The Person Behind the Scenes

Yang Chen followed the suggestion and immediately went to the Nineteen Peaks town to buy the Insect Luring Powder. This stuff wasn't cheap; two bottles cost one Spirit Crystal. It wasn't that there wasn't anything cheaper, but it wouldn't yield immediate results.

This kind of thing couldn't be delayed. If something unexpected happened, the losses would only be greater.

That same evening, he returned to the spirit field. After opening the formation with his token, he sprinkled the Insect Luring Powder around the edges of the few yellowing Spirit Rice plants, following the instructions.

After sprinkling it, he squatted nearby, watching intently. He vaguely thought he saw something wriggling on the stems of the Spirit Rice.

Seeing that it was indeed effective, his slightly grim expression improved.

Although he felt pained about spending Spirit Crystals, it was good that the problem could be solved.

He didn't continue squatting and observing. He went straight back to the wooden hut. This was what the shop assistant who sold him the Insect Luring Powder had said: the Rice Devouring Worms were timid, and the aura of a martial artist would make them feel threatened.

Time slipped by until deep into the night. After cultivating, Yang Chen lay on his bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. He felt something was strange. The Spirit Gathering Formation didn't just absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth; it could also keep out birds and beasts. If even birds and beasts couldn't get in, how did these Rice Devouring Worms get in?

BOOM!

As he was feeling agitated, a clap of thunder interrupted his thoughts. A few minutes later, a drizzling rain began to fall. Outside, the strong wind surged through the gaps in the wooden hut, creating mournful sounds.

A few minutes later, the rain intensified. The wind and rain obscured everything between heaven and earth, making the wooden hut feel like a place isolated from the world.

Listening to the sounds of the wind and rain, Yang Chen's agitation gradually subsided. With the storm as a backdrop, he fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, the rain had stopped at some point.

He opened the door, and the fresh scent after the downpour filled his nostrils.

"I wonder if this heavy rain will affect the effectiveness of the Insect Luring Powder."

Yang Chen stretched, and with that thought in mind, he walked towards the few yellowing Spirit Rice plants.

Suddenly, his steps faltered. His eyes fixed on a footprint that had appeared on the ridge of the field.

"Whose footprint is this?"

Doubt arose in his heart. In the more than four months since he took on this task, no one else's footprints had ever appeared on his field ridges, regardless of the weather.

Just as he didn't have the leisure to wander into the spirit fields managed by others, no one would waste their time coming to his.

He walked thoughtfully towards the yellowing Spirit Rice plants and found several ferocious worms dead at the base of those plants.

"It worked!"

Seeing the corpses of these worms, Yang Chen relaxed. As long as the Rice Devouring Worms were dealt with promptly, these few Spirit Rice plants might still recover.

After observing for a while, he inspected the entire hundred-mu spirit field. He inspected it very carefully. Fortunately, no other Spirit Rice plants showed any problems.

With the Rice Devouring Worm problem mostly resolved, Yang Chen hummed a tune and returned to the wooden hut to begin his day's cultivation.

Time quickly passed until the afternoon. Yang Chen discovered another dead Rice Devouring Worm next to the yellowing Spirit Rice plants. This made him realize that it would likely take two days to kill all the Rice Devouring Worms.

After observing for a moment, he began to patrol other areas.

When he reached the spot where the footprint had been, he felt uneasy. He looked a few more times, and this time, he was startled.

"How is this possible!"

He let out a low, angry growl. He saw that near where the strange footprint had appeared, several more Spirit Rice plants had a somewhat dull color. The difference wasn't obvious, but Yang Chen was certain that these few Spirit Rice plants also had problems.

"Someone is trying to frame me!"

At this point, Yang Chen suddenly realized.

After each Spirit Rice harvest, the Spirit Planter Guardian would burn the spirit field with spiritual fire. Under such spiritual fire, no insect eggs could possibly survive.

