Chapter 66: Top-Grade Spirit Insect Obtained

After resting for a period of time and taking out food to replenish their physical strength, the group set off again.

However, they walked and stopped along the way, intermittently. They had to stop and rest every half day, and it wasn't until five days later that they reached the edge of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

As soon as he entered the Ten Thousand Mountains, Long Xuan saw patches of towering ancient trees before his eyes. The trunks were thick and tall, with lush branches and leaves, weaving into a green ocean. As the wind blew, he could smell the scent of vegetation and the pungent spiritual power.

The concentration of spiritual power here was much higher than in the market; it was absolutely an excellent environment suitable for cultivation.

But no clan dared to settle here. Although the cultivation environment was good, once a beast tide occurred, they would bear the brunt of it.

One had to know that the Ten Thousand Mountains were truly too large. Why was it named Ten Thousand Mountains?

It was because there were over ten thousand mountains here, mountains connected to mountains, continuous and endless. The area could be imagined.

It was said that the Ten Thousand Mountains spanned an unknown number of regions, and the Far West Region was just a tiny place bordering it.

In the vast forest, an unknown number of powerful spirit beasts were hidden, and an unknown number of unknown mysteries were hidden.

It was no exaggeration to say that the overall strength of spirit beasts was far stronger than humans.

After all, most humans were born as mortals who could not cultivate, and the small portion who could cultivate had to grow through acquired effort.

But spirit beasts were different. They all possessed combat power as soon as they were born, and all their abilities were inherited innately, without needing to learn through acquired effort like humans. And they were especially capable of reproduction; one litter could produce more than a dozen.

If it weren't for the fact that the spirit beast world was a scattered mess and their intelligence was low, humans would absolutely not be the masters of this world.

Under these circumstances, there really wasn't any clan that dared to settle in the Ten Thousand Mountains.

As soon as they entered the edge of the Ten Thousand Mountains, the group finally slowed down their pace, beginning to save spiritual power and no longer using spiritual power to rush.

Entering here was already considered a dangerous zone, and battles could occur at any time. They were not allowed to squander spiritual power as recklessly as they did while rushing.

Everyone became cautious, looking around with vigilant eyes from time to time.

Ma Lao was the most cautious. At this time, he reminded, "Everyone be careful. In the Ten Thousand Mountains, danger doesn't just come from spirit beasts. Many times, various insects are even more dangerous than spirit beasts, and even harder to guard against."

The group nodded in deep agreement. Compared to spirit beasts, insects might not be very strong, but the main thing was that their size was truly too small, making them hard to detect. One would be hit if not careful, so they were much more troublesome than the large-sized spirit beasts.

Yet the lethality of these things was not proportional to their size. Once hit, there was truly a danger of losing one's life.

"Ma Lao, we would be careful even if you didn't say so. But why is your face so pale? If you are not feeling well, it's not too late to go back now."

"If you wait until you reach the depths and then want to go back, it will be too late. We can't send you back." Li Laodao looked at Ma Lao's pale face and reminded him kindly.

Upon hearing this, Long Xuan also subconsciously looked at Ma Lao's face. Sure enough, his face was now frighteningly white, without a trace of blood, as if he were about to die.

This was absolutely not the complexion of a normal person. Ma Lao's body definitely had a problem.

Clearly he was fine just a moment ago, and suddenly he turned into this ghostly appearance. Long Xuan felt that it was definitely not caused by any illness, but must have some sudden cause, and eight or nine times out of ten, it was related to this forest.

"Is it? I feel great?"

Seeing everyone looking at him with suspicion, Ma Lao touched his own face, suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, and then uncontrollably fell to the ground.

It was precisely because he fell suddenly that the crowd discovered a large mosquito was actually clinging to Ma Lao's back, its six legs extremely long, the needle tube on its mouth inserted straight into his back. At this time, its belly was already swollen high, as if it were about to explode.

Han Mei, that old woman, was closest to him and was actually a needle player. She shot the large mosquito down in time, which allowed Ma Lao to save his life.

Seeing the large mosquito that fell off his back, Ma Lao's face was pale, and he muttered in disbelief, "How is it possible? I was clearly very careful."

Thinking that he had just reminded others with the tone of an elder, but in turn, he was the one who got hit, his pale face instantly turned red. This time, he had lost face big time.

"Still reminding others with just these two tricks?" Zhang Ling covered her mouth and chuckled.

Long Xuan did not laugh. At this time, he revealed a look of suspicion. This time, he truly realized the terrifying nature of the insects in this world.

In his past life, he thought the thing that would never evolve was the mosquito.

If it didn't evolve a toxin that made people itch like crazy, would humans slap it to death?

