Ghost-Crying Field

Biodata

Location and Layout

• Shaded mountainside: The rear slopes receive little sunlight throughout the year. When Lin Mo arrives, the long-unused field has a damp chill, but the surrounding spiritual energy is slightly richer than on the front slopes 38.
• Planting ridges: Twenty ridges divide the ten-mu plot. Before Lin Mo takes possession, workers turn the soil and prepare straight planting furrows, allowing him to sow the entire field in just over four hours 38.
• Water supply: The mountain spring is far away, making irrigation laborious. Wang Qiuru has a nearby reservoir prepared and filled with spring water by dozens of Servant Disciples 38.
• Protection: A Diamond Wall Formation is installed after Xun Bin sabotages the restored field 44 48.

History

Origin of the Haunting

More than a hundred years before Lin Mo’s assignment, the Outer Sect Disciple tending the field failed to meet his spirit plant quota. The steward responsible for his expulsion deliberately exaggerated the failure. The disciple then killed himself at the field’s edge, leaving resentment that neither the sect master nor the elders could dispel 37 45.

The dead disciple is later identified as Du Li, who blames Ruan Xiong for his mistreatment. Lin Mo considers Ruan Xiong to have been the Spirit Plant Courtyard steward involved and tells Du Li that the man died after failing to reach Foundation Establishment 45 48.

Subsequent caretakers suffered terrifying nighttime encounters or grave illnesses, some dying despite treatment. The Spirit Plant Courtyard eventually stopped assigning disciples to the plot. Its reputation spread among cultivators within a thousand-mile radius, and it remained uncultivated for nearly a century 37 38.

Lin Mo’s Restoration Assignment

After Lin Mo refuses recruitment through Xun Bin, Gou Fengying demands the field’s restoration and proposes Lin Mo for the task. Gou claims that the neglected field has delayed his cultivation of spirit insects, using the dispute to pressure the Spirit Plant Courtyard 36.

Lin Mo accepts despite Cui Zhong’s warning that even the sect master cannot resolve the haunting. Elder Yuan promises him a place in the grand tournament if he succeeds. The courtyard supplies one thousand water-aligned spirit stones, while Wang Qiuru arranges field preparation, irrigation water, and hardy spirit wheat seeds 37 38.

On the first night, Lin Mo detects an eerie aura draining the soil. His Venomous Thorn Bee consumes some of the resentful energy, and ten diluted drops of the Treasure Gourd’s spirit spring water restore the field’s spiritual vitality. The wheat sprouts so rapidly that he uproots it to avoid attracting suspicion, then resows with a mixture of intact and crushed seeds to produce less conspicuous growth 38 39 48.

Sabotage and Du Li’s Capture

Liu Xianzong voluntarily guards the restored field at night, fearing interference from Gou Fengying’s followers. Xun Bin knocks him unconscious and burns a Yellow Paper Talisman, whose ashes form a ghostlike youth. As the figure drifts across the field, the spirit wheat withers, though the earlier spirit spring watering preserves a trace of life at its roots 44.

When Lin Mo returns, the Treasure Gourd’s light gathers the scattered ashes into the youth’s form. Recognizing him as the disciple behind the haunting, Lin Mo tries to persuade him not to harm innocents. Du Li refuses to abandon revenge against the Azure Cloud Sect, and the gourd draws him inside and seals him away 45.

A second watering revives the wheat. Wang Qiuru agrees to provide a blank Formation Disc, and the Diamond Wall Formation is subsequently installed. Yuan Jingtu also confronts Gou Fengying over the interference, although Xun Bin has left no evidence of his involvement 45 46 47 48.

Successful Harvest

No further trouble occurs over the following three months and more. The wheat ripens, and the harvest confirms that the field can support spirit plants again 49 50.

Yuan Jingtu declares the haunting thoroughly resolved and fulfills his promise by inviting Lin Mo to the Spirit Plant Grand Competition. He then takes samples to Spirit Beast Peak to confront Gou Fengying with the successful harvest 50.

Haunting and Supernatural Effects

Resentful Energy

• Nighttime manifestations: Ghostly wailing terrified assigned caretakers and continued to discourage nearby disciples from approaching after dark, even after the initial restoration 37 44.
• Soil deterioration: Lin Mo observes the eerie aura rapidly drying the soil and apparently draining its nutrients at nightfall 38.
• Plant destruction: Before restoration, spirit plants were said to wither completely on the evening they were planted, regardless of the methods used to sustain them 36.
• Resistance to ordinary intervention: The Azure Cloud Sect’s sect master and elders had been unable to disperse the lingering resentment 37.

Connection to Golden-Light Wheat

• Lin Mo transplants one hundred seedlings from the first accelerated crop into his private courtyard. These become the golden-glowing spirit wheat he names Golden-Light Wheat 39 40 41.
• Du Li recognizes his resentful energy within the wheat’s golden glow and later reclaims part of it with Lin Mo’s permission. His phantom disappears from the grains, but the wheat retains its enhanced spirituality 48.
• A Black Market appraiser identifies the mutated wheat as capable of repelling evil and warding off malevolent spirits 42.

Agricultural Results

Wang Qiuru selects spirit wheat because it is hardy, requires little tending, and can survive inadequate irrigation at the cost of reduced yield 38.