Chapter 111: Five Ghosts Damage the Body, Disciples of the Hundred Barbarians Sect

"Still too slow."

Chen Ci slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and set down the White Bone Heart-Lock Hammer in his hand; this ferocious White Bone Magic Tool had become increasingly heavy.

White Bone Heart-Lock Hammer: Triple Prohibition/2/100

More than two months had passed since the last letter from Fuhu Altar; the mountain rain was about to come, yet there was no definite news, and even that person surnamed Liu hadn't sent anyone to greet him, which was truly quite dull.

These days, Chen Ci naturally focused his mind on methods of protecting the Dao, not even sparing much thought for the Condensing Pill Method that was only a final step away; he had to make the skills currently in his hands more robust first.

But as for things like Dharma Artifacts, they couldn't be rushed; the more powerful the Dharma Artifact, the longer the years a cultivator needed to refine it. Legend had it that there were even things like Dharma Treasures, which were said to require great beings to spend hundreds or thousands of years to complete, and he didn't know what their power and miraculous effects were like.

"If I could get a Dharma Treasure to protect my body, I'd be willing even if it meant I only attained a high-grade Golden Core."

Chen Ci, who had suffered a huge loss, curled the corners of his mouth and cast his gaze back onto other Dao manuals.

Sanyin Qi-Consuming Method: 42/100

Five Yin Evil Qi Bag/Stomach Earth Nourishing Gold Method: Ten-fold Prohibition/16/100 (Six paths of Five Yin Black Evil, four paths of Five Yin Gold Evil)

He finally had a Dharma Artifact with over ten layers of Prohibition to keep by his side; it hadn't been easy.

Walking the jianghu, the difference between a cultivator with a Dharma Artifact and one without was like heaven and earth; never mind a Dharma Artifact, even a single talisman sword could make one's courage grow significantly, and a Dharma Artifact with a high number of Prohibition layers also represented a kind of face, carrying more weight when speaking in the eyes of fellow practitioners nearby.

"This year I am thirty-three; although this cultivation level cannot compare to the heaven-gifted, it is not weak compared to others."

"What is this?"

In the backyard of Sanyin Temple, Chen Ci took a black object handed over by the little ghost Hong Zhong, and upon closer inspection, he discovered it was a strange beetle the size of a fingernail; its mouthparts and claws were quite sharp, but he couldn't recognize the specific species.

Hong Zhong jumped a few times by Chen Ci's feet and gestured repeatedly toward the back; Chen Ci casually pinched the beetle to death and followed it toward the yin grounds in the backyard.

"Damn it, my spirit rice!"

Over a dozen black beetles, just like the one from before, were clinging to the Black Jade Rice stalks, some gnawing on leaves, some sucking sap, eating quite happily; the other four, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, were using their little hands to pick at them, but they couldn't get them off for a moment.

There were only barely a hundred stalks of spirit rice in total; if these pests were allowed to ravage them, that would be a disaster.

Chen Ci subconsciously patted his Five Yin Evil Qi Bag, but thought better of it and stopped; although Dharma Artifacts moved according to one's will, they couldn't handle some delicate work. Killing insects was easy, but doing so without harming the spirit rice was still somewhat difficult.

Fine, Master Chen would have to do it himself.

With the Spirit Iron Short Sword in hand, Chen Ci's Master-level Basic Sword Technique actually had a day where it would re-emerge in the jianghu.

Chen Ci had only stabbed a few to death when these black beetles seemed to sense danger and jumped to the ground, actually being able to burrow into the soil quickly; fortunately, with the Five Ghosts nearby, the remaining few black bugs couldn't escape and were killed off completely.

"Where did these strange beetles come from?"

Chen Ci frowned as he looked at the damage to his spirit rice; the spirit rice wasn't as delicate as he had thought. In fact, apart from the newly sprouted seedlings and the mature spirit grain, the stalks and leaves of the spirit rice were very tough; even a mortal using a knife would have to expend some effort to cut them, let alone some random mortal insects being able to gnaw on them.

If the spirit rice wasn't cared for properly, it wouldn't die just to show him, but the yield would be significantly reduced.

"Strange insects?"

Chen Ci felt something was wrong; his yin grounds had always been rarely disturbed by snakes, insects, rats, or ants. These living creatures that had suddenly appeared couldn't have been born and bred here; there must be a source.

Chen Ci's eyelid twitched; could it be that the one surnamed Liu had bypassed him and pulled some new tricks?

"Insect plague?"

Chen Ci listened to the report from his Apprentice and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Master. All the fertile fields in the county have appeared with a type of black beetle gnawing on the rice ears; even the fields under the temple have not been spared."

