Astral Gods

Chapter 17 Harvesting

One of the landmark events marking the start of the trade fair was the bayberry festival held by the fruit fly tribe.

Besides their own tribe, other tribes of various sizes, if they have a large amount of God-given Seeds in their territory that they cannot consume themselves, will also hold various gatherings to invite the Zerg warriors to their territory to eat these fruits.

Of course, this couldn't be free. They had worked hard all year to get this harvest, and they couldn't possibly give it away at a loss to other races' warriors. But the fruit doesn't keep well, and it would be a waste if they didn't eat it. So most of the other Zerg warriors only needed to pay a small entrance fee.

As for the entrance fee, it depends on the grade and effect of the fruit, with prices ranging from 500 to 10000 raw stones.

The poor insectoid warriors like Zizhu couldn't afford it, but they knew that Lord Zima Mountain had attended the Yangmei Festival. They didn't know the specifics of the festival, only that Lord Zima Mountain ate with great relish, exclaiming that he had gotten his 3000 raw stones back.

However, although they do not participate in the various tribal gatherings, they do participate in major trade fairs.

The entire trade fair will last for a month and a half. The first half of the month consists of various large and small gatherings held by different tribes. If they can eat enough of the divinely bestowed food they need at these gatherings, they can save some raw stones at the trade fair.

The so-called "eating enough Force food" does not mean eating the Force food to its limit and then stopping, or that one should only eat this Force food to grow during this age period.

This method is not feasible. If they only eat one type of Force food, even if it is a God-given Force food, their evolution will not be enhanced in a balanced way, which is not a good thing for the Zerg warriors who are in the process of evolving.

Therefore, when they say "I've had enough," they mean that they have consumed the full amount of Force food that is balanced for this age group.

For example, they divide the total amount of Force food needed for one-year evolution into 100%, with 5% of that being for strengthening their shells. Once they have eaten enough of that portion, they don't need to eat any more of that type of Force food.

As autumn deepened, the insects working on Ziling heard that a large number of Flame Spider merchants had arrived on the island in large ships, and with their arrival, the grand trade fair officially began.

On Banana Island, more than 20,000 Zerg warriors, regardless of age, would go to buy Force food in batches arranged by their tribes.

Even those without tribes would make an agreement with their neighbors to take turns guarding each other's territories, and they would take time to carry Force food to trade.

Meanwhile, atop Purple Ridge, everyone was busy harvesting their own life-seed produce, preparing to trade it at the grand trade fair.

Purple Pearl is now an eight-year-old advanced warrior. It has planted a total of 25 life seeds, of which 24 have already begun to produce primal force food. Only the seven-year-old life seeds were planted less than two years ago, and the trees are still in their growth period and have not yet conceived life seeds.

It now needs to pick all the fruit from these trees, sort them, pack them in different spider silk bags, and then sell them at the trade fair.

"Everyone, please pay attention. After picking the fruit from the tree, separate the pit from the pulp and dry them separately for two days before you can sell them."

At this moment, the three little ones are helping Zizhu with her work. It is currently the busy season for trading, and the bee swarm has to do a lot of work for many warriors, so they are temporarily unable to free up their own resources.

Zizhu simply let the three little bees take over the task of picking fruit for her instead of the bee colony.

Zishan raised a paw in confusion and asked, "Zizhu, aren't we going to eat the fruit? Why are we drying it separately? Won't our Force be lost that way?"

Zizhu said, "You can eat a little if you want, but don't eat too much."

"The pulp produced by the Destiny Seed also contains a lot of primal force, and because there is so much of it, we usually can't finish it all."

"Dry them into fruit, then the tribes will come and buy them, and we'll sell them to the Flame Spider Merchants."

"Do we have to sell each kind to them? That's too many! And how do we calculate the price?"

"The Flame Spider Merchant buys fruit pulp regardless of its type, only by its grade."

