Chapter 288: Chapter 281 Cultivating Zombie Ants 1

With Qin Niu’s current strength, he still doesn’t rank among the powers in Black Tiger Gang territory.

At most, he could make a name for himself in Jade Stream Town.

Auntie Hua, carrying such a large amount of silver money, would find it exceedingly difficult to recover it if it was really stolen.

The principle that wealth shouldn’t be flaunted is understood even by slightly smarter children, let alone Auntie Hua, a grown adult. Qin Niu’s well-intentioned reminder was just a precaution.

Having fifty silver notes stolen is a minor issue, but it’s a bad omen.

Moreover, if the other party had malicious intent to steal the silver notes, they might very well resort to violence and killing to silence any witnesses and eliminate future troubles.

That would be even more inauspicious.

Arriving at the mountain, Qin Niu first led Xiao Qing into the Ancient Banyan Tree Maze.

Having not visited for several days, the Ancient Banyan Tree was still lush and thriving.

Banyan trees are known for their longevity; it’s very common to see them live over a thousand years. This Ancient Banyan Tree was already akin to a creature of spirit-monster level.

Ordinary mortals truly felt like mere passersby in front of such ancient trees. A regular person has a lifespan of just fifty or sixty years, not even a tenth of its age.

“Once I’ve handled my affairs and have some spare time, I might be able to find out what kind of being this Ancient Banyan Tree is from those two botanical texts.”

Qin Niu didn’t stand on ceremony with it; he wielded his knife and carved a few wounds on the tree’s trunk, then placed jars to collect the blood.

Xiao Qing, who had been eagerly waiting, immediately sat down at the base of the tree to cultivate.

This place was a cultivation secret ground for the two of them, master and servant.

After that, Qin Niu didn’t rush to cultivate but went to nurture the newly hatched termites.

The ant colony not only gained a large number of poisonous ants with potent venom, but there were also six new demon ants.

The number of healing ants increased to eleven too.

The total number of zombie ants rose to one hundred and thirty-eight.

Three more elephantic ants were added as well.

All of these belonged to relatively scarce ant species and possessed strong special abilities.

The combat power of the demon ants goes without saying, extremely formidable, and with their primary self-healing ability, they fear no injury.

Qin Niu even felt that, once the demon ants were cultivated to a certain level, they’d definitely be like the Taiyin Yaoyao, able to rapidly reassemble even if chopped into several pieces.

By that time, the demon ants might be even stronger than the Taiyin Yaoyao. For they possess venom and stingers, as well as the special ability to demonize. “Fourth, you and the demon ants feed the corpse of this Taiyin Yaoyao to the Ant Queen,” said Qin Niu as he directly took out a corpse of the Taiyin Yaoyao. For feeding the Ant Queen.

Such high-level strategic resources, he wouldn’t possibly feed to ordinary termites.

Only Fourth and the demon ants had such privilege.

In the process of feeding the Ant Queen, they would eat a portion as well, thus obtaining benefits.

The huge corpse of the Taiyin Yaoyao was cut into pieces in the blink of an eye and dragged into the depths of the nest.

As it was the first time feeding a Taiyin Yaoyao corpse, and not knowing what the outcome would be, he didn’t rashly feed all nine Taiyin Yaoyao corpses at once but planned to feed them in batches.

The most powerful ability of the Taiyin Yaoyao was their strong self-healing capacity.

Qin Niu very much hoped that after the Ant Queen ate their corpses, the offspring produced would also possess this special ability.

Next, he began to nurture the newly hatched termites that had yet to be cultivated.

Including over a hundred zombie ants.

This ant species was already terrifying without being nurtured; after they consumed the Ancient Banyan Tree Blood, they were bound to be even more formidable.

Thousands of termites needed to be cultivated; the workload was quite heavy. Luckily, the supply of Ancient Banyan Tree Blood was abundant, nearly ensuring each termite got a chance to be nurtured.

After spending just over an hour, he finally finished cultivating the several thousand termites.

Using up most of a jar of Ancient Banyan Tree Blood.

What was now most lacking was the blood of the Thousand Eyes Tree.

Qin Niu was also in the process of cultivating the over four thousand puppet ants and ghost ants. A large quantity of ordinary insect corpses were used to feed them.

