LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 143: Setting the Stage
"Those dogs from the Bai family! What are they doing on our turf with so many people? I'm going over there to teach them a lesson right now," Long Biao shouted angrily, rolling up his sleeves and preparing to rush forward. However, Long Qian pressed down on his shoulder, his face dark and stern, saying, "Stay put! Let’s see what they’re planning first. If you rush in recklessly now, you’ll only make things worse. Don’t expose my presence."
Hearing this, Long Xuan finally understood the identities of both parties. Since they were from the Bai family, it made sense that they were dressed in white. Therefore, those dressed in black must be the Gu cultivators of the Western Land Long Clan.
At this moment, Long Xuan could clearly see why the leading youth of the Long Clan's Gu cultivators had such exaggerated combat power.
His Evil Dragon Emperor Eye could see through all the weaknesses in his opponent's moves, allowing him to defeat them with a single strike.
If his opponents couldn't withstand even one move, there could be no wheel battle, and having more people wouldn't give them an advantage. For someone like him, fighting against a large group was no challenge at all.
If not for the prohibition against killing in the market, those knocked to the ground by him would likely never stand up again, and the battle wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Long Xuan was astounded, feeling the terror of the Evil Dragon Emperor Eye for the first time. His fear of this eye Gu increased, but soon after, he grew puzzled. Was the Long Clan's Evil Dragon Emperor Eye really this powerful?
From what he knew, due to the widespread lack of materials needed to refine the Evil Dragon Emperor Eye, the current versions were all incomplete, with limited power. They could only see through the flaws of ordinary abilities, but slightly stronger ones were beyond their reach.
His own Steel Fist wasn't fully developed yet and should have been full of flaws, but Long Biao couldn’t see any weaknesses, clearly showing the limitations of the Evil Dragon Emperor Eye.
But this youth was different. His Evil Dragon Emperor Eye could see through any ability, no matter the technique, allowing him to defeat anyone of the same rank in a single move.It must be noted that his opponents were all Gu cultivators from the Bai family, one of the top ten clans of the Western Lands. They certainly didn’t lack high-level abilities, so how could an ordinary Evil Dragon Emperor Eye break them so easily?
Long Xuan immediately asked curiously, "Is this person's Evil Dragon Emperor Eye a complete version? How can it find flaws in any ability?"
Long Ziyan, standing nearby, also perked up her ears to listen. Her Evil Dragon Emperor Eye was nowhere near as powerful.
"Heh!" Long Qian chuckled proudly. "It's not just your Far Western Long Clan that has unparalleled geniuses; our clan has its prodigies too."
"This person is named Long Dan, the top genius of our clan, far beyond a second-rate like Long Biao."
"His extraordinary combat power comes from possessing an innate spirit Gu, and not just any—one of the top ten innate spirit Gu."
At this, Long Qian smiled, deliberately keeping them in suspense without continuing.
However, Long Xuan’s clone enjoyed reading, so he knew what an innate spirit Gu was.
In this world of spiritual power, all sorts of strange things could happen. Not only could spiritual herbs and spirit beasts become hosts for Gu, but even humans, under certain circumstances, could give birth to parasitic Gu.
These naturally occurring Gu within the human body were called innate spirit Gu.
Some innate spirit Gu were weak and useless, while others were incredibly powerful, granting their host extraordinary combat power, even making them invincible at the same rank.
But whether strong or weak, any Gu cultivator would desire to have one.
This is because innate spirit Gu grow with the strength of the Gu cultivator, without the need to invest vast resources for nurturing. There's no need to worry about its evolution in the future.
Innate spirit Gu are the only Gu that can grow independently, without any resource investment. Having one is like getting an ability for free, and who wouldn't want something free, regardless of its strength?
The strongest of the innate spirit Gu are known as the top ten innate spirit Gu.
It’s said that these top ten innate spirit Gu possess endless lifespans, with no power capable of killing them, and they are unique in the world—there is no second of their kind.
No one knows the forms of the top ten innate spirit Gu, nor where they hide within the human body.
But if the host is killed, the Gu will fly out of the corpse and seek a new host, forcibly parasitizing them, regardless of whether the person agrees or not.
After that person dies, the Gu will repeat this process endlessly, again and again.
Long Xuan knew what innate spirit Gu were and that the top ten innate spirit Gu were unique, but he didn’t know which specific Gu they were.
Often, he wondered whether his golden finger might be a type of innate spirit Gu, perhaps even one of the top ten, named the Growth Gu.
The Growth Gu would manifest according to the host's cognition, making his vision appear like a system from his previous life, though in fact it wasn't really a system at all.
The original host's understanding of this world's primitive mathematics resulted in progress being displayed as a percentage or fraction, without the precision of decimals, severely limiting its potential.
In a world where mathematics is at a primitive stage, the Growth Gu is practically useless, no matter who possesses it.
Of course, this was just his speculation. He still wasn’t sure about the origin of his golden finger and whether the ability to see the progress of everything really came from an innate spirit Gu.
After all, his golden finger can’t perform internal vision, so he can’t see what’s inside his own eyes. His clone also can’t replicate his golden finger, so he truly doesn’t know if there are any unknown Gu insects in his eyes.
However, although he doesn’t know what the Top Ten innate spirit Gu are, this learned senior sister’s eyes flashed with a sharp light, and she blurted out, “Limit-breaking Gu! He possesses the Limit-breaking Gu!”
