Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Chapter 107 Ten Thousand Insects Devour the Root

Since being wounded in the ambush, Lin Yan did not rush to seek revenge. Like the most patient hunter in the jungle, he concealed himself, licked his wounds, and observed Kun Tai's network of influence with a calmer and more cautious eye. He no longer pursued momentary gratification of killing, but began to systematically gather information: the distribution of poppy fields, transportation routes, the activity patterns of Kun Tai's core subordinates, and their channels of communication with the outside world.

He witnessed more tragedies on this land: families destroyed by drugs, farmers forced to become accomplices to thieves to protect their families, and the appalling cruelty of the Kun Thai armed forces. His initial motivation of honing his ruthlessness had been tempered by a sense of responsibility and anger. Destroying these harmful poppy fields became his strongest thought at that moment.

But problems arose. The poppy fields were scattered throughout the mountains and forests, covering a vast area. Simply setting them on fire would not only be inefficient and easy to extinguish, but the towering flames and thick smoke would also alert the poppies and could potentially start a wildfire that could affect innocent villages. Crucially, he didn't even know if the poppies could be burned; he needed a more thorough and discreet method.

On this day, he secretly sneaked into a secluded poppy field, carefully dug up a whole poppy plant by the roots, and quickly returned to the Qiankun Space.

He went directly to Master Dan, who was organizing medicinal herbs in the alchemy room.

"Elder Dan, please take a look at this." Lin Yan handed the poppy plant, still covered in soil, to Elder Dan.

Elder Dan took it, examined it briefly, then brought it closer to smell it, his brow furrowing slightly: "Hmm? This is the 'Bewitching Flower,' a kind of ordinary poisonous herb. Its juice, when refined, can bewitch the mind, causing madness and exhaustion of vital energy—a grave taboo for cultivation. Where did you obtain such a vile substance, young master?"

Lin Yan, with a solemn expression, recounted to Elder Dan in detail the name of this substance in the outside world—opium, and the profound disaster it once brought to ancient China, the humiliating history of hundreds of millions of compatriots being ruined and emaciated, and being called the "Sick Man of East Asia," and how it remains a source of evil in the Golden Triangle region, nourishing countless drug lords like Kun Tai.

"...Everywhere I look, the people are numb to this stuff, and the land is barren because of it. I want to destroy it completely, but the area is too vast, and even if I exhaust all my magic power, I cannot eradicate it all. And even if I destroy this season, as long as the profit remains, they will plant it again next year. Elder Dan, do you know of any method that... that can make this land no longer able to grow poppies? But other crops, such as rice, can grow normally?"

After listening, Elder Dan stroked his beard and pondered for a long time, a solemn expression appearing on his face: "So this thing has such a horrifying past... Young Master, you have the well-being of all living beings in your heart, I admire you." But then he showed a look of doubt, "However... Young Master, destroying these flowers and plants would not be difficult for you, would it? Even if there were thousands or tens of thousands of acres, you could simply collect them all into this Qiankun Space and then burn them with true fire, it would be a piece of cake. Why bother with such trouble?"

Lin Yan gave a bitter smile and shook his head: "Elder Dan, I can collect it once, or even twice. But I can't stay there forever. As long as that land can still grow this stuff, as long as this harmful thing can still bring huge profits, endless people will be attracted there, and it will be impossible to eradicate it completely. What I need is to cut off the root cause, to make that land 'refuse' to grow poppies. In this way, even if I leave, it will no longer be a source of poison."

Upon hearing this, Elder Dan suddenly realized, his brows furrowing even more deeply: "To make the land itself reject a certain crop... this is to change the 'nature' of a place, involving the flow of spiritual energy in the earth's veins, which is by no means an easy task... ordinary elixirs or spells are probably insufficient to accomplish this. Young Master's method is indeed a fundamental solution, but... it is difficult, extremely difficult."

He pondered for a moment and said, "Young master, please wait a moment. Allow me to consult with a few old friends."

The next day, Elder Dan brought a thin, taciturn old man in black robes, who seemed to be surrounded by a faint aura of earth and dampness, to Lin Yan's courtyard. Lin Yan vaguely remembered this old man; he was one of the more reclusive Golden Core puppets, rarely leaving his secret Insect Valley cave.

"Young Master," Elder Dan introduced, "this is 'Old Insect,' you can call him Old Insect."

The old man bowed slightly and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Greetings, young master." He didn't say much and directly handed over a small, flat, round jar, about the size of a bowl, which looked like it was made of some kind of dark brown clay and was covered with tiny holes.

