The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Upon seeing everyone’s apprehensive expressions, Long Xuan knew that his plan had succeeded.

After all, no one would believe that a single person could refine so many Sea Converging Pills. It had to be the work of his powerful background behind him. Everyone would undoubtedly believe in the strong background he had fabricated.

Additionally, with the Integrity Gu as a witness, there was no reason for anyone to doubt him.

In this way, in such an unfamiliar environment, his safety would be greatly enhanced.

Feigning arrogance, he continued, “I’m sure everyone has noticed that the list contains nothing but materials for shipbuilding.”

“Starsea City is the largest port in the Xuanyue Empire, and its shipbuilding technology is the most advanced. Surely, shipbuilding materials are the least scarce here.”

“I assume the materials on this list can all be collected here! So, who is willing to trade with me now?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the steward of the Mo family suddenly said, “The Mo family is the largest shipbuilding clan in Starsea City. Our young master has all the materials you need. We’ll take all two hundred Sea Converging Pills.”

“Someone, quickly bring all those materials from the young master’s warehouse.”

The other people's expressions immediately changed, revealing dissatisfaction.

Although the materials on the list were expensive—far more costly than the spirit herb list—this was Starsea City, the largest shipbuilding hub of the Xuanyue Empire, and shipbuilding materials were abundant here.

Everyone had something from that material list, and trading for a large number of Sea Converging Pills was tempting. Who wouldn’t be moved by such an offer?

However, this Mo clan steward was too domineering, planning to monopolize all the pills, leaving nothing for anyone else. His greed knew no bounds.

Though all were disgruntled, under the oppressive aura of the Gu King, they had no choice but to suppress their dissatisfaction, not daring to speak a word.

What followed was simple: Long Xuan quickly completed the transaction with Young Master Mo alone, and in no time, all the shipbuilding materials were collected. The speed was astonishing.

For some reason, though, Young Master Mo still wore a bitter expression, appearing unhappy despite the deal.

After concluding the trade, Long Xuan was ecstatic. Now, all the materials for refining the Soul Restoration Pill and shipbuilding were gathered.

He was about to return to his peak condition, and with the ship soon to be built, he would head out to sea. Who knows what kind of exciting world awaited him on the ocean? Long Xuan clenched his fists in anticipation.

As he finally stepped down, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. They had feared that Master Ye would remain on stage and continue pulling out hundreds of Sea Converging Pills to tempt them.

Fortunately, Master Ye had finally run out of pills. If he had continued, they might have been scared to death.

However, now that he was done, a sense of disappointment washed over the crowd.

As Long Xuan stepped down, a female Gu cultivator took the stage with a smile, placing a pile of treasures on the table.

Long Xuan, finding nothing of interest among the treasures, stopped paying attention.

It’s worth mentioning that there were too many Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivators participating in this exchange. If every one of them took the stage to present their items, the time consumption would be immense.

So, only a select few Gu cultivators in urgent need of treasures took the stage to quickly gather what they required.

Most people engaged in private trades below the stage. While this allowed them to avoid displaying their treasures and risking death, the downside was obvious: they didn’t know who had the items they needed or who wanted what they had.

Thus, they had to exchange using sound transmission to negotiate, which was inefficient, but at least it helped them make friends.

Many people attended the gathering simply to make friends. The trading event was an ideal place for socializing and finding like-minded adventurers.

The host, Young Master Mo, had intended the event for this very purpose: to make friends and meet fellow adventurers.

Unfortunately, the plan was disrupted by the domineering Mo family steward.

So even though the trade ended, Long Xuan still had countless people looking to privately trade with him.

Not long after he stepped down, many Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivators used 'Soul Sound Transmissions' to talk to him, all requesting him to refine more Sea Converging Pills.

Master Ye’s pills were of noticeably higher quality than those produced by other alchemists, so nearly every Marrow Cleansing Gu cultivator placed their hopes for breaking through to the Spiritual Sea stage on him.

