Chapter 9: The Pest Crisis
Time: 1 Day after Breakthrough (Outside).
Space Time: 3 Days Later.
The feeling of Qi Refining Layer 4 was intoxicating.
Luo Feng woke up in the bedroom, but for the first time in years, his back didn't ache. His senses were razor-sharp. He could hear the heartbeat of a mouse in the walls. He could smell the damp wood of the floorboards. His skin felt tough, like cured leather stretched over steel.
"Husband," Luo Xia sat up, rubbing her eyes. "You're glowing."
She wasn't exaggerating. A faint, healthy luster clung to Luo Feng's skin—the sign of the Iron Body beginning to settle.
"I feel good," Luo Feng said, clenching his fist. The air popped in his grip. "But we can't get arrogant. Strength needs maintenance. Let's check the farm."
He grabbed her hand.
[Enter.]
Whoosh.
They appeared in the Space. The air was warm—warmer than usual.
Luo Feng frowned. The temperature in the Space was usually perfect, regulated by the System. But now, a dry, scorching heat was radiating from the south, where the fog had rolled back to reveal the 5 Acres of Red Clay.
"It's hot," Luo Xia fanned herself. "Is the Red Clay supposed to be this intense?"
Luo Feng walked toward the new boundary, his eyes narrowing. "The System said it accelerates Yang plants. It acts like a furnace. But..."
He stopped at the edge where the Black Spirit Soil met the Red Clay.
He crouched down. His new Layer 4 perception picked up a sound. A low, grinding, clicking sound. Like thousands of tiny stones rubbing together.
He looked closely at the cracked red earth. It wasn't static. The ground was moving.
"Xia, stay back," Luo Feng ordered sharply.
He extended his hand. Technique: Spirit Farm Sense.
A ripple of Qi washed over the red soil. The feedback that hit his mind made him recoil.
Click. Click. Click.
[System Warning: Pest Infestation Detected.]
[Target: Iron-Jaw Fire Ants.]
[Rank: 0 (Swarm).]
[Threat: High. These ants consume spiritual roots. They are migrating from the Red Clay toward the Spirit Rice.]
"Ants!" Luo Feng yelled, pointing at the ground.
As if reacting to his voice, the red soil erupted. Thousands of thumb-sized ants crawled out of the cracks. They were crimson red, with black mandibles that snapped menacingly. They looked like drops of flowing blood.
And they were marching.
A massive column of them was moving away from the barren Red Clay, heading straight for the lush, golden stalks of the Yellow Jade Rice.
"They want the rice roots!" Luo Xia gasped, raising her wooden saber. "If they eat the roots, the second harvest will die!"
"I'll handle it!" Luo Feng stepped forward.
He wove a hand sign.
"Little Cloud Rain Spell!"
He didn't use the Sun & Moon enhancement; he just wanted to drown them. A heavy cloud formed, dumping a torrent of water onto the marching column.
Hiss!
Steam rose up. But the ants didn't drown. Their carapaces glowed with a waxy sheen, repelling the water instantly. In fact, the water seemed to annoy them, making them march faster.
[System Analysis: Fire Ants are hydrophobic. Water immunity.]
"Water doesn't work!" Luo Feng cursed. He drew his Spirit Iron Saber.
Slash!
He cut a furrow into the earth, crushing twenty ants. But twenty more crawled over their dead bodies. There were thousands. He couldn't kill them all with a sword without destroying his own land.
"They're too small!" Luo Feng gritted his teeth. "I need an Area of Effect attack... or a predator."
A sharp chirp answered him.
"Chee! Chee-KREEE!"
Little Gold—the Mutated Fire Crow—was standing on a rock nearby. His golden eyes were locked onto the swarm. He wasn't scared.
He was salivating.
To a Fire Crow, these terrifying ants weren't pests. They were Spicy Snacks.
"Go!" Luo Feng shouted, pointing at the swarm. "Feast!"
The Predator.
Little Gold launched himself into the air. He was still small, the size of a pigeon, but he dove like a hawk.
He landed right in the middle of the thickest column of ants.
Peck. Peck. Gulp.
His movement was a blur. His iron-gray beak was a machine of destruction. He snatched an ant, crushed its hard shell, and swallowed it whole.
Snap. Crunch.
The ants swarmed him, biting his legs. But Little Gold's legs were covered in thick, metallic-red scales. The "Iron Jaws" of the ants skittered off his defenses harmlessly.
As Little Gold ate, a strange phenomenon occurred.
