Chapter 342: Upgrading the Disaster Poison Gu |
Long Xuan, unsurprisingly, had no interest in the invitation.
This so-called Master Wei had a questionable character, and Long Xuan wouldn’t dare team up with someone like him.
Moreover, this was a task more suited for someone at the peak of the Spiritual Sea stage, not a mere early-stage Spiritual Sea Gu cultivator like himself.
A single Breaking King Pill could easily entice a peak-stage Spiritual Sea cultivator, making it a more cost-effective option. Why specifically seek out him, an early-stage Spiritual Sea Gu cultivator?
The very reason Master Wei sought him out made Long Xuan suspicious. He seriously doubted Master Wei's motives for inviting him to hunt spirit beasts.
Without hesitation, Long Xuan outright refused:
"No, I'm naturally afraid of death. A Breaking King Pill isn't enough for me to risk my life."
"If there's nothing else, Master Wei, I ask you to leave."
Hearing this, Master Wei's face stiffened. He had not expected Long Xuan to actually refuse and resist the temptation of a Breaking King Pill.
What kind of Spiritual Sea Gu cultivator would not be interested in a Breaking King Pill? Could it be that Long Xuan had already realized there was something off about it?
Ever since Long Xuan avoided consuming that Foundation Stabilizing Pill, which contained the Gu bug, Master Wei had suspected Long Xuan had discovered his secret.
Especially since Long Xuan, despite becoming suddenly wealthy, never purchased any pills from his shop again. This unusual behavior only increased his suspicion.
Why would anyone go out of their way to avoid buying nearby products? The fact that Long Xuan avoided his pills clearly indicated he had discovered something. This realization had left Master Wei sleepless.
Thus, Master Wei decided to invite Long Xuan to hunt a Grade-4 spirit beast, planning to use this opportunity to eliminate him.
Whether or not Long Xuan had uncovered his secret, Master Wei resolved to kill him just to ensure peace of mind. Better to kill a thousand mistakenly than to let one slip by.
With such determination, Master Wei couldn’t give up easily. He immediately added:
"I forgot to mention, near the Grade-4 spirit beast's lair, there are Big Dragonfish—one of which is a Grade-3 Dragonfish King."
"Didn’t you mention that you’ve been searching for a Grade-3 Dragonfish King?"
"I'm assembling over ten Spiritual Sea cultivators to help me hunt the Grade-4 spirit beast. They can also catch the Dragonfish King for you."
"You know that capturing such a creature, living underwater, is no easy task. If I don’t help you, who knows how long it will take to acquire it?"
Hearing this, Long Xuan’s expression froze.
The second evolution of the Dragon Gu required materials such as deer antlers, camel heads, rabbit eyes, snake necks, mirage stomachs, carp scales, eagle claws, tiger paws, and ox ears.
Furthermore, all these beast materials needed to come from Grade-3 spirit beast kings with specific characteristics, making them exceedingly difficult to collect.
After a year of running his shop, Long Xuan had finally collected eight of the required materials, with only the scales of a Grade-3 Dragonfish King remaining.
As long as he obtained those scales, he could immediately complete the Dragon Gu's evolution.
The Dragonfish scales were indeed among the few things capable of tempting him.
Long Xuan’s heart sank. Master Wei's persistence in dragging him along to hunt the Grade-4 spirit beast clearly showed that Master Wei suspected Long Xuan knew his secret and intended to kill him.
This thought sparked a killing intent in Long Xuan.
As the saying goes, one can be a thief for a thousand days but cannot guard against one for a thousand days.
Since Master Wei had set his sights on killing him, Long Xuan didn’t want to live in constant fear.
There was always a chance for mistakes in perpetual vigilance. The best way to resolve this issue was to eliminate Master Wei once and for all.
With this in mind, Long Xuan resolved to accompany Master Wei on this trip. But who would end up dead in the wilderness remained uncertain, Long Xuan thought coldly.
"Fine. Since you know the whereabouts of the Dragonfish King, I’ll join you. When do we depart?" Long Xuan asked.
Hearing this, Master Wei secretly rejoiced, though he maintained a calm exterior:
"We’ll depart in seven days at dawn. Arrange your shop matters before then."
After saying this, Master Wei quickly left, seemingly afraid Long Xuan might change his mind.
Watching him leave, Long Xuan shut the shop doors and entered the space within the Heaven-Devouring World's Toad Body. There, he found the Earth Master Gu, sound asleep.
At this point, the Earth Master Gu had grown significantly larger, and Long Xuan had to look up at it.