Suddenly, so many Sound Transmissions came through at once, like a swarm of mosquitoes buzzing in his ear.

Fortunately, Long Xuan had several soul fragments. Otherwise, with so many transmissions pouring in, his head would have exploded.

Couldn’t they come one by one? There was hardly any room left!

Long Xuan had to dispatch one soul fragment after another to communicate with them. Eventually, he even had to use the soul fragments of his clones just to keep up with all the conversations.

And before he knew it, he had somehow accumulated a large number of orders. He was going to be very busy from here on out.

As for the trade items, they were various expensive materials needed for modifying the 'Three-legged Golden Toad Gu Recipe'.

The required materials, worth 200,000 yue coins, were not something this crowd could fully afford.

But that 200,000 in materials wasn’t even the final amount. Once he finished modifying the Three-legged Golden Toad Gu to absorb both dead and living treasures, the material cost would undoubtedly skyrocket.

It would still be a long time before he could fully collect all the materials for the 'Heaven-Devouring World Toad'.

The rest of the trading event proceeded without any further highlights. One by one, Gu cultivators approached the table, but none presented anything that could shock the audience. Long Xuan remained largely disinterested.

The only notable event happened when Old Sun took the stage.

He laid out a huge collection of pills, completely filling the table with precious elixirs.

However, no one was willing to trade with him.

The reason was simple: Old Sun had committed dishonest acts twice in this very trade fair, ruining his reputation. No one trusted him anymore.

Who knew whether the pills he laid out were poisoned?

In the Gu world, some alchemists would tamper with their pills and commit despicable acts. One could never be too cautious.

With Old Sun’s lack of integrity, everyone doubted his character, and no one dared to buy his pills.

Thus, the entire table full of elixirs remained unsold, and the situation became awkward. Old Sun was utterly embarrassed and couldn’t find a way out.

In the end, he had no choice but to pack up all the pills, leave in disgrace, and exit the trading event.

After today’s incident, his name would be thoroughly tarnished. He wouldn’t be able to survive in Starsea City anymore, as no one would dare to buy his pills.

Leaving this region and starting anew elsewhere was his only option.

At this moment, Long Xuan became cautious. Cutting off someone's financial road is like killing their parents. Could it be that he would form a deadly enmity with this person and then face revenge?

This matter truly wasn't his fault; he hadn't done anything. It was always the other person's malicious intent, which eventually led to their own downfall. If anyone was to blame, it could only be their own twisted mind that led to such an outcome, and they couldn't blame others.

Actually, Long Xuan was overthinking it. He had fabricated such a terrifying background for himself—who would dare provoke him? Others couldn't avoid him fast enough, and who would dare offend his sect? Calling "Senior Brother" at one moment, "Senior Sister" at another, and even "Master's wife" at another—he was too intimidating. Anyone who crossed him was bound to stir up trouble like kicking a hornet's nest.

However, Long Xuan had always been cautious. Even if he didn't have to guard against Old Sun, he still needed to be wary of the other attendees at the trading fair.

After all, he had displayed too many treasures today. He couldn't guarantee that the fabricated sect would scare everyone off.

So, when the conference was only halfway through, he took the opportunity to go to the restroom and swapped with his clone.

He left a clone behind and hid his real body inside the World Tree Seed.

Then, he let the rabbit carry the World Tree Seed and stealthily escape underground, completely unnoticed.

Once inside the World Tree Seed, Long Xuan eagerly planted the ten Nine-Hundred-Year Ironwood trees.

These ten Nine-Hundred-Year Ironwood trees had just been dug up from Mo Dashao's estate; they were all still alive, so they could definitely take root now.

Afterward, he carefully took out a small green bottle, which contained several dozen drops of green liquid that emitted a captivating glow.

Long Xuan cautiously opened the bottle cap, and using his spiritual energy, extracted ten drops of the Heaven Creation Liquid, dripping them onto the ten Nine-Hundred-Year Ironwood trees.

