Once they were back in Xuantian City, Long Chen found that it was as he had expected. The disciples left behind in Xuantian City hadn’t been attacked, and everything was normal. Guo Ran was busy forging in seclusion.

Seeing Long Chen and the others return covered in blood, and seeing that many people hadn’t returned, they couldn’t help being shocked.

Long Chen had no intention of hiding this news. When everyone learned that it was done by the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect, they were all outraged. They wished to immediately go duke it out with them.

Last time, the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect had come to provoke the Xuantian Dao Sect, which had already infuriated them. Now, they viewed them as life and death enemies.

When they heard that only two of them managed to escape and the rest had been killed, they all felt delighted.

Long Chen ordered them not to go out of the city during this time. If they wanted to go hunting, they could only go hunt by the shore.

Hunting and patrolling by the shore was a must because they had to keep watch over the sea demons’ movements. This was to time when the beast tide would occur. A huge number of sea demons would start gathering right before the beast tide.

Long Chen began talking with Wang Zhen. He asked to know a bit more about his situation.

Wang Zhen’s losses were extremely severe. On the sea, he had used many of his insects that didn’t even know how to fly as cannon fodder. As for the insects that could fly, less than a hundredth had survived.

But there was one amazing aspect of insect cultivators. As long as they had enough resources, they could constantly breed more insects.

These insects could breed very quickly as long as they had enough food. His insect army could be quickly restored.

All the disciples had dozens of ninth rank sea demon corpses in their spatial rings. Those were the best kind of resources for Wang Zhen.

“Show me each kind of insect you have and give me an introduction,” said Long Chen.

Wang Zhen summoned hundreds of different insects. There were all kinds. Some were used for defense, some were used for offense, some were used for cleaning up corpses, and some were simply used as feed.

Wang Zhen’s fighting insects would need to consume a few feed insects every day to grow.

As for the feed insects, they needed blood and flesh. The energy within the flesh could be transformed by his feed insects and provided to his other insects. It was similar to raising pigs.

Wang Zhen also had a powerful mother insect. According to him, this mother insect was connected to his mind and soul. It was what allowed him to control his insect army.

However, the mother insect was only at the early ninth rank. In order to make sure the other insects could be controlled, their power definitely could not surpass the mother insect’s. That was why Wang Zhen’s other insects were at most at the peak of the eighth rank. If they were any stronger, the mother insect wouldn’t be able to suppress them, and then they would rebel.

Long Chen looked at the huge golden mother insect. It was like a seven-spotted ladybug, but its shell released a metallic luster. Its defensive power was shocking.

It was no wonder he had been able to block the magical arts of rank six Celestials. But it was clear this mother insect only specialized in defense, and didn’t have powerful attacks.

Long Chen extracted a drop of its essence blood. It was golden and very bright.

“How strong can your mother insect grow to?” asked Long Chen.

“The tenth rank.”

“That strong?” Long Chen was surprised.

“Brother Long, although it can grow to the tenth rank, those that actually do are extremely, extremely rare. It is very difficult to grow, and it is very slow. Furthermore, a few years ago, I was in a life and death battle and my mother insect was heavily injured. It’s been recovering these past few years. But my resources are limited, and I can’t help it too much. So the mother insect’s growth is very, very slow,” said Wang Zhen.

It seemed insect cultivators were also a money-burning profession. Poor people couldn’t even try it.

Long Chen said, “I have a general understanding of your mother insect. Since its limit is the tenth rank, I’m not worried at all.”

“Worried about what?”

“I will use medicinal pills to allow your mother insect to advance within a few days. I’m thinking of raising it to the late ninth rank,” said Long Chen after a moment’s thought.

“But… that’s impossible!” Wang Zhen couldn’t believe his ears.

His mother insect had spent three years at the peak of the eighth rank before advancing to the early ninth rank. But Long Chen wanted to raise it to the late ninth rank in just a few days?

If anyone else said that, he would think it was just a joke. But coming from Long Chen, he was delighted.

“Don’t get too happy. Raising it to the late ninth rank is no problem, but it’s just an empty cultivation base. It will have the pressure, but not the true power. My medicinal pills will raise its cultivation base, but its actual power will have to slowly grow and catch up. But just raising its cultivation base is enough to benefit you immensely. You understand?” Long Chen smiled.

“I understand, I understand. As long as my mother insect reaches the late ninth rank, I’ll be able to control mid ninth rank insects as generals in my insect army. Heavens, I almost can’t believe it.” Wang Zhen lost all semblance of calm as he was filled with excitement.

Was he joking? An army of thousands of ninth rank insects? Wouldn’t he be completely unrivaled?

