The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

With the speed of Long Xuan and Di Xin, it didn’t take long for them to overtake the group of people destroying spiritual herbs ahead of them.

However, just as the two were passing by this group, a sudden gust of wind arose behind them.

The two’s expressions changed, and they quickly dodged to the side as two Gu insect flew past them, blocking their path.

“Oh! Impressive soul perception; you even managed to dodge that.”

About a dozen people in white rushed over, surrounding them on all sides.

“What is the meaning of this?” Long Xuan scanned the group and asked with a frown.

The leading man in white replied, “You’re in front of us; that means you get to ‘drink the soup.’ But if we’re in front of you, then we ‘drink the soup.’ What do you think we’re doing?”

“You think I’ll let you pass? And with only two of you here, since we have numbers on our side, there’s even less reason to let you through,” the man sneered.

“So, you also believe in bullying with numbers? Do you know that the last person who said this to me is already dead? Don’t you know who I am?” Long Xuan asked, bewildered.

“I don’t care who you are. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being ahead of us! Now, die!”

With that, the group of men in white charged at them.

Hearing this, Long Xuan finally understood. This group truly didn’t know who he was; they must have arrived on the island later and hadn’t witnessed the previous chaotic battle.

It was possible they hadn’t even reached the island at all; after all, not every ship bound for Sky Island necessarily lands on it. If they arrived late, they might simply wait by the ocean trench.

If that were the case, he didn’t need to worry. He was only concerned if they recognized him; if they dared to make a move while knowing who he was, then they would be tough opponents.

By now, more boats had already docked on the island, and Long Xuan feared that more people might try to get ahead of him. Therefore, he decided not to hold back and aimed for a swift battle.

As a person of the Ten Absolute Body Physiques, he had been able to kill peak Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivators while still at the late stage of Marrow Cleansing. Even Jun Zaitian, an undefeated peak Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivator of the same level, had not been his match.

Now that he had reached the peak of Marrow Cleansing himself, facing another peak Marrow Cleansing cultivator was akin to slaughtering them with ease. At full strength, few could withstand even three moves.

Moreover, he had Di Xin by his side, who was no slouch either. Together, these dozen or so opponents were no match for them.

In less than a minute, the five clones returned, and there were no white-clad Gu cultivators left standing.

However, as Long Xuan surveyed the blood-soaked ground, he found no corpses, and his brow furrowed deeply.

Well then, it seemed that the bodies of those who died on Sky Island indeed vanished into thin air.

The spiritual herbs that this selfish group had destroyed were by no means ordinary. He had intended to reclaim them, but the corpses disappeared instantly, and he was left with nothing for his efforts. All his time had been wasted.

“Damn! That old guy dared to steal the fruits of my labor!” Long Xuan cursed inwardly.

“Let’s go! This time, we’ll stay at the very front. We won’t waste time collecting low-value spiritual herbs—only rare and precious ones.”

Using his Eye of Heavenly Secret, Long Xuan scanned the distance and, upon locking onto a target, dashed swiftly in that direction…

…

The spiritual herb collection took about three days. With tens of thousands of people entering the island, three days were enough to strip it of all spiritual herb resources.

The people who came to Sky Island to hunt for treasure hailed from across the lands, totaling at least a hundred thousand. However, the four massive waterfalls filtered out a portion of them, so those who successfully reached the island numbered under one hundred thousand.

Having emptied the island of spiritual herbs, the Gu cultivators began to converge slowly on the Divine Mechanism City.

As per the previous agreement, Cai Shao and the Ninth Young Master served as the alliance leaders, commanding a quarter of the Gu cultivator army to attack the eastern gate of the Divine Mechanism City.

At this point, approximately twenty thousand people had gathered, and more Gu cultivators were continually arriving.

Gazing upon this majestic city before them, everyone outside the walls couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe.

The giant city appeared black in color, its structure forged from precious black iron, whose hardness is second only to mithril.

The entire city wall was made of black iron, but how much black iron would that consume?

To say the least, if the walls alone were melted down, the black iron would be worth more than many empires.

Divine Mechanism City’s wall alone was already that valuable, so how astonishing must the treasures within it be? Everyone stared in awe, their eyes gleaming with desire.

Long Xuan, too, stared in shock at the massive black iron city before him, once again astounded by the wealth of that old man.

Without comparison, there is no harm. He thought he was wealthy enough, but compared to that presence within the city, he was practically destitute. Even the nearby women Di Xin, was richer than him, let alone the young masters from the Qian Clan Chamber of Commerce.

"Is the black iron on the city wall unremovable?" Long Xuan suddenly asked.

"What do you think?" Di Xin gave him a look. "If the black iron on the city wall could be taken down, it would’ve been stripped away long ago. That formidable presence in the city center would never allow anyone to do so."

