Chapter 157: Long Xuan's Calculations
This idea was not something Long Xuan thought of out of thin air; he was considering it for his lifelong happiness.
Ever since he had relations with Long Ziyan, he assumed, given the conservative nature of women in this world, that the two would definitely become dual-cultivation partners.
He actively pursued her, persistently chasing after her. Every time during the "Sou Gu days", he would send a letter via the Sou Gu, but even now, he still hadn't managed to melt this iceberg.
Now, he could only resort to unconventional strategies, and this was an excellent opportunity.
It was important to know that Long Ziyan possessed a ninth-grade bloodline, just one step away from becoming a tenth-grade bloodline owner—a rare occurrence in ten thousand years.
For her, the benefits of upgrading her bloodline by one grade would be immense. No one would desire it more than she would.
The temptation to enhance her bloodline purity by one grade was almost fatal to a ninth-grade bloodline holder. Could Long Ziyan resist such temptation?
She was pure and reserved, and perhaps would stay true to herself, but she had already been intimate with him once. What difference would a second time make? With this mindset, she might just give in completely.
Long Xuan's eyes glinted with thought, filled with calculation...
...Afterward, Long Xuan wandered through countless tomb chambers but found no more treasures or useful murals. Gradually, he grew impatient and decided to skip the smaller chambers and head straight to the innermost sleeping palace.
According to his estimation, the treasure with infinite progress was definitely stored in the sleeping palace, and it was highly unlikely to appear in the smaller chambers.
However, the path to the sleeping palace was bound to be the most dangerous. No matter how cautious he was, he still made a mistake, likely due to his lack of knowledge. Suddenly, a loud rumble echoed, and the tomb passage collapsed, burying him alive.
Refusing to lose, Long Xuan shamelessly pulled the plug, causing the screen to go black. Before he could die, he exited the illusion.
Taking a deep breath, he patted his frightened chest and re-entered the illusion to continue clearing the level.
Of course, the reason for the accident this time was purely because he hadn't used a clone to scout ahead. If this had been real life, his cautious nature would definitely have used a clone first. It wouldn't be easy for him to get into trouble.
However, since this was his own illusion and there was no danger to his life, and all his clones were busy studying diligently, he decided not to disturb them.
This time, he would take matters into his own hands and treat it like playing an AR(Augmented Reality) game. To him, the game was quite exciting.
Thus, after constantly risking his life and wasting a total of ten lives, he finally succeeded in entering the sleeping palace.
The sleeping palace was spacious, with a floor of glossy jade and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, making the entire palace brightly lit.
Under the lights, he could easily see the murals on the walls around the sleeping palace.
The murals had no words but depicted scenes of war, as if two forces were attacking another. The battle scenes were earth-shattering and divine, far from ordinary Gu cultivators' battles.
However, without any textual descriptions, Long Xuan had no idea about the background of this battle, when it occurred, or the causes and outcomes. He didn't know which forces were involved in the fight.
The entire war remained a mystery to him, and the murals left him utterly confused. After memorizing their contents, he stopped paying attention.
The most eye-catching object in the sleeping palace was the large coffin in the center and the large hole beside it.
The coffin lid had long been thrown aside, and the inside was empty. Both the body and burial items had vanished, clearly stolen by grave robbers.
Long Xuan paid no further attention to it and instead focused on the large hole.
As he walked over, it seemed the dangers in the sleeping palace had already been dealt with by the grave robber. He reached the center of the palace without encountering any threats and stood next to the large hole with ease.
Upon closer inspection of the hole, he was momentarily stunned. When he had dug up the Fire Dragon Fruit Tree, he had left similar traces.
Based on this, he could deduce that a tree had once been buried in this hole, but it had clearly been taken by the grave robber.
How could a tree placed in the center of the sleeping palace be ordinary? This tree must have been of an extremely high grade, its value far surpassing all the treasures in the other tomb chambers.
Thus, a fourth-grade spirit herb could be ruled out. Fifth to tenth-grade spirit herbs don't grow in this world, so the answer was clear.
Long Xuan's eyes widened. A Earth-grade Spirit Tree, or perhaps even a Heaven-grade Spirit Tree, must have been buried here. Who had gotten this treasure?
Suddenly, Long Xuan thought of the Living Wood. Could that Living Wood have come from this ancient tomb? Heaven-grade spirit herbs were incredibly rare, and he couldn't help but suspect it.
Could the grave robber be Shi Haojun? Long Xuan's eyes flickered.
He had already deduced that the grave robber must be a monstrous genius, and Shi Haojun certainly fit that description.
Although he had no evidence at the moment, Long Xuan believed his guess had a high probability of being correct.
