Chapter 93: (1): Entering the Herb Garden
Among the crowd, only Long Xuan remained calm, his expression unchanged and showing no signs of panic.
In his vision, a few sets of numbers moved back and forth underground, which undoubtedly indicated the progress of the bloodworms.
The terrifying thing about bloodworms is their unpredictability and the difficulty in defending against them. Their actual combat strength may not be that formidable.
Since he could see the exact position of the bloodworms, they were no longer something to fear for him.
These bloodworms posed no threat to him, so naturally, he remained calm and unflustered.
At this moment, a few more people were dragged underground by the bloodworms, their screams echoing endlessly.
Some were quick to react, cutting off a small section of the bloodworm\'s body. But with worms, cutting them into two pieces doesn\'t kill them.
In fact, it might even create two worms, effectively making a separate entity, which would be even more troublesome.Facing this situation, the crowd could only passively defend themselves, helplessly watching as one Gu cultivator after another was mercilessly dragged underground.
At this point, Long Bao and Long Yan stopped quarreling, their faces changing color as they took out huge Earth-Master Gu from their insect-rearing pouches and placed them on the ground before jumping onto their backs.
These two Earth-Master were clad in thick, heavy armor, resembling solid lumps of iron—essentially, they were steel behemoths.
The bloodworms could not possibly swallow such large lumps of iron whole, making this method an effective way to avoid a bloodworm\'s ambush.
Long Xuan glanced at them, understanding in his heart. He finally realized where they got the courage to come here. Their confidence lay in these two Earth-Masters.
The armor on these Earth-Masters wasn\'t made from ordinary iron but from spiritual weapons, specifically crafted for them. The heavy armor was covered in intricate runes.
This was exactly the second evolution plan mentioned in the Gu techniques, but arming the Earth-Master with spiritual weapons came at a significant cost.
No doubt, the defense of these two Earth-Master was at a monstrous level.
If the bloodworms dared to swallow such a thing, they would undoubtedly break their teeth.
The medicinal garden was perilous, and if Long Xuan guessed correctly, they planned to rely on the Earth-Masters defense to forcibly retrieve herb from the garden\'s dangers.
He was still unclear about the situation in the herb garden and didn\'t know if their plan would work.
The two rode their Earth-Master recklessly through the cave, forcing others to dodge, and then followed behind them, running wildly.
Facing the unsolvable bloodworms, they had no choice but to run through this area as fast as they could.
Perhaps some people could deal with the bloodworms, but they would not easily take action. For instance, Long Xuan—how could he possibly reveal that he had the ability to see through things?
The Gu King’s clone from the Gu clan surely had a way to deal with the bloodworms, as he remained calm throughout, undoubtedly holding a trump card.
But he was eager for more people to die so that fewer would compete with him for treasures later on. Why would he expose his trump card to save others?
Many in the group shared the same mindset; though they had trump cards, they didn\'t use them. They just kept running, allowing the bloodworms to devour those behind them, resulting in heavy casualties.
After the Gu King’s clone disappeared into the lead, Long Xuan’s eyes flickered, and he decided that caution was the better part of valor. In a hidden corner, he released his Fire clone.
Yes, Long Xuan was using the same trick again, intending to send his clone into the herb garden in his place to bear the uncertainties posed by the Gu King’s clone.
He had done this so many times that he was thoroughly familiar with it.
Although he believed that with his current trump cards, he shouldn\'t fear a Gu King’s clone at the Spirit Gathering stage—especially since it wasn’t the main body present, and Gu Kings in the same realm were only superior in battle experience and knowledge, not raw combat power.
But being naturally cautious, Long Xuan decided to play it safe.
After handing the borrowed Image Recording Gu to his Fire clone, he instructed, "If that Gu King’s clone dares to harm anyone, record all his actions. Understood?"
"Go now!" Long Xuan patted his Fire clone on the shoulder, and the Clone disappeared into the depths of the cave in the blink of an eye.
The Image Recording Gu was a common Gu insect, with every clan having their own version of it.
Its sole ability was to store everything it saw and then project it onto a wall in the form of images.
