Under Lin Mo's utterly astonished gaze.
The light blooming from the gourd's mouth was faint, yet it swiftly enveloped the entire Ghost-Crying Field.
Between the ridges, beneath the ground, around the roots of the Spirit Wheat shoots...
In one tiny spot after another, patches of ash left behind by burning flames gradually appeared. They whirled chaotically within the gourd's light before finally coalescing into a human figure!
"Th-this is the young man from the Golden-Light Wheat... the Spirit Plant Courtyard disciple who died nursing a grievance over a hundred years ago?!"
Lin Mo jolted, immediately guessing the identity of the ashen figure.
Yet for some reason, the resentment of this Spirit Plant Courtyard disciple, which seemed to have been thoroughly dispelled by the Gourd Spirit Spring water long ago, had now rekindled from dead ashes and appeared here again!
"Who are you? Why are you suppressing me? What is that gourd?!"
Within the ashes, the young man's insubstantial face was hideously contorted.
He roared in shock and fury, but no sound emerged. Instead, through some incomprehensible means, he transmitted his resentment into Lin Mo's sea of consciousness.
"That old bastard Ruan Xiong harmed me, and now you want to harm me too... Heaven is unjust, Heaven is unjust... Why does Heaven treat me so unfairly?!"
Who was Ruan Xiong?
Could he have been the Chief Steward of the Spirit Plant Courtyard over a hundred years ago?
According to the rumors, this was apparently the man who had deliberately made things difficult for that Outer Sect Disciple, blown a trivial matter out of proportion, and expelled him from the sect.
That Outer Sect Disciple had taken his own life as a result, killing himself at the edge of the Spirit Field. His resentment lingered after death, eventually creating this Ghost-Crying Field where not a blade of grass could grow.
"My name is Lin Mo. I'm the current owner of this Spirit Field."
At first, Lin Mo had been startled and uncertain, but he firmly believed that beneath the Treasure Gourd's faint light, this phantom young man formed from ashes could not possibly hurt him.
He briefly cupped his hands and said slowly, "I came under the sect's orders to restore this Ghost-Crying Field. Since I need to grow the Spirit Wheat successfully, I naturally can't allow you to sabotage it in secret."
"Incidentally, the Spirit Plant Courtyard steward who harmed you back then never managed to advance to the Foundation Establishment Realm. He reached the end of his lifespan and passed away long ago... Your enemy is already dead."
Dead?
The young man's phantom within the ashes clearly already knew this. The voice ringing through Lin Mo's sea of consciousness still brimmed with endless resentment. "So what if he's dead? Every last one of the Azure Cloud Sect's higher-ups must die!"
"They knew perfectly well that I'd been wronged! They could have punished Ruan Xiong, but they didn't!"
"I failed to complete a Spirit Plant assignment, but even under the sect's rules, that was nowhere near enough to warrant expulsion! Everyone was laughing at me! I won't accept it! I won't!"
Laughing at him...
Lin Mo fell silent for a moment, then suddenly broke into a grin.
He had been mockingly dubbed "Chamber Pot Boy." Had he endured any shortage of ridicule over the past three years?
Even now, Wang Qiuru had only viewed him in a new light because of a misunderstanding, and those Outer Sect Disciples had shown him a measure of respect and fear as a result.
But when Senior Brother Liu had informed him earlier that something had happened to the Ghost-Crying Field, hadn't they still been hoping to enjoy the spectacle, even dragging out the name "Chamber Pot Boy" again?
To forge iron, the hammer itself had to be hard. Blaming Heaven and everyone else was pointless!
"My experiences aren't so different from yours."
Lin Mo's expression remained calm, even carrying a hint of a smile. As casually as if making small talk, he briefly recounted what he had endured over the years. "If I failed to restore the Ghost-Crying Field, and Gou Fengying used that as a pretext to expel me from the sect or even kill me..."
"Then, like you, I'd do everything I could to avenge myself. But I wouldn't harm innocent people."
"Just as right now, I'm an innocent party in all this. There's no reason I should suffer your revenge. Am I right?"
Lin Mo's attitude was already more than accommodating, but the ashen young man's resentment clearly would not dissipate so easily.
He glared viciously at Lin Mo, and his venomous voice once again echoed through Lin Mo's mind. "You're you, and I'm me. You want to restore the Spirit Field, and I want revenge on the Azure Cloud Sect. Well water doesn't interfere with river water!"
"As long as I have a single breath left, I'll make sure no one in the Azure Cloud Sect knows peace!"
He was already dead. What breath could he possibly have left...?
Seeing how things stood, Lin Mo knew there was no point saying more. He gripped the Treasure Gourd tightly, momentarily at a loss for what to do.
Just then.
The Treasure Gourd in Lin Mo's hand trembled faintly again, and the dim light emanating from its mouth visibly brightened.
Whoosh!
Ahead of him, the ashen young man floating above the ground seemed to be caught by an immensely powerful pull.
His insubstantial body disintegrated into countless fragments of ash, and the Treasure Gourd sucked them all inside like a dragon drawing up water.
Then came a snap.
The gourd stopper dangling beside it sealed the opening on its own, and the ashen young man's voice vanished completely, no longer ringing through Lin Mo's sea of consciousness.
"He... he was sucked into the Treasure Gourd?!"
Lin Mo stood where he was, his face filled with both delight and worry.
He was delighted that the Treasure Gourd actually had this ability to subdue evil entities, and that it seemed quite powerful.
What worried him was that the gourd still held over two thousand drops of his spirit liquid. If anything happened to them because of this, wouldn't he lose everything down to his last stitch?
"Please don't ruin my spirit spring water..."
Lin Mo badly wanted to remove the stopper and see what was happening inside, but he also worried that the Ashen Youth might seize the chance to escape.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally steeled himself and yanked the stopper off.
Nothing unexpected happened.
Inside the gourd, the spirit spring water shimmered with luminous ripples, looking entirely normal.
The Ashen Youth's dim phantom resembled a reflection in water. Immersed in the spirit spring water, his eyes were tightly closed, and he made not the slightest sound.
"Has he... been subdued by the gourd?"
Lin Mo could not make sense of the situation either. Fortunately, the spirit spring water was unharmed, so he walked to the edge of the field and poured a few drops into the large wooden bucket.
The spirit liquid he had acquired through last night's trade had been in the Treasure Gourd for less than a full day. Its spiritual potency was still far from its peak, so it could not count as true spirit spring water.
But Lin Mo did not care.
This Spirit Field had already been watered with diluted spirit spring water last time. Because he had used too much, the Spirit Wheat had grown too quickly, leaving him no choice but to pull out the seedlings to avoid arousing suspicion.
Now he was merely replenishing the Spirit Field's spiritual energy, so whether the water's spiritual potency had reached its peak was naturally less important.
Sure enough.
After the second watering with spirit spring water, the withered, failing Spirit Wheat shoots sprang back to life. Their grayish-white color faded completely, revealing a pleasing, fresh tender green.
At this rate, they would certainly ripen successfully within three months at most, utterly foiling Gou Fengying's scheme!
"Everything else is manageable. I'm just worried Gou Fengying and Xun Bin will come cause trouble again..."
Lin Mo frowned in thought and reached up to feel the Storage Bag tucked against his chest. An idea soon came to him.
Set up a formation to protect this place!
He had already used both blank Formation Discs from his earlier trade, but that posed no difficulty for Lin Mo. He would not even need to spend his own money.
He could simply ask Wang Qiuru for one. She would definitely give it to him!
Before you continue