Fire Virtue Immortal Clan

Chapter 250 Three Years of Drought and Black-Striped Locusts
The Lu family has maintained a continuous business relationship with the Jinyuan Sect over the years.

The quality of the Flaming River Crystal Sand and Heavenly Essence Divine Iron produced in the underground magma river is extremely high, and the quality of the magical artifacts made from these minerals is naturally exceptional.

Over the past nine years, the Jin Yuan Sect has used these two types of minerals to refine magical artifacts, bringing considerable income to the sect.

The Golden Origin Sect and the Spirit Gu Sect are long-established Golden Core sects, and they both have stable channels for obtaining Foundation Establishment spiritual items.

Over the years, the Lu family's ties with these two Golden Core sects have become increasingly close, and these two Golden Core sects have been of great help to the Lu family in purchasing Foundation Establishment spiritual items.

The Lu family gained eleven more Foundation Establishment cultivators, and the number of Qi Refining cultivators also increased significantly, but proportionally, it was lower than the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The reason for this is that the living environment of ordinary people has become increasingly worse in recent years.

This is because of a severe drought!

It hasn't rained a drop in the territory of the Ancient Desolate Sect for three years!

Rainfall is scarce within the territory of the Ancient Desolate Sect, so if the mortals within the territory receive help from cultivators, they don't need to worry about their crops failing to yield a harvest.

But that was under normal circumstances. Now, the Ancient Desolate Sect has been suffering from a three-year drought, and even Nascent Soul cultivators cannot force rain to fall.

The current drought, while not significantly impacting cultivators in a powerful family like the Lu family (a Golden Core cultivation group), has had a considerable effect on the mortals they raise.

If the Golden Core faction is like this, then the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment factions are even worse off.

Even more pitiful are the mortals who have no cultivators to protect them. During these three years of severe drought, countless mortals have lost their lives.

The drought has brought more than just these disasters; it has also spawned numerous insect pests, the most serious of which is the Black-striped Sky Locust in the Ancient Desolate Sect.

When the Black-striped Sky Locust was first born, it was extremely weak and not even a demon beast.

However, the Black-striped Sky Locust grows extremely rapidly. If all goes well, it can become a first-tier demon insect within a year and a second-tier demon insect within two years.

Their transformation into third-tier demonic insects will be relatively slower, but it will only take them up to three years to transform from second-tier to third-tier.

It will take at most five more years for them to transform into fourth-order demonic insects.

This is not the limit for the Black-Striped Sky Locust; they still have a high chance of advancing to the fifth or even sixth rank of demonic insects.

If the number of Black-striped Sky Locusts is large enough, their rank will increase even faster.

The terrifying nature of the Black-striped Sky Locust lies not only in its terrifying rate of power increase, but also in its astonishing rate of reproduction and destructive power.

A single female insect can lay nearly 100,000 eggs in a month, and these eggs have a very high hatching rate if conditions are right.

After these insect eggs hatch successfully, the swarm will take these newborn larvae to consume various items that can enhance their strength.

After the locusts pass through, they leave behind no living creatures or items containing spiritual energy!

The Burning Flame Sect's inherited texts contain records of the Black-Striped Sky Locust, a type of demonic insect. These records are found in the Gazetteer of Local Customs and the Book of Beast Taming.

The Gazetteer of Local Customs contains a great deal of information, and while some of the Lu family's cultivators were indeed interested in it, they did not have a deep impression of the Black-Striped Sky Locust, a type of demonic insect recorded in the Gazetteer.

It was Lu Chengyao, the beast tamer of the Lu family, who discovered the Black-striped Sky Locust.

Lu Chengyao has a great talent for beast taming, and he is willing to spend time and energy on it, studying the various beast taming classics left by the Burning Flame Sect with great diligence.

He was extremely interested after reading the records of the Black-striped Sky Locust in the ancient books, mainly because the Black-striped Sky Locust was too terrifying.

According to historical records, the highest rank of the Black-striped Sky Locust in the locust plague reached the fifth rank, and they directly caused the complete extinction of all living beings in several states.

This includes powerful cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage!
When Lu Chengyao first saw these records, he thought that the power of the Black-Striped Sky Locust was exaggerated, until he actually saw a demonic insect that looked like the Black-Striped Sky Locust in the Burning Flame Mountains.

Regardless of whether the contents recorded in the ancient books could be taken seriously, after discovering this demonic insect that resembled a black-striped locust, Lu Chengyao immediately passed on the information to Lu Cheng'an and other high-ranking cultivators of the Lu family, and instructed Que Yun to take him back to the Lu family immediately.

Lu Cheng'an has been cultivating diligently in the underground lava river of the Burning Flame Mountains for many years. Despite nine years of arduous cultivation, his cultivation level has not broken through to the late Golden Core stage.

