novelraw Chapter 316: Innate Spirit Gu – Doom Gu
Chapter 316: Innate Spirit Gu – Doom Gu
Time flies during cultivation. Without realizing it, Long Xuan had been in seclusion on this small island for six months.
For half a year, he had stayed hidden in a mountain cave, working tirelessly on the recipe for the Tribulation Gu, never stepping out of the cave.
He delegated all external tasks to his clones, each carrying a fragment of his soul. Whatever the clones experienced, he felt as if it were his own.
With this secondary perspective, Long Xuan felt as though he were taking leisurely walks outside, which helped ease the monotony of staying confined within the cave.
Currently, the progress on the Tribulation Gu recipe had reached 60%, marking the halfway point.
He now had a total of 600,000 materials listed in the Gu recipe. Of course, this didn't mean 600,000 'types' of materials—many were the same type in large quantities. For some materials, he needed to gather a thousand or even ten thousand units.
The actual number of distinct materials on the recipe wasn’t as vast as one might imagine.
Remarkably, all 600,000 materials had already been collected by his clones.
Through the perspective of his clones, Long Xuan knew exactly how the materials were gathered.
The Gu cultivators of the Yun clan were practically worshiping him, fulfilling every request he made, no matter how outrageous. Many of the materials needed for the Tribulation Gu were exceedingly rare, impossible to find within the Black Sand Archipelago. Yet, these Yun clan cultivators used the teleportation formation of the larger islands to travel thousands of miles to Central Mainland to gather what he needed.
Long Xuan had underestimated this clan’s capabilities. He was genuinely surprised that they could muster their collective strength to gather half the materials required for the Tribulation Gu recipe.
Of course, they didn’t do this for free—they had received substantial benefits in return.
So far, over ten members of their clan had advanced to the level of Gu Kings, all thanks to him.
At this point, Long Xuan realized that refining Breakthrough Pills to collect resources was incredibly lucrative.
Other alchemists refining Breakthrough Pills often wasted dozens of times the required materials, making their profit margins far smaller than expected.
But he was different—he succeeded with every batch he refined, making his profit margins several dozen times higher than a typical third-grade alchemist.
Thus, refining third-grade Breakthrough Pills was extremely profitable for him. Collecting 600,000 materials in six months didn’t seem surprising at all.
---
That day, the sky was filled with storm clouds, torrential rain, and deafening thunder.
During this rainy season in the Black Sand Archipelago, storms were frequent, and thunder often interrupted Long Xuan’s thoughts.
From afar, Long Xuan saw a young boy climbing a charred tree that bore clear signs of having been struck by lightning. The tree was entirely blackened.
In the sky above, lightning bolts writhed like silver snakes, illuminating the sky with dazzling brilliance and accompanied by deafening thunderclaps.
The chaotic silver snakes all seemed to intentionally or unintentionally target the tree’s tip, where the boy was perched.
One bolt of lightning after another mercilessly struck the boy.
The boy gazed indifferently at the sky, allowing the continuous lightning strikes to hit him without sustaining any injuries.
Long Xuan’s expression finally changed. With such a high frequency of lightning strikes, even he would struggle to endure it. Yet this boy was clearly a mortal.
At that moment, Long Xuan finally understood why the thunder had been so frequent near his cave recently.
This was no natural phenomenon—the boy had a lightning-attracting constitution, drawing lightning strikes whenever it rained.
To make matters worse, every time it rained, the boy didn’t go anywhere but stayed right outside Long Xuan’s cave. No wonder the thunder had been so incessant.
All the trees on the island were green except for this one blackened tree, making it easy to deduce that every time it rained and thundered, the boy would climb this specific tree.
The tree had been scorched black solely by lightning strikes.
It was Long Xuan’s misfortune to have chosen a cave near this tree for his dwelling.
The rainy season was far from over, and if the thunder continued endlessly near his cave, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his Gu recipe, let alone get a good night’s sleep.
At this point, Long Xuan could no longer remain indifferent.
---
After the rain ended and the thunder ceased, Long Xuan finally moved his long-idle body and stepped out of his cave to investigate this strange boy.
“Hey, kid! Of all the trees on this island, why do you always climb this one? Do you think it’s fair to the tree? What kind of grudge do you have against it?”
The boy, now climbing down from the tree, was approached by Long Xuan, who seized the moment to ask.
Long Xuan’s gaze burned with intensity as though he had discovered a rare treasure.
Initially, he thought the boy might possess a lightning-attracting constitution or have committed some heinous deed that invoked divine wrath. But upon closer inspection, he had a heart-stopping realization.
The boy’s forehead displayed a progress bar accurate to seven decimal places. Long Xuan suspected that the boy was hosting a mysterious spirit insect with a lifespan of over a million years.
Among spirit insects capable of attracting lightning, there were very few. Long Xuan’s heart raced with excitement at his hypothesis:
The mysterious insect on the boy’s forehead was none other than the legendary Tribulation Insect.
Legend has it that the Tribulation Insect drifts through the air, feeding on lightning. Occasionally, it parasitizes humans who happen to pass by.
