Chapter 909: The Blighted Fields
Within the Frozen Cloud sect, a meeting was currently underway.
The main hall of the sect was being used for it, and many people were in attendance. It didn’t just constitute the members of the sect either. There were elders from the many other sects including Dark Plains and Chan sect too.
But what was even more surprising was the fact that kings of the various kingdoms of the south were present in attendance as well. It was rare for these men to leave their castles, not to mention their kingdoms especially to go to a sect.
It wasn’t really arrogance that made them averse to visiting sects, but rather self preservation. After all, even if they were kings of a kingdom, they weren’t that strong alone.
Their own strength might barely be comparable to that of a senior elder of a top ranked sect.
If they walked into a sect and by chance, the sect official wanted them to stay behind, they wouldn’t be able to do anything. It would be the same as willingly giving the sects a high profile hostage and the kingdom would become a subordinate to them.
Things like these had happened a few times in the past and thus it had become a matter of caution.
Regardless of that though, there were at least eight kings in attendance today.
With the power of the Frozen Cloud sect, it would be easy for them to subdue them all and take over the kingdoms. But nothing of that sort would happen. The kings knew this too, since they had an even greater danger hanging on their heads.
If anything, they would much rather give the handling of their kingdoms to the Frozen Cloud sect just so that they would be free from the incoming danger.
“What are the report? We can start from the Peony Plains kingdom.” The Patriarch of the Frozen Cloud sect spoke.
Patriarch Bing looked older than he used to, evidently due to the stresses he had to bear during these years. It wasn’t just him either. The other elders also had stressed expression on their face.
The only ones that looked to be relatively calm were the juniors that were in attendance.
Wang Xiong and Ye Jin were in the hall too, along with many of his subordinates. All of them had grown stronger over the two years and had reached the Nascent soul realm. This had further increased the power of the sect and solidified Wang Xiong’s position.
“Our fields have grown barren and nothing grows. A strange blight has spread, which prevents any crops from growing. Even our protected fields have been exposed to the same blight, even though they were isolated.” The King of the Peony Plains kingdom spoke.
“We… we don’t know how long we can last at this rate. Our population has already fallen by a third in this time and if we have no crops to feed out people, we might fall to half soon.” He said in a tired tone.
One could see a mix of sorrow and exhaustion on his face.
“We have the same blight in our fields too, Patriarch Bing. Though the fields at the very south are still safe.” The King of the Zhan Kingdom stated.
“What about the others?” patriarch Bing looked around.
“Around ten percent of our fields are affected by the blight.”
“Twenty percent for us!”
“Forty five for mine!”
One by one, the kings started to voice out their reports. The more the Patriarch heard, the more furrowed his brows got. The same could be said for the elders of the sects, and they didn’t know what could be done.
Wang Xiong rubbed his beard non stop, unable to come up with any solution.
‘The blight suddenly appeared six months ago and spread in the blink of an eye. It was even able to get past the barriers that were set up around the kingdoms with ease. It does not react to any medicines used by the elders and is highly resistant to intervention.’ Wang Xiong went over the information over and over gain.
With the attacks of the Calamity Fiend intensifying over the years, the Blight was the second calamity they had to face. At first it had started like a fungal infection in the wheat crops, but it soon started to affect others, too.
Before the kingdoms could respond, the Blight had already affected a significant amount of the crops.
‘The strange thing is it didn’t even start from the Peony Plains kingdom and yet they are the ones who got affected the most.’ Wang Xiong thought to himself. ‘The distance from the Peony Plains kingdom and White Loom Kingdom is over a thousand kilometers… how can the blight reach there?’ Wang Xiong tried to analyze.
The first kingdom that the blight had started from was the White Loom Kingdom, which was famous for its cotton production. They supplied a lot of cloth and thread to the other kingdoms and were relatively rich.
There was a large mountain range between the Peony Plains Kingdom and the White Loom kingdom too, with a swamp separating the mountains and the kingdom.
Wang Xiong didn’t think the wind would the be medium though which the Blight spread to the Peony Plains kingdom.
The elders and the kingdoms continued to discuss the issue at hand, and yet there was nothing solid coming out of it. Most of the kings were terrified of what would happen in the coming months.
They could have stayed cooped up to protect themselves from the Calamity Fiend, but now that the blight affected their food supply, they couldn’t even do that.
“So far I understand that only spirit fruits and spirit herbs are safe from this… am I correct?” Wang Xiong suddenly stood up.
“Y-yes Chief disciple Wang Xiong.” The kings confirmed.
Patriarch Bing looked at his disciple, who had outperformed all his expectations; wondering if he had figured something out. “Did you learn something?” he questioned.
“Yes… I think I know how the blight is spreading.” Wang Xiong stated.
