Chapter 156: Treasure Acquisition
As for how to spend the next few years, Long Xuan decided to first conquer the ancient tomb. The tomb had already been successfully copied by his Origin Realm, and it was currently stored within the Eye of Heaven. He could enter and play the "level-clearing game" at any time.
After clearing the levels, he would then send his clone to retrieve the treasure from the real-world tomb. With a clone already knowing the strategy, retrieving the treasure would be effortless, saving him another trip.
Afterward, he would use his clone to research the Ten Absolute Blade Technique based on the knowledge he gained from the hidden chamber in the Library Tower.
Once he mastered the Ten Absolute Blade Technique, the Blade Gu would be ready. The Blade Gu could immediately learn the Ten Absolute Blade Technique, enabling him to soar to new heights.
By then, his Blade Gu would be invincible, and no human would stand a chance against his Blade Gu in blade/sword techniques.
Long Xuan did not hesitate. With a single thought, he appeared on the small island he had visited earlier. In front of him was an extinguished fire pit, left by him and his group. The memories were still fresh.
He recalled the discovery of the jellyfish here, and as he thought about it, a flash of inspiration struck him. He furrowed his brows, realizing something.
Had he been too naive in thinking he could conquer the tomb using this method? Maybe not.
His Origin realm could only copy inanimate objects. Strong living beings couldn't be replicated unless their consciousness was pulled into the Origin realm. Unfortunately, the Eye of Heavenly Secret was ineffective against Gu insects that were far superior to it.
This presented a dilemma.Even if he successfully bypassed all the tomb’s traps and mechanisms, what about the living creatures still guarding the real tomb?
The thought of live guardians in the tomb gave Long Xuan a headache.
But since the tomb had already been copied, how could he not go and check it out?
Regardless of whether there were living creatures guarding the tomb in reality, he decided to first explore the illusionary version of the tomb.
He quickly made his decision and began calculating the exact location to dig.
Digging a tunnel into a tomb was a technical skill. Getting the location precisely right wasn't easy. A wrong dig could waste a lot of time.
After some time, Long Xuan calculated the correct spot to dig. However, just as he was about to pull in the consciousness of a Earth Master to start digging, he noticed a large hole not far away. It was well-hidden, covered by branches and difficult to spot.
He was taken aback. Could it be that the tomb had already been robbed? Had he arrived too late?
No, that couldn’t be. He had seen infinite progress, indicating there were still treasures underground. Even if the tomb had been looted, it couldn't have been emptied completely. Some treasures must remain.
He took a deep breath and summoned a flame in his palm, quickly running towards the robber's tunnel.
Every situation has its pros and cons. Even if the tomb had been robbed, it might not be a bad thing. Perhaps there was a silver lining.
Originally, he was worried that he couldn’t deal with the living creatures in the tomb using his Origin Realm’s methods. But now, he didn’t have to worry. If the tomb had been looted, then the living creatures guarding it would either be dead or significantly reduced.
In his view, this was undoubtedly a good thing.
Otherwise, if there were a Gu King guarding the tomb, he wouldn’t be able to take the tomb's treasures, no matter how many times he attempted to clear it.
Given his cautious nature, even if it meant leaving behind most of the treasures, he would prioritize absolute safety. He only needed the tomb’s most valuable treasure; losing the rest didn’t matter.
According to his original plan, he was going to reveal the tomb’s location and lure a group of Gu Kings inside to clear out the high-level creatures for him. Afterward, he would take the most valuable treasure.
If he implemented that plan, he would still lose most of the treasure, similar to the current situation.
So, the fact that the tomb had already been looted didn’t affect his mood at all. He no longer needed to go to the trouble of finding a group of Gu Kings to act as cannon fodder.
The tomb was deep. Tombs in this world were always like this because powerful Gu practitioners had the ability to move mountains and create vast structures. As a result, most of the tombs in this world were deeply buried and difficult to locate.
Long Xuan walked for a long time before he finally reached the bottom. Looking down, he saw a long, grayish-white passageway. The passage was very long, and under the dim wall lights, he couldn’t see where it ended.
Thanks to his countless lives, he didn’t need to be cautious like usual and boldly jumped down.
The tomb passage was quiet. After jumping down, the only sounds were his footsteps and faint breathing. The long-lasting lamps on the stone walls indicated progress, which left Long Xuan slightly disappointed.
He had seen the progress below and thought there would be treasures, but they were just long-lasting lamps.
Though the long-lasting lamps could burn for over ten thousand years without extinguishing, they weren’t very valuable. Even if they had some worth, he no longer cared for them.
He looked closely at the murals on the walls and noticed they had been violently erased, likely by tomb robbers. Only a few incomplete characters could be seen on the stone walls.
From those few incomplete characters, Long Xuan roughly deduced that it wasn’t some cultivation technique but a powerful Gu Recipe.
He couldn’t help but be amazed. The tomb passage stretched endlessly, lined with murals that were too numerous to count. What kind of Gu Recipe required such an extensive mural? How many words were needed to cover so many stone walls?
He was stunned. Roughly estimating, the materials needed for this Gu Recipe were in the millions—at the very least. This was a conservative estimate.
If some materials needed to be used in hundreds of overlapping layers, the total material count could reach tens of millions. He dared not even think about such a number, as it was simply too terrifying.
The concept of a Gu technique requiring tens of millions of materials is unimaginable. Can it even be called a Gu technique? With the possibility of failure, what kind of existence could successfully refine such a Gu insect? He genuinely admired this feat.
