Chapter 85: Long Ziyan

A month later, the day finally arrived for Long Lao to leave his post. He was to be succeeded by a beautiful female Gu cultivator from the Long Clan, and so, Long Xuan set off for the Long Family along with Long Lao.

Originally, according to his plan, he had intended to send a clone, but plans often fail to keep up with changes; Long Lao's Evil Dragon Emperor Eye could actually see through his clones.

Thus, he had no choice but to change his plans and temporarily make the trip in person with his true body.

It wouldn't be too late to let a clone take over once he had perfected them to a point where the Evil Dragon Emperor Eye couldn't detect them.

However, with a Third Grade Alchemist as his backer, he reckoned he wouldn't encounter any danger by going himself.

One must never underestimate the status of a Third Grade Alchemist within a clan. Long Lao's current status in the Long Family was second only to the Long Clan Ancestor, effectively on par with the Family Head.

Even if the Family Head wanted to break through to become a Gu King, he would have to beg this Third Grade Alchemist. As the direct disciple of such an alchemist, one could truly walk sideways in the Long Clan; basically, no one dared to provoke him.

Since this trip would take some time before he could return, he left the medicine garden to be managed by his Lin clone.

Long Lao's medicine garden was left to the newly arrived female Long Clan Gu cultivator, so his Lin clone was conveniently freed up.

And since he was the direct disciple of a Third Grade Alchemist, he presumed that the new Long Clan Gu cultivator wouldn't dare to set her sights on his medicine garden.

Long Xuan had absolutely no need to worry about his home being raided and could leave with peace of mind.

……

The reason Big Stone Village could be governed by the Long Family was entirely because it was too close; traveling at full speed, the journey between the two places took only two days.

And so, two days later.

Long Xuan gazed at the barren mountain and revealed a look of shock, his small mouth slightly agape.

Along the way, he had seen other mountain peaks either covered in medicine gardens or teeming with herds of cattle and sheep; some even had fish ponds filled with various spirit fish.

In short, every place was breathtakingly beautiful, and everywhere were the clan's assets. It seemed the Long Clan Family Head managed things well and had built up the entire Long Family quite nicely.

Yet, why was it different here at Long Lao's place? The mountain was bare, as if it had been stripped of its clothes, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding mountains. It stood out like a crane in a flock of chickens, truly too eye-catching.

Could this be the legendary Xiaoqiong Peak? Long Xuan was thoroughly stunned.

Weren't all alchemists supposed to be filthy rich? Why was it the exact opposite here at Long Lao's?

"Master, you wouldn't happen to be the target of poverty alleviation in your village, would you!"

Long Xuan looked at the vast, desolate mountain before him and said in a daze.

Long Lao revealed a hint of embarrassment, his old face flushing slightly.

"I was away for too long, and with no one to look after the mountain, I packed up and sold everything on it."

"Plus, there were too many debt collectors, so I told them to take whatever they could. I just didn't expect them to be so excessive—they even pulled up the weeds on the mountain and drained the water from the fish ponds. Is this something a human would do?"

Long Lao revealed a look of helplessness.

Long Xuan felt a chill in his heart. He suddenly wondered if deciding to become his disciple was a mistake—was it a bit too rash?

If those throngs of creditors found out that Long Lao had a direct disciple, wouldn't they all come running to him to collect their debts? Thinking this, Long Xuan felt his scalp tingle and became thoroughly unsettled.

This place was a massive pit; he had truly jumped into a fire pit. From now on, he must never tell anyone he was Long Lao's disciple when he went out.

But it was probably too late now. As soon as Long Lao arrived, he had gone crazy showing off that he had become a Third Grade Alchemist and had taken in a once-in-a-millennium alchemy prodigy. He flaunted it everywhere, as loudly as he could, wishing the whole world knew.

By now, everyone in the Long Clan probably knew that Long Lao had a disciple named Long Xuan. He was famous now!

