobite Grapes.

I've even heard that on the Thousand Trees Continent, because there are so many Zerg warriors, the supply of God-given Force food is insufficient, and people can only exchange God-given Force food for God-given Force food.

Zerg warriors without the Seed of Gods have to pay double the price to buy God-given Force food, and the Flame Spider traveling all over the continent earns this premium.

The three brothers wouldn't go to the Thousand Trees Continent for a 20-30% premium, nor would they want to reveal that they possessed too many divinely bestowed seeds.

Selling the fruit to the tribe is the easiest option. Whether the tribe sells it at a fair price to other Rhinoceros Tortoise warriors within the tribe, or wants to earn more raw stones to bargain with other tribes on the island, is their own choice.

The entire trading event lasted until late October, after which Xiangjiao Island gradually returned to its quiet state.

Winter is not a good time for sowing and planting crops to cultivate one's territory, and everyone is quite idle every winter.

However, this winter the Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors had a bit more to do. King Green Bamboo Armor issued an order for the Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors in the tribe to search for mineral veins all over Elephant Banana Island, especially copper, iron and aluminum mines.

I heard that King Qingzhujia has reached an agreement with the Baibu Merchant Caravan to jointly build ironclad ships.

I don't know how they're going to be built, but I've heard they'll be made of a combination of iron and wood, and the ships will be equipped with a variety of weapons that are suitable for the Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors to control, so that they can maintain a balance of power at sea.

The Rhinoceros Tortoise tribe originally collected a lot of metal, which was stored on several mountain peaks along the Great Green Peak. However, a large amount of metal was consumed during the construction of the hydroelectric power station, and now they need to collect it again.

These tasks are handled by the Rhinoceros Tortoise warriors of the tribe's lord level and above, and have nothing to do with the Zishan tribe.

Although the yew has awakened its metal-type talent, its perception range for metals is not large. It is not yet capable enough to search for underground mineral veins. At the advanced stage, it only needs to protect its own life seed.

Xiangjiao Island covers an area of ​​over 100,000 square kilometers, so it naturally has various mineral veins.

Just over half a month later, a Twin-Forked Rhinoceros Tortoise Warrior who had awakened the Metal element found a small metal vein in a bug-free area.

Then, King Qingzhu Jia dispatched Zerg warriors with awakened talents to break down the soil, rocks, and metals in the mine, extracting relatively pure metals to transport back to Daqing Peak, preparing to work with the Flame Spider Merchant to jointly build an ironclad ship.

Time flies, and the last few months of the year quietly passed by amidst the busy work of the tribal warriors.

Spring arrived as scheduled the following year. From early January, before the winter chill had completely faded, the island's trees had already quietly awakened.

First, tiny buds swelled up on the branches of the old trees, and within two days they unfurled tender yellow and light green new leaves.

The once withered and decaying grassland slowly recovers in the warming winds of day and night, gradually shedding its dryness and regaining its vitality.

Upon closer inspection, the grass is still sparse and mottled, mixed with last year's withered grass, not conspicuous, and even still feels desolate.

But once you stand on a slightly distant slope and look out, you can see the whole land covered in a light layer of new green.

For the insectoids living here, time is not calculated using the usual calendar. They take the first sprouting of new buds on trees and the first touch of green on the earth as the official start of a new year.

This season of transition between the old and the new is long and gentle. From the first sprouts in early January to the lush foliage in April, the entire four months are called the new bud season.

In the season of new buds, moisture rises, vegetation grows wildly, early spring flowers bloom, and the Zerg warriors quietly get busy.

During this season, most Zerg warriors will not quietly manage their territories, but will instead roam the hills and fields following the blooming flowers, searching for the divine seeds that may be born.

While the number of Zerg warriors is vast, the number of God-given Seeds is quite rare, making the annual search during the flowering season an essential part of their mission.

This flowering season, the purple wormwood and purple locust trees joined the main group in searching for the divinely bestowed seeds all over the mountains and fields. Although they had the wealth of the yew seed production to share with them, none of them would complain about having too many resources.

If they find the divinely bestowed seed, that would be a cause for celebration. But if they don't find it, it's alright; the two brothers can simply consider it a trip.