He couldn't even begin to imagine how powerful the Gu insect refined from so many materials would be. Without a doubt, such a Gu insect would possess world-ending strength, far beyond anyone's comprehension. Once refined, the Gu would be invincible in the world.
Unfortunately, this heaven-defying Gu technique had been destroyed by the tomb raider. What a selfish person—he took this immensely powerful technique for himself and ensured that no one else could learn it by completely ruining all the carvings on the stone walls. Now, the only person in the world who had mastered this technique was probably him.
But who could have learned such a heaven-defying Gu technique? It couldn’t have been some unknown figure.
The owner of this tomb, possessing such a technique, must have been an immensely powerful figure in life, and his tomb would undoubtedly be incredibly dangerous—far beyond what ordinary people could raid.
The person who successfully raided this tomb must also be an extraordinary individual. To escape unharmed from such a deadly tomb, there couldn’t be many in the Western Lands capable of such a feat.
Long Xuan’s eyes showed a thoughtful look. However, he didn’t know many of the extraordinary figures of the Western Lands, and it was impossible for him to guess who this person might be, so he decided to stop pondering.
At this moment, he felt lucky that this tomb had already been raided by this extraordinary person, clearing away most of the danger for him.
Otherwise, just judging by the length of the Gu technique inscribed on the stone walls, Long Xuan could tell that such a dangerous tomb was far beyond what someone of his level in the Marrow cleansing stage could handle—even with the cheating capabilities of his Origin Realm.
However, although the raider had successfully looted the tomb and escaped unharmed, it appeared that their eyes weren’t sharp enough—they missed a treasure! And not just any treasure, but a heaven-defying one with infinite potential.
Long Xuan smiled and continued walking toward the deepest part of the tomb.
Even though the tomb had already been raided, the idea that there would be no danger left was unrealistic. Long Xuan assessed the situation based on his perception of progress, skillfully avoiding all the traps and mechanisms. Without wasting a single life, he carefully made his way into various burial chambers.
Each of the large chambers had already been thoroughly looted, and the murals on the walls had all been destroyed, leaving nothing for future explorers to gain. The raider showed no mercy, as though determined not to let anyone else benefit even slightly.
Still, a few scraps of low-value junk were left on the ground. Too low in value to bother picking up, these remnants further confirmed that the tomb raider was no ordinary person.
However, Long Xuan’s personality was different from the raider’s. In his eyes, even a mosquito’s leg was still meat—not to be wasted. No matter how vast his fortune became, he believed in the spirit of plucking every last feather. So, he began collecting everything he could find.
Without hesitation, he stuffed all the leftover junk into his storage bag. But he quickly dumped it all back out. It suddenly occurred to him that this was an illusionary tomb. What use was there in collecting treasures from an illusion? He had truly lost his mind for a moment.
But it wasn’t his fault—this illusion was simply too realistic.
After wandering through more than ten burial chambers, Long Xuan finally discovered a large chamber whose murals were still intact. Excited, he rushed forward to carefully examine the carved images and inscriptions on the walls.
Ever since his last tomb-raiding adventure with Long Ziyan, he had developed a growing interest in reading ancient tomb murals, and this chamber’s murals immediately piqued his curiosity.
The text on the walls was written entirely in the divine script. Thankfully, due to Long Ziyan’s influence, one of his diligent clones had learned this script in his spare time, so he was able to understand it. Otherwise, the murals would have been incomprehensible to him.
Seeing that the inscriptions were in divine script only made Long Xuan more excited. Anything recorded in divine script was sure to be ancient and incredibly valuable. If the text on the walls contained a technique, a technique written in divine script was bound to be heaven-defying.
With high expectations, Long Xuan found the beginning of the text and started reading each word carefully.
But as he continued reading, he soon realized something was off. The content on the walls was indeed a technique, and it was an incredibly powerful one, called the "Yin Harvesting Technique."
However, this technique was a dual-cultivation method, and not just any dual-cultivation method—it was an evil technique that involved absorbing Yin energy to strengthen Yang. The person whose Yin was harvested would be drained to death, making this an unequal method that favored men but harmed women.
From this technique alone, Long Xuan could tell that the tomb’s owner was an evil cultivator who must have committed countless atrocities during his lifetime.
Although the technique was evil, it was undeniably powerful. Even a person with poor talent could achieve rapid progress using it, and it even had the added benefit of increasing the success rate of breaking through to higher realms by 10%.
The most astonishing feature was that if one practiced this technique with a female of the same clan, it could enhance the purity of one’s bloodline, though the improvement was capped at one grade.
Bloodline purity is incredibly difficult to enhance. Even a one-grade improvement could be game-changing.
If a person with a lower-purity bloodline practiced this technique, the result might be negligible. But for someone with a ninth-grade bloodline, this technique could elevate their bloodline to the tenth grade—a once-in-a-millennium phenomenon. The difference between a ninth- and tenth-grade bloodline is enormous, further demonstrating how heaven-defying this dual-cultivation technique was.
As expected, a technique recorded in divine script was extraordinary, and this one did not disappoint.
Long Xuan’s eyes brightened with various wild ideas forming in his mind. His old habit was kicking in—whenever he saw something, he would instinctively want to create his own version of it.
Even with a dual-cultivation technique, he couldn’t help but consider whether he could create his own, incorporating eighteen positions—no, eighteen forms.
It wouldn’t take too much time either. All he needed to do was modify this "Yin Harvesting Technique" to make it an equal "Yin-Yang Complementary Technique," benefiting both men and women alike.
Creating a new technique from scratch is difficult, but modifying an existing one is much simpler. It wouldn’t take him long at all, and he believed this plan was feasible—it was worth a try.
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