The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 121: The Gu Battle Tournament Begins

At this moment, the area around each Gu pit was bustling with activity. There were many onlookers, as the Gu Battle Tournament was considered one of the most lively events in the clan, attracting everyone to come out and watch.

Before long, the family head, Long Wanli, stood up from a cement-built platform and began a lengthy opening speech.

It was unclear what technique he used, but even though his voice wasn't loud, it carried clearly to everyone's ears, even to those spectators far away from the platform.

However, his speech was a typical, formulaic address, filled with meaningless drivel that held no real appeal. Just as everyone below the platform was starting to doze off, the Gu Battle Tournament officially began with his announcement.

The crowd below finally opened their eyes, instantly becoming alert.

Immediately, Long Wanli set down his lengthy speech and took out a list of names, which recorded the names of each participant.

The Gu battles in the ten Gu pits were to be held simultaneously, with those whose names were called proceeding to their respective pits to battle.

Each Gu pit also had a referee, who would declare the winner, allowing the next batch of participants to take their turn.

However, the sequence of the Gu battles and the selection of opponents did not seem to be decided by drawing lots but were instead directly assigned by the family.

He had originally planned to use the minor X-ray vision ability of the Eye of Heavenly Secret to draw a favorable lot, so he could continuously pick the weakest opponents and be the last to enter the field.

But he didn't expect the family to play by their own rules, completely skipping the lot-drawing process. This was outrageous, wasn't it?

Isn't this kind of event supposed to involve drawing lots? How can it be fair and just otherwise?

The family not following the usual procedure disrupted all of his plans, leaving him with no way to cheat.

Just as he was still bewildered, Long Wanli's voice suddenly called out.

"Long Xuan, Long Ye, proceed to Gu Pit No. 1 for your Gu battle."

Long Xuan's body stiffened. Good heavens, the first match was his, and Gu Pit No. 1 was the closest to the platform where the family elders were seated. It was also the most conspicuous location, attracting the most attention and having the largest audience.

Gu Pit No. 1 was the focal point of nearly half the audience's gaze, making it the highest-profile position.

This was the consequence of not drawing lots. Long Xuan sighed lightly, and then, without any sense of fair play, sent his clone to the battlefield, with no intention of showing any respect to his opponent.

At this time, the Fire Clone received the command from his soul, and his mouth couldn't help but twitch. He could only brace himself to go up. The main body hadn't even given him a single peak-grade Gu insect, only throwing him a insect-rearing bag filled with second-Team of Gu insects.

The second team’s Gu insects were all low-grade. How was he supposed to fight with these? He was ordered to win but wasn't given any resources—this was too difficult.

He looked towards his opponent, who was already standing by the Gu pit. Long Ye was a mid-stage Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivator, and although he was one level higher, the Gu battle relied solely on the Gu insects. The cultivator’s realm didn't offer much advantage.

But didn’t this game’s rules limit his Ten Absolute Body as well? He couldn’t enter the field himself, so how could he win with just a few low-grade Gu insects? With what, his head? One must know that Long Clan’s Marrow Cleansing stage Gu cultivators typically had high-grade or even peak-grade Gu insects.

Seeing Long Ye already tossing his Gu insects into the Gu pit one by one, especially the massive Earth Master Gu, which stood out sharply—it had become a symbol of the Long Clan’s Gu cultivators, each of whom possessed one.

The Fire Clone reluctantly reached for the insect rearing bag that the main body had just handed over. After inspecting the Gu insects inside, his eyes suddenly lit up.

He brought that guy along too? This seemed a bit unfair, didn’t it?

At this moment, the Fire Clone finally relaxed, revealing a devilish smile, full of confidence for the upcoming battle.

He patted his insect rearing bag, and immediately a swarm of Ice Bees buzzed out of it. In the blink of an eye, the Ice Bees filled the sky.

By now, the Ice Bee swarm had grown to over ten thousand. Many of them had undergone a evolution and become Ice Bee Guards, giving the swarm formidable combat power, enough to help Long Xuan out of any predicament.

This was the first battle for the Ice Bees, and they were all excited, eager to prove themselves. Since their stingers had evolved to produce unlimited ice needles, they had all turned into battle-hungry creatures.

The largest of them, the Queen Bee, was especially excited, staring intently at the ground below, brimming with fighting spirit.

As soon as the massive swarm of insects appeared, it instantly drew the attention of everyone in the arena.

The spectators who had been watching the other Gu pits all turned their attention to this side, their faces filled with astonishment. At this moment, Gu Pit No. 1 had truly become the center of everyone’s focus.

Spirit insects can reproduce on a large scale, but due to various limitations, very few Gu cultivators favor swarm tactics. However, once a swarm achieves combat power, it becomes genuinely terrifying.

Although spirit insects are weak individually, as long as their numbers are large enough, even a peak-grade Gu insect can be swarmed and killed. This is not uncommon at all.

But raising a swarm is extremely costly, and it's difficult to find a suitable species, so it's rare to see a swarm tactic in the Gu Battle Tournament.

Such a rare battle scene naturally attracted everyone’s interest, and spectators from other Gu pits quickly ran over to Gu Pit No. 1, watching the bee swarm in the sky with curious eyes, their faces filled with excitement.

