Chapter 94: Ground Beetle

  It is often said that good people are easily deceived, and Master Qin Yun's gentle nature makes him unwilling to fight with others, so it's inevitable that some people will take advantage of him. That's why those three young men dared to be so arrogant.

  However, Qin Yun didn't plan to dwell on this matter too much, after all he was just a new disciple. But another thing he had to ask clearly: "Green Willow sister, what's going on with our spiritual fields? And what is that earthworm creature?"

  At the mention of this, a look of distress also appeared on Green Willow's face. She thought for a moment and said: "I'll take you to see first!"

  The south side of Yunshui Xiaozhu has a gentle terrain, with large tracts of farmland being opened up, and the fields are separated by rows of trees, with small streams flowing through the fields.

  What is referred to as a spiritual field is the land where spiritual fruits, spiritual trees and spiritual grasses are planted. The place where the Sword Sect is located has a rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth, providing the necessary conditions for cultivating these rare species.

  Shui Wenyi learned from Qingyunzi, and like Qingyunzi, she is a dual cultivator of Qi and Sword. She specializes in refining talismans and elixirs, and also runs a small shop selling talismans and elixirs in Xuanwu City.

  She manages a spiritual field of thirty mu, twenty mu of which are planted with Bichen fruit trees, and the other ten mu are various herbs.

  Bichen fruit tree is a very good spiritual wood, its heartwood is the material for making talismans, the juice of the fruit can be used to make medicine and alchemy, the pulp and Huang Jing Dan can be eaten by warriors and Qi practitioners, so the planting area is the largest.

  The adult fruit trees are three or four zhang high, the dense branches and leaves in the orchard entwine and cover each other, blocking out the sunlight, making it very dark and humid inside.

  It's probably because it hasn't been taken care of for a long time, the forest is overgrown with weeds, vines and creepers are tangled around the fruit trees without restraint, and there are many insects flying back and forth.

  "The young lady has been away for several months and hasn't returned, the Lingtian fields are unattended, and in a few days, the Bicheng fruit will be ripe... " Green Willow said with a worried expression: "I have to take care of the shops in the city, but I don't have the ability to deal with the ground beetles. Qin Yun, this time it really depends on you, otherwise we won't be able to harvest the Bicheng fruit this year, and both Miss and I will go hungry!"

  Qin Yun scratched his head: "Then you should also tell me how to take care of the spiritual field first!"

  Green willow immediately smiled and pointed to the fruit tree beside her, saying: "Look at this is Bichen fruit, it's about to open its shell!"

  The fruit she pointed at was about the size of a fist, round and dark green in color, hidden among the leaves and not easily noticeable.

  Crack!

  As soon as the green willow's words fell, this emerald fruit suddenly split open from the middle, its shell automatically unfolding to both sides, revealing the inside white and jade-like pulp, a faint fragrance wafting out.

  That's interesting!

  Qin Yun's gaze was completely absorbed: "Is this considered mature?"

  "Not yet..." Green Willow shook her head and said: "We still need to wait for another half an hour, until the color of the fruit turns into a cyan blue before it is truly ripe. If we pick them now, they can't be used as medicine or eaten."

  "But..."

  Suddenly, a chilling rustling sound came from the woods, and the soil under the fruit trees churned up, with one after another beetles quickly burrowing out.

  They look very much like ordinary ladybugs, but are about the size of a baby's fist, with a coppery yellow shell that looks very hard.

  These beetles crawl quickly, and in the blink of an eye they climb up the tree trunk to the newly opened Bichen fruit, frantically competing for the flesh. Several weak ones are squeezed out on the spot.

  "This is the ground beetle, as soon as the Bichen fruit opens its shell, they will come to grab it!" Lü Liu was a little afraid and hid behind Qin Yun: "They can also bite people, you must not catch them with your hands!"

  Poor Biche fruit can't withstand such a scramble, the shell is torn to pieces, and the pulp is robbed clean.

  Qin Yun hesitated for a moment, then drew out his Qinghua sword and stabbed at one of the beetles.

  Ding!

  The sword tip pierced the back shell of the earthworm, producing a crisp metallic collision sound. The sharpness of the Qinghua Sword was unable to penetrate it!

  "Ah!" Qin Yun couldn't help but be shocked. After all, he had used three-tenths of his strength in that sword strike, yet it was unable to defeat a small beetle.

  No wonder Green Willow said that the ground beetle would be in that state.

  This earthworm-like creature seemed to be enraged, immediately turned around and jumped onto the sword. It opened its two curved black scimitar-like teeth and quickly crawled along the blade towards Qin Yun's right hand holding the sword.

  "Be careful!" cried Green Willow.

  "Looking for death!"

  Qin Yun was also getting angry, this guy was really not ordinary arrogant.

  The long sword shook, and the red sword tip burst out, instantly blasting the ground beetle away.

  But it didn't escape, instead it spread its wings and flew into the air, drawing an arc in the sky, and launched another attack on Qin Yun.

  However, Qin Yun was prepared and the Qinghua sword suddenly swung out to slash its body, and the scorching Chiyan sword energy suddenly burst out.

  Although it's a simple basic sword move, when combined with the powerful energy of Jiu Yang Zhen Qi, this strike is exceptionally fierce.

  But what shocked Qin Yun was that this sword did not cut the earthworm in two, the sword energy slipped away when it hit the worm's body, only cutting off its left wing.

