The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Watching him depart, Yang Zhan stepped forward confidently and said, "Captain, leave that puppet general to me. I can handle it alone without breaking a sweat."

Yang Zhan cracked his knuckles, producing a series of bone-popping sounds, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit.

Long Xuan turned to him with a pleased expression. “You’ve regained your cultivation level?”

Upon first arriving at Sky Island, Long Xuan didn’t have Yang Zhan gathering herbs all over. Instead, he immediately handed him the Ice-Fire Polar Pill, instructing him to find a secluded spot to restore his cultivation.

Long Xuan had always been cautious. Entering such a dangerous place, he had to ensure that he had a Spiritual Sea-stage Gu cultivator as his trump card.

In fact, he had planned this from the moment he refined the Ice Fire Polar Pill.

When Yang Zhan saw the pill, he was overjoyed to the point of tears. Without bothering to ask how Long Xuan had managed to refine it, he clutched it in his hands and ran off.

Even if he had asked, Long Xuan had a response ready: he would say it was crafted by his master and passed to him through a Suo Gu, with the Integrity Gu as proof.

However, he hadn’t expected Yang Zhan to recover his cultivation so quickly, right in time for the siege. With Yang Zhan’s added strength, his chances against the puppet general had significantly increased.

After his initial excitement, Long Xuan quickly shook his head. “Hold back. Right now, you're my biggest trump card. Using you against the puppet would be a waste.”

“I need you prepared for a bigger crisis. It’s not time for you to act just yet.”

“When dealing with the puppet general, use only your peak Marrow Cleansing strength. Even if you exceed that level, don’t let anyone detect it.”

“If others realize there’s a Spiritual Sea-stage master in our team, we’ll become targets. After that, it’ll be much harder to seize any treasures.”

Yang Zhan nodded solemnly. Having just regained his Spiritual Sea-level cultivation, he was a bit overconfident and couldn’t wait to show off his long-unused power. After not fighting as a Spiritual Sea Gu master for so many years, his body felt rusty.

Now, hearing Long Xuan explain the risks, he restrained his eagerness.

"Fine, I’ll keep my cultivation level suppressed at peak Marrow Cleansing. Though, with the strength you and Di Xin have, if there isn’t another Spiritual Sea Gu master on the island, I probably won’t even get the chance to act."

Yang Zhan shook his head with a bitter smile. Another Spiritual Sea Gu cultivator appearing on the island? Impossible.

Originally, three pseudo Spiritual Sea Gu cultivator were supposed to make it to the island. However, before they could show off their might, they had been taken out by the cunning captain in advance.

Their deaths were tragic and suffocating.

…

An hour later.

Under the command of alliance leaders Cai Shao and Ninth Young Master, several formations formed beneath the city wall, each person equipped with a Spirit Shield.

The Gu cultivators didn’t wear cumbersome iron armor and could only rely on Spirit Shields to defend against the crossbows atop the city walls.

The Gu cultivators clearly had done their research beforehand and knew that taking down the Divine Mechanism City required Spirit Shields. Everyone came prepared.

Long Xuan, of course, hadn’t anticipated needing Spirit Shields. Fortunately, he had Di Xin, his “little rich lady,” at his side.

It was no problem for her to bring out a hundred Spirit Shields. She could easily provide thousands; after all, she’d looted a national treasury before.

Thick-skinned, Long Xuan borrowed siege equipment from her without hesitation.

Such as crossbows, armor, and ladders. The gravity below the city walls was intense, making flying prohibited. To climb the wall, they really needed to use old-fashioned tools like ladders.

Still, these items might not even be necessary. Their task was to handle the puppet general, and they’d be positioned at the rear of the formation. When the time came, they could simply borrow the ladders from those ahead to scale the wall.

The sounds of battle rang out from the west, north, and south walls; the other three alliance leaders had already ordered their forces to begin the assault.

Cai Shao and Ninth Young Master, finally no longer hesitant, also issued orders to attack. Two thousand Gu cultivators assembled in formation, holding up their Spirit Shields as they charged toward the east wall.

As they entered crossbow range, the puppet archers atop the city wall unleashed a rain of arrows on the Gu cultivator army below.

But the Gu cultivators had come prepared, each wielding a Spirit Shield. Most arrows hit the shields, resulting in minimal casualties.

Only one unfortunate soul was struck in the toe, let out a scream, looked down, and was then shot in the head, meeting an untimely end.

The arrow rain was merely an opening act. Soon, spherical lights began to flash on the wall, growing brighter and brighter, nearly blinding in intensity.

“That’s a Divine Mechanism Cannon! Hold formation, stay in place! No one run!”

“Its attack is an indiscriminate area blast. There’s no gap to escape—hold up your shields and endure!”

“If everyone starts scattering, the casualties will be even greater!”

