The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

The Long family was on the verge of welcoming their second Gu King, and the entire clan’s atmosphere had turned solemn. Conversations on the streets had significantly dwindled, and the once lively Long family estate had finally quieted down.

Long Xuan had finally finished his work and found some leisure time. Upon returning to his cozy little home, he realized he had nothing to do for the moment.

The Heavenly Dream Silkworm was still spinning silk, but the production was not yet sufficient to make a piece of clothing. The plan to create the Heavenly Dream Soul Armor would have to wait for a long time.

The transformation of the Eye of Heaven’s Secrets also required a considerable amount of time, as the four Divine Dragon Trees needed to grow for many years before they could produce a continuous supply of Divine Dragon Milk Sap. He couldn't rush this process either.

He had tried all possible methods to evolve the Water Bear Gu, but it seemed unrelated to consuming any particular substance, leaving him without a clue. It would likely require future opportunities, and sitting idly by wouldn't help.

All his clones were currently meditating around the Spirit Spring. Practicing near the Spirit Spring had significantly accelerated their cultivation progress, and his clones were on the verge of reaching the middle stage of Marrow Cleansing. According to his estimation, it was only a few months away, and all he needed was patience.

As for how to utilize these few months, he thought about how his 'Purgatory True Demon Technique' did not yet have a matching body technique. So, he decided to take advantage of this time to develop a complementary body technique.

The Gates of Life and Death technique wasn’t purely a body technique and wasn't particularly useful in regular combat, so it was imperative to develop a practical matching body technique.

Ever since he became a prodigious talent of the Long clan, he had been granted access to learn various secret techniques within the family. Over the years, he had his clones take turns studying in the Clan’s Library Tower, and now he had almost mastered all of Long clan's exclusive body techniques. With this accumulated knowledge, he was ready to create his own body technique.

A year ago, the family had assigned him a task to participate in a ring match against the Feng clan. At that time, he was at a critical point in his creation process and didn't want to be distracted, so he sent his Fire Clone to handle it. He didn’t take the opponent seriously at all.

He didn’t give the Fire Clone any Peak-grade Gu, nor even Second-Team Gu. The Fire Clone simply relied on the various exclusive body techniques learned from the Library Tower and efficiently defeated the opponent.

The Long clan’s exclusive body techniques were powerful, definitely top-tier, making them the strongest body technique family in the Far West. Only the Feng clan could rival them in body techniques.

But Long Xuan still felt that it wasn’t enough. He felt that it wasn’t strong enough, and more importantly, these techniques weren’t perfectly compatible with his cultivation method. The degree of compatibility was not high, so the techniques couldn’t fully unleash their power.

He planned to create an even stronger body technique that would have a 100% compatibility rate with his cultivation method. How could the Purgatory True Demon Technique, such a powerful body refining technique, not have a pure and matching body technique?

As for inspiration, it didn’t take long for him to find it.

Most body refining techniques could only strengthen the surface of the body, and they couldn’t train the internal organs. However, the Long clan’s "Reverse Dragon Art" could strengthen the internal organs.

After drawing from the Reverse Dragon Art, his Purgatory True Demon Technique also gained the ability to train the internal organs, and each level of the technique would collectively strengthen all the internal organs.

This was the advantage of this cultivation method, and fully utilizing this advantage would allow him to create a body technique with 100% compatibility.

The first idea he had was to concentrate all the strength of his body into his fist for a powerful explosion, or to focus all his strength into his fingers, thereby breaking through a single point.

His entire body’s strength included the power from his internal organs, which gave him an advantage over others as he could mobilize strength from more parts of his body.

His Purgatory True Demon Technique was already the top cultivation method. After undergoing extreme body refining training, like swimming in magma, the strength of his body was terrifying, even among those at the same cultivation level. He could easily outclass other body refining experts by a wide margin.

His physical strength was already overwhelming, and if he concentrated all that strength into a single point, the resulting power would be unimaginable. Long Xuan couldn’t even fathom how terrifying it would be.

Frankly, if he successfully developed this body technique, it would far surpass all the exclusive body techniques of the Long clan, easily making it the Peak body technique in the Far West.

It was worth spending a massive amount of time researching and developing this body technique.

He quickly came up with a name for this technique: Steel Fist.

If the strength was concentrated at the fingertips, it would be called Steel Finger.

Finger techniques could break through at a single point, and compared to a fist, fingers are smaller, so the concentrated strength would naturally be more focused, theoretically making it the most powerful.

However, fingers are much more fragile than fists.

So, whether "Steel Finger" or "Steel Fist" was stronger was hard to say.

But developing these two moves alone wasn’t enough. If Steel Fist was considered external force, used for striking the surface and causing external injuries to the enemy, then he also wanted to develop an internal force technique that could bypass surface defenses, utilizing skillful force to cause an explosion of power within the opponent’s body, directly targeting their internal organs.

Since he could mobilize strength from various parts of his body, if the strength from different parts was not synchronized, this internal force technique could have multiple layers, constituting a multi-layered internal force.

Each layer of internal force would penetrate the opponent’s body, layer by layer, and explode within, making it seem as though a single punch had landed, yet the opponent had suffered from multiple blows.

Facing multiple punches at once, how could the opponent possibly defend against them?

He named this technique Steel Fist. Steel Fist would make it extremely difficult for the opponent to defend against, as each layer of internal force would bypass surface defenses and directly target internal organs.

