The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 139: Discovering Infinite Progress

At this moment, on the rapidly flying dragon boat heading east, Long Xuan habitually took his seat at the stern.

Soon, a familiar fragrance drifted over, and Long Ziyan, who shared the same habit, sat down to his right.

She quietly read a book, flipping through yet another ancient theological text, having just switched to a new one.

Long Xuan, adhering to the principle of "many skills are not a burden," had long taken the time to teach himself divine script with the help of a clone, so he could understand the content of her book.

However, after glancing at it for a moment, he lost interest. The book recorded the history of a certain period—dry and dull. Although ancient stories could sometimes be of great use, the vast majority were utterly useless.

At that moment, another breeze passed by, and Long Ruoxue confidently sat on his left, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at him. She straightforwardly asked, "The formation you designed is quite ingenious. To think that you used only basic formations to trap a third-grade formation master—impressive. I still haven't figured out the pattern of that world maze."

"So far, it's the only grand formation that has left me completely baffled. Could you lend me the formation diagram? I can trade it for a long-lost formation diagram."

Before Long Xuan could answer, Long Qian stepped in and sternly reprimanded, "Nonsense! Do you think you can casually inquire about someone’s protective formation diagram? Have you forgotten the unwritten rules of the Gu world?"

In the Gu world, there’s an unwritten rule: you cannot ask for someone’s protective formation diagram, no matter how close you are to them.

Once the formation diagram is given to someone, that person can freely enter and exit the protective formation. If the diagram is passed on, more people could enter the formation.

Therefore, every master of a cave would never give away their protective formation diagram, no matter how familiar they are with the person asking.

It’s best not to mention this at all. Asking a cave master about the secrets of their protective formation is taboo, and intelligent guests never bring it up. This has become an unspoken rule.

Long Ruoxue knew the rule, but her curiosity got the better of her. Without uncovering the maze's secret, she couldn’t eat or sleep well—she was a well-known formation fanatic.

Long Xuan smiled at her and said, "Buddha says, 'It cannot be said! It cannot be said!'"

Of course, he wouldn’t give her the formation diagram. Even if she offered something of immense value in exchange, it wouldn't be enough. He hadn’t given it to Di Xin when asked, let alone her.

...

Two months later.

On the dragon boat, Long Qilin occasionally poked his head out, looking down. This was his first long journey, and he was in high spirits, making him the most active on the boat.

"Why are we flying so low? And why are we following the coastline? Isn’t it longer to fly along the coast?" Long Qilin asked in confusion.

The Far West Land on the map is a crescent-shaped peninsula connecting to the Western Land, with the narrow part covered by a forest.

This forest is the Ten Thousand Mountains, filled with countless fierce spirit beasts. Traveling through the Ten Thousand Mountains is extremely dangerous, even for a Gu King, who wouldn't have absolute confidence.

Since this path is impassable, the only option is to take the sea route. However, Long Qilin didn’t expect that instead of flying straight across the ocean, they would fly low along the coast, which puzzled him.

Long Qian approached with a smile and explained, "It's simple. High-altitude flying makes us an obvious target, making it easy for flying spirit beasts to attack. So, in this area, we can only fly low, even though it still carries risks."

"The reason we’re not crossing the ocean directly is because of the many concerns. The deep sea is home to many fierce spirit beasts, even more challenging than those on land."

"We’re on a small boat, and its small size limits the number of inscriptions we can engrave, so its defense is lacking. If a spirit beast so much as brushes against it, the boat would be destroyed."

"If the boat breaks in the middle of the ocean, our fate would be sealed—we'd be buried at sea."

"Although the world's top-tier boats can fly, many sea creatures can fly as well, such as flood dragon-type spirit beasts. If a small boat is targeted by a sea flood dragon, it’s a dead end."

"So, small boats can't enter the deep sea. Only large boats can sail there. Large boats have enough inscriptions and formations to withstand attacks from sea creatures."

"The more formidable large boats are equipped with killing formations, capable of even capturing sea flood dragons. The sea flood dragon is a treasure, and hauling it back to land can fetch a sky-high price."

"This is also a lucrative trade route. Some forces make vast fortunes by hunting sea flood dragons in the deep sea."

"But building large boats isn't easy. Few forces have the technology to construct them, and none of the forces in the Western Land possess large boat-building capabilities."

"This world is one part land and nine parts ocean, divided into thousands of sea regions on the map."

"Each sea region has different levels of danger and requires different types of spirit boats. Generally, the larger the boat, the more sea regions it can navigate."

"The most dangerous sea regions can only be traversed by a ninth-grade spirit boat. I wonder which force has the technology to build a ninth-grade spirit boat."

"The larger the boat, the more resources it consumes. Who knows how many resources a ninth-grade spirit boat would require?"

"However, the most dangerous sea regions are places humans can hardly reach, and the more difficult a place is to access, the more treasures it holds."

"Even if a ninth-grade spirit boat costs a fortune to build, it can easily pay for itself by venturing into the most dangerous sea regions."

