The southwest border of Ziyao Empire was characterized by numerous arrays of mountain ridges and peaks, earning the name of Natural Moat formed by the Three Thousand Mountains.

The sunset glow dyed the sky red like a burning fire. And a smoke was curling up high in the sky far away.

Seeing that, Lin Xun's eyes brightened. Wiping away the sweat from his forehead, he made a long sigh and said "Finally, I find a place where people live..."

He had been trekking through the badlands for almost 7 days, sleeping out in wildness and eating wild fruits. There were many dangers and tribulations along the way, and several times he was nearly torn up by beasts.

Right now, that thin wisp of smoke up in the sky did cheer Lin Xun up and gave his exhausted body a refreshing boost, even though it was far away.

He kept going.

Soon, an area of neatly cultivated spiritual lands came into sight. Now Lin Xun was more certain that there must be a village nearby.

The spiritual grains were about to ripe. A gust of breeze moved past the lands, ruffling the green and heavy spiritual grains and bringing a subtle fragrance of fresh herbs with it.

"Growing this way, these spiritual grains can be harvested in less than 10 days...Hum? Something is wrong."

Lin Xun seemed to have found something unusual. He came up to the grains by the roadside, watched closely, and then found that these spiritual grains, though looking good, were actually not in a positive state.

The earth was wet and fertile with rich spiritual energy; however, the green stalks of the grains seemed to be showing a subtle sign of withering, which was hard to notice without close observation.

Lin Xun pulled out a strain of spiritual grains. After a moment of examination, he twisted the surface of the light green stalks with fingertips.

Then he was shocked when he saw that there were numerous tiny grit-sized white worms wriggling around the stalks and nibbling away the vitality of the grains.

Sand-spot worms!

The spiritual grains were infested with pests.

From Lin Xun's judgment, if these sand-spot worms could not be eliminated soon, all those ripening spiritual grains would die away and lose all the spiritual force. By that time, even if the grains were reaped, owner of these grains would suffer great losses. Or worse, not a single grain could be reaped.

"It seems like this village has no spiritual tattooists, or else they would not let the ripening spiritual grains get to such a terrible condition."

Lin Xun pondered for a minute, and then shook his head, realizing that no spiritual tattooist would be willing to live in such poor mountains. From what he had learned, they were highly respected in this world.

At that moment, Lin heard a sigh suddenly.

Turning around, Lin Xun found a strong middle-aged man in animal skin sitting on the edge of the spiritual land not far away, staring blankly at the spiritual grains and sighing unceasingly.

The swarthy man looked so worried with a furrowed brow.

Seeing this, Lin Xun walked towards the middle-aged man and asked, "Uncle, are you worried about the spiritual land?"

"Yes, it hasn't rained for a whole god-dammed month! If this dry weather continues, I will reap nothing from 0.5-acre spiritual land at harvest time!" The middle-aged man in animal skin seemed to be depressed for long and complained immediately when asked.

However, when he got a better view of Lin Xun, he was surprised and asked "Kiddy, where do you come from?"

From what he saw, Lin Xun was just a pale-looking young kid who was too thin and too weak to withstand a single blow of wind in that coarse clothes washed white.

The boy carried an old and mottled wooden case. The farmer had no idea what was inside, but it looked so heavy that it even made Lin Xun bow a bit.

He was 12 or 13 years old at most. It was strange for a young boy like him to appear in Feiyun Village suddenly.

It was well-known that there were no other villages but Feiyun within a radius of thousands of miles. Apart from Feiyun Village, there was nothing but unfrequented rolling mountains.

As far as he could remember, the middle-aged man had not seen a single stranger in the past dozen years. Now a thin young boy about 12 or 13 years old, coming out of nowhere, suddenly appeared in his land. Wasn't it strange?

"Uncle, it doesn't matter who I am. What matters is that I can help solve your problem."

Lin Xun said with a smile, pretty sure that if he introduced himself, the middle-aged man would ask lots of questions, which would waste too much time. He was so hungry that he could barely walk at this point.

The middle-aged man stood up suddenly and asked, "What did you say?"

Lin Xun answered, "I said I can cure your spiritual grains to ensure a bumper harvest."

The middle-aged man frowned. Staring at Lin Xun's pale and thin face, he asked with suspicion, "Kiddy, you are not bragging, are you?"

It was absurd to hear such big words from a boy so weak and young.

Lin Xun smiled and pointed at the grain stalk he tore open, "Uncle, look, your spiritual grains do not need rain; they are infested with pests, named sand-spot worms, that feed on the stalks of spiritual grains. If not eliminated timely, all your spiritual grains would be ruined."

Startled, the middle-aged man stared fiercely at the white sand-spot worms in the grain stalks and cursed from his gritting teeth, "Damn! No wonder it never worked even though I have irrigated the grains so many times with the river water. It is all becuase of these damned pests! But..."

He suddenly looked bothered. Scratching his head, he said, "These pests all hide inside the grain stalks, I really don't know how to kill them."

Lin Xun smiled but said nothing. Eyes squinted, his smile was as clean as the sunlight.

The middle-aged man frowned and kept sighing for quite a while. Suddenly, he goggled at Lin. Seeming to realize something, he said with a rising tone, "Little bro, you know the pests, then you must know a way to kill them, right?"

Lin Xun nodded, with calmness and ease in his clean eyes.

"That's great!"

The middle-aged man flushed with excitement and his suspicion towards Lin Xun dissipated a lot.

Seeing that the middle-aged man showed some interests, Lin Xun seized the chance and said, "Uncle, if I offer to help, could you please promise me one thing?"

The middle-aged man answered without any hesitation, "If you can help me to solve the problem, I'll promise you ten things, let along one."

After saying that, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have made a promise too big, so he added with some embarrassment, "But what you ask for must be something that I am capable of. If it's beyond my capability, then there's nothing I can do."

Lin Xun smiled and said, "My condition is quite simple. All I want is a place to live."

Tieshan asked with surprise, "You want to settle down in Feiyun Village?"

Lin Xun nodded. His eyes were clean and sincere, meaning that he was not joking. It was his habit formed young to not give any coltish manner or expression when he was serious.

Tieshan hesitated and scratched his head, then said, "Please wait a sec., I'll have to report this to our village head. I can't call the shot, but I don't think it'll be a problem."

After saying that, he turned round and rushed quickly to the village like a storm of thunder.

Lin Xun couldn't help laughing, then he realized one thing and shouted loudly, "Uncle, please bring me some food. I can't help you with no strength."

"No problem!" a rough sound echoed far away.

"What a simple uncle he is!"

Smiling, Lin Xun took down the old case from his back and put it on the ground. He massaged his sore shoulders and walked into the spiritual land to observe carefully.

With spiritual energy, spiritual grains were indispensable food for cultivation. But they were quite difficult to grow. From the moment the seeds were sown, one must be prepared for pests and natural disaster at any minute, and weed often. Anything wrong would lower the quality of the grains and even cause a complete loss of spiritual energy.

For example, the spiritual land in front of him was struck with pests, which if were not eliminated completely, would result in serious consequences.

But for Lin Xun, this was just a piece of cake.

Soon, Tieshan got back, but with a group of villagers, stirring up a huge cloud of dust in the background of the red mountain ranges tinted by sunset.

Lin Xun was in a daze for a moment. Shrugging his shoulders, he knew the circumstance changed.