YM778.TV Chapter 122 - 117 Locust Plague Appears, Great
Translator: 549690339
After washing up and having breakfast, he hurried out the door with a basket on his back.
He had cultivated eight bees yesterday, and today he needed to check on them.
He made a special trip to his own millet field, where every millet seedling was adorned with at least two plump ears of millet.
They looked very robust.
His gaze swept over the millet seedlings in the east, and he sharply noticed some leaves had been nibbled on, leaving behind various-sized notches.
Each type of pest fed differently.
Some pests sneakily lurk on the underside of the leaves, sucking the juice from the stems and leaves. They like to bite a small hole on the veins of the leaves, sucking out the juice like vampires.
These are mostly larvae.
Very hidden, not easily spotted by farmers.
Other pests prefer to bite from the fleshier parts of the leaf, creating irregular holes.
But right now, he discovered the notches were bitten out from the edges of the leaves.
This indicated that the pests had powerful mouthparts; they could chew from the edges of the leaves towards the center, like a cutter, chewing uniformly in rounds.
After a careful examination, Qin Niu identified that these were traces left by locusts.
Then, on the ground, he found grains of brownish-black insect feces of different sizes. The feces were granular and their surfaces rather coarse.
He became even more certain that this was the work of locusts.
Steward Yan Qi had previously warned him about signs of pest infestations in several places.
There was also a flood recently, which would only exacerbate the pest disaster.
Qin Niu’s millet field had been rid of pests last time, and they were eradicated very cleanly at that.
He didn’t expect pests to have appeared again.
Moreover, from the chew marks on the leaves and the insect feces scattered on the ground, it was clear that these were not merely larvae, but rather there were many adult pests present.
Locust eggs take about half a month to hatch under the right temperatures.
If the temperature is low, it might even need more than 20 days.
After hatching into nymphs, they molt approximately every seven days. It takes about five molts for them to become adults.
It’s been less than a month since Qin Niu last dealt with the pests.
Logically speaking, even if there were locusts, there should only be second or third instar nymphs, not a large number of adults.
Where did all these adults come from?
Did they come from the fields nearby?
That’s possible, but the lands neighboring his poor soil were typically treated for pests every half a month to a month.
Although the growth of the crops in those fields wasn’t as good as Qin Niu’s, there were no obvious signs of pest damage.
This indicates that there were no conditions for locusts to reproduce in large numbers in a short amount of time.
Therefore, there was only one possibility: these locusts had flown in from elsewhere.
Locusts have a certain ability to fly, and when they have consumed most of the food in one place, they will migrate en masse.
Qin Niu had been busy with various affairs lately, and thus had not paid much attention to this plot of millet.
After discovering traces of pest damage, he quickly set down his basket and made a meticulous inspection of the field.
Many millet seedlings had leaves with nibble marks on them.
It likely happened in the last few days.
The nibble marks looked very fresh.
Plants have the ability to self-heal, and given a little more time, the wounds would heal themselves.
His cultivation experience wasn’t extensive, but his Insect Trace Identification skills were fairly good.
He could determine whether the pests were still nearby by the age of the bite marks on the leaves.
As he inspected the field, startled locusts occasionally jumped up and fled to other plants.
Some were even lying on their backs, mating.
If these weren’t dealt with, they would soon lay a large number of eggs in the field.
A female locust can lay more than two hundred eggs at a time.
This reproductive speed is super terrifying.
Under conditions of good temperature, humidity, and food, two hundred female locusts could reproduce to forty thousand nymphs in just about a month.
Imagine if those forty thousand nymphs were to reproduce again, that could be millions of locusts.
In other words, it would take at most two months to create a super locust disaster.
Qin Niu casually grabbed a locust.
It was quite large, about the thickness of an adult’s little finger. Green all over, this helped them hide.
The hind legs were strong and muscular, with serrated spines at the end.
When it pushed against Qin Niu’s palm, it was so powerful that it caused him a sharp pain. Brown liquid came out of its mouth, possibly because it had eaten too much and vomited it out with the effort.
“No, these aren’t ordinary locusts! Their mouthparts are not only stronger, but they also conceal two golden streaks beneath their ribs. This must be a new evolved species,” Qin Niu thought.
Qin Niu took out a cage and locked up the female locust.
Then he caught several more, all of the same species of locusts.
Their common characteristics were strong and powerful hind legs, highly developed mouthparts, and a body size that was a bit larger than ordinary locusts.
Moreover, their short-distance flying abilities were also very formidable.
Generally speaking, the stronger the insect, the quicker their digestion.
For instance, those termites Qin Niu was raising now consumed a lot more food due to their special species.
His millet should be ready for harvest in another ten days or so.
They couldn’t be ruined by locusts at this critical juncture. Moreover, if adults laid a large number of eggs in the field, it would definitely pose a serious threat to the next crop.
“Looks like it’s time to get rid of pests again!”
Last time, he only had one Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant available for pest control.
Now, he already had a large number of special ant breeds and even two Grade Three termites.
The efficiency of pest control this time should be very high.
After checking the pest situation in his own fields and then the neighboring fields, the situation was equally severe.
He couldn’t help but feel worried.
If the pests in his own fields could be dealt with, but those in others’ fields couldn’t, then it would definitely affect him, the neighbor.
