Every day, each member of the entire clan gives me a wisp of spiritual energy.

Chapter 106 Misfortune and fortune are intertwined

Shen Qing's divine sense suddenly tightened, locking the faint yellowish-brown spiritual light in the center.

The mole cricket's soul shattered instantly under the strangulation of its divine consciousness, the entire process happening silently.

Shen Qing waited a moment to confirm that the mole cricket was completely dead before using his spiritual power to envelop its corpse and slowly pull it up from the depths of the soil.

A moment later, a small bulge appeared on the soil of the field ridge, and the body of an insect about the size of a thumb emerged from the soil.

Shen Qing reached out and picked it up; the mole cricket was even more inconspicuous than he had imagined.

Its shell is yellowish-brown, its six slender hind legs are curled up under its belly, but its two front claws are unusually thick, with a layer of extremely fine serrations on the tips, gleaming with a faint spiritual light.

Just now, it was these two front paws that were constantly digging and moving through the soil.

Shen Qing collected the insect corpses but did not deal with them immediately. Instead, he squatted down and carefully used his fingertips to remove the soil from the roots of the nearest spirit grain.

As Shen Qing probed into the roots with his divine sense, his expression instantly turned grim.

The main root of this spirit valley plant has been mostly gnawed away. The once thick main root is now only connected by a thin layer, and three of the lateral roots have also been bitten off.

The broken edge is jagged, with extremely fine tooth marks left by the mole cricket's mouthparts.

A few tiny insect droppings were scattered in the soil around the roots, indicating that the mole cricket had not just arrived last night, but had been lurking here for at least two or three days, only starting to bite on the night he went down the mountain to fetch water.

These past few days, the mole cricket has only taken a few tentative bites. If it had been discovered a few days later, it would have gnawed through the entire root.

By then, this spirit grain will be completely ruined.

Shen Qing gently mounded the soil around the roots of the spirit valley, poured out a small half bowl of the spirit water he had just retrieved from the earthenware jar, and carefully poured it around the roots. He then used his fingertips to guide a wisp of earth vein energy into the soil.

The damaged roots have stabilized for now, but whether they can recover depends on their growth in the next few days.

Shen Qing stood up, his gaze falling on the dead mole cricket in his hand, and suddenly felt a little scared.

He was the only one guarding the one mu of spiritual field with four hundred and fifty spiritual grains.

He was only gone for less than three hours last night, which allowed the mole cricket to take advantage of the situation.

If pest infestations become more frequent in the future, and he is even slightly negligent, the consequences could be disastrous.

Shen Qing looked down at the insect corpse in his hand. He remembered clearly a line of small characters in the Thick Earth Sect's cultivation method: "Although mole crickets are a pest of spiritual grains, their bodies are edible and have a sweet taste. Eating them can increase one's affinity for the earth."

He looked at the mole cricket, then at the spirit grain he had carefully cultivated.

"You devour my spiritual grain, I consume your body, how fair!"

Shen Qing picked up a few dry branches by the edge of the field, started a small fire, skewered the mole crickets with a thin bamboo stick, and slowly roasted them over the fire.

As the mole cricket's shell is licked by the flames, it gradually changes from earthy yellow to golden yellow, emitting a strange, smoky aroma with a hint of earthy fragrance.

Once it was roasted until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, Shen Qing blew on it to cool it down before taking a bite.

The shell is crispy, but the insect meat inside is surprisingly soft and tender.

It tastes somewhat like grilled shrimp, but with an extra subtle sweetness. When you chew it, you can feel a trace of earthy energy spreading in your mouth and sliding down your throat into your stomach.

Immediately afterwards, Shen Qing felt a warm sensation rising in his dantian.

That heat wasn't an increase in spiritual power, but rather a more mysterious sensation.

Shen Qing closed his eyes and looked inward with his divine sense, discovering that the flawless 12th-grade Dao Platform in his dantian seemed to have become even more solid.

At the same time, the flow of earth vein energy beneath his feet became clearer in his divine sense than before.

