Chapter 182 - 158: No One

Chapter 182: Chapter 158: No One

His mind was filled with such doubts.

Soon, the man and the pig arrived at the lakeshore.

Li Changsheng recalled Xiaohua into his Spirit Beast Bag, circulated Spiritual Power to his feet, and stepped onto the lake’s surface, heading away from the island.

Atop the mountain, nestled in the crown of a large tree, an ordinary-looking man was half-reclined on a branch. He watched Li Changsheng leave the island with no intention of stopping him.

After Li Changsheng was a good distance away, the man stood up, dusted off his rear, and with a few leaps, appeared above a Spirit Field.

Down in the Spirit Field, Hao Yuegui was watering the plot with life-giving spiritual energy.

The man jumped down, landing beside Hao Yuegui, and told her what he had seen from the mountaintop.

"Ah!"

As the man slowly recounted the story, shock filled Hao Yuegui’s eyes. She immediately stopped watering the field and began to inspect the Water Spirit Flowers one by one.

Before long, she discovered a small cluster of insect eggs in the crevice of a Water Spirit Flower’s leaf.

"Dammit!"

Hao Yuegui’s expression was a mixture of shock and anger.

After using the Sharp Metal Art to destroy the eggs, she began checking the other Spirit Medicines.

Meanwhile, in a nearby Spirit Field,

Yan Shaoyuan, still thin but in quite good spirits, also discovered insect eggs under the veins of a Golden Embryo Grass leaf after he finished watering the field.

Just as they were inspecting their Spirit Fields and exterminating the pests,

Li Changsheng, riding Xiaohua, had already reached the edge of the Tier One Spirit Fields.

His gaze swept across the area, and his expression tensed.

As far as the eye could see, Spirit Farmers were busy at work in the hundreds of acres of Spirit Fields.

As he traveled through,

Xiaohua’s massive size didn’t draw any attention.

Everyone was too busy driving away locusts to spare a glance for anything else.

’It really is an insect plague...’

Li Changsheng looked around, a sense of worry growing in his heart.

This locust plague had arrived too quickly, too strangely.

It was as if it had appeared out of nowhere, without any warning.

Li Changsheng watched for a moment before urging Xiaohua to hurry toward Ma Rong’s residence.

A short while later,

he arrived before the gate to Ma Rong’s small courtyard.

Li Changsheng stood at the gate and called out a few times, but there was no reply from within.

’Not home...’

Li Changsheng shook his head and urged Xiaohua toward the Spirit Field Hall in the center of the Spiritual Land.

He made several stops along the way.

By questioning some Spirit Farmers, he learned something that was neither good nor bad.

Most of the insects in the Tier One Spirit Fields were ordinary bugs, about the size of a little finger. Only a very small number were tainted with a hint of Spiritual Qi, and there wasn’t a single Grade-Entering Spirit Insect among them.

However, another piece of news shook him to the core.

According to one Spirit Farmer, when the locusts were first discovered, the largest among them were only the size of a fingertip and could be crushed underfoot, so no one paid them much mind.

It wasn’t until they found that the locusts were impossible to completely get rid of and were becoming harder and harder to kill that they frantically reported it to Steward Jin and the others.

Now, more than ten days later, the adult insects were almost all thumb-sized, with carapaces as hard as cork.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Spirit Farmers possessed Spiritual Power and nearly all of them knew the Sharp Metal Art, allowing them to easily break through the locusts’ defenses, the tables might very well have been turned.

’These locusts...’

Li Changsheng thought of the insect eggs he’d found under the leaves of the Cold Flame Flower, and his heart grew heavier.

If what the Spirit Farmer said was true, given their adaptability, these strange locusts would sooner or later evolve into something they couldn’t handle. At that point, never mind the Spirit Medicines in the fields—they might even start eating people.

Thoughts churned in Li Changsheng’s mind.

Along the way, he saw Dong Yao and Wu Yong busy in a field with two young girls. He exchanged a brief greeting with them before moving on.

It didn’t take long for him to arrive before the Spirit Field Hall.

Li Changsheng dismounted, recalled Xiaohua into his Spirit Beast Bag, and walked up the steps.

