The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 218: Dragon Skinning

"Alright, enough about that. Since you've managed to break through the Marrow Cleansing stage and swiftly reach your current realm, I can tell you've had some serious opportunities. You must have found quite a few treasures, right?"

"Hurry up and show me. Let me help you assess them."

Seeing the rabbit constantly struggling inside the Insect Rearing Bag, Long Xuan finally got to the point.

"I trust your character, so follow me."

Li Laodao stood up and packed up his stall. Naturally, it wasn’t safe to reveal the treasures here; they needed to find a secluded spot where no one would disturb them.

Long Xuan agreed, and under Li Laodao’s lead, they walked into a private room in a Qian Clan teahouse. After ordering the cheapest pot of tea, Li Laodao placed four formation flags in the room, isolating them from any external detection. Only then did he look seriously at Long Xuan and take out one treasure after another from his storage bag.

When he took out three seeds, the rabbit inside the Insect Rearing Bag became even more agitated, almost kicking a hole through it. Long Xuan immediately realized that these seeds were what had excited the rabbit.

As expected, these three seeds must be the most valuable items Li Laodao had obtained from his previous encounter.

“What are these…” Long Xuan asked, pretending to be casual as he looked at the three seeds.

He wasn’t really pretending. He genuinely didn’t know what these seeds were.

However, two of the seeds showed infinite potential in his eyes, making him secretly thrilled. He knew he had struck gold this time.

These two seeds were undoubtedly heaven-defying treasures.

No, to be precise, 'two' of the seeds were; the third one, which didn’t show any potential, was probably dead.

Li Laodao smiled bitterly. “Even you don’t recognize them? Honestly, I don’t know what kind of spiritual medicine these three seeds came from either.”

“Even after consulting countless ancient texts, I couldn’t find any mention of them.”

“But the more I don’t recognize something, the less I dare to sell it, for fear it might be some heaven-defying treasure that someone else might snatch up at a bargain.”

“I’m only showing these to you because I trust you won’t cheat me. Otherwise, I would never have revealed them.”

“Even though I don’t recognize them, don’t think you can get a bargain. I’m pricing these three seeds as the most valuable of all my treasures.”

“If you don’t offer something equally heaven-defying, there’s no way you’ll get them. And no matter what treasures you offer, I must keep one of these seeds.”

“That way, if I’ve set the price too low, I won’t regret it later. Keeping one seed won’t make my loss too big.”

Upon hearing this, Long Xuan secretly admired Li Laodao’s shrewdness. He didn’t even know what the seeds were but had the nerve to set such a high price.

The treasures on the table weren’t cheap either. Just the five peak-grade Spirit Stones were worth a fortune, with each one worth millions in lower-grade Spirit Stones.

He dared to price these three seeds higher than five peak-grade Spirit Stones—truly asking for the moon.

Looking at the five peak-grade Spirit Stones on the table, Long Xuan sighed inwardly.

The five stones represented the five elements—gold, wood, water, earth, and fire—except that there was no fire stone, and two of the stones were wood.

If he could exchange the wood-attributed peak-grade Spirit Stone for a fire-attributed one, he could complete a Five Elements Reversal Formation.

He had been collecting materials for this formation for years, and now he was just five peak-grade Spirit Stones short, one for each element.

No matter what, he had to acquire these five peak-grade Spirit Stones today.

The prices for these stones outside weren’t an issue; it was the three seeds that were the real challenge. Li Laodao clearly didn’t want to be taken advantage of and was sitting on the price. It wouldn’t be easy to get those seeds. ??

To get them, he would have to offer something Li Laodao truly needed.

After thinking for a while, Long Xuan reached into his Insect Bag, pulled out a small bottle, and placed it on the table with a smile.

“Even though you’ve broken through the Marrow Cleansing stage, doubling your lifespan, your speed in breaking through was too slow, costing you too much life force.”

“That’s why, even though you’ve succeeded, you still look so old.”

“With your aptitude, I doubt your remaining lifespan will be enough for you to break through the Spiritual Sea stage. So, you need a treasure that can extend your lifespan.”

“This is a "Longevity Gu" I found in an ancient tomb. Eating one can increase your lifespan by 800 years, allowing you to regain your youth and vitality.”

“Just think of the value of extending your life by 800 years. Remember the auction in Blackstone City where the Living Wood that extended life by only 500 years was sold for 40 billion?”

“So, asking 100 billion for this Longevity Gu isn’t too much, is it?”

“But because we have a good relationship, I’ll give you a 10% discount.”

“I want everything on this table!”

Indeed, Long Xuan was planning to trade his Longevity Gu, which he had developed himself, for Li Laodao’s treasures.

He had refined a bunch of Longevity Gu when creating one that could extend life by 1,000 years for Long Ziyan.

These Gu were incredibly valuable, but he had no way to sell them.

After the disaster over the auction of the Living Wood, he knew even a treasure that extended life by 500 years could lead to bloody battles between Gu Kings. There was no way he could publicly sell his Lifespan Gu—it would be suicide.

