Chapter 505: Slaughtering the Family

Gazing at Xuan Yuan City, now reduced to ruins, Long Xuan felt a myriad of emotions surge within his heart.

He did not leave immediately; instead, he activated his Golden Finger's ability to explore these ruins, attempting to locate treasures buried beneath the debris.

Xuan Yuan City was one of the wealthiest cities in Central Earth, home to countless powerful Cultivation Clans, each possessing an unknown quantity of treasures in their collections.

Although this place had turned into a wasteland, there were always fish that slipped through the net; he simply did not believe he could not find a single overlooked treasure here.

Clearly, he was not the only one with such thoughts; at this moment, numerous Gu Cultivators were sifting through the ruins within the city, trying to find treasures hidden beneath the rubble, among whom were not a few strong experts at the Gu King level.

However, Xuan Yuan City had fallen a long time ago and had been searched countless times; most of the treasures in the city had likely already been scavenged clean, meaning those still remaining in the city had arrived too late and could no longer scrape up any profit.

Most people had rummaged through the ruins for half a day without finding a single treasure and were now sighing deeply in frustration.

Although the city had long since been dug up to a depth of three feet and turned over countless times, there were always oversights; with Long Xuan's Golden Finger able to see the progress of all things, finding treasures buried in the ruins was truly not a difficult matter.

Soon, he dug a large hole at a certain location, a tunnel leading directly to a hidden Secret Chamber that no one else had found; the chamber stored many valuables, allowing him to make a small fortune.

However, upon seeing him discover a hidden Secret Chamber, the eyes of many Gu Cultivators currently searching for treasures went straight with shock.

Not far away, an old man radiating the aura of the early Gu King Stage looked on with envy, his expression extremely displeased.

He had already searched bitterly within the ruins of Xuan Yuan City for seven days, turning over the ground layer by layer, yet he had not found a single treasure; now feeling depressed, he saw this young man arrive and immediately discover a Secret Chamber, his luck simply too outrageously good, causing the old man's heart to instantly become unbalanced.

"Elder Yang, can you tell what treasures are hidden in that Secret Chamber?" asked another white-haired old man standing nearby, his gaze filled with greed.

"If you ask me, who should I ask? My eyes cannot penetrate the ground, but anything is possible regarding what treasures are hidden in the Secret Chambers of Xuan Yuan Imperial City."

"Even if it contains treasures worth billions, it would not be surprising; if the items were not valuable, why would they be placed in a Secret Chamber?"

Under such circumstances, many people would subconsciously think of the best-case scenario; at this moment, Elder Yang subconsciously concluded that the Secret Chamber contained a heaven-defying treasure, and the greed in his eyes grew increasingly intense.

"What? Could it be that Elder Zheng has designs on the treasures inside the Secret Chamber and intends to kill this person to seize them?" Elder Yang asked with a smile, probing the other old man.

Elder Zheng did not hide his inner thoughts at all and stated in a deep voice: "The premise is that I must know exactly what is inside that Secret Chamber; if it is full of junk, then naturally we have no need to risk fighting for it."

"If there is a heaven-defying treasure inside that Secret Chamber, so what if we act to snatch it? Treasures have always belonged to those capable enough to hold them."

Elder Yang shook his head and chuckled lightly: "Why must we know exactly what is inside that Secret Chamber? Your courage is truly too small."

"I observe that this youth's aura is unstable, clearly indicating he has only broken through to the Gu King realm a few days ago."

"He surely has not had time to upgrade his Gu Worms yet; his combat power is likely not much stronger than that of a Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivator."

"Any one of us can easily slay him, let alone the two of us joining forces to fight two against one."

"Since we are guaranteed to win against him, we should just kill him directly; why bother knowing what he took from the Secret Chamber? Whatever he took will be ours; even if he truly grabbed a pile of junk, a mosquito may be small, but it still has meat."

Elder Zheng was clearly moved by these words; he nodded, narrowed his eyes, and said: "That's right, this deal guarantees profit with no loss and carries absolutely no risk; let us go meet this young lad; encountering us, the Extreme Yin Two Elders, is simply his bad luck."

A sinister and ruthless expression appeared on his face as he strode toward the Secret Chamber.

At this moment, Long Xuan had just finished scavenging all the treasures from the Secret Chamber and had just emerged from the hole; seeing two old men walking toward him with smiles, his brows immediately furrowed.

These two old men were clearly dressed as Scattered Cultivators; seeing him alone, they likely harbored evil intentions, suggesting they came with hostile aims.

Indeed, he was currently alone; when he used the Boundary-Breaking Gu to open a space leading to the Gu World, the three of them had parted ways.