In an instant, the ten Ironwood trees began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye, their size rapidly expanding. It didn't take long before they all turned into Thousand-Year Ironwood trees.

Looking at the ten Thousand-Year Ironwood trees, Long Xuan smiled in excitement.

With these ten Thousand-Year Ironwood trees, he would have enough to build the most solid hull, and he could set sail without worry.

If only he had more time, and if the Medicinal Gu he left in the herb garden wasn't accelerating the growth of the Divine Dragon Wood, otherwise, a Thousand-Year Ironwood wouldn't be enough. He'd insist on using Ten-Thousand-Year Ironwood for the hull.

And not just for the hull; he wanted to build the entire ship using Ten-Thousand-Year Ironwood.

However, with the Sky Island ruins about to open, he didn't have time to build the perfect ship. Building the whole thing out of Ten-Thousand-Year Ironwood would be sheer luxury.

It wouldn't be too late to swap the hull for Ten-Thousand-Year Ironwood after this matter was settled anyway. After all, ships can always be taken apart.

Now that the ten Thousand-Year Ironwood trees were ready, all the materials for the Shenlong were finally complete.

Long Xuan showed a look of joy and immediately took out the blueprints, deciding to officially start building the 'Shenlong'.

Suddenly, he furrowed his brow, deep in thought.

The size of the ship was too large, and it would require an enormous amount of manpower to construct, taking an incredibly long time.

Relying on himself alone, he couldn't hope to finish building such a large ship in a short time, even with the help of five clones. The workload was far beyond what six people could handle easily.

So, after thinking for a moment, Long Xuan decided to break the Shenlong into countless parts and hand them over to different shipyards for construction.

Of course, the core parts could not be touched by outsiders.

He and his five clones would only need to assemble all the parts and complete the formation drawing in the end. This would greatly reduce the workload and save a lot of time.

If he didn’t do this, he likely wouldn't be able to finish before the Sky Island ruins appeared.

After all, he not only had to consider the time needed to build the ship but also the time required to reach Sky Island.

The Sky Island was located in the Endless Sea, which was incredibly far from here, not to mention the unexpected events that might occur on the way.

He had to allow at least a year for the journey to Sky Island, and he only had about a year for building the ship in the best-case scenario. Time was very tight.

Long Xuan then started to disassemble the rudder, anchor, keel, foresail, mainsail, mast, aft rudder, hull, deck, cabins, and so on. He divided them into dozens of blueprints and then left with them.

...

The shipbuilding sites for the various clans in Starsea City are located at the coastal port.

On one side of the port, there is a row of docks, and the docks of the major clans in the city are all situated here. However, the docks of the Five Great Clans of Starsea City are the largest and have the most robust shipbuilding capabilities.

Long Xuan planned to assign the most technically challenging parts of the shipbuilding to the docks of the Five Great Clans.

Due to the prohibition on using spatial teleportation formation, most people had no choice but to travel by ship.

As a result, the port’s business was extremely booming during this period, with a much higher flow of people than in previous years, making the scene particularly lively.

When Long Xuan arrived at the port, he saw a dense array of ships docked there, varying in size.

The larger ones had as many as five levels, resembling towering buildings floating on the sea, easily accommodating tens of thousands of people and presenting a striking visual spectacle.

Naturally, these large multi-level ships were used for passenger transport, carrying nearly ten thousand Gu cultivators and taking several years to reach extremely distant regions.

If a five-level ship was fully loaded with passengers, just selling tickets alone could earn hundreds of millions of spirit stones.

Each of the Five Great Clans in Starsea City owned one of these five-level ships, profiting immensely from long-distance passenger transport.

It's worth noting that teleportation formation could not replace ships as a means of transportation.

This is because the farther the distance teleported, the greater the pressure on the body. Long-distance teleportation via an formation could crush a person into a pulp.

