Chapter 482

After reading the words on the communication talisman, Long Xuan's heart stirred; there was actually a genius competition about to be held in the Xuan Yuan Empire.

It was truly a case of getting exactly what he needed; he had been preparing to find a place densely populated with geniuses to search for people of destiny, and he hadn't expected to encounter a genius competition so soon. There was probably no place with more geniuses than such an event.

The corners of Long Xuan's mouth curled up, and he took another communication talisman out of his storage ring.

This communication talisman was the one he and Di Xin had left for each other. As for this figure who, according to prophecy, would turn the entire Gu World upside down, he naturally would not let her go.

He had to hurry with the matter of playing chess with her. Given Di Xin's cultivation speed, if he delayed for a few more days, she might break through to become a Gu King. By then, the Chess Gu's ability would be ineffective against a Gu King, and he would surely cry himself to death.

Long Xuan wrote on the communication talisman: Are you there? It's been many years, I've missed you very much. Would it be convenient to meet and talk?

As the brush finished, the communication talisman turned into a stream of light in his hand and flew away.

Not long after, the storage ring on his finger stirred. Long Xuan fished out a communication talisman from the ring, and after scanning the elegant handwriting on it, a slight smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

The next day.

On an unnamed mountain range, a pavilion of some age stood amidst the landscape.

"Not bad! Not bad! Is this the coffee that has been sweeping the world recently? The flavor is truly mellow and leaves a lingering aftertaste; it deserves to be the world's third-greatest beverage. I'm even tempted to refine a Coffee Gu right now."

"Tell me, how many factions are you already the founding ancestor of?"

A young girl in a yellow skirt took a small sip of the coffee in her cup and looked at the person opposite her, teasing him.

Hearing this, Long Xuan counted on his fingers and discovered that there were so many he truly couldn't count them all anymore.

"Don't say that; there really are too many to count. Even the recently popular Nineteen-Route Chess was created by me. The game rules I improved are very interesting; are you interested in playing a game against me?"

Long Xuan steered the topic to chess in just a few short sentences, revealing his fox tail, and looked at her with a beaming smile.

Di Xin rolled her eyes at him dramatically. She was so sharp that she immediately guessed Long Xuan's intention in seeking her out.

They hadn't been in contact for years, and he had come from so far away just to play a game of chess; she certainly wouldn't believe that.

Di Xin's mouth curled up, and she teased: "Since you created the Nineteen-Route Chess rules, you naturally must have refined a Chess Gu born under the rules of Nineteen-Route Go."

"I hear that those who refine Chess Gu need to seek out geniuses from all over the world to play against. It looks like that is your purpose in finding me. You brat are trying to fleece me again."

Long Xuan had thick skin and naturally wouldn't blush because of her words. He laughed: "Consider it helping an old friend with a small favor; it's just a matter of lifting a finger."

Di Xin glared at him: "Want to freeload again? Keep dreaming. I have never done small favors for others for free. If you want me to act, you must produce a reward that satisfies me."

"Then what do you want?" Long Xuan asked.

Di Xin, as if she had already prepared, immediately took a thick book out of her storage ring, placed it on the table in front of Long Xuan, and continued:

"This is a forbidden technique I have painstakingly researched for many years, named the 'Bone Tempering Art'."

"The 'Bone Tempering Art' is extremely dangerous, and one must have someone to protect them while cultivating it. If you can assist me in successfully cultivating the 'Bone Tempering Art', then I will play this game of chess with you; otherwise, forget it."

Di Xin tilted her head up, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked into the distance.

Long Xuan curiously took the forbidden technique book called the "Bone Tempering Art". At this moment, he really wanted to see what kind of terrifying forbidden technique this genius girl could create.

One had to know that Di Xin often patronized the treasure vaults of great clans and had even stolen from the imperial palace treasury; what kind of heaven-defying cultivation methods or forbidden techniques did she not have?

That she chose to cultivate this forbidden technique instead of learning the many heaven-defying inheritances she possessed was enough to show that this "Bone Tempering Art" was not simple and would surely far surpass the forbidden techniques in the imperial palace. Long Xuan felt a faint sense of anticipation.

However, even though he had already mentally prepared himself for the "Bone Tempering Art" to be powerful, after flipping through a few pages of the forbidden technique, he still couldn't help but gasp, his eyes widening; he was thoroughly frightened.

The "Bone Tempering Art" could be said to be a body-refining cultivation method that focused on refining bones. Those who cultivated this method would refine their entire skeleton until it was extremely hard, even as hard as the hardest metal in this world.

Those who cultivated the "Bone Tempering Art" would eventually see their entire skeleton slowly transform into gold, and the hardness of golden bones was extremely exaggerated.

If it were just that the bones were hard, it naturally couldn't be called terrifying; tempering one's entire skeleton into gold was merely the first step.

Once the entire skeleton turned golden, with its exaggerated hardness, it would become excellent material for an array base.

The most frightening part of this forbidden technique was that it required carving a massive amount of array patterns onto the golden bones, using the bones as a base to form a mobile, peerless, and fierce array.

