When Shao Xuan arrived at the farm, Ao and the guards were already waiting there.
They were all holding tools in their hands. Other than their own hunting weapons, there were also tools for guarding the farm, such as large nets made of vines, nets made of long poles, and giant bombs. These were usually prepared, but most of them were only used during the day. They were rarely used at night.
"Is everything ready?" Shao Xuan asked.
"Yes, we were just waiting for you to start," Ao said.
The farm guards who were called over were still puzzled. They didn't know why Ao called them over, but they would still follow the instructions of the two elders.
Shao Xuan looked around and asked one of the guards, "Where are the bugs the most at night?"
"Where are the bugs the most?" The guard thought for a moment, then pointed to Shao Xuan. "Over there."
The crops planted there were more precious, mostly given by Ji Ju. It was also close to the thousand-grain gold.
"Then let's go there and try." Shao Xuan walked over with the water moonstones in his hand.
The two moons in the sky were covered by clouds not long after they came out, and the moonlight on the ground quickly disappeared.
The bugs that were chirping somewhere paused when the moons disappeared, then continued chirping.
It was very dark, but with everyone's familiarity with the farm, they wouldn't accidentally walk into a ditch. Even though it was dark, with their eyesight, even if they couldn't see clearly at night, they could still see the nearby scenery with the fire burning on the ground.
Shao Xuan did not start at the edge of the field, but at a place a little distance away from the field. He poured out the "inferior" water moon stones from the animal skin bag, piled them together, and arranged them into a circle.
"Extinguish the torches, everyone back off," Shao Xuan said.
The people around him followed Shao Xuan's instructions and extinguished all the torches they were holding.
Because of the banquet, many of the patrolling and guarding warriors were very thrifty. They rarely used water moonstones for illumination. Although they didn't think that the banquet would make their tribe poor, they felt that it was better to be thrifty. That was why when they knew they were going to prepare for the Showing-Off Banquet, everyone started saving up. In the tribe, they wouldn't use water moon stones if they could use torches. Even though the Flaming River Grand Banquet had ended, they still didn't change this habit.
That was why when Ao came to ask them, they couldn't tell if the water moonstones attracted insects because they had been using torches recently.
The surroundings were dark, without any light. This made the area where the water moonstones were placed very obvious.
Every single Water Moon Stone was relatively dark, but when dozens of them were gathered together, the brightness also increased by a lot. Even though the brightness was still not comparable to that of a high quality Water Moon Stone, it was superior in that there were many of them. When they were gathered together, the area of light would increase.
After retreating, Shao Xuan concealed his aura and tried his best to hide his presence.
The others had already received Ao's instructions and knew what to do. When Shao Xuan and Ao concealed their auras, they quickly followed suit. But they all stared curiously at the area where the water moonstones were placed.
What could those dim water moonstones do? Fish for insects?
The surroundings were very quiet. There were faint sounds coming from the mountain where the tribesmen lived. There were also the sounds of insects in the nearby forest, but no one paid attention to them.
Shao Xuan listened carefully to the sounds around him.
In the fields, there were some man-made ditches with flowing water.
The night wind blew and the leaves of the crops rubbed against each other, making a rustling sound.
Hmm?
Shao Xuan tilted his head slightly and listened carefully to the sounds coming from one direction.
It sounded like it came from the fields.
Swoosh — swoosh —
The sound of jumping came towards them.
There were also the sounds of wings flapping rapidly in the sky. Those were the flying insects that were active at night.
A slender figure appeared at the pile of rocks where the Water Moon Stones were placed. The black figure was rather conspicuous among the pile of Water Moon Stones that were emitting a dim light.
It worked!
Shao Xuan was delighted.
When they saw the figure, the soldiers who had been staring at the farmland raised their eyebrows.
Although they couldn't see it clearly, they knew what kind of insect it was just by looking at the figure. That kind of insect was one of the few that troubled them the most because it often moved above ground. It was underground during the day and only came out at night. They couldn't guard against it unless they built underground fences to block it.
Moreover, that kind of insect wasn't afraid of the insect repellent grass they burned. Even smoke couldn't drive them away. Every morning when they saw many more wormholes on the leaves of the fields, they gritted their teeth in anger.
Who would have thought that the dimly glowing Water Moon Stones placed there could actually attract those troublesome insects over!
Almost at the same time as that insect, other nocturnal flying insects flew over from the sky. There were more and more of them.
Soon, probably because they felt that there was no danger around, the other insects hiding in the trees, on the grass, and in the fields all flew over as if something was attracting them.
There were more and more black figures covering the water moonstones. They were big and small, long and short, winged and wingless, jumping and flying insects. They all started to gather there. Some even fought to get the spotlight.
