Chapter 906

Chapter 906

The spymaster going by the name Chun Jin had thought death was an escape. But Anton could say, unfortunately for him, that he was more than wrong. Indeed, trapped as a soul the man was the most helpless he could be and the most vulnerable.

He most certainly had valuable information, but how easily he would give it up was another question. However long it took, it wasnt Antons business because there were urgent matters he could deal with.

The grain Anton carried was trying to infect him. It was something different from the previous mold. Weaker, even- though it still actively sought out hosts to grow. But even if it was less virulent, it was more insidious in some manners. It didnt react so drastically to natural energy, so it could be hidden.

The main question Anton had was how long the spymaster had been working on this general plan. Why risk something with Anton? Unless he considered his mission complete. And based on what Anton was finding in the eastern district where hed mentioned his farm, that might be the case.

A bare farm plot was all that remained, having already been harvested. The tainted grain would have already been distributed. To where? That Anton didnt know, but he could find out from someone more qualified.

Specifically, a harried member of the bureaucracy. A young man, perhaps promoted into his position too early. More experience was important to properly manage even a small agricultural district. But so he was.

Anton didnt know how much time might matter, so he didnt make any pretenses. He simply walked into the young mans office, where someone else was already present. There had been a line of people outside, but nobody was going to complain about Anton directly walking in. At least, not while he was around. He wasnt concealing his energy, but instead displaying it openly. Even without a local bound star, he still had the power of a strong Assimilation cultivator.

... And Im concerned that Chun Jin seems to be taking more than his allotment of water, said the woman there. She likely had more to say, but at that point Anton had swung open the door and both people looked at him.

Good news, then, Anton said. Your neighbors dead.

Wha- the woman just looked at him.

Farming Secretary Lailok, I have urgent business regarding your district and one Chun Jin, Anton continued.

... Hes dead? the young man tilted his head. Obviously he understood that, but he was a bit put off by Antons brusqueness.

Thats not the relevant part. We need every record you have that involves him, even tangentially.

Uh, sure, the young man nodded. He was in here a week ago mentioning a quarter of his crop was diseased.

That was a lie, Anton said.

Why-

All of it was tainted, Anton clarified. We need to track down everywhere that grain went, and potentially look into every other shipment hes been connected with.

Nobody would burn down fields full of perfectly good crops. The damage was just beginning, but if there had not been some amount of forewarning it was possible that they wouldnt have spotted the true source for several seasons, perhaps even multiple years. Indeed, they might cultivate the one resistant crop even more, perpetuating the issue.

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Once they figured out the mechanism through which the damage was meant to be done, they were able to combat it. The maze of connections through which those particular crops had been shipped was much more complicated. In a way, that explained why Chun Jin had shown up to die. Everything connected to him and that name would be compromised, which would distract them from everything else. And his death would have meant a promotion, in essence. If he wasnt captured.

So far his spirit had resisted their interrogation techniques. It was only through a bit of luck that Anton managed to noticed the oddity- not every kind of crop was infected with the blight, either. But Anton was very familiar with all sorts of crops, and the one in question just felt slightly wrong. Not like the blight, either. He couldnt quite place a particular thing that had given it away, but centuries of experience prevailed.

And then hundreds of bureaucrats searching through records all over the planet- and in other systems. They could hunt down the particular crop though it apparently went by multiple names. It didnt look like much, just a standard some sort of wheat, barley, or even rye.

Anton had very little he was actually needed for except beginning the process as rapidly as possible. However, there was one more thing that was useful. Bringing samples of the true problem to other planets so that they could recognize it. The Shining Cooperative did have the ability to communicate between their locations rapidly, but they didnt have scanners or the like that could register energy signatures or greater details.

As Anton was faster than most ships, he set out on a route that would let him bring samples along one of the primary internal trade routes of the Shining Cooperative. When they first met the Lower Realms Alliance, they would have been hesitant about both Anton and learning more about their internal arrangement of systems, but having worked successfully as allies against the Trigold Cluster for decades now they didnt express any concerns.

That was the one good thing to come out of the war. Actually, Anton could say there were more. The fellow Tor of the Shimmering Spears and his lot were actually willing to break off from the Trigold Cluster- an unprecedented opportunity. At least, to the limits of his own knowledge.

Members of the Exalted Quadrant had stood with them in the lower realm- and then the upper realms- but so far there had been few examples of humanity among the Trigold Cluster. But of course, they were still just people. A vast number of them with a powerful society built upon the backs of countless atrocities, but not all of them were equally responsible. Even if they were only able to realize how wrong things were when certain parts of the Trigold Cluster treated them as callously as all other people before them, it was better than nothing.

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In all of Antons life, he had learned that there was rarely such a thing as perfect timing. Even in this case, where they caught a saboteur because of hard won information, they were late. But late was still better. Seasons were different around planets and between different planets, so the growing season for the particular sort of grain Chun Jin had been peddling was pretty much always active somewhere.

The last leg of Antons journey brought him to the planet Mioria, and it was there that he began to provide aid beyond simply delivery.

Anton understood the struggles of farmers. Losing a crop could devastate them, and they would be resistant to eliminating an entire crop of something that appeared perfectly good. At least they had already determined how to be rid of it for good. Simply pulling it up was insufficient- the soil would carry the blight. Anton had already determined that burning it was actually a great way to spread the blight it carried through the smoke, which was of course the opposite of what they wanted.

But spectral energy still worked. As for why it worked, it simply made sense. That was the tool the Trigold Cluster would use to cleanse any planets they took over through these methods. And since theyd already begun a process of teaching people how to cultivate at least a little bit of spectral energy, it was valuable.

A small bit didnt wither entire patches, unlike with the mold. That meant the process would be slower. The good news, on the other hand, was that the blight killed its targeted crops rather quickly. That might seem like terrible news, but that limited its spread to some extent.

With over a dozen planets affected, all with much larger populations than Mazlerth, the total number of people that would be affected by the blight was much greater. However, they caught it quickly enough that they were only in the first true season of the plan. Much later, and it could have wiped out between a tenth and half of all of their crops for the year- and potentially years beyond that if they failed to recognize the true source.

Anton came in and withered crops but he soothed angry farmers by immediately planting their fields and boosting the growth of new crops. And when they learned the actual consequences of leaving the crops they had few complaints. But Anton made sure to champion for them, especially the smaller farms that couldnt afford to lose a seasons income. He could help only so many people himself. The Shining Cooperative would have to live up to their name and do the rest.