Chapter 46: The Origin of the Insect Plague!
Chapter 46: Chapter 46: The Origin of the Insect Plague!
Wherever the insect plague passed, not a single blade of grass remained.
Lan Ling slumped to the ground, watching helplessly as the swarm bit by bit devoured the Spirit Rice she had painstakingly cultivated over a whole year. To her, it felt like the sky was collapsing and the earth caving in. Her world was on the verge of destruction in this moment, yet the swarm continued its path of devastation from north to south. The moment the swarm of Drunken Aphids took to the skies once again, Lan Ling knew it was over. Everything was over. She staggered to her feet, ignoring her half-open clothes, and slowly walked toward her little wooden cabin. This scene felt all too familiar. It seemed this was the ultimate fate of a Spirit Plant Cultivator.
On the other side, Chen Mo finally breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the swarm depart. Holding Spiritual Sand in one hand to restore his bottomed-out Spiritual Qi, he patrolled his Spirit Field. Whenever he spotted a few stragglers that had slipped through the net, he would deliver a Geng Metal Finger to prevent the insect plague from regaining momentum.
Out of five acres of Spirit Field, he had ultimately managed to save less than two. Calculated at three hundred catties of Spirit Rice per acre, this meager harvest would likely be just enough to cover his taxes and rent. Better than nothing! He had already done his best. Being able to protect such a large swath of Spirit Field with his current strength completely exceeded his expectations. Perhaps, without the mysterious seeds he had bought for five taels of Spiritual Sand, Chen Mo wouldn’t be where he was today. It seemed there was a preordained destiny at work in the unseen world!
After tallying his losses, he grabbed a sack from behind the small wooden cabin. Executing the Spirit Snake Body Technique, he continuously picked up the corpses of the Drunken Aphids scattered all over the ground. Whether decapitated or pierced through the abdomen, these insects were undoubtedly dead, though their corpses were still relatively intact. Chen Mo’s five acres of Spirit Field were densely littered with insect corpses. As he gathered them, the sack filled up at a visible rate. It took him nearly two hours until the sky gradually darkened before the field was finally completely cleared.
The Drunken Aphids in the Mature Stage were larger and had harder shells, making them much more nutritious for Spiritual Birds! However, digesting them wasn’t as easy or convenient as those in the Adult Stage. The two forms of the insects each had their own merits. Chen Mo poured out the harvest of three full sacks onto the floor and spent an entire night drying them. Ultimately, he obtained over one hundred and twenty catties of dried insect corpses. The sheer volume completely exceeded his imagination!
If he were to sell these alone to a Spirit Nurturer, one hundred and twenty catties of insects would equate to the price of one hundred and twenty catties of Spirit Rice. It could be considered a handsome income. However, Chen Mo wasn’t going to sell them. These were reserved as feed for when he raised Spiritual Birds next year.
To other Spirit Nurturers, the descent of the insect plague brought mixed feelings. The joy was in harvesting a massive amount of dried insects, meaning they wouldn’t need to purchase any for the next two or three years; the sorrow was that the Spirit Rice in their fields was completely gone! Even the occasionally powerful Spirit Nurturers hadn’t managed to protect much.
The insect plague on the horizon lasted for several consecutive days. The entire Purple Cloud Peak was shrouded in a desolate, chilling atmosphere. The Spirit Plant Cultivators were heartbroken yet utterly helpless, watching until these sun-blotting Drunken Aphids swept from north to south, passing over the Spirit Fields and crossing through the Marketplace. The nourishment from the Spirit Rice made these insects even more robust. Their strength and shells grew far more formidable, and their numbers multiplied exponentially. They headed south the entire way, making a beeline straight for the foot of Purple Cloud Peak.
As the sky-obscuring swarm flew into the mountain forest, a powerful attractive force suddenly tore at the massive swarm. They were compressed and pulled, shrinking and dwindling bit by bit at a visible rate...
A figure appeared on the horizon. Clad in a long Hongyi robe, her shoulder-length hair fluttered in the wind and dust. With exquisite facial features and peerless beauty, her delicate, bare feet rested upon a Flying Sword. Her hands formed seals over a Purple Gold Treasure Gourd, which was the very source of that powerful attractive force. The swarm that had filled the sky slowly grew smaller and sparser... until it was completely swallowed by this gourd that was no larger than a palm. When the last Drunken Aphid vanished, the Female Cultivator finally dispersed her Magic and tied the gourd to her waist.
