Rice Thief

Seeing this, Zhou Changwang hurried into his room, took two bottles of pills from beside his bed, and handed them over. "These are Rejuvenation Pills and Life-Creation Pills. They can heal your injuries. Take them quickly."

As he spoke, his gaze could not help drifting toward the wooden table.

The table was made of spiritwood and was exceptionally sturdy, yet his father had left a deep palm print in it with a single strike without damaging the table as a whole. Even the bowls and chopsticks atop it had barely shifted, revealing his formidable strength and control.

"Good!"

Zhou Qiankun also used his true qi to suppress the injuries within his body. Hearing this, he quickly accepted the spirit pills.

After swallowing the two pills in succession, Zhou Qiankun's body shuddered, and his complexion swiftly turned rosy.

Clearly, the effects of these two spirit medicines were excellent. They had directly healed more than half of injuries that would originally have required over a month of rest to recover from.

Then he asked impatiently, "What exactly happened?"

"Five days ago, I was ambushed and attacked by two Innate Realm experts on my way home..."

Zhou Changwang did not hide anything and directly recounted everything that had happened several days ago.

"Them?

I knew those two were up to no good. I even went to their door before and warned them.

I never thought they would really dare..."

At this point, he was filled with fury and resentment.

He had never expected his own late return to trigger such an incident.

After the meal, Zhou Changwang told his father to rest at home. He himself carried his spirit hoe, brought Little Spirit Hound along, and headed straight for the spirit fields on the outskirts of the market.

After days of careful tending, the Spirit Grain in the fields had grown even more luxuriantly.

The Spirit Rice hanging from the stalks was also full and plump, nearly ready for harvest.

Along the way, nearly every spirit farmer Zhou Changwang encountered wore a smile on his face.

It was the joy of an impending harvest.

"Changwang, you're here.

There's something I need to tell you."

Just after he reached the edge of his own spirit field, Old Xu hurried over with an ugly expression.

"What is it?"

Zhou Changwang froze and asked in confusion.

"The Spirit Rice has been stolen."

Old Xu said gravely.

"What?"

Zhou Changwang was stunned.

"A few mu of my spirit fields were secretly harvested.

They didn't steal much, but at least thirty jin was taken from each mu. Six mu of my spirit fields were hit, so that's nearly two hundred jin."

At this point, Old Xu's expression had turned dreadful, and his heart ached terribly.

Two hundred jin of Spirit Rice would yield one hundred and fifty jin after husking. At ten jin per Low-Grade Spirit Stone, that was fifteen Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

He had always been miserly. The Spirit Stones he spent on pest removal were squeezed back out of Xu Zhong by every possible means the very next day. Later, he had even helped Zhou Changwang handle and sell spirit insects, making a hard-earned profit of two Low-Grade Spirit Stones. He had always taken pride in that, often sighing, "Eating won't make you poor, dressing won't make you poor—failing to calculate is what makes you poor."

Losing fifteen Low-Grade Spirit Stones in one blow—how could he possibly feel good about it?

"You should hurry and check whether your own spirit field was robbed."

Old Xu immediately added.

Zhou Changwang nodded and hurried into his own spirit field to inspect it.

After a long while, he finally let out a breath of relief.

Fortunately, although there were signs that someone had trampled through it, nothing had been harvested.

Only then did Zhou Changwang realize that the reason the Spirit Rice in his field had not been stolen was not because the rice thief was kind-hearted. It was simply because his Spirit Rice had truly grown more slowly than Old Xu's.

The Spirit Rice in Old Xu's fields had all become round and full, changing from green to yellow and ripening completely. The rice in his own fields, meanwhile, was relatively slower, only beginning to turn from green to yellow. In other words, its true ripening period was one or two days later than Old Xu's.

Aside from Old Xu's richer experience as a spirit farmer, the main reason was that Old Xu's Spirit Rain Art was stronger and had reached Minor Mastery long ago.

After a Spirit Rain Art at Minor Mastery was cast, it contained richer spiritual energy, so naturally the Spirit Grain Rice grew better.

Although Zhou Changwang's Spirit Rain Art had likewise reached Minor Mastery, he had only recently broken through. Naturally, his field's growth progress could not compare to Old Xu's.

The information gathered afterward indeed confirmed this.

Most of those robbed were experienced spirit farmers whose Spirit Rice had already ripened.

Those whose Spirit Rain Art proficiency was lower and whose Spirit Grain Rice grew more slowly had instead escaped disaster.

"Damn it.

We're all spirit farmers at the foot of Long Ridge Mountain, but those Zhao brothers are far too coldhearted. We only asked them a few questions, and they actually tried to drive us away.

If you ask me, they're the ones who stole our Spirit Rice.

They're the only two people around here living nearby to guard the spirit fields.

If it wasn't them, who else could it be?"

Old Xu came over, grumbling and cursing.

He had just joined several other victimized spirit farmers to question Zhao Jie and Zhao Qiang. Since they had all suffered losses, their words had naturally been rather sharp, carrying the clear intent of holding them accountable, so they had been driven out.

Still, Old Xu's words did make some sense.

Among the nearby spirit farmers, only the two brothers lived close by. They also kept a Spirit Hound. If someone had been stealing, a Spirit Hound's sharp senses would certainly have given warning, making them the most likely people to have noticed something.

But since the others refused to speak, there was nothing they could do.

The Zhao brothers were both experts above the middle stages of the Qi Refining Realm. Even the Spirit Plant Hall cultivators who patrolled nearby gave them a wide berth, so naturally no one dared offend them lightly.

So although Old Xu was shouting fiercely now, it was only because they were far away. If they were standing right before the brothers, he would not dare open his mouth even if he had ten times the courage.

"The Spirit Rice is about to ripen. We really do need to be more careful.

Today it was Old Xu's fields. Tomorrow, it could be mine."

As streams of Spirit Rain Art descended over the spirit field, Zhou Changwang also became more vigilant.

But nighttime in the wilderness was truly too dangerous.

Not only could demon beasts charge down from the mountains and forests, flying demon beasts could also swoop down from the sky. Beyond that, there were rogue cultivators, as well as wicked spirits and ghostly monsters that usually appeared only at night...

He was not like the Zhao brothers, whose strength had reached the middle stages of the Qi Refining Realm, who possessed magic artifacts, and who had a Spirit Hound equivalent to the Second Layer of the Qi Refining Realm guarding them—one that could detect potential enemies in advance. If he truly stayed here overnight, the danger would be far too great.

"Fortunately, whoever is stealing the rice doesn't dare go too far. They only dare shave off twenty or thirty jin from each mu..."

Zhou Changwang knew that this was because the thief feared the Spirit Plant Hall.

With the Spirit Plant Hall's methods, dragging this person out into the open would not be difficult at all.

It was simply that this sort of petty mischief only harmed a few spirit farmers, so the Spirit Plant Hall naturally would not concern itself with it.

At noon, his father brought him Spirit Rice. After hearing about the matter, he did not say much, only suggesting that he come over to keep watch at night for the next few days.

Naturally, Zhou Changwang disagreed.

Although his father was experienced at surviving in the wilderness, he did not want him to risk danger over a few mu of Spirit Grain Rice.

Still, this incident had indeed left the nearby spirit farmers deeply uneasy.

There were quite a few people who wanted to stay behind and keep watch through the night.

Thanks to reader 4316 for the reward. The first Hall Master of this book—thank you for the support!!!