Chapter 71: It Sounds Really Good
Crossroads.
When Joey jumped off the carriage, he fractured his left arm.
He tore a piece of cloth from his cloak, hastily wrapped it around his arm, and led Anthony towards Bean Village.
From their current location, it would take them more than five hours to walk to either Emerald Town or back to Amber Town.
Without a carriage and with his abilities exhausted, walking five hours with Anthony was too dangerous.
Going to Bean Village would be much faster.
What’s more…
Joey gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his sword.
Even though his abilities were temporarily exhausted, he still had his sword.
He had to go to Bean Village, he had to do what he could.
That lovely little village, and those little squirrels wagging their tails…
He could at least help the villagers hide, and then borrow a horse to run back to Emerald Town to report the news!
Anthony, who had been panting heavily after walking for only a few minutes, was now no longer complaining of fatigue or pain.
His face was pale, and he followed behind Joey, panting heavily, talking incessantly to dispel the fear in his heart while struggling to walk: “Locust nests, I’ve seen them before…”
“A few years ago, in the south of the Carrot Continent, near the desert…”
“Those vast swarms of locusts, wherever they flew, not even the thatched roofs of houses were left.”
“But, isn’t it said that locust plagues only occur in arid places? Drought followed by locust plague, and after the locust plague, it’s just barren land…”
“This year there was both snow and rain, where did so many locusts come from, and the locusts are so big…”
As he kept talking, Anthony’s nose started to feel sore again:
“And these locusts are so fierce, they even ate my horse.”
“My horse, he’s been with me for so many years…”
Joey continued to hurry forward in silence, his own heart filled with shock.
Indeed, the location and time of these locusts’ appearance were completely different from before.
Not to mention their shocking size and the terrifying act of “devouring a horse alive.”
Could these locusts also be gradually becoming monsters?
Just as he was thinking this, Anthony behind him shouted, “Carriage! Carriage! Joey, there’s a carriage coming from behind!”
Joey turned his head and indeed saw a black carriage rushing towards them, kicking up dust!
Could it be other people going to Bean Village?
He had to tell them that Bean Village was dangerous now!
Joey immediately took off his cloak and waved it frantically, signaling the carriage to “Stop! Stop!”
The coachman had clearly seen Joey’s actions.
The speed of the carriage slowed down slightly.
Joey shouted at the top of his lungs, “Bean Village has a locust plague! Those locusts are as dangerous as monsters!”
“You, if your abilities aren’t strong, go report and ask for help!”
Anthony also waved his bloodied and mangled arm beside him, hoping the carriage would stop—preferably to take him back to Amber Town.
Although Joey had told him that they would find a cellar in Bean Village for him to hide in, he never wanted to see or hear those insects again.
Joey was a patrol team member, but he was just an ordinary civilian who couldn’t do anything! Let him go back to report!
Anthony prayed silently.
The carriage rushed straight towards them.
Not only did the coachman not rein in the horses, but he even whipped them again, urging them to accelerate forward!
Joey quickly grabbed Anthony with his right hand and pulled him to the side of the road, giving way to the recklessly charging carriage.
Watching the rapidly departing carriage, Anthony sniffled and said, “Why didn’t they stop at all? Didn’t they hear? Even if they didn’t hear, they should have seen there was an injured person here!”
Joey was also puzzled.
If ordinary people were going to Bean Village on business, and there was only one ability user in the carriage, they would at least stop to ask for clarification after hearing what he said.
If the carriage was full of patrol team members, they would definitely stop to ask clearly and then split into two groups, one to report and the other to help—
So who exactly was in the carriage?
*
Inside the carriage.
The long-nosed man pressed his hand on his knee, his face flushed with a morbid excitement.
He kept asking the sharp-mouthed black-robed man beside him:
“Did you hear that? Bean Village has a locust plague! A locust plague!”
“Locusts as dangerous as monsters! Hahahaha!”
