Chapter 67: Ma Wu

"Roar!"

Just at this moment, a low roar of a spirit beast suddenly came from afar, making the group change their expressions in unison.

"How is it possible? It's actually an Earth Bear. This thing is a Second-Rank spirit beast as soon as it's born, with the strength comparable to a Gu cultivator at the Essence Refining stage. Logically speaking, such a powerful spirit beast should absolutely not appear in this section. Is a beast tide really about to happen?"

Hearing this roar of the spirit beast, Long Qilin was instantly shocked.

Upon hearing this, the group of loose cultivators who were originally eager to try were instantly wilted, and the excitement on their faces vanished without a trace.

Just a moment ago, they were all jumping to hunt large carnivorous spirit beasts, and now their target had finally appeared, but they all turned into soft-legged shrimps again.

How could their legs not be soft? This was actually a Second-Rank spirit beast equivalent to a Gu cultivator at the Essence Refining stage. Letting them kill rabbits was fine, but going to deal with this Second-Rank spirit beast was simply going to be food, and the other party might not even be full.

"The Earth Bear belongs to a solitary spirit beast and has a rare ability called Earth Spike. If it is killed, perhaps this ability will explode."

After Long Qilin's brief shock, he revealed an excited look again. Killing beasts to explode skills was precisely the favorite of people like him, so he ran toward the direction where the sound just came from.

The loose cultivators had bitter faces and could only follow reluctantly.

Long Xuan shook his head helplessly. He had just taken a look at that Earth Bear. The selling point was not bad. With a wave of its hand, the ground could instantly grow a patch of sharp earth spikes. The prey had no room to dodge and was directly pierced through the heart.

This ability to let the earth grow sharp spikes was probably the Earth Spike in Long Qilin's mouth. No wonder it made him so excited. This was indeed an ability with terrifying lethality that would make everyone's heart move.

But he had already used the Heavenly Mechanism Eye to look. There was simply no insect at the spirit core of this Earth Bear.

Such a top-grade big boss actually wouldn't explode anything, not even a lower-grade spirit insect. Who could have thought of this?

So Long Xuan simply didn't suggest provoking this big guy.

If you spent half a day of effort, got covered in injuries, and finally killed this big guy, only to find that not even a hair exploded, your mentality would definitely collapse.

This was destined to be a losing business. Running to have a fight with it was absolutely not worth it.

But he couldn't expose his ability to see through exploded items, so even if he had the heart to remind them, he didn't know how to remind them. After thinking for a long time without result, he could only follow helplessly.

When he arrived, Long Qilin had already started fighting with the Earth Bear. For a battle of this level, the group of loose cultivators couldn't intervene and could only watch from the side.

At this time, Long Xuan truly realized how terrifying Long Qilin's power was. The Earth Bear was a behemoth, four meters tall, and Long Qilin's power could actually shake this giant beast.

The Earth Bear swung its huge bear paw and collided head-on with Long Qilin's fist, actually matching each other, neither falling behind.

The Earth Bear was even almost knocked down by Long Qilin once, so it became angry from embarrassment, let out a deafening roar, and became even more violent.

Patches of Earth Spikes rose from the ground from time to time, but Long Qilin seemed to know this move very well, always able to dodge at the first time, and then continue to fight closely with the Earth Bear.

To avoid accidentally hurting itself, the Earth Bear could only choose to stop releasing Earth Spikes and choose to fight closely with Long Qilin.

Every time the huge body moved, the ground trembled. It fought until the earth shook and the mountains swayed, dust flew, making Long Xuan's heart jump with fear.

Through this battle, he truly realized how terrifying human power could be in this world.

However, he had already seen that it seemed Long Qilin and the Earth Bear were head-on and not falling behind, but if the protracted war continued, the one who would be defeated would definitely be him.

Huge body size had a huge advantage in pure physical competition. The opponent not only had to bear the power from it but also the inertia from its huge body.

The greater the mass, the greater the inertia, which was equally applicable in this world.

So Long Qilin not only had to bear the power of the Earth Bear but also the impact of its four-meter-tall body. His consumption was naturally far higher than the Earth Bear's.

Furthermore, the physical strength of spirit beasts was inherently stronger than humans. If Long Qilin continued to fight like this without other ways to break the situation, the situation would be dangerous.

