Immortal Dao Fruits, Cards to Help Me

Chapter 43 Grass? Grass!
Outside the large threshing ground in Qianjin Township, where grain used to be threshed.

"Old Immortal, what do you think?" Chen Xiuxian asked.

You know, the surname Dou Zhongde is such a terrible name. Calling him Old Dou always makes him feel like he's being taken advantage of.

Let's just call him Old Immortal!
Give him a hand, so he won't be taken advantage of.

Dou Zhongde frowned and counted on his fingers, "Hiss~ Something's not right~"

Do you even need to tell me?
The Taoist priest Shouming from Tiesha Mountain only gave a general area, which was about five or six miles in diameter in the southeast direction of Qianjin Township.

This is one of the few paddy fields here, and it's already November, just in time for the first snowfall.

It wasn't large, but the thin layer of snow still draped the harvested rice paddies in white.

According to the old village chief of Qianjin Township, something has been wrong here since last month.

As dusk approaches, a rustling sound can be heard, but you can't pinpoint where it's coming from—and you don't dare to look for it!

At that time, everyone was busy harvesting rice and couldn't take care of everything.

A few days after the rice harvest, things got even worse. Some playful children saw strange figures outside the village at night.

The children here are also educated in a harsh environment from a young age, so they are less likely to do anything reckless, because they really could die.

If you are within the village area, the probability of problems occurring is generally very small.

Because there are several folk operas, folk firework displays, and ancestral worship ceremonies every year, it can ensure that evil spirits and heretics do not invade the village.

Aside from some wild animals coming down from the mountain, there shouldn't be too much danger.

But if you dare to go outside the village late at night, it's not particularly strange if you don't come back.

After the adults finished their autumn harvest, upon hearing that strange things had happened outside the village, they immediately began patrolling at night, making torches, burning offerings, and inviting shamans to perform a ritual or ask a spirit medium to come and see what was going on.

They did manage to invite a "spirit master," but after the old spirit master possessed the disciple, he neither smoked nor drank any alcohol, simply gave a few instructions, and then slipped away.

The old village chief repeated what the old immortal had said: "...An evil spirit has come from the southeast of your village. It's very powerful. I can't handle it either. Don't go there. Wait for the higher-ups to come and deal with it for you."

Generally speaking, spirit mediums are animals who have cultivated their spiritual power and accumulate merit by cooperating with their disciples to perform divination, cure diseases, and so on.

However, animals still have all the bad habits they have, such as being petty, holding grudges, being greedy, liking to drink, and liking to smoke.

As a result, this old immortal from the Hu family stopped his antics and singing, stopped smoking and drinking, and ran away after saying just a few words. Clearly, he was truly helpless.

This has caused great distress to the villagers of Qianjin Township.

Minor evil spirits can usually be dealt with by the old spirit masters.

If the spirits can't handle it, then it's dangerous.

Either it's a large number of physical monsters like goblins or tree spirits causing trouble, or the opponent is simply too powerful.

Either way, the harm is significant.

In the past few decades, when the development of Liaodong had not been going on for very long, we would often hear that in some village, people and livestock had all died overnight for some reason.

Or perhaps a few people escaped while the rest died.

In short, it's very dangerous.

Unexpectedly, after less than twenty years of peace, the wild boar-men have regained their power, and these demons and monsters have "come back to life."

They're really leaving us no way out!
……

The Rat Immortal Dou Zhongde was indeed capable, though his own combat strength was very poor; his only advantage was his speed.

His specialty is "calculating with his fingers," and he is adept at seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune.

He stood on the earthen wall in the threshing ground outside the village, facing southeast, pinching his fingers until they were almost raw, and finally got some information.

"It seems to be some kind of sinister creature made of wood... It appears at night... and there are quite a few of them..."

Wood is considered an evil and yin element, and there are quite a few of them? Yes, that's it!

Chen Xiuxian called out, "Old Niu, go find the old village chief and have him organize some people and get some firewood, preferably pine or cypress, the kind that burns easily!"

As the saying goes, one thing subdues another; wood, being a yin and evil element, must be burned with fire!

The old village chief was directing a dozen strong laborers to pull flatbed carts and transport firewood over here—Liaodong is rich in resources, especially timber.

There's absolutely no shortage of wood!
The truckloads of pine logs were all split into pieces about the thickness of an arm and a foot long.

Chen Xiuxian divided them into several piles and scattered them outside the threshing ground...

The Rat Fairy pinched her fingers again, then couldn't help but chuckle as she twirled her whiskers: "Good, good, good! This is excellent! Auspicious!"

By the time the sun touched the western hills, Qianjin Township was already quiet.

The villagers all stayed at home, except for Chen Xiuxian and a few others who waited in the threshing ground in the southeast of the village.

The temperature dropped quite a bit after the sun set!
Just as the old village chief had said, as the sun began to set and the sunlight gradually faded, a rustling sound appeared along with the chill.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was very broad, like several people dragging something across a patch of dry grass.

Dou Zhongde, who had been peering over the wall, had sharp eyes and vaguely spotted some dark figures.

"Grass, grass, grass..." I heard him muttering softly.

The old ox shook its horns: "Why is this old rat swearing at people now?!"

Chen Xiuxian laughed and said, "He wasn't cursing anyone, he was talking about a straw man!"

Sure enough, when the sunlight was reduced to a deep red hue on the horizon, some scarecrows appeared out of nowhere in the rice paddy. They were human figures made entirely of straw, with limbs but stiff movements, and facial features but all of them were cracked, black mouthparts.

In Chen Xiuxian's spiritual vision technique, these scarecrows all had wisps of black mist rising from their heads, making them clearly evil things.

"Evil Scarecrow, Level 8..." There's not much information to be found!

