Chapter 185: The Sinister Plot of the Long Clan from Western Lands
"But now, with Blackstone City under complete lockdown, everyone is trapped inside, unable to leave, with water and food supplies running out. The more they use, the less they have."
"In this situation, who would dare to use a large amount of food to feed those insects?"
"So, all the clans have started to crazily dump their spirit insect resources, and they\'re selling them off at rock-bottom prices, practically giving them away."
"Even at such low prices, no one wants to buy them. Right now, a single cabbage is more expensive than a high-grade spirit insect in the city. It’s that outrageous."
"And thanks to our clan’s ability to communicate with the outside world, we don’t lack food at all. We can buy up all the spirit insect resources in the city at absurdly low prices."
"You heard that right, we’ve bought up all the spirit insect resources in the entire city for almost nothing."
"Hahaha… This time our clan has hit the jackpot. This calamity in Blackstone City is simply an opportunity for us."
"Researching the Dragon Blood Battle Gu formula requires a massive amount of resources, and now it’s like we’re conducting our research at zero cost, using the entire city’s resources for free, hahaha..."Long Qian burst into maniacal laughter, his voice thunderous.
Long Xuan moved a bit farther away, stunned by what he was hearing. Could this really be happening?
His eyes widened. Was the Long Clan of the Western Lands really going from rags to riches overnight, upgrading from old rifles to modern artillery?
He could only imagine that the piles of insect rearing bags weren\'t all they had. The Long Clan was truly making a killing this time.
No wonder Long Qian was laughing so heartily. If it were him, he’d be laughing like crazy too.
After his laughter subsided, Long Qian continued, "Now we have almost enough resources to experiment with the Dragon Blood Battle Gu formula."
"The defensive power of the Dragon Blood Battle Gu would be sufficient to withstand the damage from the Plague Demon Gu. If we can refine the Dragon Blood Battle Gu, we could essentially ignore the tiny airborne insects, including the Plague Demon Gu itself."
"By then, our clan wouldn’t need to fear the Plague Demon Gu too much. Even if the city falls, our high-ranking members could withstand the Gu\'s damage and force their way out."
"That’s why the Dragon Blood Battle Gu is so important to the clan. We must research it as quickly as possible and at all costs," Long Qian said seriously, looking at Long Xuan.
Long Xuan asked in surprise, "Why not just break out through the spatial hut? You’ve been holding on for two months over there."
Long Qian shook his head and said seriously, "We can’t leave yet. If the other clans discover the secret of the spatial hut, our Long Clan would become the target of everyone’s hatred, and the consequences would be unimaginable. More importantly, if we leave, we won’t be able to make money."
"Don’t worry, Blackstone City’s situation hasn’t reached the point where we must flee. Blackstone City is the most fortified city in the Western Lands. Even if Shi Haojun has countless plague zombies, it won’t be easy for him to breach the city."
"Because of an auction, there are plenty of spirit stones in the city, enough to sustain the defensive formation for a long time."
"The only shortage is food and water. Blackstone City is too far from the Central Region. Even the fastest reinforcement from there would take two or three years, and there’s no way the food and water in the city can last that long."
"Frankly speaking, without the spatial hut, Blackstone City definitely wouldn’t hold."
"But with the spatial cabin, we can secretly transport food and supplies into the city. Blackstone City can totally hold out for a few years."
"Hehe, you have to know that food and water in the city now are worth their weight in gold, the most valuable things in the city, and their prices are rising daily."
"If we secretly bring food into the city, we can make a fortune."
"If we sell food in Blackstone City for a few years, we could almost empty out the treasuries of all the clans. Hahaha... This is a deal worth doing, we’re going to be rich! Hahaha..."
Long Qian laughed wildly again, almost to the point of tears.
Hearing this, Long Xuan couldn’t help but twitch his mouth. He hadn’t expected the Long Clan from the Western Lands to be planning to profit from others’ misfortune, seizing this chance to plunder all the city’s resources.
Good heavens, they were truly ruthless. No wonder they were unwilling to leave. They were completely captivated by the mountains of wealth they were accumulating.
He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the other clans in the city. With the Long Clan’s greedy eyes fixed on them, what hope did they have?
If they knew what the Long Clan was planning, they’d probably be furious.
Thinking this, Long Xuan hurriedly reminded, "You’d better not use the Long Clan’s name to sell those things. They’ll figure it out eventually, and then the Long Clan could become the target of everyone’s anger."
Long Qian gave him a sideways glance and said disdainfully, "You think those higher-ups are fools? They’re sharper than anyone. Rest assured, they know what they’re doing."
"Alright then! I’ll say no more. I’ll take the materials inside and start working on the Gu Recipe immediately."
Long Xuan’s eyes glowed as he looked at the mountains of insect rearing bags and began to summon the ice bees to move the materials.
The ice bees, strong as they were, worked in groups of three or four, grabbing the breeding bags and flying towards the mountain top. In no time, the thousands of ice bees had moved all the insect bags from the ground.