Its massive size meant a bigger appetite. Fortunately, Long Xuan had modified its diet to include soil, or else this behemoth would have drained him financially.
However, the larger the Earth Master Gu grew, the more evolution materials it required. Its continuous growth meant future expenses would only increase.
Long Xuan sighed. This was the consequence of his own choices. The Earth Master Gu’s strength was directly proportional to its size. To enhance its power, he had no choice but to increase its size.
Yet, excessive size came with drawbacks.
Its growing appetite aside, its larger size required larger Gu armor, which consumed more expensive materials during crafting. The materials for its evolutions also increased exponentially.
Initially, the Earth Master Gu had the best cost-performance ratio among Gu insect, but as its size grew, it became less cost-effective.
Long Xuan poured dozens of bags of Silver Soil onto the ground, leaving only one bag behind.
He sighed inwardly. Would these dozens of bags of Silver Soil be enough to facilitate the Earth Master Gu’s evolution?
If not, he’d have to decode the Silver Soil recipe or create a peak-grade Spirit Soil, which would waste considerable time.
As Long Xuan emptied the Silver Soil onto the ground, the area quickly became a silvery mound.
The Earth Master Gu’s nose twitched as it awakened, its eyes lighting up upon seeing the Silver Soil. It raised its mountainous body and rushed over.
The mound of Silver Soil—dozens of bags’ worth—was devoured in just a few bites.
Long Xuan was stunned by its voracious appetite. If it continued growing, who knew how much high-grade Spirit Soil it would require for future evolution?
After consuming the Silver Soil, the Earth Master Gu soon fell into a deep slumber. Long Xuan let out a long breath.
Slumber was good; it meant evolution was underway. Once it awakened, it would likely become a rare Gu bug.
With the Earth Master Gu’s evolution set, and the Dragon Gu on the verge of completing its own, Long Xuan prepared to upgrade his next Gu insect.
He soon turned his attention to the Disaster Poison Gu, which was also lazily napping nearby.
At this moment, the green toad was sprawled in the herb garden filled with poisonous flowers and herbs, sleeping soundly. Even in its dreams, it was greedily inhaling the poisonous mist in the air like an addict.
The growth process of the Disaster Poison Gu required collecting all types of poisons from around the world. Over the past year of running his shop, Long Xuan had gathered numerous rare poisons for this purpose, spending a significant fortune.
The myriad of strange poisons in the world was endless, and the Disaster Poison Gu was practically a bottomless pit, costing even more than treasure hunters.
Having spent so much on it, Long Xuan decided not to let it idle anymore. He had already planned how the Disaster Poison Gu would undergo its second evolution—by introducing Polonium from his past life.
Polonium was undoubtedly one of the most toxic substances from his previous life; 0.1 grams could kill 100 billion people. Since the Disaster Poison Gu relied on consuming the deadliest poisons to transform, the toxicity of Polonium would certainly meet its requirements.
When synthesizing Plutonium earlier, Long Xuan had already gained sufficient experience. With the assistance of the Heavenly Eye's ability and the capabilities of several Gu insects, along with meticulous protective measures, creating Polonium was not difficult for him.
The most critical advantage was that he didn’t need to search the world for materials. Among all the Gu insects yet to evolve, upgrading the Disaster Poison Gu was undoubtedly the most convenient and least time-consuming.
Seven days later, Long Xuan stared at the Disaster Poison Gu, which had been thoroughly poisoned into unconsciousness, and fell into deep thought.
It had passed out again. A dignified Disaster Poison Gu, possessing an immunity to poison, being poisoned unconscious was truly a marvel.
"Sigh!" Long Xuan sighed lightly. This wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. When he fed it Plutonium earlier, it had experienced the same situation, taking a long time to wake up.
Based on previous cases, Long Xuan believed that as long as the Disaster Poison Gu fully digested the Polonium in its body, it would wake up and complete its transformation. There was no need to worry; he just had to wait patiently.
Thus, Long Xuan left the unconscious Disaster Poison Gu there, showing no trace of concern on his face.
After exiting the spatial zone within the Heaven-Devouring World Toad, Long Xuan stepped out of the Insect Armor Shop and walked toward the outskirts of the city.
Today was the day to meet Master Wei and the others. Not only did he need to find the Grand Dragonfish, but he also intended to take this opportunity to completely deal with the troublesome Master Wei.
He had no interest in letting a venomous snake watch his every move.
Taking precautions, Long Xuan left a fragment of his soul with his clone, sending it ahead to rendezvous with the group outside the city, while his true self followed at a distance.
With the Eye of Heavenly Secret capable of observing from afar, tracking Gu cultivators at the Spiritual Sea stage without being discovered was no challenge.
