Chapter 320: The Sixth Brother, Long Xuan |
Long Xuan gazed intently at the little girl in front of him. Judging by her appearance, she was no older than ten, yet she had already reached the peak of Marrow Cleansing stage. He couldn’t help but wonder what she had been eating to grow so powerful.
"Stop staring. That little girl is a monster. Her cultivation speed is unmatched across all of Central Land. She’s heaven’s favorite child," someone remarked beside him.
"According to the original plan," Long Xuan said, "I’ll search the eastern side, and you’ll search the western side. Whoever finds the location of the Earth Spirit Tree first should immediately use a communication talisman to notify the other."
"Don’t even think about keeping the Earth Spirit Tree for yourself. Its location is protected by a formation, which can only be opened with a specific key. And only I know how to find that key,"
"Also, the Earth Spirit Tree grows underground. It’s probably hidden in a secret chamber. Make sure to search each room thoroughly."
After conveying this through voice transmission, Shui Juanyun headed west.
Long Xuan waited until Shui Juanyun disappeared into the crowd before retracting his gaze.
He didn’t act immediately. After all, why would he need to search room by room when he had other means?
Long Xuan activated his golden finger ability, sweeping the ground with his perception. Before long, he spotted a unique symbol of infinity at a specific location. That had to be where the Earth Spirit Tree was hidden.
Just as he was about to withdraw his perception, something caught his eye—a decimal point followed by four digits above an old man’s head.
His pupils shrank in shock.
This indicated the man had a lifespan exceeding a thousand years, and any Gu cultivator living that long was often a Gu King.
Long Xuan took a sharp breath.
Good heavens, the intel was wrong!
They had claimed the Teng Clan no longer had any Gu Kings, yet they had hidden a Gu King all along.
Even so, Long Xuan decided not to abandon the mission.
At worst, if the Gu King showed up, he could immediately use the Hundred-Mile Talisman to escape. He had an escape route.
Earlier, he had confirmed that there were no formations here to block spatial techniques, so the Hundred-Mile Talisman would work without fail.
Next, Long Xuan began preparing his escape plan.
If he could leave quietly, that would be ideal. But in case of unforeseen circumstances—like being pursued by Teng Clan Gu cultivators—he needed a backup plan.
The Hundred-Mile Talisman was an option, but it had a high time cost to craft, so he preferred not to use it unless absolutely necessary.
His first thought was to gain the ability to transform into a Teng Clan Gu cultivator.
In the chaos of a family-wide pursuit, blending in as one of their own would make it far easier to escape.
He could easily change his appearance and body shape, but he lacked the Teng Clan's unique clothing, which was standardized and impossible to acquire outside.
That very uniformity, however, gave him an opportunity to blend in.
An idea struck him. He deliberately bumped into a Spiritual Sea Stage Gu cultivator from the Teng Clan.
Rip!
Long Xuan "accidentally" tore a corner of the cultivator’s robe.
“You!”
The Teng Family cultivator was about to lose his temper but froze when he recognized Long Xuan as one of the two Shui Clan members. Forcing a smile, he said, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine!” Long Xuan waved dismissively. “I drank too much earlier. Sorry about your robe. Should I compensate you with a new one?”
“It’s just a robe. Not worth much. By the way, where’s your companion?” the cultivator asked.
“Having stomach issues,” Long Xuan replied casually. “I’ll go check on him in the restroom. Catch you later!”
Without waiting for a response, Long Xuan quickly left.
The Teng Clan cultivator didn’t press further. He had only been making small talk and wasn’t interested in a stranger’s whereabouts.
In a secluded corner, Long Xuan placed the torn fabric into his Gu bag and ordered his Repair Gu to fix it.
A robe was an ordinary item, so repairing it wouldn’t take long.
As expected, the Repair Gu completed the task quickly, perfectly restoring a Teng Clan Spiritual Sea Realm Gu robe, complete with the oil stains from earlier. It was like magic.
After indulging in food and drink for a while longer, Long Xuan wiped his mouth and headed toward the location marked by the infinity symbol.
With the clear coordinates in his view, finding the hidden chamber was straightforward.
Near the coordinates, he searched the surrounding rooms and soon discovered a hidden passage behind a painting on a wall. It was well-concealed but couldn’t escape his sharp senses.
Without a doubt, this passage led to the Earth Spirit Tree hidden underground.
Smirking, Long Xuan didn’t enter immediately. It was obvious that an area this important would be guarded by someone.
Instead, he used a communication talisman to notify Shui Juanyun.
Meanwhile, Shui Juanyun was thoroughly exhausted after searching countless rooms, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Just as he was growing anxious, his storage bag vibrated. Ecstatic, he transformed into a stream of water and rushed to Long Xuan's location.