Qin Mingyue had been angered by him and left, while Di Xin had urgent matters to attend to; perhaps after his strength increased greatly, his confidence soared, and he intended to visit the treasury of some powerful Tribe again, thus leaving Long Xuan behind.

At this moment, Long Xuan was all by himself, making him an easy target for Demon Cultivators who enjoyed killing to seize treasures.

However, upon sensing that both old men were only at the early Gu King Stage, Long Xuan set his mind at ease, confident that two peers of the same rank could pose no threat to him whatsoever.

After approaching close, Elder Zheng asked with a smile: "I wonder what treasures young friend discovered in the Secret Chamber? Could you satisfy my curiosity?"

"Nothing valuable; mostly useless Spirit Tools, none of which are useful to me, so I can only sell them," Long Xuan stated truthfully, his expression showing a slight slip.

He was not lying; there were indeed nothing valuable in this Secret Chamber, as it belonged to a small Cultivation Clan.

Of course, this might only be true for him; for Poor Scattered Cultivators, this wealth would be enough to make their eyes red with envy.

Elder Zheng clearly did not believe his explanation and laughed: "It seems young friend has no intention of telling us the truth; what I hate most in this life are people who deceive me."

Elder Zheng's expression suddenly turned fierce; dropping his smile, he said sternly: "If I am not mistaken, you must have just broken through to the Gu King realm recently, and all your Gu Worms are still those used by Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivators, correct? Hehe."

Hearing this, Long Xuan's facial expression immediately became strange.

He finally understood why these two men had the audacity to plot against him.

The notion that a Gu Cultivator who had just broken through to the Gu King realm has no Gu Worms to use applies only to others; he was absolutely not in that category, as he currently possessed several powerful Gu Worms that had already undergone Transformation into Mutant Gu.

If these two truly thought they could easily manipulate him just because he had recently broken through to the Gu King realm, they were gravely mistaken.

"Why waste words with him? While only the two of us Gu Kings are here, we should act immediately to capture him."

"If we drag this out and other Gu Kings arrive in the city, unexpected complications could easily arise; let us act immediately."

Unwilling to waste time, Elder Yang initiated the attack first; he threw out his Insect Breeding Bag, from which more than ten Gu Worms rushed out, looking like fierce gods and evil spirits as they charged toward Long Xuan.

"More than ten Mutant Gu; do you think that because I just broke through to the Gu King realm recently, you can bully me with superior numbers?"

Seeing the more than ten Gu Worms charging toward him, the corner of Long Xuan's mouth curled up, and he felt not the slightest panic.

Although the number of more than ten Gu Worms was considerable, not a single one was a Top-Grade Gu Worm, so how could he possibly take them seriously?

Between Top-Grade Gu Worms and ordinary Gu Worms, there existed an uncrossable chasm; merely sending out his Heaven-Devouring World Toad, which had already become a Mutant Gu, would likely be more than these ten-odd ordinary Gu Worms could contend with.

"My apologies, but I also enjoy fighting with superior numbers; since this is my first battle as a Gu King, I will happily play along with you."

A smile curled Long Xuan's lips; he chose not to bring out the Heaven-Devouring World Toad, this great weapon of mass destruction, but instead patted his Insect Breeding Bag, causing a vast swarm of Gold-Eating Worms to fly out from within.

After many years, his army of Gold-Eating Worms had already grown to a scale of twenty thousand and could now initially form a combat force.

The Fourth-Grade Alloy Saint Gold, which could cause Gold-Eating Worms to advance, had been researched and developed by him long ago.

By devouring Saint Gold, several thousand Gold-Eating Worms had successfully advanced; each of these thousands possessed the defensive power of Saint Gold, making it impossible for these ten-odd ordinary Gu Worms to break through their defense.

Long Xuan felt that these several thousand Gold-Eating Worms were more than sufficient to deal with these ten-odd ordinary Gu Worms.

Seeing his opponent release several thousand Spirit Insects, Elder Yang sneered disdainfully: "Hmph! As expected, he has no Mutant Gu and actually thinks he can pit several thousand Spirit Insects against my ten-odd Gu Worms."

"I will tell you right now that there is an uncrossable chasm between Spirit Insects and Gu Worms; just surrender."

Elder Zheng let out a cold laugh; the moment his words fell, a red-colored Gu Worm spat out a Fire Sea, which instantly engulfed the several thousand Gold-Eating Worms.

A swarm of insects numbering in the thousands was ultimately too small in scale and was easily covered by the great fire.