Even if the opponent wore thick iron armor, Steel Fist would bypass the surface and attack the internal organs directly.

Speaking of which, internal force was a concept from his previous life, and he wasn’t sure if this world had the same concept.

If not, then his Steel Fist would be completely unique in this world. He would once again introduce a new concept to this world.

Since no one knew about this type of technique, they would have no idea how to counter it.

The most terrifying thing is always the unknown. Without understanding, anyone who faced Steel Fist would undoubtedly suffer greatly.

Long Xuan was extremely satisfied with the three complementary body techniques he had devised.

Although they seemed like three distinct techniques, they were essentially variations of a single method—each technique involved focusing the body’s entire strength into a specific point.

The variations in how this concentrated strength was applied created the three distinct techniques.

In essence, these three techniques were fundamentally the same, allowing Long Xuan to study them as one unified technique, developing them simultaneously.

A smile tugged at the corners of Long Xuan’s mouth. Just thinking about the terrifying effects of these techniques filled him with motivation, making him eager to immediately start developing these complementary body techniques.

Once these techniques were perfected, the Purgatory True Demon Technique would be like a tiger with wings, becoming an unstoppable force with its newfound offensive capabilities.

Who in the future would dare challenge him in physical combat? Long Xuan brimmed with confidence, filled with disdain for any potential opponents.

He hurriedly sat back in the pavilion, quickly grabbing paper and pen, and began working on developing the complementary body techniques.

The Long family was renowned for their body techniques and excelled in the manipulation of strength. After mastering all the body techniques of the Long clan, Long Xuan had gained a deep understanding of the manipulation of force, becoming proficient in this field.

Therefore, this time, he didn’t encounter any writer’s block. He had already found solutions to all the challenges in the Long clan’s archives, making this creation process exceptionally smooth, allowing him to complete it in one go.

The sound of the pen scratching against the paper filled the pavilion, uninterrupted...

…

Three months flew by in the blink of an eye. It was now midday, and on the road leading to the Long family’s estate, a cyan-colored dragon boat was speeding along, carrying three passengers: an elderly man, a young man, and a young woman.

The young man had a handsome appearance and fair skin, but his face bore an expression of arrogance, though his eyes occasionally glanced at the young woman beside him.

The young woman was stunningly beautiful, with skin fairer than snow and a pair of bright, intelligent eyes. She was engrossed in a book on formations.

The elderly man radiated the aura of a peak Spiritual Sea cultivator, dressed in luxurious clothing that marked him as someone of high status.

The handsome young man occasionally glanced down from the boat, gradually showing a look of disdain. “This place is so desolate, isn’t it? It seems like there aren’t even a few Gu Kings here. I’m starting to regret coming to visit these poor relatives.”

The elderly man’s face darkened, immediately turning stern as he said, “Long Biao, mind your words. Have I not taught you that disaster comes from the mouth? If you dare to say such things when we meet them, don’t blame me for breaking your legs.”

The beautiful young woman glanced at him, her expression impatient as she said, “We didn’t plan to bring you in the first place. You insisted on tagging along. If you dislike this place so much, just go back yourself. That way, you won’t embarrass us later.”

Hearing the young woman speak, the arrogance on Long Biao’s face vanished, replaced by a look of flattery. “Ruo Xue, I was just worried you might suffer coming to this place.”

“I forgot to ask earlier, what are you doing in this poor place? Even if something is happening, there’s no need for a Fifth Elder to come here personally, right?”

It seemed that this young man didn’t even know what the people on this boat were planning to do; he had just followed them onto the boat.

“Stop calling this place poor. Don’t you realize that to the people in the Central Region, the Western Lands are also a poor place? You’re like a frog in a well, ignorant and arrogant, truly foolish.”

Long Ruo Xue frowned, giving him an irritated look.

“That’s right,” the Fifth Elder Long Qian said at this moment. “This world is incredibly vast. Our Long family may be one of the top ten families in the Western Lands, but that’s just within this region.”

“Once we leave the Western Lands, we are nothing. There are countless forces in this world stronger than our family. In those larger regions, our clan wouldn’t even rank among the lower-tier powers.”

“As we move toward the center of the world, we’ll encounter many countries, each with a number of experts that far surpasses our clan a thousand times over.”

“Long Biao, you must curb your arrogance. Dragon pride is majestic; insect pride is foolish. If you don’t change this mentality, you’ll suffer greatly sooner or later, and your future won’t be promising.”

“The reason I’ve come here personally is because of a recently discovered Spirit Metal ore vein.”

“Our clan and the Bai family discovered this Spirit Metal ore vein together, and we plan to divide it through twelve matches between our geniuses. For every match we win, we gain one-twelfth of the ore vein’s ownership. If we don’t win any matches, the Spirit Metal ore vein will have nothing to do with us.”

“The Bai family is also one of the top ten families in the Western Lands, with a foundation no weaker than ours. We have no advantage in competing against them in these matches.”

“That’s why I’m here personally visiting the Long family in the Far West—to seek outside help.”

“Our families have now formed a full alliance, so borrowing a few geniuses shouldn’t be a problem.”

“If we can combine the top talents from both families, we’ll have a significant advantage in these matches, potentially even claiming seven or eight-tenths of the Spirit Metal ore vein for ourselves.”