This is mainly because the higher a cultivator's cultivation level, the more difficult it becomes to advance. For a Golden Core cultivator, advancing to a minor realm often requires more than sixty years.

Even advancing one's minor realm every hundred years is a perfectly normal phenomenon!
Lu Cheng'an's natural talent for cultivation was not bad, and with the help of the panel, his cultivation speed improved far faster than that of other cultivators.

Although his cultivation did not break through to the late Golden Core stage during his nine years of arduous training, he was not too far off.

If he dedicates himself to cultivation for another two or three years, he has a good chance of breaking through to the late stage of the Golden Core realm.

However, the message Lu Chengyao conveyed was too shocking. If the Black-Striped Sky Locust that appeared in the Burning Flame Mountains was indeed the Lu family, they also had to get rid of this threat as soon as possible.

Lu Cheng'an wasted no time; after receiving Lu Chengyao's message, he returned directly to his family.

Lu Chengyao's cultivation had only recently broken through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, so his speed naturally couldn't compare to Lu Cheng'an's.

However, he was carried by Queyun when he returned from the Burning Flame Mountains.

Queyun was a mid-stage third-tier demon beast. He was extremely fast. Almost as soon as Lu Cheng'an returned to the Lu family, Queyun brought Lu Chengyao back to the family.

What Lu Chengyao said was too shocking, so Lu Chengan and Lu Wenxing did not intend to tell the other cultivators of the Lu family directly, but instead confirmed it with Lu Chengyao first.

"Elder, Clan Chief, this jade slip contains an introduction to the Black-Striped Sky Locust. This is a Black-Striped Sky Locust that I captured in the Burning Flame Mountains. You can compare it!" Lu Chengyao said in a deep voice.

Before returning to his family, he had already made preparations, imprinting a detailed description of the Black-Striped Sky Locust from the Beast Taming Inheritance Manual onto a jade slip, and also capturing some Black-Striped Sky Locusts to bring back to his family.

Lu Chengyao did this because he felt that his cultivation level was relatively low and his vision was not broad enough.

The Black-striped Sky Locust had not appeared for a long time. Although the Black-striped Sky Locust that appeared in the Burning Flame Mountains was the same as the one recorded in the ancient books, he was still worried that his judgment might be wrong.

After Lu Chengyao took out the jade slip and the captured black-striped locust, Lu Cheng'an immediately took them into his hands.

Lu Cheng'an first reviewed the contents recorded in the jade slip, and then he released the several black-striped locusts that had been sealed in the grass cage.

These black-striped locusts varied in strength, with two reaching the early stage of the second rank and the rest at the first rank. After being imprisoned by Lu Chengyao for several days, they were released from the grass cage by Lu Cheng'an and immediately flapped their dark brown wings, flying towards Lu Chengyao like lightning.

As these black-striped locusts flew, their sharp mouthparts opened, and wisps of black mist emanated from them.

These black mists are extremely corrosive and can easily break through a cultivator's defenses.

If there are enough Black-striped Sky Locusts, they can devour cultivators who are a level higher than them by virtue of their numbers.

Lu Chengyao's cultivation level was at the late Foundation Establishment stage. The strength of these Black-Striped Sky Locusts was significantly lower than his, and they would not pose a threat to him.

However, he was not quite sure what the Supreme Elder meant, so he did not take action to stop the attack of these black-striped locusts.

After releasing these black-striped locusts, Lu Cheng'an kept observing their changes.

When the black-striped locusts were less than half a zhang away from Lu Chengyao, he suddenly made a move and directly captured all of them in his palm.

He then took out a palm-sized black-gold stone from his storage ring; it was a mid-grade second-tier obsidian.

This is a very common refining material, which can be used to refine a variety of second-tier mid-grade magic weapons.

This mineral has a very obvious characteristic: it is extremely hard.

Even a mid-grade second-tier weapon refiner would need several days to refine a mid-grade second-tier obsidian.

These Black-Striped Sky Locusts are only at the early stage of the second rank at most. If they can refine, swallow, and digest this mid-grade second-rank obsidian, then it can be basically confirmed that they are Black-Striped Sky Locusts.

After Lu Cheng'an took out the second-grade mid-level obsidian, the black-striped locusts in his palm swarmed up and instantly covered the second-grade mid-level obsidian.

A moment later, accompanied by a snapping sound, a Black-Striped Sky Locust at the early stage of the second tier bit off a small piece from the intact obsidian.

Then another Black-striped Sky Locust, at the early stage of the second tier, followed closely behind and also tore off a small piece of obsidian.

Upon seeing this, Lu Wenxing's face immediately showed a look of shock.

Obsidian is a relatively common material for crafting weapons, and he has some knowledge of it.

