The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 5: Gu Refining in Progress

The steps to refine Gu are very simple. You just need to gather all the spiritual insects required by the Gu formula, put them in a Gu jar, and starve them for a period, forcing them to devour each other. In due time, a Gu will be formed.

For some insects that are not inclined to fight, other methods are needed to stimulate their ferocity, but these methods are currently beyond his understanding.

The spiritual insects need time to digest each other; some need 49 days, some 81 days, and some powerful Gu species may even take up to three years. There is no fixed duration.

The long duration of Gu refining is not the difficult part; the challenge lies in the failure rate of refining Gu. Some Gu formulas have a success rate of one in ten, while others have a success rate of one in a thousand. If one is unlucky, it might be impossible to refine a Gu even after ten thousand attempts.

If the Gu refining fails, all materials are lost, and the resources invested are wasted.

Long Xuan had no idea about the success rate of this Gu formula. He just prepared ten sets of materials and bought ten Gu jars for refining Gu simultaneously.

Many Gu cultivators use this method, casting a wide net to catch big fish and saving time.

Even if they end up with more than needed, the extra Gu insects can be sold, not only avoiding loss but also making a profit.

It's worth noting that Gu insects are cannibalistic, so each Gu cultivator can only raise one of each type of Gu insect. If they refine too many, they must quickly trade them away.

During Gu refining, he could see the progress on the Gu jar. Once the progress reached 100%, the Gu would be formed.

This raised a question: if a Gu jar’s spiritual insects were destined not to form a Gu, would it still show progress?

Would a jar that shows progress definitely form a Gu, and a jar that does not show progress definitely fail?

Could he immediately open the jars that did not show progress and find an optimal time and place to refine the Gu again until the jars showed progress?

Long Xuan’s mind was blown.

This meant that his success rate for refining Gu could be 100%. He wouldn't have to gamble on the success rate like other Gu cultivators and wouldn’t have to worry about wasting materials.

He felt he could challenge the heaven-defying Gu formula with a success rate of one in ten thousand.

Long Xuan’s breathing became rapid. This golden finger was indeed incredible.

In the blink of an eye, 49 days passed, and Long Xuan’s ten Gu jars finally showed signs of activity.

As he expected, once the jars displayed numbers, the success rate was 100%, and when the number reached 100%, the Gu was formed.

Because of the numerical reminders, Long Xuan waited early today to witness the moment the Gu insects broke out of the jars.

Long Xuan’s eyes widened, unable to contain his excitement.

Almost simultaneously, the ten Gu jars transformed, and ten red little roaches crawled out one after another.

Indeed, all ten jars successfully produced Gu, without wasting any materials, achieving a 100% success rate.

This was unimaginable to others.

Long Xuan excitedly ran over, took out Gu pots, and placed the roaches into ten separate pots.

He hadn’t forgotten the taboo of Gu insects: cannibalism.

To prevent them from devouring each other, they had to be separated immediately.

After completing this, Long Xuan finally had time to study them closely.

He had already named this new Gu species for its first appearance in this world: Little Strong Gu.

Long Xuan pricked his finger with a needle, dropping a bit of blood on the head of the Little Strong Gu to complete a simple blood contract ceremony.

Although he couldn't communicate with it through words, he quickly learned its abilities through the soul connection.

As expected, the Gu insect refined from a hundred cockroaches possessed the undying ability of a cockroach.

Of course, it wasn’t absolutely undying. Using the cheapest materials, many forces could still kill Little Strong. It could be summarized as being unkillable by conventional attacks of the same level.

To achieve true immortality, it would require refining the Gu with the best spiritual insects.

The Little Strong Gu refined from low-grade cockroaches had many ways it could be killed, far from being truly undying; it was more resilient instead.

This resilience might not be much in the eyes of big clans, but in the world of rogue cultivators, it was quite a decent ability.

Long Xuan was very satisfied. He never expected to create a truly undying body with the cheapest materials; that would be impossible.

He contentedly placed the Little Strong Gu in the palm of his hand, deeply fond of this first creation.

According to this world’s classification of Gu insects, his Little Strong Gu should be considered a low-grade Gu insect.

