At this moment, he truly felt he could be considered proficient. During his seclusion, his five clones had pushed his cultivation to the peak of the Spirit Gathering stage.
Long Xuan didn’t even know when he had broken through. He had done so without any awareness; one day he woke up and suddenly found himself inexplicably at the peak of the Spirit Gathering stage in Gu cultivation, which gave him quite a scare.
He could only say that the feeling of being overpowered was just too exhilarating. Always being overpowered always felt great.
When he was at the late Spirit Gathering stage, he could easily fight across levels. Now, at the peak of the Spirit Gathering stage, he had no rivals among his peers.
As a result, Long Xuan became much bolder, feeling he had the strength to go out and seek opportunities. He thought he could venture out someday and also finish excavating the Empress’s tomb. He was completely inflated at this point.
Today was a double celebration. In high spirits, Long Xuan decided to make some honey-roasted meat to celebrate.
So, he walked to the beehive, patted it, and lightly shouted, "Time to collect taxes! Time to collect taxes!"
Long Xuan smiled. Being a rent collector felt truly great.
Things went exactly as he expected. Royal jelly had unimaginable benefits for the spirit bees. As expected, all the spirit bees that ate royal jelly evolved into a stronger species, which Long Xuan named Ice Bees.
The original hive could no longer accommodate their size, so they were building a new hive on another cherry blossom tree, which was much larger and enough to allow the Ice Bees to come and go.
Meanwhile, the honey produced by this bee species was even tastier, with higher spiritual energy quality and more nourishing.
However, the Ice Bees were still two sizes smaller than BingBing. Even though they belonged to the same species, they had evolved by drinking BingBing's royal jelly. So, even after evolving into the same species, there was still a bloodline suppression.
Now, Bing Bing was undoubtedly the queen of the bee swarm, second only to Long Xuan and above all the bees.
It's worth mentioning that BingBing was still a virgin. Long Xuan finally understood that this bee species could reproduce without a queen, mating freely among themselves.
After all, this was a different world, and it was normal for things to be different from the previous world. The common knowledge from the previous world couldn't be applied here.
The variety of insects in this world was far greater than in the previous one, with all kinds of strange insects breaking your knowledge and common sense.
Many insects didn't exist in the previous world, such as the invisible void insects, energy form dark insects, and formless hidden insects.
For an entomologist, this place was a treasure trove, a paradise, with so many interesting things and many that broke their worldview.
A bee species reproducing through both male and female wouldn't surprise them.
However, BingBing's future seemed bleak; she would become an old maid. After all, she was much larger than her peers, and who would want to take a giant home? But Bing Bing only cared about eating, so she might not be interested in such matters.
After collecting the taxes, Long Xuan made a feast of honey-roasted meat and had a great meal.
He still had plenty of Beast King meat, and with the Divine Ice Flame for refrigeration, he didn’t have to worry about it spoiling.
As Long Xuan was about to contemplate his next plan, Li Laodao came to visit, interrupting his thoughts.
His great Ice Formation wasn't as powerful as Di Xin’s medicinal garden, which could be completely hidden and unnoticed in the middle of the prairie.
His medicinal garden was near the market, and many people could find it. He didn’t intend to hide it either.
As a peak Spirit Gathering Gu cultivator, having his own medicinal garden was perfectly normal. Even Elder Long knew about his medicinal garden and didn’t say anything.
So, it wasn't surprising that Li Laodao could find him.
After putting away the communication talisman, Long Xuan walked out of the Ice Formation and saw Li Laodao standing there, stroking his beard.
"To survive such a massive beast tide, your life is truly fortunate," Long Xuan said after glancing at him.
"Haha! With your Little Strong Gu by my side, how could this old man die so easily?"
"You saved my life twice, and I haven't thanked you yet. This time, I unintentionally found a great opportunity, so I came to repay your lifesaving grace."
Thinking of this, Li Laodao became excited, his face showing a joyful smile. From his expression alone, one might think he had really found something good.
Long Xuan was curious and asked tentatively, "What kind of opportunity could make you so happy? Another ancient tomb?"
"How could it be?" Li Laodao quickly shook his head. "Ancient tombs aren't something you encounter just like that. This time, I unintentionally found the cave mansion of an ancient senior."