Some even took out spirit insect guides, hurriedly searching for the species of spirit bee in the sky. However, the Ice Bee was a breed created by Long Xuan, so how could they find any records of it?

On the high platform, the elders were also showing looks of astonishment. The Grand Elder was the first to speak, "He’s actually using the swarm tactic. Although swarm tactics are not to be underestimated in battle, they are incredibly costly."

Long Wanli laughed, "Not necessarily. Bees feed on nectar. As long as the herb gardens are filled with flowering spirit herbs, it will be enough to solve their food supply."

"No wonder he wanted such a large mountain area for his cave. If he intends to raise a large number of spirit bees, he will need ample space to grow spirit flowers."

At this point, the female Fourth Elder frowned and said, "Everyone knows that feeding spirit bees is easy, but there’s a fatal flaw with them. Their tails grow barbs, and once they sting an enemy, they can’t pull it out, leading to their death. They're a one-time-use insect species."

"No one would favor such a disposable spirit insect. Throughout history, no Gu cultivator has ever raised a bee swarm. He seems to be the first, setting a new precedent."

"That was a new path, an unknown one at that, requiring him to explore on his own. Unless he could solve the fatal flaw of the Spirit Bees, where a single attack would result in inevitable death, his swarm would never amount to anything substantial."

All the clan elders nodded in agreement. The flaw of the bees was indeed too fatal. The initial investment of massive resources only to have them wiped out in a single battle was a serious imbalance between cost and return. Even a fool wouldn’t consider nurturing such a species.

But Long Xuan was clearly not a fool. Since he dared to invest heavily in raising these bees and even bred them to a certain scale, he must have found a solution to the problem.

All the clan elders displayed curious expressions, eager to know how Long Xuan had managed to overcome this issue.

At that moment, in Gu Pit Number 1, Long Ye felt his scalp tingle as his opponent released so many insects. Tens of thousands of insects swarmed to besiege his mere handful of Gu insects. This wasn’t just bullying, was it?

To make matters worse, these insects could all fly. How was he supposed to fight them? Helpless, he could only send out his one and only flying insect, a giant butterfly, which flapped its wings and fearlessly took to the skies.

However, what greeted it was a wave of 'Pear Blossom Storm Needles.'

All the Ice Bees formed a formation in midair, pointing their abdomens downward. Under the command of the Queen Bee Bingbing, the stingers on their abdomens rained down like raindrops.

The fearless butterfly charged headlong into the needle storm, but being a fragile insect, how could it withstand the assault of the bees’ stingers?

In an instant, it was shot through like a porcupine and fell from the sky.

Meanwhile, all of Long Ye’s Gu insects on the ground were also doomed. The Gu pit was only so big, and the needle storm covered the entire pit.

The rain of needles was so dense that there was no space to dodge. In this situation, there was no room for evasion; the insects could only run around in panic.

Unfortunately for them, the Ice Bees’ stingers could be fired indefinitely. After shooting one ice needle, another would grow on their tails, leading to wave after wave of bombardment on the ground.

It didn’t take long for all of Long Ye’s Gu insects to be shot full of needles. Poison from the bees quickly paralyzed them, and soon all his Gu insects were motionless.

Only the Earth Master Gu managed to hold out, protected by its thick iron armor that the bee stingers couldn’t penetrate.

Though it could threaten the Ice Bees, it was quickly overpowered by Long Xuan’s own Earth Master Gu, which was even larger.

Faced with this situation, Long Ye had no choice but to surrender.

Thus, the first match of the Gu Tournament ended in a flash, leaving everyone stunned.

This attack method was brutally simple, especially within the confines of the Gu pit where movement was restricted. All Gu insects would become sitting ducks, with no way to escape the relentless needle storm. Such an attack method was truly unbeatable.

One had to admit, the competition rules were incredibly favorable to this group of bees. In a limited space, the lethality of the needle storm was amplified several times over.

At this moment, everyone showed signs of apprehension, contemplating how they would deal with such a situation if they were in Long Ye’s place.

On the stage, the high-ranking officials exchanged glances. One of the four elder clan members smiled first and praised, “I see now. Replacing the barbed stingers with regenerating ice needles is indeed a clever method.”

Long Wanli turned and smiled at her, saying, “Hehe, I spoke with him once. His research on insects is absolutely monstrous. It’s no surprise that he could find a way to improve the flaws of the Spirit Bees. In terms of understanding, my evaluation of him is that he is a genius rare throughout the ages.”

The clan elders were shocked by such high praise and all turned their eyes to Long Wanli. “Rare throughout the ages” was an extremely high evaluation, considering the countless years of history in this world.

However, when they thought about the terrifying Gu techniques he had developed, they all fell silent, unable to refute it.

Long Xuan was completely unaware that Long Wanli had given him such high praise. After winning the first victory, he tossed a bottle of pills to Long Ye and left the Gu pit.

The poison of his bees was a new type of venom in this world, with no known antidote. If he didn’t intervene, all of Long Ye’s Gu insects except the Earth Master Gu would have perished.

Long Ye caught the pill bottle and gave Long Xuan a grateful look before finally leaving the stage.

The two of them had come and gone quickly, with the match ending almost as soon as it had begun. The crowd was left unsatisfied, feeling that it ended too soon.