Long Qilin was not stupid; he clearly knew his own situation and absolutely could not continue to fight a protracted war with the Earth Bear.

So after finding an opportunity to pull away, he used another fighting style. He put his hands together, his little finger, ring finger, and thumb together, and his index and middle fingers stood up. Suddenly, giant palms condensed from earth rose from the ground and heavily slapped toward the Earth Bear.

The Earth Bear dodged flexibly, dodging one giant hand slap after another. Every time the giant hand fell, the earth would vibrate, emitting a deafening roar, and the earth was also slapped with giant handprints, which was shocking.

Long Xuan was shocked by this battle scene. Such a big battle movement, such great destructive power, was this the power of a Gu cultivator at the Essence Refining stage?

This kind of giant hand rising from the ground was absolutely an innate ability of a Gu worm. No matter what, spiritual techniques could not complete such an attack form.

Worthy of being a genius Gu cultivator from a great clan, the strength of the Gu worm was far superior to loose cultivators. Was this the power of the Long Clan's unique Gu worm? Long Xuan thought with a shocked heart.

It was also at this moment that the Earth Bear didn't react in time and was ambushed by a palm that suddenly stretched out from under its feet, firmly grabbing its ankle, making it unable to move.

Losing the ability to act, naturally, it could no longer dodge the attacks of those giant hands.

Giant palms fell one after another, heavily slapping on the Earth Bear's body, and then firmly pressed it to the ground.

As the Earth Bear was pressed down, the ground shook violently, and dust and gravel were shaken up, blocking the sight of the loose cultivators. They could only hear the Earth Bear's deafening roars coming from the dust.

However, the battle was not over yet.

Although Long Qilin's move was terrifying and blinded the eyes of the loose cultivators, it had a fatal flaw.

That was that a Gu cultivator needed remote control to use this ability. Although he could move himself, he could not use a second ability while maintaining the Earth Hand; otherwise, the palm rising from the ground would collapse due to the interruption of spiritual power.

So the Earth Bear's roars in the dust were continuous, but Long Qilin had no follow-up attack means, and the scene could only be deadlocked for a time.

Long Qilin shouted anxiously, "My Earth Hand didn't slap it to death, now it can only limit its ability to act."

"People and beasts bound by the Earth Hand will be imprisoned of all abilities, and at the same time, I will also be restricted and cannot use any abilities."

"Now it can only rely on you. You guys go quickly to kill the Earth Bear. Don't worry, under the restriction of the Earth Hand, it can no longer use Earth Spikes!"

The group of loose cultivators looked at each other. After looking at each other, they gritted their teeth and ran toward the Earth Bear together.

Since it had lost its ability to act and could not use any abilities, there was nothing to be afraid of.

At this time, the Earth Bear was like a Sun Monkey pressed under the Five Finger Mountain, with only its head exposed outside the mountain, and its entire body pressed under the mountain, unable to stretch out even an arm.

Seeing this situation, the group of loose cultivators felt even more relieved, and they took out their lower-grade spirit swords one after another to slash at the Earth Bear's head.

However, their degree of attack was completely scratching the Earth Bear. They fought for a long time without breaking its defense.

Although all the Earth Bear's abilities were imprisoned by the Earth Hand and could not be used, at this time, it was in a state of complete lack of defense.

But relying on its thick skin and flesh, it could still resist all the attacks of the loose cultivators at the Spirit Gathering stage.

The group of loose cultivators used all their skills, but they didn't cause any effective damage to it.

The Gu worms released by Ma Lao and Zhang Ling bit on the Earth Bear's face for a long time, but they couldn't tear through its defense. Instead, they were rolled into its mouth by the Earth Bear's tongue, and then bitten to pieces and swallowed in one gulp.

That old woman named Han Mei took out her silver needles and stabbed at the Earth Bear's eyes. Eyes were undoubtedly the weakness of all living things. However, it closed its eyelids, and the silver needle stabbed on the eyelid, but it just couldn't stab in.

Instead, it angered it. The Earth Bear opened its mouth and roared, and a huge wind wave blew out from its bloody mouth, actually blowing the old woman away in one breath, and then the whole person heavily hit a giant tree not far away, and then heavily fell to the ground, suffering not light injuries.