“I knew it, I knew it, these specially bred locusts would come in handy!”
The sharp-mouthed black-robed man wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a fawning smile, “Yes, yes, sir! Your foresight is truly amazing!”
“These locusts are perfect for teaching those lowly commoners in Bean Village a lesson!”
“But… now that we’ve confirmed that Bean Village has a locust plague, is it really necessary for us to go to the scene ourselves?”
On the way here just now, they had seen overturned carriages and horses gnawed down to the bone…
How could these locusts have such terrifying destructive power?!
The long-nosed man’s nose twitched, and the smile on his face twisted: “What do you understand?”
“I have high-level ability user guards, and even the coachman is a high-level ability user! It’s very safe here!”
“Besides, as long as the locusts have something to eat, they won’t bother with anything else.”
“This time, I want to see with my own eyes that village being gnawed clean, not even a seedling left!”
“Do you know how much face this village and these stubborn people have made me lose?”
“If I don’t get my revenge this time, the Vice-Chairman will make me a sacrifice!”
Hearing the word “sacrifice,” the sharp-mouthed man immediately didn’t dare to say another word.
He could only silently pray in his heart:
The high-level ability users brought out this time must protect us…
I don’t want to become white bones with this obviously slightly insane long-nosed man…
*
Bean Village.
The Pioneer’s Cabin.
“Little Can, take the children away!”
At Chu Jiu’s command, Big Can had already carried the three children straight towards the center of the village.
There, Douglas was helping the elderly and children get into the cellar, while the former patrol team members were running in different directions towards the fields, banging gongs and drums to signal the villagers to take emergency shelter.
Reg was running towards the village entrance, preparing to use his fire-based abilities to support Chu Jiu.
And near the fields, Rawr Rawr Rabbit and Kakaba each held a [Bug-Catching Net], while the flying Glup-Glup floated in the air, its countless tentacles woven into a large, seemingly endless net, waiting to intercept the locusts.
Only three minutes had passed since Chu Jiu had notified the old Village Chief and Douglas about the “giant locusts, omnivorous locusts.”
The people of Bean Village had already taken their positions according to the previous drills.
This time, they would still do their best to protect Bean Village, which had finally begun to improve.
This time, they would no longer let the old, weak, women, and children stand at the front line.
Village entrance.
Little Gray Bird hovered in the air.
Having grown up, it had fought golden eagles, pecked black bears, and kicking over wild boars was even easier.
But such a vast, dark swarm of insects covering the sky, accompanied by a massive crunching sound, was something it had never seen before.
But how could it show fear?
It was the prince of the Feathered Folk, Swift Wind the Quick, the first chicken farmer of Bean Village!
No matter what, it would keep its promise to Chu Jiu, protect the fields of Bean Village, and protect the little chicks it raised!
Little Gray Bird led the ten guards, striking a defensive pose.
Just then, Little Gray Bird noticed Chu Jiu looking up at it—
Give the order, my brave two-legged friend! I will charge into battle for you!
Chu Jiu spoke!
The two-legged beast shouted:
“Quick Feather! Sing!”
“The louder the better!”
Little Gray Bird: ….???
What kind of tactic was this?
But no matter! On the battlefield, all actions must follow orders!
Little Gray Bird, with the guards, loudly sang “The Advancing Feathered Folk”!
This song wasn’t pleasant to hear, but the emotions it contained were perfect for now!
Little Gray Bird flapped its wings, fearlessly facing the oncoming swarm of insects, expressing its anger through song!
As it sang, it surprisingly found that the speed of the insect swarm… had slowed down?
Originally flying as fast as human arrows, how come they were now swaying in the air like the Feathered Folk after a night of drinking?
But the locusts didn’t stop.
Although they had slowed down, many still flapped their wings, bypassed Little Gray Bird and its guards, and flew into Bean Village from both sides!