However, according to information from the forum, although these scarecrows are not very good at physical attacks, they have some evil magic. The dark yellow straw on their bodies can change into straw ropes, weapons, or even spray out a large amount of weeds to overwhelm the enemy.

In particular, we must not allow these scarecrows to kill people.

Once they've killed someone, they can absorb the remnant soul of the deceased, at which point their level will directly exceed 10. Then they'll have brains and become very difficult to deal with.

Because there was no warning in the game, the Liaodong General's Office reacted slowly, and the evil straw men were not dealt with in time. More than 20 people died in Qianjin Township, which means that more than 20 straw men "evolved".

One of them leveled up to level 20 and was then attacked by two teams of more than a dozen players as a boss!
Chen Xiuxian watched the video. The scarecrow was three and a half meters tall, and straw could shoot out from any angle, sticking to people and sucking their blood.

It can also grab players and drag them into its "stomach," and if they aren't rescued in time, they'll die instantly!
Not only will players die, but they will also be transformed into fleshy scarecrows and become evil monsters.

Moreover, once it's about to die, it will "explode," and as long as some of the straw flies away, it can regenerate in a short time.

Because of this incident, the entire village of Qianjin moved to a major city in the southwest.

This whole area has become a "monster spawn point"—meaning that the territory pioneered by humans has been "re-feralized."

Later, many players came here to farm scarecrows, and some players who were skilled at crafting weapons developed the "Grass Dragon," a very cool magic weapon.

But this time it's different; this time they won't be given that chance.

To entertain Chen Xiuxian and his two companions, the villagers killed three roosters; they couldn't just watch their fellow villagers suffer!

……

Chen Xiuxian brought the Rainbow Sword to his hand, flicked his wrist and twirled it, and the sword glowed red.

This fire blade is perfect for cutting down scarecrows!
With a wave of his other hand, sparks flew from the Rainbow Sword. Using his fire manipulation technique, he spread and heated the sparks, igniting the surrounding pine wood stacks. In an instant, "the sky brightened again!"
"Old Niu?"

"Ok?"

"kill!"

……

The reason why the evil scarecrow appeared is no longer known in the game, because the area was later abandoned and left to feral, so the reason can no longer be found.

But it was still possible to salvage the situation. Although there were thirty or fifty scarecrows, it wasn't enough for Chen Xiuxian and the old ox!

Chen Xiuxian brandished the Long Rainbow Sword, like a line of fire in the dark night; with one strike, half of the scarecrow's body began to catch fire.

He then used his fire manipulation technique to control the flames, making them burn fiercely, almost like a jet of fire!
Killing a scarecrow takes only a few dozen seconds, and you can even take down four or five at once!

Old Niu's old iron rod, now covered in pine resin, was burning like a large torch.

With his other hand gripping the Evil Tooth Whirlwind Axe, he charged into the scarecrow pile, fire in his left hand and wind in his right, spinning wildly like a top, ignoring everything else.
Those two were like they were in Musou mode, mowing down minions like they were in a rampage, it was so satisfying!
Only that purple-skinned toad, Jinzi, was on the side, paddling around with a fork—he'd been hitting a scarecrow for three minutes and still hadn't killed it!
Although there's also the reason that forks aren't very effective with straw.

But when he saw Chen Xiuxian's gaze sweep over him, he suddenly shuddered, spat out a stream of water that knocked over several scarecrows, and blocked the front of the threshing ground with a pitchfork: "With me here, none of you will get past!"

Chen Xiuxian: If I see you slacking off again, you'd better prepare a dry pot!

I want to eat dry-pot bullfrog!

In just over forty minutes, more than fifty scarecrows were taken down, ranging from 1.5 meters to over 2 meters tall, and from level 5 or 6 to level 10.

Fortunately, they arrived in time. If they had arrived two or three days later, these scarecrows would definitely have been unable to resist killing people. Once they started killing, their strength and numbers would have increased dramatically.

"That's all for tonight. Tomorrow during the day, we'll find out why these straw men appeared..."

Once the evil spirits accumulated over this period are eliminated, we can have a peaceful few days.

However, without finding the root cause, we can only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

Of course, grinding monsters for a few more days would be good too~
From this large group of scarecrows, Chen Xiuxian reaped a huge amount of experience points, as well as several cards!

Where else can you find such a great opportunity?
[Coarse cloth shorts (white)], [Short jacket (white)], [Sickle (white)]...

Let's not even talk about white cards; they're basically worthless.

He does have a few green cards!
First up is the [Ula Grass (Green)] that Chen Xiuxian was really looking forward to, there are a total of 12 of them!
There are two more equipment cards:
【Agile Lightweight Boots (Green)】

Tier 2 Equipment Card
+2 Sensitivity
Lightweight: +10% movement speed.

Review: The only downside is that it's almost winter now, and my feet feel a bit cold.
[Tiger's Ragged Straw Hat (Green)]

Tier 2 equipment

+1 Arm Strength
+1 Sensitivity
Evaluation: Its biggest flaw is its ugliness.

"Hey Lao Niu, I have something good for you!" Chen Xiuxian handed over the straw hat.

Old Niu couldn't tell what effect the equipment had, but this tattered straw hat was really tattered!
However, there must be a reason why Chen Xiuxian specifically gave him this.

He casually put the straw hat on his head, and it just covered the horns... Hey, you know what, it felt like he was a bit stronger!

Chen Xiuxian: From now on, you are Niu Fei, and you'll get a bounty!

……

Just as everyone was planning to pack up and go back to sleep, intending to continue tomorrow.

Dou Zhongde suddenly froze on the spot, his whole body stiffened, and his tail peeked out from under his robe, taut like a stick!
He managed to squeeze out two words: "Not good!"

(End of this chapter)