chapter 37 The Scarecrow

Ge Kai had managed to get some seeds and vegetables from Zhang Jian's farm and so had the groundhog. After testing the usage of these stolen materials, Ge Kai knew that they were not any less useful than the most rare and precious materials that were scarce even in the Immortal World.

These treasures had not only helped him heal many internal injuries but had also helped him strengthen his physique that had been weak since birth. Not only that but it had also helped him increase his cultivation by a huge margin.

As such Ge Kai knew that he had to get more of them no matter what. His cultivation that had refused to increase for a long time now had practically jumped up by a huge margin by using those vegetables and seeds.

Therefore to continue to steal the materials, he chose another of his subordinates to go to Mount Dabie. Fox had been loyal to him ever since it had become a part of Shadow Kill Pavillion. It had been successful in all the missions assigned to it by the higher ups. His success rate in all his missions had been the very reason that Ge Kai had chosen it to steal from the most fearsome tiger there ever was, Zhang Jian.

Ge Kai would never have revealed the wonders of the vegetables that Zhang Jian grew in his farm if he could have helped it. Ge Kai was the Pavilion Master and had to maintain a certain standard and reputation. He couldn't act like a common street thief because he could have the Fox do that.

In the silence of the dark night, Fox sneaked into the farm and started digging any vegetables that it could take without the risk of getting caught.

This had been a very important assignment given to it by the sect leader himself. Fox could not afford to screw it up, therefore it was using guerilla tactics to retrieve the vegetables before going back to concealment nearby.

After it had taken enough, the fox retreated without looking back and went to report to the Pavilion Master.

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The next morning both Zhang Jian and Wang Yan had come out early to cultivate in the fields when they saw the horrific state that the farm was in. Many vegetables had been dug out and it looked like the work of some animal given how roughly the vegetables had been taken out.

There were several holes indicating the removal of the vegetables which meant that there was either a group of animal who had vandalized the farm or some very hungry animal.

Having knowledge about the advanced farming tactics, Zhang Jian knew that a farmer's greatest enemies were the insects and the animals that attacked his farm.

"I am tired of seeing our farm in this condition every time that I wake up. We should do something to scare the animals off. What do you think about a scarecrow. I think we should make a scarecrow for our farm."

"Master I think it's a good idea."

Wang Yan did not agree with Zhang Jian's speculation about animals vandalizing the crops because she knew the true value of these vegetables that he had been growing. Although she had that thought she did not dare to go against Zhang Jian and could only go with the idea he had come up with thinking that Zhang Jian must have known the true culprit and did not want to worry her unnecessarily.

Zhang Jian knew that they still had some leftover straw from the last crop and decided to use that material to make a scarecrow in order to ward off the attacking animals and birds.

He took the straw and some strings and started to give it shape by binding the straw together tightly. After attaching it to a wooden cross which had been half buried in the field, he made it wear some of his tattered clothes and a hat.

He brought his own paint brush and started making the face of the scarecrow. Although it was really not necessary, both Wang Yan and Zhang Jian had been enjoying making the scarecrow together. It wasn't until it was lunch time that both of them stopped working on the scarecrow and came back to the hut.

Zhang Jian was sure that this scarecrow would never let any more animals vandalize the farm. In his opinion it was a surefire way to protect his farm from attackers.

What neither Zhang Jian nor Wang Yan could have expected was that after they both left the fields, the scarecrow that they had just made had obtained an aura which was so terrifying that many birds looking for food in the field were blown to bits by that aura and ended up being fertilizer for the crops.

It wasn't completely unheard of for an inanimate object to have obtained an aura. Sometimes when the craftsman poured out his heart and soul into his work, the specific piece of work might obtain a unique aura that would belong solely to the object and would not have any relation to the craftsman. This was what had happened with the scarecrow. It was a piece of art that had gained its own aura and had replicated the desire of the craftsman when he was making it. It had only one purpose in its life and that was to protect the field from anyone that attacked it.

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The fox had been sent for a repeated offense but the fox was acting as cautious as before and was going to rely on guerilla tactics again.

It hid near the fields and was looking for the right target to extract but it didn't know that as soon as it had come near the field, the scarecrow in the middle of the field had let out a crazy burst opf aura that could have intimidated anyone.

As soon as the fox made an appearance, the scarecrow started to move towards it. It grew to a monstrous size and the hands grew into long nails that were no different to daggers. Before the fox could have anticipated anything, the scarecrow had already crept behind the fox.

The fox was busy extracting a vegetable by digging with its feet when it suddenly felt an extreme and sudden danger to its life. The feeling that came over it was so intense that it was sure that it was the end of the line for it.

The scarecrow had swung its hand towards the fox diagonally with its dagger-like fingernails. If the attack landed, the fox would definitely be lacerated.

The fox could only sense the danger to its life when it was too late. Although it leapt sideways before the attack landed, the nails still grazed by its body and managed to tear out quite a portion of its flesh and internal organs near the abdomen.

The fox was injured in a single blow. The fox knew that it had been found out and its nightly activities could no longer be continued.

As soon as it felt the danger to its life, it fled into the woods before the scarecrow could have launched another attack.

As soon as the fox left, the scarecrow started moving back towards its original location and once more became immobile on the cross buried in the center of the field.

The fox had gotten some treatment and was now in front of Ge Kai trying to explain the reason for its failure.

"Pavilion master, it was definitely an abomination. Zhang Jian must have found out and made some monster to help protect the treasure crops as a countermeasure."

Ge Kai did not want to believe what the fox had been telling him but the wounds on its body could not have been faked.

He knew that his little treasure hunts in Zhang Jian's herb garden had been found out by Zhang Jian and could no longer be conducted anytime sooner especially since the security had been beefed up.

Ge Kai was concerned that Zhang Jian might come to exact revenge on him and soon came to a decision after walking back and forth a hundred times in his room.

Ge Kai arrived at the precipice of the Demon World and the earth. As soon as he passed between the membranes separating the two worlds, he shifted and fell out midway between the two worlds and ended up in a place full of darkness and grayish sky.

There was no color in this world and no living things could be born here. It was the void or the chasm between the worlds that separated the worlds from one another. The spatial passage between the worlds was actually a passage through the void. This void was known as the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone had the most unknown existences among the whole universe.