“The locust sparrows are inherently cunning, and that leader locust sparrow is clearly even more intelligent—its wits are no less than ours as humans.” Emily Martin suddenly raised her voice, “To get rid of them will be incredibly difficult. You all escort me back to my cave residence.”

“To help me fetch the ancestor’s treasure, the 【Burning Heaven Furnace】, and burn this entire mountain to ashes. That flock of locust sparrows will be wiped out without us even having to fight.”

As she spoke.

Emily Martin kept signaling with her eyes to Jason Brooks and the other two.

Jason Brooks instinctively wanted to refute this absurd plan, but seeing her expression and gaze, he became suspicious and uncertain.

“Great idea! Brilliant~” Henry Brooks slapped his thigh in admiration. “No time to lose, Miss Qianqian, let’s go and come back quickly.”

“No rush, no rush, it’ll only take us half a day to go there and back.” Emily Martin replied loudly, then rode her paper kite and flew off into the distance.

Henry Brooks pulled Jason Brooks along to follow, and called out from afar to Samuel Brooks, “Jingfei, you guard the spirit fields for now. We’ll be back soon.”

“Yes, Fourth Uncle.” Samuel Brooks bowed, then used his movement technique to hurry back to the farm’s spirit fields.

Meanwhile, Emily Martin and the other two gradually flew farther away. After traveling seven or eight li, under Emily Martin’s direction, they circled around and quietly flew back to the farm, hiding in a secluded little house.

Their serious demeanor made Jason Brooks not dare to be careless.

He did his best to restrain his aura and asked in a low voice, “Miss Qianqian, is that locust sparrow leader really so attuned to human nature? Can it understand what we’re saying?”

Emily Martin shook her head, lowered her voice, and said word by word, “I. Am. Not. Sure.”

Jason Brooks’s face darkened, and he forcibly suppressed the urge to hit someone. “Then why did you drag us along to put on such a big act?”

“As the saying goes, better to overestimate the enemy. Let’s just assume it can understand human speech.” Emily Martin said nonchalantly. “It’s just acting, after all. It didn’t cost us much. This is called ‘whether or not there are dates, just hit the tree three times first.’”

Jason Brooks was a bit shocked.

Goodness, these rogue cultivators really can’t be trusted.

This trip has truly been an eye-opener.

He had been raised under strict clan rules since childhood, knew etiquette, understood filial piety, and could never lie so casually. Naturally, he felt he and Emily Martin were completely different types of people.

But then, it was normal for a cultivation family to educate their children this way. The clan’s 【Mingdao Academy】 certainly couldn’t teach kids all sorts of deceit and trickery, right?

Otherwise, the whole clan would be in constant conflict, sowing endless seeds of disaster.

For any noble family to endure for generations, besides solid strength, rules, etiquette, kinship, and reputation are all indispensable.

For a moment, Jason Brooks became even more wary of Emily Martin, lest he be tricked by her and end up helping her count the money.

“So, what’s your next plan, Miss Qianqian?” Jason Brooks was still worried about the locust sparrow disaster and pressed on.

“Aren’t there still some old spirit rice stocks in the manor?” Emily Martin rummaged through her storage pouch at her waist, took out a porcelain bottle, and said mysteriously, “I have a bottle of unique 【Drunken Mist Powder】 here. It’s colorless and tasteless—just a single drop can knock out a cow.”

“Hiss!”

Jason Brooks sucked in a cold breath, took a few steps back to distance himself from Emily Martin, his eyes full of vigilance.

“Miss Qianqian, why do you carry such a strong sedative with you?”

“The cultivation world is so dangerous. As a rogue cultivator girl, it’s perfectly reasonable for me to carry a strong sedative for self-defense.”

Emily Martin blinked her innocent and seemingly pure eyes, explaining with a straight face.

Chapter 10: Men die for wealth, birds die for food

“Is it reasonable?”

“Isn’t it reasonable?”

“Obviously it’s not…” Jason Brooks waved his hand, unwilling to argue further, and instead questioned, “That leader locust sparrow is extremely cunning and wary. I doubt it’ll fall for it so easily.”

“A beast is still just a beast. No matter how cunning, how can it compare to a human?” Emily Martin was full of confidence. “Next, just follow my instructions, and I guarantee that leader locust sparrow won’t escape our grasp.”

“Alright, then I’ll wait and see.” Jason Brooks hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded in agreement.

“Leave it to me.” Emily Martin patted her chest with great confidence. “Have the kitchen cook a pot of spirit rice, make a few good dishes, and oh, get a jar of good wine too.”

Jason Brooks looked at her sideways. “I can understand using rice as bait, but the wine and dishes…”

“Even the King of Hell isn’t short of hungry ghosts. I have to eat my fill before working, right?” Emily Martin rolled her eyes.

Seriously, she’d kept watch over Jason Brooks all night on the mountain path, and had been flying around busy all day today—she was already starving.

“……” Jason Brooks fell silent for a long while, doubting whether he’d put his trust in the wrong person after all.

“Ahem~”

Henry Brooks cleared his throat and smoothed things over with a smile. “Miss Qianqian is right. Let’s eat first, then get to work. I’ll have someone arrange it.”

Several hours later.

By dusk, the sky was already growing dim.

Outside the two mu of spirit fields at the farm, inside the night watch hut.