“Quick Feather! What… are… you… singing?” Chu Jiu covered his ears and shouted loudly from below.
Little Gray Bird truthfully told him, “It’s a song expressing anger!”
Chu Jiu: “Do… you… think… this song… sounds good?!”
Little Gray Bird: “It doesn’t sound good! But, it’s suitable for now!”
Chu Jiu: “Change… the… song!”
Little Gray Bird: “?”
Chu Jiu: “Change it to one you think sounds good! Expressing your joy, your gratitude! The most positive and uplifting one!”
Little Gray Bird didn’t understand.
But Little Gray Bird decided to follow the order.
It turned back to look at the guards: “Guards! Let’s sing the recently arranged song, ‘Our Good Two-Legged Friend’!”
Guard Gray Birds: “Yes!”
Little Gray Bird raised its head, puffed out its chest, and began to lead the singing: “Ah-ah-ah, beyond the mountains, at the river’s end, there is a two-legged beast, he is hairy and brave, he is kind and strong…”
The Guard Gray Birds began their harmony: “Ah-ah-ah, the two-legged beast defeated the golden eagle! Ah-ah-ah, the two-legged beast brought us fine wine!”
To the Feathered Folk, this singing was more beautiful than the music of the heavens!
And every sentence was a heartfelt praise and eulogy!
“La-la-la, our good friend…”
In the melodious singing, the locusts underwent a new change—
These ferocious-looking insects with bulging eyes and open mandibles began to twitch in the air!
Twitching and twitching, they actually fell to the ground in groups, like black snowballs!
Chu Jiu knelt on a large rock, covering his ears, tears and blood streaming from his nose, and roared, “Quick Feather, you sang too well! Keep going!”
Encouraged, Quick Feather became even more excited.
“La-la-la, the hairy two-legged beast…”
Chu Jiu’s tears flowed even more profusely.
Little Gray Bird sang non-stop for twenty minutes.
More than half of the sky-covering swarm of insects fell to the ground, first convulsing uncontrollably, then spitting out a stinky green liquid, and finally stiffening and becoming motionless.
The insect corpses on the ground piled up layer upon layer, endlessly, thicker than the winter snow.
Another group bypassed Little Gray Bird and its guards and rushed into the village.
This group was torn to shreds by Little Can’s claws, burned to ashes by Reg’s fire spells, strangled into mud by Glup-Glup’s tentacles, and stuck firmly by Rawr Rawr Rabbit and Kakaba’s [Bug-Catching Nets].
Another small group, while Little Gray Bird was singing, tried several times to break through the confinement of the singing and break into the village full of lush seedlings, but ultimately failed.
Driven by their instinct to find food, this group of insects turned around and flew back.
Perhaps it was a miracle from the insect god. They hadn’t gone far when they saw delicious food—
Black four-legged animals! Strong two-legged animals! And several two-legged animals!
The extremely hungry swarm of insects surged forward, ready to enjoy this feast!
*
Inside the carriage.
The long-nosed man rubbed his hands together on his knees, his face full of unconcealed excitement.
From here, he could see that the locusts had already flown above Bean Village, forming dark, oppressive clouds!
As long as these black clouds fell, onto the fields, onto the edges of the land, onto those stubborn commoners…
The long-nosed man couldn’t help but grin.
The black clouds truly fell.
Clump after clump, they plummeted like black wool balls.
The long-nosed man jumped out of the carriage, clapping his hands and saying, “Good! Good! Good!”
The sharp-mouthed man quickly followed, nodding and bowing: “Congratulations, sir! You will definitely receive a reward from the Vice-Chairman this time!”
The long-nosed man was laughing heartily when he suddenly heard the ability user behind him shout, “Back to the carriage!”
Back to the carriage?
In his ecstatic state, the long-nosed man didn’t react for a moment, instead instinctively turning his head to look around—
In that instant, a black cloud rushed towards his face, covering his head!