This Di Xin actually intended to refine herself into a peerless, fierce array; it was simply a lunatic's idea. Long Xuan was thoroughly frightened by this bold concept.

If someone carried a peerless, fierce array while fighting, who could possibly be their opponent?

At this moment, he finally understood why Di Xin wanted him to assist her in cultivating this forbidden technique.

Because the surface area of human bones was limited, there was simply not enough space to carve array patterns. To refine oneself into a complex, peerless, fierce array, one would inevitably have to shrink a massive amount of array formations ten thousand times to carve them onto the golden bones.

The reason this book was so thick was entirely because there were simply too many array formations that needed to be carved onto the golden bones. Every array formation in the book was extremely complex and could not be carved easily.

And in this world, besides him, there would not be a second person capable of carving ten-thousand-fold array patterns onto Di Xin's golden bones.

Long Xuan sighed in his heart; it seemed Di Xin had already known about his ability to carve small array patterns.

That made sense; this array genius had stayed on his ship for such a long time, how could she not have discovered the secrets on the ship?

Perhaps it was his inspiration that had opened her mind, leading her to create such a terrifying and outrageous forbidden technique.

"There are quite a lot of array patterns in the book. If you want to carve so many array patterns onto your body, you will not only have to endure pain worse than death, but it will also take a very long time."

"If we do it now, you will likely miss the opening time of the Western Region Genius Competition," Long Xuan warned after taking a deep breath.

Di Xin looked at him and laughed disdainfully: "You wouldn't think that just because I'm in the Xuan Yuan Empire, I intend to participate in that genius competition, would you?"

"Those are all children's games. I don't have the time to mess around with that group of brats! With just that little bit of reward, going there is a pure waste of time."

Long Xuan couldn't help but twitch his mouth twice. A competition gathering all the geniuses of the entire Western Region was, in her eyes, merely a child's game. She clearly didn't put all the geniuses of the Western Region in her eyes; she was truly arrogant enough.

Did she really have the ability to not put all the geniuses of the Western Region in her eyes, or was she just bragging?

"Then what is your purpose in coming to the Xuan Yuan Empire this time..."

Di Xin immediately replied: "I have already touched the bottleneck of a Gu King. As long as I find the resources to break through, I can break through to become a Gu King at any time."

"But you also know how difficult it is to break through to become a Gu King with a mortal body. Conventional King-Breaking Pills have no effect on me at all. I can only search the world for the most potent realm-breaking spirit medicine."

"After many years of investigation, I have found that there exists a Heaven-Grade spirit medicine in the world called the Heavenly Spirit Tree."

"The Heavenly Spirit Fruit that grows on the tree has a fifty percent probability of helping one break through to become a Gu King even if eaten raw."

"The Heavenly Spirit Fruit definitely has the medicinal power to help me break through; I am determined to obtain it."

Di Xin clenched her fists, her eyes releasing a burning, brilliant light.

"And after many years of investigation, I have found that the Heavenly Spirit Tree was taken into an ancient tomb by the Great Emperor Cang Yue."

"The location of Great Emperor Cang Yue's ancient tomb has remained unknown to this day, but according to my calculations, it should be within the territory of the Xuan Yuan Empire, and there is a high probability that it is within this area where we are currently located."

"Because this terrain is extremely suitable for setting up terrifyingly powerful fierce arrays, but I have searched here for many days and have yet to find even a single clue," Di Xin said, her gaze dropping, her expression very disappointed.

At this moment, Long Xuan was shocked in his heart. Good heavens, this Di Xin was actually plotting against the Cang Yue Ancient Tomb; she was truly bold. That was an imperial tomb; one could know how high the danger level of the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb was just by thinking with their butt.

Even if she were lucky enough to find Great Emperor Cang Yue's imperial tomb, it was absolutely not something that a mere Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivator could easily rob.

He had specifically learned about the history of the Xuan Yuan Empire and learned that the previous dynasty of the Xuan Yuan Empire was the Cang Yue Empire. The Cang Yue Empire was an extremely ancient nation.

If the female emperor in the female emperor's tomb in the Far West Region was at most a peak Gu King during her lifetime, and there was a high probability that what was buried was merely a clone of the female emperor.

Then Great Emperor Cang Yue must have been an existence far beyond the Gu King realm. He was simply not a figure from the Age of Dharma Decline; the Cang Yue Empire was too ancient, and heaven knows how high the realm of the founding emperor of this empire was during his lifetime.

It was no exaggeration to say that the danger level of the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb was far, far higher than that of the Yaoguang Empress Tomb. Facing such a tomb of great evil, even he felt a sense of dread in his heart and dared not harbor thoughts of entering.

But the existence of the Heavenly Spirit Tree held infinite temptation, as if a devil's voice was seducing him to enter the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb.

The Heavenly Spirit Tree belonged to a higher level than the Earth Spirit Tree. For Di Xin, it was a treasure she would obtain at all costs; why wouldn't it be the same for him?

As someone with the Ten Extremes Body, ordinary realm-breaking pills were likewise useless to him; he could only search the world for the most potent realm-breaking spirit medicine.