This year, Zishan has not made any moves. Among the three brothers, there is always one who has to guard the seed and territory. In the past, it was always the one that went out to play.

Now it's time for the two older brothers to go out and have some fun, relax, and make friends with the other Zerg warriors on the island, so they don't have to work in their territory all the time and get bored.

Another reason is that Yew has something else to do while staying in the territory.

Near the male kiwifruit tree, Zishan used its huge horns to carve out a small patch of land. Then, using its metal attribute talent, it made a bucket of suitable size, drew water from the ditch extending from the hydroelectric power station, thoroughly irrigated the land, and then planted several pea-shaped seeds one by one.

Last September, it sent Qingyulan to buy 10 Bean seeds from the large tribes on the Thousand Star Islands.

Originally, it wanted to cultivate a seed bean as its life seed at the end of last year, but the Green Bamboo King gave it the seed bestowed by the gods of the Nephrolepis to cultivate, so it gave up the idea of ​​cultivating a seed bean as its life seed at the third age.

But since the seeds have already been brought back, they shouldn't be wasted. Taking advantage of the free time, it's a good opportunity to sow them.

This tree species is strictly forbidden by the major tribes on the island, who dare not plant it on a large scale, but planting it in small areas is fine.

They don't expect to obtain randomly born divine seeds from them. As long as there is enough of it, enough for the tribe's rhinoceros tortoise warriors to nurture into life seeds, and the primal energy food produced thereafter can be consumed within their own tribe.

After the seeds are sown, it stays between the male plants of the Kapok and the Qinghun Kiwi.

During the winter, the owner of Zizhu Mountain built a small greenhouse for the male Qinghun kiwifruit plant. Three months later, the male plant has grown to more than 3 meters long, and the main vine is about the thickness of a blueberry. It has begun to take shape, but we are still worried that some birds and animals may damage it.

Just as it was carefully tending to these plants, the owner of Purple Pearl Mountain came over.

"Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain, haven't you been searching for the divinely bestowed seeds on the island this season?" Zishan was also somewhat surprised to see it coming.

The Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain explained, "I don't have time to search for the divine seed here. Because our tribe was attacked last year, the ironclad ship is still not finished. This year, we will have to fly to the Thousand Star Islands on our own."

To prevent further attacks, King Qingzhujia decided not only to change his route to the Thousand Star Islands, but also to go there several months earlier.

Anyway, we mountain lord-level warriors no longer have any territory to manage within the tribe, so it would be better to go over there and develop land sooner rather than later.

As for my life seed, I'll have to trouble you and the others to take care of it.

"No problem, we will definitely take good care of it."

Then Zishan asked, somewhat puzzled, "If we're heading to the Thousand Star Islands now, will we still send high-level warriors there this year? If we are, what will happen to their lifelines?"

The Master of Zizhu Mountain said, "We will send high-ranking warriors this year, but we dare not send too many at once. We will only send 10 this year."

As for the high-ranking warriors, they had long ago entrusted their life essence to the care of their kin, the Rhinoceros Tortoise Warriors.

"Okay," Zishan said, indicating her understanding.

The Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain added, "Since we have some free time now, I'll set up a trellis for the male Green Soul Kiwi tree for you, so you won't have to bother other insects to make it later."

"Then I'll have to trouble the Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain."

Even if the Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain leaves, Zishan can ask other tribal warriors to make a climbing frame for it. Lord Qingguo and Lord Zima Mountain are both insects that have awakened earth-type talents, and they can both make them.

However, now that its elders are here, it can get things done, saving itself the trouble of having to ask insects for help and incurring their favors later.

The owner of Zizhu Mountain spent two or three days building a trellis for the male Qinghun kiwifruit seedlings that was about the same size as the one for the female Qinghun kiwifruit seedlings.

Just as the Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain finished making the climbing frame and was about to leave, the yew tree, which routinely patrolled its territory, ran back and excitedly shouted, "Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain, my sunflower seed has matured!"

"The sunflower seeds have matured?" Upon hearing this, the Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain was slightly surprised, then somewhat moved, realizing how slowly these divinely bestowed seeds grew.

Normal sunflowers take about a month from flowering to seed maturity, but the yew sunflower seedlings, which flowered in early June last year, have taken almost seven months to mature, making their flowering time about five to six times longer than that of ordinary sunflowers.

