NOVEL NEXT Chapter 34: Chapter 31 Poisonous Ant i
Translator: 549690339
The night passed by swiftly.
Before dawn, the moon had already sunk behind the mountains, like a lazy girl.
Qin Niu could no longer feel the cool energy entering his body, so he opened his eyes and, with a sense of reluctance, watched the moon that had already set behind the western hills. Bathing in the moonlight while cultivating had been such a marvelous experience, it made him feel like a greedy child wanting to absorb more of that cool energy.
After a night of cultivation, he realized his body didn’t seem to have changed much.
The only difference was that his breathing had become smoother than before.
He did not uproot the little grass that had helped him succeed in cultivating.
This little grass was his lucky star, and from now on, he would let it grow freely by the water well in the backyard.
He would even water it when it was drought-stricken.
The beginning is the hardest part, but once the first step is taken, subsequent cultivation becomes much easier.
Qin Niu looked at his personal attributes, full of anticipation.
Qin Niu
Cultivation: Mortal Realm Onefold 42.1/100, Low-tier Farmer 75.4/100,
Low-tier Insect Master 3/100
Lifespan: 51 years
Cultivation Technique: Everlasting Spring Technique Level 11.24/100
Skills: Planting—Sowing Proficient 34.4/100, Loosening Soil Slightly Accomplished 357/1000, Fertilizing Slightly Accomplished 156.1/1000, Watering Slightly Accomplished 327/1000, Weeding Slightly Accomplished 415/1000
Insect Control: Insect Trace Identification Beginner 0.02/10, Insect Speech Beginner 0.51/10.
Martial Techniques: Slash Strike Slightly Accomplished 107.66/1000 (10% chance of Critical Chop, using the Thick-Backed Precious Saber increases the chance to 20%)
Talent: Cultivating Health-Preserving Techniques.
Divine Skills: None
Labor Points: 958
After reviewing his personal attributes, Qin Niu felt unspeakably joyful and satisfied.
The feeling of getting stronger, bit by bit, day by day, was wonderful.
As he expected, he had indeed made a breakthrough in the Everlasting Spring Technique.
He had successfully obtained his first cultivation technique in life, and he was no longer just a rough villager.
Furthermore, his cultivation level had actually increased by 2.3 in a single night.
Definitely, this was not an effect that bear meat alone could achieve.
It must be related to cultivating the Everlasting Spring Technique.
Normally, bear meat could help him increase his cultivation by 0.3 a day at best.
Out of this increase of 2.3 in cultivation, even if some of it was the remaining energy from drinking bear blood being absorbed by his body, that would have only added at most 0.4 to 0.5. Combined with the 0.3 from eating bear meat, the increase should not exceed 0.8.
Now that it had increased this much, he believed at least 1.5 of it came from cultivating the Everlasting Spring Technique.
Having a cultivation technique really is a blessing; he could finally leave the arduous days of snail-paced cultivation growth behind.
While the Everlasting Spring Technique may not be suited for combat, being able to increase cultivation this rapidly is enough for Qin Niu to stand out in the Mortal Realm.
Just staying in this little mountain village would be more than sufficient for self-protection.
Despite not having slept all night, he didn’t feel the slightest bit tired; on the contrary, he felt as energetic as a dragon and full of vigor.
Almost all somewhat advanced cultivation techniques have this additional effect.
Cultivation is somewhat similar to meditation or deep sleep—it can nourish the spirit, enrich the blood, and regulate the organs, thus it shares the marvel of high-quality sleep.
Moreover, he noticed that he had developed a talent for cultivating health-preserving techniques.
It seemed he was truly born for this kind of technique!
There was an even greater surprise: using the Thick-Backed Precious Saber actually granted a 20% chance of performing a Critical Chop, which doubled the rate.
This highlighted the importance of a weapon.
“Gurgle gurgle!”
His stomach embarrassingly began to growl.
He had eaten a large chunk of bear meat and a bowl of cornmeal the previous night, and hadn’t done much work; how could he be hungry so soon?
Could it be that cultivation accelerated the consumption of energy in his body?
That must be it.
With wealth, one can pursue martial arts; with poverty, one can pursue literature.
Cultivation requires the consumption of a lot of nutrient-rich food, as it transforms the energy from food into the body’s energy, continually strengthening the physical form.
Qin Niu looked up at the sky; the eastern horizon was already showing the slightest hint of dawn.
It was morning now, and cooking bear meat would risk being discovered by others.
To stave off hunger, it seemed he would have to eat raw bear meat.
Tonight, when cooking bear meat, he could cook two extra pieces to save for the next day’s meal.
Now that he had started cultivating a technique, the benefits were substantial, but so was the increase in food consumption.
Before, eating a pound of meat a day was enough to sustain his body’s needs for the whole day.
Now, he probably needed at least twice that amount of meat a day.
This also meant that the bear meat he had stored wouldn’t last two months; it would most likely be finished within one month at most.
But that was okay, now that he had a Treasured Sword and his cultivation had increased quite a bit, hunting should be much easier.
The mountains were full of endless wild game; as long as one was capable, they were inexhaustible.
He didn’t have to worry about running out of food at all.
The raw bear meat didn’t taste as good and was hard to chew. He could only cut it into small pieces to swallow.
It took him more than a pound to fill his stomach.
He cut another small piece, put it in a small jar, and prepared to take it up the mountain to feed the termites.
