Chapter 59

After leaving the miasma, Yang Junshan did not linger for a moment, and he returned to the Mountain Barbarian Village by passing through the Quwu Mountains. Then, he used over a dozen stone coins to board a grain cart from the village that was going to the town to sell spirit grains. He got off the cart before reaching the town guard post, bypassing the market of the Wasteland Town, and spent two days returning to the Loess Hill Village in the Wasteland Town.

These past two days, Yang Tiangang's mood had been quite good. He had just finished cultivating the three plots of medium-grade spirit fields under his name and, with the help of the town guard commander, purchased seeds of the lower-grade spirit grass, Golden Red Flower, from the spirit plant garden set up by the Heaven-Shaking Sect in Mengyu County.

Golden Red Flower is a lower-grade spirit grass that is commonly used in the refining of elixirs. Despite its ease of cultivation and high yield, its price remains stable, making it an ideal spirit grass to plant.

Medium-grade spirit fields are originally used to cultivate medium-grade spirit grass. However, if lower-grade spirit grass is planted, not only will the yield increase, but the maturation cycle of the spirit grass will also be significantly shortened compared to medium-grade spirit grass. In this way, the income may not be worse than planting medium-grade spirit grass.

Of course, the most important thing is that spirit grass seeds are not easy to obtain. The Golden Red Flower seeds that Yang Tiangang bought could only cultivate one plot of spirit field. If it were medium-grade spirit grass seeds, even the town guard commander would be powerless to help.

As for the remaining seeds, Yang Tiangang planned to seek help from his elder brother, Yang Tianchen. A few days ago, Yang Tianchen sent a message saying that due to the red rust stone, he had been admitted as an inner disciple of the Heaven-Shaking Sect, which was a certainty. Upon hearing about the three plots of medium-grade spirit fields, he immediately agreed to help find enough spirit grass seeds to cultivate one plot of spirit field, but in return, he would take 30% of the yield.

Yang Tiangang was well aware of his elder brother's nature, always wanting to keep everything for himself. However, at this time, he could only seek help from his elder brother, who was both a town guard of the Greenstone Town and an inner disciple of the Heaven-Shaking Sect.

In addition, there were some spirit grass seeds sent by relatives and friends in Greenstone Town who were close to him, such as An Xia, his brother-in-law. The quantity was very limited, but there were many different types, mostly collected over the years and then sent over.

Thus, one plot of spirit field remained empty. Yang Tiangang was still considering whether he should seek help from his fourth sister, Yang Tianfang. She was actually his third sister, ranking fourth among the second-generation direct-line descendants of the Yang family, being the first child of his father and stepmother Wang. Wang later gave birth to a daughter and a son, ranking ninth and twelfth, respectively, Yang Tianling and Yang Tianshou.

Yang Tiangang did not get along with his stepmother Wang, but he had a good relationship with his fourth sister, Yang Tianfang. The reason was that Yang Tiangang ranked third in the Yang family, and Yang Tianfang ranked fourth, so they were about the same age and played together when they were young. Yang Tiangang took good care of his younger sister.

Later, Yang Tianfang, as the only married woman in the Yang family, married her stepmother Wang's nephew, Wang Yuan, becoming the granddaughter-in-law of Elder Wang, the highest-ranking cultivator in the Heaven-Shaking Sect. With the help of her husband's family, she also took care of Yang Tiangang.

When Yang Tiangang separated from the family, if it weren't for the help of his fourth sister, even though he had accumulated the necessary spirit materials for forging a magical artifact over the years, finding a master alchemist to forge a high-grade magical artifact was not an easy task, let alone successfully forging it in one attempt, which required extremely skilled alchemists. Where else could such alchemists be found except in the Heaven-Shaking Sect?

However, precisely because of this, Yang Tiangang did not want to ask his fourth sister for help again. After all, she was a married woman, and if he kept seeking help, it would be difficult for her in her husband's family.

Sigh, although the medium-grade spirit fields were good, they also brought many troubles. After all, they were the only ones in the entire Loess Hill Village. Once spirit grass was planted, a protective formation had to be set up outside the spirit fields. This would require various formation tools, a formation master, and a large amount of jade coins for other miscellaneous expenses.

If it weren't for the jade coins earned from the red rust stone, he probably wouldn't be able to afford to plant the three plots of spirit fields!