Now he was also not far from touching the bottleneck of a Gu King. If he missed the opportunity to find the Heavenly Spirit Tree this time, who knows how many years he would be stuck at the Gu King bottleneck.

At this moment, Long Xuan had to struggle with whether or not he should take the risk.

He subconsciously poured all his spiritual sense into his Heavenly Mechanism Eye, pushing the ability of the Heavenly Mechanism Eye to its maximum power, and looked toward the underground nearby.

Soon, his scalp went numb. Good heavens, this Di Xin had actually guessed correctly; the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb was indeed in the vicinity of this mountain area.

And as luck would have it, it was directly beneath this pavilion. Below, there was an eye-catching "infinite" progress waiting for him.

However, this thing displaying "infinite" progress was buried extremely, extremely deep, already reaching the limit of the Heavenly Mechanism Eye's detection range.

It was precisely because this Cang Yue Imperial Tomb was buried so deep that Di Xin had been unable to find its location for so long.

Long Xuan took a deep breath and said with a solemn expression: "Wait a moment."

As he finished speaking, Long Xuan used the first ability of his Book Gu, burrowing into the soil right under Di Xin's nose and disappearing.

"Earth Escape ability?" Seeing this scene, Di Xin's pupils shrank, revealing an extremely shocked expression.

Although the ability to travel underground could not be called heaven-defying, it could easily find ancient tombs buried underground, as well as spirit stone mine veins and various precious metal mine veins buried underground.

If such an ability were not heavily restricted, the ancient tombs and various mine veins underground would have long since been found by the ancients.

Therefore, the Earth Escape ability was restricted by the Heavenly Dao and was classified as a "Heavenly Jealousy" ability in this world.

A Heavenly Jealousy ability was not impossible to exist, but it would only be born by chance and appeared very rarely. At the very least, it was very difficult to encounter in the Gu World. He hadn't expected Long Xuan to possess such a rare ability.

With the Earth Escape ability, the probability of finding the underground Cang Yue Imperial Tomb would be greatly increased. Di Xin's mouth revealed a smile.

Long Xuan headed straight for the place displaying "infinite" progress. Because this ancient tomb was buried extremely deep, Long Xuan dived for a long time before finally touching the stone door of the ancient tomb.

Touching this ancient, simple stone door at close range, Long Xuan closed his eyes and attempted to use the Original Realm to replicate the ancient tomb. Not long after, he frowned slightly.

This ancient tomb was indeed not simple; there were many places that even the Original Realm could not replicate at all, and even if it were replicated, it would be useless. The danger level of this pass was absolutely not something that he, a tiny Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivator, could get involved in.

Long Xuan simply investigated this ancient tomb and soon reached a conclusion in his heart: he and Di Xin would absolutely not be able to rob the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb by joining forces.

To obtain that Heavenly Spirit Tree, he was afraid he would need a large batch of Gu King cannon fodder to scout the path ahead, using the Gu King army to break through the vast majority of dangers in the tomb, while he and Di Xin picked up the scraps behind the Gu King army.

This matter was also simple; as long as the news that there was an ancient tomb here was leaked, a large batch of Gu Kings would naturally come over, willing to scout the path.

Of course, the drawbacks of doing this were also obvious: most of the treasures in the tomb would be divided by the Gu Kings, and searching for treasures together with a massive number of Gu Kings was no different from snatching food from a tiger's mouth; why wouldn't it be a dangerous thing?

Long Xuan's eyes rolled around, and in the end, he gritted his teeth. Of two evils, choose the lesser. In his view, even if more Gu Kings entered the ancient tomb, it was far safer than him exploring the ancient tomb alone.

After making the decision in his heart, Long Xuan did not linger and escaped upward at the fastest speed.

After a period of time, Long Xuan flew out of the soil and looked at Di Xin, saying straight to the point: "I have found the location of the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb; it is directly beneath this pavilion."

"However, after my investigation, with the strength of the two of us, we absolutely do not have the ability to rob the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb."

"I intend to trick a batch of Gu Kings into going in to scout the path for the two of us, but in doing so, we will inevitably have to share fewer treasures. What do you think?"

Hearing Long Xuan find the location of the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb so quickly, Di Xin was startled, secretly sighing that it was worthy of the Earth Escape ability; searching for ancient tombs was just convenient.

Learning the location of the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb, Di Xin was ecstatic in her heart and laughed: "I didn't expect that the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb, which I have searched for for so long, would actually be right under my butt."

"If it weren't for you today, I would have truly missed this opportunity."

"I agree with your proposal. Let alone that the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb is not something the two of us can rob, even if we had an eighty percent certainty of being able to rob this tomb, I would absolutely not intend to take the risk."

"Tricking a group of Gu Kings into going in to scout the path for us is the safest method. Even if we have to share fewer treasures in the end, so what? I don't lack treasures at all; I can forgo everything in the tomb, as long as I get that Heavenly Spirit Tree."

"Just follow your old method. After I successfully cultivate the forbidden technique, you will put the location of the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb up for auction."

"In this way, not only can we trick many Gu Kings into the Cang Yue Imperial Tomb, but we can also make a huge profit," Di Xin revealed a belly-black smile. (End of chapter)