As a lord, I was forced to farm

Chapter 828 Moonflower Vine

"Has the teleportation array been destroyed?" Jiang Ran was most concerned about the teleportation array.

Xu Nong replied, "I arrived just in time; the teleportation array hadn't been destroyed yet."

Jiang Ran frowned slightly, her tone a little cold, "If it were an ordinary rogue cultivator, coming here for spirit gold ore, they would at least take advantage of the chaos to dig up a few spirit gold stones from here, or dig up the nests of the gold-devouring ants. When I came here, I saw them break through the Hunyuan Golden Shield Formation and then quickly retreat. You arrived in time, but you couldn't even leave behind a single invader?"

In fact, Jiang Ran's meaning was very simple: the newcomers seemed well-trained, not like rogue cultivators, but more like well-trained soldiers from some powerful organization.

It's quite intriguing that someone must have discovered the Pingxing Spirit Mine was occupied a long time ago, but only made a move now.

"This..." Xu Nong hesitated for a moment, "Your Highness, please calm down. Although there were only seven or eight people who came, they were able to break through the Hunyuan Golden Shield Formation quickly. Their strength was not weak. The highest cultivation level of the soldiers guarding the Spirit Gold Mine was only at the Refining Spirit Realm. Although the soldiers of the Divine Strategy Flying Cavalry wanted to go after them, I stopped them."

Xu Nong's measures weren't exactly wrong, but Jiang Ran couldn't accept being tricked without even knowing who it was.

Can you identify who it is?

"The newcomers were all dressed in black, with no obvious markings..."

“Your Highness, I found this. I tore it from one of his clothes during a brief confrontation with him.”

Jian Bai suddenly spoke up, handing over a translucent white vine, "I wonder how it will be of help to Your Highness and Mayor Xu Nong."

Jiang Ran took it and identified it as a plant called Moonflower Vine.

……

Qianyu in Nangang Town suddenly learned that the Lingjin Mine had been invaded.

Upon receiving the summons from His Highness the Prince, he immediately traveled to Dongtian Village via the teleportation array.

The houses in Dongtian Village are all built with large, flat stones. Because they need to be hidden in the mountains and forests, the eaves are covered with a layer of grass and trees.

Several tall, white snow wolves lay on the ground resting, their tongues lolling out, their furry ears slightly erect, always on high alert.

When Qianyu arrived at Dongtian Village, he saw the Prince sitting on a recliner, casually examining a slender moon vine in his hand, his toes occasionally brushing against the belly of the snow wolf that was fawningly crawling at his feet.

"Greetings, Your Highness." Qian Yu walked over quickly, his expression slightly tense. He couldn't help but wonder if it was because he had been caught red-handed by outsiders when he was doing business in the Tianchen and Chaolian areas, which led to the current crisis at the Spirit Gold Mine.

Jiang Ran gently kicked the large white wolf at her feet. The wolfhound whimpered twice reluctantly, but still obediently walked away.

“Take a look at this.” Jiang Ran handed the Moonflower Vine to Qian Yu. “Jian Bai took this from the intruder.”

Qianyu took it and then asked Xu Nong for more details. "Does Your Highness and Mayor Xu both think that Tianchen County was responsible?"

Xu Nong said, "Tianchen County is indeed highly suspicious. Firstly, Tianchen has long coveted this spirit gold mine. Secondly, if I remember correctly, the spirit fields where Moonflower Vine is planted have always been heavily guarded by Tianchen's army. It wouldn't be so easy for ordinary people to obtain Moonflower Vine, and this Moonflower Vine is still so fresh and tender, it must have been picked not long ago..."

Moonflower vine is a symbolic plant of Tianchen County.

The vine of the Chinese vine is a translucent white color and contains fluorescent powder. Every night when the moon appears, the Chinese vine absorbs the cool moonlight.

As the moon's light is absorbed, energy is transported to the leaves, causing nutrients to accumulate. The leaves of the moonflower vine harden and turn gray, becoming as hard as stone. Subsequently, the moonflower vine becomes unable to absorb water from the ground and cannot perform photosynthesis during the day, eventually withering and dying.

Moonflower vine can neither be used to feed livestock nor to be eaten by humans.

However, the fact that it has become the symbolic plant of Tianchen County, and that the spiritual fields where the Moonflower Vine is planted are heavily guarded, naturally indicates that it has its special characteristics.

That is, the demon spirit can absorb nutrients from certain hardened moon vine leaves.

Gradually, some spirit masters used the Moonflower Vine to create various spirit foods.

The Element Essence that Jiang Ran bought at Tianchen Trade City was one of them.

The essence of elements can enhance the spiritual power of demons and is quite valuable. A piece of essence the size of a fingernail costs one hundred spirit crystals. Tianchen County City does not treat the Moonflower Vine as a treasure, fearing that someone might steal the seeds of the Moonflower Vine.

Xu Nong calmly analyzed the situation and pointed out many suspicious points about Tianchen County, but wisely refrained from making definitive statements.

Jiang Ran didn't answer Qian Yu's question, but instead asked, "What do you think?"

After pondering for a moment, Qian Yu surprisingly shook his head immediately, "This humble subject does not believe that it was done by Tianchen County."

Jiang Ran smiled and gestured for Qian Yu to sit down in the chair next to her. "Oh? So sure? Tell me about it. Sit down."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Qianyu bowed again before carefully sitting down and said, "The Moonflower Vine is indeed a plant that is abundant in Tianchen County, and there is also a Moonflower Vine Fairy in Tianchen County, but we cannot conclude that this incident was caused by Tianchen County."

Qianyu actually wanted to use Jiang Ran to deal with Tianchen County City. He had hesitated for a moment about whether to clear Tianchen County City of suspicion, but after meeting the Prince's gaze, he felt it was best not to play any tricks in this matter.

So he explained in detail, “Based on my understanding of Si He, this man is greedy and incompetent, and only cares about immediate gains.”

"For example, recently, Tianchen County has started robbing merchants traveling near Tianchen. You can imagine how short of money Sihe is. But this time, when they invaded the spirit gold mine of my Dasu, the invaders did not take a single bit of spirit gold powder. The gold mountain was right in front of them. This is not in line with the usual style of Tianchen County."

"Moreover, how could a soldier guarding the Moonflower Vine, a soldier who 'accidentally got Moonflower Grass on his body', arrive at Cloud Feast Mountain so quickly? There are many suspicious points."

"So... someone is trying to frame Tianchen County?" Xu Nong's gaze fell on the moonflower vine, his tone rising slightly. In truth, he felt the matter was very strange...

Because this method of framing someone is too simplistic.

"Maybe."

Everyone lowered their heads in thought.

Jiang Ran asked Qian Yu, "Who do you think is trying to frame Tianchen County? Is this move aimed at Tianchen County, or is it more about targeting my Great Su?"

“I don’t know, but I hope it was Chaolian County that did it,” Qianyu said honestly.

After all, Chaolian County and he also had a grudge.

Jiang Ran smiled softly.

Let's consider Tianchen County City and Chaolian County City together then.