In this world, Gu insects are classified into low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and peak-grade.

peak-grade Gu insects are the kings of Gu, coveted by all Gu cultivators.

The dream of all Gu cultivators is to refine a peak-grade Gu insect in their lifetime. Each peak-grade Gu insect has a fatal attraction to Gu cultivators.

However, refining a peak-grade Gu insect is extremely difficult, and very few possess them.

Long Xuan aspired to create a peak-grade Gu formula and refine a peak-grade Gu insect, which was also his dream.

Naturally, it was impossible to refine a peak-grade Gu insect on his first attempt. The quality of a Gu insect is determined by the primary material in the Gu formula.

The primary material is the one spiritual insect that, after all others have killed each other, will definitely be the last one standing.

The primary material must be the strongest in the Gu formula to ensure it survives until the end. If the primary material dies, the Gu refining fails.

If the primary material is a peak-grade spiritual insect, the refined Gu insect will be a peak-grade Gu insect.

Similarly, since the primary material for Little Strong Gu was low-grade, no matter how unique its abilities, it would be classified as a low-grade Gu insect.

However, in Long Xuan’s view, even though Little Strong Gu was the weakest low-grade Gu insect, its resilience might be more practical than a mid-grade Gu insect.

Since only one of each type of Gu insect can be used, this time, an accident caused him to refine nine more than needed.

Dealing with these nine extra Little Strong Gu became a problem. He couldn't waste them by feeding them to the chicken bro.

After some thought, Long Xuan decided to sell the extra Gu insects like other rogue cultivators.

Many rogue cultivators sell unique Gu insects at markets, and it’s not uncommon to create a Gu formula in this world.

Low-grade Gu formulas might require only a few materials, sometimes just two. Even by sheer luck, one could stumble upon a Gu formula.

Many rogue cultivators without a legacy create their Gu insects using luck, so unique Gu formulas are common, with everyone having the ability to create their own.

However, peak-grade Gu formulas are not something a normal person can create. Long Xuan could reveal his ability to create Gu formulas, but he must never expose his ability to create peak-grade Gu formulas.

So, selling unique Gu insects at the market wouldn't attract attention, and he could do it confidently.

Currently, he was too poor and urgently needed a large sum of money to buy that piece of Xuan iron and the high-grade spirit stone.

He could even set up a stall to sell his unique Gu insects like other rogue cultivators.

The cost of Little Strong Gu was very low, but the selling price could be high, and without a failure rate, it was pure profit.

As for the possibility of these being used against him, he didn't care. After all, they were low-grade Gu insects, and he had better options. Little Strong Gu was just a temporary solution and would soon be replaced.

However, he couldn't find the materials now, so he had to use Little Strong Gu for the time being.

His better option was the famous Tardigrade, also known as 'water bear' from his previous life.

In terms of immortality, cockroaches are nothing compared to water bears.

water bears can withstand temperatures of 151°C and as low as -272°C.

They can't be killed in the deepest Mariana Trench, by atomic radiation, or even in space. They can survive without food or water for thirty years.

water bears are resistant to hypoxia, vacuum, high pressure, low pressure, can regenerate lost limbs, and even repair damaged DNA.

Their vitality is a miracle, surviving five mass extinction events on Earth without being wiped out.

However, water bears are too small, most being only 3 to 5 micrometers, barely visible to the naked eye and requiring a microscope for observation.

So, to refine a water bear Gu, one must first refine a microscope Gu.

This would require him to create a new Gu formula, which couldn't be done quickly.

Once he had the microscope Gu, he could see more microscopic creatures.

It’s worth noting that microscopic creatures haven't been discovered by Gu cultivators in this world. The vast variety of them remain unnamed and uncaptured, a massive resource pool.

The microscopic spiritual insects of the entire world would belong to him alone.

In this world, Gu insects are divided into internal and external categories and further subdivided into natural, enhancement, animal, plant, eye, dark, magic, special, and production types systems...

He might pioneer a new school of study —microscopic type, becoming the founder of this new school.

Long Xuan was full of ambition for the future.