Seeing this scene, Long Qilin almost vomited blood. He knew loose cultivators were weak, but he didn't expect them to be so ridiculously weak, actually blown into serious injuries by a spirit beast in one breath. Did it have to be so exaggerated!

Ma Wu had been hiding on the side of the Earth Bear and was not blown away by the Earth Bear's breath.

He revealed a disdainful expression and sneered in his heart.

Long Qilin really overestimated the strength of this group of loose cultivators. The Earth Bear was famously thick-skinned. Could it be easily broken by a group of loose cultivators?

It was no exaggeration to say that even if the Earth Bear was lying there sleeping, the loose cultivators couldn't do anything to it. The attacks of the loose cultivators were equivalent to giving it a massage, instead making it sleep more soundly.

"I'll come!"

Long Xuan couldn't watch anymore at this time and finally ran over.

They were all in the same team, one glory, one loss. If this group of loose cultivators and Long Qilin consumed too much, or even suffered serious injuries, it would directly affect his safety rate later.

So he couldn't just watch at this time; he had to find a way to solve this Earth Bear as soon as possible.

Seeing Long Xuan rush over, Ma Wu's disdain deepened. Among this group of people, he had the lowest realm and the weakest strength. And he came? Come for what? Come here to be blown away by a breath?

Long Qilin also didn't hold any hope for him at this time.

Long Xuan learned the lesson of Han Mei and didn't walk in front of the Earth Bear, but chose to bypass it from its side, and then stood at the position of the Earth Bear's left temple.

Once close, Long Xuan clearly felt the heat wave coming from the Earth Bear's body, and the violent heartbeat, clangorous and powerful.

He couldn't help but be shocked in his heart. What a terrifying spirit beast, it could have such power even without moving. He really didn't know how Long Qilin fought head-on with this monster just now.

At this time, he didn't have time to think and looked at the Earth Bear's temple.

The temple was also a small weakness of all living things. At this time, the Earth Bear's temple bulged, covered with blue veins, rising and falling with the heartbeat.

He gave this conspicuous temple a palm.

"Life-Destroying Palm!"

At the same time, his left palm also followed and fell.

"Life-Destroying Palm!"

Long Xuan had always been a cautious character, and his suspicion was extremely heavy. He was already in the late stage of suspicion and incurable. He was afraid that the Earth Bear was faking death, or not dead thoroughly, so he attacked with both palms, one palm after another, continuously.

"Life-Destroying Palm!"

"Life-Destroying Palm!"

"Life-Destroying Palm!"

Relying on his abundant spiritual power, he didn't know how many palms he had slapped on the Earth Bear's head.

It wasn't until the Earth Bear's heartbeat stopped completely that he carefully stretched his hand under its nose.

Seeing that no hot air was exhaled, he finally relaxed his vigilance.

Then he gave its nose another palm.

It was only until this time that the crowd realized that the Earth Bear was already dead, dead silently. They didn't even know when it died, how it died, and were all dumbfounded.

"How is it possible? How did he do it!" Seeing Long Xuan easily kill the Earth Bear, Ma Wu opened his eyes wide, revealing a look of disbelief, and his gaze toward him gradually began to become serious.

Long Qilin gave him a shocked look and finally withdrew the ability of the Earth Gu. The giant palm pressing on the Earth Bear turned into a piece of broken soil and scattered, and the space flew up with a piece of dust again.

He also sat on the ground with a thud, panting heavily.

Clearly, using this move just now was also a huge consumption for him, both spiritual power and physical strength were almost at the bottom.

It was fortunate that Long Xuan solved this Earth Bear; otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Long Qilin looked at the Earth Bear's corpse with eyes full of excitement, and then regardless of his own excessive consumption, he hurriedly ran over, preparing to see what good things had exploded immediately.

He couldn't wait to take out a top-grade blade spirit tool and easily cut open the Earth Bear's chest, taking out the spirit core hidden in the center of the chest.

The position of the spirit core in the spirit beast's body was different. Some were in the brain, and some were in the chest. The Earth Bear's spirit core was generally grown in the chest, and the volume was extremely large, like a basketball, flashing with a faint light, emitting majestic spiritual power.

However, Long Qilin looked at the spirit core in his hand, but he couldn't laugh anymore, and his expression was completely stiff on his face, saying nothing.