Fruit pulp produced in the territory of advanced warriors, whether for strength enhancement or internal organ enhancement, is worth 100 raw stones per kilogram.

Fruit from territories classified as "mountain lords" commands a price four times higher than this.

"It's not just our Twin-Forked Rhinoceros Beetle tribe; the Flame Spider Merchants buy all the fruit pulp on the entire Banana Island in this way."

Purple Pearl's words made the three little ones even more curious: "Can they eat all that fruit pulp they've bought?"

Zizhu laughed: "The Flame Spider Merchants don't just buy fruit pulp for their own consumption. Besides eating it themselves, they can also combine different types of enhanced fruit pulp to brew Force Fruit Wine."

Alternatively, extraterrestrial artifacts could be used to process the fruit pulp into Force candies and Force pills that can be preserved for a long time.

Upon hearing Zizhu's words, the three little ones exclaimed, "What is Force Fruit Wine?"

"What are Force Candies?"

"What are Force Pills?"

Zizhu didn't know how to explain for a moment, so she could only vaguely say, "Every year at the trade fair, the Flame Spider merchants bring some of their specialties to sell. I'll buy some and show you then, and you'll see."

"Yay!"

The three little ones cheered excitedly. Every intelligent life form is filled with curiosity about the outside world from the moment of its birth, wanting to see scenery it has never seen before and know things it has never heard of. This is an innate instinct.

Because the fruit ripening time of many varieties is different, only three or four of the 24 fruit-bearing varieties of Callicarpa purpurea need to be harvested temporarily.

With the help of the three little ones, and with its own work, it quickly finished harvesting all the fruit produced this year.

Not long after, Zitong finished harvesting its life seeds. It had only recently advanced to a high-level warrior and only had 18 life seeds produced so far, so it easily finished harvesting the fruit.

Then, it ran over to Zizhu and invited her to go to the trade fair together.

"Purple Pearl, the trade fair has been going on for two days now. Let's go see if there are any good things that are hard to find normally. Let's buy some to try."

"No problem, I've finished harvesting my fruit, but..." Zitong thought of a problem and looked at the three little ones, "Who will take care of them?"

Zizhu thought for a moment and said, "Let the Lord of Zima Mountain take care of it for a few days. It has a job here, the tribe will pay it a salary, and the primal force food will be purchased for it. It should be fine to take care of it for a few days."

"No, no, we won't stay with the Purple Hemp Mountain Lord." Unexpectedly, Zizhu's words drew strong opposition from the three little ones.

"We also want to participate in the trade fair. Zizhu, take us to have some fun. I want to see the other Zerg warriors."

"I want to see it too. Besides the Hercules beetle, there are also several other Zerg warriors, such as the Mammoth Hercules beetle. I haven't seen any other Zerg warriors yet. I want to see what the Flame Spider Merchant looks like."

Hearing what the three little ones said, Zizhu was completely bewildered. Why were the little warriors so curious?

"Stay put in Purple Ridge like a good boy."

"No, Zizhu, take me there."

"Take me there, take me there!" The three little ones threw a tantrum, rolling around on the spot, demanding that Zizhu take them there.

"Good boys, if you behave, I'll take you there."

Upon hearing Zizhu's words, the three little ones immediately stopped their fussing: "We'll be good."

"Listen to me, we won't go!"

"Purple Pearl deceived the little soldier."

Hearing Zizhu's persuasive words, the three little ones immediately started making a fuss again: "Take us with you, take us with you, if you don't take us, we'll go secretly by ourselves."

"Yes, yes, we'll go secretly by ourselves."

The three little ones kept making a ruckus, which startled Zizhu.

The trade fair is a melting pot of all sorts of creatures. If they sneak over on their own and something goes wrong, the trouble could be immense.

"Stop, stop, stop." Zizhu discussed with the three little ones: "I'll take you to ask Lord Zili if you can go. If Lord Zili says you can't go, you'll stay here obediently."