The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

At this moment, there were only a few people left on the dragon boat. Including Long Lie and the two law enforcers, there were only seven people on the boat, making it feel quite empty.

Thinking about how the boat was full of people when they set out, but now only seven remained on the return journey, everyone's mood was heavy, and they remained silent.

Long Xuan wasn’t very familiar with the people on the boat, so he didn’t feel particularly sad, just a bit emotional.

He walked to the bow of the boat, to where Long Lie was standing, and whispered, "I helped you win seven high-grade Gu insects. Shouldn't you give me that peak-grade Spirit Silkworm now?"

Even now, he was still thinking about that peak-grade Spirit Silkworm. He took the risk to help Long Lie win the bet entirely because of this Spirit Silkworm.

He had already decided that his next Gu insect would be a silkworm-type Gu, and the main ingredient for a peak-grade Gu must be a peak-grade spiritual insect. This Spirit Silkworm was extremely important to him, and he had to get it.

Whether he could research and create the legendary Soul Armor all depended on this peak-grade Spirit Silkworm.

Hearing this, Long Lie chuckled and said, "I knew you'd be interested in this Spirit Silkworm. It's a ten-thousand-year-old Ice Silkworm, a famous breed among silkworms, and extremely rare."

"Unfortunately, there is no Gu recipe for this kind of spirit insect in the clan. Otherwise, I would definitely use it to refine a peak-grade Gu, rather than letting you have it so easily."

Long Xuan didn’t have time to examine it closely and quickly put it into his own insect-raising bag before handing a storage bag to Long Lie.

"I've prepared enough spicy liquor for you to refine Gu thirty times. Are you sure you can refine a Gu insect using only spicy liquor?" Long Xuan asked curiously.

He had only managed to refine Xiao Bai (Little White) using a combination of sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy liquors.

He didn’t know if a Gu could be successfully refined using only spicy liquor, but he figured that even if it could, the combat power of the resulting peak-grade Gu would likely be far inferior to Little White's.

"Wine Gu is considered a universal Gu recipe. Any single type of liquor can be used to refine wine Gu, so you can rest assured."

"I have a feeling that the Wine Gu refined from your spicy liquor will definitely be extraordinary. It might even become my main force."

After looking at the spicy liquor in the storage bag, Long Lie's eyes lit up like spotlights, and his breathing became rapid, as he kept swallowing.

He forcibly resisted the urge to take a sip, reluctantly tearing his gaze away and closing the storage bag.

This liquor was meant to refine Wine Gu, so he absolutely couldn't drink it. His willpower ultimately triumphed over his desire.

For a man who loves alcohol as much as his life, seeing good wine but not being able to drink it was a huge test of willpower.

After they secretly completed their transaction, the dragon boat fell silent once more. Half a day later, the dragon boat finally arrived above the Long clan’s territory, then slowly descended to the drill ground. Long Lie put away the dragon boat and hurried off to report to the clan leader.

After exchanging glances, the others also went their separate ways. Long Xuan greeted his senior sister before returning to Little Poor Peak.

… Inside a thatched cottage on Little Poor Peak, Elder Long quietly watched Long Xuan and calmly said, "I wrote to Ziyan asking her to look after you. I'm not surprised you came back alive."

"But I am surprised that you managed to snatch a hundred and ninety Spirit Surge Grasses from under the noses of two Gu King clones. How did you do it?"

Long Xuan casually replied, "I don’t have the ability to snatch anything from them. I only sent one of my clones to the herb garden at the time. It played dead and narrowly escaped disaster."

"After the two Gu King clone left, I went back in and traded with the rabbit, which is how I got the hundred and ninety Spirit Surge Grasses."

"However, the Empress suddenly revived and took all the treasures from the tomb. That rabbit was obviously no ordinary creature and was probably taken away by her as well. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to trade any more treasures with that rabbit for Spirit Surge Grass."

This was the story Long Xuan told his family. Whoever questioned him, he would say the same thing. After all, it wasn't an interrogation, so the family wouldn't really use a Integrity Gu to examine him.

Still, he didn't dare to tell what happened with Long Ziyan, fearing he might get beaten to death. Long Xuan couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

"What a pity," Elder Long sighed. "The diminishing concentration of spiritual energy in the world has led to the gradual extinction of Spirit Surge Grass. Now, with the current concentration of spiritual energy, it’s impossible to successfully transplant Spirit Surge Grass."

