The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 89: (2): First Encounter with the Eldest Senior Sister

Of course, armor that is both highly defensive and lightweight does exist, but it is extremely rare. Even if you do have such armor, your movements would still be restricted. After putting on armor, actions like bending over or rolling would be difficult, so even this kind of light armor is not favored by Gu cultivators.

However, silkworm clothes can completely solve these two problems. Silk clothe is light and soft, with no thickness at all. Not only does it not restrict movement, but its weight is practically negligible for a Gu cultivator.

High-level silk clothe's defense is definitely not inferior to that of metal armor, and wearing it has no negative effects. This is practically a blessing for Gu cultivators and is beloved by all of them.

Naturally, such a good item comes at a high price, at least ten times that of spiritual armor.

Moreover, it is difficult to find in any market because it is in such high demand. Whether it’s silkworm silk or silk cloths, they are snatched up the moment they appear anywhere.

Speaking of silkworm silk, it’s impossible not to mention another category of Gu insects in this world—the production-type Gu insects.

Most production-type Gu insects have no combat power, but they can continuously produce resources for their owner, making the owner extremely wealthy. Owning a production-type Gu insect is like having a money-printing machine.

For example, some Gu insects can produce spirit stones, some can produce wine, some can produce sugar, and others can produce healing leaves.

In short, once you form a blood contract with a production-type Gu insect, you will gain a continuous stream of resources and open up a new financial avenue. By selling the resources produced by the Gu insect, you can easily become rich.

The value of the resources produced by production-type Gu insects varies, but if you encounter one that produces the most valuable resources, it is not an exaggeration to say that it can provide wealth equivalent to refining ten peak-grade Gu insects.

If you come across a heaven-defying production-type Gu insect, even a pig could be raised to the sky.

Without a doubt, the Dragon Silkworm Gu in Long Ziyan's hands is a production-type Gu insect.

The Dragon Silkworm Gu has no combat ability, but it can continuously produce expensive Dragon Silkworm Silk, allowing its owner to become wealthy by selling the silk.

The silk clothes made from Dragon Silkworm Silk is famously strong in defense, as light as air, warm in winter, cool in summer, impervious to weapons, and resistant to water and fire—a first class treasure with an outrageous price.

Long Ziyan has truly found a goose that lays golden eggs.

Long Xuan figured that she must have made a fortune selling Dragon Silkworm Silk and is undoubtedly very wealthy—a little rich lady.

Judging by the price of Dragon Silkworm Silk, Long Xuan was certain that Long Ziyan must possess peak-grade Gu insects, possibly more than one, otherwise, her wealth would be unjustified.

Long Xuan was tempted; the Dragon Silkworm Robe was indeed a treasure, and he coveted it as well.

Even though he already had the Water Bear Gu for protection, wearing a Dragon Silkworm Robe wouldn’t conflict with it. After all, who would refuse something that increases defense? Double protection would be even better.

At this moment, he even thought about creating a production-type Gu of his own, focusing on silkworm-type Gu insects. He wanted to research how to create the world's strongest silk clothes. Profit was secondary; safety was the priority.

But to research the world's best silk clothe, he would first need to understand how the Dragon Silkworm Gu was refined and study the refining methods of production-type Gu insects.

The Long Clan’s ancestor said that most of the family’s secret techniques would be unconditionally open to him, so the Dragon Silkworm Gu refining method should be among them, right?

However, just as Long Xuan was lost in thought, someone patted him on the shoulder.

"Brother, I see you're at the peak of the Spirit Gathering stage, not far from breaking through to the Marrow Cleansing stage. I assume you're preparing to join the tomb-raiding event in seven days to search for the Spirit Surge Grass, right?"

A stranger’s voice came from behind Long Xuan.

Spirit Surge Grass? Long Xuan focused his attention on this term.

His clones were studious and loved to learn, so his main body was also quite knowledgeable. He knew very well what Spirit Surge Grass was.

Spirit Surge Grass is a spiritual herb that has been extinct for countless years, and its pill recipes are unknown.

But even eating Spirit Surge Grass directly can increase the success rate of breaking through the Marrow Cleansing stage by 20%. This alone is enough to drive Peak Spirit Gathering Gu cultivators mad.

There’s such a treasure in the ancient tomb? Long Xuan was shocked.