Long Qian watched in amazement, feeling very curious about this group of bees in the sky that he had never seen before. However, he kept his mouth shut and didn’t ask any questions. He simply waved at Long Xuan and said, “I’ll leave now. I’m waiting for your good news. Don’t let us down.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t take long.” After saying this, Long Xuan excitedly ran back to the formation, smiling so widely that his mouth couldn’t close. He couldn’t help but sigh—it truly was a great day, with double blessings!
Not only had the recipe for the Longevity Gu been successfully completed, but the materials needed to refine the Blade Gu had also been gathered instantly.
Indeed, he was in a hurry to return not to study the Dragon Blood Battle Gu recipe, but to begin refining his Blade Gu immediately.
He had already completed the Dragon Blood Battle Gu recipe long ago, but to appear more reasonable, he decided to delay submitting the research results a little.
Originally, he planned to hand over the results in five years to get more resources, but since the Long Clan of Western Lands was in urgent need, he decided to shorten the time to within two years.
Even now, it was still too early to deliver the results. It had only been a little over five months, and it would seem too fake to have researched the Dragon Blood Battle Gu recipe in such a short time.
He decided to use the batch of spirit insects sent by the Long Clan of Western Lands to refine the Blade Gu. Although the collected spirit insects were not the most diverse, he couldn’t wait any longer.
The spirit insects sent by the Long Clan of Western Lands were just those collected from the Western Lands, not all the insects in this world.
The Long Clan of Western Lands could only collect hundreds of thousands of spirit insect species within their region, but in the entire Gu world, there were roughly several million species of insects that hadn’t gone extinct. The Long Clan of Western Lands couldn’t collect unique insect species from every region, and Long Xuan didn’t have time to visit all those places.
Therefore, he decided to refine a Blade Gu of a few hundred thousand-levels and not pursue perfection. To truly pursue perfection, he would have to go to the Spirit World, as the insect species remaining in the Gu world were less than a tenth of those in the Spirit World.
After returning to the mountain, Long Xuan found a basin-like terrain, preparing to refine the Gu in this natural basin.
Calling it a basin might be an exaggeration; it was just a giant natural pit.
His cultivation cave covered such a large area that finding such terrain was not difficult.
This time, he couldn’t use a vessel to refine the Gu, as the number of spirit insects, reaching hundreds of thousands, was too overwhelming, and no vessel could accommodate such a large number. Thus, Long Xuan could only use this large pit to refine the Gu.
He planned to reinforce this area and keep a barrier active all day to prevent rainwater from ruining the refining process and wasting his efforts.
It was his first time refining a Gu with such a large quantity of materials, and for a moment, he was at a loss.
Finally, with the help of his clones, all preparations were completed. He then ordered the clones to pour all the prepared spirit insects into the basin.
The number of spirit insects was about 530,000, and they filled the basin densely, making one’s scalp tingle.
With so many spirit insects fighting and devouring each other, the scene would be thrilling and extremely brutal.
Long Xuan first used an illusion technique to capture all their consciousnesses into an illusionary space to prevent them from fighting and losing his materials prematurely.
Some of these materials were endangered species, and he didn’t have many of them in hand; he couldn’t afford to lose them.
Afterward, he released the mantis with ten arms. As soon as (Xiao Yue) Little moon entered the basin and saw countless spirit insects, it immediately realized that its master had prepared these as evolution materials.
It became excited instantly, full of fighting spirit, and fearlessly charged at the massive number of enemies with its ten blades swinging confidently.
Long Xuan kept observing the progress of the Gu refining site. His golden finger technique was based on the host’s perception, so it was enough to classify this place as a Gu refining vessel.
When he saw Little Moon enter the basin without any progress in refining, he quickly pulled it back.
Little Moon turned its head to look at him curiously, then charged towards the basin again.
Very soon, it was pulled back by Long Xuan again. This one person and one insect repeated this back-and-forth several times until Long Xuan finally saw progress in the Gu refining site. Only then did he let Little Moon rush into the insect swarm smoothly.
At the same time, Long Xuan lifted the illusion he had placed on the insect swarm, and the various insect species instantly began killing each other.
He didn’t even need to use the Hunger Refining Gu method. They had been almost starved when they were bought.
Moreover, many of these insect species were born predators, and even without any means, they would actively attack the surrounding insect species.
So the scene instantly became chaotic, with fights and battles all over the basin.
In one moment, a giant spider killed a centipede. In the next, a scorpion cut a snake in two, and in another moment, a toad swallowed a beetle in one gulp.
Among them, the most ferocious was a silver mantis, wielding its scythes, killing one after another, with no insect able to get close to it.
It had entered the battlefield with ten blades; who could defeat it? It wasn’t long before the ground beneath it was covered with insect corpses, many of them cut in half.
Seeing its ferocity, over a dozen powerful insect species began to surround and attack it, but it wasn’t afraid at all. It slashed through a spider web with one strike and, with another slash, cut against another mantis’s blade. They fought back and forth, each side having its turn.
This was a grand battle of hundreds of thousands of spirit insects, with extremely intense combat. The scene was spectacular as the spirit insects fought and devoured each other. Long Xuan was so mesmerized that he stood there watching for a long time, enjoying the sight before finally leaving.