The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 359: Great Strong Gu

"Who are you, exactly? You claim to be my virtuous side, but I don’t understand what you’re saying."

The little medicine boy suppressed the fear in his heart and asked.

"You don’t need to understand. You just need to know that I am you, and you are me. That’s all that matters."

"Virtue and evil cannot devour one another. I can’t consume you, and you can’t consume me. The only options are to expel one side from the body or for both sides to share a single form."

"So after we merge, you don’t need to worry about dying. If I could have devoured you, I wouldn’t have expelled you from the body in the first place," the mysterious voice said again.

Hearing this, the little medicine boy’s expression changed drastically. The word “merge” was by no means reassuring. Whether or not it counted as a soul takeover, would he still be himself if he merged with this demon?

"This is bad!"

The little medicine boy’s face was full of fear as he quickly ran towards the exit.

"Hmph! Run? Do you think you can escape?"

As the voice fell, a dark shadow shot out from the ground. Before the boy could even push the door open, the shadow pierced into his body through his back. The hand that the boy stretched toward the door froze in place. After a long moment, he slowly revealed a sinister smile.

"Haha! A young body truly is wonderful. After being trapped for so long, I can finally see the outside world again. You bald-headed old fools, you better wait for me!"

As the voice echoed, his gaze turned viciously in a certain direction. Then he slowly closed his eyes and began to carefully examine the boy’s memories. Not long after, his lips curled into a smirk, showing keen interest.

"Little Strong Gu, is it? Interesting, very interesting!"

"As expected of my virtuous side, you’ve perfectly inherited my creativity. To think that a mere low-grade Gu insect could be used in such ingenious ways."

"Transplanting all sorts of unique organs into one’s body, unrestrained by race or even the strongest divine beasts—this is indeed a brilliant idea."

"Combining powerful organs to create a terrifying monster… Truly remarkable."

The smirk deepened as his thoughts grew more intense.

"But your courage is too lacking. Despite such a great idea, you didn’t dare to implement it."

"Furthermore, Little Strong Gu is merely a low-grade Gu insect. It can handle ordinary organ transplants, but if you tried something like transplanting a Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart or a Sword Bone, your body would collapse instantly."

"It seems I’ll need to create my own Great Strong Gu. I’m curious to see just how horrifying a creature would be if it were made by fusing the strongest organs in the world."

His tone exuded immense confidence, as if creating a Gu of this magnitude was mere child’s play.

Suddenly, his gaze turned toward the direction of the Sword Cleansing Pavilion, his eyes narrowing as he murmured ambitiously, "That place contains many sword bones."

"One sword bone may have limited power, but what if I replaced all the bones in my body with sword bones? How terrifying would that be?"

...

Four months later, on the main floating island.

It was once again the season of blooming flowers. The vibrant blossoms on the island released a variety of enchanting fragrances.

Bees flitted between the flowers, busily collecting nectar. Occasionally, a blue bee would burrow into a flower, leaving its rear end visible.

After the bees flew away, puppets would come to collect the nectar-drained spirit flowers and carefully replant new ones.

The harvested spirit flowers were delivered by the puppets to a rabbit, which refined them into Ten Thousand Flower Pills.

The finished pills were then sent to Long Xuan by the puppets.

The large island was meticulously maintained by these puppets.

Although Long Xuan wasn’t a puppet master and didn’t know how to make puppets, he possessed a Repair Gu. By simply taking a part from one puppet, the Repair Gu could replace and recreate it, allowing him to create new puppets seemingly out of thin air.

As time passed, the number of his puppets grew larger and larger. In the future, he could have as many puppets as he had divided souls.

With such a vast army of puppets, even the largest herb garden could be well-tended.

At this moment, Long Xuan was preparing to expand the garden further.

He gazed at a red fruit core in his hand, his smile brimming with excitement.

Today was not only a bountiful harvest for spirit flowers but also the day a 'World Tree Fruit' ripened.

This fruit was brimming with fiery energy, and the world within the seed seemed to be a fire domain, perfect for growing spirit herbs that could only thrive in such an environment.

After removing the flesh, he held the World Tree Seed. But before he could admire it for long, the seed suddenly flew out of his hand, manipulated by the Heaven-Devouring World Toad, shooting far into the distance.

Long Xuan understood what the toad was doing and hurriedly chased after the seed, his eyes sparkling with anticipation.

As with the appearance of the Wood Island previously, this seed soon cracked, its surface covered in countless fissures. It trembled violently before suddenly exploding with a loud "Boom!"

A massive floating island appeared out of nowhere to the east of the main island.

A suspension bridge spanning hundreds of meters was constructed to connect the main island to the floating island.

This was a Fire Floating Island, with fiery red soil and a ground temperature that was scorching hot.

Fireballs roamed the surface of the island, occasionally darting about like will-o’-the-wisps. The underground caves, resembling labyrinths, were filled with more wandering fireballs—clearly no ordinary flames.

Curiosity shone in Long Xuan’s eyes as he quickly flew to the Fire Floating Island to study its properties.