Biting people to itch was fine, but couldn't it suck its fill in one place and fly away? It refused, a mosquito insisted on biting ten bumps before stopping. Then it was no wonder humans slapped it to death.

Yet, when it flew, it even evolved a buzzing sound, naturally bringing its own tracker, as if afraid others wouldn't know where it was.

If the mosquito didn't evolve these characteristics, humans wouldn't bother with it at all. Who cares about that little bit of blood? The mosquito could completely survive.

But the mosquitoes in this world were very good at evolving. They flew without a sound, and no one knew when they landed on Ma Lao's back.

And they bit people without pain or itch, making people completely unaware, and only opened one needle hole to drink until full.

However, it was precisely because the mosquitoes in this world were too good at evolving, making it hard for people to detect, that a person as cautious as Ma Lao actually got hit and was almost sucked to death.

Long Xuan was shocked. He hurriedly reached his hand to his back and swept it. After not sweeping anything, he moved to the middle of the team without changing his expression.

In this way, once a mosquito ambushed his back, his teammates behind could discover it in time.

No, slightly smarter mosquitoes would all bite the person walking at the very end first. How could they fly to the center of the crowd? Wasn't that waiting to be exposed?

Thinking of this, Long Xuan felt even more secure.

It wasn't just Long Xuan; Ma Lao's situation made everyone subconsciously check their own bodies.

It would have been fine if they didn't check, but upon checking, they actually discovered quite a few problems.

For example, Zhang Ling, who had just finished mocking Ma Lao, ended up looking down and seeing a tick clinging to her ankle, its mouth already deeply embedded in her skin without her knowing. She let out an 800-decibel scream, and then her face turned red with shame.

Little Medicine Boy's leg also had a leech clinging to it at some point. It was discovered in time and stepped on several times, but it just wouldn't die. This was also a master in nature that was not easy to kill.

They were all inexperienced, hunting for the first time, and as a result, even though they were careful enough, they still got hit.

At this time, Long Xuan finally understood why loose cultivators were so poor. Even if the forest was full of treasures, not many loose cultivators dared to enter!

He looked at the youth named Ma Wu in the team. At this time, only he stood there calmly, arms crossed, looking at the few people with a disdainful gaze, without the slightest intention of checking his own body, very confident.

Long Xuan looked at him thoughtfully. Although this youth was dressed simply, he seemed to be very experienced here. Could it be that Ma Lao and Li Laodao, who were many generations older than him, were not as experienced as him?

The youth's words and actions were not like a normal loose cultivator. Long Xuan had to raise his vigilance against him.

"Ma Lao, are you still okay!"

Li Laodao helped him up and asked with concern.

"It's fine, just excessive blood loss. Eating a Blood Replenishing Pill will replenish it."

Ma Lao took out a pill bottle from his storage bag, poured out a red pill, and then slowly sent it into his mouth. Not long after, his face had blood color.

"Are you okay? If you are okay, let's go!"

"These little things are not fatal, but it's different when you reach the depths."

"When you reach the depths of the Ten Thousand Mountains, you must return immediately. That is not a place where you can continue to advance."

Long Qilin looked at the few loose cultivators with a serious gaze and then continued to walk forward.

The group of loose cultivators also hurriedly followed...

This was just a small interlude. After another day passed, Long Xuan and the others finally saw their prey.

It wasn't any wolf, jackal, or fierce beast, but a group of large white rabbits. They looked cute, their fur was snow-white and soft, and their numbers were not small.

Seeing the group's lack of interest, Long Qilin had to explain, "If you want to hunt large spirit beasts, then you will be disappointed."

"You must know that this is the edge of the Ten Thousand Mountains. The large spirit beasts on the edge have long been hunted clean by Gu cultivators, leaving only rabbits, rats... that no one wants."

"After rabbits lose their natural enemies here, relying on their formidable reproductive ability, they multiply more and more, and soon completely occupied the edge zone."

"Now there are rabbits everywhere here, rabbits all over the mountains and plains, so many that you simply can't kill them all."

"If you want to hunt large spirit beasts, we have to walk for several days at full speed."

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the crowd suddenly collapsed. They actually had to walk for several more days.

Although rabbits were also spirit beasts, there was a reason why some beast species were always at the bottom of the food chain.

The only reason was because they were weak. This type of spirit beast had no formidable abilities, the ancestor beasts were not strong, and the descendants could only become the objects of predation generation after generation.

There really were no good spirit insects on rabbits; otherwise, they wouldn't be left here in such large numbers with no one caring.

Long Xuan immediately used the ability of his Golden Finger to check the progress of that group of spirit rabbits.

Besides the progress on the head representing its growth, the spirit insects in the body would also show progress.