During thunderstorms, the Tribulation Insect absorbs lightning from the sky, swallowing it into its body.
This was the reason why the young boy was struck by lightning yet remained unscathed.
The lightning was entirely consumed by the Tribulation Insect, so naturally, it could no longer harm him.
Long Xuan couldn’t help but marvel at his good fortune, thinking: “It’s truly as they say—searching high and low for something, only to find it effortlessly in the end.”
What he once thought he might never encounter in his lifetime—the Tribulation Insect—he had managed to collect in just half a year.
His luck was simply unbeatable. This was fate!
Faced with Long Xuan’s inquiry, the boy glanced at him and responded indifferently, “Nothing special. I chose this single tree because I didn’t want to harm more people.”
Hearing this, Long Xuan became intrigued and asked with a smile, “You actually care about the lives of the other villagers?”
“Don’t you know they all see you as a monster? They usually keep their distance, and the children in the village isolate and exclude you, don’t they?”
“You’ve endured ridicule and bullying in this village. Do you still care about their lives?”
Although Long Xuan hadn’t personally witnessed the boy being mistreated by the villagers, he was confident his assumption was correct.
Human nature is unchanging wherever you go.
If a boy who was frequently struck by lightning appeared in a village, he would undoubtedly be treated as a monster by all the villagers. How could they possibly treat him as a normal person?
The fact that the boy hadn’t been banished or burned at the stake was already a testament to their mercy.
It was rare to see someone in his situation who hadn’t turned bitter or resentful.
“It’s not their fault. Anyone near me risks being struck by lightning. That’s how my parents died. If I were in their place, I’d stay far away from this ‘monster’ too,” the boy said sorrowfully.
Hearing this, Long Xuan nodded silently, recognizing the boy’s rare temperament.
“What a kind-hearted and pure young man. Seeing your goodness, I shall grant you a fortune.”
“You’re not a monster. You’ve simply contracted a rare condition known as 'Lightning Conduction Disease'.”
“And I, as a divine doctor, happen to know how to cure it.”
“Out of respect for your kindness, I’ll treat you free of charge. Follow me.”
As Long Xuan finished speaking, he turned and headed toward the mountain cave.
“Are you serious? Can you really cure my condition?”
For the first time, an expression of excitement appeared on the boy’s usually indifferent face, and he quickly followed.
Seeing the boy following him as expected, Long Xuan smirked to himself, thinking: “This boy is indeed easy to fool.”
To Gu Cultivators, being parasitized by a powerful insect wasn’t a curse—it was a heaven-sent blessing.
Every Gu Cultivators longed to be parasitized by a strong spiritual or Gu insect.
This boy possessed such a great opportunity without even realizing it. If nothing else, being parasitized by the Tribulation insect and channeling the power of natural lightning meant that mastering even one thunder-based cultivation method would make him invincible.
But now, this boy’s fortune belonged to Long Xuan. Opportunities are always for those who are prepared.
---
Central Lands, Zhu Clan.
In the study of the Zhu Clan’s patriarch.
“Zhu Yue, you’ve done well this time. The family was undecided about which Gu recipe to refine among the millions of materials available.”
“But you brought back the materials for an 'Shadow Eye Gu'. Now, the family no longer needs to hesitate. Few Gu insects are stronger than the Shadow Eye.”
“With the emergence of the Shadow Eye, our Zhu Clan will dominate the Central Lands with ease.”
The Zhu Clan patriarch, Zhu Yuan, stared intently at the Gu recipe on the table, his eyes burning with ambition.
From his tone, one might think that even with just one set of materials, he could guarantee the Gu's success.
Even a god of gambling blessed with peak-level luck wouldn’t have such confidence.
“Uncle, are you sure this method will allow us to refine a Gu recipe with seventy million materials in one go? Isn’t it... too cruel?” Zhu Yue frowned slightly, her face showing a hint of reluctance.
In the Zhu Clan, there was a once-in-ten-thousand-years prodigy. Few knew that this genius was born with a parasitic heaven-defying ‘Doom Gu’, one of the ten innate spiritual Gu insects.
This Gu’s ability was to siphon the fortune of those around her.
By accumulating the luck of others, everything she attempted would have a 100% success rate.
This included refining a Gu recipe of seventy million materials with absolute certainty.
With such an ability, she could effortlessly refine countless Gu insects of extraordinary value, progress through cultivation without bottlenecks, find treasures by chance, and attract opportunities everywhere.
Even ancient tombs she encountered would yield riches, and any danger within would be easily resolved by her fortune.
Anyone who sought her life, even Gu Kings, would mysteriously die under bizarre circumstances.
A person with this innate spiritual Gu was essentially immortal, destined to cultivate smoothly to the realm of immortality.
This level of fortune was unparalleled, even compared to the God of Gambling who is blessed with peak-level luck.
The gambler’s luck, though maxed out, had a limit, while the 'Doom Gu' could endlessly absorb luck from its surroundings.
A fully realized Doom Gu could siphon the fortune of an entire region for its host.
Compared to such fortune, even a God of Gambling’s luck seemed insignificant.