Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat points - Chapter 220

Chapter 220: Chapter 215 Hundred-Tempering Child_1

Translator: 549690339

Although the rent Qin Niu charged Daoyuan Village was not expensive, the daily rent of 300 coins was still a heavy burden for them.

Now that the Yan Family could not hire an Insect Master, they urgently needed this batch of ducks to help fend off locusts, and the opportunity was perfect for the Tang Family to do a good deed.

“That works, you just need to drive them back to the buffer zone by our Shuangfeng Village,” he said.

Qin Niu nodded in agreement.

Chief Tang had also come prepared and gestured to the two clan members who followed him to settle the rental fee on the spot.

The total rental period was thirty-seven days, amounting to 11,100 coins.

That was a considerable sum of money.

“Master Qin, this is the rental fee for thirty-seven days, please count it,” he said.

“Let’s not worry about the tail end of 100 coins, just give eleven taels,” Qin Niu replied.

The total cost Qin Niu had initially spent on purchasing these ducks was just a little over eighteen taels of Silver Money, not quite nineteen.

Now the ducks had evolved from half-grown to big, fat ducks and were all returned to him.

That was not all; he also made an extra eleven taels in rent.

He could make another hefty profit by reselling them later.

In these times, the meek starve and the bold prosper.

Xu Zhenchang must have regretted not buying them then, probably kicking himself by now.

Although Wang Furen had also bought two thousand ducks, he resold them early and made a limited profit.

Qin Niu held on and did not sell, becoming the biggest winner.

After collecting the rent, Chief Tang invited him to hand over the ducks in person.

The sight of three thousand ducks, each one fat, and some clearly having evolved with different shades of feathers, delighted his heart. They were more agile and more formidable in catching locusts than ordinary ducks.

These ducks had been eating those mutated locusts every day, so it was not surprising that some of them, with superior potential, had evolved.

Not long after Daoyuan Village returned the ducks, the Young Master of the Yan Family brought Yan Qi over.

It was as if they had made an appointment.

“Master Qin, our Young Master Yan specially came to find you,” he said.

Yan Qi served as Young Master Yan’s coachman himself.

He was very clever, fully aware that everything was provided by his master. Yan Ruohai was getting old and would hand over the family to his son sooner or later.

Since ancient times, the eldest son has been the heir to the family business.

As long as Young Master Yan did not make any serious mistakes, his taking over the Yan Family was just a matter of time.

A new king, a new court.

Yan Qi was now promoted to the position of “Seventh Steward” because he was favored by Yan Ruohai. The situation might change once Young Master Yan took power.

Getting on good terms with Young Master Yan now meant he wouldn’t have to worry about being replaced later.

While they were talking, Young Master Yan emerged from the carriage.

“Did Young Master Yan come for these ducks?” Qin Niu asked directly.

“Ha ha, Master Qin speaks his mind, and I like your straightforward nature. Although most of the Yan Family’s crops have been harvested, the mulberry fields, tea gardens, and other industries still need maintenance. Recently, because Insect Masters have been constantly killed, everyone is self-preserving and we can no longer hire any. The ducks we bought from the Yan Family last time had a decent effect in pest control.

“It’s just that ducks are now hard to come by, and I wonder if Master Qin might be willing to part with this batch? The price is negotiable,” he said.

The Yan Family desperately needed these ducks.

“Er… I understand the difficulties of the Yan Family. It’s just that I haven’t considered selling them for the time being. But since Young Master Yan has personally made the request, naturally, I can’t disregard the goodwill. I’ll rent them to the Yan Family at the same price I offered Daoyuan Village. How does that sound?” Qin Niu suggested.

Qin Niu wanted to see just how far these ducks could evolve.

Renting them out would ensure a steady daily income.

“Although it’s a bit of a pity not to be able to buy them, it’s also good to rent them. At least it can solve the pressing needs of the Yan Family,” Young Master Yan admitted, hinting at some crucial information.

This indicated that the Yan Family might also have noticed that some of the ducks were evolving.

The evolved ducks indeed had a significantly better hunting capability than ordinary ducks.

“Young Master Yan, Steward Qi, do you see that some of the ducks in my batch are of a special kind? Look, for instance, at that one, see how skillfully it catches locusts,” Qin Niu pointed out, drawing their attention to a duck nearby.

“It seems so. Not only can it fly, but it also runs so fast on the waves, catching locusts with each bite,” they observed.

“I believe that among the two thousand ducks from your Yan Family, some have evolved as well. If we mix our two batches of ducks together, we won’t be able to distinguish which ones belong to which family. Personally, I would suggest that once rented by the Yan Family, could they be kept separately?” He said, making his point clear, trusting that the Yan Family would not stoop to swapping ducks.

“No problem! Not only can we keep them separate, but we will also mark our Yan Family’s ducks with red paint for easy identification,” promised Young Master Yan, showing his understanding that Qin Niu had noticed the evolution of the ducks.

Finding a cheap advantage was almost impossible.

With the terms agreed upon, they wrote up a rental contract, and Qin Niu rented out the three thousand ducks to the Yan Family.

This arrangement pleased everyone involved.

The locust crisis was flaring up, breaking out even more fiercely than before and putting tremendous pressure on every landlord and tenant farmer.

With Qin Niu’s three thousand ducks, the Yan Family could fend off some of the plague.

There was now a greater hope of preserving their core industries.