Niu Ji wiped his forehead and reported cautiously: "Unlike common rice borers, locusts, or leafhoppers, this little bug destroys fields extremely quickly. Herbal insect repellents and bonfire trapping have little effect. Some tenant farmers even tried to catch them by hand and were bitten; currently, there are no means to deal with it."

"Is the disaster severe?"

"If this trend continues, the county's grain harvest this year might be reduced by more than half."

"I understand. You may go down first."

Chen Ci waved his hand, and after the Apprentice went out, his eyes narrowed slightly; this insect plague had come suspiciously, and it was likely truly the means of a cultivator.

Was it that the one surnamed Liu didn't trust him?

Or did he feel that the previous methods were too crude, and that simply causing a reduction in grain yield would naturally achieve his goal?

"Troublesome. Why does no one play by the rules?"

Chen Ci pondered for a moment, feeling quite speechless. Although this method of driving strange insects wasn't powerful, it was disgusting. With tens of thousands of acres of fields in Changping County, could they really rely on a few cultivators to guard them?

How to deal with it was a problem; he wasn't Han Chong Mo, who could control insects with insects.

"One only regrets having too few methods when the time comes to use them."

After a long while, Chen Ci took a small booklet from his bosom and examined it for a long time; it seemed this matter would have to fall on the Five Ghosts Soul-Confusing Method.

The practice of the Five Ghosts Soul-Confusing Method was actually the shrill shrieking of ghosts and the sweeping of demonic sounds, attacking the soul; it could both cause mental agitation and induce changes in emotions and fear from the bottom of one's heart.

It was hard for Chen Ci to say this wasn't a noise attack, and as for deeper changes, it was hard to say.

His own Five Ghosts, however, were not fierce enough to emit demonic sounds, so he had never been able to get started.

Five Ghosts: Introverted from birth, afraid of violence.

But Chen Ci pondered that for this noise attack, it didn't necessarily have to be a loud demonic sound to be powerful; sometimes low-frequency noise could torture people until they wished they were dead.

Five Ghosts Transportation Method: Proficient/89/100

If one had to say who the biggest beneficiary was after Fuhu Altar no longer required Essence Refining offerings, it was these Five Ghosts; otherwise, the daily refining of five drops of Essence Refining would be truly hard to come by under the current conditions.

Chen Ci pondered for a while, placed the Five Ghosts Soul-Confusing Method on the ground, then placed the Ancient Bronze Lamp in front of himself and summoned the five little ones.

"You all watch carefully; Master will only teach this once."

Seeing that the Five Ghosts seemed a bit dazed, Chen Ci curled his lips; he had taught the Five Ghosts Soul-Confusing Method several times before, and his throat had gone hoarse from shouting. They couldn't learn it if they couldn't learn it; the five little ones would listen, but they simply wouldn't make a sound.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Ci pinched his throat, True Qi condensed in his throat, and a sharp incantation emerged from his mouth, as if ghost sounds from nowhere were roaring and wailing; the demonic sound circled his ears.

The Five Ghosts quietly covered their ears; it was truly unpleasant.

Chen Ci: "."

Without breaking his breath, Chen Ci followed the incantation techniques in the Five Ghosts Soul-Confusing Method, the incantation never stopping, but the sound gradually became low, heavy, and humming, and it was pressed lower and lower; although his throat was bulging, the sound of the incantation in his mouth was almost inaudible.

The Five Ghosts felt that even though they had covered their ears, their bodies still underwent an inexplicable change; they actually began to recite the incantation along with Chen Ci, and their soul bodies also had an irregular vibration and contraction, as if they had gained something.

"It worked?"

Chen Ci examined his Five Ghosts while stroking his chin, then pulled up his Gold Finger panel.

Five Ghosts Body-Damaging Method: Entry Level/1/100 (Chant ten times daily to advance one step)

???

Soul-Confusing?

Body-Damaging?

This doesn't seem right, Chen Ci let out a long breath, sensing the state of his Five Ghosts, and inexplicably felt they were still quite trashy.

Chen Ci simply placed several captured black exotic insects into a bowl and controlled the Five Ghosts to cast the Five Ghosts Soul-Confusing Method spell on them.

The Five Ghosts were also curious about what they had learned; they bared their fangs and brandished their claws, gathered around, cleared their throats, and began to perform the technique they had just mastered.

Roar!

The five little ones let out a series of low, deep roars at the black exotic insects, and their soul bodies felt an inexplicable vibration, but the black exotic insects seemed to feel nothing at all, completely unaffected.

A quarter of an hour.

Two quarters of an hour.

