Chapter 66

Five people stood on the waist of West Mountain, looking down at the valley. After the demonic locust was killed by Hu Niu's claw, the locust swarm that had been covering the sky and blocking the sun immediately fell into chaos.

Previously, although the locust swarm did not appear to have any obvious order, there was always a general pattern to be found. For example, the giant locusts would carry the ordinary locusts, shifting the main attack direction from the south of the village to the southwest, and the locust swarm generally maintained a consistent direction towards the two villages, Tuqiu and Tushi.

However, at this moment, the locust swarm was still covering the sky and blocking the sun, but it was completely in chaos, like flies buzzing around aimlessly. A large number of locusts even flew away from the two villages in all directions, making the locust swarm over the two villages appear much thinner.

"Good, this insect king truly can influence the entire locust swarm. Brother Junshan, the people of the two villages owe you a favor for today's actions!"

Yang Junshan smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Today's actions were a joint effort of the five of us, not just my own achievement. However, Tushi Village does owe us a favor."

Su Baozhang said seriously, "Brother Junshan, you don't need to be modest. Without you leading us up the mountain, we wouldn't even know if the insect king existed, let alone that it was ultimately killed by you and Hu Niu together. Most of the credit still goes to you!"

Su Baozhang was clearly trying to defend Yang Junshan. Although the other three, Zhang Huzi and the others, were somewhat不服 (unconvinced), they couldn't find a reason to refute him. However, they certainly wouldn't go along with Su Baozhang's flattery.

"Oh, right!" Yang Junshan slapped his head and said, "I forgot to collect the spoils of war!"

The other four looked at him curiously. Just a few dozen giant locusts, what spoils could there be?

Seeing their confusion, Yang Junshan tore off the wings of a giant locust, which were as thin as cicada wings, and asked Zhang Huzi, "Huzi, your father is a weapon maker, and you must have learned a lot from him. What do you think of these wings of the giant locust?"

Zhang Huzi's eyes lit up immediately, "Oh, right! How could I not think of it? That thing is thinner than paper, yet it's so sharp it can cut my arm. I'll take it back and show my father. Oh, and the hind legs of the giant locust are even more powerful, they can pierce my hand. If used as a hidden weapon, …"

Before Zhang Huzi could finish, the others had already started collecting the wings and hind legs of the giant locusts. Zhang Huzi shouted and hurriedly joined in. Although he was a bit slow, his skill in collecting materials for weapon making was not to be underestimated. He quickly and neatly disassembled the wings and hind legs, and Xu Lei and Xu Jing together couldn't match his speed.

Yang Junshan didn't join in, as the best pair of wings had already fallen into his hands, from the body of the demonic locust. Unfortunately, the hind legs had been blown to pieces by the talisman arrow and were nowhere to be found.

The wings and hind legs of ordinary giant locusts were also sharp and hard, but they were clearly not at the level required to forge weapons or magical tools. However, the giant locust guards, with their far superior bodies and combat abilities, made their wings and hind legs much more valuable.

In Yang Junshan's view, this was because the giant locust guards had also been tainted by demonic aura, possibly even intentionally by the demonic locust. Although this demonic aura was not enough to cause a full demonic transformation, it was sufficient to enhance their strength.

Of course, the most important part of the demonic locust, which had undergone a preliminary demonic transformation, was not the materials that could be used as spiritual materials, but the immortal spirit within its body.

A demonic beast that had undergone a demonic transformation would inevitably possess intelligence and would also inevitably have an immortal spirit within its body. What made Yang Junshan curious about the demonic locust's immortal spirit was that it was also a pair of wings. Although they were only a pair of lower-grade immortal spirits, they were truly a pair of wings!

After the demonic locust was killed by Hu Niu, the pair of wings, no longer hidden by the demonic aura, revealed their true form. Fortunately, Yang Junshan was prepared and quickly collected the pair of seven-inch-long wings.

There are examples of immortal spirits being used as spiritual materials, such as the medium-grade immortal spirit of cold iron that Zhang Huzi had refined, which was also a material that could be used to forge medium-grade magical tools. However, such treasures that could be used as both spiritual materials and immortal spirits were extremely rare. Now, Yang Junshan had two such wings, and more importantly, they were a pair!

It had been mentioned before how rare a pair of immortal spirits is, but the most suitable pair of immortal spirit points for a pair of wings is usually under the ribs, as the saying goes, "wings under the ribs." However, cultivators with such peculiar immortal spirit points are even rarer in the cultivation world than those with a pair of immortal spirit points in their hands, like Zhang Huzi and Yang Junping.

"Let's go, let's go down the mountain!"