Dan Lao explained, "Young Master, yesterday I thought it over and over and realized that I might be able to use the power of the insects. So I went to find the Old Insect. He looked at your 'Bewitching Flower' and said that this matter was easy. He happens to have a first-tier alien insect called 'Root-Eating Demon Armor'."

"This insect resembles a tiny, shelled louse, its entire body jet black and shiny. It's only the size of a pinhead, with sharp mouthparts, adept at burrowing and living underground its entire life," the old insect added in a deep voice. "Its nature is greedy; it doesn't eat ordinary grass or tree roots, but exclusively feeds on the roots of various plants containing toxins, especially those with hallucinogenic or addictive properties, using these toxins as nutrients to reproduce. It has no interest in the roots of harmless crops. The mother insect resides in the nest within the jar. Young master only needs to drip blood to recognize the mother insect to control the entire swarm. After being released, they will burrow into the soil, following the scent of poisonous roots, feeding on poppy roots, causing them to wither and die quickly, without harming anything else. The more poisonous roots they consume, the faster they reproduce."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yan was overjoyed! This strange underground insect was exactly what he needed!

He quickly took the clay pot and instinctively scanned it with his divine sense—all he saw inside were countless tiny, glossy black beetles, each the size of a pinhead, constantly wriggling, layer upon layer. The sight sent a chill down his spine; his trypophobia kicked in instantly, and he nearly threw the pot away. Suppressing his discomfort, he carefully followed the instructions, using his true essence to force out a drop of blood, which he dripped onto the slightly larger, dark-gold-patterned mother beetle at the center of the nest, which was trembling slightly.

The blood droplet was quickly absorbed, and in that instant, Lin Yan felt a faint yet extremely clear connection appear in his sea of ​​consciousness. He could vaguely perceive the mother insect's simple emotions: a craving for the poison and a desire for obedience.

"Thank you, Uncle Insect! This item has been of immense help to my endeavors!" Lin Yan bowed solemnly to the Insect Elder. A sense of shame rose within him; with so many talented individuals under his command, he had never truly gotten to know them. He resolved to find time in the future to have a deep conversation with these Golden Core cultivators. The Insect Elder seemed unaccustomed to such formalities, merely nodding slightly before saying nothing more.

Without further ado, Lin Yan took the insect jar, left the space again, and returned to the Golden Triangle, a land permeated with sin and sorrow.

That night, the moon was dark and the wind was high. Lin Yan affixed an invisibility talisman and stealthily made his way to the center of the largest and most heavily guarded poppy field within Kun Tai's territory. He scanned the area with his divine sense, avoiding the patrolling sentries, and selected a spot.

He summoned the "Starry Sky" flying sword, carefully controlling his strength, and silently dug downwards until he had dug a narrow pit about five meters deep, just wide enough for one person to enter. He opened the clay pot, placed it at the bottom of the pit, and then deliberately broke off a poppy seedling, aligning its root part with the entrance of the pot.

Through the connection in his mind's eye, he gave the mother insect the command: "Using this as the center, burrow underground and devour and destroy all the roots of poisonous creatures within sight that share the same aura as this one! Reproduce as much as possible, spread out, until not a trace of this poisonous creature remains!"

He could feel a surge of excitement and greed emanating from the mother insect.

The next moment, an extremely faint, almost inaudible rustling sound rang out, and countless black beetles the size of pinheads, like a surging black tide, quickly burrowed into the soil below and disappeared.

Lin Yan quickly filled in the pit, erased all traces, and flew away on his sword, disappearing silently into the vast night.

He wasn't in a hurry to take Kuntai's life. Killing one Kuntai would only lead to another drug lord emerging. He wanted to use Kuntai to spread the terrifying message that "this land is cursed and poppies can no longer grow," thus completely extinguishing any future attempts to use this land as a source of drugs.

Let those blinded by profit feel fear and despair when faced with poppy fields that wither inexplicably and have their roots hollowed out. Let them believe that this is divine retribution, the land's anger at these evil flowers.

This is far more thorough than simply killing a drug lord.

In the days that followed, Lin Yan continued to observe calmly from the shadows. He saw the once thriving poppy seedlings inexplicably wilt and turn yellow, then wither and fall in swathes, their roots completely eaten away when pulled up; he saw Kun Tai's men panic, watering, fertilizing, and even spraying pesticides to no avail; he saw Kun Tai himself fly into a rage, and the "agricultural experts" he had brought in were completely baffled by this bizarre "pest" that penetrated deep underground and specifically gnawed at poisonous roots, only able to attribute it to "evil influences"...

A silent battle to eradicate evil, beginning deep underground, is quietly unfolding on this scarred land. Lin Yan coldly watches as this flower of evil, along with the very foundation upon which it depends for survival, is utterly devoured by countless tiny demonic armors.