The other two martial realm cultivators in the village, Xu Sanlang, was still fine, as he had the entire Xu family clan supporting him, and the two plots of spirit fields had already been cultivated. However, Zhang the blacksmith was in a sorry state, having only cultivated one plot of spirit field, with the remaining plot still barren. It seemed that even if he cultivated it, he wouldn't be able to afford the high planting costs, and it would be better to leave it uncultivated to reduce the dissipation of spirit energy in the spirit fields.

Just as Yang Tiangang was still troubled about where to get the spirit grass seeds for the remaining plot of spirit field, his eldest son, Yang Junshan, who had been out for seven or eight days, finally returned, and he brought back some bad news.

He detailed to his father what had happened in the Quwu Mountains over the past few days, including the forces from Zhang County using secret passages to buy grain in the Wasteland Town and rescuing Ning Bin. Of course, the most important thing was the purpose of his trip: he brought back several dead giant locusts and described the scene of the sky being filled with giant locusts in the valley.

"Father, the locust plague is about to break out, and this is no longer in doubt. Moreover, there are forces from Zhang County secretly causing trouble. We must take precautions early!"

Yang Tiangang did not immediately respond to Yang Junshan's words but carefully examined the dead giant locusts. After a moment, he said, "Where did such giant locusts come from? I've never heard of a locust plague involving such giant locusts. Could it be that the people from Zhang County have developed some new evil magic or secret technique?"

Yang Junshan wanted to tell his father that it wasn't some evil magic or secret technique but a sign of a great change in the world. There were many such signs in the cultivation world, but it would only be clear many years later when looking back at the present.

However, before Yang Junshan could think of a way to explain these things to his father, Yang Tiangang suddenly glared and scolded, "You little brat, you actually dared to kill people on your trip. How much cultivation do you have? Aren't you a bit afraid? Fortunately, you're smart enough not to run into a martial realm cultivator, or I would have to step in to avenge you!"

Yang Junshan laughed foolishly and then hesitated, asking, "Father, should we report these matters to the town guard post?"

Yang Tiangang glanced at him and said, "Report to the town guard post? This is a conflict between the forces outside Yu County and the Heaven-Shaking Sect. It's not something we commoners can get involved in. We should avoid it. What, do you want to seek fame and become a target for everyone?"

Yang Junshan quickly replied, "Not reporting is best, not reporting is best!"

At this moment, Yang Tiangang's expression turned serious, and he sternly said to Yang Junshan, "Tell me, a few days ago, you had Baozhang buy many strange things for you. You must have been preparing for the locust plague, right? But from your appearance, it seems you were setting up a formation. When did you learn about formations?"

Yang Junshan hurriedly changed the subject, saying, "I was originally trying to set up a formation, but then I found these powders in the camp in the Quwu Mountains. As long as we sprinkle them around the spirit fields, the locusts won't be able to get in."

After barely fooling his father, Yang Junshan first went to the pomegranate forest on West Mountain to release Hu Niu, who had been trapped there for seven or eight days. After being nourished by the spirit energy in the cave for these days, Hu Niu's injuries had largely healed, but she was very hungry.

As soon as she jumped out of the cave, Yang Junshan was about to take her to hunt some wild animals, but at that moment, a wild rabbit suddenly darted out of the pomegranate forest. Hu Niu let out a roar, and the rabbit was instantly frightened to the point of paralysis, being eaten up by Hu Niu who walked over leisurely.

Yang Junshan watched the scene in shock. The moment Hu Niu roared, a demonic aura suddenly emanated from her, forming a powerful momentum that rushed towards the rabbit with a tiger's roar, completely terrifying the rabbit. This was clearly a common method used by demonic cultivators to find prey.

After eating, Hu Niu turned to Yang Junshan and gave a slight nod. Yang Tiangang even thought he saw a smile on Hu Niu's face, realizing that in just seven or eight days, Hu Niu had grown even larger. He could only think to himself, "Damn, she really has become a demon!"

When Yang Junshan returned home, he sensed several strong auras in the house. Upon entering the hall, he saw that all four martial realm cultivators from Loess Hill Village were there, and Yang Tiangang had also gathered a few peak mortal realm cultivators with some influence in the village.

When Yang Junshan entered, everyone just glanced at him and continued their discussion. Zhang the blacksmith said, "Brother Yang, I believe there will be a locust plague this year, but I don't quite believe that the locusts will be giant and could break through the defenses set up by the four martial realm cultivators and many mortal realm cultivators in the village. What do you think, Clan Head Xu?"

Xu Sanlang also laughed, "Since we haven't seen the giant locusts Brother