Looking toward the city wall, Di Xin continued, "See the puppets standing on the wall?"

"The black puppets are made entirely of black iron. With your strength, they should be easy to handle."

"But be cautious of the silver and golden puppets."

"The silver puppets are made entirely of Mithril, roughly equivalent to the early stage of the Spiritual Sea."

"Among them, those crafted from refined Mithril are equivalent to the mid-stage Spiritual Sea."

"The golden puppets are made entirely of Geng Metal and are about equivalent to the late stage of the Spiritual Sea."

"And the Puppet Generals, crafted entirely of refined Geng Metal, number about twelve within the city. Who knows how many of them that terrifying presence in the center has hidden."

"Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivators cannot defeat these two types of puppets alone. They can only use overwhelming numbers to surround them, and even then, many lives will be lost to bring them down."

"Moreover, once the puppets are defeated, they vanish without a trace, and the Mithril and Geng Metal on them are nowhere to be found."

Hearing this, Long Xuan couldn’t help but take a sharp breath. Puppets crafted from refined Geng Metal, and as many as twelve—how much refined Geng Metal would that require?

He knew all too well the difficulty of obtaining refined Geng Metal. Even using underhanded mining methods, he had only managed to gather a basketball-sized piece of refined Geng Metal, enough to make just a puppet’s head.

He couldn’t remain calm. Was the wealth gap really this large?

Meanwhile, Leng Yan’s expression was calm, forming a stark contrast to the surrounding shocked faces.

"It's completely normal. Do you know that, in ancient times, materials were divided into twelve grades, and Geng Metal was only a fourth-grade material, considered absolute trash?"

"Trash materials were everywhere in ancient times; Geng Metal was practically worthless back then and was as common as dirt."

"This ancient city dates back to those times, so it’s not surprising it’s filled with so-called 'trash' materials."

"However, while our predecessors enjoyed the prosperity, future generations suffer. They wasted all the Geng Metal, so now, in our era, it has become a rare treasure."

"So, don’t even think about comparing yourselves to the ancients; it’s impossible. We’re poor because we weren’t born in a favorable era," Leng Yan sighed.

Long Xuan glanced at her. Leng Yan had said similar things more than once; she greatly admired the ancient era of Gu cultivation at its peak. The more she studied ancient texts, the more she longed for that era in the books.

Her words stirred in him the idea of inventing a Gu for time travel, to travel directly to the past. This place was barren of resources to such an extent that even dogs wouldn’t stay here.

On the other side, Cai Shao and the Ninth Young Master both looked solemnly at the city wall, with a large number of Gu cultivators gathered behind them, ready to invade the city at their command.

“Damn it, the number of puppets on the city wall has increased again. Just on the east side alone, there are already fifty thousand puppets.”

“With walls on all four sides, that’s two hundred thousand puppets in total. And we don’t know how many puppets are guarding each room within the city. How are we supposed to fight that?”

“I’ve never fought such a difficult battle—twenty thousand men attacking a wall defended by fifty thousand puppets. It’s common sense that the attackers should outnumber the defenders; who’s ever heard of the attackers being outnumbered?”

The Ninth Young Master glared angrily at the puppets on the city wall, unable to hold back his curses.

As a businessman, he valued profit and never engaged in losing deals.

But now, it seemed that an enormous number of people would have to die before they could take this fortress.

If too many of his clan's experts perished, the losses would outweigh the gains in the city. He wasn’t about to take a loss in business.

Being rational, he could see at a glance that attacking this city would be a loss. But unfortunately, the city held a Golden Toad he needed, so he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

What he didn’t know was that some entity in the city wanted most of the intruders to die, enabling the treasures within to replenish themselves for continued cycles. If he expected any profit from this, he was sorely mistaken.

In the big picture, this siege would surely end in loss, though for the survivors, it would undoubtedly be a gain.

Cai Shao glanced at him and said, “Wasn’t this already expected?”

“Though the number of puppets far exceeds ours, puppets are lifeless, and we’re alive. The combat strength of a puppet is far below that of a Gu cultivator.”

“Puppets are the product of Puppet Masters. It takes a mass of puppets for a Puppet Master to equal a Gu cultivator in strength. A single black iron puppet is equivalent to a Gu cultivator’s minor Gu and is hardly a threat.”

“The real difficulty lies with the silver and golden puppets—those are our real headaches.”

“According to reports, both the silver and golden puppets possess the strength of a Spiritual Sea stage Gu cultivator.”

“However, only Marrow Cleansing stage Gu cultivators can enter Sky Island, making one-on-one battles impossible. They’ll have to use human wave tactics to surround them.”

“To destroy all those puppets, many people will have to die.”

“Unless we risk heavy casualties, taking this city will be impossible.” Gazing at the gold and silver puppets on the city wall, Cai Shao wore a solemn expression.

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