Chapter 44: The True Insect Plague Descends!
Chapter 44: Chapter 44: The True Insect Plague Descends!
The power and speed of this palm strike were so immense that He Zhiping didn’t even have time to react!
He hastily tried to dodge, but with his level of strength, he only managed to shift half a step! In an instant, the flame and its scorching wave of heat squarely struck He Zhiping’s left arm.
The next moment, before he could mount any sort of counterattack, his entire body was sent flying backward.
The raging fire burned his clothes and scorched his arm. It was only when He Zhiping gritted his teeth against the pain and extinguished the flames that he felt a slight wave of relief.
Throughout this, Chen Mo did not press his advantage. Instead, he simply stood to the side, watching the other man coldly.
Meanwhile, the true instigator of this entire ordeal had turned completely pale with fright. Since becoming a Cultivator, this was the first time she had witnessed actual Magical Combat. Everything that had just happened completely exceeded her expectations.
Lan Ling’s delicate mouth parted slightly as she slowly turned her head in shock. Looking at Chen Mo’s icy expression, a myriad of thoughts swirled through her mind.
She wondered, "Why... why is he so strong? Did I... did I target the wrong person?"
The pain did not make He Zhiping lose his reason as he lay on the ground. He knew very well that the other man had deliberately missed his vital spots with that palm strike. If it had been aimed at his face or his heart, he would undoubtedly be dead.
He wondered, "Didn’t he just break through to the Qi Refining Second Layer?!" He Zhiping was completely baffled.
"Aren’t you going to get lost?" Chen Mo said with a cold face. "Did you really think I didn’t know about those little tricks of yours?"
At those words, the expressions of both He Zhiping and Lan Ling changed drastically.
The latter hurriedly rushed over to help up a grimacing He Zhiping. Without daring to say another word, the two quickly fled the scene. They had never expected that their secret release of Drunken Aphids into his Spirit Field would be exposed! That meant he had known all along, which was why all of this was happening now!
He Zhiping did not dare to bring up the matter of the insect corpses again. After all, he couldn’t win in a fight, and he was completely in the wrong anyway.
Chen Mo kept his hands behind his back the entire time. It was only after he watched the two of them walk far away that he dissipated the golden glow at his fingertips.
Given his current strength, even though both he and He Zhiping were at the Qi Refining Second Layer, if he had wanted to kill the man, he wouldn’t have given him the slightest chance to escape. However, killing was strictly forbidden among Spirit Plant Cultivators, and Chen Mo didn’t want to cause any unnecessary trouble.
But just because he couldn’t kill didn’t mean they couldn’t engage in Magical Combat.
The reason he had chosen to expose his strength and attack He Zhiping was to avoid even more unnecessary trouble in the future! He needed to focus on his cultivation and had no time to waste on these random nobodies!
After scaring the two away, Chen Mo carried the pile of Drunken Aphids outside his door into his small wooden cabin. Using the same method as yesterday, he dried them out into preserved insect corpses.
Once dehydrated, the shelf life of these insect corpses was greatly extended. As long as they didn’t get wet and rot, storing them for three to five years would not be a problem.
Exchanging two taels of Spiritual Sand for fifty catties of feed, Chen Mo wasn’t sure if he had taken a loss or not. It wasn’t until the next day, when the Spirit Nurturer from next door came knocking, ready to purchase them for five taels of Spiritual Sand, that he realized he had made a profit! And quite a large one at that!
With a Spirit Nurturer at his door, Chen Mo naturally wasn’t going to let him leave so easily. At the cost of one bowl of Spirit Rice Porridge, he managed to pry some information out of the man regarding the rearing of Spiritual Birds.
First of all, whether it was a Spirit Chicken or a Spirit Duck, their primary diet consisted of the husks of Spirit Yellow Rice, commonly known as chaff.
As for insects? Those were foods used to promote rapid growth in Spiritual Birds, and they were typically only fed to them every few days. Even Drunken Aphid corpses were far more expensive than Spirit Rice. If they allowed the Spiritual Birds to eat as much as they wanted, it would be entirely unaffordable!