Long Xuan was thoroughly numb.

"As your master, I am one of the few alchemists in the Long Family, so the territory I was allocated is quite large. Now, all of this territory is yours to manage."

"Don't you have many clones? Send them to plant spirit herbs here as fast as possible, and put water and fish fry in the fish ponds."

"As a Third Grade Alchemy Master, how can my home be so bare? Wouldn't that make me a laughingstock?"

Hearing this, Long Xuan was stunned. Let his clones do the work? Why did it always feel like something wasn't right?

Long Xuan reached his hand out toward Long Lao. Seeing him dazed, he reminded him: "The money for the fish fry and medicine seeds—you wouldn't want your own disciple to pay out of his own pocket, would you?"

Long Lao's expression turned bitter. Asking him for money? His pockets were cleaner than his face, and he dared to ask him for money? No money!

After refining a few Third Grade Spirit Pills, he was truly broke; he couldn't even squeeze out half a spirit stone, and he had even been sponging meals off his disciple lately.

But if he were to borrow from his disciple or have him cover the costs, Long Lao, despite his thick skin, couldn't quite bring himself to say it. He could only laugh dryly: "Your master is a bit tight on cash lately."

"How about this: you plant the empty land first, as much as you can. Try not to leave it empty; it doesn't look good. Even if you only plant First Grade spirit herbs, it doesn't matter."

"When the spirit herbs mature, they'll all be yours. Your master can earn more money just by refining a few Third Grade Spirit Pills; I don't have my eyes on this petty cash anymore."

……

At this moment, inside the Long Clan Council Hall.

The current Long Clan Family Head, Long Wanli, sat at the head of the conference table, while ten clan elders, all exuding the aura of the Spirit Sea Stage, sat symmetrically on both sides of the oval table.

Everyone wore black robes embroidered with dragons; this was the traditional attire of the Long Clan.

The dragon was the symbol and totem of the Long Clan, and the dragon embroidered on the clothing corresponded to one's status in the clan.

Stewards wore three-clawed divine dragons, Hall Masters wore four-clawed divine dragons, the Family Head and the esteemed clan elders who could enter the meetings wore five-clawed divine dragons, and the Ancestors who rarely managed affairs wore double dragons.

Ordinary disciples wore no dragons, or at most a remnant dragon; no one could overstep their bounds, or they would face severe punishment according to clan rules.

Those who made outstanding contributions to the clan would also be given dragon tattoos. In short, the Long Clan had heavy rules and numerous rituals.

After all the clan elders had arrived, Family Head Long Wanli looked around and finally spoke: "Ever since our clan obtained the mining rights to one-seventh of the fossil mine vein, our income has been increasing day by day, and the clan's total revenue has hit new highs every year."

"But ultimately, we still face the problem of uneven distribution. No one can be sure if a location is a poor mine or a rich mine, and the underground tunnels are complex and numerous, like a giant labyrinth. When both families mine, they bump into each other from time to time, triggering conflicts."

"Our clan has frequently clashed with the Feng Clan recently, and many miners have died in the mine veins. If we let these conflicts continue, with both clans constantly depleting their manpower, then continuing to mine will not be profitable."

"The purpose of my calling this meeting today is to discuss this matter. Do you all have any good suggestions?"

The Family Head's words caused all the clan elders to reveal grave expressions, and the atmosphere of the meeting became heavy.

The Great Elder's status was second only to the Family Head. After stroking the beard on his chin, he was the first to speak: "You should understand that it is impossible to have a good solution for this kind of thing."

"With Feng Qingyang's temperament, even if there were no issues, he would find trouble for you. What does it matter if this matter is solved perfectly? Even if we make concessions, it won't prevent conflicts from happening."

Hearing this, the major clan elders nodded in deep agreement; clearly, they were all very familiar with Feng Qingyang's personality.

The Second Elder then took over: "Although there is no solution, we cannot leave it unresolved."