Cai Shao shouted among the crowd, his voice quickly drowned by the deafening booms. White beams of light shot down from the wall, densely covering the ground in indiscriminate blasts.

Boom…

Boom…

Boom…

The densely-packed light beams struck the Gu cultivator army, filling the air with deafening explosions.

All the Gu cultivators followed Cai Shao's advice, raising their shields to withstand the incoming beams of light.

Under their frantic infusion of spiritual energy, the Spirit Shields formed a vast energy barrier, which all linked together seamlessly to shield every Gu cultivator within.

In this way, most of the beams were withstood through sheer grit, though some breaches still occurred, sending cultivators flying with cries of pain.

One must remember that cannons are broad-range weapons, and if even one person fails to block an incoming projectile, it risks killing nearby teammates in the explosion.

The bombardment was far from over, with the cannonballs atop the city wall seemingly endless, raining down relentlessly on the crowd below.

The siege machinery of the Divine Mechanism City was clearly more than just cannons. Soon, massive crossbow bolts, flying rocks, and even bird-shaped puppets filled the sky.

Although the gravitational pull outside the city walls was strong, this flock of puppet birds managed to maintain control in the air, taking command of the skies.

This aerial fleet hovered over the Gu cultivator army, dropping endless fire oil and explosives below, creating a sea of flames and cries of agony, intensifying the Gu cultivators' casualties.

Seeing the bird puppets approach, Long Xuan struck out with a Blazing Flame Palm, instantly clearing the approaching swarm of puppets.

Many charred bird puppets fell to the ground, scorched and immobilized.

Just as Long Xuan was about to pick one up to study puppet techniques, all the bird puppets on the ground suddenly vanished.

Just like the dozen Gu cultivators he had killed earlier, these bird puppets disappeared before his very eyes.

Long Xuan was stunned, forced to abandon the idea of learning puppetry by stealth.

The Gu cultivators moved swiftly, and after withstanding several waves of attacks, a massive number of them finally reached the city walls.

At such close range, the Divine Mechanism Cannons that posed a great threat to them could no longer target them, and the Gu cultivators beneath the walls began unleashing countless fireballs, lightning bolts, wind blades, and ice blades, engaging in ranged attacks against the puppet army on the walls.

Meanwhile, swarms of Gu insects were released, crawling in droves up the city walls.

As the countless Gu insects reached the top of the walls, they pounced onto the nearest puppets, creating instant chaos on the walls.

Many puppets were knocked off the walls, only to vanish into thin air soon after landing.

The Gu cultivator army did not immediately climb the walls but continued wearing down the puppets on the wall from a distance using various long-range attacks.

This, too, was Cai Shao's idea.

Puppets come in various models—some wield blades, some carry bows, and there are also various beast puppets among them, with an endless variety.

Puppets wielding axes and swords, as well as beast puppets, are primarily melee puppets and can’t attack the Gu cultivators below the wall.

Only puppets with ranged abilities, such as the bow-wielding archer puppets or fire-breathing Flame puppets, can attack the Gu cultivators beneath the wall.

Thus, if both sides engage in a long-range exchange, the puppet army within the city cannot exploit its numbers fully, and most melee puppets are left standing idly.

However, if all the Gu cultivators were to charge headlong into the city, they would face every model of puppet in combat.

The number of puppets in the puppet army vastly exceeds the Gu cultivators, so a head-on battle with all types of puppets within the city would be unwise.

Hence, Cai Shao's strategy was to hold off on entering the city and instead exhaust the puppet forces from beneath the walls.

Every Gu cultivator has long-range abilities, while less than half of the puppets possess such capabilities.

This approach favors the Gu cultivators, and everyone accepted the proposal.

The Gu cultivator army focused on targeting ranged puppets atop the city walls, such as the bow-wielding puppets, and various siege machinery.

In this ranged battle, the Gu cultivator army held the clear advantage, and before long, the intensity of the attacks from the wall diminished, with fewer and fewer puppets visible on the battlements.

Once there were hardly any puppets left on the wall, the Gu cultivators beneath the wall began to pull out cloud ladders from their storage bags, swiftly scaling up the walls!

"Kill them all! There aren’t many puppets left inside!"

"Charge into the city! As long as we wipe out the puppets inside, the countless treasures within the city will all be ours!"

The two alliance leaders shouted, taking the lead by climbing up the ladders, leaping into a crowd of axe-wielding puppets.

With the leaders leading the charge, the morale of the Gu cultivators soared, and they furiously climbed toward the walls.

Before long, the walls were swarming with Gu cultivators, with numerous puppets being pushed off the other side.

The eastern wall was the first to fall, triggering a chain reaction as the other three walls were also breached by the remaining three alliance leaders, with swarms of Gu cultivators flooding onto every section of the walls.

Although the wall puppets were dealt with, there were still vast numbers of melee-type puppets within the city, forming a dense puppet army that far outnumbered the Gu cultivators.

This battle was far from over.