"And with that rabbit taken away by the Empress, those hundred and ninety Spirit Surge Grasses might be all our family has left. No, by the rules, you should get thirty percent, so the family only has a hundred and thirty-three Spirit Surge Grasses left."

"I wonder how many experts we can cultivate to the Marrow Cleansing stage with that amount of Spirit Surge Grass."

"You now have fifty-seven Spirit Surge Grasses. I know the Ten Absolute Physique is more difficult to break through than other stages, but I don’t know exactly how much harder it is. It’s hard to say whether fifty-seven Spirit Surge Grasses will be enough for you to break through."

"Give it a try anyway. Prepare to attempt the breakthrough now. I'll lend you this formation plate so you don’t have to worry about being disturbed."

Elder Long took out three formation flags from his storage bag and handed them to Long Xuan.

After all, Little Poor Peak currently had no protective mountain array, so others could freely enter and use their spiritual sense to perceive the situation inside.

Without a protective formation, it would be impossible to safely attempt a breakthrough in this place. If someone like the not-so-bright Long Lie barged in and disturbed him, he could suffer a Qi deviation.

Long Xuan thought to himself that this cheap master of his was finally somewhat useful. He accepted the three formation flags with both hands, but after just a glance, his expression froze, and his earlier thoughts instantly vanished.

This formation plate was utterly terrible. It was far inferior to his Ice formation, not even comparable.

To him, this formation plate was like a sieve, full of holes. How could it protect against anything?

There were even several large holes in the formation flags. Wouldn’t the barrier created by this formation plate be blown away by one of Long Lie’s sneezes?

Then again, Elder Long was dirt poor and deep in debt. How could he possibly afford a better formation plate? Long Xuan realized he had been expecting too much.

Still, it was better than nothing, so he decided to make do with it for now. While this formation would be useless outside, it should be fine here. No one would likely break the formation of their own clan.

As for running outside to hide in the Ice formation to attempt the breakthrough, Long Xuan dismissed that idea.

After all, he had just offended Feng Yu. How could he dare to run out now?

Even though the two of them didn’t have a deep-seated grudge, it was highly unlikely that Feng Yu would lower himself to come and kill him just because of a bet. Long Xuan was probably worrying over nothing.

But he had always been cautious, and he would never take a risk, even if there was only a 0.1% chance of danger.

So, it's better for him to stay put on the Little Poor Peak and focus on breaking through. Moreover, all the clans have just experienced a major conflict, and who knows how many people will die? It's unclear what kind of storm this incident will cause or whether it will lead to a war. In such uncertain times, it's best not to wander around outside.

Since Elder Long needed to refine pills to repay a debt, the two didn’t chat for long before Long Xuan bid farewell. After leaving, he immediately began preparing to break through the Marrow Cleansing stage.

The foundation of the Ten Absolute Bodies is too strong, making it more difficult to break through compared to ordinary people. Whether the Spirit Surge Grass will help him break through is uncertain.

To be safe, Long Xuan decided to use the Spirit Surge Grass as the main ingredient and create his own pill recipe.

The Spirit Surge Grass alone has a 20% success rate when eaten raw, but once refined into a pill, the efficacy could increase several times over. The success rate might be 60% or even 80%.

By then, the pill recipe he created, the Spirit Surge Pill, would likely become the most effective among similar spiritual pills. Taking such a pill would give him the greatest chance of success, making it the safest approach.

As long as one is proficient in pharmacology, creating a pill recipe is much easier than creating a Gu recipe formula, and it wouldn’t take him much time. Moreover, this is just a first-grade pill recipe, the lowest level, and the pharmacology isn’t complicated.

So, Long Xuan planted the formation flags at his residence on the Little Poor Peak and began the grand task of creating the Spirit Surge Pill recipe.

Half a month later, a recipe with 36 ingredients was laid out on the table. With a grand flourish, he wrote the words “Written by Long Xuan.”

This pill recipe was special. Although the number of ingredients was surprisingly small, the number of words was quite extensive.

Each ingredient was precisely measured down to the gram, specifying the exact temperature in Celsius required for extracting the medicinal essence, and even the time for each step was calculated down to the second, with extreme precision.

He even invented a unit of measurement for soul force, calling it one Xuan force, two Xuan forces...

