Chapter 1336: Blotting Out the Sky

To Chen Changsheng, time seemed to be passing much faster.

In the blink of an eye, over a decade had slipped by.

Yet he had woken only three times, amounting to no more than half a year in total.

It was getting faster and faster.

The sad part was that Chen Changsheng remained completely alone from beginning to end. Fortunately, as he walked his path, he could occasionally witness the spring, summer, autumn, and winter within Huaixu, and sometimes even see the snow. It was no longer like the past, when a summer insect could not fathom ice.

The Mortal World had also undergone immense changes.

The demon chaos in the Southern Domain had become a frequent topic of conversation over meals.

Merely surviving in this era had become a difficult task.

Over ten years of stalemate had left Great Jing's entire landscape swaying precariously in the storm. While it wasn't quite at the point where the people were completely destitute, it was far, far worse than it used to be.

The Southern Domain boasted fertile lands, but it was now controlled by Hongyuan Tianxia. This caused the price of grain to surge, with rice and flour repeatedly breaking record highs.

Nowadays, even coarse grains were beginning to appear on the dining tables of wealthy households.

The Mortal World had lost its former prosperity.

During these years, the Northern Desert seemed to have staged a comeback, frequently harassing the Borderland. The unrest in both the north and the south severely exacerbated the burden on the entire nation, leaving the state treasury strained.

As the Minister of Revenue, Tong Nianyi was completely powerless to change it.

She had already exhausted her utmost efforts, yet the accounts still showed expenditures far exceeding revenues.

Provisions and military armaments were absolutely indispensable, and the Imperial Court's operating expenses were another massive sum. They had even changed the schedule for issuing official salaries, shifting from once a month to once a quarter, and eventually down to once every half a year. Yet, the financial pressure remained staggering.

Many officials were dissatisfied and frequently demanded an explanation. Fortunately, with Your Majesty acting as a shield, the matter was brushed aside on several occasions.

But in truth, everyone could see what was happening.

The nation was falling into ruin.

It had now degenerated into a dire situation of internal strife and external aggression.

Xie Huan had a splitting headache over this. He had initiated several reforms, but none yielded any good results.

Faced with such a situation, it seemed all they could do was watch helplessly.

"Your Majesty, a report for Your Majesty!"

The Director of the Department of State Affairs rushed into the palace, dropped to his knees, and cried out, "Your Majesty, a sudden locust plague has broken out in places like Longxi and the Heavenly River! Wherever they pass, not a single blade of grass remains!"

"A locust plague..."

Xie Huan froze, sitting in a daze for a long time.

This locust plague swept through multiple regions. Wherever it passed, it was as if a scythe had harvested the land, leaving not a single grain behind.

The officials sent down to inspect the disaster saw the dense, dark masses drifting in the sky and were so terrified they couldn't speak, as if they were looking at demons.

When they finally gave their reports, they had only one sentence: "The locust plague is eating people!"

The severity of this plague exceeded everyone's imagination. As the swarm swept past, an entire forest would be stripped completely bare in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

"The heavens seek to destroy my Great Jing! The heavens seek my ruin!"

Almost overnight, refugees surged across the land. Opening the granaries to distribute food became nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

The entire world seemed to plunge into chaos.

Unable to find food, these refugees resorted to gnawing on tree bark. Some even went as far as trading children to eat.

Human life became cheap, truly worth no more than dirt and weeds.

The columns of refugees grew larger and larger. Some headed toward Shangjing, while others moved toward the Southern Domain.

Word spread that the Borderland had the most provisions. Although the people there lived harsh lives, the Imperial Court continuously dispatched rations to the area, meaning they definitely wouldn't starve. Thus, one after another, people began trekking south.

The demon chaos in the Southern Domain and the Northern Desert to the north had not managed to destroy this world. Yet this locust plague seemed to punch a massive hole right through it, acting as the final straw that would crush the realm to death.

The world was on the verge of collapse!

...

The human dao qi fortune once again grew turbulent.

This upheaval was far more violent than any that had come before.

While in the Cultivation World, Chen Changsheng also heard about this matter from some cultivators.

"The way I see it, the Mortal World is probably going to change masters again. Only this time, I'm afraid it won't be a Human Sovereign. It might very well end up being a demon sovereign."

"I hear that Hongyuan Tianxia is the force of the Demon Race. If we just let them carry on like this, I'm afraid the consequences won't be good."

"Since when is that our problem to worry about? If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. Rogue Cultivators like us should just sit back and watch the show."

"True enough..."

After hearing this, Chen Changsheng made a few inquiries.

Only then did he get the answers he sought from those men.

"A locust plague?"

"Is it natural, or man-made?" Chen Changsheng asked.

The man drank his wine and waved a hand. "Who knows? Maybe it's the work of those demons. Of course, it could also be heavenly punishment. After all, this is a disaster the human dao brought upon itself. If they hadn't given those demons an opening back then, things never would have reached this state. At the end of the day, it's their own stupidity..."

"Is that so..."

Chen Changsheng stared blankly for a moment.

After leaving the area, Chen Changsheng pondered the upheaval in the Mortal World.

Based on what he knew, it seemed the Mortal World's chances of victory were dreadfully slim.

According to what they had said, the plague in the Mortal World was still spreading.

Even with cultivators joining forces to intervene, they hadn't been able to completely eradicate the locusts.

After all, a locust plague wasn't just one insect. It was tens of thousands, even millions of them, forming swarms that continuously roamed the realm. The speed at which cultivators wiped out the swarms likely couldn't even match the speed at which new locusts were born.

Even cultivators had moments of exhaustion.

Thinking about all this, Chen Changsheng fell into deep thought.

If Hongyuan Tianxia truly marched north, did that mean that the human dao would be completely annihilated?

If that happened, what kind of state would the Mortal World be left in?

Chen Changsheng still wanted to go back and take a look. No matter what, there were a few places he always kept in his heart.

He didn't want those places to be altered beyond recognition.

Catching a Flying Vessel at just the right time, Chen Changsheng made his return to the Mortal World.

As for the Geographical Maps he hadn't finished drawing, that could only wait until later.

Qingshan City was no longer the lush, verdant place it had once been.

The locust plague had swept through, and the spiritual essence of the local vegetation had been reduced to nothing under wave after wave of the swarms.

Looking up, there were no longer any green mountains to be seen. Instead, it was a completely barren expanse, leaving only empty, stripped tree trunks in sight.

Compared to other regions, however, the provisions stored within Yuanchuan were still somewhat sufficient. Thanks to the fertile land, the Local Government had stockpiled a considerable amount of grain in the early years, which allowed them to stubbornly hold out for a period of time.

But this wasn't a long-term solution. The grain would eventually run out.

By now, many had already starved to death. Incidents of people looting grain had also become a frequent occurrence. For hundreds of miles around, every scrap of tree bark had been stripped clean. These green mountains would never return to their original appearance.

A single locust plague was far, far more terrifying than any drought.

When Chen Changsheng looked at this green mountain region once again, he couldn't see the slightest trace of vitality. This drastic transformation left him in a daze for a long while.

He turned his head, glancing at his shoulder.

A locust had crawled onto it without him noticing.

Chen Changsheng looked back and suddenly froze.

In the distance.

Lay a swath of gloomy darkness.

It wasn't clouds, but a swarm of locusts, blotting out the sky.