But most were in the position of the spirit core. The spirit core was the place where spirit beasts stored spiritual power; the spirit core of a spirit beast was equivalent to the spirit sea of a Gu cultivator.

Some spirit cores would be parasitized by spirit insects, which were harmless to spirit beasts. But the vast majority of spirit cores had no spirit insects; it could be said that the explosion rate was extremely low.

Even if one was lucky enough to explode a spirit insect, they were almost all lower-grade spirit insects, and middle-grade spirit insects were very few.

For Gu cultivators who liked hunting, spirit rabbits had no good goods but ran extremely fast. The time consumed in hunting spirit rabbits was completely disproportionate to the harvest; it could be said that the cost-performance ratio was extremely low, which led to more and more spirit rabbits here.

After scanning a circle, Long Xuan didn't find a satisfactory target, so he killed a rabbit carrying a middle-grade spirit insect, preparing to have a meal.

Anyway, Long Qilin also said that there were only rabbits here and no large carnivorous spirit beasts, so presumably the aroma of his roasted meat wouldn't attract danger.

It was just a middle-grade spirit insect. Even in the eyes of poor loose cultivators, it wasn't something of high value, so Long Xuan generously dug out the spirit core along with the spirit insect.

But he was the first to open business. Seeing that he harvested a middle-grade spirit insect as soon as he hunted the first spirit beast, everyone's spirits were lifted, and their interest rose.

"Yo! Good luck, exploding a middle-grade spirit insect as soon as you hunted the first spirit beast, a good omen!" Long Qilin laughed loudly.

"No way! Good character!" Long Xuan made a joke and added, "Since there are so many rabbits here, let's rest and reorganize before setting off."

"Walking for so long without eating fresh meat, I'm almost fading away!"

"Alright!" Long Qilin agreed, "I have the same intention. Although spirit rabbits don't have good goods, the meat quality is not bad."

"And even if the mosquito is small, it's still meat, right? If we are lucky enough to explode a few more middle-grade spirit insects, that counts as making a small fortune."

Since Long Qilin agreed, the other loose cultivators had nothing to say. They went to hunt rabbits one after another, their enthusiasm was very high, and they all looked very excited.

Long Xuan exploding a middle-grade spirit insect as soon as he killed the first spirit rabbit gave them the illusion that the explosion rate of middle-grade spirit insects was very high, which stimulated them, making them all full of enthusiasm.

However, reality soon gave them a blow to the head. They killed a pile of spirit rabbits, each one exhausted and panting, but only exploded a few lower-grade spirit insects.

Especially Ma Lao, whose eyesight was as poor as ever, cleverly avoiding all the correct options. Others at least had one or two lower-grade spirit insects, but he just didn't explode a single spirit insect. At this time, he began to doubt life.

Next, the few people were no longer interested in hunting spirit rabbits. After eating the roasted meat, they were anxious to set off.

The return on hunting spirit rabbits was seriously disproportionate to the effort. Taking such a big risk to come to the Ten Thousand Mountains once, who was willing to harvest only a few lower-grade spirit insects, not even enough for the travel expenses.

So, in the eager psychology of the group, two more days passed.

On this day, after Long Xuan used the Life-Destroying Palm to extinguish the vitality of a pink-furred rabbit, he grabbed its two large ears and held them in the air, laughing non-stop.

"You actually still have the leisure to kill rabbits. What's good about killing this thing? There's nothing in its belly. Killing them is purely a waste of time. Better save some energy."

Seeing his actions, Ma Lao said.

Long Xuan's smile didn't diminish. After putting the pink-furred rabbit into his storage bag, he replied casually, "Nothing, just practicing palm techniques with this little thing. How was my palm just now? Did it amaze you?"

He was secretly laughing in his heart at this time. Where would this group of people know that this pink-furred rabbit, which was plain and had negative combat power, actually hid a top-grade spirit insect in its body? It really gave him a huge surprise.

Logically speaking, the rabbits here shouldn't be able to explode top-grade spirit insects, but this pink-furred rabbit might be a different breed. The other rabbits were all white, only it was strangely pink. It might also be a mutated breed.

In short, he actually found a top-grade spirit insect in this group of battle-five-scum rabbits. Who could have thought of this?

I'm afraid that even if these teammates broke their heads, they wouldn't think of such a thing.

Before Ma Lao could reply, Long Qilin interrupted first, "That palm of yours just now was not bad. Clearly, it didn't cause any skin trauma to the prey, but it could take its life with one strike."

"It really is a powerful ability suitable for hunting. No need to damage the animal skin. The value of a complete animal skin will be higher."

Long Qilin revealed a slight look of solemnity. In his eyes, this spiritual technique was very strong, and it killed without blood. This was another spiritual technique he had never seen before; he didn't even know its name.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 67 =====