When Lin Mo arrived with Wang Qiuru at the nearest spirit field, he sucked in a sharp breath.
This spirit field was planted with the most common variety of fire spirit fruit.
Early winter was approaching, and the weather was turning cold. The fire spirit fruit was about to yield its second harvest of the year. Afterward, the field would be temporarily closed to let the soil replenish some of its spiritual energy, with the next planting scheduled for early spring the following year.
But now, every fire spirit fruit plant in the field had withered. Almost all their leaves had fallen, and the fruits hanging from their branches seemed to have lost every drop of juice. Like eggplants struck by frost, they had all shriveled!
"My spirit plant assignment, my fruit..."
At the edge of the field, a disheveled outer sect disciple stared blankly at the withered plants before him, looking as though he had lost his soul.
Outer sect disciples of the Spirit Plant Courtyard had to complete the sect's prescribed spirit plant assignments, or they would be punished.
He had toiled for more than half a year, counting on this crop of fire spirit fruit to fulfill his assignment. Yet everything had changed overnight, and his Dao heart was on the verge of collapse!
"Junior Brother Cui, Junior Brother Zhu, have you noticed anything?"
Beside that outer sect disciple, Yuan Jingtu held a shriveled fruit, his expression extremely grave. "This fruit seems to be contaminated with some filthy substance. It looks like... the droppings of some kind of spirit insect!"
Cui Zhong and Elder Zhu exchanged a glance, then slowly nodded.
They had already inspected several spirit fields, and the situation was much the same in all of them.
The surfaces of those spirit plants and nearly