However, the identity of the grave robber no longer mattered to him, and he had no interest in investigating further.
The priority now was to find the treasure with infinite progress.
Finally, he broke open a section of the wall and retrieved a stone from a hidden compartment, revealing a slight smile.
It seemed that the treasure the tomb raider had missed was indeed this object.
As expected, it was just as he had anticipated: the guardian treasure of this ancient tomb was indeed a fossil.
Since entering the tomb's illusion, he had noticed there was no progress indicator, which led him to suspect that the guardian treasure might be a fossil.
The fossil contained a living creature, and the Origin Realm couldn’t replicate living beings, so how could he see any progress?
What kind of living being within the fossil would display an infinite symbol and have a value significant enough to be the tomb's guardian treasure, hidden so carefully? This all indicated that the creature inside was extraordinary. Long Xuan’s face revealed an eager look, as he couldn't wait to uncover the truth.
However, for now, his curiosity couldn’t be satisfied. The Origin Realm couldn’t replicate living beings, so even if he cut open the fossil, there would be nothing inside.
He would have to send a clone to the real world’s ancient tomb to retrieve the fossil, so only then could he discover what was hidden within.
For now, he had to suppress his curiosity and slowly exit the tomb’s illusion.
At this point, the ancient tomb was completely conquered by him. When the time came, all he had to do was send his clone with the strategy he had written to retrieve the treasure—simple as that.
After exiting the tomb’s illusion, he immediately took out a pen and paper, eager to begin modifying the Harvesting Yin Technique.
Modifying a technique didn’t take too long, so he decided to place the revision of the Harvesting Yin Technique before creating his own Ten Absolute Blade Technique.
Two months later, Long Xuan closed the book, writing four large characters on the cover: Yin-Yang Compendium, as the corners of his mouth slowly curved upward.
Thus, the Harvesting Yin Technique had been completely modified, and the name was changed to "Yin-Yang Compendium".
Although it only took two months to complete, the effort he poured into it was significant. Modifying a technique is easier than creating one from scratch, but only relatively speaking—it's still no simple task.
Due to his incredible understanding and wisdom, he could accomplish this in two months. If it were anyone else, even with his cheat abilities, they wouldn’t be able to modify such a profound technique in such a short time.
After the modifications, the technique had many differences compared to the original. The most significant change was transforming the process from harvesting yin to replenish yang into yin-yang mutual reinforcement, making dual cultivation beneficial for both partners, which was a necessary adjustment.
However, such a change caused a ripple effect throughout the technique.
For instance, the effect of raising one's bloodline grade by one level: in the original technique, an extreme act of harvesting yin to replenish yang only required doing it once, but with the more balanced yin-yang mutual reinforcement, it would take at least a hundred times to succeed. This was a significant downside.
In the end, Long Xuan also created many new forms within the technique, studying a total of eighteen. These were never seen before in this conservative world, marking the creation of a powerful legacy unlike anything in existence.
However, most of the eighteen forms he researched had nothing to do with the technique.
In other words, whether or not these forms were added made no difference to the technique—they were purely ornamental.
Yet they were written in such an esoteric manner that the average person would have a hard time noticing any inconsistencies.
Thus, a very strange technique was completed by him in this way.
Interestingly, he wrote this technique using a very obscure divine script, not the common language of the world. It was unclear what his true intentions were or what scheme he was hiding in his heart.
He didn’t sign his name on this technique. After completing it, he put the manual away and eagerly walked out.
Though it seemed as if he was engaged in studying the formula for Dragonblood battle gu insect, he was not actually confined and still had a great deal of freedom.
After leaving the secret chamber, he immediately headed toward the place where Long Ziyan resided.
A short time later, after knocking on the door of a certain pavilion, a clear voice came from within: "Come in."
Long Xuan adjusted his attire, straightened his back, and confidently pushed the door open.
Today, Long Ziyan wasn’t practicing swordsmanship but was sitting upright at her desk, writing something. Hearing the door open, she didn’t even turn her head and asked directly, "What do you want?"
Long Xuan instinctively glanced at what she was writing and was quickly stunned.
She was writing a Recipe for blade gu. By now, she had filled an unknown number of sheets of paper, each filled densely with materials. Roughly estimating, she had probably listed tens of thousands of materials in the formula for blade gu insect.
As expected, creating a gu insect from five hundred materials was not enough to match her personality; she had to challenge the highest difficulty.
But she only had one peak-grade Silver Moon Mantis insect, and without any cheat abilities of her own, the failure rate would be incredibly high with so many materials. Wasn’t she worried about losing everything in vain?
If she ruined such a precious Silver Moon Mantis King, it would indeed be a pity.
Was such a high-stakes gamble really worth it?