"In the past, almost all disputes were resolved by holding arena matches, with the losing side compromising."

"I think we should use this method to resolve the matter this time as well!"

Upon hearing this, Long Wanli immediately said: "I have thought of this method long ago, but in matters of combat, no one dares to say they will win 100%. Arena matches are risky, and fists and feet have no eyes. If we lose a genius because of this, the loss will outweigh the gain."

The Third Elder chuckled: "I heard that Long Ao took in a Ten Extremes Body genius? The Ten Extremes Body is invincible at the same level and has a high probability of winning even against higher levels. Sending him is a guaranteed win."

The Tenth Elder seemed ill-informed. Hearing this, he revealed a look of surprise and immediately exclaimed: "Isn't the Ten Extremes Body unable to cultivate? Did the world change after I came out of seclusion?"

The Fourth Elder was a female Gu cultivator. She smiled and explained: "You don't know this, but after the Yaoguang Ancient Tomb appeared, the cultivation method she practiced was spread everywhere."

"Coincidentally, her 'Sun Moon Heart Scripture' perfectly matches the Ten Extremes Body. You must know that the clones cultivated from the 'Sun Moon Heart Scripture' can cultivate on behalf of the true body, which can perfectly solve the drawbacks of the Ten Extremes Body."

"So this Ten Extremes Body has now become a peerless genius who can cultivate and has the qualifications to enter the Long Family to cultivate. Otherwise, how could we have agreed to let Long Ao bring him into the clan?"

Hearing this, the Tenth Elder was even more shocked. Thinking about the fact that a clone could cultivate for the true body, his eyes burned with heat, but he was quickly doused with cold water by the Fourth Elder.

The Fourth Elder seemed to see through his thoughts and hurriedly warned: "I advise you not to set your sights on that cultivation method. That method is already everywhere; it can be learned anywhere."

"But everyone who has learned it has had problems without exception—either killed by their clones or replaced by their clones to mingle among the crowd. It has now been listed as a forbidden technique by all clans, and everyone is prohibited from learning it."

"The tomb owner was a lunatic. She seemed to intend to spread her cultivation method, spreading it all over the world. The Dharma should not be spread lightly, yet she let everyone learn the world's top cultivation method. It's simply absurd!"

Hearing this, the Tenth Elder finally calmed down, but still asked unwillingly: "Then why is that Ten Extremes Body youth fine after practicing it?"

The Fifth Elder then took over: "Listening to Long Ao, it seems that the youth modified the text, changing the cultivation method beyond recognition, and coincidentally solved part of the problem."

"Remember, it only solved a part of it. It might be very stable in the early stages, but it's hard to say in the later stages. Long Ao doesn't believe he can solve a problem that even the Yaoguang Female Emperor couldn't solve."

"I think, with a cultivation method modified blindly by a youth, you wouldn't have the guts to learn it, would you?"

After the Fifth Elder glanced at him, he continued: "He is special in our clan, so he can be given the qualification to learn forbidden techniques. Even if he is truly replaced by his clone in the end, it doesn't matter."

"Because the clone's memories, personality, and habits are exactly the same as the true body's, there is no difference whether he is replaced or not, and we don't need to monitor him."

"Letting him fight an arena match is definitely a guaranteed win."

Family Head Long Wanli nodded and said: "His match is indeed stable, but his current realm is still too low. To maximize benefits, let him grow for a period of time first."

"Let Long Qilin and Long Ziyan resolve the first few conflicts. They are the two geniuses with the best talent in our clan; at least the chances of winning the first two matches are very high."

The clan elders nodded together, and the Sixth Elder smiled: "I have full confidence in Long Ziyan. She is the nine-rank bloodline genius that our clan has rarely seen in a millennium. Once her Divine Dragon Dharma Idol is released, it will surely beat those Feng Clan youngsters to a pulp! If they knew that our clan has both a nine-rank bloodline and a Ten Extremes Body, they would surely regret accepting the arena battle."

