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As a result, nearby Long Clan Gu cultivators could sense what he was doing with their soul power and could even see his actions with the Evil Dragon Emperor’s Eye.

It was no different from bathing in public—he felt as though he was being stripped naked and watched by everyone.

Especially after it was revealed that Elder Long had become a third-rank alchemist, strong souls would occasionally sweep over him, pausing on him for a moment, openly watching what he was doing without any restraint, as if staring at him without blinking.

Some creditors even directly approached in the flesh to disturb him. Without any formation barriers, they had free rein on Elder Long\'s territory, walking around as if in an uninhabited land.

Long Xuan was utterly numb to this.

How could this be tolerated?

If he were to work on a Gu recipe here, it would be completely exposed! His golden finger was his biggest secret—how could he dare to stay in such a place any longer?

Returning to his medicine garden, he finally felt completely safe and let out a long breath.

It was much quieter here, and nowhere was as safe as home.

Sitting back in the small pavilion he was familiar with, Long Xuan suddenly felt like a buff had been applied to him; inspiration surged instantly.

Thus, ten days later, a low-grade Gu formula with only a hundred types of materials was born, and Long Xuan was ecstatic.

He then spent less than half a day gathering all the materials and immediately threw them into the large cauldron. After repeatedly adding and removing them, and observing the progress, Long Xuan quickly figured out that the success rate of this Gu recipe was 12%.

A 12% success rate was quite good; very few Gu recipes had a success rate below one in ten.

Success rate is one of the standards for cost-effectiveness.

After marking the 12% success rate on the Gu recipe, Long Xuan calmly waited.

It was just a low-grade Gu insect, so it wouldn’t take long to form, unlike the peak-grade Gu insects that take over half a year.

There were many Gu recipes with even fewer materials—five dung beetles could form a Gu insect, with a shockingly low cost.

But cost-effectiveness doesn’t mean the cheaper, the better. It needs to be strong as well; if the thing you refine is weak in combat power, what use is it no matter how cheap it is?

The Gu insects refined from five dung beetles were simply too weak, not presentable at all. If the combat power isn’t strong despite the low cost, that’s not cost-effective.

Long Xuan not only wanted it to be cheap but also to have astonishing combat power. If its combat power could surpass more than half of the Gu insects in this world, that would be ideal. Although it was difficult, one should always have dreams—what if they come true?

Long Xuan loved to challenge limits and decided to push himself to the maximum. He wanted to see if he could refine a Gu insect that surpassed most in this world using inexpensive materials.

After repeated research, Long Xuan concluded that a hundred types of materials were the optimal solution. Although the cost was slightly higher, it maintained strength and affordability for everyone, making it the best cost-effective option.

He also named his newly created low-grade Gu formula—*Earth Master*.

The Earth Master’s cost was extremely low—less than ten spirit stones for a hundred portions of materials. With a success rate slightly over one in ten, the total cost was at most a hundred spirit stones, ensuring that everyone could afford it.

With such a low-cost Gu insect, what kind of combat power would it have? Long Xuan was eagerly anticipating it.

Three days later, when the progress on the large cauldron reached 100%, Long Xuan, who had been waiting for a long time, rushed over immediately. He quickly opened the lid of the cauldron and excitedly looked inside.

He saw a large, earth-brown creature crawling out. Its forelimbs lightly tapped forward, breaking through the cauldron, and then it crawled out grandly, glancing at Long Xuan before continuing forward.

Long Xuan’s face turned dark on the spot—those were expensive materials! That large cauldron was costly!

But looking at the massive creature before him, he didn’t dare approach. This thing was just too big—taller than a human. He was afraid that approaching it rashly might result in broken bones.

It was important to know that this was just its juvenile size—what would it grow to when it reached adulthood? Heaven knows how gigantic it would become in the future—perhaps it might truly possess the power to shake mountains.

Long Xuan couldn’t help but mourn for the future of the Long family. If this thing were promoted throughout the clan, with each person owning one, wouldn’t the Long family’s land be eaten up? Wouldn’t the Long family’s territory turn into a basin?

But just as he was thinking these evil thoughts, he saw this huge creature running into his medicine garden, taking a big bite of the pristine soil, and digging out a huge pit in the ground.