Following the instructions in the communication talisman, he soon found the room where Long Xuan was hiding.
Returning to his human form, Shui Juanyun excitedly asked through voice transmission, “Did you find the secret chamber hiding the Earth Spirit Tree?”
Long Xuan nodded and replied in kind, “The secret passage is behind that painting on the wall.
“But opening the door to the passage might make noise, potentially alerting those inside. I’m also unsure if the guards include any Spiritual Sea Stage Gu cultivators, so I haven’t acted recklessly.”
Shui Juanyun lifted the painting, revealing the secret door, and his eyes lit up with excitement.
“Don’t worry! I’ve thoroughly investigated how many Spiritual Sea Stage Gu cultivators and Gu Kings the Teng Clan has. I even remember all their faces.
“They just lured away five Spiritual Sea Stage cultivators earlier, and the rest are at the banquet. There’s no way they have any extra guards here.”
Despite Shui Juanyun’s confidence, Long Xuan remained cautious.
In the plan, it was absolutely impossible for the Teng Clan to leave a Gu King to guard the area. Yet, what happened?
No matter how much Shui Juanyun knew about the Central Lands, there would always be oversights.
“Wait here for now. Taking care of the ones guarding the Earth Spirit Tree isn’t hard; the tricky part is making sure they have no chance to alert others outside. Sending an alert is just a matter of an instant.”
“Leave all of them to me. I have a way to deal with them silently.”
At this moment, Shui Juanyun was worried that Long Xuan might act recklessly and ruin the plan, so he intended to take action alone.
However, Long Xuan was equally uneasy about Shui Juanyun.
No matter how many people were inside, if Long Xuan released the poisonous gas of his Disaster Poison Gu, everyone would silently die without any chance to raise an alarm.
But could Shui Juanyun, acting alone, really handle so many people at once and leave them without a chance to alert others?
Before Long Xuan could say anything, Shui Juanyun had already transformed into liquid form, slipping through the cracks of the sealed door and vanishing.
Long Xuan, who had been pondering how to open the door without making a sound, was left astonished at how effortlessly Shui Juanyun resolved the issue. He couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer versatility of this ability. Whether stealing something or gathering intelligence, it was ridiculously convenient.
Before long, Long Xuan sensed with his soul power that all the guardians below had already disappeared, and there was no sign of chaos outside.
It was clear Shui Juanyun had succeeded. He had indeed taken care of everyone silently on his own.
Without further hesitation, Long Xuan used his Divine Ice flame to melt a hole in the chamber door and quickly charged in.
After passing through a narrow passage, he soon arrived at a large secret chamber.
Inside the chamber lay four corpses of Teng Clan Gu cultivators in the Marrow Cleansing stage. Each corpse had already been turned into a dried husk, as if all the moisture in their bodies had been instantly drained—a clear hallmark of Shui Juanyun’s handiwork.
Though Shui Juanyun had only a few peak-grade Gu insects left, being able to instantly kill four Gu cultivators of the same stage was still a bit surprising to Long Xuan.
In the center of the four desiccated corpses stood an Earth-brown Spirit Tree, which stood out strikingly.
The three fruits growing on the Spirit Tree immediately drew all of Long Xuan’s attention.
Clearly, they had arrived too late.
Most of the Earth Spirit Fruits on the tree had already been picked by the Teng Clan. Only three Earth Spirit Fruits remained on the tree.
“Damn it! How did they move so quickly?”
Shui Juanyun cursed. With only three Earth Spirit Fruits left, splitting them between the two of them wouldn’t leave much. How could he be satisfied?
But there was nothing he could do. Accepting his bad luck, he took a jade pendant engraved with the Teng Clan’s emblem from his pocket and placed it into a groove. The barrier trapping the Earth Spirit Tree finally disappeared.
Long Xuan glanced curiously at the jade pendant, wondering where Shui Juanyun had stolen it from.
With his ability to transform into water and infiltrate any place seamlessly, it wasn’t hard to imagine him stealing the key to the barrier.
“There are three Earth Spirit Fruits here, but only the two of us. If we split them evenly, one fruit will remain. How do you propose we divide it?”
Shui Juanyun turned to Long Xuan, squinting slightly. He made no immediate move to pick the fruits from the tree.
This was the kind of situation where disputes over the spoils could easily arise.
According to their previous agreement, the Earth Spirit Fruits were to be evenly split between the two of them.
However, with most of the fruits already taken by the Teng Clan and only three left, the situation had changed.
If there had been many Earth Spirit Fruits, Shui Juanyun wouldn’t have minded letting one go, even if the total number was odd.
But with only three left, giving one away would leave him with just a single fruit. Who could be confident they’d break through with just one Earth Spirit Fruit? Shui Juanyun didn’t dare take that gamble, so he had no intention of giving up the third fruit.
