Creating a paradise in an ant nest

Chapter 79 Five Years After Joining the Sect, Daily Life of Farming

After this unexpected incident, Liu He acted as if he knew nothing and continued with everything as usual.

After observing him in secret for a period of time, and seeing that he was not acting strangely and was diligently practicing his martial arts in his forest area every day, Fu Shuai was completely relieved.

The sun and moon take turns.

Half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

Liu He had been a member of the clan for five years and spent two years at Lingmu Garden.

In a wooden cabin in the forest, he meditated and circulated his internal energy, condensing the tenth wisp of spiritual energy in his dantian.

By condensing forty strands of spiritual energy, one can advance to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

"It's time to feed the ant colony."

After finishing his practice, he prepared to feed the ant swarm as usual, and took out a round, plump spirit melon.

These are jade melons picked from a miniature plant garden.

Its rind is a clear, bright green, like jade, with faint white water ripples that subtly reveal its shimmering light.

Liu He cut it open, and immediately a glistening cinnabar red color appeared, with a sweet aroma wafting out, and a few drops of spiritually rich juice splashed out.

Chop the melon into small pieces and put them into the two ant nests.

After such a long period of feeding with spiritual plants, the queen ant and ant soldiers in his two ant nests have changed a lot.

Two queen ants: the initial red queen and the second-generation black queen, whose egg-laying capacity has been further enhanced, laying up to a thousand eggs per day.

The two ant colonies each contained 100,000 ant soldiers, for a total ant army of 200,000.

With Liu He feeding them daily, the ant colony doesn't need to work hard to find food; they can meet their daily food needs with the spiritual plants.

With abundant spiritual plants, these ant soldiers feed on spiritual plants after hatching, and the worker ants that ruminate to feed the larvae also feed on spiritual plants. As a result, the ant colony has abundant food resources with spiritual energy, which enhances their individual strength.

Outwardly, there are few changes; it still has a reddish-brown head and jaws, a light brown torso, and a dark brown abdomen and buttocks. However, the actual improvements are significant, with substantial increases in exoskeleton hardness, strength, and lifespan.

In Liu He's view, the ants in his colony are currently somewhere between "ordinary ants" and "spiritual ants." They are much stronger than ordinary ants, but have not yet reached the level of spiritual beast ants.

It's worth mentioning that although the ants' strength has increased, they are still no match for the Red-beaked Spirit Bird, which in turn makes the Red-beaked Spirit Bird, which loves to eat spirit insects, even more hungry.

Fortunately, thanks to Liu He's reminder, his ants learned to be "smart".

Once the Red-beaked Griffon appears near the ant nest, the ants will immediately hide deep inside the nest. The Red-beaked Griffon does not have the ability to burrow or dig.

Ant colonies do not need to hunt or forage, so very few ants venture out. Most ants stay in their nests, creating a vast ant kingdom underground.

After feeding the ant colony, Liu He walked into the miniature plant garden.

After two years of development, Lingzhi Garden has begun to take shape.

Neatly planted patches of violet and green radish and jade melon, a dozen or so purple apple trees that are taller than a person, and a few pink peach trees that are half a person tall.

There is also the Podocarpus macrophyllus, which is believed to bring good fortune to the mountains.

In the middle of the Lingzhi Garden, there is a simple pavilion.

This was built by Liu He half a year ago using spirit wood, specifically century-old agarwood.

He simply picked up an inconspicuous piece of wood shavings while gathering materials from a century-old agarwood tree in the forest.

The wood shavings picked up are about the size of a finger, and when placed in the miniature spiritual plant garden, they become an inexhaustible supply of spiritual wood.

This type of agarwood tree is called "Qingmi Agarwood." Its fragrance is as sweet as honey, and it grows extremely slowly, taking a hundred years to grow to a height of five zhang (approximately 10 meters) and a diameter of one and a half chi (approximately 1.5 feet). A hundred-year-old piece of wood is worth more than two thousand spirit stones.

Liu He built a simple pavilion using agarwood, which was open to the wind on all sides, with only a roof for sun and rain protection and four supporting pillars.

Inside the pavilion were low tables and rocking chairs, also made of agarwood.

He was not a carpenter, nor did he have the skill to build houses, so the various items he made were very crude.

Using precious agarwood to make such a crude pavilion and items is best described as a "waste of resources".

There's nothing he can do; his only advantage is that he has plenty of raw materials!

"Let's eat a magic melon first."

Liu He cut a jade melon in half, held one half of the melon, leaned back in his rocking chair, and began to eat it with a spoon.

After eating his fill, he lay on the rocking chair, looking at the spiritual plants and trees around the spiritual plant garden, and rested for a while.

"Oh right, I haven't had my Eternal Spirit Toon Tea yet."

The so-called "Eternal Spirit Toon Tea" is simply water steeped in water from the root of that ancient spirit toon tree.

He took some wood shavings from the roots of the ancient Chinese toon tree, ground them into powder, soaked them in water, and drank it. The rich wood essence subtly altered his constitution.

"In another month, I will have been an outer disciple for a full year, which will be my second year. Then I will be able to go to Lingxiao Market again."

""

He was planning to go to Lingxiao Market to sell spiritual plants and buy resources.

He had more violets, green ivy, and jade melons in his spirit plant garden than he could use, but the problem remained how to convert them into spirit stones. He certainly couldn't sell them within the sect, so he could only secretly dispose of them in the market, hiding his identity.

In fact, there are also markets for cultivators or independent cultivators near the Qian Yuan Holy Sect, so he could ask for leave to leave the sect and go to the nearest markets.

However, considering his low cultivation level and the risks of leaving the sect alone, he waited for an opportunity to go to Lingxiao Market with a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

This is the safest option; there's no need to take any risks.

"It's almost Senior Brother Fu's birthday again, so this time I'll give him a jade spirit melon."

Last year, on Fu Shuai's birthday, Liu He gave him two violet radishes.

Based on the quality of the jade spirit melons he grows, one pound can sell for three spirit stones, and one jade spirit melon is worth about ten spirit stones.

The birthday gift he gave was equivalent to a month's salary for him; that's quite a thoughtful gesture.

A few days before Fu Shuai's birthday, he came to Liu He's forest area.

"Senior Brother Fu, you've broken through?"

Liu He didn't know why Fu Shuai wanted to see him, but he found that Fu Shuai's aura was stronger than before, and the oppressive feeling brought by the difference in cultivation level was even stronger.

"Haha~~ I managed to break through to the ninth level of Qi Refining a few days ago."

Fu Shuai was beaming with joy, looking quite pleased with himself.

He's had it too easy these past few years. By relying on Pang Qing, he earned a lot of spirit stones to buy resources, which allowed him to quickly improve his cultivation despite his inferior spiritual root aptitude.

Last year, he eliminated Guo Chengyi, who had been threatening him, and also cultivated the Yama Vine to the second tier.

In a few days it will be his fiftieth birthday. He broke through to the ninth level of Qi Refining before he turned fifty, and Foundation Establishment is within reach!

"Congratulations, Senior Brother Fu! You have exceptional talent. You will definitely be able to successfully establish your foundation in a few years."

Liu He said these polite, flattering words against his will.

"I hope so. Foundation Establishment is the bottleneck that has blocked countless Qi Refining cultivators."

Although Fu Shuai said that, his brows were full of confidence.

"Liu He, I've come to see you because I need something."

He got down to business.

There is a newly established Foundation Establishment sect called Xiaoyun Sect.

They want to invite a group of cultivators from our sect's Spirit Plant Peak to come to their sect's Spirit Plant Garden and offer some guidance.

"Our Spiritwood Garden has been allocated one of my spots."