No matter what schemes Master Wei concocted, as long as his true self stayed outside the trap, all of Wei’s plots would fail.
The corners of Long Xuan’s lips curved into a smirk. With the enemy in the open and himself hidden, Master Wei would only end up defeated.
Some time later, Long Xuan entered a small forest in the northern part of the city and finally saw the group of more than ten teammates for this mission.
Apart from him, there were eleven others present, some sitting on branches, others on rocks.
Among them, ten were at the peak of the Spiritual Sea stage.
The remaining one was at the mid-Spiritual Sea stage—none other than Master Wei, the organizer of this mission.
As for Long Xuan himself, he was at the early-Spiritual Sea stage, the weakest in the group.
The team included only one female Gu cultivator, an old acquaintance of his—the brothel keeper, Madam Yue—who was at the peak of the Spiritual Sea stage.
Most of the others were somewhat familiar to him. Even if they weren’t close, they had interacted before.
After all, running a shop in the city for a year meant meeting all sorts of people.
The circle of Spiritual Sea stage Gu cultivators wasn’t that large. Over time, he had come to recognize nearly all of them.
Five of these individuals had even purchased insect armor from his shop before and were old acquaintances.
These five were brothers, known as the Five Ghosts of Plum Mountain. They had visited his shop together to buy a set of Five Elements Insect Armor that could combine into a single formation.
Old Mei First, Old Mei Two, Old Mei Three, Old Mei Four, and Old Mei Five.
The five of them work together with exceptional coordination, allowing them to easily fight opponents above their level.
These limited-edition insect armors were incredibly powerful even individually. When the five types of insect armor were combined, they could form a grand formation, multiplying their power several times over—enough to challenge enemies above their level.
After trading five Beast King-grade materials for the Five Elements Insect Armor, the Five Ghosts of Plum Mountain had seen their strength soar and gained even greater fame around Sin City.
Long Xuan hadn’t expected Master Wei to have the clout to recruit the Five Ghosts of Plum Mountain. These five were among the top-tier combatants among all Spiritual Sea stage Gu cultivators in Sin City and were incredibly wealthy—far from easy to hire.
As Long Xuan arrived, sharp gazes swept over him. Upon recognizing him as the renowned Master Song of the city, smiles of goodwill appeared, and many greeted him warmly.
Particularly the Five Ghosts of Plum Mountain, who had purchased the Five Elements Insect Armor, greeted him amicably.
No one looked down on him for having the lowest cultivation level. Who could guarantee they wouldn’t need insect armor in the future?
Master Song was universally acknowledged as the top insect armor craftsman in the city, holding a prestigious position in their circle. Most would rather curry favor than offend him.
"Looks like I’m late. My apologies for keeping everyone waiting," Long Xuan said, feigning an apologetic demeanor as he slowly approached the group.
"You’re not late; you’ve arrived just on time," Madam Yue replied first, then turned to Master Wei and asked, "The time is up, and there are only twelve of us here. Of these, only ten are at the peak of the Spiritual Sea stage. Are you sure we have enough manpower to take down that Grade-4 Spiritual Beast?"
"Our numbers seem insufficient. Even if we manage to kill the Grade-4 Spiritual Beast, it will come at a great cost," Madam Yue frowned.
"Rest assured, the numbers are more than enough!" Master Wei said with a laugh. "I’m participating in this mission too. Do you think I’d risk my own life?"
"To be honest, I have a powerful formation disk. Once it’s set up, it can trap the Grade-4 Spiritual Beast and weaken its combat strength by 90%."
"A Grade-4 Spiritual Beast with only 10% of its combat power remaining will be easy for us to handle. You can relax."
Inwardly, Master Wei sneered. He knew that having more people would reduce casualties and allow them to overpower the beast effortlessly.
But the more people involved, the higher the cost. He wasn’t foolish enough to pay extra.
Fewer people might mean casualties, but that wasn’t his concern. If others died, it would only save him the trouble of distributing the Breaking King Pill.
Hearing Master Wei’s explanation, the suspicion on everyone’s faces lessened considerably.
Indeed, since Master Wei was also participating, it was unlikely he would send himself to his death.
If he dared to take the risk, it meant he had absolute confidence in his formation disk’s ability to trap the Grade-4 Spiritual Beast and weaken it by 90%.
Everyone’s curiosity was piqued. What kind of formation disk could be so terrifying?
Under the guidance of Spiritual Sea stage Gu cultivators, this formation disk could threaten a Grade-4 Spiritual Beast. Its value must be astronomical, but where did Master Wei obtain it?