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However, empty is empty. No matter how much he searched, it was impossible for him to retrieve the Living Wood from thin air.

Luo Zheng’s face gradually turned pale.

Breaking off a piece of bark might not be a crime worthy of death for a prince.

But losing the Living Wood—that was a much bigger problem.

That was something the Great Yin Emperor was relying on to save his life. Losing it would mean certain disaster for them. The Great Yin Emperor would never forgive them, and it\'s likely the emperor would even want them dead.

With that thought, Luo Zheng’s face became even paler, and terror flickered in his eyes. The calm composure he had moments ago was now completely gone.

He understood that this was a serious problem, one far beyond his control.

If Luo Zheng was already in such a state, then Luo Ye, who was even more timid and cowardly, was naturally worse off. His legs were trembling, and his entire body was shaking in fear, cold sweat pouring down his back.

He collapsed into a chair, his face deathly white, eyes filled with despair. He knew what fate awaited him if the Living Wood was truly lost.

“Stop looking!” Luo Yu snapped angrily, seeing Luo Zheng still frantically searching for the Living Wood. “The aura of the Living Wood was leaking. No matter how carefully you guarded it, it was bound to be stolen.”

“You two are just Gu cultivators at the Marrow Cleansing stage. Any Gu King could easily sneak in and take the Living Wood right from under your noses without you even noticing.”

“In front of a Gu King, what use is all your caution? The situation has already spiraled out of control!”

Luo Yu’s face darkened. Clearly, a Gu King had sneaked in, and even though the Living Wood had vanished mysteriously, he wasn’t surprised at all.

He quickly scanned the surroundings and noticed that the formation around the room had been breached at some point. His expression turned even darker.

It was evident that the thief who had taken the Living Wood was not only a Gu King but also someone skilled in formations. This was the only clue Luo Yu could deduce from his inspection of the scene.

Just then, he sensed multiple Gu Kings approaching. His face changed, and he hurriedly said, “They’re already on their way here. We can’t hide this any longer.”

“Hurry! Escape through the tunnel! We’re in serious trouble. The Living Wood is already lost, but most people still believe it’s in our hands. No matter how much we explain, no one will believe us.”

Luo Yu quickly opened a hidden tunnel beneath the bed. This tunnel was newly dug and wasn’t very long.

Their house was located near the city wall, so it wouldn’t take long for the tunnel to lead them outside the city.

Luo Yu quickly led the two princes into the tunnel, and they disappeared without a trace.

Just moments after they fled, the door to their room was violently kicked open.

Yan Pojun stormed in, and seeing that the room was empty, a cold smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

He wasn’t worried about finding no one inside. In fact, it reassured him. It meant that the people hiding inside were up to no good, and the Living Wood was most likely in their possession.

Sweeping his spiritual senses across the room, Yan Pojun quickly noticed the tunnel beneath the bed. With a gentle wave of his right hand, he shattered both the bed and the tunnel’s entrance, revealing a dark hole.

His smile grew even wider. “Chase them! Someone dared to secretly dig a tunnel leading outside the city. This is clearly the work of traitors trying to open a passage for enemies to invade. Their treachery cannot be tolerated! We must not let them escape.”

The group of Gu Kings who followed him showed expressions of excitement and joy, immediately jumping into the tunnel and vanishing.

Meanwhile, the other Gu Kings who were searching the rest of the area also noticed the disturbance and rushed into the room. When they saw the large hole, they laughed heartily and wasted no time in jumping into it.

As for the two Spiritual Sea Gu cultivators guarding the courtyard, their heads had already been severed and they lay dead in pools of blood.

---

Long Xuan quietly slipped back into the Long Clan’s estate. Once inside his room, he immediately closed all the windows and doors. Finally, he let out a sigh of relief, his tense nerves finally relaxing. By now, he was completely safe.