However, at this moment, the corner of Long Xuan's mouth rose; the third Rule ability of the Gold-Eating Worm was an Undying Body, meaning they could only be killed by physical attacks exceeding a certain limit, so how could they possibly be killed by an ordinary attack like flame? Naturally, he felt not the slightest panic at this time.

Soon, the Gold-Eating Worm army broke through the Fire Sea and engaged in a chaotic battle with the dozen or so invading Gu Worms.

Seeing the worm swarm emerge from the Fire Sea so easily, Elder Yang's expression clearly stiffened for a moment.

There was no time for shock; at this moment, he discovered that his dozen or so Gu Worms were actually unable to bite through the shells of this swarm.

No matter what abilities his Gu Worms used, they could not inflict even a sliver of damage on the swarm; leaving even a tiny white mark on their shells was impossible. In contrast, the swarm's teeth were like spatial blades, seemingly capable of biting through everything.

The shells of his dozen or so Gu Worms seemed as if made of paper paste; the swarm could easily bite through their defenses.

Even the hard Insect Armor draped over the beetles could not withstand the swarm's sharp mouths; hole after tiny hole was easily bitten out, while crisp "crack-crack" sounds constantly echoed through the space, making one's scalp go numb.

Witnessing this scene, Elder Yang's pupils instantly contracted; the Insect Armor draped over this beetle was the work of a famous master; even a powerful Gu King Peak cultivator would find it impossible to break through its defense.

Yet before this swarm of tiny worms, the Insect Armor capable of withstanding Gu King Peak attacks was bitten to pieces as easily as brittle paper; he simply could not believe his own eyes.

"How is this possible? This is Insect Armor capable of blocking attacks from Gu King Peak!"

With a face full of bewilderment, Elder Yang roared loudly in disbelief.

An unbreakable defense combined with sharp mouths capable of breaking through any defense; such a terrifying worm swarm was something he had never seen before.

Since he could not break the swarm's defense, while the swarm could easily bite through any defense, the outcome of this battle was obvious.

Just as Elder Yang stood stunned, all his Gu Worms, including that beetle, were already swallowed by the swarm.

As the swarm passed over him, his dozen or so powerful exotic Gu had already been eaten clean by the swarm; even the hardest parts were consumed entirely, leaving nothing behind.

Seeing this scene, Elder Yang's vision went black, and he was on the verge of fainting.

These Gu Worms accounted for more than half of his assets; losing them instantly here meant his losses were far more than severe—they were akin to being crippled.

"What kind of worms are these! How can they be so terrifying!" Seeing this scene, Elder Zheng immediately widened his eyes, his face twisting into a ferocious expression.

"Not good! We've kicked an iron plate; run quickly!"

Frightened by the terrifying worm swarm, Elder Zheng turned and fled in panic, his eyes filled with terror, having long abandoned any thought of killing someone to seize their treasure.

At this moment, he simply felt fortunate that he had not released his Gu Worms; otherwise, his losses would have been devastating.

However, Long Xuan always acted by uprooting the weeds along with the roots; since they had already become enemies, how could he possibly let the two of them leave?

Watching the two figures flee into the distance, Long Xuan sneered: "Hmph! Run? Where do you think you're running? Just stay here obediently!"

He whistled, and the vast worm army immediately chased after the two; at the same time, he released Little White, using the Slowing Domain to reduce the two's escape speed, while simultaneously using the Accelerating Domain to increase the flight speed of the worm swarm.

With one increasing and the other decreasing, how could the two possibly escape the pursuit and slaughter of the worm swarm?

Before long, the two were swallowed by the swarm; from within the swarm, eerie, blood-curdling screams erupted from the two, but the sounds did not last long before cutting off abruptly.

As the swarm passed over, these two seemed to have vanished from the mortal world, leaving not a single trace behind.

Seeing the two eaten alive by the worm swarm, the bystanders watching this battle shrank their pupils in fear, their legs trembling as they all fled far away, afraid of offending this deadly star.

Long Xuan glanced sideways at the fleeing bystanders, snorted coldly, then suddenly rushed rapidly toward a certain spot; reaching out to grab, an old soul immediately took form in his hand.

The Gu King realm differs greatly from the Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivator realm; the greatest difference is that a Gu King's soul is powerful, and once things go awry, the soul can escape the body at any time to flee, making them extremely difficult to kill.

Therefore, when dealing with a Gu King, one must not only destroy their physical body but also seize the fleeing soul in time.

Otherwise, once the soul successfully escapes and is reborn through Possession, it will surely become a calamity, with a significant chance of succeeding in revenge.

Elder Shui was a living example; with such an example right before his eyes, how could Long Xuan dare to let a soul escape from his grasp?

