Linyang Market Town had a good reputation, and Lu Xuan decided to follow the advice of a pretty young girl. He paid a deposit of three Spirit Stones and left his identification information. According to her, the blood of snake-type spirit beasts would be transported from other branches of the Wanbao Tower within five to ten days. However, Lu Xuan could come to pick it up himself and pay the remaining Spirit Stones based on the quality of the blood.
After that, he returned to his courtyard with the Mist Concealment Array disk.
When he got back, the Straw Puppet was still in the corner of the Spiritual Field. Its large head had grayish lumps from which several dark, dry grasses were slowly and carefully weaving its limbs. In just a few hours, it had managed to weave two arm segments, but the elbows were still nowhere to be seen.
Sensing Lu Xuan's presence, the gray grass weaving paused slightly, retracting back into the lump on its head. The head turned a bit, as if welcoming Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan went inside and took out the Mist Concealment Array disk. The disk was grayish-white, covered in many complex symbols. A faint mist seeped from the sides of the symbols, lingering above the disk and not dissipating.
"This is a second-tier defensive array, and it also has a bit of a concealment function. Even high-level Qi Refinement cultivators would find it difficult to break through," he thought.
The previous array outside the courtyard was left by the Yaxing, and it was a first-tier array, providing only basic protection. Now with the second-tier Mist Concealment Array, Lu Xuan felt much safer, not having to worry about anyone coveting the spiritual plants inside.
He infused his spiritual energy into the disk, following a certain pattern to activate it. The symbols on the disk lit up, and the faint mist above seemed to be stirred by a gentle breeze, spreading out in all directions.
Soon, a translucent protective shield of spiritual energy appeared outside the courtyard. Lu Xuan adjusted it until it perfectly covered the entire courtyard.
At the same time, a faint mist emerged from nowhere, quickly enveloping the whole yard. If someone looked down from above, they would only see a thick white fog, making it impossible to see either the spiritual plants or the house. Even if they tried to use their spiritual sense, they would only get lost in the dense mist.
Lu Xuan continuously adjusted the symbols, and the mist outside moved and gathered as if an invisible hand was controlling it.
"Alright, the second-tier array is set up. I’ll return the first-tier array to the Yaxing when I find the time," he said, standing in the Spiritual Field and looking outside.
Under his control, the Spiritual Field was unaffected by the mist at all. After setting up the array, Lu Xuan took a short break and began to check the condition of the spiritual plants.
Focusing his mind on the plants, he quickly learned their current status. Whenever he noticed a need, he would use the Spirit Rain Technique or the Wood Growth Technique to meet every tiny requirement of the plants.
"Something feels off with the roots; they seem heavy, but not in a normal way. It feels like something is sucking on them."
As he passed by the Blood Jade Ginseng area, Lu Xuan suddenly sensed something was wrong with one of the plants. Although it was keeping a safe distance from the others, it was exhibiting strange behavior.
He carefully extended his spiritual sense and penetrated the spiritual soil. Through his perception, he discovered a faint black object attached to the root of the Blood Jade Ginseng buried deep in the soil.
It looked like a lump on the root, and upon closer inspection, he realized that the faint black lump was made up of hundreds of tiny worms. These worms were buried deep in the soil, motionless, draining the life force of the Blood Jade Ginseng. If he hadn't noticed the unusual state, he might not have discovered them until they had already invaded the roots.
"Looks like these are Spirit-Eating Worms. I just don’t know when they snuck into my Spiritual Field to harm my plants."
Lu Xuan relaxed a bit. He recalled that the book "Common Harmful Spirit Bugs and Solutions" mentioned this type of pest. They moved underground and liked to gnaw on the roots of spiritual plants, making them hard to detect in the early stages of their infestation.
He wasn't sure how the Spirit-Eating Worms got into the Spiritual Field. After all, the previous array was only first-tier, offering limited protection. It also wasn’t active all day long. The worms were tiny and hard to completely block, especially since they moved in the soil.
Of course, it was also possible that some Spirit-Eating Worm eggs had been left in the deep soil, hatching and then finding their way to the Blood Jade Ginseng roots. Although Lu Xuan occasionally cleaned the soil of pest eggs, it was hard to ensure he got them all.
He gathered his spiritual energy and used the Earth Summoning Technique. Although the experience he gained from the white light orb wasn't as much as from the Gengjin Sword Art, he had still mastered this technique to a small degree.
With his precise control, the spiritual soil shifted quietly, without disturbing the Spirit-Eating Worms attached to the roots of the Blood Jade Ginseng. He waited until the root was fully exposed to the light, and only then did the worms react.
The faint black lump suddenly split apart, transforming into hundreds of tiny black worms, swirling like a cloud of darkness and emitting sharp cries as they rushed toward Lu Xuan from all directions.
With a flick of his left hand, a long red needle shot out like an illusion, piercing through the swarm of worms, leaving trails of red lines in its wake. Moments later, the red needle returned to Lu Xuan, with hundreds of tiny Spirit-Eating Worms impaled on it.
"These Spirit-Eating Worms seem different from what the book described. I remember it saying they weren’t very aggressive."
"But these ones in the Spiritual Field can turn into a cloud of black mist and attack in groups, which is a clear difference from normal Spirit-Eating Worms."
Lu Xuan looked at the red needle in his hand. With a surge of spiritual energy, deep red flames erupted along the needle's length, instantly incinerating the tiny Spirit-Eating Worms into black ash.
"Given their level of activity, they shouldn't be the same Spirit-Eating Worms that were left in the soil. Otherwise, I would have noticed them trying to harm my plants a long time ago."
"That means they must have come from outside. I just don’t know what caused such a drastic change."
Thinking about the recent reports of mutated cultivators in the market town, Lu Xuan felt a sense of unease.
"What kind of malevolent spirit did the Wang family provoke in that new secret realm, and what did they bring back that made the whole market town unsafe?"
He recalled the scene when the Wang family cultivators returned with many rogue cultivators. He had overheard them discussing how they had taken a treasure during the exploration of the new secret realm, attracting malevolent spirits and causing unrest in the market town for a long time.
"I hope I'm just overthinking this."
Feeling heavy-hearted, Lu Xuan carefully searched through every spiritual plant in the field, relieved to find no more signs of mutated Spirit-Eating Worms.
In such a perilous cultivation world, all Lu Xuan wanted was to quietly grow his spiritual plants, but even that small wish seemed hard to fulfill. He looked at the second-tier Sword Grass and Dark Marrow Fungus, which had been growing for nearly half a year, wishing for them to mature soon.
(End of Chapter)