Chapter 10 Inferior Spiritual Soil
Fortunately, the crops in the other two acres were unharmed; only the rice seedlings suffered.
Li Chang'an clenched his teeth tightly.
What kind of insect could eat these rice seedlings like this overnight?
Moreover, the seedlings in the two acres next to it are all fine, so what's the difference between these rice seedlings and them?
Something that can do that in one night is definitely not an ordinary insect.
Could it be a demon?
However, the outer formation uses his blood as a medium, so he will sense whoever enters.
Furthermore, there's the Black Sword; if a demon comes, the Black Sword won't remain unresponsive.
Li Chang'an stared intently at a rice seedling, as if trying to see through it and find the pests that had plagued the rice paddy last night.
But in the end, he could only release his fist in frustration, and his tense shoulders slumped down.
As if sensing the oppressive atmosphere emanating from him, the black sword beside him tilted its hilt.
Li Chang'an remained silent, standing by the rice paddy for a long time before finally going down into the field to clean up the torn plastic film. He then returned to the bamboo hut, took out the remaining rice seeds, and began soaking and cultivating the seedlings again.
What other options does he have besides replanting?
*
After scattering the sprouted rice seeds in the field and covering them with mulch, Li Chang'an did not return to his bamboo hut to meditate and cultivate for several nights in a row. Instead, he set up a tent by the field to ensure that he could detect the insects in time if they came again.
Seven days later, the rice seedlings sprouted and grew to a height of several centimeters.
After checking, Li Chang'an did not go into the tent to meditate and cultivate that night, but sat outside the tent waiting.
In the night sky above the fairy mountain, the stars are dazzling, and you can even see a blue-purple Milky Way.
The last time I saw such a beautiful starry sky was when I was very young.
Back then, I lived in a village where the air was fresh and the stars in the night sky were bright and beautiful.
Unfortunately, as he grew up, he lived in the city for a long time and was busy working, so he never looked up at the starry sky he sees now.
After waiting for most of the night, the field remained quiet, and no insects came.
Li Chang'an rubbed his furrowed brows, sat down on a folding stool, and his tense mood relaxed slightly at this moment.
He sighed and asked, "You're not not coming tonight, are you?"
The Blade Spirit stood to one side with his arms crossed, gazing into the distance, silent.
Li Chang'an didn't expect any response from the sword spirit and continued, "I've waited so many days. I can't sleep soundly until I catch the culprit."
More importantly, if you're not careful, this batch of seedlings might get eaten by insects, and then you'll have to start all over again.
After the salary from the "Morning Glow" crew was deposited into his account, he used it to pay off a debt. After deducting next month's debt, he now only has about two thousand yuan in his account.
The planted grains would take several months to mature, during which time he had no other source of income and could only live on the two thousand yuan he earned.
I need to spend money on this and that, the money in my bank account keeps decreasing, and I still have so much debt to pay off...
Li Chang'an was somewhat anxious.
The sword spirit glanced at him: "Humans always worry about so many things, don't you get tired?"
"Of course I'm tired," Li Chang'an said.
At his most exhausted, he even considered ending it all.
But if he leaves, the debts will remain, and the unresolved grudges will remain.
He couldn't let go completely.
Besides, he had promised his parents and brother that he would live a good life.
Li Chang'an lowered his head and smoothed his hair.
The sword spirit withdrew its gaze, and the next second, its eyes turned sharp as it looked at the bamboo forest again.
"They're here."
Li Chang'an suddenly stood up: "What?"
"What you've been waiting for all night."
Li Chang'an frowned and nervously looked towards the bamboo forest.
After waiting for two minutes, he heard a faint buzzing sound.
Annoying, like mosquitoes.
Li Chang'an's eyes widened. By the starlight, he saw a group of red and black flying insects arranged in a square formation, drifting over like a wisp of black smoke.
Those flying insects were each about the size of a thumb, unlike the ordinary insects of the Cangxuan Realm.
