Editor: Atlas Studios
...
"Fourth Brother, don’t you believe ?" Wang Luojing’s small face looked a bit downcast.
"Fourth Brother, I suggest you listen to that girl," the older Wang Luotong chid in, "Luojing may be young, but she’s always loved playing with insects and knows a lot about them. Plus, insects are particularly drawn to her."
"Interesting~" Wang Shouzhe imdiately perked up, his eyes shining, "Co, tell your Fourth Brother how you plan to deal with the honey insects. Take your ti; we have plenty of ti."
"Recently, I’ve often heard Grandpa complain about the abundance of honey insects and how the crops aren’t as plentiful as before," Wang Luojing said weakly, "So I thought, if I could help Grandpa solve the honey insect problem, he’d definitely be happy. Then I could plead with Grandpa not to marry off my sister; I don’t want her to leave~"
Wang Luotong’s face turned sowhat pale, and she hung her head without daring to speak. Such matters were beyond her control.
"If you can truly resolve the honey insect disaster, Fourth Brother here promises to protect you both," Wang Shouzhe assured, "As long as you don’t want to get married, you won’t have to."
"Thank you, Fourth Brother." Wang Luojing bead, "Actually, I’ve seen in the ’Insect Scripture’ that ancient people once used grasshopper insects to control honey insects. However, grasshopper insects have beco increasingly rare in recent years. Last year, I raised so honey insects and grasshopper insects, and it worked. So this year, I asked my brother to catch two Grasshopper Kings from the mountains. It took so effort, but I’ve tad them..."
"Wait..." Wang Shouzhe’s expression changed, "What is the ’Insect Scripture,’ and you managed to ta the Grasshopper King?"
"The ’Insect Scripture’ is just that—an ancient book I found in the family Library Pavilion," Wang Luojing replied innocently, "It explains how to ta insects, and it’s not very difficult. If you want to learn, Fourth Brother, I can teach you."
Not very difficult!?
Wang Shouzhe’s face darkened a bit. Having rged with his predecessor’s mories, he had a fair understanding of the Black Tortoise World. In this world, a small group of people preferred controlling spiritual insects for production or combat, usually referred to as Spirit Insect Masters.
However, Spirit Insect Masters were quite niche, and the talent requirent threshold was very high, even higher than that for Alchemists. It was simple: an ordinary person smarter than average could barely learn alchemy, albeit with vast resources and limited achievents.
But as an occupation, Spirit Insect Master required rare talent for communicating with spiritual insects, without which one couldn’t even touch the field.
Thus, Spirit Insect Masters were extrely niche, unknown to ordinary noble family descendants. As far as Wang Shouzhe knew, only the Changning Xu Family and the Shanyin Liu Family secretly cultivated two Spirit Insect Masters.
If Wang Luojing possessed the talent of a Spirit Insect Master...
In that instant, Wang Shouzhe’s heart began to thump wildly.
"Fourth Brother, what’s wrong?" Wang Luojing waved a hand in front of his face, pouting angrily, "Are you also not believing ?"
"I believe, I believe." Wang Shouzhe nodded rapidly, "My Luojing is the smartest. Fourth Brother is very interested. Let’s go a bit further, and you can demonstrate for Fourth Brother."
"Mm-hmm, those two Grasshopper Kings are on Fourth Brother’s carriage," Wang Luojing, affird, seed very pleased, "I’ll go fetch them with my sister."
Wang Shouzhe suddenly recalled that when he had seen this pair of sisters this morning, he had noticed each carrying a peculiar large box. At the ti, he had assud it was their personal belongings, the personal items of girls shouldn’t be questioned carelessly, so he had rely instructed them to place them on the carriage.
Now he realized they had planned all along to try sothing at the farm.
"Let the household generals do it." Wang Shouzhe signaled.
The household generals serving from afar imdiately ran over swiftly, respectfully asking, "Clan Leader, what are your orders?"
"Wang Wu, Wang Yong. Go to the carriage and bring Miss Luojing’s two boxes."
"Yes, Patriarch."
The two household generals sped away swiftly. In less than a quarter of an hour, they returned, each holding a box.