"Hahaha..." A burst of laughter from the clan elders echoed in the conference room...

"By the way! I heard that Long Ao has become a Third Grade Alchemist. Is this true? If it is true, then it is truly the fortune of our clan. Our clan's luck will rise to another level because of this."

The Sixth Elder revealed an excited look and said very emotionally.

Long Wanli smiled and nodded, also smiling somewhat excitedly: "This is true. Our clan has indeed given birth to a Third Grade Alchemist, and he is the only Third Grade Alchemist in the Far West. It is a joyous and congratulatory event."

"Our clan has the clan-treasure, the Third Grade Xuan Long Pill Formula. Once the Xuan Long Pill is refined by him, everyone present will have the opportunity to break through to become a Gu King!"

As soon as these words came out, all the clan elders' eyes turned red. Their image was gone, their previous composure vanished, and everyone's breathing became rapid.

The ill-informed Tenth Elder had just learned about this. Because he had no psychological preparation, he was particularly excited. After slamming the table three times, he roared loudly: "That is truly great! It is truly Heaven's blessing to our clan!"

"Then he is now the living treasure of our clan. We must protect him well. Who knows what crazy things that jealous Feng Qingyang will do after hearing this news."

"I suggest we seal the news now and order the whole clan to prohibit spreading this matter. Whoever violates it will be executed directly!" The Tenth Elder revealed a ruthless look.

Long Wanli revealed an embarrassed look, sighed, and said helplessly: "It's too late! Don't you know his personality yet? That big mouth talks about everything. As soon as he broke through to Third Grade Alchemist, he flaunted it everywhere. Now everyone in the world knows..."

The conference room suddenly became quiet, so quiet that a pin drop could be heard...

……

At this moment, outside the Council Hall.

"You mean that only those with a Long Clan bloodline of rank five or above can condense a Dharma Idol, and your bloodline purity as the clan's second genius is only rank six, while that Long Ziyan has actually reached rank nine? You, the second, have been left in the dust by the first?"

Long Xuan widened his eyes and looked at Long Qilin, revealing a look of shock.

After coming out of Long Lao's Xiaoqiong Peak, he began to search for medicine seeds everywhere and accidentally ran into Long Qilin, so he immediately ran over to get close to him.

The "Reverse Dragon Art" belonged to the Long Clan's highest secret. He didn't dare to fish for secrets from Long Lao, lest he expose the fact that he had learned the "Reverse Dragon Art" in advance.

But Long Qilin was different. Long Qilin was very simple, and it was very easy to fish out Long Clan secrets from him.

Long Xuan pretended to be curious and, in a few words, fished out the method of how to condense an external Dharma Idol from his mouth.

Long Qilin proudly said that he was a descendant of the dragon and had dragon blood in his body. The higher the bloodline purity, the stronger the combat power. Once the bloodline purity reached a certain level, one would have some dragon characteristics, so one could condense a Divine Dragon Dharma Idol.

If the bloodline purity was very low, the body would have nothing to do with a dragon, and there would be no dragon characteristics. In that case, it would be impossible to condense a Divine Dragon Dharma Idol no matter what.

And the more times one intermarried with mortals, the lower the purity of the Long Clan bloodline would be. Long Xuan didn't know how many times his bloodline had been intermarried with mortals. It would be good if the Long Clan bloodline concentration could reach rank one. If he could condense a Divine Dragon Dharma Idol, then there would truly be a ghost.

Long Xuan suddenly realized. No wonder the cultivation method kept talking about blood, blood, blood. It turned out that this blood did not refer to ordinary blood, but to the essence blood of rank five bloodline or above. He had misunderstood the meaning.

And all the Long Clan geniuses who practiced the "Reverse Dragon Art" were of rank five bloodline or above, so naturally, there was no need to specifically note that outsiders could not practice it. This was no wonder.

Long Xuan's eyes brightened, and his heart suddenly cleared.