Furthermore, raising Spiritual Birds was not as lucrative as outsiders imagined. Once they reached their Mature Stage, Purple Cloud Peak would send people specifically to purchase these Spiritual Birds. The prices were kept extremely low. After deducting the cost of buying the chicks, a breeder would barely make enough to cover the feed.
The value of a single bowl of Spirit Rice Porridge was limited. The Spirit Nurturer who had come to collect the insects deliberately omitted the fact that once these Spiritual Birds began breeding, it would become a virtually risk-free, highly profitable business! They certainly didn’t want another batch of Spirit Plant Cultivators competing for their business.
After sending off two or three waves of Spirit Nurturers who came to buy insects, Chen Mo spent the following days cultivating bitterly every day, just as usual.
This endless cycle—where day and night consisted solely of meditating, casting Rainfall, and practicing spells—would have been unbearable for an ordinary person to persist through. Otherwise, He Zhiping wouldn’t have set his sights on Lan Ling. After all, being entirely alone and repeating the exact same tasks every day was absolute torture. Having a Dao Companion to share intimacy with whenever desired changed the situation completely.
Over the past few days, He Zhiping had focused mainly on nursing his injuries. Lan Ling, on the other hand, occasionally slipped into Chen Mo’s field, doing everything she could to exude her charm in an attempt to attract his attention.
However, no matter what she did, even when she used every trick in her arsenal, he refused to spare her a single glance!
Almost half a month passed in this manner.
Just when everyone thought that everything had returned to a time of tranquility and that a year of Harmonious Wind and Rain awaited them, something entirely unexpected erupted once again!
On this day, Chen Mo was sitting cross-legged as usual, practicing his breathing exercises.
Suddenly, a terrifying buzzing sound approached from a distance. Immediately after, a massive, dense swarm appeared on the horizon, completely blocking out their line of sight!
In the Spirit Fields, the Spirit Rice had just begun to ear. Although they had already survived one insect plague, the crops in everyone’s fields were still growing exceptionally well.
But this time, almost all the Spirit Plant Cultivators, including Xiao Changhua, had faces ashen with sheer despair!
It was true. That overwhelming, pitch-black "dark cloud" blocking out the sky was none other than a densely packed swarm of Drunken Aphids. They fluttered their wings from the distant Spirit Fields and descended upon the next tract of land.
In less than an hour, the once lush and vibrant Spirit Fields were reduced to nothing but handfuls of yellow soil and a few scattered, shredded leaves...
Whether it was Xiao Changhua or He Zhiping, both were now slumped on the ground. As Lan Ling watched the slowly encroaching "dark cloud," her heart felt as if it had abruptly stopped!
An insect plague! This was a true insect plague! A minor disaster every three years, and a major catastrophe every ten years!
Just a few days ago, these Spirit Plant Cultivators had thought that the so-called insect plague was nothing to write home about. But they had been wrong. Was that previous event even an insect plague? It was merely a trivial interlude!
Before Drunken Aphids reached their Mature Stage, they possessed almost no destructive power. Now, however, these Spirit Insects that had entered their Mature Stage would absolutely not scatter and flee just because the Spirit Plant Cultivators tried to drive them away. They would simply swarm and cling to the Spirit Rice Seedlings in massive swathes, staying put until they had devoured everything edible in the field before taking off for the next location.
How could Spirit Plant Cultivators possibly salvage their pitiful crops from beneath a Drunken Aphid swarm of such colossal magnitude? Perhaps... perhaps they would even find it difficult to protect themselves from these insects.
The plague that had blackened the horizon descended into the nearby Spirit Plant Cultivators’ fields. As their hearts bled, a whole year’s worth of painstaking effort was completely laid to waste.
In a panic, Lan Ling stumbled over to He Zhiping’s side.
But this time, with a true insect plague descending upon them, who could truly protect themselves?