Long Xuan could tell from Shui Juan Yun’s expression that he had no intention of letting go of the third fruit. If they couldn’t reach an agreement, it was likely a conflict would break out here.
Just as Long Xuan was contemplating how to resolve the situation, he suddenly froze. In his vision, he saw a large group of figures rapidly approaching from a distance.
Cold sweat broke out on Long Xuan’s back. His heart sank as he thought, ‘This is bad.’ Another group with their sights set on the Earth Spirit Fruits had arrived and was closing in quickly.
This group was likely the ones who had used the "lure the tiger from its mountain" strategy against the Teng Clan.
He judged this because the approaching group’s life force indicators were all above 95%—people nearing the end of their lifespan.
A group of people close to death had nothing to fear. To extend their lives, they’d undoubtedly dare to take this risk.
Long Xuan sighed internally at the endless twists of fate. With only one exit leading outside, once this group entered, he and Shui Juanyun would be trapped with no escape.
A conflict with this group would be minor, but the real danger was if their fight drew enough noise to attract more Teng Clan Gu cultivators. That would spell doom for them both.
At this moment, the group had already surged into the secret passage. Long Xuan had no time to think deeply. In his panic, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him, and a devious idea emerged in his mind. He immediately shouted loudly:
"All the Earth Spirit Fruits are yours! I only want one!"
As soon as he spoke, Long Xuan gestured toward one of the Earth Spirit Fruits.
Under the pull of his soul power, the Earth Spirit Fruit fell from the tree and quickly flew toward him.
Shui Juanyun glanced at him in surprise. ‘Why was he shouting so loudly? What nonsense is this guy up to?’
Still, he found it reasonable. If Long Xuan wasn’t planning to surrender that one Earth Spirit Fruit, Shui Juanyun wouldn’t hesitate to leave another dried corpse on the ground.
Smirking coldly in his heart, Shui Juanyun immediately stepped up to the Earth Spirit Tree and cheerfully plucked the remaining two Earth Spirit Fruits.
Just then, a group of elderly men rushed in hurriedly.
Seeing the uninvited guests, Shui Juanyun froze in place, still in the posture of picking fruit.
Long Xuan shouted immediately:
"Who are you people? What are you doing here?"
The leading elder glanced at Long Xuan. He had just overheard someone shouting inside, "All the Earth Spirit Fruits are yours; I only want one!" From the tone, it was clear the speaker was this man.
In other words, this person only had one Earth Spirit Fruit in hand, and the rest must be with the other individual, right?
He then turned to Shui Juanyun, who was still holding his posture as if plucking fruit, and sneered grimly:
"There are 36 broken branches on this tree, meaning it bore 36 Earth Spirit Fruits. Taking 35 for yourself seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it? You can’t possibly use so many on your own."
"Since everyone here should get a share, we brothers number 30 in total. Why don’t you give each of us one fruit? You can keep the rest!"
Shui Juanyun’s expression froze, and his heart sank.
He immediately realized the severity of the misunderstanding. This group obviously didn’t know that only three Earth Spirit Fruits remained on the tree. They mistakenly thought Shui Juanyun had taken them all.
He hurried to explain:
"Everyone, don’t misunderstand. When I arrived, there were only three Earth Spirit Fruits left. The rest had already been taken by the Teng clan."
"Even if you kill me, I can’t conjure up over 30 Earth Spirit Fruits for you."
But who would believe his explanation?
The leading elder’s face darkened, and he said sharply:
"Are you trying to fool us? Do you think I’m an idiot?"
"There were only you two here just now. Whatever number you say, we’re supposed to believe it? The tree clearly has 36 broken branches, so there must be 36 Earth Spirit Fruits."
"Don’t be too greedy. If you don’t hand over the extra Earth Spirit Fruits today, don’t even think about leaving here alive."
"I don’t mind causing a ruckus so loud that the people outside hear it."
"If it comes to that, it’s a life-or-death gamble for us. We’re all old and nearly in the grave. Without the Earth Spirit Fruits, we’ll die anyway. What do we have to lose?"
The leading elder's face twisted with madness, clearly unwilling to back down unless Shui Juanyun handed over 30 Earth Spirit Fruits.
Shui Juanyun’s head throbbed. Where was he supposed to find 30 Earth Spirit Fruits to give them?
The elder's threat was clear: no Earth Spirit Fruits, no compromise—it would come to a fight.
What made it worse was that Shui Juanyun couldn’t ignore this threat. He wasn’t afraid of clashing with this group but feared that the commotion might attract people from above. If that happened, it would spell disaster for everyone here.
This group of desperate men would never back down, but Shui Juanyun couldn’t produce so many Earth Spirit Fruits either. It was an impossible deadlock.
Shui Juanyun grew increasingly anxious.
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