Once the root cause of the disease was found, the problem would be easy to solve. Since it was because the bloodline purity was not enough to condense an external Dharma Idol, then modify the text and change it to use the essence blood of outsiders to also be able to cultivate the divine ability. This problem would be solved easily.

Long Xuan immediately looked at Long Qilin with wolf-like eyes, but quickly shook his head. No, this person's bloodline purity was too low. How could he want such trash bloodline? He revealed a look of disdain.

Condensing a Dharma Idol is, of course, the higher the bloodline purity, the better. This is beyond doubt. Otherwise, why would Long Qilin be suppressed by Long Ziyan, a female Gu cultivator, and not even be able to beat a woman?

Since Long Qilin's essence blood was too trash, he could only set his sights on that genius named Long Ziyan.

Long Xuan rolled his eyes and pretended to ask inadvertently again: "It would be great if this Dharma Idol could use the essence blood of outsiders. If you trade treasures with Long Ziyan for some of her essence blood, then your Divine Dragon Dharma Idol would not be weaker than hers."

It seemed that Long Xuan was thinking for him, but in fact, this sentence was asked for himself.

He wanted to know if things like essence blood could be traded, and once traded, what the price would be, so he could be prepared.

Little did he know that after Long Qilin heard this sentence, he was immediately startled, hurriedly waved his hands, and exclaimed in shock: "What are you thinking! How can things like essence blood be used for trading? Once you trade this kind of thing with her, you will definitely be beaten to death by her!"

"Do you know what essence blood is? Essence blood is not ordinary blood; it is the essence of a person's body and is extremely rare. Only heart blood and virgin yin blood contain a small amount of essence blood."

"Once a person loses their heart blood, their vitality will be severely damaged. Losing virgin yin blood is fine, but it will only make the cultivation speed much slower when practicing certain cultivation methods."

"But these two types of blood cannot be traded. If you dare to ask her for these two types of blood, believe me, you will die very miserably!"

Hearing this, Long Xuan immediately shrank his neck in fear, cold sweat dripping down, and a lingering fear in his heart. Fortunately, he had opened his mouth and asked that extra question. Otherwise, if he had really run to trade some essence blood with Long Ziyan, it would have been a disaster, and the consequences would have been unimaginable.

In this way, this woman must never be touched, and the matter of divine abilities needs to be thought of in other ways.

Long Qilin suddenly hugged Long Xuan's shoulders, leaned his head close, and smiled: "Let's not talk about these. Since it's your first time coming to the Long Family, you are not familiar with many places, right? Come, I will be your tour guide and take you to visit all the places, so you can learn about the customs of my Long Clan."

As he said this, Long Qilin hugged Long Xuan's shoulders and walked forward without question, very enthusiastically.

Thus, Long Xuan had wanted to turn around and leave after fishing out the secrets, but in the end, he couldn't leave at all. He had underestimated Long Qilin's level of enthusiasm.

He didn't want to offend anyone, so he could only follow helplessly.

Next, Long Qilin took Long Xuan to visit every part of the clan. With him there, Long Xuan was unimpeded everywhere, and he could enter any secret place. Even a thief would be happy to cry following him.

Under Long Qilin's guidance, Long Xuan saw the Technique Transmission Hall, which was the place to go in to learn cultivation methods and spirit techniques. There were specialized people to guide, which could save people from taking many detours.

Long Xuan secretly envied this. Where would a scattered cultivator have guidance? It was all groping blindly by himself. He didn't even know where he had taken the wrong path, and one mistake could be a mistake for a lifetime.

After the Technique Transmission Hall, Long Xuan saw the Library Tower again. When he arrived at this place, Long Xuan was excited, his eyes shining straight. However, Long Qilin found it boring, so he stayed for a while and then forcibly dragged him away.

Afterwards, Long Xuan saw the Arena Hall again. Many people were sparring inside, and many people were watching inside, which was very noisy.