This slight difference was so minute that it would have been almost impossible for him to notice it if he hadn't been dealing with the earth's energy every day.

Shen Qing opened her eyes, a hint of surprise flashing in them.

The cultivation method of the Hou Tu sect only states that "eating it can increase one's affinity with the earth," without specifying how much it can increase.

He originally thought it would be a minor effect, better than nothing, but he didn't expect that he could actually feel a difference.

This mole cricket is of extremely low rank, merely the lowest among first-order spirit insects. Even so, the trace of earth essence contained within its body is still a considerable opportunity for a cultivator who deals with the earth's vein energy every day.

Shen Qing swallowed the last bite of insect meat and sat on the edge of the field in silence for a long time.

An idea popped into my head uncontrollably.

If only we had a few more, even though one could only improve the performance by a fraction, what if we had ten?

If one can eat a few each month, over time, his affinity for the earth will increase to a considerable level.

At that time, the efficiency of drawing in the earth's energy will increase exponentially, and the transformation speed of the spiritual field will also greatly accelerate.

But as soon as the thought popped into Shen Qing's head, she realized that she had been taking things for granted.

That spirit grain plant, whose main root had been mostly eaten away, was the one I had watched grow from a seed sprouting, growing leaves, and reaching its current state of heading, all while I had spent the last two months squatting by the field every day.

Each spirit grain was a Dao seed that he planted himself, and it was very precious to him.

Moreover, this spiritual valley is related to the transaction with Zhao Yuanlang, and Shen Qing knows very well what kind of person Zhao Yuanlang is.

Don't be fooled by how easy this county magistrate is to talk to now; it's only because Shen Qing is still useful to him and has borrowed Mo Wentian's influence. Shen Qing hasn't forgotten that when his master died in Chuzhou, Zhao Yuanlang became interested in Qingyun Mountain.

However, Shen Qing also understood that this spiritual field would probably not be as peaceful as before. Whether he liked it or not, the insect infestation would only increase and become more frequent.

Today it's a mole cricket, tomorrow it might be a locust, and the day after tomorrow it might be a midge.

Each kind of spirit insect will gnaw on his spirit grain, and may also carry some unique opportunity.

Shen Qing sat on the edge of the field for a long time until the small fire was completely extinguished and the dry branches were burned to white ash before he stood up.

He picked up the leftover mole cricket shell fragments one by one from the ashes, wrapped them in a handkerchief, and put them into his storage bag.

Although this thing is inconspicuous, it is still a valuable material, and it may come in handy in the future.

Then Shen Qing walked around the field ridge, and after thinking for a while, he used the Hidden Sword Technique to bury several sword energies around the spirit field.

Once the sword energy enters the earth, it merges with the earth's energy. It will automatically activate once there is an external spiritual energy fluctuation that triggers the sword energy.

After doing all this, Shen Qing buried a mark formed by his own divine sense at each of the four corners and the center of the spirit field.

These marks are connected to his divine sense. Even if he temporarily leaves the spiritual field, as long as he does not exceed a certain distance, any abnormal fluctuations in spiritual energy will be transmitted to his senses through these marks.

From that day on, Shen Qing resumed his previous routine of guarding the fields without ever leaving their side.

The number of times the fields are patrolled daily has increased from twice to four times, once each at dawn, noon, dusk, and midnight.

Each time he patrolled the fields, he would use his divine sense to penetrate the soil layer inch by inch, probing from the surface all the way down to a foot deep.

Mole crickets are good at hiding, but having learned from their previous experience, they are now more sensitive to these faint fluctuations in earth elemental energy, and they will not miss the slightest abnormality.

For several days in a row, the spirit field remained calm and peaceful.

The spirit valley plant whose roots had been gnawed out slowly recovered after being watered with spirit water. Its drooping leaves straightened up again, and new lateral roots began to grow from the broken ends of its roots.

However, its growth was noticeably slower than that of the healthy Linggu around it, its leaves were yellowish, and its rachis had not yet emerged.

Two days later, Shen Qing was inspecting the fields as usual when he suddenly heard the welcoming bell ringing at the mountain gate.