These few Black-striped Sky Locusts were able to tear apart the obsidian in such a short time. Even if they weren't Black-striped Sky Locusts, they were still an extremely powerful insect demon.

Lu Chengyao's expression remained relatively calm, because he had conducted similar experiments when he suspected these black-striped locusts.

Lu Cheng'an released his divine sense and locked it tightly onto the bodies of the two early-stage second-tier black-striped locusts.

He detected through his divine sense that after the two early-stage second-tier Black-striped Sky Locusts tore the obsidian apart and swallowed it, a very peculiar power surged from their bodies.

This power easily refined the obsidian, transforming it into nutrients that nourished the Black-striped Sky Locusts and enhanced their cultivation.

"Cheng'an, what have you discovered? Can you confirm that this demonic insect is the Black-striped Sky Locust?"

As Lu Wenxing saw the increasingly solemn expression on Lu Cheng'an's face, the shadow in his heart grew heavier and heavier.

"These locusts are most likely the Black-striped Sky Locust!"

A cold expression appeared on Lu Cheng'an's face. He said in a deep voice, "Since the Black-striped Sky Locust has appeared in the Burning Flame Mountains, it is possible that this kind of demonic insect has appeared in other areas of our Lu family."

"The Black-striped Sky Locust is a demonic insect that reproduces too quickly. We must wipe them out as soon as possible!" Lu Cheng'an said in a deep voice.

He has now witnessed the terrifying nature of these demonic insects; if given enough food, they can increase their cultivation level in a very short time.

In addition to these, there is their terrifying reproductive capacity.

If left unchecked, they may soon grow to the point where they can threaten the Lu family!

"Clan leader, I'm entrusting you with the task of dealing with the Black-Striped Sky Locusts within the clan's territory. You can freely dispatch Lingxuan, Queyun, and other third-tier spirit race members and demonic beasts!"

After glancing at Lu Wenxing, Lu Cheng'an quickly said, "I need to go to the Dan Ding Sect now to tell the cultivators there. They live very close to our Lu family, and I'm afraid the Black-Striped Sky Locust has also appeared within the Dan Ding Sect's territory."

After giving Lu Wenxing some instructions, Lu Cheng'an immediately left the Lu family and rushed towards the Dan Ding Sect.

Shi Ningyu has been away from Dan Ding Sect for a long time, but there are still Golden Core cultivators in Dan Ding Sect, which is the main reason why Lu Cheng'an dares to travel outside with peace of mind.

Shi Ningyu's grandfather, Shi Mingxin, broke through to the Golden Core realm with Lu Cheng'an's help. In addition, given the relationship between Lu Cheng'an and Shi Ningyu, Shi Mingxin was quite friendly to Lu Cheng'an.

Before heading to the Dan Ding Sect, Lu Cheng'an quickly recounted the news about the Black-Striped Sky Locust to Shi Mingxin.

Therefore, when Lu Cheng'an arrived at Dan Ding Sect, Shi Mingxin immediately began to inquire about the Black-Striped Sky Locust, a type of demonic insect.

"Cheng'an, is that kind of demonic insect you mentioned really that terrifying?" Shi Mingxin asked with a worried expression.

"Grandfather, please look. These are Black-Striped Sky Locusts. These two early-stage second-tier Black-Striped Sky Locusts can easily devour and refine mid-grade second-tier obsidian..."

"These Black-Striped Sky Locusts haven't appeared very early yet. There shouldn't be any third-tier Black-Striped Sky Locusts yet. Next, I ask Grandfather to search for these demonic insects, the Black-Striped Sky Locusts, within the Dan Ding Sect territory as soon as possible and kill them all!"

After quickly giving Shi Mingxin some instructions, Lu Cheng'an left him a Black-striped Sky Locust and a jade slip introducing the Black-striped Sky Locust.

After that, Lu Cheng'an quickly left Dan Ding Sect and sped towards Jin Yuan Sect.

He has already informed the Golden Core sects, Jin Yuan Sect and Ling Gu Sect, about the Black-Striped Sky Locust.

The Black-Striped Sky Locust, a type of demonic insect, was conceived in an environment of severe drought, and now the entire territory of the Ancient Desolate Sect has not seen a drop of rain for three years.

Since the Black-Striped Sky Locust, a demonic insect, has been bred in the Burning Flame Mountains, it is possible that this demonic insect could be bred throughout the entire Desolate Ancient Sect territory.

The relationship between the Lu family and the Linggu Sect goes without saying. In recent years, the Lu family has also established a deep friendship with the Jinyuan Sect because of their mineral trading business.

That's why Lu Cheng'an informed both the Jin Yuan Sect and the Ling Gu Sect about the Black-striped Locust.

(End of this chapter)