Chapter 142: Yellow Soil-Colored Insects

After returning, Su Jin slept soundly all morning.

After lunch, she carried a food box to deliver meals to Su Qingniao.

Su Qingniao's eyes lit up the moment she saw her.

"Su Jin, I just realized you're far more capable than Su Wujì and Su Cheng. They both chose night watch too—Su Cheng lost five spirit rice plants, Su Wujì lost two. I heard you lost not a single one, and they're planning to challenge you again tonight."

Su Jin laughed outright.

"They're bored out of their minds. By the way, do you know how the others in our class are doing?"

"I heard someone lost over thirty spirit rice plants last night and got scolded by their partner," Su Qingniao said at once, eager for gossip.

"That's not much, though. We're only guarding for three days—six mu total. As long as losses stay under three hundred plants, it's fine," Su Jin asked, puzzled. "Why scold them?"

"Because their partner lost twenty plants during the day too. That's over fifty lost in one day—hard to say what'll happen the next two days. When I went to collect meals yesterday, I asked an elder who's been working here long-term."

They said the closer it gets to harvest, the more birds, beasts, snakes, and insects come to steal the rice.

Our patch of spirit rice will be fully ripe in the next day or two.

Making sure it ripens properly and gets harvested without being eaten is no easy task. I caught fourteen snakes this morning alone and chased off nearly two hundred birds. I didn't even count the insects—they were too many to tally.

Right after you left, I saw a huge swarm of insects pouring out of the mountains like a black tide.

If adult cultivators hadn't rushed over to scatter them, we'd have barely a few stalks left.

Also, I need to apologize.

I tried my hardest this morning, but still lost about ten plants."

"It's fine—this is already excellent."

Besides, our allowed loss is three hundred plants. Ten is nothing."

This task will only get harder toward the end—I expect I'll lose some tonight too."

Let's not be too hard on ourselves."

As long as we keep total losses under three hundred, that's enough," Su Jin said with a smile.

"Hehe, keep losses under three hundred? No, it's under two hundred!" Su Qingniao's work enthusiasm surged the moment she realized Su Jin wasn't blaming her but encouraging her. She decided to work hard in the afternoon and set an example for Su Jin.

"Don't overdo it—we just need to finish the task," Su Jin advised.

"I know, I know, don't worry," Su Qingniao laughed.

"By the way, what happened to the lost spirit rice?" Su Jin asked again.

"There—over there. Aren't you going to try some fresh spirit rice? I want some too. But when I reported the loss, they said we must leave the ears behind for them to take back. The stalks and roots can be disposed of however we like," Su Qingniao laughed.

"So stingy!" Su Jin complained.

Still, she walked over, cut off the nearly ripe ears, and handed them to Su Qingniao. "Take these back and submit them."

Then she bundled the remaining stalks and roots and prepared to carry them away.

"Su Jin… why are you taking the stalks and roots back?"

"These are spirit rice stalks and roots—obviously I'm taking them to feed the chickens."

Su Qingniao: "I thought I was frugal, but you're even better than me!"

"We didn't take anyone else's stalks, did we? They just abandoned them," Su Jin said firmly, tossing the bundle into her Little Wu Tian.

The instant she threw it in, the bundle of spirit rice stalks vanished—and a small cluster of about ten young crimson spirit rice seedlings sprouted in a corner of Little Wu Tian.

Just like their predecessors, the yellow gourd vines, they all huddled in the edges and corners of Little Wu Tian.

Su Qingniao nodded, realizing she still had much to learn about conserving resources. Many seemingly insignificant scraps were actually useful—if you found the right way to use them.

Su Jin: "By the way, do you have anything else? If not, eat quickly—I need to take the food box back."

"Got it."

While Su Qingniao ate, a new flock of small birds with blue feathers flew in.

They stared greedily and charged toward the spirit rice field.

Clearly desperate to eat.

Su Jin immediately flung out three gourd vines, like whips.

Swish-swish—they swept across.

All ten-odd birds were knocked to the ground.

Not a single one crossed into the rice field.

Su Qingniao's mouth dropped open in shock.

No wonder Su Jin lost not a single spirit rice plant last night.

With this kind of power, which classmate could possibly match her?

Su Jin calmly moved the dozen dead and injured birds to Su Qingniao's "miscellaneous" pile.

Then she went to catch a group of black-shelled insects that had slipped into the spirit rice field during her bird-hunting.

No matter where they hid, they had nowhere to escape.

So by the time Su Qingniao finished lunch, Su Jin had already caught all the insects that had sneaked in during the morning—and those Su Qingniao had missed.

Seeing several palm-sized, earth-colored insects that looked like crayfish, Su Qingniao was utterly stunned.

"What kind of insects are these? I've never seen anything like them!" Su Qingniao exclaimed.

"I don't know—but they're insects, that's for sure. They burrow into the soil and chew directly on the spirit rice roots. If they keep feeding for another day or two, many plants will wither and die. Just as they're about to ripen, to lose them to pests? That's unacceptable."

Report them.

Emphasize how dangerous these insects are.

See if we can earn one or two extra merit points for our team."

"Alright—if we have corpses, we can report them," Su Qingniao said seriously. After all, this spirit rice belonged to her family. If she ignored it, the price of their family's spirit rice might rise next half-year.

That wouldn't do.

In that case, the burden on Mother's back would grow heavy once more.

Afterwards, Su Jin returned to cultivate, while also studying Mother's brewing notes.

Su Qingniao answered the questions from the cultivator in charge of the Spirit Rice Fields at the field's edge with extreme seriousness and earnestness.

Soon, the Su family notified the managers of all Spirit Rice Fields throughout the clan of the harm caused by this new type of pest, and also reported it to Xu Chengzhu.

Upon receiving the news, Xu Chengzhu's face turned black: "So you don't intend to let me have peace, right? The area outside the city is still a bloody battle!"

"And you tell me the Spirit Rice, which is about to mature this year, will face a plague of insects again?"

There was no choice; if they couldn't defeat the Parasitic Humans, they could at least build a defensive line to hold them in stalemate. But without Spirit Rice, they were blind; if commoners and cultivators went hungry, they would scratch his face to shreds!!

So, complaints aside, he still sent a large number of personnel from the farming faction back to catch the insects and harvest the rice.