"You know, people in this world are very secretive. Few are willing to take disciples, and when they reach their end, they die in their cave mansions with no one to collect their bodies. Naturally, all their treasures remain intact in the cave mansion."
"The senior in that cave mansion must have been nearing the end of his life, forced to undergo a life-or-death breakthrough, and ultimately failed and died in the cave mansion."
"Compared to underground ancient tombs, a rogue cultivator's cave mansion is much safer. The dangers only come from various formations."
"This time, I asked Di Xin for help. She is a famous formation master, and no formation can trouble her."
"So, you can rest assured. We are absolutely 100% safe and reliable!" Elder Li patted his chest and guaranteed.
"100% Absolutely safe?"
"Reliable?"
Long Xuan raised an eyebrow. Why did this sentence sound so familiar, as if he had heard it more than once?
How many times had this old man said this to him?
Long Xuan's expression became strange. He looked at him with a meaningful gaze and said slowly, "If I remember correctly, you said this to me last time, and the time before that as well."
"Uh!" Li Laodao's face turned red, showing a look of embarrassment. He hurriedly explained, "Last time was an accident! The time before that was also an accident!"
"Rest assured! This time there will absolutely be no accidents. If there are any accidents, I'll bring my head to you!" Li Laodao said confidently.
Only he knew how terrifying Di Xin's expertise in formations was. It could be said that there was no formation in this region that she couldn't break.
No matter how dangerous the protective formation of that cave dwelling was, it wouldn't pose the slightest danger to her.
He was absolutely confident in Di Xin's ability to break formations. With her there, there was no way any danger could arise within the cave dwelling.
The only danger could come from within the group, but for this treasure hunt, he had only invited friends he trusted completely. He believed in his judgment of character and was certain there would be no internal conflict.
Therefore, he was very confident in this trip, believing it to be completely safe, one hundred percent.
"Is that formation monster Di Xin participating? That makes it much more reliable."
Long Xuan frowned and thought for a moment. Not only was Li Laodao confident in her formation skills, but he also recognized Di Xin's mastery of formations. If she were to break the formations, going to an ancient tomb might be risky, but going to a rogue cultivator's cave dwelling would be no problem at all.
At this moment, what concerned him was Li Laodao's luck. After the last two incidents, he felt that Li Laodao was plagued with bad luck and that nothing good ever happened when he went out.
Theoretically, if something was one hundred percent safe, if he were involved, it would become one hundred percent unsafe, with unexpected incidents likely to occur.
He was considering whether to send a clone or to go himself, given that Li Laodao was so unlucky.
Sending a clone had the advantage of keeping the main body completely safe, but it also had its drawbacks. The clone was much weaker than the main body and didn't have an external Gu.
Some dangers that the main body could withstand might be fatal to the clone, which could result in losing a clone.
Now that he had reached the peak of Spirit Gathering, losing a clone was not an option.
The most crucial issue was that the clone didn't have the Golden Finger and might miss treasures due to not seeing the progress, potentially overlooking valuable items that appeared ordinary.
After much thought, Long Xuan decided to take a middle course, sending both his clone and his main body.
When they reached the cave entrance, he would use a stealth technique to let the clone take his place and enter. Once everyone had left the cave, the main body would enter again to sweep the area with the Golden Finger.
If the clone encountered any unexpected danger, he could bring the other four clones in to rescue it, significantly increasing the safety of the clone.
This plan was perfect, achieving multiple goals.
Long Xuan's eyes brightened, and he finally made up his mind, "Alright! This time I'll trust you again! I hope there won't be any more accidents."
"Don't worry, this time it will be absolutely safe. The last few times were just bad luck. Can I always be unlucky? It's about time for my luck to turn around!"
"Let's meet at the usual place tomorrow! We won't leave without seeing each other!"
Li Laodao patted Long Xuan's shoulder heavily and finally turned to leave.
Once Li Laodao left, Long Xuan immediately went back to pack his things, preparing for the trip, taking what was necessary and leaving behind what wasn't.
It was best to prepare several storage bags, to avoid not having enough space for treasures.
His home was well-stocked, so a day's preparation time was more than enough.
Finally, he packed several bags of honey-roasted meat and put them in his storage bag, planning to heat them up and eat them on the road.
Traveling in the wild, eating and sleeping poorly, he needed to bring plenty of good food. He didn't want to be chewing on hard bread for a month.
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