The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

“Forget it! I never intended to bid on that blade. A famous blade is priceless, but holding it is like holding a hot potato. It's way too easy to attract others' greed.”

“I only used that blade to lure Feng Si into a trap. I had no intention of actually bidding for it,” Long Xuan said honestly.

“Is that so?” Long Ziyan looked at him with a peculiar expression, guessing, “I bet you didn’t want the Blade Gu to take that particular path of evolution, right?”

“You must be thinking of letting the Blade Gu evolve by merging with blade intent.”

“The success of that evolutionary path entirely depends on how strong the blade intent is.”

“If the blade intent is weak, that evolutionary path will be quite useless.”

“But if the blade intent is strong, the upper limit of that path will far surpass the usual evolution through blade fusion.”

“If the Blade Gu merges with blade intent, it will be able to follow the path of human blade cultivation.”

“At that point, it will no longer be just a Gu insect but could cultivate like a human blade cultivator, possessing the same cultivation system. Once the Blade Gu takes the path of blade cultivation, it will become incredibly powerful.”

“But in the Gu world, there are no blade cultivators. Where do you plan to find blade intent?” Long Ziyan looked at Long Xuan with curiosity.

Long Xuan glanced at her helplessly. How could this woman always guess his thoughts so accurately? Were they that in sync as husband and wife?

Since Long Ziyan had already figured it out, Long Xuan didn’t bother hiding it anymore. He said seriously, “In this Gu world, I only need to find three types of blade intent.”

“The Gu world is vast, so it’s impossible not to find even three types of blade intent.”

“One of them, I already have. It's right in front of me.”

Long Xuan looked into Long Ziyan’s eyes and said, “You possess the Sword Bone and are a genius sword cultivator. In the future, you’ll definitely comprehend sword intent.”

“Sword intent and blade intent come from the same source and are closely related. The Blade Gu can fully merge with sword intent, and from there, follow the path of mastering both sword and blade.”

Long Ziyan shook her head and smiled bitterly. “You might be overestimating me. In the world of sword cultivation, I would definitely be able to comprehend sword intent.”

“But in a world without swords, without skilled swordsmen to spar with, without many sword cultivation manuals, and without famous masters to guide me, how could I possibly comprehend sword intent? You might be disappointed.”

“Don’t underestimate yourself. I have absolute confidence in you.”

Long Xuan smiled confidently at her. He had already made up his mind. Even if Long Ziyan truly couldn’t comprehend sword intent, he would find a way to help her. After all, his expertise was research, and he didn’t believe this problem could stump him.

...

After returning home, Long Xuan eagerly released the Fire Clone and ordered it to follow Feng Si.

As soon as Feng Si dared to leave the city, the Fire Clone would secretly eliminate him.

Since Feng Si no longer had any Gu insect, Long Xuan figured that a single clone would be more than enough to deal with him.

Afterward, Long Xuan entered his secret chamber and began creating the Ten Absolute Blade Technique, all while waiting for good news from the Fire Clone.

Now that his dual cultivation technique was finally complete, he had time to focus on studying the Ten Absolute Blade Technique.

Every day, his clone would transmit the techniques learned from the first floor of the library’s secret vault back to his main body. Without much effort, Long Xuan mastered countless techniques for breaking various abilities. By summarizing these techniques, he began compiling the all-encompassing Ten Absolute Blade Technique.

It would undoubtedly be a long process, likely taking years. Creating a blade technique that could break all others required extensive study, and it was impossible to achieve such a feat in just a few months. Long Xuan was fully prepared for the long haul.

In his view, spending so much time studying this blade technique would absolutely be worth it.

Not only could his Blade Gu use the Ten Absolute Blade Technique, but as a Gu cultivator, he could also utilize it. Once he mastered it, the benefits would last a lifetime.

The Ten Absolute Blade Technique, capable of breaking every blade technique under the heavens, was conceptually the strongest blade technique. Theoretically, it would be the ultimate.

Once he mastered this blade technique, no one would ever dare challenge him in blade combat.

This was an invincible technique, one worth dedicating years of effort to master.

Brimming with enthusiasm over creating the ultimate blade technique, Long Xuan’s room filled with the constant sound of his pen scratching across the paper.

However, it wasn’t long before the Flame Clone suddenly entered the room. Its speed in returning was unusually quick. Long Xuan glanced up in surprise, slowly putting down his pen as he immediately asked, “How did it go?”

The Fire Clone looked at him with a strange expression and said, “When I used the Eye of Heavenly Secret to locate him, he was already dead outside the city. Someone had slit his throat with a sword. I have no idea who did it.”

“What?” Long Xuan was shocked. “Dead? Who could have acted so quickly? They beat me to it! Such a meddlesome hand!”

...

Time swiftly passed, and it was already evening.

Long Xuan finally stopped his work on mastering the Blade Technique, put down his pen, stood up, and stretched lazily. He walked out of the secret chamber, then looked up to find the tallest building in the clan. Using his Star Step, he lightly tapped his toes and landed on the highest spire.

He then cast his gaze toward the direction of the Qian Auction House.

