Awakening of Insects

The return journey was not short, and Zhu Ge took a completely roundabout route.

Zhu Ge avoids places with powerful spirits and monsters, and also avoids places that are too desolate.

He wanted to hone his martial arts skills, not to seek death or admire the scenery.

Therefore, he would have Hua Xiaomei sense the strength of various alien races in the mountains and forests, and then try to choose those with similar auras to herself to fight.

In just over ten days, we have reaped a great harvest!

"It's a pity I didn't break through to the later stage," Zhu Ge thought to himself as he ran. "And that horse, it looks really handsome!"

The bamboo horse was entirely green; although it was made of bamboo, the bamboo in spring was crystal clear.

Therefore, the bamboo horse was like a piece of jade carving, a work of art, and it was really beautiful.

However, that's not the point.

So I couldn't be bothered to catch Zhu Ge anyway, since it's just a mount, having it or not makes little difference.

His speed is much better than that of an ordinary mount.

"Bang!!"

With a casual smash of a stink bug that was rushing towards his ear, Zhu Ge could already vaguely sense the aura of the Tiger God.

We're almost at Jianshan!

Eager to go home, Zhu Ge plans to get some oil and stir-fry a plate of Boletus edulis to try when she gets back.

"Tiger God! Do you have any wild boars here?" Zhu Ge shouted as he arrived at the Tiger God's three mountains. "Give me one of your wild boar followers, I'm out of lard at home!"

As a result, it was completely quiet here, and no sound came out at all.

Zhu Ge immediately rushed in and arrived at the place where the tiger god shrine had been placed.

There was nothing there.

There was no clay shrine to the tiger god, nor any of those lifeless animals, nothing at all.

"They ran away?"

Zhu Ge was taken aback.

That tiger god is such a coward!

It really is a paper tiger!

After all, he had only met the Tiger God a few times, but each time the paper tiger seemed quite cowardly.

"Never mind, I'll go back then."

Zhu Ge shook her head and began her journey back.

"Smack!!!"

He swatted a mosquito to death with both hands.

"wrong!"

Zhu Ge was suddenly startled.

In just a few minutes, two flying insects from the first realm have already appeared!

Normally, it takes a large area of ​​forest to support a single flying insect.

"Is this the Awakening of Insects?" Zhu Ge frowned.

His qi and blood suddenly began to circulate, and a powerful aura belonging to the mid-stage of the first realm swept out.

Some insects sensed this aura and immediately dispersed, no longer approaching him.

But after walking for a short while, another flying mosquito swooped down on him, trying to suck his blood.

The Awakening of Insects is approaching!

Zhu Ge's heart sank.

The Awakening of Insects doesn't have a specific time; it just happens on a certain day in spring when all things revive and insects crawl out.

Insects hibernating due to the cold, newly hatched, hungry larvae, adult insects in heat laying eggs everywhere...

These insects gathered together and swept everything away.

The Awakening of Insects in Yunjiang is especially terrifying.

The Yunjiang region is teeming with venomous insects, which swarm during the Awakening of Insects, creating an overwhelming infestation.

The most terrifying insects are not the locusts that eat grass, leaves, and rice, but those that suck blood, are poisonous, and parasitic, which are impossible to guard against.

In the past, during the Jingzhe (Awakening of Insects) solar term, the master would lead the villagers to fight off the insect swarm, but it was mainly the master who did the fighting.

Moreover, the gentleman would avoid direct confrontation, rather than resorting to hiding and dealing with the situation.

Even so, the village would lose a lot of food and many people would die.

Now, only one in ten of Jianshan Village remains, and it is virtually impossible for the five of them to withstand the insect swarm.

But that's also where the advantage lies.

He, Yu Xiucai, Ji Fuhui, Duan Lei, and Sui Niang—as long as the five of them are in the cellar, they can block the entrance.

Of course, it's easier said than done.

In reality, Zhu Ge wasn't sure either.

However, he also knew that the insect swarm would only affect those in the first and second realms.

For those in the Three Realms, they can simply fly to a high altitude.

Compared to the countless "delicacies" on the land, insects wouldn't be so foolish as to attack the smelly, hard rocks in the sky.

"Little sister, there are more and more bugs. Can your bewitching spell deal with these bugs?" Zhu Ge asked as she hurried back.

"That's possible..."

Hua Xiaomei's voice was somewhat hesitant: "But there are too many mosquitoes during the Awakening of Insects, I'm afraid even my Bewitching Soul won't be able to cover them all."

"Can't you just swallow them whole?" Zhu Ge suggested. "With so many souls, wouldn't that allow you to grow much faster?"

"No way!" Hua Xiaomei said irritably. "Brother, why didn't you eat a hundred bowls of rice a day when you were little? Wouldn't you have grown faster that way?"

"I didn't have this opportunity when I was a child." Zhu Ge touched her nose and understood what Hua Xiaomei meant.

Whether it's a god or a ghost, the amount of souls they can devour is limited; they cannot devour and grow infinitely.

Otherwise, a single swarm of insects in the Cloud Frontier could spawn seven or eight Ghost Kings.

"If you had these qualities, would you have even considered me back then?" Hua Xiaomei teased. "But brother, before it was just the teacher and Scholar Yu, now there are Scholar Erjing and you and me, so keeping us shouldn't be a problem."

"Let's take turns guarding then," Zhu Ge agreed. "But you have to keep your abilities a secret and not let the fisherman in the straw raincoat find out."

As the two discussed their strategy, they arrived at the foot of Jianshan Mountain in the blink of an eye.

"There are already some grasshoppers."

Looking around, Zhu Ge saw many rice plants covered with herbivorous insects.

"It's a pity that Scholar Yu killed dozens of roosters before, and now there are hardly any hens left in the village, otherwise it would have been a good opportunity to give them an extra meal."

Roosters, deer, and tigers are considered to be the most yang creatures.

Previously, in order to deal with the crisis after his teacher left, Yu Xiucai killed many roosters and took their heart blood to use as ink and brush, hoping to ward off evil spirits.

As a result, Yu Xiucai, who was under the dual influence of being bewitched and possessed, wrote the character "囍" instead of "儒".

"Brother, chickens aren't the only ones that eat insects. Insects themselves eat insects, and many birds eat insects too," Hua Xiaomei said.

"Speaking of which, brother, have you noticed? We haven't seen any birds in a long time. That's very strange."

Birds!

At this point, Zhu Ge frowned.

Come to think of it, that seems to be true?

Let alone large birds like eagles and hawks, we didn't even see ordinary sparrows or swallows.

"Forget it, this has nothing to do with us." Zhu Ge shook her head, deciding not to think about it anymore.

Thinking too much is just needless worry; all he needs to do is become stronger as quickly as possible.

"That's true, even if the sky falls, the tall guys in Yuanyang City will hold it up." Hua Xiaomei's tone became a little more relaxed.

"Yes! The insect swarm will not have any impact on Yuanyang City." Zhu Ge climbed the steps and quickly returned to the village.

Most of the houses in the village are still standing, but the useful items inside have long been collected and stored away, especially dried goods and food.

Meanwhile, a large pile of wooden furniture was also collected and placed on the outskirts of the village.

Duan Lei, Sui Niang, and Ji Fuhui are arranging these items.

Seeing Zhu Ge return, Sui Niang coldly put down the wooden stool she was holding and turned to go home.

Zhu Ge's mood inexplicably dipped, and then she went up to Duan Lei and Ji Fuhui, who both had complicated expressions, and said:

"The insect infestation might be different this year. Where is Yu Xiucai? I'll go and discuss countermeasures with him."