“Guo Ran?”

Long Chen had never expected that the person looking for him was Guo Ran.

Within the Stone tribe’s territory, Guo Ran was surrounded by a dozen experts. They only let him go with Long Chen when they saw that Long Chen knew him.

“Haha, boss, I’ve been looking for you for a long time now, but to think that you ended up with the aboriginals! Junior brother’s reverence is like torrential water…” Guo Ran was amazed to see Long Chen had muddled his way into the aboriginals’ side so peacefully.

“Can you stop with the useless words?” said Long Chen. This brat was becoming more and more of a suck-up.

Seeing Guo Ran’s mischievous smile, Yue Xiaoqian couldn’t help but laugh. The two of them really were alike. It was just that it was unknown who had infected who.

“Wow boss, you were so fast in catching another-”

Long Chen grabbed Guo Ran’s throat, and just like that, dragged him into the tent. This brat had no handle on his mouth, and who knew what he would say in a moment.

“Boss, you almost strangled me to death! Cough, cough…” grumbled Guo Ran. “Oh, thank you sister-in-law.” Guo Ran respectfully received a cup of tea from Yue Xiaoqian with both hands.

Yue Xiaoqian blushed and hastily went over to Long Chen’s side. “You two can chat. I’ll go for a stroll.”

Once Yue Xiaoqian had left, Guo Ran couldn’t help but sigh with admiration. “Boss, your pick-up abilities really are unrivaled beneath the heavens! When can I also reach your realm? Ah, killing the strongest enemies, picking up the most beautiful girls!”

Long Chen couldn’t be bothered to explain that he had known Yue Xiaoqian for a long time. He asked, “How did you come here?”

Guo Ran said, “Aren’t I doing exactly what you told me to do? I spent all this time looking for everyone.”

“It’s been hard on you. So, did you manage to find everyone?” asked Long Chen. He knew that Guo Ran’s armor could transform into a flying boat. No one could compare to him when it came to searching for people.

“Hehe, luckily, I didn’t fail your orders. I managed to get in touch with Meng Qi and Wan-er; they’re in seclusion right now. As for Yue Zifeng, his luck was heaven-defying. He obtained an ancient Sword Dao inheritance. When I found him, he thought I was an enemy and almost killed me with one slash of his sword. Gu Yang also wasn’t lazy. He obtained an ancient medicinal pill and is in the process of absorbing it. Everyone is hidden in seclusion. Other than me, no one else knows their positions. As for Wilde-”

“I know about Wilde. We ended up running into each other. However…” Long Chen told Guo Ran about how Li Qi and Song Mingyuan had left.

Guo Ran nodded. “In truth, I also sensed that the two of them were hiding something from me when I brought them to Wilde. There’s nothing that can be done. People all have their own pride, and the stronger a person, the greater their pride. People as shameless as me are rare. As captains, the two of them are both in charge of ninety Dragonblood warriors. However, compared to Gu Yang and Yue Zifeng, they are much weaker. They naturally don’t like that feeling.”

To want to get stronger wasn’t wrong. Long Chen should loosen his reins and give them more space to find their own opportunities. That was a principle Long Chen understood, but he was unable to go through with it. The loss of even one of his brothers would make him feel pain.

Seeing Long Chen’s grave expression, Guo Ran continued, “Sister-in-law Meng Qi obtained a secret art in an ancient maze. She’s in the midst of studying it. As for sister-in-law Wan-er, she found a wind attribute trial region. She decided to just stay there.”

Hearing all this good news, Long Chen’s heart finally relaxed.

“I’ve given them everything you asked me to give them. Hehe, now, everyone’s focused on the spiritual qi eruption to break through to Sea Expansion,” said Guo Ran. He was already at the peak of Xiantian and just waiting for that moment.

“But compared to boss, we really were lazy. I’ve already heard all the stories circulating about you, which is how I managed to find you here. Even when Yu Changhao and Xue You worked together, they were still beaten like dogs by you and almost killed.”

Long Chen shook his head. “That’s not something to be happy about. Someone told me that innate Celestials like Xue You and Yu Changhao, who also possess their ancestor’s bloodline blessing, will automatically advance to rank four Celestials upon reaching Sea Expansion. And that’s not the worst part. Many of their innate divine abilities can only be fully used upon reaching Sea Expansion. So once they advance, their battle power will increase by dozens of times, perhaps even more than a hundred times.”

Long Chen wasn’t just trying to scare him. This was what Leng Yueyan had told him. Before she had encountered him, Xue You had been her target. She had precisely been waiting for Xue You to reach Sea Expansion before having an all-out fight against him.

Now that she had changed targets to Long Chen, she didn’t want him to vainly die at other people’s hands, so she had warned him about this. With Leng Yueyan’s character, she definitely wouldn’t just try to scare him.

