The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

"Cough, cough," Li Laodao coughed dryly and finally assumed a serious demeanor. Solemnly, he said, "I'll keep it short. There is an ancient tomb nearby of astonishing size, and many rogue cultivators have already gone there."

"This ancient tomb is said to be extremely dangerous, with involvement from large clans. Oftentimes, the danger posed by people exceeds the perils within the tomb itself."

"I'm a solitary old man with limited strength, so today I've come to invite you to form a team with me so we can look out for each other."

Hearing this, Long Xuan frowned for a moment and pondered.

He felt that his current strength was still too weak. His mid-stage Spirit Gathering realm was nothing impressive, and without an external Gu for protection, his combat methods were very limited.

He thought he should develop further and not leave his comfort zone prematurely. Given his current strength, he couldn't protect himself and had to rely on the protagonist's halo.

No matter how good the treasures were, one needed to be alive to enjoy them. He decided to stay low for a while longer.

Long Xuan didn't follow the usual novel trope of rushing to opportunities at the first mention of them. No matter how valuable the treasures in the ancient tomb might be, he wouldn't risk his life for them.

After making up his mind, Long Xuan said, "No, since there are large clans involved, we rogue cultivators shouldn't join the fray. I still want to live a bit longer; you go ahead on your own."

"Rest assured, I guarantee this trip will be 100% safe. We won't compete with the large clans for treasures; we'll just follow them and pick up whatever they leave behind."

"There will always be times when they overlook something, and that's our opportunity to pick up the leftovers. Moreover, the dangers in the tomb will all be faced by the large clans ahead of us. Following behind them, we won't encounter any danger."

"The only danger is from other rogue cultivators, but as long as we form a team with a few close friends, we can be worry-free."

Upon hearing this, Long Xuan inwardly sneered. Everyone thinks like that before an adventure, harboring a lucky mindset, but people always end up dying in droves.

"You don't need to persuade me anymore. I'm a man of my word. If I say I won't go, I won't go," Long Xuan said firmly.

Seeing that Long Xuan was adamant, Li Laodao didn't insist. He had sought out Long Xuan because he believed that the more people, the safer. Since Long Xuan wouldn't go, it didn't make much of a difference; he had plenty of close friends.

"Alright then, young people being this cautious—if young people don't take bold risks, are they still young?" Li Laodao shook his head and finally turned to leave.

Long Xuan didn't see him off. He sat there, continuing to ponder how to design miraculous abilities for the "Ten Absolutes Scripture."

A month passed in the blink of an eye. It started to rain lightly outside. Just as Long Xuan was about to close the window, Li Laodao suddenly jumped in through it, startling him.

"Cough, cough..." Old Li Dao coughed up a pool of blood. His clothes were in tatters, he was covered in blood, and his hair was a mess. He looked half-dead, clearly severely injured.

"Cough, cough... Damned it all, a miscalculation. We didn't want to compete with the large clans for treasures, just to follow them and pick up whatever they left behind."

"Who would have known those bastards, fearing the unknown dangers of the tomb, would force us rogue cultivators to scout ahead? Man proposes, God disposes!"

"And that tomb was indeed extraordinarily dangerous. Most of the rogue cultivators who went died, and all the ones in my team perished too..."

Old Li Dao complained with intense resentment, almost going mad until he coughed up another pool of blood and stopped his incessant cursing.

Long Xuan showed no surprise; this was expected. There was no such thing as 100% safety in this world. Even without the large clans forcing them to scout, internal strife over uneven distribution of treasures could lead to deaths. Survival was never guaranteed.

"So, what was the outcome? Did anyone retrieve the tomb's treasure? What was the most valuable item in the tomb?" Long Xuan asked curiously.

"No," Li Laodao shook his head. "That tomb was extremely eerie. Not only did most of the rogue cultivators die, but the large clans' Gu practitioners also suffered heavy casualties. Only a few escaped, and no one retrieved the tomb's most valuable treasure."

"However, many accompanying burial items were brought out, some of which were incredibly valuable. Unfortunately, those rich and stingy large clans didn't even leave us any decorations."

"I didn't find any treasures, just stumbled upon this incomplete technique by accident." Old Li Dao took out a blood-stained, tattered technique book and flaunted it in front of Long Xuan.

"The 'Sun and Moon Heart Sutra'?"

Seeing the four large characters on the cover, Long Xuan guessed this technique was extraordinary and eagerly snatched it to read.

Li Laodao was stunned. Doesn't he understand the principle of not sharing techniques lightly? How could this young man be so ignorant?

Though the technique was incomplete and couldn't be cultivated, it still had significant reference value. It wasn't something to be casually shown to outsiders.

Under normal circumstances, he would have snatched it back and scolded him, but now, severely injured, he didn't have the energy.

"My technique isn't for free viewing. Shouldn't you compensate me with a detox pill? Your Little Strong Gu can only resist ordinary poisons, not the strange poisons from the tomb," Li Laodao added.

Without looking up, Long Xuan tossed a bottle of detox pills over.

Under normal circumstances, he would have noticed something was amiss—Li Laodao knew he had detox pills, which meant he likely knew he was an alchemist. This explained why, despite being gravely injured, he came to him first.

But now, fully absorbed in reading the technique, he ignored this detail.

Li Laodao hurriedly caught the bottle, eagerly opened it, took out a pill, and swallowed it. Then, shamelessly pocketed the entire bottle, sat down, and began refining the pill's medicinal power.

After a while, the detox pill and the Little Strong Gu's combined efforts finally counteracted the strange poison from the tomb.

Meanwhile, Long Xuan entered a state of rapture.

This "Sun and Moon Heart Sutra" was indeed extraordinary, worthy of being brought out from an ancient tomb.

The "Sun and Moon Heart Sutra" harnesses the spiritual power of heaven and earth, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon to achieve the supreme spiritual body.

Those who master it can cultivate unique Sun Spiritual Power, Moon Spiritual Power, and Star Spiritual Power.

These variant spiritual powers rank among the strongest of all.

The Divine ability it grants is the External Avatar.

Practitioners of this technique can cultivate three external avatars: the Sun Clone, the Moon Clone, and the Star Clone.

The Sun Clone's combat power doubles during the day, while the Star and Moon Clone' combat power doubles at night.

The combat power of these three Clone is not much weaker than the main body. Most astonishingly, the Clone can cultivate independently and transfer their cultivation results back to the main body.

This includes both knowledge and physical or soul cultivation outcomes.

With the main body's cultivation speed added, a practitioner of this technique can cultivate four times faster than normal.

This technique is absurdly powerful, almost like cheating. Even Long Xuan was astonished, especially by the Divine ability part, which made him breathe heavily with excitement and thoroughly captivated him.

This was exactly the Divine ability he had been looking for. The vast spiritual sea of the Ten Absolute Bodies led to the drawback of slow cultivation speed, a critical issue that had to be addressed.

Without a doubt, designing a Divine ability that could accelerate cultivation speed was the most compatible with the "Ten Absolutes scripture," finally solving the slow cultivation speed problem of the Ten Absolute Bodies.

He was immensely satisfied with this Divine ability.