Li Chang'an quickly took out the basic manual. As he turned the pages, golden particles moved according to his will, forming a sentence in front of him:
【Tuangu Insect】: A harmful spiritual insect. It appears in swarms, feeds on the seedlings of spiritual grains, lives under spiritual soil rich in spiritual energy, and is afraid of fire.
Li Chang'an looked at the last two words and chuckled softly.
If they're afraid of fire, that makes things easier; we can just kill some monsters.
"Senior, please don't make a move. Let me try."
After turning to the sword spirit and saying those words, golden light appeared in Li Chang'an's eyes. He raised his hand and used all his spiritual power to draw a talisman. A flame shot out and devoured the rice worm that had come to the top of the rice field.
Accompanied by a burnt aroma, a pile of dead caterpillars fell from the sky and landed in the rice paddy.
However, Li Chang'an's cultivation was limited, and the flame only devoured about four meters of the swarm of insects. The rest were startled by the firelight and flapped their wings to escape.
The black smoke seemed to brake suddenly, then turned and drifted deeper into the bamboo forest.
Li Chang'an pressed his aching dantian and looked back at the black sword.
"quick!"
Black Sword quickly stepped forward and lifted him up, swiftly chasing after the Tuangu Insect, flying steadily back and forth in the bamboo forest.
The sword spirit flew behind them at a leisurely pace.
Li Chang'an held the black sword tightly, his eyes fixed on the wisp of black smoke in front of him.
The worms quickly flew to the east of the bamboo forest and into a small earthen mound.
[...living beneath a spiritually rich and fertile land...]
The spiritual energy in Xuanling Immortal Mountain has been depleted. Is the remaining spiritual energy enough for the Tuangu Insects to survive?
Li Chang'an was puzzled.
He got off the black sword, broke off a bamboo stick, and went forward to poke the earthen slope.
The earthen slope flashed red light, then remained steadfast and unmoving.
Li Chang'an couldn't even budge an inch of soil.
If the bamboo stick can't pry it open, then...
Li Chang'an glanced at the black sword beside him and gave it a look.
"It's your turn."
Black Sword immediately stepped forward with renewed vigor, his sword flashing, and plunged into the earthen mound. A second later, it flew out from the other end of the mound, piercing right through it.
A flash of red light appeared on the earthen slope, startling a worm that flew out and blocked the entrance to its burrow.
Li Chang'an sneered, drew another talisman, and flames entered the cave entrance, burning the Tuangu insects in the earthen slope to ashes.
A rich, burnt aroma wafted from the earthen slope, smelling just like rice crust.
As expected of a spirit insect that survives by eating spirit rice seedlings, it smells so good when cooked; Li Chang'an is even a little hungry.
Wait, Linggu seedlings.
Li Chang'an was taken aback again.
He recalled that the offerings for the worship of Mount Wolu included grains of the highest quality.
These rice worms only ate the rice seedlings, but not the wheat or other crops nearby. Does this mean that the rice seedlings he planted were already of the spiritual grade?
The difference between rice cultivation and the other four grains is that rice cultivation uses the most Ningjing River water.
Ningjing River is located in Xuanling Immortal Mountain, so it must also have some spiritual energy.
The rice seeds must have absorbed the spiritual energy from the Ningjing River during the soaking and seedling process, which is why they reached the Spirit Valley level.
"Now we have one type of spirit-grade grain," Li Chang'an said, raising his eyebrows with delight.
The flames on the earthen slope gradually died down. Li Chang'an looked at the earthen slope in front of him, which was emitting a fragrance and glowing red, and slowly reached out his hand.
Digging away the soil on the slope, underneath was a space of about two square meters, densely packed with the blackened corpses of giant worms.
He pushed aside the dead insects and saw the source of the red light at the very bottom—
It was a giant worm the size of a football, with two-thirds of its body covered in rotting marks on its abdomen, which was glowing red and looked rather disgusting.
Golden particles floated, forming characters around the giant Tuangu insect: Tuangu Insect Emperor.
