Chapter 442

441. Chapter 436: The Thief Is Right Before Your Eyes

Ding Huan entered his own plot, where cultivated Immortal Spirit rice still grew.

All these Immortal Spirit rice plants were withered and yellow, with no ears formed, radiating an aura of death.

Clearly, something was wrong here—only a month remained until harvest time; for rice to yield under these conditions would be miraculous.

Ding Huan didn't care—he first reinstalled a Level-Two Defensive Immortal Array and a Level-Two Shielding Immortal Array around his plot.

Outside the Level-Two Immortal Array, he set up a massive Surveillance Array, beneath which lay a second array screen.

The array screen read: This Official is currently cultivating Immortal Spirit Rice. Any damage caused by trespassing on this array shall be borne entirely by the trespasser.

Ding Huan was certain that after these words were written, no one would dare knock on his forbidden array again.

Inside the Level-Two Immortal Array, Ding Huan installed a Level-Five Void-Trigger Immortal Array and a Level-Five Void-Defense Immortal Array.

He was here to cultivate—he didn't want someone sneaking in and snapping him like a twig.

Once all the Defensive Immortal Arrays were in place, Ding Huan opened the Immortal Spirit Rice.

Each grain of this rice was over an inch long; when peeled, its interior was pale green. Even uncooked, a faint, refreshing fragrance seeped out, making one feel serene with just a single breath.

Truly an excellent product.

This was still low-grade Immortal Spirit Rice—if it were high-grade, wouldn't it be even better?

After tossing the Immortal Spirit Rice into his cave dwelling, Ding Huan went into the plot to inspect the withered, dying Immortal Spirit rice stalks.

If he could save them, he would; if not, he'd simply uproot them and plant new seeds.

His time was limited—he had to complete the rice cultivation process as quickly as possible.

From the brief description of the Immortal Spirit Rice he received, he knew this rice was not paddy rice; though it required water, it did not need to be planted submerged.

Ding Huan placed his finger on a withered rice stalk, and immediately sensed a devouring law aura.

Ding Huan frowned—was this caused by pests, or by incomplete laws?

Typically, only pest damage carried a devouring law aura.

He carefully constructed a Zhou Tian of the Great Cosmos Art, and instantly perceived all law fluctuations within this stalk.

In Ding Huan's estimation, this rice withering before maturing was ninety-nine percent likely caused by either pests or law deficiency.

For ordinary Immortal Plant cultivators, Immortal Plant law deficiency was essentially incurable.

No matter how strong your cultivation or how profound your understanding of laws, you couldn't casually bestow laws upon Immortal Plants.

But for Ding Huan, this was the simplest problem.

His Great Cosmos Art was the cradle of laws—it could collect laws, refine new laws, strip away laws, and even stabilize dissolving laws…

In Ding Huan's eyes, his Great Cosmos Art was the First Law amid the boundless expanse.

What he hadn't expected was that his guess was completely wrong.

The reason these rice stalks withered was because their life force was being slowly devoured.

Ding Huan was deeply puzzled—this was the deepest part of the Immortal Agriculture Department, a place layered with defenses; who would dare devour the life force of Immortal Spirit Rice here?

Was this suicide? Or suicide?

After several more Zhou Tian cycles, Ding Huan confirmed he hadn't misread it—life force was indeed being devoured.

Moreover, the devouring of the Immortal Spirit Rice's life force was done with extreme secrecy, appearing on the surface as mere Wood-element law deficiency.

To grow Immortal Plants under such Wood-element law deficiency, one would need to bring in massive quantities of Wood-element heavenly treasures.

One could imagine this was virtually impossible.

Any single Wood-element treasure was priceless; even if one could obtain them, they'd only save a few Immortal Spirit Rice stalks.

No one would spend one high-grade Immortal Crystal to nurture something worth only a low-grade Immortal Crystal—besides, the Time Tree couldn't act fast enough.

This was definitely sabotage—otherwise, if life force were merely devoured, it wouldn't be concealed so perfectly as to mimic Wood-element law deficiency.

Someone truly was courting death.

Ding Huan sighed helplessly—couldn't he just find a quiet place to cultivate?

If he found the source, wouldn't he just make another enemy?

Whoever could hide here to devour Immortal Spirit Rice's life force couldn't possibly be ordinary.

If he exposed them, he'd only bring trouble upon himself.

Even though he knew he couldn't find this person, Ding Huan understood he had to find them.

Otherwise, he was dead—had he known this was the issue, he'd never accepted the position of Immortal Plant Official; now it was too late.

Ding Huan forced himself to calm down—first, solve the immediate problem.

He was one hundred percent certain he couldn't leave the Immortal Agriculture Department now.

Ding Huan first set up a Spirit Gathering Immortal Array around his Immortal Spirit Rice field, then began formulating a plan.

He still couldn't transform his form into another species—if he could, he'd simply turn into an ant and follow the life-force-devouring trail to its source.

Combined with his Great Cosmos Art and Heavenly Gang Dao Method, he could fuse completely with the surrounding space.

Ding Huan felt this was safer than turning into an ant.

Even the smallest ant still had a physical form.

When night fell, he would activate his Concealment Art.

To powerful cultivators, Concealment Art was a joke.