Since he went to town yesterday, he hadn’t seen them for a day and two nights, and he wondered how the little creatures were doing.
The Ant Queen was laying eggs at a rate of 10 per day.
And her energy was growing rapidly every day.
Qin Niu hid the Treasured Sword in front of his chest and, shouldering a basket, entered the mountains.
From a distance, he saw Er Dan with a basket on his back, heading out of the village.
“Er Dan, are you going to herd the Yan Family’s cattle?”
There weren’t many jobs that children could do, and herding cattle for the big landlord in the morning was a decent gig.
Two wen money for a morning’s work.
The landlord’s family would have someone specially register and check. When the cattle were brought back after grazing, it had to be ensured that their bellies were full.
The supervisor would even press down on the cattle’s abdomens with their hands.
If the cattle hadn’t eaten their fill, they would dock wages.
If a child was found three or four times with cattle that had not eaten enough, they would be blacklisted and could not return to that landlord’s house for herding jobs.
“Yes, indeed! I had a bit of diarrhea this morning, so I went a little late, and I don’t even know if 1 can still snag a cow.”
Er Dan answered as he hurried forward, not looking back as he ran.
To earn those two wen money, many youngsters would arrive at the landlord’s cowshed before dawn to queue up.
There weren’t many cows available, and if one arrived too late, other children would have taken them all.
Very small children generally wouldn’t get one because the supervisor had to consider safety issues. Losing a cow, or a cow hurting a child, would both be troublesome matters.
Er Dan was a shrewd person and very responsible, so the supervisor preferred to give him the cattle to herd and rarely did he miss out.
“Come and find me at my house after you’re done herding.”
Qin Niu shouted towards his retreating figure.
“Sure thing! I knew you’d have me in mind, brother Ah Niu.”
Er Dan knew what it was about and grinned happily.
But he ran off as swift as the wind, disappearing from sight.
Qin Niu smiled and started walking towards the mountains.
Passing by Xie Laizi’s house unexpectedly, Xie Laizi was actually not dead.
It goes to show that good people don’t live long, but scourges last a millennium.
It seemed that Wang Haikun must have been worried about causing a death, so he had held back a bit when striking.
Faint groans could be heard coming from inside Xie Laizi’s house.
He would probably be bedridden for at least a month or two before he could get up.
This, too, was a good thing.
By the time this man could get out of bed, Qin Niu’s cultivation of the Everlasting Spring Technique would have made greater progress, and by then his cultivation level would be fully able to crush Wang Haikun.
And with Qin Niu’s wisdom, if he could outsmart Xie Laizi once, he could do it a second time.
If that bastard dared to continue being nefarious, Qin Niu would definitely put him in his place.
Once he entered the mountains, he headed straight for the Ant Nest.
Not a single Termite was visible.
Termites prefer to live underground, and they don’t like to come out and forage on the ground like ants do.
If they need to forage, they do it at night.
They are actually very afraid of sunlight, which is similar to the habits of cockroaches.
They like to hide in the darkness.
This was actually quite convenient.
They were now feeding on this large camphor tree, which provided plenty of food.
Moreover, they could expand and deepen their Ant Nest while gnawing on the tree, killing two birds with one stone.
“Fourth, come out!”
Upon Qin Niu’s arrival, two Young Soldier Ants that had just molted into adults scurried out.
“Looks like we’ve got some new members!”
He felt a wave of joy in his heart.
The total of two mighty Soldier Ants naturally had to guard the Ant Queen.
The newly molted Young Soldier Ants were assigned to stand guard at the entrance of the cave.
Soon, Fourth, with only one antenna left, emerged from the nest, moving swiftly.
Qin Niu now had mastered the language of ants, which made communication with them much easier.
If it had been before he acquired this skill, even if he placed bear meat in front of the Ant Nest, the Worker Ants would ignore it.
Unless there was a shortage of food, they were very obstinate about their food choices.
They only ate what they selected.
“Here, this piece of bear meat I cut today is a bit too large. Rally the other Worker Ants to come and eat it up!”
Qin Niu poured the bear meat from the small jar in front of the Ant Nest.
He hoped that the bear meat could also cultivate mighty Soldier Ants and mighty Worker Ants; otherwise, he would only have to wait until the next bear slaughter and prepare a porcelain jar in advance. After slaughtering a bear, he would collect some bear blood to feed specifically to the Termites.
Fourth waved its single horn, summoning the other Worker Ants.
Soon, the Worker Ants began to line up and emerge.
The five mighty Worker Ants looked especially formidable.
The shadows of the two mighty Soldier Ants were not seen.
Instead, nearly ten Young Worker Ants had joined.
Last time they were attacked by centipedes, they lost about seven or eight unmolted young ants. The loss was not very severe.
Now they were having a batch molt into adults every day.
As Fourth gnawed on the bear meat, Qin Niu noticed the areas it bit immediately turned black.
“This… could this be venom?”
He watched Fourth in shock.
Feeding it the corpses of one large and two small centipedes, could it be that Fourth evolved the ability to secrete poison?
If that were the case, the surprise would be enormous.
Fourth was now a mighty Worker Ant, inherently possessing some features of a Soldier Ant and also rapid in action. If it also developed venom, it was unthinkable how powerful it might become.
It could probably singlehandedly take on ten ants larger than itself without an issue.
Qin Niu closely observed the other Worker Ants and for the moment only discovered that the bear meat bitten by Fourth would turn black.
It seemed the other Worker Ants had not yet evolved this ability..
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