“I’m not done. I’ll also refine a kind of medicinal elixir for your feed insects. It will allow them to grow faster, and after they absorb the energy of flesh and blood, they will undergo a kind of explosive growth. It’s not very good for your feed insects, but your fighting insects can simply devour them and it’ll be no problem. They’ll all grow faster. I’ll refine some for you now, and later I’ll give you the formula. Even when I’m not present, you’ll be able to make it yourself… Hey, what are you doing?”

As Long Chen spoke, Wang Zhen suddenly knelt on the ground. Long Chen jumped and hastily pulled him up.

“I will forever remember brother Long’s kindness,” swore Wang Zhen. Long Chen wasn’t just giving him medicinal elixir, he was giving him the formula as well. It had to be known that such secret formulas were extremely precious. There had been many cases of fathers and sons turning hostile, or brothers turning against each other just for a precious formula.

As for this kind of formula, it was as precious as his life to Wang Zhen.

“Don’t be so serious.” Long Chen was speechless.

Wang Zhen shook his head. “This isn’t just for me, but also for my brothers. Once I’m stronger, I won’t have to just watch as they die in front of me. That feeling… really is painful. I don’t want to feel it a second time.”

“Good, that’s what a man should be like. Now that you understand how brothers will sacrifice everything for each other, anyone who joins you will definitely not suffer.” Long Chen patted him on the shoulder.

Wang Zhen was extremely moved. Receiving Long Chen’s approval felt like a lifetime’s worth of glory now.

After parting with Wang Zhen, he took a look over all of Xuantian City. To keep things safe, Meng Qi had completely covered Xuantian City in her spiritual domain.

This spiritual domain was based on four Golden Little Bells that were spread throughout the city. They were a special kind of soul item that allowed her to keep watch over all of Xuantian City. The sneak attack this time had given all of them a sense of danger. They were no longer within the Xuantian Dao Sect, and there were no rules to protect them. They would have to rely on themselves.

Long Chen returned to the city lord mansion. Calling over Gu Yang, he took out eighty-six rank six Heavenly Dao Fruits and one thousand five hundred rank five Heavenly Dao Fruits. Those were his greatest spoils of battle this time.

It went without saying that the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect was truly more powerful than the Xuantian Dao Sect.

Amongst their new disciples, many of them had been raised to the fifth rank. That had to have cost countless resources.

Amongst their senior disciples, around a tenth of them were rank six Celestials. As for the Xuantian Dao Sect’s senior disciples, only one in a thousand were rank six Celestials. This proportion revealed the difference in financial strength between the two sects.

However, this power difference had ended up benefiting Long Chen. Whether the dead Celestial was an innate or acquired Celestial, once their Heavenly Dao runes were absorbed by the primal chaos bead and condensed into Heavenly Dao Fruits, the people who consumed them would be an innate Celestial.

Most monstrous of all, if those fallen disciples had reached the realm of merging with heaven and earth, the Heavenly Dao Fruit would bestow that ability to whoever consumed it as well.

“Give fifty of the rank six Heavenly Dao Fruits to the healing disciples. Split the rest amongst the warriors with the greatest potential. As for the rank five Heavenly Dao Fruits, first give them to the Dragonblood warriors, and then select the strongest Dragonmark warriors,” said Long Chen.

Right now, the Dragonblood Legion had over thirteen thousand members. There were still just four captains, but now there were three hundred and sixty squad leaders. In other words, each Dragonblood warrior was a squad leader.

In this way, each squad was composed of over thirty people, and it was easier to control things during battle.

Squad leaders naturally had to be strong, so the rank five Heavenly Dao Fruits would be first given to them. As for the rank six Heavenly Dao Fruits going to the healing disciples, Gu Yang had hesitated a bit, but then thinking about it, the healing disciples were what protected the lives of the Dragonblood Legion. They had to be powerful.

During the battle in the Infernal Devil Abyss, they had experienced just how important the healing disciples were. Otherwise, there would have been quite a few casualties in that battle.

Once Gu Yang left, Long Chen looked at the remaining rank four and below Heavenly Dao Fruits he had. “I wonder whether Zheng Wenlong managed to send those Heavenly Dao Fruits over.”

Long Chen thought of Yue Xiaoqian. He had sent a large number of Heavenly Dao Fruits so that the original devil race could walk openly on the Martial Heaven Continent to gather resources.

Now, he had another mass of Heavenly Dao Fruits. But he didn’t dare to randomly send them with just anyone. If this secret was exposed, he would be dead.

The only people who truly knew this secret were Tang Wan-er, Meng Qi, Gu Yang, Guo Ran, and a few others. The Dragonblood and Dragonmark warriors only knew that they were fruits. They didn’t know the true story.

Long Chen didn’t want them to know. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them, but that the more people who knew, the more dangerous it would be. Then their enemies would set their sights on him, and it might cause him to lose his life.

After arranging everything, Long Chen went into seclusion to refine pills. Some were for Wang Zhen, and some were for Hua Shiyu. He needed to take advantage of this time to help Hua Shiyu eliminate that thing.