Every time he swallowed a Fire Ant, a burst of red light pulsed under his feathers. The ants were pure condensed Fire Qi. For a Fire Crow, this was like drinking an XP Potion.
KREEE!
Little Gold spread his wings. He opened his beak, and a small puff of black smoke shot out, disorienting the ants. Then he went back to pecking. One by one. Dozen by dozen.
He was a bottomless pit.
Luo Feng and Luo Xia watched in stunned silence as the bird decimated the swarm. It took an hour. By the end, Little Gold was standing atop a pile of ant parts, his belly visibly distended.
He let out a loud burp. A spark of fire flew out with it.
Then, the bird froze.
"Little Gold?" Luo Xia stepped forward worriedly.
"Wait," Luo Feng held her back. "Look at his feathers."
The bird began to shake violently. The dull, metallic-red feathers he had grown weeks ago started to fall off, raining down like autumn leaves.
Beneath them, new feathers pushed through instantly. These weren't dull. They were a vivid, glossy crimson, harder and sharper than before. His beak elongated slightly, turning from gray to jet black.
A wave of heat rolled off the bird, drying the mud around him.
[System Notification: Pet Evolution Detected.]
[Little Gold (Fire Crow) has absorbed sufficient Yang Essence.]
[Rank Up: Rank 0 Middle Tier.]
[New Ability Unlocked: Ember Peck (Attacks carry burning fire poison).]
Little Gold flapped his wings, testing his new plumage. He looked at Luo Feng and let out a deeper, more resonant cry.
"CRAW!"
"Rank 0 Middle Tier..." Luo Feng assessed. "That's equivalent to a Qi Refining Layer 3 cultivator. He can now kill a wolf on his own."
Luo Feng looked at the battlefield. The Red Clay was littered with the husks of thousands of dead ants that Little Gold was too full to eat.
"The crisis is over," Luo Feng said, walking onto the hot soil. "But we don't waste resources in this family."
He looked at the dead ants. "These carcasses are full of residual Fire Qi and Calcium. If we leave them, they'll rot. If we bury them..."
"Free fertilizer," Luo Xia finished his sentence, smiling.
The Farming Technique.
Luo Feng stood in the center of the Red Clay area.
Before today, using the Spirit Finger was exhausting. It drained him dry. But now, he was Layer 4. His Dantian was a lake, not a puddle.
"I will till the entire 5 acres," Luo Feng declared. "I will mix these ants into the soil until the land changes."
He raised both hands.
Technique: Spirit Finger Plowing (Double Handed).
He channeled his Qi. The Iron Body toughness allowed his fingers to withstand greater pressure. He thrust both hands into the hard, dry red earth.
THRUM.
A powerful vibration shockwave traveled through the ground. The soil ten feet around him shattered into fine powder, mixing the ant husks deep into the clay.
He moved forward. Thrust. Vibrate. Mix.
He was a human plow.
The work was intense, but Luo Feng didn't stop. The Sun & Moon Qi cycled endlessly, replenishing his stamina. He plowed for ten hours straight.
As he mixed the fire-attribute ant bodies into the Yang-attribute soil, a chemical reaction began to happen. The soil started to glow with faint, vein-like patterns.
[System Notification: Soil Composition Changed.]
[Ingredient Added: Iron-Jaw Ant Powder.]
[Result: Fire-Pattern Soil created.]
[Effect: Yang Plants planted here will have a chance to develop "Iron Bark" or "Explosive" properties.]
Luo Feng pulled his hands out of the earth. He was covered in red dust, sweating profusely, but he wasn't collapsing like before. He was breathing steadily.
He grabbed a handful of the new soil. It was warm, grainy, and smelled of sulfur and life.
"Iron Bark..." Luo Feng muttered, crushing a clod of dirt.
He looked at Luo Xia.
"Xia, next time we go to the market, we aren't just buying seeds. I need to find something specific."
"What?"
"Blast Chili Seeds," Luo Feng grinned, his teeth white against his dust-covered face. "Or Flame-Burst Grapes. With this soil... we can grow things that don't just feed people. We can grow things that can be weaponized."
He looked at Little Gold, who was sleeping atop a rock, radiating heat.
"The farm is secure," Luo Feng said, wiping his face. "Now, we prepare for the long haul. Next harvest... we aim for the wealthy."
[Author notes]-
1. Add to Library: Keep up with the farm's expansion! 📚
2. Power Stones: Feed them to the Author (and Little Gold) to speed up the evolution! 💎
[End of Chapter 9]