After the Arena Hall was the Gu Battle Arena. A group of people were fighting Gu here. The so-called Gu fighting meant that the Gu cultivators did not go on the field, and both sides used outer Gu to fight one-on-one.

There were one-on-one forms, and there were also many-on-many forms. Those who liked to show off could even take on a group. It was even more lively here, and there were more people shouting.

Long Xuan came to the Long Clan's Family School again. A pile of children were sitting inside, and a group of loli and shota were reading and learning characters under the teacher's guidance, and understanding the basic common sense of this world.

Long Xuan envied even more. Heaven knows that if he didn't have clones, he wouldn't understand any common sense now, and he wouldn't even know his geographical location on the world map, let alone the history that seemed unimportant but was actually very important.

Soon, Long Xuan came to the Task Hall again, which was the place where the clan issued tasks. Individuals could also set rewards to issue tasks here. Long Lao's task of guarding Big Stone Village was taken from here.

In the Long Family, only by making a lot of contributions to the clan could one receive various resources. Otherwise, wouldn't it be raising so many idlers for nothing? No one could eat idly in the Long Family.

Next, Long Xuan went to many places under the guidance of Long Qilin. Every place opened his eyes. Half a day later, he finally stopped at the last stop.

This last stop was the most central position of the Long Family. There was a Treasure Pavilion in this position, which treasured most of the Long Family's treasures. Arriving at this place, Long Xuan's eyes were even brighter.

Then he quickly walked in and checked what treasures were here at the fastest speed to see if there was anything he needed.

In order to facilitate the Long Clan disciples to exchange, all treasures were listed and posted on the walls inside the building, which could be easily seen. At this time, the walls were crowded with people around each treasure list.

Everyone was in an excited state, with greed in their eyes, pointing at the various treasures on the wall and discussing in low voices with their companions.

As a large clan, the Long Clan really had quite a few good things. There were too many things that Long Xuan needed, such as seeds of rare Fourth Grade spirit herbs, which were all things that were not easy to collect.

Once he entered here, Long Xuan couldn't move his feet at all. His thief eyes looked around, and finally stopped on one of the treasure lists. Seeing the things on it, he couldn't move his eyes away anymore.

I saw it written on it: Golden Crow Blood, obtained in the Yaoguang Ancient Tomb, 50 million contribution points.

Seeing these four words, Long Xuan's breathing suddenly became rapid. It was truly what he needed, and what he needed came. Golden Crow Blood was exactly the good thing for condensing the Golden Crow Dharma Idol!

Since Long Ziyan's blood was not easy to obtain, this Golden Crow blood was definitely a good choice for him.

This was blood that flowed directly from the body of a divine beast. The effect of condensing an external Dharma Idol could never be worse than that of a human's nine-rank essence blood.

You must know that the divine ability of the "Purgatory True Demon Art" was different from the "Reverse Dragon Art". The "Reverse Dragon Art" could only condense Divine Dragon Dharma Idols of different strengths according to bloodline purity.

And his "Purgatory True Demon Art" could condense an external Dharma Idol every time he practiced a layer. He would have as many Dharma Idols as he practiced to a few layers.

Now that he already knew that condensing a Dharma Idol was related to the blood of powerful creatures, then the blood of various divine beasts was, of course, the more the better for him. Even if he had to pay any price, he had to obtain it.

You must know that divine beasts had been extinct in this world for I don't know how many tens of thousands of years. The remaining divine beast blood was permanently reduced by one point for every point used. Now there was almost none left.

This bottle of Golden Crow Blood was very likely the only bottle in this world. He had to obtain it no matter what. Even if he had to take a certain risk, he would not hesitate. Long Xuan clenched his fists.

After noticing that all the treasures here could only be exchanged with the Long Clan's unique family contribution points, he immediately looked at Long Qilin who had followed him and asked impatiently: "How to obtain contribution points?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 86 =====