The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

"Hehe, you’re finally back. If you hadn’t returned soon, I would have suspected that old geezer Long Yuanshan had detained you," Long Wanli laughed heartily, patting Long Xuan on the shoulder.

“Hmph! If it weren't for this crisis, who knows how many more years our clan's genius would have been detained by them?” The Great Elder also walked over, disgruntled.

Everyone around stopped talking because the geniuses of the Western Land Long Clan were emerging from the space cabin. Naturally, they all put on smiling faces to welcome them, to avoid any breach of etiquette.

The first to come out was Long Dan. Upon seeing him, the high-ranking members of the Far West Long Clan all looked at him curiously, marveling secretly.

They had heard about this young man possessing the innate limit-breaking Gu, which was a talent of the highest order in the world. His combat power could sweep through those of the same level, so they couldn’t help but take a few extra glances.

The second person to come out was Long Ruoxue, her small face still showing signs of stubbornness and reluctance.

The high-ranking members were very familiar with this genius and welcomed her with smiles.

Over there, the geniuses of the Western Land Long Clan seemed to have been forcibly ranked according to their talents. Even those who didn't want to come had been forcefully sent over by Long Yuanshan.

One after another, the geniuses of the Western Land Long Clan appeared, and before long, the most talented of them had all come through.

The high-ranking members of the Far West Long Clan waited for a long time and, seeing no one else was coming, left with the group of geniuses to welcome them properly.

The geniuses of the Western Land Long Clan had come to visit, so they had to be well-received with good food and drinks, fulfilling their duties as hosts. The banquet was extremely lively, with singing, dancing, and cheerful conversations.

Compared to the oppressive atmosphere of Blackstone City, it was much more festive here, full of life.

Many of the Western Land Long Clan’s geniuses gradually began to smile as well.

The banquet continued late into the night before it finally ended. The head of the clan arranged for the guests to be taken to their accommodations, and they were led away one by one.

Long Xuan finally finished his socializing and, heavily drunk, made his way home.

He rushed with all his strength using his "Star-Stepping Technique". However, as soon as he entered the familiar cube formation and reached the top of the mountain to see a bare tree, he immediately sobered up.

He couldn’t help but widen his eyes, then rubbed them hard as if his eyeballs would pop out.

“Who did this?! Show yourself! I promise I won’t beat you to death!” Long Xuan shouted loudly, his voice echoing conspicuously in the silent night.

At this moment, how could he not recognize the bare, barkless tree as the Living Wood?

If not for the conspicuous ∞ symbol, he would have completely ignored this bare tree and not even recognized what it was.

The rabbit instantly jumped out of the insect-rearing bag. Seeing the bare tree, it was also stunned and couldn’t help but rub its confused rabbit eyes.

It soon started squeaking frantically, pointing at the Living Wood and then at Long Xuan, screaming incessantly, obviously furious.

“Calm down! Calm down! Getting angry is bad for your health.”

Long Xuan hurriedly patted its head, trying to comfort it. This little one had too much of a temper.

The tree wasn’t of much use to Long Xuan, so he didn’t feel too much, but the rabbit was truly furious. It had planned to use this tree for alchemy, and now that the bark and leaves had been stripped off, it was about to faint from anger.

Long Xuan suddenly understood the rabbit’s intention to use the Living Wood for alchemy. Just as he was about to call it wasteful, he froze.

The rabbit wanted to use the Living Wood for alchemy? It had an alchemy formula for the Living Wood? Long Xuan was stunned and completely lost his composure.

“You actually have an alchemy formula for the Living Wood? Why didn’t you say so earlier? Why didn’t you say so?!”

“Hurry and write down the formula for me. I’ll check if there are any mistakes, so you don’t mess up the process.”

Long Xuan’s heart was pounding, and he was filled with excitement. This was truly an unexpected surprise.

No wonder the rabbit had been so excited upon seeing the Living Wood, thrashing around crazily in the insect-rearing bag.

Now, Long Xuan finally understood. It turned out it really did have an alchemy formula for the Living Wood.

He had no doubt about the rabbit knowing such an incredible formula.

After all, this rabbit had stayed in the famous Empress Yaoguang's tomb for so long and had gone through countless alchemy formulas. Knowing one amazing formula was nothing surprising at all.

It should be known that Empress Yaoguang once unified the entire Gu World and held control over all its wealth. Is there any heaven-defying alchemical recipe she didn't have in her possession?

So, what’s so special about the rabbit knowing a recipe related to Living Wood?

A recipe related to Living Wood is certainly connected to extending one’s lifespan; that’s something you don’t even need to think twice about.

This is truly like someone offering you a pillow when you’re drowsy—it resolved his immediate crisis.

Right now, he’s researching the recipe for the Longevity Gu, and his mind is blank; he urgently needs something to reference.

And didn’t the opportunity for reference just arrive? The rabbit brought him inspiration.

The saying goes, “stones from other hills may serve to polish jade.” As long as he can grasp the principles behind the recipe for Longevity Pill, it will definitely yield twice the result with half the effort when deducing the Longevity Gu recipe, greatly reducing the research time.

