Chapter 140.
Chapter 140 – Inner Ghost
After the crowd deliberated for a while, they still couldn’t find an effective solution, so they had no choice but to leave the Spirit Plant Garden one after another.
“Cheng Ning, take me to a dying Water Swamp Spirit Peach, I have a bit of an idea about these foreign insects, I just still need to verify it.”
After most of the people had left, Lu Xuan said to the clean-cut youngster who was still following him.
“Huh? Alright, Elder Lu!”
Hearing Lu Xuan’s words, Zhang Chengnin, who was already worried, revealed a look of joy and answered in a low voice.
He led Lu Xuan through the quagmire, and a moment later, he arrived in front of a Water Swamp Spirit Peach that was in a worrisome state.
“This spirit plant already has a large number of hollow parts inside its torso, which has seriously affected its normal growth, and the family’s spirit plant masters were unable to save it by all means, so they had to let it fend for itself.”
Lu Xuan carefully examined this Water Swamp Spirit Peach, it was indeed as Zhang Chengning had said, there were quite a few hollow areas inside the torso, branches and leaves.
Without hesitation, he directly pulled out this sickly Water Zephyr Spirit Peach, pretended to observe it for a while, and planted it into the mud bog again.
After completing the [Planting] program, Lu Xuan’s mind condensed on this Sickly Water Swamp Spirit Peach, and a message immediately flashed through his mind.
[Sickly Water Swamp Spirit Peach, a Grade 1 Spiritual Plant, usually lives in muddy swamps and water swamps. When ripe, the Spirit Peach is rich in spiritual energy, and can be consumed as a Spirit Fruit, or used as the main ingredient in refining certain pills.]
[Invaded and parasitized by the Anopheles, its vitality is greatly damaged. You can control a fire technique to bake the surface of the branches and trunks of the water-swamp spirit peach, and under the stimulation of fire spiritual energy, the Anopheles will react instinctively, thus distinguishing it from the normal branches and trunks of the spirit plant.]
[Requires the ability to control fire-based techniques to be no less than the minor achievement realm, or else there is a possibility that the spirit plant will be damaged].
“Fire magic stimulation …… This Water Zephyr Spirit Peach and the Mimic Insect are equally afraid of fire, only that the spirit plant does not have any reaction under the baking of the spirit fire, whereas the Mimic Insect, although its form is generally the same as that of the spirit plant’s branches and trunks, reacts in a different way when faced with the flames.”
“Essentially a demonic insect it will naturally make a choice to avoid harm, thus allowing it to be screened out from the spirit plant.”
“Normally, spiritual planters wouldn’t use this method for fear that the spiritual plants would be burned by the flames in the process, so it requires cultivators who have subtle control in fire arts.”
Lu Xuan thought secretly in his heart.
Turning his head to see Zhang Chengnin looking at him with an expectant face, he said gently.
“Don’t worry, I’ve already learned quite a lot about this pest infestation and will soon be able to help you solve it completely.”
Saying so, he led Zhang Chengnin back to the Zhang family.
“Senior Sister Yao, I’m Lu Xuan, I’ve made some discoveries regarding this Water Swamp Spirit Peach Insect Infestation, and I’ve specially come over to discuss it with you, Senior Sister.”
After returning to the Zhang Family, Lu Xuan directly came to the residence where the beautiful woman was resting and knocked on the door to ask.
“Senior Sister Lu, please come in.”
Lu Xuan pushed open the door to his room, Yao Qing was sitting on a wooden chair, looking at himself with a smile.
“Did Senior Brother find the source of those strange insects?”
“Senior sister you are familiar with me, I don’t have any other preferences, I just like some miscellaneous things about spiritual plants and beasts.”
“After I came back, I thought back for a moment and finally remembered that I seemed to have seen information about that weird bug in one of the clan’s tomes.”
“The weird bug is called the Mimicry Bug, the eggs are parasitized on the spirit plants, and will gradually mimic the form of the spirit plants as it grows, so it looks as if it is fused with the spirit plants, and it is extremely difficult to discover its traces.”
