Chapter 81: Silent Finale and 2 Mu of Spirit Field
Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Silent Finale and 2 Mu of Spirit Field
Black-winged Birds, four years ago! Two entirely unrelated terms, now combined, sent a massive shockwave through Chen Mo’s mind! One was a scavenger bird, the other the date of his arrival in this world. For Lan Ling to bring this up now meant she must have seen something back then.
Chen Mo slowly turned around. Maintaining a look of utter disgust on his face, he said, "What are you talking about? Crazy woman." Then, completely ignoring her reaction, he went back to tilling his field.
Behind him, Lan Ling bit her lip tightly. She had thought this piece of information would force Chen Mo to compromise, but she hadn’t expected him not to care at all... No! Perhaps he simply refused to admit it. That fleeting glance four years ago—the dark shadow tearing through the Spirit Fields, and the shrieking Black-winged Birds on the horizon... At the time, Lan Ling hadn’t taken the scene to heart. But as she spent more time interacting with Chen Mo, those images gradually surfaced, eventually piecing together a bizarre picture in her memory.
Gritting her teeth, she turned around and slowly walked away with trembling steps. Only when Lan Ling’s presence had completely vanished did Chen Mo turn back, casting a deeply meaningful glance in her direction.
One day later, the fifteen acres of Spirit Fields were fully sown.
Rain clouds began to gather on the horizon, and gradually, a gentle early spring drizzle nourished the Spirit Fields. Chen Mo sat cross-legged, continuing his meditative cultivation. At this moment, he held his second Low Grade Spirit Stone. When the Spiritual Qi within this Spirit Stone was completely depleted, it would be the day he broke through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer!
As evening approached, waiting until the neighboring Spirit Plant Cultivators had returned to their homes, Chen Mo finally went to activate the Mountain Gazing Shadow Retaining Array set up nearby, briefly recording the current scene. Returning to his house, he brushed the Spiritual Birds’ feathers once more before going to sleep early that night.
Early the next morning, Chen Mo left the Spirit Fields for a trip to the Marketplace, only returning close to noon. Just like that, he remained busy with his cultivation, farming, and raising Spiritual Birds, as if nothing had ever happened! For the next few days, it was the exact same routine.
Finally, on the fifth day, Lan Ling dragged her frail body over and knocked on He Zhiping’s door. The moment he opened the door, this Female Cultivator—who had once gone to great lengths to string him along—threw herself directly into his arms. She muttered, "One Fasting Pill, and I’ll be yours from now on."
He Zhiping was startled; in his panic, he nearly shoved her to the ground. Once he finally processed the situation, he looked around before pulling Lan Ling inside his house. After years of bitter longing, He Zhiping had finally waited until his chance at romance bloomed.
That night, the Qi Refining First Layer Female Cultivator grew even weaker...
"Fa... Fasting Pill..." Lan Ling barely even had the strength to swallow her saliva at this point.
Meanwhile, a puffed-up and thoroughly satisfied He Zhiping patted his chest and said, "I don’t have one on hand, but I’ll take you to the Marketplace to buy one right now!" As he spoke, he intentionally or otherwise revealed a Sachet meant for holding Spiritual Sand. As for whether there was actually any Spiritual Sand inside? Only he knew.
Lan Ling felt a surge of joy, experiencing a profound sense of surviving a disaster. Supported by He Zhiping, the two headed toward the Marketplace. However, when the sky grew dark, he returned completely alone. For several consecutive months after that, Lan Ling was never seen again.
Ten days, twenty days, a month... Her two acres of Spirit Fields remained desolate and abandoned.
During this period, Yu Xi from the Fragrance Pavilion visited once. After exchanging a few words with Chen Mo, she hurriedly left. However, this scene was inevitably witnessed by He Zhiping and Miao Chen. In the past, these two would have undoubtedly wagged their tongues and gossiped wildly behind his back, but now they both chose to keep their mouths firmly shut.