Every world within a World Tree Seed had unique functions, and this Fire Floating Island was no exception.

Its unique trait became evident as Long Xuan used his soul power to examine the fireballs—they were all precious Spirit Fires.

These Spirit Fires varied in size and strength. The island contained low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and even peak-grade Spirit Fires.

The island is filled with low, middle, and high-grade Spirit Fires, but there are only a few peak-grade ones. However, the strength of these peak-grade Spirit Fires is just slightly weaker than his own Divine Ice Flame.

It’s not hard to see that this place seems to be a land for nurturing fire.

Not only can Spirit Fires be born here, but placing existing Spirit Fires here allows them to be nourished, growing stronger over time.

When he placed the Divine Ice Flame and the Sunset Divine Flame here, he noticed that they became more active and showed signs of strengthening. This confirmed his speculation.

Long Xuan was overjoyed. This place was truly a godsend, a blessing for him.

Previously, he had been troubled about how to repair the damaged fire seed of the Sunset Divine Flame. Using a Gu to repair it was impossible since Heavenly Fire treasures couldn’t be restored that way. He had no clue how to proceed.

But now, his worries were gone. It was as if the heavens provided exactly what he needed. After swallowing the Heavenly Fire, he had been pondering how to repair it, and unexpectedly, the solution had appeared.

Simply placing the Sunset Divine Flame on this Fire Floating Island would eventually restore it to its peak condition. Although the process might take a long time, he wasn’t in a hurry.

The Fire Floating Island could not only nurture fire but also grow fire-attributed spiritual herbs that could only be cultivated in fiery terrains. Moreover, these herbs would grow significantly faster here.

This was another excellent feature for him. Spiritual herbs requiring specific terrains for growth couldn’t be planted elsewhere, not even in peak-grade spiritual soil.

Such herbs, which were absent from human herbal gardens, were extremely rare and naturally commanded astronomical prices in the market.

If his herb garden could cultivate these herbs, it would bring him significant wealth.

However, herb cultivation was a minor benefit compared to the Spirit Fires on the Fire Floating Island.

Even though he now possessed Heavenly Fire, and the island’s Spirit Fires were of no use to him, he could still sell them for profit.

Remarkably, the Spirit Fires on the island seemed to regenerate endlessly, making the island akin to a golden goose.

Spirit Fires held an irresistible allure for two specific groups—alchemists and artifact refiners.

With the upcoming Alchemy Tournament drawing countless alchemists—most of them wealthy and influential—a large-scale trade fair was bound to take place.

If he sold these Spirit Fires at the fair, even an endless supply would be snatched up in no time, allowing him to amass an immense fortune. The corners of Long Xuan’s lips curled into a smile.

“Next, I should start collecting seeds of spiritual herbs that only grow in fiery terrains. The Alchemy Tournament’s trade fair will be a great opportunity. Every alchemist will carry a large variety of spiritual herbs and seeds.”

Murmuring softly, Long Xuan finally stepped out of the spatial chamber inside the Heaven-Devouring World Toad.

He wanted to see where they had arrived. Since his clone had broken through to the mid-stage Spiritual Sea realm a month ago and healed from his injuries, he had been heading toward the Sword Cleansing Pavilion of the Flaming Court Empire.

With the Heaven-Devouring World Toad as his mount, no matter where he traveled, the journey was swift. Often, he only needed to close himself off in cultivation, and by the time he opened his eyes, he would have arrived at his destination.

Now, after traveling for a month, the Heaven-Devouring World Toad had likely reached the heart of the Flaming Court Empire, not far from the Sword Cleansing Pavilion.

At this moment, the Heaven-Devouring World Toad also sensed something unusual. It stopped and gazed ahead cautiously.

When Long Xuan emerged, he immediately saw a ruined, dilapidated town ahead.

The town was in shambles, with collapsed houses everywhere. Some buildings were ablaze, while corpses littered the ground, their spiritual energy completely drained.

The streets were awash with fresh blood, its metallic scent still pungent, indicating that the massacre had occurred not long ago.

The entire town was devoid of any living beings.

Long Xuan frowned slightly. Was this the work of some powerful demonic cultivator who had slaughtered the town?

Since there were no survivors, Long Xuan entered the town quickly.

He wasn’t interested in investigating the perpetrator—he wasn’t that idle.

Instead, he was there to scavenge. With so many corpses and houses, along with hidden chambers, careful searching could yield a trove of valuable items.

With that thought, Long Xuan quickened his pace into the town.

However, his plan hit a snag. This time, the culprit was meticulous—unusually so. Despite the sheer number of corpses and houses, not a single treasure was left behind.

Even the most well-hidden secret chambers had been unearthed, leaving nothing of value.

Using his clairvoyance and powerful soul force, Long Xuan scanned the entire town quickly but found not even a fragment of Spirit Stones. Even worthless items had been taken. He was utterly dumbfounded.

Who could have cleaned this place out so thoroughly? It was like they were even more diligent than the little medicine boy!