Ding Huan was different—once concealed, his aura merged perfectly with the surrounding space.

Unless someone knew he was concealed here, a divine sense sweep would simply overlook him.

This kind of hiding made his Concealment Art merely a surface-level Dao technique.

What truly allowed him to vanish was the Great Cosmos Art and Heavenly Gang Dao Method—merging into all the laws of space, becoming one with the law aura itself.

As darkness fell, Ding Huan had just finished setting up the Spirit Gathering Immortal Array around his plot when his Great Cosmos Art sensed waves of life-force-devouring aura.

After Ding Huan set up a teleportation array, he immediately concealed his body and left his own field ridge.

The moment he came out, Ding Huan merged completely with the surrounding space; at this point, as long as he didn't make a move or utter a sound, there wouldn't be the slightest trace of him.

It only took the time of one incense stick before Ding Huan stopped.

He stared at this lake with some astonishment and uncertainty.

This lake could be said to be used by the Immortal Farmer Department to irrigate the immortal spirit plants of every major field ridge; a single immortal spirit vein had been implanted at the lake's center, and the lake water was dense with immortal spiritual energy.

The damned thing was, he now felt that the source devouring the immortal spirit rice came from this lake.

Should he go in?

Ding Huan only deliberated for one breath before deciding to go in.

He was in the middle of the game and simply had no retreat at all.

Taking a deep breath, Ding Huan sank into the lake.

After entering the lake, Ding Huan's body seemed to merge into the lake water, and his entire person was completely identical in aura to the lake water.

Two hours later, Ding Huan stopped.

Before him was a massive concealment array; the concealment array was absolutely a Grade Seven immortal array, and this was not one Ding Huan could break.

Inside the concealment array was a water-repelling immortal array, and this water-repelling immortal array likewise exceeded Grade Five immortal arrays.

Ding Huan was quite helpless; he stood outside the array, staring blankly at this great concealment array.

He was a Grade Five immortal array master, so if he wanted to enter a Grade Seven immortal array, it wasn't impossible.

But that would require time and strength.

He couldn't be seen now; the moment he made a move—even if a single array flag was tossed down—it would alert the fellow inside.

It could be confirmed that within this concealment immortal array, there were also defensive immortal arrays and trapping-killing immortal arrays.

Once a trapping-killing immortal array locked onto him, he could only wait to die.

Sigh, his array dao level was still not enough. If his array dao level were a bit stronger, he would just break the array and go straight in.

After agonizing for half a day, Ding Huan could only use void array patterns outside to set up a Grade Five monitoring immortal array.

Once the monitoring immortal array was discovered by someone, he would immediately let this monitoring immortal array collapse.

This was the most difficult void monitoring immortal array Ding Huan had ever set up; he could not produce even the slightest sound, nor could there be any fluctuation of aura.

On top of that, the dao rhyme and law aura of the monitoring immortal array he set up had to be completely identical to the law aura within this lake.

Even a tiny difference could lead to discovery.

With his current strength, once discovered by someone, he could just wait to die.

Normally, a void pattern monitoring immortal array, Ding Huan could complete with a raise of his hand.

This monitoring immortal array at the bottom of the lake took Ding Huan a full one and a half hours to set up, and only then was it barely completed.

Although there were still some places that were not entirely satisfactory, Ding Huan dared not delay any longer.

He carefully retreated out.

After returning to the cave dwelling of his own field ridge, Ding Huan let out a long breath. He still didn't dare rest now; he could only stare at his monitoring array.

A full day passed, and Ding Huan discovered from the monitoring immortal array that the concealment immortal array had finally opened.

What came into view was actually an immortal spirit plant with only one fruit; the immortal spirit plant was about seven chi tall, with five leaves.

Although he couldn't smell any scent, Ding Huan could feel a resonance in his soul through the monitoring immortal array.

This was definitely no ordinary immortal spirit fruit, but a top-grade supreme treasure; it looked like it wouldn't be inferior to the Law Dao Fruit he had used before.

A man with an immortal bearing and dao bones walked out. He frowned slightly and sighed:

"The Immortal Farmer Department really raised a bunch of good-for-nothings. The immortal spirit rice is dead, hurry up and replant it. Are you going to make me change locations?"

Only after this fellow had gone far did Ding Huan quickly destroy his monitoring array and put away the crystal sphere.

He had recorded everything that had just happened; as long as this fellow didn't come provoke him, he wouldn't bother.

Judging by this fellow's cultivation, it shouldn't be low. If nothing was going on, he'd better not run into this fellow.

The problem had been found, and Ding Huan began setting up blocking immortal arrays.

He couldn't go destroy the source, but to keep the vitality of the immortal spirit rice in his own field ridge from being absorbed away, he could still handle it easily.

This was because he was unwilling to offend people; otherwise, he would have directly fused some poison dao laws into the vitality of the immortal spirit rice, and he guaranteed that the immortal spirit dao fruit that fellow was cultivating here would kick the bucket.

For the sake of survival, Ding Huan didn't even dare set up a vitality-blocking immortal array.

He worried that the other party would realize he had seen through where the problem lay, so he could only set up some law-blocking immortal arrays.

Through these law-blocking immortal arrays, he would block the vitality of the immortal spirit rice from being absorbed away.