And so the sun and moon turned, and the seasons of the year passed swift as the wind, and the days continued on with our hero — every day he went out to his field, watered it, cleared the weeds from it, and once finished, headed to the Inheritance Hall to study what he needed to study — until a full year had passed.
~~
A tall young man emerged, his muscles well-developed for his age, wrapped in a deep, magnificent aura. His feet set off as usual that morning, heading toward the field to check on the latest progress.
His hands moved through numerous motions that spoke of long-standing experience, convincing anyone watching that he knew exactly what he was doing without a shred of pretense. These motions finally culminated in a large, glowing magical cloud that encircled the entire field, and at his signal the cloud trembled and released its stores of falling rain onto the leaves and stalks of the spirit rice, which had grown far beyond its original size.
Its height now exceeded sixty centimeters, and as the rain fell upon it, the rice grew as it always did — but what was different today, and what caught the young man by surprise, was the blooming of small white flowers among the rice, releasing a fragrant scent that began spreading with the continuing rainfall until it reached the young man standing at the edge of the field.
He smiled and drew a long breath of that fragrant scent into his broad chest. "Ohh, what a wonderful scent — excellent. We'll finally enjoy some extras today."
The young man's face brightened further, a wide, satisfied smile splitting across it, because this scent alone was proof that he was on the right path. The pheromone continued until the rain stopped, gradually fading and drifting out of the field until it vanished completely.
Now came the turn of the new weeds.
"Damn it — how long will I have to deal with these cursed plants every single day?"
He'd made many attempts to get rid of them for good, but every effort had ended without result, because the air and the birds soaring overhead carried tiny seeds with them, which fell onto the field daily, and the moment they touched the spirit soil, they sprouted with maddening speed.
The young man had no trick left up his sleeve, and surrendered to reality — there was no solution before him except to pick them by hand, day after day. And so he spent his daily routine, which he finally capped off with meditation on his cushion in the cave. He trained for long hours, and with every session noticed that the energy in his dantian had grown, and that the dantian itself was slowly expanding over time — though it seemed there was still a long way to go before its growth was complete and he'd be ready to break through.
This continued for longer hours into the night, until he finished his training and went to bed to sleep.
But he had no idea what would happen in those few hours he spent unaware.
Threads of sunlight slipped in through the window beside his bed and began caressing his face until he woke. He went to the pot, filled it with water, and lit the fire, waiting for the water to start boiling. The moment it did, he brought out a burlap sack and used a large spoon to scoop out some green spirit rice grains, tossing them into the pot to make his porridge. He waited a while, letting it cook slowly, then went out to check on the field.
At the usual time, as always, he approached the field — but noticed something strange today.
"Wait — wait, what is this?"
"Damn it — who's the idiot who dared to lay a hand on my plants?"
Ling Hua's face flushed red with anger, hot blood coursing through his veins, wanting to know who had dared to touch his precious treasures.
He turned over the freshly-gnawed rice leaves with his hand, finding no trace of the culprit — but he found something even more painful: the plant seemed to be losing its vitality in the span of a single night. Had he not come now, he would have found an entire year's worth of effort going to waste. He pushed deeper into the field, his hands flipping leaves left and right, until at last, at last, he found in the middle of the field the culprit itself, just about to begin gnawing on other leaves.
His eyes fixed on it, narrowing further as he focused on this strangely-shaped insect — entirely black in color, a hard shell on its back from which spiked thorns protruded at their ends. He felt an odd familiarity with its shape, but couldn't recall exactly where he'd seen it — though now wasn't the time for remembering.
The moment it tried to fly off and escape, the young man leapt at it to catch it — but his attempt failed. He watched the insect fly away, helpless to stop it. "Damn it."
He quickly formed several patterns with his hands, which culminated in an arrow that flew swiftly toward it — but it dodged him in midair, and that failed too. It thought it had escaped, but in the end he caught it off guard with a second arrow, aimed at it faster than the first, from its blind spot, which it didn't notice until it had already crossed more than half the distance. It had no choice left but to submit, and the arrow pierced its body.
"There. Hmph — did you think you'd escape my grasp today?" It plunged toward the ground, its body going still there. The young man walked toward it to examine the insect, and the moment he saw it up close —
His face went pale, and a cold sweat ran down his back. He now remembered where he'd seen this — the Encyclopedia of Spirit Insects he'd studied in the Inheritance Hall came rushing back to his mind, and he recalled this very insect.
"Damn it — it's the Pointed-Shell Beetle."
He remembered its description now, and his expression grew angrier still, because he recalled that as long as he'd seen this insect in his field, he could be absolutely certain it had already left its eggs there — for it was among the most notorious pests, known for its high fertility and its swift transformation into a full infestation.
"I need to get it under control quickly, before it turns into a massive plague that destroys my entire harvest."
"I need to head to Elder Tianmu right away, to tell her about this disaster and ask for her help."