“The ability of the Limit-breaking Gu is to break through limits. This ability can turn low-grade Gu insects into middle-grade ones, and middle-grade Gu insects into high-grade ones.”
“If this ability is applied to a peak-grade Gu insect, it will break through the peak grade’s upper limit, turning it into a terrifying existence that surpasses peak-grade Gu insects.”
“And this ability isn’t limited to Gu insects.”
“Techniques, spiritual arts, physical arts... any ability can be upgraded by one level unconditionally under this power.”
“But at the initial stage, the Limit-breaking Gu can only affect one ability, and this cannot be changed.”
“Long Dan must have used this sole opportunity on the Evil Dragon Emperor's Eye, transforming his incomplete Evil Dragon Emperor's Eye into a complete one.”
“That’s why his Evil Dragon Emperor's Eye is so terrifying, capable of seeing through any ability's flaws!”
Long Qian unexpectedly glanced at her, surprised by her insight. He had intended to keep them guessing, but now there was nothing left to say.
“You’re quite smart, and knowledgeable enough to see through his secret at a glance.”
“But there is one thing you got wrong. Currently, the Evil Dragon Emperor's Eye is only infinitely close to being complete; it hasn’t yet reached the level of our ancestor's Evil Dragon Emperor's Eye.”
“In this world, there are still some abilities that are too heaven-defying for him to find any flaws. The ability to see through all flaws is simply too heaven-defying, and perhaps it has already surpassed the scope of a peak-grade Gu insect, something that the Limit-breaking Gu cannot fully restore.”
“However, even at this level, the Evil Dragon Emperor's Eye is heaven-defying enough. In this region, Long Dan is already invincible among those at the same level.”
“No, the two of you should be exceptions,” Long Qian suddenly looked at Long Xuan and Long Ziyan.
The Ten Absolute Physiques and the Ten Innate Spirit Gu should be equivalent in rank.
The Ten Absolute Physiques can amplify the power of spiritual arts and internal Gu abilities, essentially breaking the limits of these abilities, similar to what the Limit-breaking Gu does.
If Long Xuan and Long Dan were to face each other at the same level, Long Qian vaguely felt that the Ten Absolute Physiques would still have the upper hand.
After all, Long Dan only breaks the limit of one ability, whereas the Ten Absolute Physiques break the limit in all aspects. The claim that the Ten Absolute Physiques are invincible at the same level is no joke.
However, the Ten Absolute Physiques cannot be cultivated in this era. He wasn’t very optimistic about Long Xuan’s future; breaking through the Marrow Cleansing phase was already the limit. In his view, breaking through the Spiritual Sea Stage was absolutely impossible, as there were no pills in this world that could enable the Ten Absolute Physiques to break through to the Spiritual Sea stage.
Just as they were discussing this, the battlefield suddenly changed.
Two members of the Bai clan who had been knocked to the ground by Long Dan suddenly vomited blood and died, even though the impact wasn’t severe. However, they suddenly died at an astonishing speed.
After their deaths, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, “My sons! You died so miserably! How cruel for someone so young! You cannot be allowed to live!”
A powerful aura at the peak of the Spiritual Sea erupted from the crowd, and an old man charged out in a frenzy, brimming with murderous intent as he rushed towards Long Dan at great speed, as if afraid of acting too slowly.
Seeing this, Long Xuan couldn’t help but twitch his mouth, his expression becoming complex.
Those two Bai clan Gu cultivators weren’t seriously injured, yet their sudden deaths were highly suspicious. It’s likely they either committed suicide or were secretly killed by someone.
As soon as these two died, a peak Spiritual Sea Gu cultivator from the Bai clan jumped out, ready to rely on his higher cultivation level to crush and kill the Long clan’s genius.
If there’s no conspiracy here, he wouldn’t believe it.
At this point, it was clear to him that this was a trap set by the Bai clan for Long Dan.
The goal was to eliminate one of the Long clan’s geniuses before the Genius Arena competition even began, to increase their chances of winning and securing more mineral veins.
The Bai clan was willing to discard all dignity just to win another round.
But are the Marrow Cleansing stage Gu cultivators of the Western Lands really so cheap?
To kill Long Dan legitimately, they didn’t hesitate to exchange lives with their own clansmen. Their ruthlessness was astonishing, even discarding Marrow Cleansing phase experts without hesitation.
Seeing a powerful Spiritual Sea peak expert charging at him with a fierce expression, Long Dan’s face changed dramatically, truly frightened.
No matter how much of a genius he was, he couldn’t possibly defeat a peak Spiritual Sea expert across such a large cultivation gap. Once caught by this peak expert, his fate was almost certain death.
However, a group of Bai clan Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivators seemed well-prepared, doing everything in their power to keep him trapped, giving him no chance to escape.
In the blink of an eye, just as his life hung by a thread, Long Qian, who had been watching the scene from the crowd, finally made his move.
He flew out from the crowd at lightning speed, lashing out with a whip that struck heavily on the old man's back.
This blow was merciless, using his full strength. If the old man failed to dodge in time, this whip could cost him half his life.
“Hmph! It’s not your place to discipline the genius of my clan!”
“A dignified peak Spiritual Sea expert lowering himself to attack a junior—you old fool, don’t you feel any shame?”
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