Zhang Huzi, who had collected almost half of the materials from the giant locust guards, was overjoyed and urged everyone to hurry down the mountain.

Yang Junshan naturally wanted everyone to leave the pomegranate grove as soon as possible. Although his cover was excellent and he wasn't worried about the current novices noticing anything amiss, he didn't want them to linger in what he considered his private territory.

Due to the loss of the demonic locust's coordination, the changes in the locust swarm in the village did not escape the notice of the martial realm cultivators like Yang Tiangang. However, at this time, the spirit farmers in the village had already returned to their spirit fields to fight individually, and it would be difficult to reorganize them.

At this time, the spirit grain in Tuqiu Village, except for what had been harvested, had probably already been completely devoured by the giant locusts. However, the spirit farmers in Tuqiu Village still guarded their spirit fields to prevent the locusts from laying more eggs in the fields, which would cause trouble for the next year's planting. Even Yang Tiangang and his wife Han Xiumei had rushed to the medium-grade spirit fields at the foot of West Mountain.

When Yang Junshan and the other four boys came down from West Mountain, four martial realm cultivators were gathered at the foot of West Mountain, near the three medium-grade spirit fields. They had already learned from the remaining villagers that the five boys had gone up the mountain to kill the insect king. The martial realm cultivators looked at each other, not knowing that there was an insect king in the locust swarm.

However, seeing the locust swarm in the village now behaving like headless flies, with many locusts even flying away from the village, they seemed to have lost their previous purposeful attack, as if they were indeed without command and control.

Xu Sanlang asked in surprise, "Brother Yang, did you tell your son about the insect king in the locust swarm?"

Yang Tiangang smiled awkwardly, "It was just a guess. I didn't expect this kid to take it seriously and actually lead Xu Family's young master and Brother Zhang's Huzi up the mountain. He's really a reckless kid. When he comes down, I'll give him a good scolding!"

Xu Sanlang chuckled, "It seems Brother Yang hit the mark by accident. Maybe these kids have done some good!"

Zhang Tieshi, however, looked at the array formation around the Yang Family's spirit field and said, "Brother Yang, I didn't know you were also skilled in array formations. What kind of formation is this? It doesn't seem very powerful, but it's very effective against the locusts. Why didn't you mention it before? If we had this formation, we wouldn't have had such a hard time defending against the giant locusts. Are you hiding something, Brother Yang?"

Zhang Tieshi's words made Han Xiumei angry. She put her hands on her hips and spat at Zhang Tieshi, "What do you mean, Zhang Lahei? Let's be honest. If it weren't for my husband leading the whole village to fight the locusts, how much of the spirit grain would be left? How much of your family's spirit grain would be left? Now you're blaming my husband. Have you lost your conscience?"

Zhang Tieshi's face turned dark, and his already blackened face from years of blacksmithing became even darker. Although he was angry, when he rushed to the spirit fields from the south of the village, he had stopped a few farmers who were harvesting the spirit grain and learned that his family's spirit grain had been harvested at 80%, a few days earlier than full maturity, but it was still 70% of the usual harvest. In the face of this giant locust disaster, being able to save 70% of the harvest was already a stroke of luck, and everyone in the village had seen this. The greatest credit definitely went to Yang Tiangang, the village head. If he picked a fight now, his reputation would suffer.

Seeing Zhang Tieshi's silence, Han Xiumei coldly huffed and stopped talking. Xu Sanlang, seeing that the fun was over, quickly intervened, "We're all from the same village. In times of natural disaster, we should work together. We can discuss any differences later."

Yang Tiangang also said, "Brother Zhang, I don't know how my son set up this array formation. It must be some kind of lucky encounter he had. Array formations are too profound to learn just by wanting to. If you have any questions, the kids are coming down the mountain. You can ask them yourself!"

How could you, an outsider, ask about his son's abilities in front of his father when even the father didn't know?

When Yang Junshan and the others came down from West Mountain and returned to the spirit fields at the foot of the mountain, they indeed saw that Yang Tiangang and the other martial realm cultivators had already arrived and were fighting the locusts.

Compared to the hectic scene when the young boys were fighting, the four martial realm cultivators and a few spirit farmers who had reached the fifth layer of the human realm worked together much more smoothly, and among them, Yang Tiangang and his wife were the most composed.

Han Xiumei was using her magic to eliminate the dense areas of the locust swarm while also paying attention to the young boys like Yang Junping. Yang Tiangang, on the other hand, was squatting on the central stone platform that Yang Qianhai had been responsible for, studying the array formation. He had sent Yang Qianhai to the side, and not only him, but the other young boys also didn't need to worry about the jade coins on the stone platform running out. Yang Tiangang's vast spiritual energy was enough to support the entire array formation to run smoothly.