The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Just as Long Xuan was about to hand over the second layer of the Purgatory True Demon Technique to his clone for cultivation, he suddenly felt something and used his 'Star-Stepping Technique' to rush down the mountain.

The Incomplete Five Elements Reversal Formation had taken a year to be successfully set up by his clone. A few months ago, he had already moved in, but the Herb garden had so many items that it would take some time to completely relocate everything.

He had just sensed someone accidentally entering the outer area of the Rubik's Cube Formation. Unsure of who it might be, he decided to check immediately.

Shortly after, Long Xuan dragged the exhausted Long Lie out of the formation and placed him on the ground, looking at him helplessly.

At this moment, Long Lie was panting heavily, his face showing a look of horror and distress.

"What kind of formation was that? One moment, I was in a magma environment, then an ice mountain, and then an ocean. I almost drowned swimming in that ocean!" Long Lie panted, his spirit nearly broken.

He had been on the verge of madness, tormented by the ever-changing worlds, where no matter which path he took, he would end up in a previously traversed world.

Each world seemed to randomly appear at various locations, with no discernible pattern. Even when he marked the paths, the formation would rearrange them, and after a while, the paths would shift again, leaving him utterly lost.

He wandered aimlessly like a headless fly, driven to the brink of insanity by this eerie formation.

It wasn’t just a mental torment but a physical one as well. The worlds felt all too real, with each one harsher and more unforgiving than the last, making survival nearly impossible.

At one moment, he was burning up, and at another, freezing to death. He could clearly feel that it was not merely an illusion—if he jumped into the magma, he would die for real.

Trapped in this massive maze, he wouldn't even have the chance to starve to death. The brutal environments would claim his life long before that.

He had been tortured to the brink of collapse, and he still hadn’t fully recovered.

"This formation you randomly tinkered with scared me out of my wits. Why didn’t you inform me before coming? If I weren’t home, and you got stuck in the trap, no one would have been there to save you," Long Xuan said, casting an exasperated glance at him.

Fortunately, he had successfully deduced the second layer of the Purgatory True Demon Technique and had come out of seclusion; otherwise, Long Lie might have been trapped for who knows how long, possibly even to death.

"You randomly tinkered with that formation?" Long Lie's eyes widened in shock as he stared at him. "Do you realize how much space those worlds require? The area covered by this formation is massive, and the number of formation bases needed is unimaginable."

"Where did you get so many materials? Even if the entire family pooled its resources, it would be impossible to set up a formation of such vast scale. How did you manage it?"

Of course, Long Xuan wasn’t going to tell him that he could draw small formation patterns, using one set of materials as if they were a hundred, which allowed him to set up such a large-scale formation at minimal cost.

This was a groundbreaking technique, one that he couldn't reveal to anyone, no matter how close they were.

So, he bluffed, "It's nothing. I just discovered an extremely cheap material, which I call 'cement.' Mixing cement with spirit stone powder can create large formation bases."

"The larger the formation base, the more formation patterns can be inscribed. The more patterns there are, the larger the formation's range."

"So don't be fooled by the wide coverage of my formation; the cost was actually quite low. The formation bases made with cement aren’t very sturdy, and it’s a rubbish technique, not worth mentioning."

Of course, Long Xuan was lying. Using cement mixed with spirit stone powder to create formation bases was an idea that had popped into his mind.

But he quickly abandoned this idea because cement was far too fragile. Its hardness wouldn't even rank in the top 10,000 in this world.

If cement were used as the formation base, the formation would be extremely fragile, easily broken by brute force.

While the cement technique could inscribe a massive number of formation patterns and achieve effects similar to the "Rubik's Cube Formation", the formation base would be too weak to withstand a Gu King. It might not even hold up against a Spiritual Sea stage Gu Cultivator.

Using cement for a Mountain-Guarding Formation would be suicidal.

So the cement technique was worthless in this world, a mere side path with no real value for development.

It wouldn’t even be useful as construction material for 'Gu', as the material grade was too low. Even Gu insects wouldn’t use it, let alone Gu cultivators, who used spirit wood for construction. High-grade spirit wood was far superior to cement, being much harder and even resistant to an ordinary axe.

However, cement wasn’t entirely useless.

The Five Elements Reversal Formation was located right next to the Long family. Anyone could see it and recognize its extraordinary nature. So if anyone asked, he planned to brush it off with the cement excuse, making them think it was merely impressive on the surface but actually just a paper tiger, not worth much attention.

Not wanting Long Lie to continue questioning him on this topic, Long Xuan quickly changed the subject, asking, "Why did you come here? If there's something, just say it!"

Remembering his purpose, Long Lie sighed and said, "Don’t mention it. I had terrible luck. I failed all thirty attempts to refine the Wine Gu, so I came this time to trade with you for more Spicy Wine. I’m not willing to give up just yet."

Hearing this, Long Xuan couldn’t help but widen his eyes. Thirty attempts to refine the Wine Gu, and all failed? Just how bad was his luck? Did his family’s ancestral tomb have poor feng shui?

"Thirty attempts to refine Gu, and you failed every single one? Are you kidding me? Are you sure you didn’t just drink the wine yourself and then blame it on the wine insect?" Long Xuan looked at him with suspicion, deeply doubting his claim.