You should know that a finished Spirit Gathering Pill only has a 10% breakthrough rate, yet Spirit Surge Grass has a 20% success rate even without being refined into a pill. Its medicinal effect is terrifying. Imagine how potent it would be if refined into a spiritual pill?

Spirit Surge Grass has been extinct for a long time, and it’s hard to find pill recipes for it, but that’s not a problem for him.

He excels in creation and is proficient in pharmacology. It’s no exaggeration to say that his speed in creating pill recipes is much faster than in creating Gu formulas.

After all, researching Gu formulas relies half on luck, while researching pill recipes depends on pharmacology, not requiring random guesses.

It’s about time he started preparing for his breakthrough to the Marrow Cleansing stage. The bottleneck of the Ten Absolute Body is as solid as a rock, and ordinary breakthrough pills are ineffective. Only a new pill recipe created with Spirit Surge Grass as the main ingredient might work.

This Spirit Surge Grass came at the right time; Long Xuan was ecstatic.

He turned to look at the person. The man had a plain appearance but a cunning expression, holding a thick stack of maps. It wasn’t hard to guess that his purpose in patting Long Xuan’s shoulder was likely to sell him ancient tomb maps.

It was clear that this person knew a lot about the ancient tomb.

So Long Xuan asked, "As far as I know, that ancient tomb has been raided several times by various clans, right? Is there still a significant amount of Spirit Surge Grass left?"

Long Tian immediately knew this person was a novice, completely unaware of the tomb’s situation, and hadn’t even planned to join the tomb raid. But that was fine; the less he knew, the easier it would be to persuade him to buy his tomb map.

So Long Tian became more enthusiastic and explained with a smile, "Not only is there still Spirit Surge Grass in the tomb, but the number is also quite large."

"You may not know, but a spiritual herb in the tomb's medicine garden turned into a spirit and transformed into a damned rabbit."

At this point, Long Tian suddenly showed a gnashing expression, his eyes burning with anger, clearly holding a deep grudge against this rabbit.

"You wouldn't believe it, but that rabbit became obsessed with alchemy of all things. After finding alchemy books in the tomb’s burial area, it became completely hooked on alchemy."

"And it’s addicted, to the point where it’s terrible at it but still obsessed!"

"This is just great. The Empress's grand medicine garden, full of countless precious spiritual herbs, including many that have long since gone extinct, was all ruined by it! It used them all for alchemy!"

"The entire medicine garden is now in ruins because of that rabbit. Only the Spirit Surge Grass, which was the least valuable herb in the garden, was spared because the rabbit considered it a weed."

"The seeds of Spirit Surge Grass were spread by animals, carried everywhere by the rabbit’s fur, and now it has completely taken over the entire garden."

"If the Spirit Surge Grass, a herb of this level, is considered a weed, you can imagine how precious the other herbs in the garden were!"

"What a waste! If I catch that rabbit, I’ll skin it alive and make soup out of it."

Long Tian pounded his chest in anguish, each time recalling this event making him feel like vomiting blood, driving him mad with rage, deeply resenting that rabbit.

"Forget it, let’s not talk about that damned rabbit anymore. It makes my liver hurt. Although the Spirit Surge Grass has spread everywhere, most of it in safe areas has been picked clean during previous tomb raids. Only the medicine garden still has a large quantity remaining."

"The medicine garden in the tomb is the main source of Spirit Surge Grass. Want me to tell you where the garden is?"

Long Tian waved the map in front of Long Xuan, showing a cunning gleam in his eyes.

He figured that after all his explanations, this person was likely to take the bait.

Curious about where the Spirit Surge Grass grows? Then hurry up and buy his map.

Long Xuan instinctively glanced at the map in his hand, noticing that it was folded, showing less than a quarter of the full area.

This small area had the locations of burial pits, alchemy rooms, crafting rooms, insect chambers, study rooms...

No wonder it was the Empress’s tomb—it was extraordinarily large, with too many chambers. Without a map, one could easily get lost inside and struggle to find the medicine garden.

But he had already gleaned a lot of information from Long Tian’s words. Despite several tomb raids, there was still a large quantity of Spirit Surge Grass in the tomb’s medicine garden.

This suggests that the area is extremely dangerous, so much so that no one has been able to enter.

Otherwise, if even one person entered, the spiritual herbs in the medicine garden would have long been plucked clean.

Especially that rabbit—it would have been found, skinned, and gutted by someone, meeting a very tragic end.

In this way, whether or not he should risk venturing into the medicine garden required careful consideration.