He could even directly borrow some of the ingredients. You should know that the ingredients in Gu recipes are not limited to insects; many non-living items can be used in Gu recipes.

Long Xuan had a premonition that by borrowing from the Longevity Pill recipe, it wouldn’t take long for him to develop the Longevity Gu recipe.

Afterward, Long Xuan brought over a small Gu hut made of tree bark, placed it in front of the rabbit, and said, "Hurry up and transcribe. I’ve already taught it a lesson for you."

“If you transcribe the Lifespan Pill recipe, I’ll reward you with a few pieces of bark from this house.”

Upon hearing this, the rabbit’s eyes brightened up, finally showing some light. It no longer caused trouble and cheerfully transcribed the Lifespan Pill recipe for Long Xuan.

Not long after, a recipe filled with messy handwriting was completed by the rabbit. The writing was full of twists and turns, almost unreadable and unsightly.

Long Xuan frowned and stared at it for a long time before he could decipher what was written on it. The characters were like cockroaches crawling across the page. It was impressive that he could make sense of them at all.

But then again, it’s understandable—it’s a rabbit. Can you expect a rabbit to write neatly?

Long Xuan was already content.

After glancing quickly over the recipe, he soon frowned and looked at the rabbit with a strange expression and complex gaze.

The recipe was genuine; his alchemical knowledge was enough to judge that. The Golden Finger, after recognizing the scribbles as characters for a long time, also showed progress, further proving the recipe’s authenticity.

But you need to understand one thing: just like Gu recipes, the more heaven-defying the alchemical recipe, the more ingredients it requires, and the rarer and more expensive they become. Quite a few ingredients have probably gone extinct.

How could a recipe with Living Wood as the main ingredient be simple? It would be surprising if none of the ingredients were extinct.

So what’s this rabbit thinking, trying to refine pills? It can’t even gather all the materials; how does it plan to refine pills?

It’s just happy over nothing, going to great lengths to obtain Living Wood, but in the end, all its efforts will be in vain.

This rabbit—no, this spirit herb—probably doesn’t even know that many spirit herbs in this world have already gone extinct. It’s really just a foolish rabbit.

Long Xuan didn’t know how to console it, or whether to tell it this harsh truth.

Forget it, better take it to the Library Tower and give it a lesson on this kind of common sense.

...

Two months later, Long Xuan picked up a low-grade Gu recipe containing hundreds of ingredients, showing a faint smile.

As expected, the recipe sent by the rabbit was of immense reference value. After understanding the principle of the recipe’s longevity effect, it only took him two months to create the Longevity Gu recipe.

However, this Gu recipe was just a low-grade one, only capable of extending life by sixty years, and only effective on the Sou Gu insect.

He ordered his clone to quickly gather the ingredients listed in the recipe and immediately start refining the Longevity Gu. He was eager to know whether the Longevity Gu he envisioned could elevate the Sou Gu from its current low-grade status to a mid-grade one.

If the Sou Gu could be upgraded to a mid-grade Gu insect, could it possess the ability to carry living beings for teleportation? These were all things he was eager to find out and experiment on immediately.

As for the materials needed for the Longevity Gu, the Long Clan of the Western Lands had already given him quite a few ready-made ones. A few missing ingredients could be gathered quickly, as low-grade Gu insect materials were not expensive. If things went smoothly, he could begin refining the Gu today.

If luck was on his side and the Longevity Gu achieved the intended effects, then his Sou Gu could complete its transformation in just a few days. Yes, continuously devouring the Longevity Gu was the evolution path Long Xuan had devised for the Sou Gu.

It’s just that whether this evolution path was reliable or not still needed to be verified.

Satisfied, Long Xuan stored the Longevity Gu recipe in a small box. This time, the rabbit had truly made a great contribution.

Just as he was contemplating matters related to the Sou Gu, it suddenly appeared, holding a letter in its mouth, which it quickly handed over to Long Xuan.

He casually took the letter and opened it, discovering it was from Long Qian, who was looking for him. He immediately left the pavilion on the mountain peak and went down.

Arriving outside the Rubik’s Cube Formation, he saw Long Qian standing honestly in front of the formation, deep in thought.

This time, he had learned his lesson. No matter what, he didn’t dare to enter again and directly used the Sou Gu to send a letter to summon Long Xuan.

As soon as Long Xuan came out, Long Qian retracted his gaze and said bluntly, “I’m here to deliver materials to you. The Clan wants you to speed up the progress of researching the Dragon Blood Battle Gu recipe.”

“Except for the endangered and peak-grade spirit insects, we’ve sent you almost every type of spirit insect from the Western Lands.”

Only then did Long Xuan notice the breeding bags piled up nearby, stacked into several mountain peaks, truly forming a small mountain range.

Long Xuan was immediately shocked. Did the Long Clan of the Western Lands go on a looting spree? How did they collect so many spirit insects?

They even managed to cover almost all the spirit insect species from the Western Lands. It’s truly frightening. When did they become so wealthy?

With a look of disbelief, Long Xuan asked in astonishment, “What exactly did you do? Where did you get so many spirit insects from? Who did you rob?”

He wouldn’t believe, not even if beaten to death, that the Long Clan of the Western Lands was this rich. They must have robbed someone.