novelraw Chapter 311: Reworking the Face-changing Gu Recipe
Chapter 311: Reworking the Face-changing Gu Recipe
Studying ten heaven-defying pill recipes was already exhausting, but researching the Tribulation Gu recipe—that was the real grind.
A Gu insect capable of unleashing terrifying thunder tribulations... You don’t even need to think too hard to imagine how complex this recipe must be.
At the moment, the recipe's progress was shown as [0.000001%].
The introductory text of the recipe didn't count toward the progress. He had just randomly guessed a primary material and, apparently, guessed correctly.
If the recipe's progress for a single spiritual insect was 0.000001%, it wasn’t hard to calculate that it would require 100 million spiritual insects to reach 100% completion.
This turned out to be a recipe involving 100 million materials. Long Xuan felt his scalp tingle, his whole body going numb.
How long would it take to finish this?
Such an absurdly complex recipe did exist in this world, but without exception, they were all created by Gu insect themselves. No human could handle that workload.
Even if there are a large number of immortals in the divine world, no one can research a Gu recipe of such a long length.
One could say the existence of the Tribulation Gu was already the pinnacle of Gu insect. Even if there were Gu insect more terrifying than it, their numbers would be exceedingly rare. It went without saying that most of the materials required for such a terrifying Gu insect were likely extinct, making it impossible to collect them all.
Even if he somehow managed to grind out the recipe, he wouldn't have the means to refine it.
There was no other way. As usual, he had to downgrade the Tribulation Gu recipe using a vast amount of low-grade materials.
Eventually, he would downgrade it to a recipe requiring hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of materials—only then would it be within his reach.
As for the full version of the Tribulation Gu, he would have to wait until he reached the divine realm, where he could find decomposition insect to refine it anew.
Long Xuan took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his future workload. He was already getting a sense of how overwhelming it would be.
He had certainly earned the title of "Grind Emperer."
In the future, he would have to upgrade his Soul Library many times to even challenge a recipe of this level. For now, it was out of the question.
With a sigh, Long Xuan picked up the recipe and suddenly frowned.
He realized another problem. A Gu insect could only evolve eleven times to match the highest level of a Gu Cultivator, yet there were only ten types of thunder tribulations.
This meant the Tribulation Gu's evolution was capped at ten times—a fatal flaw.
Long Xuan frowned even deeper. He couldn’t allow such a defect in the Tribulation Gu.
He needed the Tribulation Gu to accompany him through every stage of cultivation, not merely serve as a transitional tool.
But with only ten thunder tribulations in this world, where could he find the eleventh?
If only there were eleven types of thunder tribulations in this world...
As he pondered, inspiration struck. His eyes lit up with a thoughtful glint.
Who said there must only be ten types of thunder tribulations? Could there be an undiscovered type of thunder tribulation?
Is it possible that the so-called "strongest thunder tribulation" of this world wasn’t actually the strongest?
What if the most powerful treasures in this world could only summon that level of tribulation?
If he created an even stronger treasure in the future, wouldn’t it trigger a thunder tribulation beyond the current "strongest"?
Such a tribulation, the first of its kind in this world, would even allow him to name it himself.
When that happened, the thunder tribulation rankings would be reshuffled, and the tribulation he named could take the top spot.
Long Xuan’s heart raced with excitement, his eyes gleaming with ambition.
Creating a thunder tribulation capable of piercing through the world—this idea had already taken root in his heart.
Since the Tribulation Gu could reach such heights, self-creating its recipe was now firmly on his agenda.
This meant the Tribulation Gu would take precedence over developing the Aptitude Pill recipe.
With the Tribulation Gu, he wouldn’t need to fear the tribulations triggered by Aptitude Pills.
It was obvious that pills capable of summoning terrifying tribulations would be at least fourth grade—far beyond his current capabilities.
He would have to wait until he broke through to the Spiritual Sea Stage and used a clone to refine such fourth-grade pills.
For now, it was too early to consider the Aptitude Pill.
Stowing away the Heaven-Mending Fruit, Long Xuan decided his next priority was studying the Tribulation Gu recipe. Developing the Aptitude Pill recipe could wait.
However, he didn’t immediately enter the Soul Library. Instead, he pushed open the door and headed to Di Xin’s room.
By sheer luck, his random guess had identified the primary material: the Tribulation insect.
Since the Gu insect was named the Tribulation Gu, it was logical that the primary material would be the Tribulation insect.
Unexpectedly, his random guess was correct.
Now that the main material was determined, he planned to ask that wealthy woman if she had a Tribulation insect.
He didn’t even need to think to know that collecting the primary material for such a heaven-defying recipe wouldn’t be easy.
The Tribulation insect was one of the rarest peak-grade spiritual insects, ranking thirty-sixth on the Top Spirit Insect Rank.
The Top Spirit Insect Rankings feature 300 entries, with the top ten spirit insects referred to as the Ten Absolute Heaven-Defying Spirit Insects. At present, he already owns two of them.
The spirit insects that make it onto the Top Spirit Insect Rankings are exceptionally rare and almost impossible to find. Their value surpasses that of ordinary peak spirit insects by a hundredfold.
Spirit insects of such rarity are so elusive that even Long Xuan isn’t confident he could find a Tribulation Insect in his lifetime. His only option is to try his luck with Di Xin.