"Wang Gui, Wang Wu, you guys go to Fourth Grandfather and see if there’s anything you can help with." Wang Shouzhe directed them away, knowing that Wang Xiaozhi seed to be trying to control aphids using thods like grass ash liquid, so he likely lacked manpower.
The household generals were Black Tortoise Practitioners, whose efficiencies outweighed ordinary tenant farrs when used properly.
Most importantly, since the matter wasn’t confird, Wang Shouzhe didn’t want it to beco widely known.
Once Wang Gui and the other four household generals left, Wang Shouzhe personally lifted the two big boxes and, with Wang Luotong and Wang Luojing, ran to a remote wheat field.
The three thousand or so acres of land resembled a vast sea. This empty space was perfect for the demonstration.
Wang Shouzhe inspected the wheat ears; sure enough, this wheat field also had so green aphids, those tiny insects, making him feel sowhat squeamish.
"Luojing, show Fourth Brother your thods."
"Mm~ This ti, the honey insect outbreak ca even earlier than I expected." Wang Luojing’s expression beca solemn and anxious as she carefully opened one of the boxes.
Wang Shouzhe curiously glanced into the box and imdiately felt a wave of trypophobia, his hairs stood on end. The box was filled with leaves, each sprouting filants with densely packed small dots.
"Fourth Brother, Sister, help out." Wang Luojing picked out the "leaves," "Place one leaf every ten feet."
Wang Shouzhe twitched at the corners of his mouth. This little girl was indeed bold, casually commanding even the clan leader. Yet his limbs were obedient, following Wang Luojing’s instructions. With his cultivation realm, holding a "leaf," a casual flick landed it precisely in place.
According to Wang Luojing’s "instructions," approximately a few dozen leaves were needed for each acre of wheat field. With only one of her large boxes open, it held rely a few hundred "leaves," barely enough to cover ten acres—just a drop in the ocean compared to the thousands of acres.
After spending a quarter of an hour placing them, Wang Shouzhe and Wang Luotong stood by Wang Luojing, waiting patiently.
"Fourth Brother, these grasshopper insect eggs are three-day ones," Wang Luojing explained, "They hatch slower in the box but will quickly hatch upon sunlight exposure."
Alright~ You are the expert in this field. Whatever you say goes.
Regarding his area of ignorance, Wang Shouzhe adhered strictly, never overstepping. As ti ticked away, in less than half an hour, the initial leaves displayed changes—a swarm of peculiarly shaped insects struggled to break free.
Those leaves were right before their eyes, enabling them to clearly observe the tiny insects—barely two milliters long, resembling long-shaped beetles with a pair of large pincers on the head, appearing rather grotesque.
Once born, they lay motionless, hanging quietly on the filants.
After a while, they finally stirred, sliding down the filants onto the leaves, leisurely spreading outward. They seed innately aware of food sources, casually climbing up the wheat stalks.
Suddenly!
One encountered an aphid. It struck viciously, clamping the aphid with pincers, stabbing its mouthparts into the aphid to suck, reducing the unfortunate aphid to a husk in under half an hour, wafting away with the breeze.
Subsequently, that grasshopper larva continued climbing, searching for its next prey.
"Impressive!" Wang Shouzhe exclaid, "What fierce little bugs these are!"
"Fourth Brother, when I raised grasshopper larvae before, I figured it can pupate within ten days, eating close to a thousand honey insects in that ti. It’s rather small at birth, only devouring a dozen daily over the first two days," Wang Luojing, accustod to playing with such things, felt unsurprised.
"If it truly works like this, these roughly ten acres of wheat starting the graining phase, though they will yield slightly less, may be saved," Wang Shouzhe praised while anxiously thinking, "But there are thousands of acres of wheat at Fenggu Farm alone."
"Don’t worry, Fourth Brother; I’m just doing a trial run." Wang Luojing opened the other box, revealing several brightly colored small beetles instead of dense grasshopper larvae.
"Isn’t this..." Wang Shouzhe noticed the familiar beetles and was shocked, "Ladybugs?"
"Fourth Brother recognizes them? But the Insect Scripture calls them Nine-Spotted Beetles, not Seven-Spotted," Wang Luojing pulled out a fist-sized beetle with nine spots, lovingly caressing it, "From now on, you’ll be called the Nine-Star Insect King."
...
User Comments
0 comments from readers