“Ding! Congratulations, Host, for successfully strengthening a Five-Ranked Yellow Mealworms, promoting it to a First Order Apostle, and acquiring the talents: Rapid Reproduction, Rapid Growth, Elementary Food Adaptation, and Light of the Swarm.”
The Yellow Mealworms in Zhou Qi’s hand, after evolution, had become slender, its semi-transparent hard shell glowing faintly.
Its abdomen had become distended, and its mouthparts had become sharper and more versatile, capable of gnawing on various substances.
“Light of the Swarm?”
Zhou Qi eyed this talent strangely; such a distinguished name shouldn't appear on a mere Yellow Mealworms.
He then opened the Familiar Panel.
Apostle: Five-Ranked Yellow Mealworms
Rank: Normal Lifeform
Species: Yellow Mealworms
Gene: Elementary Yellow Mealworms Gene
Life Essence: Carbon-based Lifeform
Talents:
5-Star Talent:
Light of the Swarm: Centered on itself, it bestows its own talents upon lifeforms of the same species in its vicinity, granting them a one percent talent bonus.
2-Star Talent:
Rapid Reproduction: Fertility capacity increased fivefold.
Rapid Growth: Yellow Mealworms larvae produced grow five times faster.
1-Star Talent:
Elementary Food Adaptation: Various organic substances, including plants, life remains, etc., can all be consumed.
Life Strength: 0.1.
Zhou Qi’s eyes held a hint of shock, as if reconfirming everything before him.
The tiny Yellow Mealworms, originally intended as feed, unexpectedly brought such a huge surprise.
At this moment, Zhou Qi understood that one must still have reverence for life.
Strengthening it to the Five-Ranked consumed a total of 15.5 Evolution Points.
Zhou Qi extended his hand.
Continue strengthening.
“Ding! Consuming 16 Evolution Points, the Yellow Mealworms evolves into a Six-Ranked Yellow Mealworms, all attributes slightly increased.”
“Ding! Consuming 32 Evolution Points, the Yellow Mealworms evolves into a Seven-Ranked Yellow Mealworms, all attributes slightly increased.”
...
“Ding! Consuming 256 Evolution Points, the Yellow Mealworms evolves into a Ten-Ranked Yellow Mealworms, all attributes significantly increased.”
“Ding! Congratulations, Host, for successfully strengthening a Ten-Ranked Yellow Mealworms, promoting it to a Second Order Apostle, and acquiring a new talent: Environmental Assimilation, with other talents slightly strengthened.”
“3-Star Talent: Environmental Assimilation: The Ten-Ranked Yellow Mealworms can transform most environments into ones suitable for its own development.”
The Yellow Mealworms, having evolved again, grew to half the size of a palm, its six appendages strong and powerful, with barbs growing at the tips.
Its head antennae were agile, precisely capturing environmental signals, and when feeding, its serrated mouthparts could easily tear various substances.
Its tail had become thick and flat, enabling it to better reproduce a large number of eggs.
Zhou Qi looked at his first insect strengthened to the Ten-Ranked, which consumed a total of over 500 Evolution Points.
He placed the Ten-Ranked Yellow Mealworms into the breeding box, and Light of the Swarm activated.
An invisible, magnetic-field-like fluctuation covered all the surrounding Yellow Mealworms.
With the Light of the Swarm’s blessing, he estimated he could start harvesting in just two days.
Zhou Qi was about to go back inside to rest.
Li Xiumei called him.
“Zhou Qi, I’ll send you a WeChat message; add it later. This is someone your Aunt Li introduced to you. You two can add each other on WeChat and chat first.”
Li Xiumei finished speaking and hung up the phone without waiting for Zhou Qi to reply.
Zhou Qi opened his mouth to speak, but Li Xiumei had already hung up.
He just stood there, stunned, and after thinking about what happened this morning, he wasn’t as resistant to this blind date anymore.
He stared at his phone for a while.
He saw that Li Xiumei had sent him a recommended contact on the chat page.
The profile picture was of Heavenly Immortal Liu.
‘Her taste isn’t bad, is it?’ Zhou Qi thought.
Upon seeing the username, his eyes went dark.
“AAA ~ Nationwide Delivery - Huanhuan!”
‘Are you still my birth mother? What is this she’s sharing?’
Zhou Qi grumbled as he opened the recommended contact’s page and clicked on it.
“I have to add this kind of person, lest she changes her name someday and I meet her on a blind date again.” Zhou Qi found an explanation for himself.
Soon, the friend request was accepted.
“Hello, I was introduced by someone you know?” Zhou Qi said directly.
“?”
“I don’t do this anymore.”
Zhou Qi watched as the newly sent message turned into an exclamation mark, directly lamenting, ‘What a pity, what a pity…’
————————————
Several days later
October 20, 2016
Current Evolution Points: 127,600.
Early in the morning, the outside of the breeding farm was chaotic.
“Did you hear? Someone died in White Snake Mountain.”
“Really? I heard it was a terrible death.”
“It was Old Man Li from Lijiazhuang, right? They say he was scared to death.”
“With Old Man Li gone, only his daughter, who’s not even twenty, is left in the family. What a tragedy!”
“He must have encountered a mountain ghost. White Snake Mountain used to be very eerie, but people nowadays have forgotten after a few good days.”
...
Zhou Qi walked to the gate and stopped to listen for a long while.
“Someone died in the mountain? Are there really some monsters out there?” Zhou Qi thought about the scene during Antarctic Weirdo’s live broadcast, that mysterious world and strange beasts.
This world might be slowly opening up to another side, unknown to most people, at least.
He couldn't help but feel worried about the Five-Ranked Army Ant Queen inside White Snake Mountain.
After thinking for a moment, constantly worrying was not a solution; he still needed to improve his strength as quickly as possible.
Having finished his thoughts, Zhou Qi decided to go to Li Ruhai again to see if he could purchase some powerful insects, so that at least in times of danger, he would have some protection.
He traveled without stopping.
Zhou Qi arrived outside the Insect Home once again.
“Hai-ge, I’m here again. Do you have any particularly fierce insects this time?”
Zhou Qi entered the gate and ran into Li Ruhai.
“Oh, you’ve come at just the right time. Come take a look, these are the giant mantises I just got.” Li Ruhai smiled and led Zhou Qi to the table at the cash register.
On the table was a transparent glass box, inside which was a giant mantis almost half the size of a palm.
“This thing is called a Giant Saw-Toothed Mantis; it originally lived in the tropical rainforests of South America.” Li Ruhai introduced it to Zhou Qi.
This one was about 12 centimeters long, with unusually thick forelegs that allowed for better hunting.
Its head was an inverted triangle, and its eyes were large and protruding.
Zhou Qi took a liking to it at first glance.
This time, Zhou Qi also planned to see if there were any suitable animals.
Now, with the Rank 3 Evolution Space, he could strengthen one type of animal and one type of plant.
Looking at the reticulated pythons and large lizards in the store, Zhou Qi was very tempted.
However, upon hearing the cold prices from Li Ruhai’s mouth, Zhou Qi stopped talking.
‘Damn it, Li Ruhai, how can your mouth be colder than a cold-blooded animal’s?’
The two chatted for a while.
“Zhou Qi, I have a gathering for our circle here. Would you like to come and see?” Li Ruhai asked Zhou Qi.
Upon hearing Li Ruhai’s invitation, Zhou Qi’s eyes instantly flashed with surprise.
Being able to communicate with more big names in the insect world and discover rare insect resources was undoubtedly a godsend for his great insect strengthening endeavor.
“Hai-ge, I definitely have to go! When is it? I’ll prepare in advance.”