When the pile of water moonstones was almost completely covered by the insects and the air was filled with the sound of flapping wings, Shao Xuan shouted in a low voice, "Move!"
In an instant, the people holding the nets rushed over like arrows. With a few whistling sounds, the densely packed flying insects in the air were caught in the nets and then swatted down.
Pa!
The flying insects in the nets were flattened.
The insects on the ground were continuously swatted by the people holding the giant nets. At this time, the closer the insects were to the pile of water moonstones, the harder it was for them to escape the swatting range.
After everything was over, Shao Xuan held a wooden stick and used the light from the water moonstones to look at the different types of insects. Some of the insects on the ground were not flattened but they had lost the ability to move and couldn't go far.
Shao Xuan was about to go on a long journey and they were going downstream along the Flaming River. Hence, the insects they would encounter might be similar to these. He wanted to see what kind of insects they had.
Shao Xuan picked up a few insects and put them in a cloth bag he brought over. The insects he picked out were all intact and were rarely seen. Some of them looked very fierce and had poisonous stingers or fangs. The camouflage on their bodies made them easy to miss. If they weren't caught at night, they might not be noticed even if they saw them in the day.
He had to let the people who were going on a long journey take a look so they could be prepared.
Ao had already ordered people to clean up the area and put the flattened insect corpses together. When the people who were taking care of the fields came tomorrow, they would see if they could make it into fertilizer.
"How is it?" Ao came over and asked Shao Xuan. He looked quite happy.
How could he not be happy? He knew that these useless water moonstones could attract insects. Although it might not solve the root of the problem, it could at least reduce the insects' harm to the fields at night. It was effective. That was enough.
"It's alright, but there are limitations. The insects we caught might not only eat the crops. " Shao Xuan said. "Also, if there are no clouds at night, these insects might not be as effective. It's more effective to use high-quality water moonstones."
"Of course I know that, but the insects that eat the crops are still the majority. As for the moonlight, judging from the sky, there might be clouds at night these few days. Even if it's just blocking the moonlight for a while, it's fine. " Ao was already prepared for this. He didn't expect it to be effective, as long as it was effective. It was better than wasting the water moonstones and not being able to catch a single insect at night.
"Then we'll go to the Drumming tribe tomorrow and get some more water moonstones?" Ao asked.
"Sure."
This was also a type of trap for insects at night.
The next day, Ao went to the other side of the river to find the chief of the Drumming tribe.
Knowing that the Yanjiao needed those "failed products", the chief of the Drumming tribe directly dragged out a few big bags and gave them to Ao without hesitation. Even if Ao wanted to give them a price, Fan Mu firmly refused. For the people of the Drumming tribe, these were really useless. It would be a waste to keep them in the warehouse. They couldn't sell them at a high price, so they just gave them all to Ao.
However, Ao didn't take all of them. He took nearly two-thirds of them and left one-third for the people of the Drumming tribe. By the way, he told the people of the Drumming tribe about what happened last night, which was agreed by Shao Xuan.
The people of the Drumming tribe were now short of food. Although they didn't like to eat insects, the insects that flew out from the forest on the other side of the river tasted good. Moreover, those insects had already begun to fly across the river. It was just that the people of the Drumming tribe lived too close to the fire pit where they used to put the fire seed. Even if the fire seed no longer existed, there were still some remnants of its smell in the fire pit, so those insects didn't dare to fly close.
"You can do this!" Fan Mu felt very curious. They had owned the water moonstones for so long, but they had never seen such a situation before.
"You can try it from afar. Maybe you can catch some insects," Ao suggested.
"Thank you for telling us!"
The people of the Drumming tribe were very grateful that the people of the Yanjiao tribe were willing to share their experience and skills. That night, they let the people on patrol try it. They really caught some insects and roasted them for supper.
On the other side of the Yanjiao tribe, the waste water moonstones were distributed. At night, when the moon was covered by clouds, the sound of snapping could be heard in the farmland.
"Hey, be gentle! Don't slap them all into fertilizer. Let's see if they can be eaten! "Someone waved a net and shouted.
"I know!" The person holding a giant net made of rattan answered while slapping.
After they finished patting, they would clean up the ground and pick out the large insects that were still intact. They would eat those that were edible, and put those that were inedible aside to be used as fertilizer by the farmers. As for the insects that they did not recognize, they would carefully try to eat them. For the people of the Yanjiao tribe, eating insects wasn't a big deal.
This kind of situation could be seen in several places around the farmland.
For a long time after that, the guards of the Yanjiao tribe had one more activity at night — guarding the water moonstones and waiting for supper.
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