Normally, acquiring so many Grade Four insect corpses was not an easy task.

It was the recent battle with Elder Jiu Yin of the Nine Insect Gang and his twelve major disciples that yielded a large number of these Grade Three and Four insect corpses.

“Alright, you guys eat up! 1 need to go over there to cultivate,” said Qin Niu as he summoned Fourth and together they entered the Ancient Banyan Tree Maze.

Helpless, to this point, Fourth was the only one who could lead him out from the maze.

“Lazy Ox, why don’t you join me inside?”

Qin Niu called out to Xiao Niu, who was nearby nibbling on fresh grass and leaves.

“Moo!”

The calf immediately raised its neck and let out a cheerful sound as it galloped over.

It followed its master Qin Niu into the maze of the Ancient Banyan Tree.

Before it entered, it looked up at the Ancient Banyan Tree with a gaze full of awe, indicating that it could now sense the tree’s terror.

Inside the maze, Xiao Qing was painstakingly cultivating.

She had been stuck at the peak of the Mortal Realm for some time now.

The Medicine King Sutra was good in every respect, except for the difficulty of advancing to the next level.

Xiao Qing still hadn’t broken through to the Acquired Realm.

This was something only she could do for herself.

As time slowly passed, Qin Niu sensed that the branches of the Ancient Banyan Tree had begun to droop, so he opened his eyes.

He quickly packed up the jars used for collecting the Banyan Tree Blood.

Xiao Niu lay not far away, its gaze fixed on the distance, seemingly lost in thought.

“Xiao Qing, we’ll come back for training tomorrow, let’s go home now,” Qin Niu said, noticing that Xiao Qing was still immersed in her cultivation, and he had to wake her.

At night, the Ancient Banyan Tree would become extremely terrifying, and any living beings within its reach would turn into its nourishment.

“Alas, I still couldn’t make a breakthrough, I’m really dumb,” she said with reluctance after wrapping up her practice.

“Haha, in the path of cultivation, one must not be eager for quick success.

There is a saying, ‘Haste makes waste.’ Just keep accumulating your efforts day by day, and there will eventually come a time when persistence pays off,” Qin Niu said with a laugh, patting her head to comfort her.

He took Xiao Qing and Green Ox out of the Ancient Banyan Tree Maze, and by then, the sky had already turned somewhat dim outside.

Nowadays, this mountain, in Qin Niu’s eyes, no longer posed a danger.

Unless he foolishly ventured deep into the mountain, it was unlikely that any wild beast could harm him.

Qin Niu had only taken a few steps when he vaguely sensed a disquiet in his mind.

It was hard to describe.

It was as if something significant was about to happen.

This feeling was like having a stone weighing on his heart.

What could it be?

He checked the Termite swarm and found nothing abnormal.

Both the Ant Queen and the Demon Ants were acting normally.

Out of caution, he brought a large number of Termites down the mountain.

The Zombie Ants and the newly cultivated Termites were still evolving and had to be left in the Ant Nest for the time being.

By now, the area within a one- to two-mile radius had probably become the Termites’ domain.

No other insect dared to contend with them.

Even poisonous snakes couldn’t pose any threat to them.

Should anything dare to invade their nest, be it centipedes or poisonous snakes, they would be directly killed by the Termites without any suspense.

Qin Niu returned home with Xiao Qing.

The unsettling feeling inside him intensified even more.

“All Niu, help me open the door!”

Wang Wanyan stood outside calling, holding a food container in her hands.

Upon opening the courtyard door, she glanced at Qin Niu with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“These are pancakes I made following Mother Wu’s instructions. You haven’t had dinner yet, so I brought some over for you to try.”

She usually wouldn’t even dip her fingers in plain water.

Why would she suddenly want to learn how to cook and follow Mother Wu?

Qin Niu caught a glimpse of her blushing face and understood a bit.

Before getting married, girls would learn some skills to take care of men, as well as cooking and doing laundry.

She was preparing for her marriage.

It looked like she too wished to marry Qin Niu soon and become his wife.

But being a girl with a thin skin, there were many things she wouldn’t openly say.

“Wan Yan, thank you! But you really don’t need to learn these things. When you marry me later, we can just hire a maid,” Qin Niu said, looking at her affectionately..