The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Long Xuan hurriedly ran out of the small wooden hut, only to see that there were actually ten Spiritual Sea stage Gu cultivators fiercely attacking the formation from outside.

There were also at least three times more people outside than usual, all staring viciously at the people inside the formation, grinning menacingly.

Seeing this, Long Xuan was startled. So many people suddenly appeared, with just the ten Spiritual Sea stage Gu cultivators alone. It would be a miracle if they could defend against this.

Escaping was their only option now; the Geng Metal ore vein was no longer worth keeping.

…

At this moment, the surviving Gu cultivators inside the formation were hurriedly running towards the direction of the Suo Gu huts, their expressions anxious and tense, but they were still retreating in an orderly fashion, without any chaos.

There were at least dozens of Suo Gu huts on the field, seemingly sent as reinforcements from the Long Clan. The ordinary Suo Gu of the Long Clan Gu cultivators didn’t have the ability to teleport living people for now.

With these dozens of Suo Gu huts, it probably wouldn’t take long to transfer all the people here. The Gu cultivators from the Great Yin Dynasty outside were destined to come up empty-handed.

However, Long Gang was still frowning. Even though they would survive this calamity, he was still deeply worried.

Long Gang sighed and said in a troubled tone, “What a pity. Once we leave, the fact that Suo Gu huts can teleport living beings is bound to be exposed.”

“Although we’ll survive, once it's revealed that our clan possesses the technology to teleport living beings, who knows how many people will covet it? We’re completely unprepared for that.”

“Although the people here will be saved, this decision will leave a hidden danger for our clan. I don’t know if it was the right or wrong decision.”

Long Xunhuan smiled bitterly and said, “In the end, we’re benefiting from Long Dan and Long Xuan. These two geniuses must not be lost. The clan will protect them at all costs.”

“If these two weren’t here today, the clan would probably have abandoned this place. Everyone here would be dead, and we couldn’t count on the clan to rescue us.”

“The clan’s upper echelons are not saints. In the grand scheme of things, we would just be sacrificed, so what?”

“Haha! I guess we should thank them.” Long Zhan sighed. “Whether it’s worth it or not doesn’t matter. This was definitely a decision made collectively by the clan’s upper echelons after fully weighing the pros and cons. Since they decided this, it must be worth it.”

“They’ve almost all left. Let’s go quickly too.”

The two nodded together, and Long Gang said, “You go first. I’ll be the last to leave.”

“Someone still needs to collect those small huts. These huts are quite expensive, and leaving them behind would be a waste.”

This was one of the drawbacks of the Suo Gu; after teleporting, it couldn’t bring the Suo Gu hut with it and had to leave it in its original location.

This was also why Long Qian had to leave one of the Suo Gu huts next to Long Xuan’s cubic formation.

Long Xuan had fully considered this and didn’t want to leave his own Suo Gu hut for the enemy, so he chose to teleport using one of the dozens of other Suo Gu huts, instead of his own.

As soon as he was teleported to the other side of the Suo Gu hut, he heard a deafening explosion, making his ears buzz.

He instinctively covered his ears and looked up at the sky. When he saw the fire from the explosions filling the barrier in the sky, he was stunned.

How many artillery battalions were there? Why did he feel like he had just escaped the wolf’s den, only to enter the tiger’s mouth? This place seemed even more dangerous than the Geng Metal ore vein.

Damn, that was careless. He should have used his own Suo Gu hut. Where had he teleported to now?

Fortunately, his worries didn’t last long, as the explosions soon stopped.

The sky was filled with the smoke of war, but no more shells were falling. It was finally quiet.

“The shelling stopped? What’s going on? Did they run out of ammunition?” Long Qian muttered in surprise.

Long Yuanshan smiled bitterly and said helplessly, “When you know that a fortress has a small door through which countless reinforcements and resources like spirit stones and war supplies can instantly arrive, would you still attack it?”

Hearing this, Long Qian was stunned, then overjoyed. “The Patriarch means that they won’t attack Blackstone City anymore? They might even retreat?”

Long Yuanshan looked in the direction outside the city. There was a clear disturbance in the Great Yin Dynasty’s camp, and the Gu cultivators there were loudly discussing something, their emotions running high.

Long Yuanshan’s bitter smile deepened as he sighed, “Blackstone City can now instantly teleport a large number of reinforcements, even hundreds of Gu Kings. Under such circumstances, it’s impossible to take Blackstone City no matter what.”

“If that’s the case, why would they continue attacking Blackstone City? Retreating is their only option. As long as they’re not stupid, they’ll withdraw today. Staying here any longer would be meaningless.”

“Of course, when I say retreat, I don’t mean they’ll withdraw from the Western Lands; they just won’t target Blackstone City anymore.”

“The appearance of the Suo Gu has disrupted their plans. They’ll have to come up with a new battle strategy. Their original plan to quickly destroy Blackstone City is definitely scrapped.”

“Now, we should focus on how to deal with the various families in the city. Hiding this ability during wartime is bound to leave some people resentful.” Long Yuanshan smiled wryly.

“There’s nothing to explain. Just say that the technology to teleport living people was only developed in the last few days. They can’t do anything to us.” Long Qian said dismissively.

As expected by Long Yuanshan, after the sound of artillery fire ceased, the army of the Great Yin Dynasty quickly retreated, leaving the entire city in a state of bewilderment.