Chen Ci: "." Overthinking, definitely overthinking.

"Alright, alright, you can stop now; you look exhausted just watching you."

Chen Ci recalled the Five Ghosts, who were roaring until they were nearly out of breath, back into the Ancient Bronze Lamp, rewarded each ghost with a drop of Essence Refining, and shook his head.

"Learned it, but it feels like I didn't learn much."

However, it might be because they had only just reached the entry level, so it was understandable that the power was weak.

"Five Ghosts Body-Damaging Method, body-damaging..."

Chen Ci's gaze suddenly shifted; he looked down into the bowl. The black exotic insects, which had been quite lively just a moment ago, suddenly looked as if they had been poisoned; their legs twitched weakly a few times, and strands of dirty green liquid seeped out from the gaps in their carapaces.

"Hm?"

Chen Ci raised an eyebrow, picked up one of the exotic insects, and split it in two with True Qi. Its interior actually looked as if it had liquefied; there wasn't a single piece of good flesh left.

Whoa, Body-Damaging Method, so that's what it means.

It's useful, but it doesn't seem all that useful.

It took several little bugs roaring for nearly half an hour to see any effect; if they were any larger, they would probably have to roar until the end of time.

"Fortunately, this method is an area-of-effect attack; being weak is fine, it's still better than having nothing."

Chen Ci nodded. Once his cultivation becomes profound in the future, using this to ambush people will probably be top-tier satisfying, hehe~

Late night, Changping County, farmland.

Chen Ci stood by his fields, watching the Five Ghosts perform excitedly, feeling quite speechless.

These five little ones seemed very eager to participate in any activity that could show off their martial prowess; the worse they are, the more they love it—that must be the logic.

"Roar!"

As the very low, barely audible Five Ghosts Body-Damaging Method was activated, Chen Ci unexpectedly discovered that the range of this method was somewhat beyond his expectations. He vaguely felt that a thousand acres of land were all within its coverage, though the effect was slightly worse the further away it went.

A quarter of an hour, two quarters of an hour, three quarters of an hour.

In the fields, all kinds of small insects were like they were drunk, including those black exotic insects, falling down with a rustle, clearly not going to survive.

This insect-killing efficiency is indeed quite good.

"If I do this twice a night, it should be about done in half a month... eh?"

Chen Ci's eyes narrowed slightly, and his figure moved. Several hundred feet away, there was actually a faint change in spiritual energy. He rushed over to take a look, and sure enough, there was a black-armored exotic insect of a different appearance, struggling to crawl out of the soil and flapping its wings to fly toward the mountains.

"Gu insect? It really is the method of a Side Door Cultivator, heh."

Chen Ci reached out and pointed. A strand of Five Yin Gold Evil flew out from the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag, gently coiling like a flying sword, twisting the fist-sized black-armored exotic insect into two halves and bringing it back to serve as a snack for the Five Yin Evil Qi Bag.

Even with insect-repelling spells, it is impossible to refine every single insect; most take the leader to refine into a Gu insect to drive the swarm.

Once this Gu insect is removed, the insect plague is mostly resolved; the rest is just manual labor.

Chen Ci recalled the exhausted five little ones, and looking at their "look how awesome we are" expressions, he inexplicably felt a sense of guilt, like he was tricking children.

Sigh... no matter how hard things are, don't make it hard on yourself. They are still young, and there will be plenty of days to enjoy life in the future.

Chen Ci moved on, preparing to go over all the farmland under his Sanyin Temple tonight. These losses are all Master Chen's money; even a landlord doesn't have that much surplus grain.

But suddenly, a figure rushed over from the distance. Before the person arrived, the voice came first: "Where did this wild Daoist come from? How dare you ruin my spell! Are you looking for death?!"

Oh?

Chen Ci's eyes narrowed. The foot he had just lifted landed back down. He looked closely and saw that the person who arrived was a sloppily dressed man in yellow robes, bald with no hair, thick eyebrows and large eyes, with crude copper rings hanging from both ears—looking very rugged.

Sneering, Chen Ci's hand was already resting on the White Bone Heart-Lock Hammer, but his heart stirred. He took out a pale white jade plaque from his bosom and asked with a smile: "Which Daoist has come? My brother is Liu Ge of the He Mountain Sect; are we our own kin?"

"Hm?"

The rugged man had been murderous, but upon hearing Chen Ci report his background, although his expression remained unfriendly, he did not continue to curse. Instead, he stared at the jade plaque for a moment before buzzing: "I am Zheng Ding of the Pan Zhi Stronghold in Bai Man Shan. You pretty boy, why did you ruin my spirit insects for no reason?"

(End of chapter)