Long Xuan was shocked on the spot.

“Damn! That’s peak-grade spirit soil! You can’t eat that—stop it right now!”

Long Xuan nearly went crazy. He rushed over in a panic, risking his life to form a blood pact with it—he couldn’t let it continue to wreak havoc, or his medicine garden would be eaten clean by this guy.

He finally managed to stuff this giant creature into his storage bag and found an empty space without valuable items to release it and begin testing its combat abilities.

Long Xuan quickly figured out its abilities. Since he changed the Earth Master’s diet to eating soil, it enjoyed pushing dirt balls.

It seemed to have been starved because it evolved a natural storage space in its mouth, where it could store dirt balls—about dozens of them—so it wouldn’t have to worry about food and drink when traveling.

But what use is this ability in a world full of soil? Long Xuan wondered.

It seemed to have some use, like storing cannonballs to throw at enemies since there’s no time to shape dirt into balls during battle.

This was its ability—a storage-bag-like auxiliary ability, an ordinary ability.

But this was to be expected. After all, it was a low-grade Gu insect—having a heaven-defying ability was impossible. A storage ability was already pretty good; what more could you want from a low-grade Gu insect?

But Long Xuan was still disappointed—it didn’t meet his expectations. So, he had to use his astonishing creativity to try to deeply develop this unremarkable ability.

But what’s there to develop with a storage ability? Could it store opponents in its storage bag?

Wait… this ability actually seemed decent—it could be a good method to trap opponent’s Gu insects. If it could even trap peak-grade

Gu insects, it would be a heaven-defying ability.

Long Xuan’s eyes brightened as he thought this method might indeed be feasible and worth researching.

He then thought about the dung beetle’s greatest advantage—its strength. It would be best to leverage this strength, having it harden dirt balls and throw them at enemies.

This creature could carry dozens of large dirt balls with it—enough to give the enemy a hard time, right? Its strength was ridiculously exaggerated; getting hit by one of its dirt balls would be no joke—being smashed to death wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

It’s important to know that the balls pushed by dung beetles are far larger than their bodies. Now, being refined into a much larger Gu insect, who knows how many meters in diameter those dirt balls could be.

If there were thousands of Earth Master simultaneously throwing dirt balls at the enemy, imagine—large dirt balls as big as meteors raining down from the sky. How terrifying would the damage be?

Once the Earth Master’s numbers formed a scale and underwent strict training, they would be like artillery units, capable of carpet-bombing the enemy with no room to escape.

So, the Earth Master’s potential in warfare was enormous. If it were spread throughout a clan, its impact would be significant—perfect for group battles.

*English Translation:*

Long Xuan continued to let his mind wander. Strength is not only useful for throwing attacks but should also excel in close combat, right? Moreover, the dung beetle already has a pair of large blades, even though these blades are not sharp and have forgotten to be honed.

But if anyone were to be struck by the big blade of the Earth Master, who could withstand that immense force? Wouldn\'t they have broken bones within minutes? Long Xuan\'s eyes lit up again.

Thinking about it this way, the Earth Master’s combat power is actually quite decent. Of course, it is far from comparable to peak-grade Gu insects, but it’s good enough for lower-tier skirmishes. What more can you develop with a low-grade Gu insect? It’s already at its limit.

But it\'s still not enough. Can the current level of the Earth Master surpass most of the Gu insects in this world? It doesn’t seem sufficient, does it?

Long Xuan frowned and pondered for a long time, feeling that the current level of the Earth Master’s combat power was still lacking and needed to be developed to the extreme.

The Earth Master is strong only in terms of strength, but its other shortcomings are too severe, almost fatal weaknesses.

For instance, its large body is too clumsy, it lacks agility, and it’s not fast. In battle, it’s just a moving target. What’s the use of great strength if it can’t hit anyone? And the issues of speed and agility seem impossible to solve, after all, its size is there, and the speed attribute is naturally affected as a result. How can natural laws be easily changed?

Since speed is lacking, we can only go all-in on defense. If someone hits me a hundred times and I don’t die, but I only need to hit them once, this should be the most suitable combat route for the Earth Master. A flash of brilliance crossed Long Xuan’s eyes.