“Aaaaaah, my nose! Aaaaaah, it hurts! Guards, guards! Help, help!”
The long-nosed man felt a piercing, bone-deep pain on his face, as if his flesh was being torn off alive! He could even hear the sound of his muscles tearing and then being chewed as food!
The sharp-mouthed man beside him also began to cry out, “Help! It’s insects! Insects are eating us!”
The two high-level ability user guards quickly created tiny spheres of ice and fire and sprayed them towards the long-nosed man and the sharp-mouthed man.
This time, in addition to the pain of being torn apart, the long-nosed man also felt the burning sting of fire and the numbing impact of ice. Besides the taste of his own flesh and the stinky smell of the insects, he also smelled the stench of burning flesh!
“Aaaaaah—”
He couldn’t scream anymore.
Because a locust drilled into his mouth and bit off his tongue.
By the time the ability users finally cleared away this small swarm of locusts, the long-nosed man’s nose, ears, and tongue were all gone.
Both he and the sharp-mouthed man had fainted from the pain, lying on the ground unable to move.
The ability users dragged the two bloodied bodies back into the carriage, turned the carriage around, and sped away.
*
The locusts in the air were finally all gone.
Little Gray Bird and the guard team could no longer sing either.
Chu Jiu called them down, fed them [Aged Fine Wine], and praised each of them in his hands.
Little Gray Bird said with a hoarse voice, “We Feathered Folk, we protected the village? We saved the farming?”
Chu Jiu: “Yes, you protected the village and saved the farming.”
Even Little Can, who usually didn’t show much emotion towards Little Gray Bird, extended its paw, indicating, “You were great.”
Little Gray Bird giggled foolishly.
At this moment, Reg, whose abilities were also exhausted, walked forward and asked, “What do we do with these insect corpses?”
They formed hill after hill, blocking the village entrance.
Chu Jiu: “Turn them into fertilizer.”
He estimated that the village’s fields should also be top-dressed soon.
As he was speaking, a voice filled with ecstatic trembling came from outside the village:
“Heavens, the insects, the insects are all dead?”
“Everyone, is everyone alright? Are the villagers alright? Are the little squirrels alright?”
Chu Jiu got up and looked:
A patrol team member with a blonde baby face, leading a plump, merchant-looking man, stood at the village entrance.
Both of them were covered in blood and ash, clearly having encountered trouble on the road.
Chu Jiu remembered seeing this patrol team member once at the “New Year’s Market.”
Reg went straight to greet them: “Joey! The village should be fine!”
“Joey, what happened to you? What kind of monster did you encounter?”
Joey smiled wryly and briefly recounted their encounter on the road.
He also mentioned the carriage, saying that just before entering the village, he saw the black carriage speeding away from Bean Village. He had been worried that Bean Village had suffered a catastrophe, but now seeing it, it turned out the insects were the ones who were destroyed.
Joey didn’t even bother to tend to his injuries, grabbing Reg and asking, “How did you do it? My abilities couldn’t hold up at all—does Bean Village have a high-level ability user?”
And it had to be the highest level, and there had to be more than one.
Reg then told him that it wasn’t an ability user, but the Feathered Folk.
It was the Feathered Folk brought by the pioneer Chu Jiu, who used their singing to repel the locusts.
Joey was so shocked that his mouth hung wide open—even the fracture hadn’t made him grimace like this.
He looked at the young man beside him who was called “Pioneer Chu Jiu,” whose face still had traces of blood and tears, thought for a long while, and then recognized him:
“It’s you! The one selling popcorn at the market!”
“Your face was much cleaner when we met last time, so I didn’t recognize you.”
“So you’re the pioneer!”
Chu Jiu replied with a smile, “Yes, your face was also much cleaner when I saw you last time.”
Joey laughed heartily and said, “Ah, you were so lucky this time, it’s good you brought the Feathered Folk back. Otherwise, these locusts—too terrifying, even more terrifying than monsters.”