The mentality completely collapsed...

Just as Long Xuan saw, although the combat power of this Earth Bear was ridiculously strong, there was unexpectedly no goods in its body. It wouldn't explode anything when it died.

That is to say, they had been busy for nothing after fighting for half a day.

Not only were they exhausted and consumed too much, but they also died several Gu worms, and Han Mei was injured. This wave was a big loss.

"How could it be like this! This shouldn't be!"

The loose cultivators looked at the spirit core that didn't carry any spirit insects, and their faces all looked ugly.

Such a terrifying Earth Bear, it took a lot of effort to kill it. Logically speaking, even if it didn't explode a top-grade spirit insect, it should have exploded a middle-grade spirit insect?

As a result, unexpectedly, there wasn't even a lower-grade spirit insect. Who could have thought of this?

This result exceeded everyone's expectations, and they were so depressed that they almost vomited blood. Everyone's mentality collapsed.

Only Long Xuan, who had already known the result, stood there without changing his expression. It was all within expectations...

"Forget it! Consider our luck bad, busy for nothing."

Long Qilin sighed and added, "However, the beast material of the Earth Bear can also be worth some spirit stones. Everyone share it, consider it making up for the loss."

"And the meat quality of the Earth Bear is also not bad. Let's replenish our physical strength before setting off. Those with large storage bag space can also take more Earth Bear meat back."

As soon as Long Qilin finished speaking, Long Xuan went straight to the Earth Bear's bear paw.

The most delicious thing on the bear was naturally the bear paw. Eating this dish in the past life was a rather difficult thing. Today, he finally had the blessing.

Although the others were unwilling in their hearts, they could only helplessly walk over to share the beast material and meat.

Ma Wu was not so anxious and didn't compete with the crowd. Instead, he started a fire first and set up a pot.

Long Xuan was in the late stage of suspicion and had been secretly observing this Ma Wu from beginning to end.

As a loose cultivator, he was poor and destitute, and always greedy. Being humble at this time didn't conform to the normal psychology of a poor loose cultivator, further strengthening Long Xuan's suspicion of his identity.

While he was processing the beast meat, he secretly stared at his movements with the Heavenly Mechanism Eye, preventing him from planting Gu in the pot.

It seemed that this overly cautious action actually made him discover clues.

At this time, Ma Wu actually took out a black incense burner and put it into the fire, and ignited the things inside, burning together with the surrounding wood, releasing thick smoke.

"Incense burner? What is he taking the incense burner out for? Can this thing be used for boiled meat?"

Long Xuan, under suspicion, used the Heavenly Mechanism Eye to zoom in on the fire, intending to see what kind of trickery there was.

At this look, he was suddenly shocked into a cold sweat, his hair instantly stood up, and goosebumps all came out.

It seemed that the smoke was rolling, and it was normal to start a fire and smoke.

But hidden under the thick smoke were small insects with hideous and terrifying faces.

It was precisely from that incense burner that they ran out along with the thick smoke.

The small insects were very small, so small that it was hard to observe with the naked eye, and they were spreading everywhere along the thick smoke, flying toward the crowd who were sharing the beast material.

"Grass!"

Long Xuan's face changed greatly. He was shocked and stood up instantly, turned around, and ran to the distance.

After running far away, he remembered to remind the crowd and shouted back, "Stay away from the thick smoke, there are insects in it!"

"What?"

The crowd was shocked. They threw down the beast meat one after another, then hurriedly covered their mouths and noses, scared to death and running out desperately, almost growing four legs.

Long Qilin, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground recovering spiritual power, was also startled. He opened his eyes instantly. Although he hadn't reacted to what was going on, the instinct to survive forced him to run far away subconsciously.

After the crowd ran out for a distance, Li Laodao looked back at Ma Wu with an ashen face and cursed angrily, "You kid are too mean! Actually planting Gu in the thick smoke!"

"How many Spirit Stones can beast materials from the Essence Refining stage even be worth? Is it really worth it? To kill us all off for such a tiny bit of profit—are you even human?"

Li Laodao still had lingering fears until now. He was the most proficient in planting Gu and was the most awesome at planting Gu in the market. However, even if he was proficient in this way, he had never heard of this Gu planting method. It was the first time he had seen it, and he almost got hit.