But if he didn't take the risk to collect the Spirit Surge Grass, it would be very difficult for him to break through the Marrow Cleansing stage. Who knows how long he would be stuck at this stage?

And as for those Spirit Surge Grasses that were taken out years ago, they were probably consumed a long time ago, right? After all, spiritual herbs are most effective when fresh, and when it comes to breakthroughs, who would dare to let them lose potency?

Even if there were some left, the quantity surely wouldn't be much, and with his special physique, one or two Spirit Surge Grasses definitely wouldn't be enough.

In this way, Long Xuan was completely torn.

"Forget about the map. After all, I'm just a minor Gu practitioner at the Spirit-Gathering stage. Any Gu practitioner at the Marrow Cleansing stage could kill me and steal my treasures. Even if I were lucky enough to find the Spirit Surge Grass, I wouldn't be able to keep it."

Long Xuan looked up at him and said, his words entirely intended to probe, to see who else would be going along.

If there were a Gu King involved, then even if there were an Pill of Eternal Life in the tomb, he would definitely not go. He wouldn't risk it, even if it meant waiting another ten years.

Sure enough, hearing that Long Xuan didn't want his ancient tomb map, Long Tian immediately became anxious and hurriedly said, "You really don't understand anything!"

"When the ancient tomb was first discovered, you're right—Gu Kings and Spiritual Sea stage Gu practitioners went in droves. But in the end, many Spiritual Sea stage practitioners died, and even two Gu Kings perished, mostly due to infighting."

"A Gu King is the highest-level force in each family; having one is already impressive. If one dies, it would severely damage the vitality of their family, and they might even fall from grace, becoming a minor clan."

"So, if a Gu King perishes, no matter how many treasures you bring out of the tomb, it won't be worth the loss."

"Forget about the Gu Kings—even if a large number of Spiritual Sea and Marrow Cleansing stage Gu practitioners die, the treasures from the tomb would hardly compensate for the losses. For each family, it's a losing deal."

"So, long ago, the families made a mutual agreement to forbid any Gu practitioners above the Marrow Cleansing stage from entering the tomb. Even lone practitioners are not allowed—only Spirit-Gathering stage Gu practitioners can enter."

"There are plenty of Spirit-Gathering stage Gu practitioners. Even if many die, the families won't care. As long as something is brought out from the tomb, the Clan benefits."

"So your concerns are completely unnecessary. Right now, you're at the peak of the Spirit-Gathering stage, the highest level in the tomb. You're actually the safest one; it's the others who are in danger."

Upon hearing this, Long Xuan's confidence was greatly boosted. If his cultivation level was the highest among the group, then he really needed to think this over carefully.

His strength had greatly increased, and it was certain that no one at the same level could pose a threat to him.

So, the dangers in the tomb from others could essentially be ignored. He only needed to be cautious of the dangers within the tomb itself.

As for what dangers lay in the medicine garden, he would only know by being there in person. If things truly became impossible, he could always choose not to enter the garden. What if his golden finger could neutralize the dangers of the garden? It's all possible.

After all, his Heavenly Eye was incredibly adept at breaking formations, and the tomb's mechanisms would appear as progress bars in his vision, allowing him to know in advance where the traps were and to avoid them in time.

In the tomb, he was indeed far safer than others. His various abilities made him practically born for tomb raiding.

After careful consideration, he realized that he could indeed make the trip. Long Xuan's eyes twinkled as he made up his mind.

"Alright then! How much for your map? Give me a copy!"

Seeing that he had explained so much, Long Xuan decided to buy his map. Although the information on the map might not be entirely accurate, it was better than nothing.

Seeing Long Xuan finally intending to buy the map, Long Tian sighed in relief and, holding back his joy, said, "I don't want spirit stones. In the Long Clan, all transactions are done using contribution points. With contribution points, you can buy anything here."

"My ancient tomb map is very comprehensive; it cost many lives to obtain. I need one thousand contribution points, no bargaining."

Long Xuan, helpless, could only take out his contribution token. With a thought, a thousand contribution points transferred out of his token and into Long Tian's, making the numbers on Long Tian's contribution token jump up by a thousand, bringing a smile to his face.

At the same time, the number on Long Xuan's contribution token dropped by a thousand, reducing his balance from twenty million to over nineteen million points, breaking the whole number.

Money is always worrisome when it’s no longer a round number, and once it's broken, it tends to disappear quickly.