Astral Gods

Chapter 1 Divine Gift

In the dense jungle, a giant rhinoceros beetle, three meters in size and with a dark and ferocious appearance, lowered the halberd on its head, which stuck into the ground, causing the soil to churn as it moved forward.

After tilling a thousand meters of land, it turns back to till the next row. Under its powerful halberds, the soil and trees are as fragile as tofu.

"Purple Bead." Just as the giant rhinoceros beetle was diligently tilling the land, an even larger rhinoceros beetle, over three meters in size, flew in from the distant forest.

"Are you tilling the land?"

"Yes." Seeing its kin arrive, the giant rhinoceros beetle stopped plowing and raised its head from the soil. "Locust Flower, what brings you here?"

"I heard that a new variety of peanuts seems to have sprouted from your field?"

"Probably. The newly planted peanuts seem to have stronger roots and produce more flowers. I just wonder if they'll produce more fruit?"

"That would be wonderful." Huaihua flapped her huge wings and soared through the air. "Where are the peanuts you grow? Take me to see them. If they really do produce more and bigger peanuts, then give me a batch this year, and I'll take some back to my own territory to keep for seed."

"Sure." The giant rhinoceros beetle named Purple Pearl led the other to a peanut field not far away.

This peanut field is vast, stretching as far as the eye can see.

At this moment, the peanut plants in the peanut field are covered with yellow flowers.

Huaihua used her forepaws to turn over the soil in the peanut field and asked, "How many peanuts did you plant?"

"I've planted about one square kilometer. I plan to cultivate another area and plant more."

"Are you planting so many here so that ordinary rhinoceros beetles can lay their eggs?"

"Yes," Zizhu replied, "I discovered that peanuts are very nutritious and oily. Rhinoceros beetles lay their eggs underground in peanut fields, and the larvae eat peanuts to grow up, which greatly increases their survival rate."

"Really? If that's the case, then I'll plant more peanuts and raise more larvae in the future to increase the number of my little soldiers."

"Let's go get something to eat." Zizhu led Huaihua to her nest, under a huge banyan tree.

Zizhu took out a large pile of stored tropical fruits such as bananas and mangoes, and the two insects ate them with relish.

"Purple Pearl," Huaihua asked, "have you harvested your Force Foods this year?"

The Purple Beauty Tree responded, "We've harvested a few plants, but there are still a dozen or so seedlings that haven't been harvested yet."

"Oh, I see. The fruit from my locust tree is almost ripe. How about we trade a batch of black plums then?"

"No problem, my black plum seeds should ripen in about two weeks..."

The locust flower rushed over but wasn't in a hurry to go back. The two giant rhinoceros beetles ate and chatted, quite content.

Before they knew it, it was late at night, and both the locust flower and the purple pearl were fast asleep in the cave.

Not far from them is a peanut field with yellow flowers in bloom.

The night sky was ablaze with stars. Just as the two insects were sleeping soundly, suddenly, one of the stars in the sky lit up.

Immediately afterwards, the two insects felt a tremendous pressure of primal energy. Before they could fully awaken, they only vaguely opened their eyes and saw a ray of white light descend from the sky and fall heavily into the peanut field.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Huaihua and Zizhu were awakened from their dream by the immense pressure of primal energy. They were so frightened that they flew up into the sky and danced wildly, wondering if some insects had invaded their territory.

Two giant beetles darted about in the jungle, startling the common rhinoceros beetles that lived there into flying swarms, densely packed like dark clouds.

After a long time, when the two insects no longer felt threatened, they regained their composure and landed back in front of the nest chamber.

"What just happened?"

Half an hour passed before the two insects calmed down, but they were still somewhat bewildered by what had just happened.

They were just sleeping, so how could they feel a tremendous pressure from the primal force descending upon them?

"I don't know either." Zizhu was also very confused: "This is my territory, and Zerg warriors usually don't come here."

If it was an enemy attack, it just checked its territory and found no damage. Could it be that some powerful Zerg warrior just passed by?

The two insects couldn't help but have some doubts.

Huaihua hesitated before saying, "Just now, I vaguely saw a white light fall onto the peanut field, and it seemed like that terrifying pressure came from the white light."

Hearing Huaihua's words, Zizhu was also a little uncertain: "I think I saw it too, but I didn't see it very clearly. What happened?"

The locust flower, being the bolder one, mustered its courage and said, "Let's go to the peanut field and see what's going on?"

Zizhu hesitated for a moment, then said, "Let's go take a look."

Both insects saw the white light, which means the white light does exist. But what is the use of this white light? And where did it come from? This remains a mystery.

Two insects rushed into the peanut field and carefully searched the area where the white light had landed.

After a moment, Zizhu exclaimed, "Here it is! I can feel the fluctuations of the primal force in the soil here!"

"Force fluctuations?" Upon hearing Zizhu's words, Huaihua immediately moved closer on her six legs: "Where?"

"Here." Purple Pearl raised its paw and pointed to the soil under a peanut vine, where it sensed a faint fluctuation of primal force.

"I didn't see it. Oh, I noticed it." The peanut vine was covered with yellow flowers, one of which had already withered.

The purple bead is located just below this flower.

"What's under the soil?" Zizhu used her mental power to scan the area and was surprised to find three insect eggs stuck together side by side under the soil. One of the eggs was currently emitting a faint fluctuation of primal force.

"Insect eggs? How could they be insect eggs?" Huaihua also scanned the area with her spiritual power and exclaimed in surprise upon seeing this strange scene.

It's important to know that in the astral plane, insects only have a chance to awaken into Zerg warriors after reaching adulthood, and the sign of awakening is the presence of Force fluctuations on their bodies.

Huaihua had heard that some exceptionally gifted Zerg warriors could awaken their Force fluctuations before they even reached adulthood, but in any case, it was impossible for a single Zerg egg to awaken such fluctuations.

"This..." Huaihua looked at Zizhu: "The insect eggs with primal force fluctuations... could it be because of that white light just now?"

Upon hearing Huaihua's question, Zizhu pondered and said, "It's not impossible."

"This is truly an incredible event! A bug egg with Force fluctuations—does that mean it could give birth to a rhinoceros beetle warrior?"

Thinking of this, it quickly asked, "Purple Pearl, what do you plan to do with this insect egg? Should we leave it here, or take it back to the nest to protect it? There's a chance a little warrior might hatch from this egg."

Zizhu didn't hesitate at all: "I'll take it back to the nest to protect it. This is an insect egg with primal force fluctuations. If it gets eaten by rats or birds in the wild, it's all over."

"Yes, yes, you protect it. I'll go and invite the tribal lords and chieftains to come and see. This is truly a rare thing." Huaihua couldn't wait a moment longer and immediately flapped her wings and flew away from this place under the moonlight.