Chapter 55: Cockroach-Style Gu Refining Method
After thoroughly looting the entire cave mansion, Long Xuan excitedly walked out, taking along all the materials used for setting up the protective formation, and packed everything into storage bags before heading home.
Once home, Long Xuan put away his spoils and immediately prepared warm clothes and a large amount of food. He left one clone at home to look after the medicine garden, and then took his remaining clones to the Snowy Mountain mentioned in the communication talisman.
However, the communication talisman was too small to hold much information. All he knew was that the Millennium Ice Essence was dug by Master Jin in the Snowy Mountain, but the exact location was only vaguely mentioned.
Long Xuan had three objectives for this trip to the Snowy Mountain. The first, of course, was to upgrade the Millennium Ice Essence. This reason alone was enough to make the trip indispensable.
The transformation of the Millennium Ice Essence into the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Essence requires more than just time; it also needs a specific environment.
Otherwise, everyone could simply store the Hundred-Year Ice Essence at home and wait for it to increase in value. If it were that simple, the Millennium Ice Essence in Master Jin's storage bag would have advanced long ago.
To allow the Millennium Ice Essence to continue growing, Long Xuan had to personally visit its birthplace and place it in an environment conducive to its growth.
The second purpose was to refine the Divine ice Flame. The Divine ice Flame is unique; it is a cold flame and refining it in a cold place would yield better results.
Even without the Millennium Ice Essence, he would still need to visit the Snowy Mountain for this purpose.
The third reason was to search for water bears, which made him excited just thinking about it.Water bears live in various harsh environments and can be found in places unsuitable for human survival.
Over the years, he had sent his clones to search far and wide and had collected quite a few water bears.
Water bears are not difficult to find. Since no one can see them, they have never been captured in large quantities by humans, so their numbers are considerable.
Even the low-grade water bears are abundant, and he often encounters high-grade ones.
Because this is a microscopic world untouched by humans, the peak-grade spirit insects that are rare outside are everywhere in this microscopic world, and only Long Xuan has access to this world, effectively giving him control over a vast wealth.
This led Long Xuan to develop an idea: since he is so wealthy, he might as well use the Cockroach-Style Gu Refining Method to refine the water bear Gu.
The Cockroach-Style Gu Refining Method is his own creation, and he named it himself.
Traditional Gu refining methods in this world require the strongest primary insect, which completes the devouring of other spirit insects. His Eye of Heavenly secret was refined using the traditional method.
However, his Cockroach-Style Gu Refining Method is vastly different and unconventional.
In his method, there is no primary insect. All spirit insects are treated equally and must be of the same species and quality.
If different species or qualities are used, a primary insect will inevitably emerge.
This method has a significant drawback: all materials must be of low quality, medium quality, or high quality, and they must be of the same species.
Breaking this rule will result in the emergence of a primary insect.
peak-grade spirit insects are extremely rare, so refining a Gu entirely with peak-grade spirit insects is impossible.
This makes it impossible for this method to produce peak-grade Gu, relegating it to low-end uses.
However Long Xuan, knowing nothing when he first transmigrated, stumbled upon this method and unexpectedly succeeded. he knew nothing and he tinkered around and came up with a recipe for a Little Strong Gu without a main insect. Otherwise, if he had a little common sense, he would never have been able to make it this way. Unexpectedly, he actually succeeded by accident.
Despite its limitations, this method can produce powerful Gu in a world full of peak-grade spirit insects.
In this realm, the Cockroach-Style Gu Refining Method is not weak but incredibly strong.
Imagine refining a Gu with thousands of peak-grade water bears—what a terrifying result that would produce!
Just thinking about using thousands of peak-grade spirit insects to refine a Gu makes Long Xuan shiver in awe.
Is it really wise to develop such a frightening Gu method?
Because this method requires so many peak-grade spirit insects, Long Xuan has not yet refined the water bear Gu.
It is just an exaggeration to say that the microscopic world is full of peak-grade spiritual insects. After all, peak-grade spiritual insects are peak-grade spiritual insects. He still needs to spend a lot of time collecting them. It is impossible to collect them all easily in the market.
Over the years, he has sent clones to search for peak-grade water bears and has only found about 600, with various specializations such as pressure resistance, regeneration, poison resistance, and starvation resistance.
He has not yet collected those specializing in cold and heat resistance due to the them being too far away and he cannot go there easily.
However, the Snowy Mountain, while far, is not unreachable. Master Jin wouldn't have gone so far otherwise.
Now, taking the opportunity to upgrade the Millennium Ice Essence, he can also collect the cold-resistant water bear species.
By bringing together the best in each field, the resulting creature would be unimaginable, making Long Xuan excited.
After quickly packing his things, he set off.
The Snowy Mountain isn't too far, but it's cold due to its high altitude. The higher the altitude, the colder it gets, especially in this world filled with spiritual energy.
It took Long Xuan half a month to reach the mountain, and another half month to climb to the snow-covered area.
At mid-mountain, the weather changed drastically. The air was freezing, snow was falling heavily, and fierce winds roared, making it feel like the end of the world. Despite wearing several layers of cotton clothes, he felt like he was only wearing a single layer of paper, offering no protection. He wanted to go back.
But the thought of refining a peak-grade gu with thousands of peak-grade spirit insects drove him to persevere.
Just the mid-mountain conditions were daunting, and he couldn't imagine the harsher conditions at the peak.
He didn't plan to reach the peak. The Snowy Mountain is incredibly high, towering into the clouds with treacherous terrain. Even climbing for another month he might not reach the top.
Moreover, the cold at mid-mountain was already unbearable. Even if he could climb up, he would freeze to death.
So Long Xuan planned to walk around the very gentle slope halfway up the mountain, and go back immediately after completing all the tasks.
Long Xuan really couldn't imagine how the naked water bear could survive in such a hellish place.