Chapter 13: Talent! Insect Master_1
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"Fourth Brother, do you not believe me?" Wang Luo Jing's little face slightly fell.
"Fourth Brother, I suggest you listen to this little girl." An older Wang Luotong also came over, "Although Luo Jing is young, she has always loved playing with bugs since she was a child. She's quite knowledgeable about them and has a knack for attracting them."
"Interesting~" Wang Shouzhe suddenly livened up, his eyes gleaming, "Firstly, slowly tell Fourth Brother how you intend to deal with the aphids, we have plenty of time."
"In recent years, Grandfather has been complaining that the aphid infestation has been increasing, reducing the crop yield compared to previous years." Wang Luo Jing said faintly, "So, I thought that if I could solve the aphid problem for Grandfather, he would surely be pleased. Then, I could plead with him not to marry my sister off. I don't want sister to leave~"
Wang Luotong's face turned pale instantly, lowering her head, not daring to speak. This kind of matter was not something she could decide on.
"If you really can solve the aphid disaster, Fourth Brother promises to protect you both." Wang Shouzhe firmly promised, "If you don't want to get married, you won't have to."
"Thank you, Fourth Brother." Wang Luo Jing's eyes lit up, "Actually, I have long seen in the 'Insect Scripture' that ancient people used to control aphids with grasshopper insects. But in recent years, grasshopper insects have become scarce. Last year, I bred some aphids and grasshopper insects and it turned out to be effective, so this year, I asked Brother to catch two Grasshopper Insect Kings from the mountains. I have spent some effort to domesticate them..."
"Wait..." Wang Shouzhe's face changed, "What is 'Insect Scripture'? And you managed to domesticate the Grasshopper Insect King?"
"The 'Insect Scripture' is just an ancient book that I found in the family library." Wang Luo Jing said innocently, "The 'Insect Scripture' explains how to domesticate insects and it's not that hard. If Fourth Brother wants to learn, I can teach you."
Not that hard!?
Wang Shouzhe's face blackened a bit, he was quite familiar with Profound Martial World after integrating the previous owner's memory. A small number of people in this world like to control spiritual insects for production or combat, essentially being referred to as Insect Masters.
However, the status of an Insect Master is considered somewhat niche due to their high requirements for talent, even higher than that of an Alchemist's. The reason is simple, regular people who are slightly smart can barely learn Alchemy, however the cost is enormous with limited achievements.
But for a profession such as an Insect Master, if you don't possess the rare talent to communicate with spiritual insects, you can't even make a start in it.
Therefore, Insect Masters are very niche and ordinary children from prominent families have not even heard of them. According to Wang Shouzhe's knowledge, only the Xu family of Changning and the Liu family of Shanyin secretly cultivated two Insect Masters.
If Wang Luo Jing has the talent of an Insect Master...
For a moment, Wang Shouzhe's heart was pounding.
"Fourth Brother, what's wrong with you?" Wang Luo Jing waved her hand in front of him, her mouth pouting in anger, "Does Fourth Brother not believe me, too?"
"Believe, I believe." Wang Shouzhe nodded vigorously, "My little Luo Jing is the smartest, Fourth Brother is very interested. Let's go somewhere far and you can demonstrate for Fourth Brother. "
"Okay, those two Grasshopper Insect Kings are in Fourth Brother's carriage." Wang Luo Jing seemed very pleased when agreed upon, "Sister and I will get them."
Wang Shouzhe suddenly remembered, when he saw the sisters this morning, they were each carrying a strange large box. He initially assumed they were their personal belongings. As they were the private property of the girls, it was inappropriate to intrude so he simply asked them to put it in the carriage.
Looking at it now, it seemed they had planned to try something on the farm.
"Let the house warrior do it." Wang Shouzhe beckoned.
The house warrior who was waiting in the distance ran over quickly and respectfully asked, "Clan Leader, what's your order?"
"Wang Wu, Wang Yong. Go to the carriage and bring the two boxes of Miss Luo Jing."
"Yes, Family Head."
The two house warriors ran away and returned in less than an hour, each holding a box.
"Wang Gui, Wang Wu, you guys go to Grand Elder and see if there is anything to help with." Wang Shouzhe dismissed them all, anyway he saw that Wang Xiaozhi there seemed to be thinking of using ash juice to control the aphids, it should be short of manpower.