It was close, fortunately, Long Xuan reminded him; otherwise, it would be big trouble. Li Laodao thought more and more shocked, more and more angry.

The others also looked at Ma Wu with angry eyes, just waiting for him to give a reasonable explanation before swarming up and tearing him apart.

Ma Wu looked at Long Xuan with vicious eyes, constantly cursing in his heart. It was him again, it was him again, he had already ruined his good deeds twice in a row!

How on earth did he see through my Gu planting method? It is absolutely impossible for anyone in this region to know this Gu planting method.

But at this time, there was no time for him to think. He could only argue forcefully, "Don't spit on people, when did I plant Gu? I am now in the thick smoke myself, why am I fine?"

"If you say I planted Gu, then produce evidence. Slandering me will have to pay a price!" Ma Wu pointed at Long Xuan's nose and cursed.

Hearing Ma Wu's explanation, the crowd looked at Long Xuan together again.

Long Xuan naturally couldn't tell the crowd about the ability of the Heavenly Mechanism Eye and said casually, "No evidence, believe it or not, it's up to you. If you believe him, just try walking into the thick smoke."

However, although Long Xuan couldn't produce evidence to prove that this youth planted Gu, at this time, where did the crowd have the guts to walk toward the thick smoke.

Matters concerning one's own life had always been better to believe it existed than not. Life only had one time, and it must not be sloppy.

Therefore, even if Long Xuan couldn't produce evidence, not a single loose cultivator dared to walk over to take the risk.

Including Long Qilin.

He looked at Ma Wu in the thick smoke for a while, and then looked at Long Xuan for a while. Although he didn't know who to believe, he didn't dare to approach the thick smoke easily anymore. Whoever gambled on whether there was Gu in the thick smoke was a fool.

Seeing that no one walked over, Ma Wu hated in his heart, knowing that even if he had a way to argue, they would definitely not come over, and the plan failed completely.

He hated Long Xuan to the bone.

Since the plan had failed, he didn't need to pretend anymore. He shouted to the distance, "The plan failed, no need to hide anymore, attack directly."

As soon as his voice fell, nine people jumped out from the trees, grass, and behind giant rocks around the loose cultivators, rushed to the front from afar, and surrounded the group.

"Hahaha... Long Qilin! You are alone!"

The red-clothed man who spoke emitted the powerful aura of the early stage of Essence Refining, making all the loose cultivators change their expressions.

"Long Qilin! Didn't expect it! Although you escaped the disaster just now, you have experienced a big battle and consumed a lot. How can you be the opponent of my two brothers?"

A man with a similar appearance on the side also emitted the aura of the early stage of Essence Refining at this time, impacting the group of loose cultivators. At this time, their faces were as ugly as they could be.

This group of people who came with bad intentions actually had two early-stage Essence Refining cultivators, and their side had not only consumed a lot after the battle just now but also lost several Gu worms. Once a conflict occurred between the two sides, it was not losing more and winning less, it was definitely losing.

The few people felt more and more heavy in their hearts.

Long Xuan sighed slightly in his heart. The forest was full of progress, and any weed on the ground had progress. The numbers were dense, and the vision was too chaotic. Plus, his attention had been on Ma Wu, so he really didn't notice anyone behind the cover.

He couldn't help but look at Li Laodao and ask, "Is this what you said was one hundred percent safe? Is this what you said was reliable?"

However, at this time, Li Laodao had no mood to say these things. With a very ugly face, he said, "We are probably in big trouble. This group of people are Gu cultivators of the Feng family. The Long and Feng clans have always been world enemies."

"That Ma Wu is clearly a nail they planted. This is an assassination they arranged for Long Qilin for a long time. We were accidentally involved!"

"We teaming up with Long Qilin is hitting the gun muzzle! Everyone think about how to survive now!"

Li Laodao's words covered the group of loose cultivators with a layer of haze, and their eyes gradually revealed looks of despair.

Even if they were cautious enough, in order to be one hundred percent safe, they specially found an expert to escort them. However, accidents were everywhere. The boat they were on was not only unsafe but a dangerous boat.

This was really a disaster from heaven, and things were hard to predict. If heaven wants you to die, no matter how careful you are, no matter how fully prepared you are, it's useless.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 68 =====