The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 66: (2): Obtaining the peak-grade Spiritual Insect

For instance, Zhang Ling had just mocked Old Ma, but when she looked down, she saw a grass crawler clinging to her ankle, its mouth deeply embedded in her skin without her realizing it. She let out a piercing scream and then blushed in embarrassment.

Little medicine boy found a leech on his leg, which he had to stomp on several times before it died. This showed how resilient creatures in the wild could be.

They were all inexperienced, first-time hunters thrust into the task, and despite being careful, they still fell victim to the dangers.

Long Xuan now understood why rogue cultivators were so poor. Despite the forest being filled with treasures, few dared to venture in.

He glanced at a young man named Ma Wu in their group. The young man stood confidently, arms crossed, looking at the others with disdain, not even bothering to check himself. He seemed very experienced despite his simple clothing. Long Xuan found it hard to believe that Ma Wu had more experience than the older and supposedly more experienced Old Ma and Li Laodao.

"Old Ma, are you okay?" Li Laodao helped him up and asked with concern.

"I'm fine, just lost too much blood. A blood-replenishing pill will fix it," Old Ma said, taking out a red pill from a storage pouch and swallowing it. His face soon regained some color.

"If you're okay, let's move on. These little critters aren't deadly, but it's different deeper in the mountains. When we reach the depths, you must turn back. It's not a place for you to continue," Long Qilin said seriously, glancing at the rogue cultivators before continuing forward. The others hurried to follow.

After another day, they finally saw their prey. It wasn't wolves or fierce beasts but a group of large, white rabbits. They looked cute with their soft, snowy fur, and there were quite a few of them.

Seeing everyone's lack of interest, Long Qilin explained, "If you expect to hunt large spiritual beasts, you'll be disappointed. The edge of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains has long been cleared of large spiritual beasts by Gu cultivators, leaving only unwanted rabbits and mice. With no natural enemies, the rabbits have multiplied and taken over the area. They're everywhere, and there's no end to them. To hunt large spiritual beasts, we'd need to travel several more days."

Hearing this, everyone's faces fell. Although rabbits were spiritual beasts, some species remained at the bottom of the food chain because they were weak. These spiritual beasts had no remarkable abilities, their ancestors were not strong, and their descendants were always prey.

Rabbits held no valuable spiritual insects. If they did, they wouldn't be left alone. Long Xuan used his special ability to check the progress of the spiritual rabbits. The rabbits' heads showed their growth stages, and their bodies could host spiritual insects, usually in the spiritual core, where spiritual beasts stored their energy. Sometimes spiritual insects parasitized the core without harming the beast, but most cores were insect-free, making the drop rate extremely low.

Even if one managed to find a spiritual insect, it was likely to be of low quality. For Gu cultivators who loved hunting, spiritual rabbits weren't worth the effort since they were hard to catch and yielded poor rewards. This led to an overpopulation of rabbits.

After scanning the area, Long Xuan randomly killed a rabbit carrying a mid-grade spiritual insect. He planned to have some fresh meat.

Since Long Qilin mentioned no large carnivorous spiritual beasts, he figured the smell of roasting meat wouldn't attract danger. A mid-grade spiritual insect wasn't highly valuable, so Long Xuan boldly extracted the core with the insect.

Being the first to make a catch, Long Xuan's success with a mid-grade spiritual insect excited everyone.

"Nice luck! First hunt, and you get a mid-grade spiritual insect. Good omen!" Long Qilin laughed.

"Can't help it, I'm just lucky!" Long Xuan joked. "Let's rest here since there are so many rabbits. We haven't had fresh meat for a while."

"Agreed!" Long Qilin said. "Rabbits may not hold treasures, but their meat is good. And even a small insect is still valuable. If we're lucky, we might find more mid-grade insects."

With Long Qilin's agreement, the other rogue cultivators eagerly hunted rabbits, their enthusiasm high after seeing Long Xuan's catch.

Reality quickly hit them; despite killing many rabbits, they only found a few low-grade spiritual insects. Old Ma, with his poor vision, missed every opportunity. Unlike others who got at least one low-grade insect, he found none, leading him to question his life choices.

The group's interest in rabbit hunting waned, and after eating the roasted meat, they were eager to move on. Hunting rabbits wasn't worth the effort and danger of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains for a few low-grade spiritual insects, not even covering travel costs.

Two more days passed. Long Xuan used his Life-destruction palm technique on a pink-furred rabbit, killing it instantly. He grabbed its ears, laughing.

"Why waste time on rabbits? They're worthless and time-consuming," Old Ma remarked.

Long Xuan laughed, storing the rabbit in his pouch. "Just practicing my palm technique. What did you think of my strike?"

He inwardly laughed. This pink-furred rabbit, unlike the others, held a peak-grade spiritual insect. It was an unexpected surprise.

Normally, rabbits here wouldn't have peak-grade spiritual insects, but this pink one, possibly a mutation, did. Discovering this among weak rabbits was a stroke of luck his teammates couldn't fathom.

Before Old Ma could respond, Long Qilin spoke. "Your strike was impressive, no external damage but a lethal blow. It's a great hunting skill, preserving the beast's skin for higher value."

Long Qilin's serious expression indicated he recognized the technique's strength and potential for bloodless kills. This was also a spiritual technique that he had never seen before, and he didn't even know its name.

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