BXBX NOVEL Chapter 61 - 56: The 4th Insect Master Technique!
“Your Majesty, calm your anger! Yan Qi dares not utter a single deceiving word, everything spoken is the truth. Although our Yan Family employs twelve superior farmers, each of them excels in only one or two planting projects. Some are good at weeding, some at loosening the soil, two are skilled at sowing seeds, and others specialize in planting just one of these: wheat, maize, or tea. None is expert in all aspects.”
Yan Qi knelt on the ground without daring to raise his head.
Still, he stated his true opinions, never daring to deceive his master.
“Stand up! Sit and talk.”
The elder’s tone became much more gentle, which allowed Yan Qi to breathe a sigh of relief.
To serve the king is to walk with a tiger.
As an underling or a servant, one’s fate is actually not in one’s own hands.
All status, wealth, and power are bestowed by the master.
A single word could uproot one’s very foundation.
Despite that, countless people still wish to cling to the powerful, willingly becoming servants or slaves.
Because once favored by the strong, one could rapidly rise in position.
“According to what you’ve said, does Qin Niu from Shuangfeng Village possess expertise in all areas such as sowing, soil loosening, weeding, and fertilizing?”
“It should be so! If there’s anything of the highest value, it is the mountain mud fertilizer he formulated. I’ve used mountain mud when planting tea trees, but the effect was short-lived and the fertilizer weak; using it in the fields for crops is even more out of the question. Our exploration of mountain mud fertilizer is still only at the breeding stage. Using mountain mud for breeding allows the seedlings to grow strong and without fear of fertilizer damage; the root system also becomes more developed.”
Yan Qi had become one of the stewards of the Yan household, in charge of farming and tea cultivation, naturally possessing real skill.
In his conversation, he revealed a wealth of planting experience and knowledge.
“He refuses to sell the formula for the fertilizer?”
“Before I even named a price, he outright refused. He said the mountain mud was complex with no fixed formula, and by the sound of it, it requires flexible combinations based on experience. Later, 1 probed with a high offer of three acres of fine land in exchange for the fertilizer formula, but he remained unmoved.”
Yan Qi finished speaking with an expression of wanting to say more but hesitating.
“If you have anything to say, speak frankly, I’ve never considered you an outsider. If you can achieve outstanding results in cultivation, 1 will consider adopting you as my godson.”
The elder threw out an even bigger lure.
Being able to mention adopting Yan Qi as his godson, even if merely a promise, showed his high regard for Yan Qi’s capabilities and potential.
“Qin Niu might have been frightened by Wang Haikun of Shuangfeng Village, worried that my Yan family would falsely promise much like a white wolf in disguise, that’s why he hasn’t entertained this notion. I’ve heard that not only did Wang Haikun take a wolf skin from him, but this time he forcefully took several baskets of the mountain mud as well. 1 observe that Qin Niu is calm and collected, deliberate in speech and actions, and highly adaptable; I don’t understand why Wang Haikun insists on bullying someone like him. If this continues, 1 fear it will end badly.”
Yan Qi had done his homework thoroughly.
He had investigated everything related to Qin Niu, no matter how big or small, and understood it all clearly.
n
If Wang Haikun didn’t have an older brother, he would likely have died many times over by now. His reckless behavior will surely get him killed sooner or later. That Qin Niu regards my Yan family in the same light as Wang Haikun is to underestimate us. Since the establishment of my Yan Family over a hundred years ago, the first of our ancestral teachings was to never exploit the common people. By my generation, the fourth, we have never once seized the common people’s wealth or fields.”
The elder held disdain for Wang Haikun.
“Since Qin Niu is as you say, he must be a wise man; after a few more interactions with our Yan family, he will naturally be able to discern good from evil. In future dealings with him, you may offer him more benefits to try to win him over to our Yan family. The locust plague this year is truly worrying, and sadly my Yan family lacks deep roots, without a truly excellent farmer leading us; the yield for these hundred acres of fields is uncertain!”
The elder’s tone was filled with concern.
The Yan family was a sizable operation with land cultivation as its main income.
If the harvest were poor, the family would fall into jeopardy.
The collapse of a high-rise building can happen in an instant.
As the head of the Yan family, he had to consider the future and destiny of the Yan family, ensuring its everlasting prosperity, and prevent decline.
n
I will do my best to win over this person. If we can truly recruit him into the Yan family, he will surely become a leading figure in the Yan family’s cultivation endeavors.”
Yan Qi got the message and immediately showed his commitment.
“Aren’t you worried that he will take your position once he comes?”
The elder looked at Yan Qi and asked softly.
