145: Chapter 145 Locust Demon

The light inside the private room dimmed a bit more.

Magistrate Luo Tang of Qingxi County spoke up.

"As demons under Lord Yin's command, we became the magistrates of the various counties in Zhenhai Prefecture."

"Now that Lord Yin has been transferred to Anqing Prefecture to serve as the prefect, we might as well deal with this Lord Qinling ahead of time on Lord Yin's behalf."

Magistrate Wang Rengui of Yongning County, sitting by the window, curled his lips.

"That Evil Tree was a Fifth-Turn evil entity capable of expanding an Evil Domain."

"Although I think the rumor that Lord Qinling killed the Evil Tree is true, at the very least, the shattering of the Evil Domain is true."

"This Lord Qinling's strength is still somewhat unfathomable."

Magistrate Zheng Yang of Pingshun County nodded in agreement.

"That's right. If Lord Qinling is truly powerful, and a few of us Fourth-Turns go to test his bottom line, it would be troublesome if he discovered us."

Hearing what Zheng Yang said, Luo Tang and Wang Rengui nodded in agreement.

Investigating Lord Qinling in Guanhai County still carried risks.

The private room instantly quieted down.

At this moment, the fourth magistrate hadn't said much.

This magistrate was Magistrate Sun Feng of Pingchang County.

In other words, right now in this private room sat four magistrates from the counties under the jurisdiction of Zhenhai Prefecture.

Aside from these four counties, Zhenhai Prefecture only had the Prefecture City and Guanhai County left.

Magistrate Sun Feng of Pingchang County sat by the wall, staring at his hands resting on his knees since just now.

He raised his head, looked at his three silent colleagues, and the corners of his mouth hooked upward.

"Have you forgotten what kind of demon I am?"

The other three magistrates all turned their heads to look at the magistrate of Pingchang County.

They saw the head of Pingchang County's magistrate suddenly change.

The human face, which had regular features just a moment ago, twisted like a reflection on the water's surface.

His skin turned from white to grayish-blue, dense fine fuzz grew on the smooth skin, his forehead bulged, and his cheekbones widened.

His eyes changed from the oval shape of human eyes into compound insect eyes, with countless tiny points of light flickering inside them.

His mouth split open, revealing two large mandibles, the inner sides of which were densely covered with serrated teeth.

This was shockingly the head of a locust!

That's right, Magistrate Sun Feng of Pingchang County had long been replaced by a Fourth-Turn Locust Demon.

The Locust Demon's grayish-blue head swayed gently under the candlelight of the private room.

Its two mandibles opened and closed once, making a faint "click-click" sound, and then it spoke.

"I have too many descendants; I can let them go to Guanhai County and create a locust plague."

"Let my descendants eat clean all the crops in Guanhai County, gnaw away all the bark, and dig up all the grass roots."

"Without food in Guanhai County, the common people will starve to death, and those who don't starve will flee as refugees; that place will naturally become a dead zone."

"During that process, I can also probe Lord Qinling's background."

Hearing these words from the Locust Demon, Magistrate Luo Tang of Qingxi County split his mouth into a grin.

"A locust plague? An old trick, but old tricks are always useful."

Magistrate Wang Rengui of Yongning County raised his hand and slapped it on the table, saying,

"Hehe, this idea is truly venomous. No matter what strength Lord Qinling has, it can turn Guanhai County into a dead zone."

"I just love venomous things~"

Magistrate Zheng Yang of Pingshun County picked up his teacup and raised it toward the Locust Demon.

"Your idea is brilliant."

All four magistrates raised their teacups, and the four teacups clinked together, a crisp sound echoing in the private room.

Tea splashed from the rims of the cups, falling onto the table top and dampening a small patch of water stains.

After finishing the tea, the Locust Demon's grayish-blue head slowly changed back.

The grayish-blue skin faded, the compound eyes vanished, the antennae retracted, and the mandibles closed.

That human face with regular features changed back.

"Then I'll be heading back first. Wait for my news."

He stood up, straightened his cuffs, and cupped his fists toward his four colleagues.

The wooden door closed behind him, and the sound of footsteps gradually faded away down the stairs.

...

Not long after.

In Liuhe Village, the afternoon sun caused the water in the fields to gleam with a dazzling white light.

Several men with their trouser legs rolled up stepped barefoot into the muddy water, bending over and watching the drooping ears of rice forming on the paddy.

Seeing how well the rice was growing, the men couldn't help but smile.

Liuhe Village was rather far from the East Sea, so it was naturally impossible for them to live off the sea by fishing for a living.

Therefore, their most important food source was still rice; it could be said that this rice was their lifeline.

After the Evil Tree came, a portion of the paddy fields had roots crawling across them, causing more than half of the rice seedlings to wither.

After the Evil Tree fell, they plowed the affected fields again, cultivated new seedlings, and replanted them.

The seedlings had just turned green, looking lush and pleasing to the eye.

One man straightened his waist and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

He looked down at the seedlings, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.

Judging by this growth rate, they would harvest quite a lot of grain this autumn.

Just as he was thinking this, his gaze swept across the ridge of the field and suddenly stopped.

Crouching on the field ridge was a locust, longer than his thumb, its grayish-blue wings shimmering with an oily light in the sunlight.

It crouched there motionlessly, as if staring at him.

"A locust!"

He shouted. Several men nearby raised their heads, looked along his gaze, and saw that locust.

Another person shouted,

"There's one here too!"

Another person's voice came from the other end of the field ridge.

"There are some over here too, several of them!"

More and more people began to shout.

"There are some here too!"

"The field ridges are full of them!"

"They're on the seedlings too!"

The voices spread from the east end of the fields to the west end, becoming denser and denser.

An old man straightened his waist, and the rice seedlings in his hand dropped into the water.

He didn't pick them up; he raised his head to look toward the north, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Something was moving in the northern sky, pitch-black, resembling a rolling dark cloud.

That patch of blackness was getting closer, larger, and denser.

That wasn't a dark cloud, nor was it a giant python—it was a swarm of locusts!

"Locusts—! The locusts are coming—!"

The old man's voice squeezed out from the depths of his throat.

Those men raised their heads, saw that black shadow blocking the sky, and dropped their hoes to the ground.

Someone stood in place, eyes wide, dumbfounded.

Someone turned and ran, but tripped over the field ridge after running only two steps, climbed back up, and kept running.

Someone squatted in the field, burying their face in their knees, trembling all over.

That black shadow was getting closer and closer, flying from the north and covering half the sky.

The sunlight was chopped into fragments by the locusts' wings, falling onto the people still running in the fields, flickering brightly and darkly.

The sound of beating wings was like a heavy rain striking tiles; that sound surged over from the north, growing louder and closer.

It made people's eardrums ache and caused their hearts to beat wildly.

The old man stood in the field, tilting his head back, watching that sky-covering swarm of locusts sweep past over his head.

Locusts landed on his hair, on his shoulders, and on the rice seedlings.

They gnawed on the seedlings, the grass on the field ridges, and the leaves on the trees by the roadside.

His legs went soft, and he knelt in the muddy water, his turbid eyes reflecting that pitch-black sky.

He opened his mouth and shouted with all his might,

"Lord Qinling—! I beg Lord Qinling to protect these rice fields—!"