Elder Zheng was unlucky, running one step too slow, and was devoured flesh and soul together by the Gold-Eating Worms.

Elder Yang's soul fled quickly, escaping the swarm's range in time; since his soul was invisible to the naked eye, the swarm immediately lost its target and gave up the chase.

However, although he could escape the swarm's pursuit, he could not hide from Long Xuan's eyes.

By observing the Progress, Long Xuan locked onto the location of Elder Yang's soul, rushed over at maximum speed, and seized Elder Yang's soul in time.

After Elder Yang's soul took form in his hand, he immediately displayed a look of despair and hastily begged for mercy: "Young friend! Spare this old man's life!"

"Just now, this old man was merely bewitched by ghosts; I listened to that old fellow's words, which is why I acted against you."

"This old man swears to the heavens: as long as you spare me, I will never seek revenge against you for the rest of my life; I can swear before the Heart Demon!"

Long Xuan curled the corner of his mouth, sneered once, too lazy to listen to his endless chatter, and directly employed the Soul Search Technique from the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Divine Art to perform a soul search on this old fellow.

This technique allows one to know all of the target's memories, but the side effects are enormous; the lightest consequence for the soul-searched is becoming an idiot, while severe cases result in immediate soul dispersion.

How would Long Xuan dare to gamble on whether his words were true or false? He simply used this technique to destroy the soul outright.

Elder Yang's screams constantly echoed through the space; shortly after, the sounds cut off abruptly, and this soul completely transformed into wisps of smoke, slowly dissipating.

Long Xuan closed his eyes and performed a simple organization of the memories he had just obtained.

The memories were nothing more than the violent life of a Scattered Cultivator, who stepped upon countless corpses through killing and seizing treasure, finally reaching the Gu King realm today.

But as the saying goes, those who walk by the river often get their shoes wet; eventually, he provoked an existence he could not afford to offend, was beaten until his soul scattered, and endless regret arose in his heart; the memories ended right there.

There was not much valuable information for Long Xuan within the memories; the only somewhat useful piece of information concerned the whereabouts of a blade.

This blade was named the Demon-Slaying Blade, a Divine Artifact that had once attracted Life-Extinguishing Thunder.

Whoever wields this blade is capable of killing gods upon meeting gods and killing Buddhas upon meeting Buddhas; few within the same realm can oppose them, making it coveted by countless Gu Kings.

However, this Divine Artifact has now become a broken blade, greatly reducing its value, which is why there are far fewer covetous individuals.

Currently, this blade is in the Tu Clan, serving as their Clan-Treasure.

In seven days, the Tu Clan will hold a longevity banquet for their Ancestor, inviting many famous Gu Cultivators from nearby areas to attend.

It was precisely because Elder Yang and the other received an invitation from the Tu Clan that they were en route to the Tu Family, passing through Xuan Yuan City, intending to search for treasures within Xuan Yuan City.

Who would have expected that instead of finding treasures, they encountered a deadly star, unluckily sacrificing their lives here.

What interested Long Xuan was naturally not just the blade; he already possessed the complete refinement method for the Prison Heaven Staff, so he would not place this broken blade in high regard.

What truly interested him was the powerful Crazy Demon Knife Intent sealed within the Demon-Slaying Blade; whoever masters this blade can not only release the Crazy Demon Knife Intent at will during combat, but those with outstanding Knife Path talent also have a chance to comprehend the Crazy Demon Knife Intent.

Those who successfully comprehend the Crazy Demon Knife Intent can become minor experts in their region even without wielding the Demon-Slaying Blade.

It is precisely because of this precious blade that the Tu Clan has cultivated countless Knife Path experts, remaining enduringly prosperous within the Xuan Yuan Empire.

He might disregard this blade, but the Crazy Demon Knife Intent was truly too important to him.

Knife Intent is an advanced material for Blade Gu; now that he knew the whereabouts of a type of Knife Intent, how could Long Xuan easily let it go? At this moment, a thought immediately arose in his heart to pay a visit to the Tu Family.

Since the Tu Family was holding a longevity banquet for their Ancestor and had invited Elder Yang, he could simply transform into Elder Yang's likeness to attend.

With the Seventy-Two Transformations, no one could detect any flaw; coupled with his acquisition of Elder Yang's complete memories, he saw no possibility of being exposed.

Long Xuan immediately finalized his plan to visit the Tu Family, recalled all his Gold-Eating Worms, and set off at once.

He had already swept through the entire City; the treasures within the ruins had been thoroughly plundered, so there was naturally no need for him to remain here any longer. (End of Chapter)