Facing the accelerating crisis, Qin Niu seized every opportunity daily to nurture each termite, trying to evolve their strength to the utmost.

The cultivation of bees was not neglected either.

The only regret was that it was difficult to obtain “Thousand Eyes Tree” blood, with the daily amount gathered only enough to cultivate sixty to seventy Grade Three termites.

This was a matter of no alternative.

Through experimentation, it was found that if “Thousand Eyes Tree” blood was fed insufficiently, the evolution of the termites would be incomplete, or even fail, resulting in defective products.

He tried feeding “Thousand Eyes Tree” blood first, followed by Ancient Banyan Tree blood, but it didn’t seem to work that well either.

The mortality rate increased significantly, which was heartbreaking to see.

After several experiments, he decisively chose to give up and continued with the successful routine he had previously figured out. He first fed them Ancient Banyan Tree blood to help them advance, then fed them “Thousand Eyes Tree” blood.

With this method, the survival rate of the cultivated ants could basically reach over 99%.

He also kept increasing the number of “Thousand Eyes Trees” he planted under the Ancient Banyan Tree.

He used the energy from the Everlasting Spring Technique to help them grow quickly, with quite good results.

It still required a considerable amount of time to grow.

It wasn’t possible that the “Thousand Eyes Tree,” after being nourished by the Everlasting Spring Technique, would grow large in one day—that was unrealistic.

He had no choice but to accumulate slowly.

Through comparison, the growth rate of “Thousand Eyes Trees” nurtured by the Everlasting Spring Technique’s energy was more than three times that of ordinary “Thousand Eyes Trees.”

With his continuous efforts, the amount of “Thousand Eyes Tree” blood he obtained each day was also steadily increasing.

At the beginning, one day’s worth of “Thousand Eyes Tree” blood was only enough to nurture forty Grade Three termites. Now, the number had increased to sixty to seventy a day, and this stable improvement made him feel more secure.

Being greedy and rushing progress, aiming to cultivate a thousand termites with mental attacks at once, was unrealistic.

As the days passed, the number of his termite army had long since surpassed ten thousand. It was moving towards twenty thousand and was about to break through that number.

A rough estimate suggested that there should be about eighteen thousand termites in the entire colony.

The number of Demon Ants had also increased from three to fourteen.

The rare species of Elephant Trunk Soldier Ants had also reached eight in number.

All had been cultivated by Qin Niu into Grade Three Poisonous Ants.

When they collectively released poison, the attack range was quite large.

It could cover an area of at least five or six square meters.

Another ant species worth mentioning was his Grade Three Dark Poison Ants, which had, unbeknownst to him, already broken through to 216 in number.

With their toxicity, if they attacked an enemy at the same time,

It is estimated that even a large wild boar would be poisoned and collapse instantly.

Although the continuous growth of the ant colony made him very happy and gave him a sense of accomplishment, there was still a tinge of regret that the Gold Devouring Ants had not yet emerged.

Furthermore, he was very much hoping that the Ant Queen would give birth to one or two more War Demon Ants.

Because the difference between a Demon Ant and a War Demon Ant was quite significant.

The formidable strength of Fourth made him, the master, envious.

…

That day, like usual, he was preparing to go up the mountain to cultivate with Xiao Qing.

Her cultivation had been stuck at the tenth level of mortals for many days and had yet to break through, leaving Qin Niu quite puzzled.

Xiao Qing’s talent for cultivating the Medicine King Sutra was clearly excellent, so why couldn’t she make the breakthrough?

Qin Niu’s talent was even less than hers, and it took him less than ten days to make the breakthrough.

Then again, the major thresholds of the Medicine King Sutra were indeed difficult to break through.

The matter of cultivation sometimes also involved opportunity and luck.

Being anxious was useless.

The master and servant had not yet left the house when the guard from the Insect Master Association who had delivered a message last time came again.

“Master Qin, this is a mobilization order issued by the Insect Master Association in response to the government’s call. Please sign here to accept it,” the guard said, taking out a booklet for Qin Niu to sign and seal.

Their Fish Talismans had a stamp feature at the bottom.

Simply by dabbing it with cinnabar ink and pressing it against the paper, a clear personal seal would be imprinted.

“I still need to deliver messages to other places, so I must take my leave now!” the guard said, saluting him, then mounting his horse and riding off quickly.

What is called a mobilization order?

It is basically when war is imminent, and the government mobilizes the experts within its jurisdiction to fight against the enemy and protect the country.

In the strictest sense, the Black Tiger Gang could not be considered a country.

It was more like the vassal states during the Spring and Autumn period.

There were at least a thousand forces like it, each one under the jurisdiction of the Hundred-Tempering Immortal Sect.

Each Immortal Sect had different sizes of territories. The weakest Immortal Sect would command over a hundred martial factions. The strongest among them were frightening—with some commanding over three thousand martial factions.

However, there seemed to be an unwritten rule that any Immortal Sect would not command over three thousand martial factions.

In other words, the maximum number of martial factions allowed to be established under an Immortal Sect could not exceed three thousand.

The Hundred-Tempering Immortal Sect was established by the Terrestrial True Immortal, the Hundred-Tempering Child.

It is said that the Hundred-Tempering Child, like the Red Boy in the “Journey to the West,” was extremely powerful, yet bore the appearance of a child. His personality remains unclear.

Some also say that the Hundred-Tempering Child rejuvenates himself every hundred years.