In fact, the Earth Master’s defense is not weak, as it is covered with a thick shell. However, this level of defense is far from enough to withstand the attacks of most Gu insects.

This requires Long Xuan to use his creativity and find ways to further enhance its defense.

So, three days later, a dung beetle covered in metal armor appeared.

Long Xuan patted the iron plates on the Earth Master, smiling with satisfaction.

Equipping a Gu insect with armor—how did he even think of that?

Who would have thought that it was possible to create battle armor for a Gu insect? It’s simply a genius idea, the idea of a madman.

You must know that insects are generally small in size, and smallness is a common trait of all insects. It’s a characteristic of this type of creature, so how could such a tiny thing be wrapped in heavy metal? Does that even make sense?

Therefore, researching battle armor for insects is not a reliable idea. As a result, this kind of creativity has never appeared in this world.

However, Long Xuan\'s Earth Master is unexpectedly well-suited for a specially made spiritual weapon armor. On one hand, it is large enough, with sturdy limbs, providing ample surface area to engrave patterns.

On the other hand, the Earth Master’s strength is astonishing, allowing it to carry a battle armor weighing countless tons without reducing its speed attribute.

Due to the integration of giant genes, the Earth Master is one of the few Gu insects that can wear spiritual weapon armor. By borrowing external power to enhance its combat capabilities, the Earth Master\'s upper limit will undoubtedly rise to a higher level.

If it had a full set of spiritual weapons, where all the attributes of the spiritual weapons stack together, combined with the large surface area of the Earth Master, allowing for more engravings, very few forces could break through its defense.

Even more exaggerated, you could fix an array base onto a group of Earth Masters, forming a moving large formation. At that time, the Earth Master would become a war fortress, with immense strategic significance.

Who wouldn’t have a headache facing a walking mountain-guarding formation?

With extreme defense combined with extreme strength, Long Xuan couldn’t even imagine how terrifying this monster would become.

Of course, equipping it with a full set of top-grade spiritual weapons would be too expensive, completely lacking in cost-effectiveness. Long Xuan’s task is to focus on value for money, on achieving the ultimate cost-effectiveness.

Most people can’t afford spiritual weapons, so he definitely can’t use them. He can only use iron tools, the kind that mortals use, like farm tools.

Undoubtedly, the iron tools used by mortals are very cheap. Of course, the hardness cannot compare to spiritual weapons.

But if the hardness is not enough, then increase the thickness. Since the Earth Master has enough strength, let it fight while wearing thick iron armor.

Even if it can’t compare to a peak-grade spiritual weapon set, it can still greatly enhance the Earth Master’s combat power, making it extremely cost-effective.

As for the stronger peak-grade spiritual weapon set and the moving mountain-guarding formation, that will have to be developed by wealthy Gu cultivators. He is simply catering to both the low-end and high-end markets.

Long Xuan nodded with satisfaction, feeling that this time he had really pushed it to the limit.

The current level of the Earth Master could at least take down half of the Gu insects in this world. And this is a very conservative estimate, a rather humble statement from Long Xuan.

Although the Earth Master is still far from being a peak-grade Gu insect, Long Xuan believes there aren’t many Gu insects with a higher cost-effectiveness ratio than the Earth Master. After all, his Earth Master can rely on external tools to cheat.

In terms of cost-effectiveness alone, Long Xuan is confident that his Earth Master can definitely rank at the top of this world.

He decided to use this creation as his final submission.

Long Xuan showed a satisfied smile. After stretching his sore neck, he continued to write and supplement his Gu recipe.

The ideas he came up with must be recorded in the Gu recipe to raise its upper limit and indirectly increase its value. Otherwise, the old-timers with less creativity might not use it.

For example, the artillery regiment tactics—this is a deep science. It\'s not just about gathering together and firing randomly. How to cover the target seamlessly with artillery shells is very difficult. If he wasn\'t a transmigrator, he wouldn\'t believe that anyone could understand artillery techniques.

Lastly, there’s the evolution path of the Gu insect, which he almost forgot to include, but hurriedly added.

Due to time constraints, he has only discovered two evolution paths for the Earth Master so far.

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