Just as her bare feet tapped lightly, preparing to fly away on her sword, a figure in azure clothes suddenly approached from the horizon. The Female Cultivator furrowed her brows slightly, though it did nothing to mask her city-toppling beauty.
"Senior Sister Bai, where are you planning to go this time?"
The newcomer was also stepping on a Flying Sword. He had sword-shaped eyebrows, starry eyes, and a prominent nose. His dark hair was lightly frosted with white at the temples. With the astral winds brushing his face and his hair fluttering, he looked exactly like an Immortal.
"Peak Master Li, even a trifling matter like this has alarmed you?" Bai Zhirou asked, looking at him indifferently.
"A trifling matter?" Li Chunfeng chuckled lightly. "You’ve wiped the Spirit Fields of the entire Purple Cloud Peak clean, and you call this a trifling matter?"
"I recall notifying you a couple of years ago, didn’t I?" Bai Zhirou retorted. "Are the matters of the Spirit Fields not trifling?"
To Peak Master Li Chunfeng of Purple Cloud Peak, the Spirit Rice was indeed a trifling matter. The vast majority of the Tier One Spirit Yellow Rice was simply used to satiate hunger. If it was gone, it was gone; it wasn’t worth heartache in the slightest. As for rice of Tier Two and above, only the seventeen peaks possessing a Tier Two Spirit Vein within the entire Cyan Yang Sect could cultivate it. Bai Zhirou’s insect swarm never visited those places.
"Senior Sister Bai, may I ask how far you are from Breaking the Pill?" Li Chunfeng blocked her path. This was what he truly wanted to ask!
Bai Zhirou raised an elegant eyebrow and looked at him. She suddenly offered a gentle smile but gave no answer.
"Peak Master Li, farewell!"
With a tap of her bare feet, the Flying Sword sped off. In the next instant, her beautiful silhouette disappeared, leaving only Li Chunfeng staring into the distance with a burning gaze.
Golden Core! Golden Core! A Realm that countless Cultivators exhaust all their strength and spend their entire lives trying to reach, yet fail to match! Below the Golden Core, all are ants. The entire Cyan Yang Sect only had a few Golden Core Ancestors. And the very reason the Cyan Yang Sect could be considered a Tier Three Sect within the borders of Wuchi Country was solely due to these few Golden Core Ancestors. Otherwise, what right would they have to occupy this Tier Three Spirit Vein? Other sects would have likely swallowed them whole long ago!
Bai Zhirou, as one of the few Second Generation Disciples under the Ancestors with the highest hope of breaking through to the Golden Core, held a status so lofty it rivaled that of an Immortal Sect Elder! Among the entire one hundred and twelve Immortal Peaks of the Cyan Yang Sect, only she, along with the four from the main peak Cyan Yang Peak, Xuanxiao Peak, and the Changge Spirit Pool, wielded supreme authority. This was precisely because they were the disciples with the greatest hope of breaking through to the Golden Core! They were the true hope of the entire Immortal Sect. Otherwise, the entire Cyan Yang Sect wouldn’t indulge Bai Zhirou by letting her harvest the Tier One Spirit Fields once every ten years! This massive amount of resources all fell into her hands alone. No one knew exactly how many insects were inside her Treasure Gourd, nor how powerful they were!
Li Chunfeng secretly clenched his fists. Currently, his strength was merely at the Foundation Establishment Eighth Layer. In the eyes of others, he might be unmatched, but only he knew clearly that he was still far, far away from true exalted status. Whether he could step into the Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer was still plausible. But whether he could successfully Break the Pill and step into the Golden Core Realm was as difficult as ascending to the heavens! So many outstanding talents of the Cyan Yang Sect had failed to break through, ultimately dying of old age in deep depression! Could he, Li Chunfeng, break through to the Golden Core?
In the next instant, his gaze shifted toward the area between Purple Cloud Peak and Yellow Cloud Peak. Perhaps! The answer lay there!