Carrying a basket, he hurriedly headed into the mountains.
Upon arriving at the Ant Nest, the ant colony was as steadfast as ever, with less than ten new members added each day.
“Wow, another Poisonous Ant has emerged! And nine regular Soldier Ants!”
Qin Niu was thrilled.
Currently, his ant colony had a total of three Poisonous Ants, but the white termites with great strength were too rare.
It was mainly because of the small base number.
If there could be an increase of ten thousand white termites a day, surely there would be a few, or even dozens with exceptional strength.
He fed all ten Soldier Ants with Banyan Tree Blood.
Now, whenever a new member appeared in the ant colony, he would immediately feed them Banyan Tree Blood to help them evolve.
Due to more enriched experience in cultivation and high-level Insect Trace Identification skills, the death rate had become extremely low.
Of the ten Soldier Ants, only one exploded and died.
The other nine managed to survive the most dangerous phase.
This success rate was indeed very pleasing.
The trip of Qin Niu, Fourth, and the Ant Queen to the old pine tree where the bee nest was located goes without saying.
Arriving below the bee nest, after settling the Ant Queen, he checked on the eight Worker Bees that had consumed Banyan Tree Blood yesterday. They were still evolving.
Another ten new Worker Bees had broken out of their cocoons.
However, they had not yet completed the hardening of their bodies, so they needed to wait a while longer.
Qin Niu, of course, was not going to wait idly and chose to enter cultivation under the Ancient Banyan Tree.
After entering, he could feel an immensely terrifying energy.
“This… could it be because I’ve cultivated the Medicine King Sutra, which allows me to sense the energy within the Ancient Banyan Tree?”
Qin Niu’s Medicine King Sutra was still at the preliminary stage.
He could not perceive the energy contained within ordinary herbs at all.
This Ancient Banyan Tree was equivalent to a thousand-year-old demon, containing unimaginable energy, which he could sense.
Moreover, he found that this Ancient Banyan Tree was particularly cunning.
Its aura couldn’t be felt from the outside at all; only within its maze could he sense the terrifying energy contained in the tree.
If the bit of Medicine King Technique Qin Niu had cultivated in his body were compared to a drop of water, then the energy contained within the Ancient Banyan Tree would be an ocean.
“What would happen if I cultivate the Medicine King Sutra under its trunk?”
Qin Niu thought of a question that excited him.
However, he wasn’t in a hurry to cultivate, choosing instead to reliably extract every bit of value from it.
First, he made several cuts in it to bleed it.
His Treasured Sword, now better nurtured, emitted a Blade Qi that was more solid and powerful.
And with his cultivation having reached the Fivefold Mortal level, his strength had doubled.
With one cut, the wound he inflicted was much deeper than before.
Still, it was impossible to cut down the Ancient Banyan Tree.
The deeper the cut, the faster it would heal.
Qin Niu suspected that it wouldn’t simply allow itself to be doomed. Once injured to a critical extent, it would likely engage in some form of self- protective counterattack.
Nowadays, this Ancient Banyan Tree was his super treasure, and naturally, he wouldn’t do something foolish like trying to cut it down.
Far from doing that, once his power grew, he would even find ways to protect it.
This Ancient Banyan Tree had essentially become his private property.
After he finished collecting its blood, he sat cross-legged under the tree to cultivate the Medicine King Technique.
As he closed his eyes and focused, he gradually sensed a vast sea of terrifying medicinal energy. It boiled up like water from within the tree, shooting up towards the sky. Yet at about two meters from the treetop, it was firmly locked in place.
Its survival for at least a thousand years without being discovered by powerful cultivators, was likely due to this method of world-secluding blockade, lurking in the mountains.
Even if passersby traveled nearby, they would treat it as an ordinary ancient tree.
All things in the world have a spirit.
Though this Ancient Banyan Tree couldn’t think like humans, it had its own wisdom for survival.
Qin Niu didn’t hold back.
Compared to the medicinal energy emitted by his own Dogtail Grass, it was akin to comparing the light of a grain of rice to the bright moon in the sky.
As he continued his closed-eyed cultivation, the medicinal energy, vast and terrifying, was attracted to him, gradually fusing into his body.
This rate of cultivation was at least a hundred times faster than sitting in the backyard absorbing energy from those ordinary herbs.
And this was still because he was new to the Medicine King Sutra, with eighty percent of the medicinal energy dissipating into the air, a tragic waste.
Only about twenty percent was absorbed into his body and transformed into the Medicine King Technique’s power.
This hundredfold speed of cultivation was simply too enchanting.
Qin Niu felt his Medicine King Technique’s power growing at an astonishing rate.
After about six hours of cultivation, he felt a surge of pain in his head.
The torrential medicinal energy needed enormous effort to draw even a bit of it. It was due to his spiritual power being overexerted and nearing depletion.
He promptly stopped cultivating.
And opened his eyes.
At this moment, his heart was incredibly excited.
In his eyes, every part of this Ancient Banyan Tree was a treasure.
Even the medicinal energy it emitted had become an incomparable treasure.
Qin Niu had personally witnessed Xiao Qing’s grandfather’s death. The old man had consumed a large amount of Elixirs, yet he died without breaking through to the Fivefold Mortal level.
The reason was the inability to absorb enough medicinal energy.