At this moment, the captain of the Feathered Folk guard team, whose voice was also hoarse, flew over and said seriously, “Sir, please allow me to clarify one thing—”
“In our opinion, Bean Village’s successful repulsion of the locusts this time was not ‘lucky’.”
“We did not come here by chance. It was only after Lord Chu Jiu formally requested our royalty and solved many difficulties for our Feathered Folk that we came here under royal command.”
“If I remember correctly, Lord Chu Jiu initially said that he ‘heard that the singing of the Feathered Folk was very beneficial to human cultivation, so he needed the help of the Feathered Folk’.”
“Therefore, it is not that we happened to be here and happened to know how to sing, but that Lord Chu Jiu had precautions early on, which led to this victory!”
Hearing him say this, even Reg looked surprised and turned to Chu Jiu, saying, “Ah Jiu, had you already thought of asking the Feathered Folk to deal with the insects?”
Chu Jiu, whose face was a little red from what the guard captain had just said, nodded honestly at this moment: “Yes.”
“But I didn’t expect the locusts here to be so terrifying…”
“I was just thinking that the few plots of land on my side are all taken care of by the spirit beasts who catch insects, so there’s never any pest damage.”
“But the spirit beasts can’t work in Bean Village, so the villagers can only exterminate insects themselves.”
“If the weather is good and there are no insect plagues, it’s fine, but if there really is an insect plague or something, it will be difficult.”
After all, there were no reliable pesticides in this world.
One had to know that even in ancient China, where agriculture was quite developed, encountering insect plagues, especially locust plagues, would leave farmers helpless and without any harvest.
Chu Jiu didn’t remember where he had read a passage that said locust plagues were even more terrifying than floods and droughts. After a locust plague, not even the grass would be left, and famine and refugees were inevitable.
And the frequency of locust plagues wasn’t low either—it was said that even in prosperous dynasties, there would be a locust plague every two or three years.
Because of this, when Chu Jiu discovered that Little Gray Bird’s singing made everyone flee in panic and caused countless casualties among the forest insects, he had the idea of “no matter what, I must bring the Feathered Folk to Bean Village to prevent insect attacks.”
However, recently the spring plowing had just begun, and no farmer had said there was pest damage in the fields, so Chu Jiu hadn’t arranged for Little Gray Bird and the others to sing.
Reg and the others looked at him with genuine admiration:
“So that’s how it is…”
“Good thing Ah Jiu was prepared.”
At this time, Douglas also walked over and praised the Feathered Folk handsomely. Hearing what Chu Jiu had just said, he also repeatedly said, “Fortunately.”
He then looked at Chu Jiu’s face, a little surprised: “Little Jiu, are you injured? Your face is covered in blood and tears—where are you hurt?”
Chu Jiu was a little embarrassed: “No, I’m not injured—”
“Uh, well, I was just too excited listening to Quick Feather’s singing, so I got tears and a nosebleed.”
Douglas hadn’t hidden in the cellar. Although he hadn’t stood at the village entrance to fight the locusts, he had heard a few lines of the song.
Now that Chu Jiu said this, he immediately understood.
He was silent for a long while, then could only praise Quick Feather again: “Prince Quick Feather has such a beautiful voice! It practically resounded through the clouds!”
Little Gray Bird smiled even more happily.
Reg, who was always kind and honest, and who had listened to the entire concert behind Chu Jiu, secretly tugged at Chu Jiu: “Ah Jiu, um, when there are no insect pests, will Prince Quick Feather sing?”
Chu Jiu’s expression became even more resolute: “Don’t worry, I told them that if they want to sing normally, they should go to the Forgotten Forest to sing.”
Reg immediately breathed a big sigh of relief: “That’s good, that’s good.”
Otherwise, his heart really couldn’t take it.
Reg paused for a moment, then couldn’t help but ask curiously, “In that song they sang just now…”
“That hairy two-legged beast… is that a character from some legend?”