Simply put, the Image Recording Gu could play movies on a wall, with effects similar to those in a cinema, displaying large images.
However, the movies projected by the Image Recording Gu were just its memories; they couldn’t be fabricated.
The Image Recording Gu was widely used for gathering intelligence and was very common, with every faction having many of them.
The reason Long Xuan borrowed the Image Recording Gu from Long Lie was to leave evidence of the Gu King infiltrating the ancient tomb. If the Gu King started massacring people in the tomb, that would be even better.
Just by playing this movie outside, he could create chaos, spark conflict, and maybe even start a fight.
Once the melee began, no one would have the time to kill Long Lie.
This was the plan Long Xuan came up with on short notice, and he had gone to great lengths to ensure his safe return.
Chased by the bloodworms, the group ran for an unknown amount of time until they finally reached a massive underground space.
At this point, the bloodworms stopped pursuing them.
Maybe there was something in this area that the bloodworms feared, or maybe they were simply full, so they gave up the chase.
Everyone rested their hands on their knees, gasping for breath, looking terrified and glancing back with lingering fear.
Long Xuan, however, focused all his attention on the enormous herb garden in front of him.
This herb garden was built in a vast underground space, and its size was enormous.
It looked like an illusion; Long Xuan could actually see the sun here. The place seemed boundless, just like the world above ground. There were no obstructions in his sight, whether looking forward or up at the sky, where he could see clouds.
One must understand that this was the underground world, surrounded by cave walls, so how could his vision be unobstructed?
Long Xuan deduced that there was a large illusion at play here, though it was unusual in that the sun it created could actually emit sunlight.
It’s well known that most plants require sunlight. Without light, they can\'t Photosynthesize and can\'t survive.
Since the spiritual herbs in this herb garden could continue to grow, it meant that the sunlight created by the illusion was genuine, which was quite amazing. Long Xuan became even more intrigued.
Compared to the dark underground world, this place was like a beautiful utopia, a rare scenic spot here.
The only flaw was that the spiritual herbs in this herb garden were too monotonous—there was only one type.
The entire garden was filled with Spirit Surge Grass. Everywhere he looked, it was a sea of green. Apart from the green, there was no other color.
No, there was another color—white. A cute, fluffy rabbit was lying in the green fields, sunbathing with its white belly exposed. A patch of white amidst the endless green—how striking!
Everyone\'s eyes focused on this small figure, and their expressions immediately turned into one of hatred, as if they wanted to skin it alive. Their gazes were as if they were ready to devour it.
But no one dared to make a rash move.
It was as if there was something terrifying in this green field, preventing them from stepping closer.
Long Xuan’s mind raced, and he quickly guessed that this rabbit was probably the spiritual herb that Long Tian had mentioned, which had gained sentience.
After gaining sentience, it became obsessed with alchemy, squandering all the precious spiritual herbs in the garden, leaving only a field of weeds.
Everyone was furious.
For some reason, Long Xuan felt an urge to laugh.
There were many entrances to this medicinal herb garden, and they weren\'t the first to arrive. Some had already entered from other tunnels and were trying to gather spiritual herbs from the garden.
These people were the first batch of Feng clan Gu cultivators to enter the tomb. There were quite a few of them, but most were Gu cultivators at the early stage of the Spirit Gathering realm.
These early-stage Spirit Gathering Gu cultivators were clearly not Feng clan members but seemed like villagers from a mortal village. After being quickly trained by the Feng clan into Spirit Gathering Gu cultivators, they were sent on this dangerous mission.
Under the Feng clan Gu King’s coercion, one villager after another ran into the medicinal garden, risking their lives to pull out Spirit Surge Grass.
But most of the villagers didn\'t even get close to the garden before their heads suddenly fell off. One headless body after another collapsed to the ground, staining it red.
Their deaths were eerily strange, with no visible attack. Their heads just inexplicably flew off, and no one could figure out how their heads were severed.
Seeing this, everyone was terrified, their pupils dilated, and no one dared to step into the herb garden.
........................................................................
Read extra chapters on >>> /SpiritStonetranslation