"It has been dead for a while."
The voice of the sword spirit rang out beside me.
Li Chang'an turned around and asked, "Dead?"
The sword spirit's gaze fell on the Tuan Valley Insect King, and it continued, "When the spiritual energy of Xuanling Immortal Mountain is lost, many low-level spiritual creatures cannot withstand this change and will die. This Insect King's corpse still has some spiritual power, and after its death, as the corpse decayed, it changed the quality of the surrounding soil."
Li Chang'an looked at the surrounding soil.
The soil was dark in color, soft in texture, and slightly damp to the touch.
It looks similar to the most fertile black soil in the Cangxuan Realm.
"So, has this soil become sacred soil?"
"Inferior soil".
Li Chang'an pondered for a moment, then bent down and picked up the corpse of the insect king.
Who cares about its quality? As long as we know that the corpse of this insect king can fertilize the land, that's enough.
If the insect king's people eat his spirit rice seedlings, then he can use their corpses as fertilizer. Is that okay?
Li Chang'an snorted, suppressing his nausea, and took the insect king's corpse away, burying it overnight between two acres of land planted with the other four types of grains.
He didn't waste the worms he burned; he collected them all and mixed them into the fertilizer for the crops he planted.
*
Three days later, five square meters of soil near the place where the Tuangu Insect King was buried turned into that kind of inferior spiritual soil.
Only wheat and soybeans were planted on those five square meters, while the soil under the millet and sorghum was just ordinary soil.
Li Chang'an then ran to the bamboo forest and dug up the inferior spiritual soil near the nests of the Tuangu insects, piling it at the base of some millet and sorghum.
With the remaining bit of inferior spiritual soil, he bought twelve flowerpots to plant Jade Glory Grass.
Li Chang'an has been busy planting grains on those three acres of land lately, and has hardly paid attention to these jade grasses.
He only discovered today, when transplanting the plants, that the twelve jade grass plants were in very poor condition.
It drooped its head listlessly, its leaves were yellowing, and some leaves were even broken.
What's going on?
The golden particles in the basic manual gave him the answer:
【Jade Glory Grass】: Requires a growing environment rich in spiritual energy.
The sword spirit glanced at it and said, "The Jade Glory Grass is a mid-grade spiritual item. Although it did not perish with the loss of spiritual energy, it is not far from that day."
Li Chang'an frowned and tried to channel his spiritual energy into a jade-like grass plant beside him.
Golden light flowed from his palm like water, slowly enveloping the Jade Glory Grass.
One of the leaves on this jade plant is broken, and a black mark has appeared at the wound.
Under the golden light, the black marks slowly disappeared, turning into a yellowish-green color.
"Spiritual power can only serve a healing purpose," the sword spirit said calmly.
"That's enough." Li Chang'an withdrew his hand and turned to another Jade Glory Grass, channeling his spiritual energy into it.
Spiritual power is enough to prolong their death.
Growth and reproduction still require a lot of spiritual energy, but hopefully these inferior spiritual soils and the water of the Ningjing River can sustain them for a while longer.
After transferring spiritual energy to the three Jade Glory Grasses, Li Chang'an's dantian began to ache faintly.
He withdrew his hand and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
He looked at the seal on the distant immortal mountain, and suddenly remembered something: "What about the spiritual creatures in those immortal mountains? Could they also be...?"
The sword spirit said, "The seal will play a certain role in preventing the loss of spiritual energy. I have checked, and mid-to-high-level spiritual objects can still hold out for a while."
It seems that he's been appearing and disappearing mysteriously lately, sometimes just checking on the state of those spirits, right?
Li Chang'an breathed a sigh of relief for the time being.
But when he thought of the Jade Glory Grass that had almost become extinct, and the sacred mountain that was losing its spiritual energy, Li Chang'an couldn't help but feel a little sad.
A note from the author:
----------------------
I've revised the [Lop-eared Rabbit Head] version. The previous version was entirely narrative, and the plot felt insufficient.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