And after the seedlings were planted, the formation would immediately activate. What kind of insect could precisely fly into the spirit field?

Combined with the symptoms of those Spirit Rice plants and this suspicious footprint, everything added up.

This was not a coincidence; someone wanted to ruin him.

"Who wants to ruin me?"

Yang Chen's expression turned grim. The first person that came to mind was Meng Shijun. He had been in the sect for over four months, basically living in seclusion, and knew very few people, let alone made enemies?

After much thought, the only person he had a conflict with was Meng Shijun. And the motive fit. He hadn't been on the rankings before, and perhaps he wasn't a threat in the other's eyes. Now that he was on the cultivation rankings, he was threatening Meng Shijun's position. Combining their minor conflict, this behavior was understandable.

"Again and again!"

Yang Chen's eyes grew cold. If something like this happened once or twice, it was likely to happen more. He couldn't always be cleaning up the mess afterward.

He didn't have the time, nor did he have that many Spirit Crystals.

However, although he guessed it was most likely Meng Shijun, everything required evidence. As the saying goes, you have to catch the thief with the stolen goods. The supervisor wouldn't just believe his one-sided story.

With this in mind, Yang Chen suppressed the cold glint in his eyes. He sprinkled Insect Luring Powder near the Spirit Rice plants and then made another trip to Nineteen Peaks town.

When he returned, he had four small, fingernail-sized, azure blue stones in his hand. When night fell and Xu Qingqing and the others had left, he took advantage of the darkness to bury the four stones in hidden corners around the spirit field.

"If you stop now, I can't do anything to you. But if I catch you, don't blame me for being ruthless."

After burying the stones, Yang Chen returned to the wooden hut and patiently began to cultivate.

Another day passed. Before Xu Qingqing and the others arrived, Yang Chen took the four stones back to the wooden hut and examined them carefully.

Under his gaze, images appeared on the four stones. These images were precisely the scenery around the spirit field.

These stones were naturally extraordinary. They were Recording Stones, but the most ordinary kind. Their effective range was only fifty meters, and each one cost 1.5 Spirit Crystals, twice as expensive as a Qi Strength Pill. They were also consumables, lasting for three days and three nights after activation.

The images on the stone flowed rapidly, but everything was as usual, with no suspicious individuals approaching spirit field number eight.

He wasn't surprised. Even the boldest people would be cautious when doing bad deeds. He didn't expect the other party to reveal themselves within a single day.

As night fell, he buried the Recording Stone again.

Days passed, and Yang Chen continued his normal cultivation and patrols of the spirit fields. While his cultivation steadily improved, he checked the Recording Stone once every day. However, the other party seemed very cautious and hadn't appeared yet.

Eight days flashed by, leaving only three days until the end of the month.

This morning, after waking up, Yang Chen summoned his status panel:

[Realm: Qi Martial Sixth Level, Punching Force: 9013 kg]

It had been over twenty days since his last breakthrough. Yang Chen's strength was improving rapidly, and he was only about eight or nine days away from Qi Martial Seventh Level.

He hadn't gone to the Testing Stele this month, and his ranking had been dropping. It had now fallen to ninety-fifth. On the cultivation rankings, only the last few individuals were still at Qi Martial Fifth Level; the vast majority had already broken through to Qi Martial Sixth Level.

"I wonder how high I can climb this month?"

With his current strength, his ranking would undoubtedly see a remarkable leap compared to last time. He just didn't know if he had a chance to break into the top fifty.

After thinking for a moment, he got up and headed towards the spirit fields to begin his first patrol of the day.

"He's been here!"

Somewhere in the spirit fields, a cold glint flashed in Yang Chen's eyes. Under his gaze, several Spirit Rice plants again appeared to be malnourished.

Without showing any emotion, he collected several Recording Stones. After patrolling the spirit fields, he returned to his wooden cabin and began to watch them carefully. Finally, in one of the Recording Stones, he saw a furtive figure.

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