Chapter 140 - The Traitor

  After discussing for a while, the crowd still could not find an effective solution, so they had no choice but to leave the spiritual plant garden one after another.

  "Chengning, take me to find a dying water spirit peach. I have some ideas about these strange insects, but I still need to verify them."

  After most people left, Lu Xuan said to the handsome boy who was still following him.

  "Ah? Okay, Senior Lu!"

  Hearing Lu Xuan's words, Zhang Chengning, who was already frowning, showed joy and responded in a low voice.

  He led Lu Xuan through the mud and after a while, they came to a water spirit peach in a worrying state.

  "There are already a lot of hollow parts inside the trunk of this spiritual plant, which has seriously affected its normal growth. The spiritual plant masters in the family have tried every means to save it but failed, so they can only let it fend for itself."

  Lu Xuan carefully examined the water spirit peach. It was indeed as Zhang Chengning said, there were many hollow areas in the trunk and branches.

  He did not hesitate, and directly pulled out the seriously sick water peach, pretended to observe it for a while, and then planted it in the mud.

  After completing the [planting] procedure, Lu Xuan's mind was focused on the seriously sick water peach, and suddenly a piece of information flashed through his mind.

  [Water peach, a first-grade spiritual plant, usually lives in muddy water. The mature spiritual peach contains rich spiritual power and can be eaten as a spiritual fruit, or it can be used as the main material for refining certain elixirs. ]

  [Being invaded and parasitized by the pattern insect, the vitality is greatly damaged. It can control the fire magic and bake the surface of the water peach branches. Under the stimulation of the fire spiritual power, the pattern insect will have an instinctive reaction, thus distinguishing it from the normal branches of the spiritual plant. ]

  [The ability to control the fire magic is required to be no less than the small success level, otherwise it may cause damage to the spiritual plant. ]

  "The stimulation of fire magic... This water spirit peach is afraid of fire just like the mimicry insect, but the spiritual plant has no reaction under the baking of spiritual fire, while the mimicry insect, although in the same shape as the branches of the spiritual plant, will have a different reaction when facing the flame."

  "As a demon insect, it will naturally make a choice to seek benefits and avoid harm, so it can be selected from the spiritual plant."

  "Normally, spiritual plant masters will not use this method, because they are worried that the spiritual plant will be burned by the flames in the process, so they need cultivators with exquisite control ability in fire magic."

  Lu Xuan thought secretly in his heart.

  Turning around and seeing Zhang Chengning looking at him expectantly, he said gently.

  "Don't worry, I have learned a lot about this insect infestation, and I will be able to help you solve it completely soon."

  After that, he took Zhang Chengning back to Zhang's house.

  "Senior Sister Yao, I am Lu Xuan. I have discovered something about the insect infestation of water spirit peach this time, and I came here to discuss it with you, senior sister."

  After returning to Zhang's house, Lu Xuan went directly to the residence where the beautiful woman was resting, knocked on the door and asked.

  "Junior Brother Lu, please come in."

  Lu Xuan pushed open the door. Yao Qing was sitting on a wooden chair, looking at him with a smile.

  "Junior Brother, have you found the source of those strange insects?"

  "Senior Sister, you are familiar with me. I don't have any other hobbies. I just like some miscellaneous things related to spiritual plants and spiritual beasts."

  "After I came back, I thought about it for a moment and finally remembered that I seemed to have seen information about the strange insect in a certain book of the sect."

  "The strange insect is called the mimic insect. The eggs parasitize on the spiritual plant. During the growth process, it will gradually imitate the shape of the spiritual plant, so it seems to be integrated with the spiritual plant, and it is extremely difficult to find its trace."

  "When it enters the mature stage, the mimic insect grabs enough vitality from the inside of the spiritual plant, then it will leave the spiritual plant and reproduce until a new parasitism begins."

  "Mimic insect, I haven't heard of this name, but I believe in you, Junior Brother, but Junior Brother, do you have any way to deal with it?"

  Senior Sister Yao asked curiously.   

  Although she managed a medicine garden for her uncle who was building the foundation, her main focus was still on cultivation. She only knew some methods of cultivating spiritual plants, and knew very little about other things.

  However, she believed what Lu Xuan said about 70%. After all, Lu Xuan's improvement of the quality of the monkey orchid left a very deep impression on her.

  "The method is not difficult. It only requires a cultivator who is good at fire magic to bake it over a slow fire and find the mimicry insect hidden in the branches according to the changes of the spiritual plants."

  Lu Xuan paused and continued.

  "But there is one thing I want to tell you, senior sister. This mimicry insect is not common and has low reproductive capacity, so it rarely appears in large numbers in the same area."

  Hearing Lu Xuan's words, Yao Qing frowned slightly with a cold expression.

  "Junior brother, is it possible that the Zhang family cultivators stole the property?"

  "Of course, it is also possible that other cultivators sneaked into the spiritual plant garden and placed the eggs of the mimic insect on the water peaches."

  "However, Zhang Yutang, the patriarch of the Zhang family, should not know the inside story, otherwise he would not ask for help from the Tianjian Sect."

  Yao Qing quickly figured out the pros and cons and turned away neatly.

  "I will go and discuss it with the patriarch of the Zhang family. Thank you, Junior Brother Lu, for this time."

  Night fell.

  The huge spiritual plant garden was very quiet. The moonlight poured on the branches, leaves and fruits of the water peaches, as if there were layers of water light flashing, and faint ripples appeared and disappeared.

  A black shadow took advantage of the hazy moonlight and entered the spiritual plant garden nimbly.

  He looked around and everything was silent. The cultivators who patrolled the spiritual plant garden also went to rest.

  The black shadow was relieved immediately, and bursts of strange insect sounds came out of his mouth, as thin as mosquitoes, almost imperceptible.

  Not long after the sound of insects, the branches and leaves of the surrounding water peach trees trembled, and strange insects like branches fell off the trees one by one, crawling slowly in the mud and rushing towards the black shadow.

  "This insect repellent technique is indeed effective. It can automatically gather the mimic insects. Unfortunately, it only affects the adults, and has little effect on the larvae that are still in the parasitic and mimicking state."

  The black shadow said in his heart. The arrival of the three monks from the Tianjian Sect made him feel a huge sense of crisis. He had to take the risk and use the insect repellent technique he had learned to gather the mimic insects that had entered the mature stage together.

  Although he knew that the habits and forms of mimic insects were quite strange, and the possibility of being discovered in large numbers was very low, the monks on the other side were from a large sect after all, and they might really find a way to deal with the mimic insects.

  If the mimic insects parasitizing the spiritual plant garden were lost too much, his reward would be much less.

  "After taking this batch of mimic insects, come over two or three more times and we'll have almost all of them."

  "Hehe, that Tianjian Sect, planting so many water peaches in the Zhang family, isn't it just to make wedding clothes for me."

  The black shadow was proud in his heart.

  Suddenly, a hazy spiritual light lit up, and several figures appeared under the spiritual light.

  "I didn't expect that my Zhang family would have a villain like you."

  The head of the Zhang family sounded indifferently, patriarchal voice, word by word, as if there was endless anger brewing.

  (End of this chapter)