However, the thought that he, a mere Marrow Cleansing stage Gu practitioner, had managed to obtain the Living Wood that hundreds of Gu Kings couldn’t help but made him feel both excited and smug.

Unfortunately, Long Xuan was a cautious person. Even though his residence was surrounded by formations that could conceal the aura of supreme-grade spiritual herbs, he didn’t dare take out the Living Wood to admire it. He had to suppress his curiosity.

Better safe than sorry. What if the aura of the peak-grade spiritual herb leaked?

In this world, nothing is ever guaranteed. What good is a formation that blocks the aura of a spiritual herb? Those two princes thought their formation could conceal the Living Wood, and what happened?

Even though the formations around his residence were personally set up by Long Qian and were far superior to those around the other house, Long Xuan knew better than to let his guard down.

Even rabbit can sense the aura of peak-grade spiritual herbs through formations. Who’s to say there won’t be another creature like that rabbit?

Long Xuan’s paranoia got the better of him. Thinking of that rabbit, which defied all logic, made him even more reluctant to take out the Living Wood.

He quickly ordered his Sou Gu to transplant the Living Wood into his medicinal garden, using peak-grade spiritual soil and watering it with spiritual spring water. He decided not to worry about the Living Wood for the time being.

However, what Long Xuan didn’t know was that while his Sou Gu carefully planted the Living Wood in peak-grade spiritual soil and watered it with spiritual spring water every day, it also peeled off the tree bark to build its house. Meanwhile, the Heavenly Dream Silkworm had flown over and eaten all the leaves off the Living Wood.

With no one watching over them, the creatures in his garden ran wild, completely unrestrained. Even Chicken Brother had grown fatter, having devoured many high-quality spiritual insects while Long Xuan was away, and its body was noticeably larger.

If not for the master-servant blood pact that Long Xuan had established with the Heavenly Dream Silkworm and Chicken Brother, which prevented servants from surpassing their master’s level, they would have already advanced to the next stage with all the food they’d consumed.

Long Xuan had no idea that the little creatures in his garden had already rebelled. If the Jade Rabbit saw this, It’d probably be furious.

The bark and leaves of the Living Wood were essential ingredients for refining pills, and it had begged Long Xuan for a long time to get them. It had been planning to use them to refine the Longevity Pill as soon as it returned. Now, in an unguarded moment, all it\'s efforts had been wasted, ruined by others. It’d done all that work only for someone else to reap the benefits.

Long Xuan was still completely unaware of the chaos in his garden. The night was long, and he had no desire to sleep. Having just outwitted a group of Gu Kings and stolen the Living Wood, his heart was too excited to rest.

The Living Wood wasn\'t of much use to him personally, but it was extremely valuable for his insects. The Heavenly Dream Dragon Silkworm fed on the leaves of high-grade spirit trees, which enhanced the strength of its silk and could even trigger a metamorphosis.

It could be said that the Heavenly Dream Dragon Silkworm was a type of Gu insect that became stronger the more high-grade spirit trees it consumed.

Collecting various Earth-grade and Heaven-grade spirit trees was something he had long decided to do.

For the sole reason that it benefited the Heavenly Dream Dragon Silkworm, he couldn\'t stay calm in the face of the Living Wood.

Since he was too excited to sleep, Long Xuan had no choice but to sit down and work on Gu rceipe.

He opened the secret chamber in his room, which was used for researching the Dragon Blood Battle Gu, and quickly walked inside.

Ignoring the insect-rearing bags scattered on the floor, he sat at the table, preparing to start his research on the Gu rceipe.

After a brief pause, he finally placed the fragment of the Longevity Gu formula, which Old Dragon had given him earlier that day, on the table, his gaze intense as he stared at it.

Tonight, he would focus on researching the Longevity Gu formula.

The Longevity Gu was not of great use to him personally; his original intention in researching it was to fulfill Old Long\'s dream—something the old man had spent his entire life trying to achieve but never did. Long Xuan didn’t want Elder Long to have any regrets.