Now that he had fought with those powerful geniuses, Long Chen was shocked by their innate divine abilities. Once they reached Sea Expansion, they would be able to erupt with their true power.

“That much?” asked Guo Ran in shock.

“Perhaps even more than you imagine,” said Long Chen gravely. Making sure he wasn’t careless was best.

“I have another task for you. Since you know everyone’s location, it’s perfect.” Long Chen took out four Heavenly Dao Fruits. Those were heaven-defying treasures. He naturally didn’t need to introduce them to Guo Ran. He almost shouted in delight.

Long Chen also gave Guo Ran four spatial rings. There was one for Meng Qi, Tang Wan-er, Gu Yang, and Yue Zifeng. He had given them things in accordance with their own traits. Each one of them was given at least ten Treasure items, and only the best.

There were weapons, boots, and arm protectors, as well as hard and soft armor. There were even bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings, and all kinds of various Treasure items.

To sum it up, Long Chen was fully equipping all of them. He was like a wealthy landlord using his own money to raise everyone’s power to a new level.

However, to release these Treasure items’ true power would require everyone to advance to Sea Expansion first. Otherwise, that little bit of spiritual yuan in the Xiantian realm wouldn’t allow them to use even a single Treasure item.

Originally, these Treasure items couldn’t be stored in spatial rings. It was the Eastern Wasteland Bell which had helped seal their power so that they would lie asleep in the rings. They would only awaken once they were taken out.

After making sure Guo Ran wouldn’t mix up the spatial rings, Long Chen gave him all the Treasure items he didn’t need.

Guo Ran’s forging table was a priceless treasure. As Guo Ran’s own skill improved, he discovered more and more amazing aspects of it. One was that it could merge into his body.

Another one was that the forging table had its own space. It could store many things. But even so, over a thousand Treasure items almost filled the entire space.

“Boss, am I dreaming?” Guo Ran couldn’t believe his eyes. How had he obtained this many Treasure items? In the Xuantian Dao Sect, there were so many Sea Expansion experts that still didn’t have the qualifications to possess a Treasure item.

In truth, Treasure items were very rare. It was just that Long Chen had encountered a nest of them, as well as plundered the other experts who had arrived there with him. So now he had a ridiculous number of them.

“You can study these Treasure items. Perhaps they’ll help your forging arts. Ah, there’s also these.” Long Chen waved his hand, and a pile of needles appeared on the ground. They were the Rockthorn Mice’s quills.

“What are these? They don’t look like metal. Aiya!” Guo Ran picked up a needle, but as a result, the sharp quill pierced his finger.

“Pig.”

Long Chen was speechless. A dagger appeared in his hand and he cut off Guo Ran’s finger. That finger quickly turned pitch-black and corroded upon falling to the ground.

“Damn, how poisonous!” Guo Ran was shocked. He even forgot to use his Heavenly Dao Recovery.

“You can properly study these, and see if you can include them in your inventions. If you can use these properly, they’ll be a terrifying killing tool,” said Long Chen. “Finally, here is a priceless treasure. I’m sure you’ll be happy to see it.”

When Guo Ran saw the huge Earth Dragon’s egg, he was incomparably excited. Long Chen had him take the remaining two eggs for Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er as well. He told him to go find Meng Qi first, so that she could help Guo Ran bind the egg and teach him how to raise a Magical Beast.

When Guo Ran left, he was absolutely delighted. Long Chen also managed to relax. He once more entered seclusion with Yue Xiaoqian, focusing on recovering his spiritual yuan. He also began devouring medicinal pills, pushing forward to the ninth star transformation.

Once the Enlightenment Palace Star had reached the eighth star transformation, Long Chen had realized the amount of energy required to reach the ninth star transformation was practically unfathomable. But as long as he continued consuming medicinal pills, he would succeed sooner or later.

Long Chen also summoned Little Snow. Yue Xiaoqian liked Little Snow, and Little Snow liked Yue Xiaoqian. Once they had recovered their spiritual yuan, Yue Xiaoqian began to bring Little Snow out of the Stone tribe to roam and play. As for Long Chen, he focused on consuming medicinal pills.

He had some rare days of peace in the Stone tribe. Long Chen decided to just stay here. In order to express his gratitude to the Stone tribe, he gave them all the medicinal pills he had plundered. He had killed so many people that he had an ocean’s worth of pills and weapons. This kind of wealth caused the Stone tribe’s experts to jump in shock.

The Stone tribe didn’t decline his generosity. After taking his gift, they directly gave him a spatial ring. A mountain of yuan spirit stones was inside the ring. There had to be over a million of them.

Just like that, Long Chen passed more than two happy months in the Stone tribe. Each day, he drank and played with the Stone tribe’s men. He was content during these days.

Finally, the world turned gloomy. Mist began to condense in the sky. Long Chen’s heart shook. The legendary spiritual qi eruption was finally beginning.