No one else’s pill recipe was written with such complexity, but it was precisely due to his meticulousness that his success rate in pill refining was extraordinarily high.

In his view, pill refining isn’t a matter of luck. There’s always a reason for failure, and it shouldn’t be attributed to luck.

As long as every step in the pill-refining process is performed to perfection, there should be no possibility of failure. Even without the aid of a cheat-like ability, achieving a 100% success rate isn’t difficult.

After admiring his scholarly achievement, he proudly placed the recipe into a small box and immediately set off to collect the ingredients.

With only 36 ingredients, all of which were first-grade spiritual herbs, it wouldn’t take him long to gather everything.

Long Xuan was quite satisfied with his self-created Spirit Surge Pill. If the success rate of the Spirit Gathering Pill was 10%, then his Spirit Surge Pill had a 90% success rate.

With his Spirit Surge Pill, even a sow could break through. He genuinely believed that such a potent spiritual pill could easily break through the rock-solid Ten Absolute Body Physique.

Among all the spiritual pills that aid in breaking through from the peak of Spirit Gathering to the Marrow Cleansing stage, his Spirit Surge Pill was undoubtedly the best, unmatched by any other pill of its kind.

Once his Spirit Surge Pill was released, it would shock the world and cause a sensation in the entire pill-refining community.

However, Long Xuan had always been low-key and didn’t want to draw too much attention, so this heaven-defying spiritual pill was something only he would enjoy, with no intention of spreading it around.

Perhaps one day, when he became a great leader or when he was ready to pass on his legacy, this pill recipe might see the light of day.

Although each of the ingredients in the recipe was expensive, as long as one had contributions, anything could be exchanged for at the Long Clan’s treasure hall. With just one trip, Long Xuan gathered all the necessary ingredients.

Once the materials were collected, he didn’t delay and immediately started refining the pill.

With only 36 ingredients, it didn’t take him much time at all. Before he was even fully engaged, a batch of Spirit Surge Pills was successfully refined.

He eagerly opened the pill furnace and, upon seeing the three golden pills inside, showed a slight hint of dissatisfaction.

A full batch of this recipe only produced three pills, which was indeed too few.

For reference, a full batch of Hundred Flower Pills yields as many as 81 pills.

But this was understandable since the pill types were different, and the Spirit Surge Pill recipe only required 36 ingredients. With mass-energy conservation, it’s natural that the number of pills produced wouldn’t be high.

Given the high difficulty of breaking through with the Ten Absolute Bodies, Long Xuan didn’t feel fully confident with just three Spirit Surge Pills. So, he put away the pills, stored them in a vial, and continued refining more Spirit Surge Pills.

He had plenty of Spirit Surge Grass. Not to mention the 30% return of the Spirit Surge Grass from the family, he had also embezzled over 100 Spirit Surge Grass and hadn’t handed them over to the family.

With so much Spirit Surge Grass, he had only used one plant so far, so he could indulge as much as he wanted.

Soon, some time passed, and he still maintained a heaven-defying 100% success rate, with another full batch successfully refined.

It’s important to note that the Spirit Surge Pill was a newly created pill type, and this was his first time attempting to refine it, with no prior familiarity or practice. Yet, he still managed to maintain a 100% success rate, which would shock anyone who witnessed it.

But that wasn’t the end. After successfully refining the second batch of Spirit Surge Pills, Long Xuan didn’t stop. He continued until he had refined a total of five batches of Spirit Surge Pills.

Each batch of Spirit Surge Pills produced three pills, and his pill yield rate was 100%, with no wastage, meaning he now had 15 Spirit Surge Pills in total.

Long Xuan had always been cautious. Even though the Spirit Surge Pill’s medicinal power was already substantial, he decided to prepare 14 more just in case.

Breaking through requires a single, uninterrupted effort. The process starts strong, then weakens, and finally exhausts itself. A single, continuous breakthrough is best, while frequent attempts are bound to result in repeated failures.

Long Xuan decided that he would either not attempt to break through at all or ensure success in one go. To be safe, he prepared 15 Spirit Surge Pills.

He felt that with his meticulous preparation, even with the high difficulty of breaking through with the Ten Absolute Bodies, his success rate should now be 100%.

This time, when advancing to the Marrow Cleansing stage of Gu cultivation, he was certain of success. Long Xuan clenched his fists in excitement, quickly adjusted his state, and officially prepared to attempt the breakthrough.

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