In the second month after the spring plowing—thirty-three days after Lan Ling’s "disappearance"—He Zhiping finally sought out Chen Mo. Nowadays, within a hundred-acre radius, Chen Mo was an unavoidable hurdle. If the other Spirit Plant Cultivators wanted to make any moves, they had to read his mood first.
"Fellow Daoist... Fellow Daoist Chen."
Chen Mo stood outside the Spirit Field, looking deeply displeased. Every time someone approached, he had to leave the Memory Array’s range. This back-and-forth wasted precious time for cultivation.
"What is it!"
"Lan... Lan Ling seems to have gone missing."
"Does that have anything to do with you?" Chen Mo suddenly asked.
"Ah?!" He Zhiping was instantly terrified, his heart nearly leaping out of his throat. He tried hard to calm his nerves and said, "N-no... no... it has nothing to do with me."
"Then what do you want?" Chen Mo scoffed inwardly, thinking that there were no good people in this world—only a bunch of selfish Cultivators. Of course, that included himself.
"I saw her Spirit Fields were abandoned, and I... I wanted to plant them this year..."
"Scram!" Chen Mo spat out a single word.
At the same time, Kang sprinted over from the chicken coop. Now reaching a grown man’s chest, the Spiritual Bird puffed out its chest, radiating an intense, oppressive presence!
He Zhiping gulped, then slunk away in defeat.
How could those two acres of Spirit Fields possibly be given to him? As early as the day Yu Xi visited, Chen Mo had already expanded the range of the Memory Array. Right now, what He Zhiping and the others saw was nothing more than an illusion! Inside, it was already a lush, verdant green. In another three months, the planted Spirit Rice would ripen, and when that time came, the harvest would be a staggering 7,000 catties!
He Zhiping slunk away in defeat. Before he could even return to his house, Miao Chen came up to meet him.
"How did it go? Is he willing to give them up?"
Seeing his friend shake his head, Miao Chen was instantly filled with righteous indignation. "Him! What right does he have to monopolize those two acres of Spirit Fields? Does the Ancient Dust Marketplace belong to the Chen family? I don’t believe this, I’m going to go find..."
"Shh!" He Zhiping hastily covered Miao Chen’s mouth. "Stop talking, stop talking! He’s at the Qi Refining Third Layer now!"
"So what if he’s at the Qi Refining Third Layer? Does being at the Qi Refining Third Layer mean he can be unreasonable? Come on, let’s go to Niu’s Shop and..."
"I said, drop it!" He Zhiping suddenly shouted, his tone heavily agitated.
"You?!" Miao Chen’s eyes widened, staring at him in bewilderment.
"I said drop it, so drop it! Let’s just focus on farming our own little plots of land first!"
He Zhiping was terrified. That sudden rhetorical question from earlier made him realize Chen Mo likely knew he had sold Lan Ling to the Fragrance Pavilion. If the Marketplace found out about this, he wouldn’t even be able to protect himself! Going to Niu’s Shop now would be tantamount to throwing himself into the net. Furthermore, for some unknown reason, the Fragrance Pavilion hadn’t asked any questions about her origins and had given him a massive sum of Spiritual Sand. If he were forced to spit it back out now, what would he even spit out?!
Standing to the side, Miao Chen saw his friend fiercely backing down and realized there was nothing he could do either. He certainly wasn’t going to risk provoking Chen Mo’s wrath on his own.
The sixteenth of the Busy Month. Clear skies.
Ever since entering mid-summer, every day had been blazingly sunny, and the cicadas buzzed in a deafening chorus outside. The Spirit Plant Cultivators, who should have been staying indoors to avoid the heat and focus on cultivation, took advantage of the cooler morning hours to continuously cast spells for Rainfall. The temperature this summer was exceptionally high. Normally, they only needed to summon Rainfall once every two or three days, but now they had to water their fields almost every single day.
While everyone else was busy making it rain, one man, one sickle, and one rooster were equally hard at work!