Chu Jiu’s expression became even more resolute: “Yes! It’s a character from ancient legends! I don’t know him at all!”
*
Douglas and the old Village Chief sent people to check around the village and confirmed that no one was injured, and even the fields were intact.
Looking at this scene, and then at the hill-like pile of locust corpses at the village entrance, the villagers were both scared and relieved, all saying, “It’s a miracle,” “I didn’t expect that even with the locust plague, the wheat seedlings in the fields could be saved,” “I’ve encountered locust plagues before, and the whole village fled famine that year,” “Bean Village is truly amazing”…
Of course, everyone couldn’t help but praise Little Gray Bird from all angles again, gradually exaggerating “Prince Feathered Folk” into “a god-like prince”; and Chu Jiu, who had welcomed Little Gray Bird, naturally became “an envoy of the gods!”
Little Gray Bird felt like it was about to float away with joy, but Chu Jiu was much calmer than him.
Gradually waking up from the joy of victory, he asked Douglas and the others, “Were the locusts here this big and ferocious before?
Ferocious enough to directly attack a carriage?
Douglas’s expression at this time wasn’t as cheerful as the villagers’.
He shook his head and said, “No, they were smaller than this.”
“And although locusts eat everything, they wouldn’t do what Joey and the others saw, gnawing a horse down to the bone.”
Saying this, Douglas sighed again: “But these things… are indeed not monsters.” “You know, monsters have a special aura that ability users can easily detect.”
“These locusts are indeed just locusts.”
He lowered his voice: “I also think that speeding carriage Joey mentioned was very suspicious.”
“But if the association is behind this again…”
“How on earth did they do it?!”
Chu Jiu pondered for a long while and said, “We need to follow the path the locusts came from and take a look.”
“They ate their way here, so finding their ‘birthplace’ shouldn’t be difficult.”
Chu Jiu paused and then added, “Even if the association isn’t behind it, we have to check if there are any locust eggs left.”
If the eggs couldn’t be cleared away in time, the locust plague would return.
Bean Village had the Feathered Folk to protect it, but what about other villages?
If other villages were all eaten clean, how could Bean Village possibly develop?
Douglas nodded in agreement, and they decided to set off early the next morning.
Just as they were talking, the villagers who had been sent out to count the other losses ran over in a flustered manner:
“It’s bad! It’s bad!”
“There are casualties!”
Chu Jiu felt a chill down his spine. The old Village Chief, who had been sitting, stood up abruptly with his cane. Douglas’s expression also changed drastically: “Who is it?”
The villager gasped for breath: “It’s… it’s…”
“The chickens in the chicken coop!”
“The chickens in the chicken coop were frightened by the locusts, and two of them fell into the water pit and drowned!”
Chu Jiu: ……
Old Village Chief: ……
Douglas: ……
A wail came from mid-air: “What?! My chickens?!”
*
When Little Gray Bird rushed to its chicken coop, it indeed saw two chickens that had been fished out of the water pit, already lifeless.
The usually cheerful and spirited Little Gray Bird pursed its beak, trying to hold back, but in the end, it couldn’t, and tears fell as it said:
“How… how could they be gone…?”
“I haven’t even raised you yet…”
“I was still thinking of feeding you more…”
Chu Jiu squatted down and sighed, “The chickens are gone.”
“Don’t be sad, let’s… give them a proper farewell.”
Little Gray Bird’s tears fell with a patter: “They… haven’t grown up yet…”
Chu Jiu: “It’s alright, the meat will be tender this way.”
“Do you want them braised or charcoal-grilled?”
Little Gray Bird wiped its tears with the tip of its wing and sobbed, “There are two chickens.”
Chu Jiu: “……”
“Then one braised and one charcoal-grilled?”
A bubble of snot came out of Little Gray Bird’s nose: “Okay!”