“When it enters the maturity stage, after the Mimic Worm seizes enough vitality from within the spirit plant, it will detach itself from the spirit plant and multiply until a new parasitism begins.”
“Mimic worm, haven’t heard of this name, but I believe in you, senior brother, just do you have a way to deal with it?”
Senior Sister Yao asked curiously. Although she managed a medicinal garden for her Foundation Establishment Senior Uncle, her main focus was still on cultivation, and she only knew some methods of cultivating spiritual plants, and knew very little about anything else.
However, she already believed seven or eight percent of what Lu Xuan said, after all, the fact that Lu Xuan had improved the quality of the Monkey Face Orchid had left a very deep impression on her.
“The method isn’t difficult, it only requires a cultivator who specializes in Fire Arts to bake it with a slow fire, and based on the changes in the spirit plant, thus identifying the Mimicry Worms hidden inside the branches and trunks.”
Lu Xuan paused and continued.
“However, there’s one thing I would like to tell you, Senior Sister, that this Mimicry Insect isn’t considered common and has a low reproduction ability, thus it will rarely appear in large numbers in the same area.”
Hearing Lu Xuan’s words, Yao Qing frowned lightly, her expression icy cold.
“What does Senior Brother mean, it’s possible that this is a Zhang Clan cultivator supervising the theft?”
“Of course, it’s also possible that other cultivators sneaked into the Spirit Plant Garden and placed the Mimic Worm eggs on the Water Swamp Spirit Peach respectively.”
“It’s just that the Zhang Clan’s family member, Zhang Yu Tang, shouldn’t know the inside story, or else he wouldn’t have asked the Heavenly Sword Sect for help.”
Yao Qing quickly figured out the stakes and cleanly turned around to leave.
“I’ll go discuss this with the Zhang Family Head, thank you, Senior Brother Lu, for this time.”
Nightfall.
It was very quiet in the large Spirit Plant Garden, the moonlight poured over the branches, leaves and fruits of the Water Zephyr Spirit Peach, as if there were layers of watery light shimmering, and faint ripples appeared from time to time.
A black shadow entered the Spiritual Plant Garden with a dexterous figure through the hazy moonlight.
He observed the surroundings, everything was silent, and the cultivators patrolling the Spirit Plant Garden had also entered into rest.
The black shadow immediately rest assured a lot, his mouth issued a burst of strange insects chirping, the sound is as thin as mosquitoes, a few imperceptible.
Not long after the sound of insects, the surrounding water and peach branches and leaves rustling and shaking, a cut off as branches and trunks of strange insects from the tree off, in the mire slowly crawling, to the black shadow to rush.
“This insect repelling technique is indeed effective, able to automatically gather the mimic worms together, but unfortunately, it only has an effect on the adult worms, and has little effect on the larvae that are still in a parasitic, mimic state.”
The black shadow said in his heart, the arrival of the three cultivators from the Heavenly Sword Sect caused him to have a huge sense of crisis, and he had to risk coming out and utilizing the insect repelling technique that he had obtained to gather together the mimic worms that had entered the mature stage.
Although he knew that the Mimicry Insects habits and forms were quite strange, and the possibility of being discovered in large numbers was very low, but the opposite side was, after all, a cultivator from a large sect, so it was not possible that he would really find a way to solve the Mimicry Insects.
If there was too much depletion of the Mimic Bugs parasitizing the Spirit Plant Garden, the reward he would receive would also be much less.
“After taking this batch of mimic worms and coming over two or three more times, it’s almost all here.”
“Hehehe, that what’s-her-name Heavenly Sword Sect, planting so many Water Swamp Spirit Peaches in the Zhang Clan, is still not a dowry for me.”
The black shadow was pleased in his heart.
Suddenly, the misty spirit light lit up, and several silhouettes appeared under the light.
“I never thought that my Zhang Clan would have a curmudgeon like you.”
The Zhang Family Head’s indifferent voice rang out, word by word, as if there was infinite anger brewing.
(End of chapter)