The front of the Spirit Field Hall was unguarded, so he walked straight in.

Upon entering the main hall, however, he found it empty. There wasn’t a single person inside.

’Where did they go?’ Li Changsheng’s eyes showed his confusion. He then sat down on a chair to wait.

「An hour later.」

Li Changsheng left the hall with a frown, summoned Xiaohua, and after a moment’s hesitation, urged it to head south of the hall.

He continued until he was not far from the market where the Loose Cultivators gathered.

But he still saw no sign of Steward Ma, Steward Jin, or the others. As for the Patrol Guards, there were only two ten-man squads patrolling the Spiritual Land.

This abnormality made Li Changsheng’s heart sink. He scanned his surroundings, didn’t dare to linger any longer, and urged Xiaohua to return.

By the time he returned to his small courtyard, the sky was already growing dim.

And there, standing quietly before his gate, were Xu Li and the other two.

"Your subordinate greets you, Lord Steward."

Seeing him return, the three of them looked delighted and stepped forward, clasping their hands in salute.

Li Changsheng waved his hand. "No need for such formalities." He dismounted, opened the courtyard gate, and said, "Come inside to talk."

Once inside the house,

Li Changsheng gestured for them to sit. After they were seated, he said slowly, "The Spiritual Land is suffering from an insect plague."

Upon hearing this,

the expressions of all three turned grave.

An insect plague in the Cultivation Realm was no laughing matter. Once a plague broke out, not only would the currently planted Spirit Medicines be devoured completely, leaving them with nothing after months of hard work, but even people could be in danger.

Li Changsheng continued, "I went to the Spirit Field Hall, but I didn’t see Steward Jin or the others." He paused, then added, "And only twenty Patrol Guards are left to patrol the Spiritual Land."

"What?"

This time, the three of them couldn’t sit still.

Without the Patrol Guards and high-ranking Nascent Soul Cultivators like Steward Jin to keep watch, who would protect them if a demon were to sneak in?

Xu Li was particularly anxious.

Hao Yuegui and Yan Shaoyuan still had a Nascent Soul Cultivator watching over them, but he had no one.

As this thought crossed his mind, Xu Li asked with a fearful expression, "Could it be the Power Demon Sect again?"

Li Changsheng shook his head. "I don’t know either."

He instructed them, "It’s best if you don’t leave the island. And be careful when you’re tending to the Spirit Medicines."

"Yes, my lord."

The three clasped their hands and agreed, their eyes filled with a hint of panic.

After exchanging a few more words,

the three left together.

After seeing them off, Li Changsheng returned to his wooden house and immediately contacted Xiaohai, ordering it to return to the Spiritual Land.

He then dispatched a dozen or so of his tamed insects to spread out across the island.

Once all this was done,

Li Changsheng cleared the chaotic thoughts from his mind and walked into the kitchen.

Whether the Power Demon Sect had returned or it was something else entirely, he now had Xiaohai and Little Wooden Head. He had at least some ability to protect himself.

As he was preparing feed for his pig,

「In a dense forest a hundred li outside the Spiritual Land.」

Cultivators wearing Patrol Guard uniforms were scattered throughout the area, their gazes vigilantly scanning the surroundings.

And in a clearing at the center of the group,

Luo Fang and Feng Bai Mei stood at the head, flanked by Steward Jin, Steward Ma, and several Patrol Guard captains.

Everyone wore a grave expression, yet there was also a trace of excited anticipation in their eyes.

Below them,

a Cultivator with deathly pale skin and a colorful Daoist Robe lay on the ground.

Ke Jing was half-squatting, his palm pressed against the man’s head, a faint gray light emanating from it.

Time slowly passed.

The Cultivator in the colorful Daoist Robe suddenly began to convulse violently. His expression twisted into a grotesque mask as trickles of blood flowed from his seven orifices.

A moment later,

the body of the Cultivator in the colorful Daoist Robe went stiff, and all signs of life vanished.

Ke Jing opened his eyes, a savage excitement glinting within them. He turned his head to the others and said, "I’ve found their location. They really are Cultivators from the Herding Branch."

He pointed toward a spot in the dense forest. "They’re a hundred li from our current position."