Hearing this, Long Lie was so angry that his beard almost stood up. "You brat! How dare you accuse me of that! Yes, I love drinking, but I’ve never delayed important matters. How could you think of me like that?"

Long Xuan’s words had really struck a nerve. He swore he had only drunk three jars of wine.

"Alright, alright! It seems I misunderstood you. I'll give you twenty more sets of materials; you just need to gather everything listed here for me."

Long Xuan tossed a slip of paper towards Long Lie.

After a long period of research, he had finally figured out a evolution path for the Dragon Gu. This path followed a very regular pattern:

The dragon's horns resemble a deer's, its head resembles a camel's, its eyes resemble a rabbit's, its neck resembles a snake's, its belly resembles a clam's, its scales resemble a fish's, its claws resemble an eagle's, its palms resemble a tiger's, and its ears resemble a Ox.

For the Dragon Gu’s first evolution, it requires second-tier beast king materials from these nine spirit beasts.

For the Dragon Gu’s second evolution, it needs third-tier beast king materials from these nine spirit beasts.

For the Dragon Gu’s third evolution, it requires fourth-tier beast king materials from these nine spirit beasts.

And so on.

Each time the Dragon Gu undergoes a evolution, it needs these nine materials.

The Ten Thousand Great Mountains had just recently experienced a beast tide, so second-tier spirit beasts weren’t particularly rare. As a Gu cultivator in the Spiritual Sea stage, Long Lie should have no problem collecting these nine materials.

Long Xuan didn't feel like running around to gather these materials himself. Since Long Lie had come to trade spirit wine, he decided to hand over the task of collecting these materials to him.

Long Lie took the slip of paper and glanced at the materials listed on it. He couldn’t help but twitch his mouth. Gathering nine kinds of beast king materials in one go? Those things aren't cheap.

To be honest, he felt that the value of these nine beast king materials was higher. He might be taking a bit of a loss in this trade.

But when he thought about how he had suddenly gotten rich overnight, all thanks to Long Xuan, he decided not to fuss over it too much.

"Alright! Leave it all to me. I was part of the beast tide, so I know where to find these nine materials. As long as I pay a certain price, collecting them all won’t be difficult."

"But you'll need to pay half the deposit upfront. I urgently need of spiritual wine and can’t wait too long," Long Lie said after putting away the slip of paper.

Long Xuan nodded, took out several jars of wine from his storage bag, and placed them on the ground. Little white was drinking this stuff to grow stronger, so Long Xuan always kept a stockpile in his storage bag.

When Long Lie saw the jars of wine on the ground, his eyes lit up. He sniffed the air, his throat moved, and he resisted the urge to drink three jars right there. Instead, he took out a large wine vat from his Insect Nurturing Bag and placed it on the ground.

Long Xuan glanced into the vat and saw a small red snake curled up at the bottom. The wine inside the vat had almost run dry and would likely be finished soon.

If the Wine insect drank all the wine in the vat but failed to transform into a Wine Gu, all the previous efforts would be in vain.

The method of refining the Wine Gu is different from the conventional Gu refining process. Normally, if other peak-grade spirit insects fail during Gu refining, they’re completely ruined and can only be refined three more times at most.

But refining the Wine Gu is different. The Wine insect can keep drinking wine, and as long as there’s still wine in the vat, you can keep refilling it until it transforms into a Gu.

So as long as there’s enough wine, the Wine insect will eventually transform into a Gu.

This was also why Long Lie, despite having failed to refine the Wine Gu thirty times, still came to Long Xuan.

The wine in the vat had almost run out, so Long Lie didn’t dare delay. He quickly grabbed a jar of wine, opened the lid, and poured all the wine into the vat.

After emptying the first jar, he quickly moved on to the second jar, then the third...

"Buddha, bless me! Buddha, bless me! I’m willing to shrink Long Ao by an inch in exchange for successfully refining a Gu just once!"

Long Lie clasped his hands together, looking devout, and bowed to the sky in prayer.

Long Xuan was dumbfounded. Good heavens, this was too much! He was willing to offer up Long Ao (Elder Long) as a sacrifice, shrinking it by an inch? Wouldn’t that mean it’d shrink away entirely?

"Is this how you usually refine Gu?" Long Xuan turned to look at him, bewildered.

"Heh heh! This is my own creation—the ‘Sacrificing Friends Technique.’ It never fails. If you sacrifice a friend to the heavens, the success rate will surely increase by several degrees. If it doesn’t work the first time, sacrifice the second friend. After sacrificing all your friends, you’re bound to succeed at least once, heh heh," Long Lie said with a sinister grin.

Long Xuan shuddered. Whoever ended up being Long Lie’s friend must have the worst luck ever. If they knew that Long Lie was sacrificing them every time he refined a Gu, who knows how they would feel.

As for this so-called Sacrificing Friends Technique, Long Xuan didn’t believe it at all. Otherwise, Long Lie would have successfully refined the Wine Gu long ago, rather than failing thirty times.

The only reason he might have succeeded in the past was probably that he had too many friends. Sacrificing fifty friends should result in at least one success.

He subconsciously used his golden finger ability to check the wine vat. Sure enough, there was no progress. Long Lie's luck was as bad as ever. This so called 'mystical technique' was utterly unreliable.

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