“Not worried at all. I have my value, and he has his future. Only by making the Yan family stronger can I live better myself. Furthermore, 1 have an intuition that although this young man is young, he is ambitiously unwilling to be inferior to others. He might agree to befriend the Yan family, but it will be difficult for him to consent to living under its roof.”
Yan Qi’s expression was calm, his gaze clear.
“Ha ha, you have improved greatly. Reading is beneficial, studying has made you understand many principles; from now on you may freely enter the Yan family’s library to read.”
n
Thank you, Your Majesty!”
Yan Qi showed an expression of great joy and turned to kneel in gratitude.
“From now on, spare such formalities if you can. Go attend to your tasks! At the summer harvest, I hope to see your achievements, and 1 will consider an exceptional promotion for you to become one of the three great cultivation stewards of the Yan family, which many will not accept. You need to produce results that will silence them.”
The elder spoke while stroking his beard.
“Understood!”
Yan Qi excused himself and headed straight for the fields.
As one of the plantation stewards, he managed at least hundreds of acres of land, and he also had to take care of tea cultivation and tea picking, which is one of the Yan Family’s key industries.
There was just too much to worry about.
At the moment, Qin Niu had no idea that he was being discussed by the biggest BOSS in the area.
He had exhausted a huge amount of spiritual power taming the Queen Bee, and now, with no moonlight available for cultivation, and being too afraid to enter beneath the Ancient Banyan Tree, he could only recover his depleted spiritual power through sleep.
After a deep sleep, he felt refreshed and clear-headed.
Looking out the window, the sun was setting, and night was about to fall.
It was the perfect time to clear out the pests from the fields.
He went to the fields with five Worker Ants and began his labor.
With the increasing pest extermination experience of the five Worker Ants, their efficiency in catching pests had significantly improved, especially for the fifth one, whose performance was particularly outstanding.
It now took only a matter of seconds for it to take down pests that were five or six times its size.
Locusts, being much larger and adept at jumping and flying, were beyond its capability.
Once, it grabbed onto a large locust and refused to let go, only to be taken up into the sky, prompting Qin Niu to quickly come to its rescue. It was a close call.
Since the fifth one was his only Grade Two Lightning Worker Ant, he treasured it greatly.
He truly feared it might meet with an accident.
A regular Worker Ant can produce at least ten offspring a day, so losing a few was not a big deal.
Catching that locust earlier had taken a lot of effort and thought.
He seemed to have received a prompt about acquiring a new skill, but he was too focused on rescuing the fifth one to take a close look at the time.
Now that things had calmed down, he checked his personal attributes.
Sure enough, there was a new catching technique skill added to his Insect Mastery.
Insect Mastery Skills: Insect Trace Identification 9.92/10 novice, Insect Communication 13.51/100 proficient, Insect Identification 8.97/10 novice, Catching Technique 0.01/10 novice.
The Catching Technique allows for the capture of a variety of insect creatures through certain tricks or methods, enhancing the success rate of capture, and even allowing for the insects to be caught without harm.
After grasping the catching technique, Qin Niu’s success rate in catching insects increased significantly.
He even came up with the idea of crafting tools to make catching them easier.
Back home, he made a small net similar to a fishing net, specifically designed for capturing locusts, moths, and other winged insects.
He kept busy until the moon rose, but he didn’t rush to finish the work.
Instead, he worked overtime to eradicate the pests.
He discovered that the breeding speed of the pests was extremely fast and their numbers vast. The four plots of corn seedlings he had cleaned out the day before now housed new pests, having migrated from the neighboring plot that was not yet cleared of pests.
The pests were alive and would not stay still indefinitely.
At night, they became highly active, throwing a feast among the corn fields and voraciously gnawing at the seedlings.
He had to change strategy; otherwise, no matter how hard he worked, he wouldn’t be able to clear out the pests completely.
This kept him busy the whole night.
Thanks to his efforts and those of the five Worker Ants, they managed to clean out a good half-acre of the corn field from pests.
The insect eggs filled nearly half a basket, and the insect corpses were even more exaggerated—two large pots were filled.
It was hard to imagine where all these pests came from.
“It would be great if the Worker Ants could get even stronger,” he thought.
With the insect corpses and the five Worker Ants, he finished up and went home.
The way he was removing pests now was like using the Worker Ants as hunting dogs, requiring his own effort as their master.
That was a bit backward!
Once the Worker Ants became stronger and more numerous, he as the master would truly be at ease.
He could just throw them into the field and not have to worry about them.
According to the current efficiency, if he captured pests for another night, he should be able to take care of the situation completely.
Having worked all night, the returns were quite substantial.
Insect Trace Identification, Insect Identification, Catching Technique, Pest Extermination—all four skills had gained substantial proficiency improvements.