Long Qian had a look of longing on his face. Constructing large boats also involved formations, one of the fields he was researching. He was determined to develop large boat technology for his family, opening a new revenue stream and leaving his mark on the clan’s history.

Hearing his words, Long Xuan instinctively thought about whether he should research large boat technology—perhaps transferring the Five Elements Reversal Formation onto a large vessel and freely roaming the ocean.

However, it was just a passing thought. He had no use for large boats at the moment, so there was no need to build one. But in the future, large boats would certainly be included in his self-created plans.

"Alright, enough of that. We've been bumping around for a while; let’s stop and take a break. If anyone needs to use the restroom, do it now. Later, if someone needs to go, I won’t stop just for one person."

With that, Long Qian steered the dragon boat toward a small island below.

Long Lie laughed heartily, "Haha, we should have stopped earlier. I’m about to burst. If it weren’t for the girls on board, I’d have just done it standing on the boat."

"You’re not afraid of wetting your face?"

Long Xuan couldn’t help but roll his eyes at him. He was constantly taking small sips of liquor; how could he not need to relieve himself often? It was a miracle his bladder hadn't burst.

Not long after, the dragon boat landed. Before it even touched down, everyone eagerly jumped off, unable to bear sitting on the boat any longer—it had been quite uncomfortable.

Long Lie was the fastest, clearly desperate.

"You guys start the fire. I’m going to hunt some game. I’ve been on this boat so long, I’m practically fading away."

Long Qilin was the second to rush into the depths of the island, ready to hunt some spirit beasts to bring back for roasting.

The rest of the people on the boat weren’t idle either. They all ventured deeper into the island, hoping to find some spiritual herbs or treasures and maybe hunt some game along the way.

Long Ruoxue remained on the boat, focused on the chaotic map in her hands. It was as if she was possessed, determined to decipher the large formation depicted.

"I’ll leave the fire-making to you. I’m going to catch some fish."

Long Xuan didn’t want to be idle either. After removing most of his clothes, he dove straight into the sea.

At this point, the only person left to make the fire was Long Ziyan. Sighing, she put down her book and went to gather wood.

After jumping into the water, Long Xuan ordered his clones to start fishing while he, with a clear goal in mind, swam towards the deepest part of the sea.

The water bear was adept at withstanding pressure and highly resistant to oxygen deprivation, capable of surviving for a long time without oxygen. Especially after becoming a Gu, its abilities became even more exaggerated.

It had the capability to survive in deep-sea environments. The deeper Long Xuan swam, the faster he went, taking advantage of his Star-Stepping technique to ignore the water resistance. In the blink of an eye, he had dived to an incredible depth.

If Long Qian knew the depth to which he had dived, he would surely be shocked. Diving so deep into the sea required holding one’s breath for a long time and enduring immense water pressure. Even a Gu King wouldn’t be able to survive at such depths.

Long Xuan had no idea how long he had been diving or how many meters deep he was. His Heavenly Dream Soul Armor was glowing a dark hue due to the intense pressure.

Finally, just as he was contemplating whether to continue diving, he reached the ocean floor.

Touching the soil beneath his feet, he fell into deep thought.

The reason he had dived into this bottomless ocean trench was because he saw progress here, symbolized by the infinity sign (?).

This symbol indicated that there was an incredible treasure here. Although he didn’t know what it was, it was undoubtedly something valuable, worth the effort to obtain.

It was precisely because of this treasure that he had sent a soul message to Long Qian, asking to stop for a break. Otherwise, how could the boat have coincidentally stopped at this spot?

However, it seemed that the treasure wasn’t on the seafloor but buried beneath it, which made things more difficult.

Excavating in the deep sea, under such terrifying pressure, was extremely challenging, especially since it was pitch dark, and who knew what dangers might lurk there?

Even if he had his clones do the job, it would take an enormous amount of time, and the people on the boat clearly wouldn’t wait for him that long.

He scanned the sea floor and found many signs of progress, but all buried deep in various locations.

Suddenly, Long Xuan’s eyes widened in shock. Could there be a massive ancient tomb buried beneath?

Although he couldn’t clearly see what was buried below, it definitely wasn’t a mineral vein, which should have shown dense progress signs.

If the treasure was sparsely distributed below, the likelihood of it being an ancient tomb was very high. Long Xuan’s breathing quickened, and his eyes lit up with excitement.

After the last tomb robbery, he felt that his abilities were naturally suited for tomb raiding. He could easily take treasures that even a Gu King couldn’t obtain. Now, he was hooked on tomb raiding.

It couldn’t be helped; the wealth from tomb raiding was too quick. Just finding one tomb was enough to make him rich overnight.

Moreover, the world’s top treasures rarely appeared at auctions, but in tombs, they could be found relatively easily. He was now genuinely curious about what treasure was buried beneath, indicated by the infinity symbol, and he was eager to dig it up.

But he was in a tough spot. If he dug a tunnel here, seawater would surely flood in, potentially destroying anything in the tomb, making it even harder to retrieve.

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