Only super-powerful cultivators or Gu cultivators carrying teleportation tokens could withstand the spatial pressure. Additionally, each activation of a teleportation formation consumed an enormous amount of spirit stones, which most Gu cultivators couldn’t afford.

Therefore, the vast majority of low-level Gu cultivators who wanted to travel to distant regions could only rent mounts. But when there was no place to land in the vast ocean, traveling by ship was their only option.

Thus, the port frequently saw multi-level ships carrying thousands or even nearly ten thousand Gu cultivators, bound for various faraway regions.

These passengers came from different regions of the mainland, gathered together, with such a large number of Gu cultivators that it left people speechless.

At this moment, Long Xuan was dressed in the robes of a third-grade alchemist, with a third-grade alchemist’s badge on his chest, and his appearance was slightly disguised.

After all, being meticulous in his work, the materials used for shipbuilding were extremely expensive.

To avoid being embezzled by the shipbuilders, he had to disguise himself as someone they wouldn’t dare to offend.

Since Long Xuan dared to disguise himself, he naturally wasn't afraid of anyone noticing a flaw. Every alchemist was a master of disguise, and the appearance-altering pill he refined was of perfect grade, making it hard for anyone to detect the disguise.

His aura-concealing technique wasn’t a rare skill, and after he enhanced it with his golden finger, it was also difficult for others to see through his true cultivation level.

While it might be an exaggeration to say that this level of disguise could fool every Gu King, he was confident it could deceive all Gu cultivators in the Spiritual Sea stage.

It’s also worth mentioning that the third-grade alchemist’s badge couldn’t be forged. Apart from someone with the Eye of Heavenly Secret, it was unlikely that anyone would suspect someone could disguise themselves as a third-grade alchemist.

As soon as he appeared, the people nearby quickly made way for him, fearing to come into contact with such a distinguished figure, their eyes filled with reverence.

The number of third-grade alchemists was extremely small. Such individuals could refine pills that allowed Gu cultivators in the Spiritual Sea stage to break through to the Gu King level, making their influence undeniable.

Offending one would be like stirring up a hornet's nest, attracting numerous powerful enemies.

So in this world, a third-grade alchemist was like a god, feared by everyone, and his status alone ensured no one dared to steal from him.

Wherever Long Xuan walked, the crowd quickly dispersed, leaving a large open space. With an unobstructed view, he soon saw the numerous wanted posters plastered around the area.

The bounty on the poster was shockingly as high as 100 billion spirit stones, and below it was a portrait of a middle-aged woman.

Long Xuan couldn't help but express some doubt—this woman looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before.

No wonder there were so many people gathered here. It turned out that a sky-high bounty of 100 billion spirit stones had just appeared, which was enough to tempt anyone. Were these posters just put up?

What exactly had this woman done to provoke such fury, with a bounty so astronomical?

Tsk tsk, a 100-billion bounty—truly terrifying.

Out of curiosity, since the middle-aged woman seemed somewhat familiar, Long Xuan couldn't help but inquire with a man nearby: "Hey! What exactly did this woman do to incur such wrath? Why is the bounty so high?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Long Xuan put on an arrogant facade.

Faced with a question from a third-grade alchemist, the man didn’t dare to be negligent and cautiously replied:

"I heard that this woman looted the royal treasury of the Xuanyue Empire, which enraged the Xuanyue Emperor, leading him to issue such a sky-high bounty."

"Currently, all the forces of the Xuanyue Empire are hunting this female thief."

"It's a miracle that she's managed to survive this long."

Hearing this, Long Xuan's lips couldn't help but twitch. He continued to ask, "Do you know what cultivation stage this female thief is?"

"Someone who can rob a royal treasury must be a terrifying existence, surely at the peak of the Gu King stage? Everyone assumes she is at the peak of the Gu King stage," the man responded once again.

Long Xuan pondered for a moment, then waved the man away.

"Could it really be her?"

Long Xuan frowned, lost in thought as he walked into the shipyard managed by the Mo Clan.

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