Chapter 172: Success

At the same time, Long Xuan finally untied the knotted Insect Breeding Bag and released a rabbit that had been causing a ruckus inside.

As soon as the rabbit jumped out of the Insect Breeding Bag, it impatiently leaped into the soil, burrowing beneath the surface; before long, it reached the location of those two Princes' rooms, then gave a light hop and popped out of the ground.

With a clear objective, after emerging from the soil, the rabbit quickly ran over, opened the Insect Breeding Bag at Luo Zheng's waist, took out the huge Living Wood inside, gazed at it with burning eyes for a moment in appreciation, and then hurriedly placed the Living Wood into its own Insect Breeding Bag.

Inside the Insect Breeding Bag was a Su Gu; to prevent the aura of the Heaven Grade Spirit Medicine from leaking out and causing him trouble, Long Xuan simply decided to let the Su Gu transfer the Living Wood away.

He did not believe that once the Living Wood had been transferred to the Far West Region, anyone could still sense its aura.

When the Living Wood entered the Insect Breeding Bag, the Su Gu inside immediately lit up, its glow so bright it hurt the eyes; this was excellent building material...

After happily placing the Living Wood into its own Insect Breeding Bag, the rabbit did not forget to retie Luo Zheng's Insect Breeding Bag, then immediately jumped back into the soil and vanished in an instant.

Throughout the entire process, the two Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivators stationed at the courtyard gate outside detected not the slightest anomaly, standing dutifully on either side of the entrance like door gods.

After succeeding, the rabbit immediately burrowed back along the same path underground, found Long Xuan's location, jumped out of the soil, and obediently hopped back into the Insect Breeding Bag; this time, it was finally content and stopped making a fuss.

Having succeeded, Long Xuan's expression brightened with joy; he turned and left immediately, without the slightest intention of lingering.

To avoid complications arising from delay, he planned to return to the Long Clan Residence at maximum speed; right now, only the Long Clan Residence was truly safe.

As for the Original Realm, once he moved far enough away, it would dissipate on its own, requiring no special effort from him to dispel it.

The delayed dissipation of the Original Realm gave him ample time to depart.

However, Long Xuan had not taken more than a few steps when his Heavenly Mechanism Eye detected Gu Kings approaching from different directions; startled, he hurriedly avoided all the Gu Kings' positions and darted toward the spot with the greatest spacing between them.

Those two would have to fend for themselves; if his guess was correct, the moment those two idiots peeled off the Living Wood's bark, the Living Wood's aura fluctuated violently, causing the Array Formation they had set up to fail to completely isolate the Living Wood's aura.

Even the slightest leakage of Heaven Grade Spirit Medicine aura was enough for a small number of Gu Kings to detect that scent.

It was only because he was quick-handed and quick-footed, seizing the opportunity first, that he succeeded; it seemed that today, with or without his involvement, this Living Wood was destined to be lost.

What a plan full of loopholes; how could they let those two idiots guard the treasure? Employing the wrong people renders even the most perfect scheme useless.

Long Xuan shook his head helplessly and quickly departed from the area.

At the same time, outside the City.

At this moment, a fierce battle was erupting in the distant north of Black Stone City, where a large group of Gu Kings was ganging up on a single individual.

A fierce battle was also erupting in the distant south of Black Stone City, where a large group of Gu Kings was likewise ganging up on a single individual.

However, the northern battlefield had more Gu Kings, with a scale reaching over a hundred, and the one surrounded in the center of the crowd was still a Gu King Peak expert.

The southern battlefield had far fewer people, only about twenty; more than twenty Gu Kings were besieging a Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivator at Gu King Mid Stage.

The disparity in numbers was simply too great; the battle could not last long.

Before long, the Storage Bag of that Gu King Mid Stage expert was shattered, scattering the treasures inside in all directions.

At that same moment, the huge box emitting the aura of the Living Wood caught everyone's attention.

"Living Wood!"

"Living Wood!"

"Living Wood!"

A chorus of delighted shouts rang out; subsequently, the crowd of Gu Kings revealed expressions of extreme greed and charged crazily toward that huge box.

At this moment, that Gu King Mid Stage expert hugged the huge box tightly, wearing a bitter smile.

"Hahaha... I never expected that our arrangement, which seemed to leave no room for error, would still be seen through by you lot!"

"Having failed to protect the treasure, even if I return to the country, I cannot escape death!"

"It seems Heaven intends to destroy me, but even if I die today, I will not let you people benefit from this."

"Don't you want the Living Wood? Whatever the Great Yin Dynasty cannot obtain, no one else shall have either; I will destroy the Living Wood right now, so no one can have it, hahaha..."

"Hahaha..."

He burst into manic laughter, then generated a ball of Spirit Fire in his hand, pouring the Flame crazily into the box.

"No!"

"Don't!"

"Stop quickly!"

Everyone's eyes nearly burst from their sockets as they rushed forward like madmen, completely disregarding the Fire Sea before them that could burn them; everyone had gone insane at this point.

"Not good! He's going to self-detonate! Run!"

"Damn it! This madman!"

"Boom!!!"

A deafening explosion suddenly rang out; the Gu Kings who had charged the fastest were all caught in the sky-shattering blast, spewing a mouthful of blood before their bodies were sent flying backward.

Those who managed to flee the explosion range in time turned back, their faces all turning ugly.