The heads of the household were all Profound Martial practitioners, which made them much more efficient than ordinary tenant farmers.
More importantly, the matter wasn't yet settled, and he didn't want to make it public knowledge.
After Wang Gui and the other four household heads had left, Wang Shouzhe personally carried two large boxes, and together with Wang Luotong and Wang Luo Jing, they ran off to a remote wheat field.
The three thousand-odd mu of land was like an ocean. This place was deserted and vacant, perfect for a demonstration.
Wang Shouzhe peeled back the wheat stalks and, as expected, there were some green aphids in the wheat field. The tiny bugs gave him chills.
"Luo Jing, show your fourth brother what you can do."
"Hmm~ The outbreak of honey bugs this time was earlier than I thought," said Wang Luo Jing, her expression heavy and uneasy. She carefully opened one of the boxes.
Wang Shouzhe peeked curiously into the box, immediately his fear of clusters setting in, raising goosebumps all over his body. For the box was full of leaves, and from the leaves grew strands of string-like objects, densely covered in round dots.
"Fourth brother, sister, could you lend a hand?" Wang Luo Jing took out the "leaves" one by one, "Place one leaf every ten feet."
Wang Shouzhe's mouth twitched a little - this girl had quite the nerve, bossing around even the Clan Leader. But he obediently followed Wang Luo Jing's instructions. With his high cultivation base, he grabbed a "leaf" and flung it casually, and the "leaf" landed perfectly on the spot.
According to Wang Luo Jing's "instructions", a few dozen leaves needed to be scattered for each mu of wheat field. She just opened one of the two boxes, filled with several hundred "leaves", only enough to cover about ten mu of land, a mere drop in the bucket for the vast wheat field.
After about fifteen minutes of scattering the leaves, Wang Shouzhe and Wang Luotong stood by Wang Luo Jing, waiting patiently as she instructed.
"Fourth brother, these Grasshopper Insect eggs are in their third day," explained Wang Luo Jing, "They hatch slower in the dark box. Once they see sunlight, they'll hatch very quickly."
Alright~ You're the expert here, what you say goes.
When it came to his blind spots in knowledge, Wang Shouzhe was always humble, never presumptuous. Time trickled by, and in less than an hour, changes occurred in the first few leaves scattered - small, peculiar-looking insects began breaking out of their shells with difficulty.
The leaves were right before their eyes, allowing them to observe those tiny bugs closely. They were less than two millimeters in size, beetle-like in shape but with two large pincers protruding from their heads, making them quite ugly in appearance.
After hatching, they remained motionless, quietly hanging on the strands.
After a while, they finally began to move, slipping down the strands onto the leaves, leisurely spreading out in all directions. Seemingly innately able to sense the location of food, they effortlessly climbed the wheat stalks.
Suddenly!
One of them encountered an aphid and ferociously pounced on it. It clamped onto the aphid with its pincers and began to suck from it. Within a short period, the poor aphid was sucked dry, its empty shell scattering in the wind.
The Grasshopper Insect larva then continued to climb forward in search of its next prey.
"Impressive!" exclaimed Wang Shouzhe, "These little bugs are fierce."
"Fourth brother, when I was raising Grasshopper larva before, I calculated that it only takes them ten days to pupate. During this time they can eat nearly a thousand honey bugs. For the first two days after birth, when they are very small, they can only eat about ten or so a day," Wang Luo Jing was used to playing with these creatures and thus felt no surprise at their behavior.
"If that's truly the case, while the yield of the wheat field on this ten-acre piece of land will be slightly reduced, it can still be saved," Wang Shouzhe remarked with admiration, but also worriedly added, "But just our Fenggu Farm alone has several thousand mu of wheat."
"Fourth brother, don't worry, that was just a test," Wang Luo Jing opened the other box, which no longer held Grasshopper Insect larvae, but colorful little beetles instead.
"Isn't this..." Wang Shouzhe was taken aback as he recognized those beetles, "The seven-spotted ladybug?"
"Fourth brother, you recognize it too? But the Insect Scripture calls it the Nine-dot Beetle, not the Seven-spotted Beetle." Wang Luo Jing took out a fist-sized beetle, dotted with nine spots, and affectionately caressed it, "I'll call you the Nine-star Bug King from now on."
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