Astral Gods

Chapter 3 Incubation

Beneath the enormous banyan tree nest chamber, Lord Purple Plum watched as Purple Pearl and Purple Paulownia scraped the raw stone. After the raw stone's overflowing primal force was continuously absorbed by the insect eggs, it too fell silent.

"I have traveled to many places on Xiangjiao Island and seen countless Zerg warriors, including many of the God-given Seeds, but this situation is truly unheard of."

"Purple Pearl, can you afford to care for this insect egg?"

Zizhu said somewhat hesitantly, "It seems, it appears, probably, maybe, I might not be able to afford it, but I want to raise it myself."

Lord Zili immediately understood its meaning: "Then let's do this. No matter what, it was born as a worm of our Ziling lineage, so I'll take care of the raw stone."

The hatching period for the insect eggs is about twenty days, costing two hundred Primogems per day. Zitong, go to my place later and bring over four thousand Primogems.

"Yes, Lord Purple Plum."

Lord Zili looked at Zizhu and said, "Since so many raw stones have been invested, this insect egg cannot be allowed to fail."

I want to see what it will look like after it hatches; it actually takes so many raw stones!

"Okay, Zitong and I will protect it!"

In the following days, Zizhu scraped 150 raw stones for it every day to ensure that it could absorb the Force at its maximum rate.

However, it found that the situation seemed to be getting worse.

While the other two eggs in the same batch gradually began to hatch into larvae, the egg that absorbed the primal force remained completely still.

Fifteen days later, the rhinoceros beetle larvae in the other two eggs from the same batch had already hatched, but the egg that had absorbed the primal force remained completely still.

Thirty days passed in the blink of an eye. The two rhinoceros beetle larvae in the same batch had already begun to eat the rotten wood and were about to pass through the first instar larval stage, but this egg still showed no signs of life.

Having already consumed 5000 raw stones, Zizhu felt a sense of despair upon witnessing this.

Lord Zili was summoned by Zitong again. This time, not only Lord Zili came, but also King Qingzhujia came after receiving the news.

"The Green Bamboo Beetle King," Zizhu said with some doubt about the earthworm's life. "I remember our rhinoceros beetle's incubation period is only about 20 days, right? A month has passed, why hasn't this egg shown any signs of life?"

The Azure Bamboo King scanned the insect eggs with his spiritual senses, and said in a serious tone, "Purple Pearl, I think you may have noticed that this insect egg is very different from a normal insect egg. Its growth rate cannot be estimated according to common sense."

Hearing this, Zizhu was speechless: "Then, Green Bamboo Armor King, how long do you think it will take for this insect egg to hatch?"

The Green Bamboo King sensed the condition of the insect eggs and carefully assessed it, saying, "It will probably take another 15 to 20 days."

At this moment, it brought up its old words again: "Purple Pearl, if you can't afford to raise it, let me take it to the main peak to raise it. I feel that this insect egg is very unusual."

At this point, how could Purple Pearl possibly give up? A fierce determination ignited within it: "It's only 20 days! I'll just throw in another 3000 primal stones. I refuse to believe it can't hatch!"

Having already spent 5000 Primogems, the insects could no longer persuade him. However, Lord Zi Li sent Zi Tong to get another 4000 Primogems from him.

If the hatched larvae cannot become Force warriors, then this investment will be a huge loss.

As time went by, 20 days passed in the blink of an eye.

Qingzhu Jiawang's estimate was correct. On the 20th day, the rhinoceros beetle larva that Zizhu and Zitong had been waiting for finally hatched from the egg.

Seeing it hatch, Zizhu was almost moved to tears. This time, she had invested a full 8000 primal stones. If it still hadn't hatched, she didn't know how she would explain it to Lord Zili.

After the egg hatched, the mental energy of the two rhinoceros beetles kept scanning it.

To their surprise, this larva was indeed different from ordinary rhinoceros beetles. It possessed a strong primal force fluctuation, and in their perception, it was almost indistinguishable from a novice Zerg warrior.

This is just a larva, how could it have changed like this? What exactly was that light?

Seeing it hatch, Zitong and Zizhu were overjoyed. Zitong sighed inwardly, realizing that she had only planned to stay here for a few dozen days, but now it seemed that it might not be enough.

Seeing the newly hatched larva preparing to eat, Zizhu immediately took out a peanut she had stored in the nest and peeled it for it to eat. This larva had a big appetite and quickly ate a peanut that was bigger than itself.

Zizhu peeled the peanuts one by one for it to eat. Seeing it keep consuming the peanuts, Zitong became somewhat puzzled: "Zizhu, this larva now possesses Force fluctuations and can absorb Force. So, is it considered an ordinary larva, or a Force warrior?"

Upon hearing Zi Tong's words, Zi Zhu was stunned. This was clearly not an ordinary larva, but if it was to be considered a Force Warrior, could it nurture a life seed? Could it use Force food? This was a big question.

"This..." Zizhu hesitated, unsure of which stage to classify the larva.

Zizhu tried to communicate with the larvae using her mental powers, but only received confused and vague responses.

Seeing its condition, Zitong immediately knew what she had to do: "Should I go and invite Lord Zili and King Qingzhujia to come and take a look?"

Go!

Upon learning of the birth of the larva that was frantically absorbing the Force, King Green Bamboo and Lord Purple Plum immediately rushed over, wanting to see what was so special about this larva.

After arriving here and observing for a while, Zizhu asked the same question that Zitong had just asked.

After pondering for a moment, the Green Bamboo Armor King said, "Leaving aside whether it can reproduce life seeds now, since it can absorb primal force, it can naturally use primal force food. Theoretically speaking, this larva can already be considered a Zerg warrior."

Zitong: "Then how about giving him some food made with Origin Force?"

"That's not good," Zizhu said worriedly. "It's still so small, what if it gets sick from eating it?"

Zizhu and Lord Zili looked at the Green Bamboo Armor King together, who took out a spider silk bag from his middle foot.

It raised its sharp forelegs and cut the bean into eight pieces, placing one piece in front of the larva and explaining, "Now that it has become a Force warrior, let it eat some life-type Force food first. Perhaps this will promote its evolution faster."

Hearing what the Green Bamboo King said, the Purple Plum and the others immediately had no objections, as the Insect King's knowledge was far superior to theirs.

Upon seeing the Force food and sensing the immense Force power emanating from it, the larva excitedly moved quickly toward the small bean and began to eat it with relish.

Seeing that it had eaten the beans without any problems, the insects finally breathed a sigh of relief. Zizhu asked, "So, we need to feed it primal energy food during its larval stage to help it evolve?"

"Yes, that would be great. If we could accelerate its evolution, that would be even better. Most importantly, we need to teach it to communicate using mental power and see if it can conceive a life seed. If it can, that would be ideal!"