Long Xuan approached the door of Di Xin's bedroom and knocked. After a voice from within called, “Come in,” he pushed the door open and entered.
Di Xin looked up at him.
"You’re here to fleece me again, aren’t you?"
"Let me guess—are you after my peak spirit insects this time? Speak up, what do you want now?"
Di Xin’s gaze was unfriendly. The last time, he had demanded 100,000 spirit insects from her. She knew this wouldn’t be the end of it and that he’d soon return asking for more.
Sure enough, here he was again!
Hearing this, Long Xuan chuckled awkwardly and thickened his skin as he said, “I was just wondering if you happened to have a Tribulation Insect.”
“Tribulation Insect? Wow, you sure know how to pick! That thing is barely less rare than a Repair Insect. Do I look like I’d have a Tribulation Insect? No, I don’t!”
Di Xin rolled her eyes at him, her expression thoughtful.
Why would he want a Tribulation Insect? The spirit insects on the Top Spirit Insect Rankings are so rare that no one has even come up with Gu recipe for them.
Even without being refined into Gu, such spirit insects are powerful enough to outclass most Gu insects in combat. Treasures of that caliber aren’t something she could just conjure up.
Suddenly, Di Xin narrowed her eyes as a thought occurred to her. She remembered Wu Yaoyao’s prophecy.
In that vision, Long Xuan wielded the power of thunder. Could that power come from this Tribulation Insect?
Tribulation Insects couldn’t possibly rival a Forbidden Gu, unless he refined it into a Gu insect. Thunder and lightning are the nemesis of all demonic Gu insects. This was certainly intriguing.
Upon hearing that Di Xin didn’t have a Tribulation Insect, Long Xuan looked visibly disappointed.
If even Di Xin didn’t have one, his chances of acquiring a Tribulation Insect seemed slim. He might never see one in his entire life.
“Well, if you don’t have it, then fine. Do you have any of these materials?”
Long Xuan suddenly pulled out a book and placed it in front of Di Xin.
This book detailed the materials needed to refine a Repair Gu, listing a total of over 30,000 items.
Since the recipe for the Repair Gu had been developed, he needed to gather materials to refine it as soon as possible.
However, being on this ship meant Di Xin was his only avenue for acquiring materials. If he didn’t ask her, who else could he ask? He had no other choice.
Di Xin picked up the book, her eyelid twitching slightly. How many times had this happened already?
Whether before boarding the ship or after, this man had come to her repeatedly with a book in hand, leaving her herb garden and insect chamber in tatters every time.
And now, he was back again.
Di Xin took a deep breath and quickly scanned the book. Finally, she said:
“Unfortunately, I have all the materials listed in this book.”
“But you’ll have to trade me a large quantity of Soul-Nourishing Wood branches for them.”
“Don’t think I don’t know—you broke off a branch from the Soul-Nourishing Wood during the Sky Island ruins incident, sparking a fight between the Qian clan’s Gu cultivators and the Cai clan’s Gu cultivators. Then you casually made off with the Golden Toad. You’re the slyest of them all.”
“Deal!” Long Xuan agreed without hesitation.
Breaking off a few branches from the Soul-Nourishing Wood wouldn’t kill it. Besides, with his Medicinal Gu, the Soul-Nourishing Wood would regrow its branches quickly. For him, this was an incredibly cost-effective trade.
“Oh, by the way, I don’t have time to refine a Face-Changing Gu for you.”
“I’ll give you the recipe for the Face-Changing Gu. You can refine it yourself.”
With that, Di Xin tossed a Gu recipe onto the table.
She wasn’t about to waste her time refining a bunch of Face-Changing Gu for storage. When Long Xuan had asked to borrow one the other day, she didn’t even have a spare. She had planned to find time to refine one, but she was far too busy. So, she figured it was easier to just give him the recipe and let him handle it.
The recipe was something she had stolen anyway, so she didn’t mind parting with it.
Long Xuan picked up the Gu recipe, his eyes glinting with interest.
Now that he thought about it, only two Gu insects in his second team weren’t original Gu: the Image-Recording Gu and the Face-Changing Gu.
The Image-Recording Gu had undergone a evolution through his unique methods, gaining the ability to capture images from long distances, making it practically one of his exclusive creations.
Among all his Gu insects, the Face-Changing Gu was the only one that wasn’t exclusive, standing out as an anomaly among his collection.
This realization triggered his obsessive need for perfection. He had to transform the Face-Changing Gu into his own exclusive creation.
He would improve upon the recipe, making it even better than the original.
With this thought, countless innovative ideas began to surface in his mind.
The Face-Changing Gu, a liquid-based creature, could mold itself into the likeness of any individual, perfectly mimicking their aura.
While seemingly perfect and heaven-defying enough to fool even a Gu King, it had fatal flaws.
It could change your face, but what about your body? If the target were significantly taller than you, how would you disguise yourself? If they were ten times as heavy, how could you impersonate them?
These limitations inherently prevented the Face-Changing Gu from fully mimicking anyone.
That’s when inspiration struck him: could the Face-Changing Gu cover the entire body and alter its contours?
He believed this idea was entirely feasible in theory.
The Face-Changing Gu, akin to malleable clay, could already be shaped into another person’s face. Why not mold it into the form of their entire body?
Long Xuan’s eyes began to shine with excitement...