The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

At this moment, Long Xuan finally realized that refining Gu does not have to follow rigid rules, and the materials used do not necessarily have to be insects; he could use some unconventional materials that others might not even dare to think of.

This significantly raised the upper limit of the path of Gu.

Inspired by the cow's eye, Long Xuan quickly thought of the eagle's eye, which also has the ability to magnify objects, and is even sharper, able to see prey ten kilometers away as if they were close.

If he added the eagle's eye to the Gu formula, it might even give him clairvoyance.

When he wrote down the words "eagle's eye," the progress on the Gu formula changed again instead of disappearing, proving he had succeeded once more.

What followed was a long period of working on the Gu formula. Long Xuan spent every day either at home working on the Gu formula or at the market in the extreme west collecting materials for the formula, and opportunistically amassing wealth.

He had already noticed that the cost of making a second Gu Insect could be astronomical.

This leads to one of the drawbacks of the golden finger.

It should be known that the same material is often used in many Gu formulas.

So, the golden finger determines based on the Gu formula that requires the most materials.

It's important to know that the number of materials recorded in each Gu formula varies, some require a few, while others require thousands.

The quality of Gu Insect in this world is determined by the quality of the spirit insects used, which in turn depends on the number of spirit insects.

The strength of Gu Insect depends on their quality, and for the same quality, it depends on the number of materials.

But this is not absolute. Gu Insect made with more materials are not necessarily stronger than those made with fewer materials, and this situation often occurs.

Because the standards by which the heavenly way judges strength differ from those of humans. For example, the illumination technique of the light Gu Insect might seem weak in the eyes of the heavenly way, but after being developed by someone, is it still weak?

Moreover, Gu Insect are divided into practical and non-practical types, as well as combat and non-combat types.

There are many instances where Gu Insect made from tens of thousands of materials carry impractical auxiliary abilities and have no combat power.

In ancient times, when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was abundant and spirit insects were everywhere, Gu formulas could be researched without regard to cost. The Gu formulas from that era were exceedingly long.

It is said that some Gu formulas were as long as books, with materials numbering in the billions, and no Gu refining vessel could contain them.

When refining Gu, they could only use mountains and valleys as vessels, or even heaven and earth as vessels.

When the Gu was formed, it would cause sudden changes in the heavens and earth, and terrifying phenomena would occur.

These long Gu formulas could create Gu Insect with earth-shattering power, capable of even carrying the powers of space and time.

So if the golden finger judges based on the formula with the most materials, the number of materials in Long Xuan's created formula could be immense, even reaching seven digits after the decimal point.

But humans generally have a psychology of greed.

Even knowing that longer Gu formulas consume a lot of time and resources, and the resulting Gu Insect may not be stronger than one made from fewer materials.

Long Xuan, in pursuit of perfection, still persisted stubbornly.

At this moment, he couldn't even imagine how many spirit stones this seemingly long Gu formula would cost him.

Fortunately, the reputation of the Little Strong Gu he developed had already spread.

Li Erniu, during a duel with his archenemy, used the tactic of trading injuries to successfully kill his foe.

At the same time, he was fatally wounded through the heart by his enemy's dying strike, but Li Erniu did not die.

This event caused a sensation, and the Little Strong Gu became incredibly popular due to this battle.

The Little Strong Gu became widely known overnight, and from then on, it sold exceptionally well, with people coming to trade for it every day.

If Long Xuan wasn't afraid of others discovering his secret of a 100% success rate in refining Gu, he would have wanted to sell as many as possible every day.

By selling the Little Strong Gu, occasionally finding bargains at stalls, and sometimes getting lucky in stone gambling shops, he made a lot of money, enough to support the consumption of his second Gu formula.

Of course, he always completed these transactions in disguise, each time covering his face and pretending to be a different identity.

Although the market had rules against killing and robbing as long as one didn't carry heavy treasures, his cautious nature made him decide to be extra careful.

Time passed, and two years went by unknowingly. He was still in the initial stage of gathering spiritual energy, with little improvement in his cultivation, and had become numb to it.

Fortunately, he has long life, making up for his lack of talent with time.

Long Xuan believed he would stand at the pinnacle of the world sooner or later, remaining optimistic about his future.

Speaking of longevity, although his cultivation talent was surprisingly poor, he was a natural genius in practicing health-preserving techniques.

In just two years, he broke through two levels, reaching the twelfth level of the "Eternal Life Sutra," increasing his lifespan by two hundred years.

Thus, even after two years, he still looked like a young boy of less than eighteen, frighteningly young.

With an increased lifespan, the time required for maturity naturally lengthened proportionally, which also troubled him.

As for the research on the new Gu formula, since he didn't spend time deducing the "Eternal Life Sutra," he managed to complete it after two years of hard work.

Although he had mentally prepared for the possibility of many materials, the Gu formula requiring over three thousand materials still startled him.

It should be known that other scattered cultivators usually use dozens of materials for refining Gu, with hundreds being the most, and his thousands of materials were simply astonishing.

Among the thousands of materials in the Gu formula, many were expensive high-grade spirit insects, making the cost of refining Gu astronomical.

A rough estimate showed it would require millions of spirit stones, an incredibly outrageous price.

Over the years, he frequently visited the market, using his golden finger to find countless treasures, selling countless Little Strong Gu, and barely managed to gather the required spirit stones for one set of materials.

However, this time refining Gu almost drained all his wealth, bringing him back to square one overnight.

Long Xuan was heartbroken.

Having spent so much money and time, if the Gu he created didn't carry excellent illusion abilities, he would be devastated.