  The ground beetle fell to the ground and rolled around, chirping as it used its head horn to plow open the mud, disappearing into the ground in an instant!

  Qin Yun was speechless, this move "Sword Stirring Nine Yang" he used 50% of his strength, with the power of the sword energy generated by the Nine Yang True Qi, even a piece of hard iron could be easily cut open, but it couldn't even handle a small beetle.

  Other ground beetles jumped down to the ground after snatching the fruit pulp and quickly burrowed into the mud and disappeared.

  The orchard returned to its former tranquility, with only the fruit shell fragments on the ground proving the existence of the fruit borers.

  However, Qin Yun now understood that once new Bichen fruits cracked open, they would definitely reappear to grab the fruit pulp. If this continued, it was entirely possible that not a single grain of these twenty acres of orchard would be harvested.

  Lü Liu Xin patted her chest with a lingering fear, bent down to pick up the piece of tortoise beetle wing shell that had been cut off from the ground, and handed it over to Qin Yun.

  "The shell of the Geoduck is a good material for refining equipment, this piece can be sold for ten taels of silver in the city's shops, if it were an intact and undamaged shell, it could sell for fifty taels of silver!"

  Just now she was still afraid of turtles, but now when it comes to money, the girl's eyes shine brightly like a money lover.

  Qin Yun bitterly smiled and said: "This earthworm is really hard to deal with!"

  He had never thought that the turtle beetle would have such a hard shell, and even with his sword energy, he couldn't cut it open, and only by using all his strength could he possibly kill it.

  But it's not just one or two ground beetles, heaven knows how many are hiding underground, once the green fruit opens its shell, hundreds and thousands of them will run out, how can he cope with it alone?

  "Yes!" Green Willow nodded seriously: "I once saw Miss kill a ground beetle, it's not easy, she told me that the ground beetle is of wood and earth attributes, and it's best to deal with it using the fierce fire of Geng metal!"

  "There's also a geoduck worm that's poisonous, the young lady said it's at the connection between its head and neck and shell, but it's just too hard to cut accurately!"

  "The girl also said that the ground beetle will not actively attack people, but once attacked, it will definitely counterattack. If bitten, it won't let go and can even bite off a piece of flesh!"

  "Again and again..."

  She chattered on and on, although it was all from Miss's words, but also made Qin Yun have a deeper understanding of the earthworm.

  Mentioning the power of Geng Metal Blazing Fire, Qin Yun's heart stirred.

  His internal energy attribute is fire, and the sword energy he induces has a lethal effect on the earthworms, but it's not very strong. But if you add the power of Geng Jin, wouldn't it be better?

  This reminded Qin Yun of his treasured Gengjin Sword Manual that he had never studied before.

  That Geng Jin Sword Manual was when he was wintering in the Manglong Mountain mine, Wu Shi Wufang's eldest grandson led a group to hunt in the mountains because of a conflict between Biyu Linghu and Qin Yun.

  As a result, the other party was completely annihilated by Qin Yun in a bloody battle. He searched for and found the "Geng Jin Sword Manual" on the body of that Wu family disciple. Later, to thoroughly erase all traces, he memorized the entire sword manual along with its annotations before burning it clean.

  Qin Yun had been keeping this matter hidden in his heart and hadn't told anyone, nor did he try to cultivate the Gengjin Sword Manual during the Qian Chao era. Firstly, it was because of the high difficulty, secondly, he was also worried that it would bring trouble.

  However, he has now left the Qin family and joined the Tiancheng Sword Sect. His original concerns have naturally weakened a lot, and he also has the ability to learn some useful things from it.

  "Green Willow sister, let's go back first, I'll think of a way to deal with the ground beetle!"

  "Uh-huh!" Green Willow nodded.

  Having witnessed Qin Yun's strength, she also had some confidence in him. In fact, she had no other choice.

  The two left Lingtian and returned to Yunshui Xiaozhu together. Green willow planned to stay here for the next few days, preparing to help Qin Yun pick the ripe Bichen fruit when the time comes.

  "The young lady has been gone for so long and hasn't come back, there's nothing left to sell in the store." She frowned and told Qin Yun: "If we can't pick enough Bichen fruit to sell, we won't be able to pay the rent!"

  Qin Yun asked and only then did he know that Shui Wanying's Dan Symbol Shop in Xuanwu City paid rent every half year, with each payment requiring ten pieces of Spiritual Jade.

  The prices in Xuanwu City are exorbitant, and silver can be used to buy ordinary grain and oil products, but many good things, including spiritual medicine, spiritual elixir, divine weapons, and more, all require the use of spirit jade for payment.

  Shui Wan's small shop, Dan Fu, has a great location despite its tiny size. Although the rent is expensive, it can still be maintained, but if she loses the shop due to being unable to pay the rent on time, that would mean losing her most important source of livelihood.

  Although she could sell the refined dan symbols directly to other merchants, the income after being exploited by others was barely enough to sustain her daily life and cultivation needs.

  Even if it's an inner disciple who offers sacrifices, the regular allocation issued by the sect every month is very limited, and disciples have to rely on doing sect tasks and other means to increase their income.

  "Green Willow sister, don't worry!" Qin Yun patted his chest and said: "What's the big deal about ground beetles? When they come, I'll let them die as many as they want!"

  "Bravo!"

  Green willow gave him a white eye with a sweet smile.