And handing them over to the Long Clan in exchange for contributions wasn’t an option either, as it would reveal that he had embezzled resources while researching Dragon Blood Battle Gu.

Thus, these Longevity Gu were effectively stuck in his hands.

He had already given the 1,000-year Longevity Gu to Long Ziyan, and the highest of the remaining ones could extend life by 800 years. He had three of them, and he was offering one now to tempt Li Laodao.

Li Laodao was someone Long Xuan could completely trust, so he confidently took out the '800-Year Longevity Gu'.

At this moment, when Li Laodao heard what Long Xuan said, he felt an overwhelming urge to cough up blood.

Good grief, he thought he was already asking for a lot, but this Long Xuan was even more outrageous.

It wasn't just that Li Laodao was opening his mouth wide, it was like he opened a giant gaping maw.

He dared to ask for a direct 100 billion! He must be crazy. Who asks for such a price?

Why didn’t he just rob him? He might as well kill him with a knife—because even if he sold everything he had, he couldn’t scrape together 100 billion!

Li Laodao's face alternated between black and white.

"So, have you thought it over? Either give me '100 billion, or hand over everything on the table."

"If you don't agree, I'll leave now. Our deal may fail, but at least we’ll still part on good terms," Long Xuan urged.

Li Laodao's old face twitched uncontrollably. Good terms? What nonsense. How could Long Xuan dare talk to him about good terms!

But Long Xuan had truly hit him where it hurt this time.

It wasn't just that his 'lifespan' was running out; the bottleneck between the Marrow Cleansing stage and the Spiritual Sea stage was like a heavenly chasm. Crossing it was like thousands of soldiers trying to cross a narrow bridge—it was exceedingly difficult.

He needed plenty of time to gather vast amounts of resources to have any chance of crossing that threshold.

What’s more, the thing about lifespan is that even if he wasn’t desperately lacking it, he would still fight tooth and nail to obtain more, at any cost.

Who wouldn’t want to live an extra 800 years? Even if it meant selling everything, it would be worth it.

Li Laodao took a deep breath, staring intently at the Longevity Gu on the table. His breathing grew rapid, as he couldn't remain calm in front of such a precious treasure.

But Long Xuan’s price was simply too ruthless. He wanted all of his treasures, or a straight-up demand for 100 billion. This was practically driving him to ruin.

These items were Li Laodao’s most valuable possessions! This wasn’t asking for his money; it was asking for his lifeblood!

"So, have you thought it over? If you don't agree, I'll be on my way," Long Xuan urged again.

As he spoke, he reached out for the small bottle containing the Longevity Gu, ready to take it back.

Li Laodao's face changed drastically, and in a panic, he hurriedly reached out to block the bottle.

"Wait! Wait! Fine, I'll exchange them! I’ll trade! You can have all the junk on the table! I don’t care about them!"

As he said this, Li Laodao felt like his heart was bleeding. It felt as if all his precious treasures were slipping away, and he was about to return to square one.

He quickly picked up the small bottle and held it tightly against his chest, as if only this bottle could soothe his wounded spirit.

"Hahaha… I'll take a little loss and help you by taking away all these worthless things. No need to thank me!" Long Xuan laughed heartily, excitedly sweeping everything on the table into his storage bag.

Especially those "three seeds"—he absolutely wouldn’t miss out on them!

"Wait, we agreed earlier that no matter what treasures you brought out, I must keep one of the three seeds."

"I, Li Laodao, stand by my word. Once spoken, I never go back on it."

"So, you can only take two of the seeds; no matter what, you must leave me one," Li Laodao quickly stopped Long Xuan as he was about to sweep the three seeds into his storage bag, hastily shouting.

"Fine, fine! Seeing how pitiful you are, I'll take another loss. Who can blame me for being so kind-hearted?"

As he spoke, Long Xuan threw the " dead seed"—the one without any progress—towards Li Laodao, pretending to be generous.

Li Laodao hurriedly caught it, treating the seed like a treasure, and put it back into his storage bag.

At this moment, regret filled his heart. If he had known earlier, why did he bring out so many treasures?

Why didn’t he just take out one seed? It was his own fault for being too eager, and now all his treasures had been taken in one go.

Li Laodao glanced at him with resentment, puffing his beard and glaring, "You rascal, you’re ruthless!"

"This time, you've cleaned out my entire storage bag. Looks like I'll have to find another opportunity to refill it."

"Originally, I was hesitant to go for the next opportunity because of the danger, but now I have no choice but to go and recover some of my losses."

"Tomorrow, there’s a great opportunity. Are you coming with me?"

As soon as Li Laodao finished speaking, Long Xuan was startled and shivered. Not again?

This time, he hoped it wouldn’t be another "100% guaranteed safe" adventure. He was genuinely scared. Could Li Laodao please stop dragging him into trouble and go harm someone else for a change?

This Li Laodao was cursed with bad luck. Everywhere he went, something always went wrong. Following him never led to anything good.