Upon hearing this news, Long Xuan felt relieved. With the main force of the Great Yin Dynasty withdrawn, Blackstone City had now become the safest place in the Western Lands. He no longer intended to run around elsewhere.

Under the arrangements of the Long Clan, he casually found a house to settle in and continued focusing on cultivating his soul refinement technique.

As for the upcoming war, he had no intention of participating. Any future combat missions, he would leave to his clone.

He safely hid himself away, shamelessly becoming a deserter once again.

---

Not far from Blackstone City, a giant teleportation formation stood conspicuously.

It was a towering silver gate with streams of silver light flowing across it, emitting dazzling radiance. At the center of the gate was a black curtain of light. Although there was no one visible behind it, people occasionally emerged from the black curtain. The area around the teleportation array had long been crowded with people.

“General Yang, what should we do? The Long Clan has developed technology even cheaper than teleportation formation, allowing them to set up teleportation formation in various cities.”

“You should understand what this kind of technology means in warfare. If Blackstone City has a teleportation gate to the outside world, we won’t be able to capture it, no matter how many troops we send—even if we deploy four times as many soldiers.”

An elderly man, at the peak of Gu King cultivation, looked at a burly man in silver armor with a worried expression.

“It’s come to this. What else can we do? The blitzkrieg strategy is certainly out the window now.”

The silver-armored man gave him a serious look and said gravely, “There’s no choice; we’ll have to change our battle plans.”

“The Great Yin Dynasty’s advantage is its overwhelming number of troops, far more than the Western Lands. Given that, we need to maximize our numerical superiority.”

“My suggestion is to break the army into smaller units and spread them out, sweeping across the surrounding cities and resource points.”

“As long as we open enough battlefronts at once, their teleportation gates won’t be of any use.”

“If every city is overwhelmed by its own problems, who will be able to send reinforcements anywhere else?”

“Before attacking a city, we’ll first attempt to make them surrender. If they refuse, we’ll then proceed to wipe out all the powers in the city.”

“Our goal is to eliminate as much of the Western Lands’ fighting force as possible and plunder their resources to the greatest extent.”

“We’ll leave Blackstone City, the hardest nut to crack, for last. By then, all the forces in the Western Lands will have been wiped out.”

“No matter how many teleportation gates they have, they won’t be able to summon any reinforcements. I’d like to see who could help them then.”

The silver-armored man’s lips curled into a confident smile, his eyes gleaming with intelligence.

However, the elder’s face remained troubled as he sighed, “But if we do this, the blitzkrieg will turn into a prolonged war. The Western Lands are vast, and just the marching alone will take a long time. By then, this war could drag on.”

“And His Majesty’s lifespan is running out. I fear he won’t last much longer. The Living Wood is most likely in the hands of one of the ten clans in the Western Lands. If we don’t destroy them first, His Majesty might not survive until the end of this war.”

The silver-armored man cast a cold glance at him and replied expressionlessly, “Inspector Wang, are you suggesting we continue to assault Blackstone City?”

“If you have a brilliant plan to destroy Blackstone City, I will fully support you. But if you don’t, and only suggest sending men to their deaths in a relentless attack, then let me be frank: the Great Yin Dynasty’s army will be dragged to its death here.”

“If the Great Yin Dynasty suffers heavy losses here, do you think the Xuan Yue Empire won’t seize the opportunity to invade our country? The Great Yin Dynasty would be in grave danger then.”

“I now leave the choice to you. Whatever you decide, we’ll do. But all the consequences will rest on your shoulders.”

“This...” Inspector Wang fell silent. This was not a decision he could make on his own.

After a long time, he let out a heavy sigh and suddenly became furious. “Damn it, how did the Long Clan suddenly develop such an overpowered Gu insect? Ha! Long-distance teleportation of living beings, perfectly replacing teleportation formation—how absurd.”

“We invested so much in building this large teleportation formation, and they solved the problem with just one Gu insect? Isn’t that too ridiculous?”

“What’s even more absurd is that it’s a living creature, portable and far more flexible than a fixed teleportation formation. Doesn’t this mean that whenever they encounter danger, they can teleport away instantly? No Long Clan Gu cultivator will ever be killed again! This is completely unfair.”

The silver-armored man shook his head seriously and replied, “It’s not that exaggerated. After all, it’s not even a peak-grade Gu insect, so it’s not invincible.”

“Reports from the other side indicate that the teleportation of living beings isn’t instant. If a Long Clan Gu cultivator tries to escape using it in the midst of battle, they’d essentially be courting death.”

“Unless the enemy reacts too slowly, a Long Clan Gu cultivator won’t be able to teleport away during combat.”

“Besides, every Gu insect has a countermeasure, especially one that’s not even peak-grade. There must be many ways to neutralize it.”

“There are plenty of ways to render teleportation formation ineffective, so there must be even more methods to neutralize this thing.”

“However, it will take time to research ways to counter it. In the meantime, we must kill more Long Clan Gu cultivators and study methods to suppress this new Gu insect.”

“Once we can neutralize Blackstone City’s teleportation gates, we’ll be able to attack the city, and we’ll find the Living Wood before His Majesty’s lifespan ends.”

“But until then, we can’t waste time here. We must eliminate as much of the Western Lands’ fighting force as possible and plunder their resources to support the war.”

“This is the plan, whether it’s a blitzkrieg or a prolonged war!”

The silver-armored man’s tiger-like eyes glared in the direction of Blackstone City, filled with a fierce, murderous intent.