However, now he suddenly wondered, was the Longevity Gu truly useless to him? Perhaps not.

Who was he? He was a genius at researching Gu recipe, someone who loved exploring unconventional paths and always sought to blaze new trails. His imagination was arguably unparalleled.

So why should he follow the traditional methods of researching the Longevity Gu? Instead, he decided to break away from convention and innovate, creating a version of the Longevity Gu that didn’t fit within the world’s norms.

How could the concept of the Longevity Gu be expanded? With his boundless imagination, Long Xuan quickly came up with an idea, his eyes lighting up.

He thought: What if the Longevity Gu wasn’t just beneficial to humans but also to Gu insects?

It was known that lower-grade spirit insects had a lifespan of over ten years but less than a hundred years.

Mid-grade spirit insects had a lifespan of over a hundred years but less than a thousand.

High-grade spirit insects lived for more than a thousand years but less than ten thousand.

Peak-grade spirit insects lived for over ten thousand years, with no upper limit.

The lifespan pattern of Gu insects followed the same principle as spirit insects.

So, could the lifespan of Gu insects be extended to upgrade a lower-grade Gu insect to a mid-grade one?

At this thought, Long Xuan’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, his gaze filled with excitement, and his breathing became rapid.

Good heavens, changing the quality-grade of a Gu insect entirely—that was almost defying the natural order!

Just think: his Sou Gu currently couldn’t transport people, but if it were upgraded to a mid-grade Gu insect, it might gain the ability to carry people during teleportation.

If nothing else, just this possibility made Long Xuan eager to develop this version of the Longevity Gu.

However, after the initial excitement, he quickly calmed down. It seemed things weren’t that simple. Extending a Gu insect’s lifespan might not necessarily change its quality.

Aside from a few exceptions, the stronger a creature was, the longer its lifespan tended to be.

In most cases, a creature’s strength was directly proportional to its lifespan, a natural law of this world. Humans followed this rule too.

But this wasn’t a strict rule. Could an artificially extended lifespan really change fixed genetics?

Therefore, if he wanted to upgrade the Sou Gu to a mid-grade Gu insect, he would need to find a way to give this species a lifespan of over a hundred years from the start, rather than artificially adding a hundred years later.

In simple terms, a Gu insect’s quality was influenced by its innate lifespan, while an artificially extended lifespan had no such effect.

To improve the quality of a Gu insect by extending its lifespan, he would have to work on its innate lifespan, meaning he would have to alter the species\' genes.

Long Xuan\'s eyes flickered with thoughts. In this case, his plan to develop a universal Longevity Gu was dead in the water.

Humans were humans, and Gu insects were Gu insects. If he wanted to give the Sou Gu a hundred-year lifespan naturally, he would need to develop a unique Longevity Gu specifically for that species.

Moreover, because of the species difference, this Longevity Gu would only work for the Sou Gu and not for any other Gu types.

“Well then, I’ll just develop two Longevity Gu versions. It shouldn’t take much more time.”

Long Xuan was not discouraged. He picked up his pen, preparing to first develop the Longevity Gu that would work for the Sou Gu. The Longevity Gu for humans could wait; he wasn’t in a rush.

The most pressing task was to upgrade the Sou Gu’s quality and give it the ability to teleport living creatures.

As long as he could achieve that, he could teleport all the spirit insects in his laboratory to his distant herb garden in the Far West.

Originally, it wouldn’t have been easy to embezzle the lab\'s experimental materials, but if the Sou Gu gained the ability to teleport living creatures, it would be effortless to steal all the spirit insect resources here.

And no one would notice a thing—it was the perfect crime.

So, the most important task was to give the Sou Gu the ability to teleport living creatures. Everything else could wait.

Gazing at the countless insect-rearing bags scattered on the ground, Long Xuan’s eyes gleamed with greed.

This massive wealth of spirit insect resources would soon all be his. How could he not be excited? He was about to strike it rich.