"Let's go. Let's take a look."

The master of Zizhu Mountain followed Zishan to the location of the sunflower seed.

The sunflower seedlings of the yew tree are propagated by a threefold division. In the initial stage, it grows into one main plant and then divides into three sub-plants.

In the intermediate stage, based on the three divisions, three more divisions were made from each of the three divisions. In the advanced stage, divisions were made again, and together with the main plant, the total number of divisions reached forty, which is already quite a large area.

When the sunflowers bloom, this place looks like a small sea of ​​flowers. In particular, the sunflower seeds, blessed by the gods, emit waves of spiritual energy, which invigorates the Zerg warriors who smell the fragrance.

When the master of Zizhu Mountain arrived here, he saw that the sunflowers were blooming with flowers of all sizes on their branches.

Each of its branched flower heads is the size of a bowl and emits a faint, shimmering halo, looking like a series of small suns.

At this moment, the flower heads on some of the yew plants have begun to mature, and the yew excitedly picked an entire flower head and held it in its paw.

It quickly plucked out a few sunflower seeds and handed them to the owner of Purple Pearl Mountain, and also pinched a few to taste itself.

It puts sunflower seeds, shell and all, into its mouth, and with just a couple of opening and closing motions of its menacing mouthparts, grinds the sunflower seeds into powder and swallows them.

Feeling the waves of spiritual energy emanating from the sunflower seeds, Zishan looked expectantly at Zizhu Mountain Lord, who was also tasting the sunflower seeds.

"Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain, shall we set a price?"

The Lord of Purple Pearl Mountain tasted the sunflower seeds, sensed them, and said, "These sunflower seeds look quite big, but they are light and have little weight. One seed is about worth one raw stone, and four seeds would be just right."

"Is each one only worth 0.25 rough stones?"

The yew's spiritual intent swept over the flower head in its claw, which contained approximately 600 sunflower seeds.

Each sunflower plant has a main disc and a secondary disc. The main disc has about 600 sunflower seeds, and the secondary disc has about 400 sunflower seeds.

This number is not high among sunflower varieties, some of which produce thousands of sunflower seeds per flower head, but this variety of sunflower excels in quality.

Then it began to silently calculate that, based on the price of 0.25 raw stones per sunflower seed, the two flower heads on a single plant could be sold for 250 raw stones.

In total, the flower heads of each branch can be sold for about 1 raw stones, which is not considered high among the sunflower-type divine seeds.

It's worth noting that, fearing the sunflower seed might struggle to bear fruit, the two brothers, Zihuai and Zihuai, invested over two thousand primal stones to replenish their energy during their flowering period. This means the sunflower seed's average annual output is only around eight thousand primal stones.

However, considering that this was a divinely bestowed seed that it had transformed from an ordinary sunflower seed, it could accept it.

In any case, it's still better than those weedy God-given Seeds. The Arisaema heterophyllum God-given Seed at its advanced stage can only produce a little over 6000 raw stones a year, which is even more unfair.

"The annual output is more than 8000 rough stones, which is pretty good."

These flower heads did not mature at the same time; only a few have matured so far. Yew estimates that the remaining flower heads should mature gradually over the next ten to fifteen days.

Thinking of this, it directly picked four or five mature flower heads, put them in a spider silk bag, and handed them to the Purple Pearl Mountain Lord: "Purple Pearl Mountain Lord, you have worked hard all these years. Now that you are going to the Thousand Star Islands, take a few flower heads over to taste them."

Knowing that the Purple Pearl Mountain Lord was wealthy, and that the sunflower seeds bestowed by the gods were still laden with flower heads, it did not refuse, and cheerfully accepted the spider silk bag: "Raising you little guys has indeed been quite hard work. Fortunately, after so many years, it has finally paid off."

"Hehe." Zishan was a little embarrassed. Relationships in the insectoid society are relatively simple. Lord Zizhu Mountain is like their father, while Lord Zili is like their grandfather. Otherwise, he wouldn't have supported them at all costs.

It's clear that the owners of Purple Pearl Mountain and Purple Plum Lord have had a tough time raising them over the years.

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