At the center of the explosion lay nothing but a Fire Sea; there was no trace of that huge box left. They did not see even a single fragment of the Living Wood; presumably, the entire Living Wood had been vaporized by the Fire Sea, leaving nothing behind.

They had worked hard for nothing, gaining absolutely nothing; everyone wore a gloomy expression, so angry they were nearly driven mad.

"So ruthless! Willing to die just to take the Living Wood to the grave with him; with the Living Wood burned to ashes, no one can fight over it anymore."

Gazing at the Fire Sea before him, Jiu Kang, radiating the aura of a Gu King Peak expert, wore a bitter smile.

"The Heaven Grade Spirit Medicine from Legend has been destroyed just like that; what a waste of heavenly resources. If he had cut the Living Wood into countless fragments and distributed them, he could have survived entirely; why go to such lengths?"

Cai Xuan revealed an expression of extreme heartache, clutched his chest, and let out a long sigh toward the sky.

Just at that moment, his Storage Ring trembled slightly; his expression changed, and he immediately took out a Communication Talisman from his Storage Ring to examine it.

Previously, he could not determine who actually held the Living Wood; to be safe, he and another Gu King of the Cai Clan had split their forces, with him choosing to pursue the attendant who was the most suspicious.

Now, the other side had finally replied; it seemed the battle there had concluded, and he eagerly took out the Communication Talisman to read its contents.

He soon displayed a bitter smile and said helplessly, "Luo Yu over there was an External Avatar; he just self-detonated as well, dragging two Gu Kings to their graves with him before he died."

"The Living Wood could not have been on that External Avatar; it seems the attendant was the one carrying the Living Wood, and the Living Wood has been completely destroyed."

Upon hearing this, everyone revealed looks of disappointment, abandoned all hope of luck, shook their heads with long sighs, cursed a few times, and finally scattered in all directions.

Meanwhile, a pair of eyes hidden in the shadows, seeing that the Living Wood had been completely destroyed without arousing anyone's suspicion, finally relaxed and revealed a smug smile.

"Hehe, as expected, no flaws appeared; it is still I, Luo Yu, whose brilliant strategy secures the world, making hundreds of Gu Kings run around in circles; no one but me could have achieved this."

The voice hidden in the shadows vanished, and then a figure quickly slipped away toward Black Stone City.

However, when he slipped back to that small, single-story house at the corner of Black Stone City, he saw many Gu Cultivators searching for something nearby, going door to door, causing chaos and confusion, with no one knowing exactly what they were looking for.

Gu Cultivators from the Western Land Ten Clans were present, all those who had stayed behind in their Cultivation Clans without leaving the City, yet now they had appeared in this secluded area.

Seeing this scene, Luo Yu's heart sank, and he immediately felt a bad premonition.

He hurriedly slipped into that single-story house, and seeing that it had not yet been searched, he immediately let out a long sigh of relief.

It seemed those Gu Cultivators had only sensed that something was wrong in this area but did not know the precise location; fortunately, fortunately.

Luo Yu immediately relaxed and rushed quickly into the house.

"What exactly did you do! I told you not to open that Insect Breeding Bag; did you not follow my orders!"

As soon as he entered the door, Luo Yu asked with a ferocious expression.

"No! Absolutely not! How would we dare disobey Imperial Uncle's words? I swear, we absolutely never opened that Insect Breeding Bag."

Luo Zheng immediately denied it; his psychological quality was strong, showing no nervousness of having done something wrong, and his acting skills were superb, wearing an aggrieved look that might convince an ordinary person.

In contrast, Luo Ye looked completely guilty, his face pale, his gaze shifty and evasive, clearly terrified.

Even with Luo Zheng's award-winning level of acting, he was about to be exposed by this useless teammate.

Seeing Luo Ye's expression, how could Luo Yu not understand what had happened, and he immediately flew into a rage.

"Stop pretending! If you hadn't opened the Insect Breeding Bag, why would those people know the location of the Living Wood? It was you who opened it!"

Luo Yu rushed over like a madman, tore the Insect Breeding Bag from Luo Zheng's waist, and upon opening it to look inside, discovered only a Small Silver Snake sleeping soundly within, while the Living Wood beside it had long since vanished without a trace.

His vision immediately went black; he staggered back several steps, on the verge of fainting.

This truly screws over one's father! He had calculated everything without omission, a plan that should have been foolproof, yet he never expected these two idiots to cause it all to fail at the last moment.

"Look at the fine mess you've made!"

Luo Zheng threw the empty Insect Breeding Bag heavily onto the ground and roared like a madman: "You two fools! I instructed you countless times, begging you never to open this Insect Breeding Bag, yet you treated all my words as wind passing your ears!"

"Now, look! The Living Wood has been stolen by someone, and everything we have done is ruined!"

"This truly screws over one's father; you two have ruined a major affair; go explain this to your Father Kings yourselves!"

Luo Yu was so angry his face turned green; truly, a hundred precautions failed due to one oversight—what a perfect plan! He never expected it would ultimately fail due to such a low-level mistake, and he truly felt immense hatred.

Now, not only was the Living Wood lost, but four hundred billion Spirit Stones were also gone; what an enormous sum that was, for even an empire, four hundred billion was no small amount.

At this moment, he truly felt an urge to spit blood, wishing he could crush these two good-for-nothings who could accomplish nothing but ruin everything.

(End of Chapter)