Standing at a higher vantage point allowed him to see further. Under the farsight ability of the Eye Of Heavenly Secret, the situation within the auction hall was clear at a glance. From this angle, a faint smile appeared on Long Xuan's lips.

At this moment, the auction had already reached the third session. The third session was a special one for Gu Kings. All the Gu Kings in the city had gathered here, along with a massive number of Gu Kings from outer cities and distant regions. The overwhelming presence of powerful auras was beyond count.

The most valuable treasures collected by the Qian Clan Chamber Of Commerce Guild were to be auctioned in this session.

One of these treasures was the Living Wood, a prized item that had all the Gu Kings drooling with desire. It was precisely this Living Wood that had attracted half of the Gu Kings from the Western Lands to this place, with even some from distant foreign territories rushing here in time.

Gu Kings were certainly rare, but gathering all the Gu Kings from vast regions in one place made it seem like there were as many Gu Kings as dogs.

Long Xuan didn’t dare use his spiritual sense to probe the Gu King-level experts, so he had no idea how many Gu Kings were gathered in the city. However, it was certain that there were at least a hundred of them.

Many Gu Kings knew that they didn’t have the financial resources to compete for the Living Wood. Some were there just to watch the excitement. The legendary peak-grade Heavenly spiritual herb was something one might never encounter in a lifetime—who wouldn’t be curious?

A portion of the Gu Kings even harbored thoughts of robbing it. They had no intention of bidding for the Living Wood at the auction, planning instead to wait for someone to buy it and then ambush them once they left the city.

Quite a few Gu Kings had such ideas. They didn’t even plan to participate in the auction and had already set up ambushes outside in advance.

Some cunning Gu Kings came with hopes of picking up scraps. They were waiting for chaos, ready to take advantage if an opportunity arose. If not, they would slip away without taking any risks.

In any case, every Gu King in the city had their own schemes. The atmosphere in Blackstone City was tense, with many households shutting their doors and windows early, extinguishing their lights. The mood in the city was extremely eerie.

Long Xuan had no interest in the Living Wood. His longevity was already being extended through the cultivation of the Eternal Life Sutra, so the Living Wood was of little importance to him.

However, while he wasn’t interested in the Living Wood, he was certainly curious about this auction, which had shocked the entire Western Lands.

This was a super auction that had drawn in nearly half of the Gu Kings from the Western Lands. With so many Gu Kings gathered, how could he not be curious about the scene?

It was rare to witness a special auction for Gu Kings, and the treasures being auctioned were earth-shattering. The Qian Clan had gathered their most valuable items for this one event.

There were too many treasures that would dazzle his eyes, and even though he didn’t dare covet them, broadening his horizons would be beneficial. Seeing more of the world was a form of cultivation.

Indeed, Long Xuan was watching this Gu King-special auction purely out of curiosity. He wanted to see which treasures would appear and which Gu King would end up with the Living Wood.

If he could witness a massive brawl among over a hundred Gu Kings, that would be even better. The scene would surely be thrilling, and he would certainly record the epic battle with a Image Recording Gu, so he could enjoy it later.

Battles between Gu Kings were rare, and seeing them fight would undoubtedly be beneficial.

However, though he planned to watch the auction, Long Xuan was sneaky and cautious enough to observe from a distance within the Long Clan’s residence. Here, he could spy on the event from afar without any danger.

At this point, the auction had already begun, and the first item up for bid was a peak-grade exotic Gu, on par with a Gu King. The auction hall was lively, with bids flying back and forth.

The Gu Kings were competing fiercely over just a single exotic Gu, showing how rare and valuable such creatures were in the Gu world.

Though there were many Gu insect in this world, the evolution routes for each type of Gu insect were not openly shared. Even for the same common Gu insect, different families/clans had different evolution paths, which were tightly guarded secrets.

It wasn’t as simple as owning a Gu insect and evolving it indefinitely. The evolution routes for many Gu insect were irregular and extremely difficult to figure out.

Long Xuan, after satisfying his curiosity with a few glances, shifted his attention to the Gu Kings in the auction hall. They were all strangers; he didn’t recognize a single one.

Instinctively, he searched for the figure of Great Heaven Ancestor, Shi Haojun, but after scanning the room, he couldn’t spot him in the auction.

Under normal circumstances, when someone’s valuable treasure was being auctioned, they would appear in person out of curiosity to see how much their item would sell for.

But Shi Haojun was clearly not a normal person. After storing the Living Wood at the Qian Auction House, he didn’t care about it anymore. Even though the auction was about to sell his Living Wood, he didn’t bother showing up to witness it.

Could it be that he was actually massacring the city right now? Long Xuan quickly turned his head and looked in the direction of Blackmoon City. His vision extended outward, the distant scenes rapidly shifting in his eyes, and in just a moment, he had already seen an unknown distance.

But ultimately, Blackmoon City was too far from Blackstone City. Even with his farsight ability, he couldn’t see Blackmoon City’s silhouette.

Long Xuan sighed lightly and finally withdrew his gaze, rubbing his sore eyes.

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