The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 425: The World Has Changed

“What a strange martial art!”

Watching the battle between the young man and the monkey, Shui Lao’s expression grew increasingly solemn.

He had originally intended to force Long Xuan to reveal his trump card, but he hadn’t expected that this young man could fight evenly with the golden monkey without even using Gu. In fact, he even held a slight advantage.

However, this test wasn’t without its gains. The fact that he could fight a spirit beast without using Gu only highlighted his terrifying combat prowess. If he was already this powerful without Gu, how strong would he be once he used it?

Shui Lao quickly made an assessment in his heart—those Gu Kings in the secret realm, whose cultivation had been suppressed, would likely stand no chance against this young man. At this realization, his wariness of Long Xuan deepened.

At that moment, the battle between man and beast finally reached its conclusion.

Long Xuan leaped into the air, his body flipping upside down, and brought his palm down heavily toward the golden monkey below.

"Tathagata Palm!"

The golden monkey raised its iron staff to block, but the moment the staff made contact with the palm, it felt as if it had been struck by a mountain.

Such immense weight was far beyond what it could withstand. Under the overwhelming force, it immediately dropped to one knee, its knee slamming into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

At the same time, Long Xuan’s right foot stomped down, landing a heavy kick on its chest.

Although it was wearing a high-grade spirit armor that could defend against most attacks, at that moment, the armor seemed completely useless.

The golden monkey felt the enormous force bypassing the armor’s protection and directly impacting its internal organs.

"Pfft!"

The monkey spat out a mouthful of blood, its body sent flying sideways. Even the staff in its hand was flung high into the air, finally crashing into a tree and rolling to the ground.

It scrambled to its feet, its gaze filled with shock as it looked at Long Xuan. Without hesitation, it turned and fled at top speed, not daring to continue the fight.

"Chase it down! Eliminate the threat completely! Monkeys hold grudges!" Shui Lao called out loudly.

However, Long Xuan’s Heavenly Eye spotted something in the distance—a Fourth-Stage Spirit Monkey was piloting a spirit weapon chariot, flying towards them at an alarming speed. There was no time to waste chasing after the golden monkey.

"We need to go! Now!"

Long Xuan’s expression changed, and he immediately turned to flee in the opposite direction.

There was no time for explanations. Shui Lao seeing Long Xuan’s urgency, decided not to question him. He assumed that whatever was coming was definitely not good, so he followed without hesitation.

Meanwhile, the bystanders were still in shock, their eyes blank with disbelief.

This young man had just defeated a spirit-armored divine monkey with his bare hands—they could hardly believe their eyes.

But before they could fully process what had happened, a Fourth-Stage Spirit Monkey piloting a war chariot streaked across the sky at terrifying speed.

"Who hurt my son?!"

A thunderous, furious roar echoed from the sky, and everyone’s expression changed drastically.

"Impossible! Wasn't the Fourth-Stage Spirit Monkey engaged in battle with the Human Clan's Gu Kings? How could it be here? This is way too unlucky!"

"Not good! Run!"

Panic spread through the crowd, and they all turned to flee.

But they were too slow.

Just as they turned around, a storm of lightning rained down upon them.

Only two people managed to escape—one was a girl who teleported away in an instant, and the other was a young man who transformed into water and seeped underground.

Everyone else was obliterated by the lightning, leaving no survivors.

"Son! Look carefully! Is the one who hurt you among them?!"

Glancing behind him and confirming that the Fourth-Stage Spirit Monkey was not chasing them, Long Xuan finally let out a breath of relief.

That was close.

Who would have thought that a spirit beast would be piloting a war chariot—a vehicle only humans used? In just a blink of an eye, it had closed the distance.

Fortunately, Long Xuan had reacted fast enough to escape its soul perception range. Otherwise, the consequences would have been disastrous.

"What just happened? What did you see? Why did you look so panicked and run so fast?" Shui Lao asked with confusion.

Even though he was a Gu King with powerful soul perception, he had failed to detect the incoming danger as quickly as Long Xuan had.

Long Xuan ignored the question and instead turned his gaze toward a patch of ground nearby, where something caught his attention.

"Who's there? I see you. Come out!"

As his voice fell, a puddle of water slowly gathered, condensing into the shape of a man.

Seeing the figure, Long Xuan’s expression turned odd.

Shui Juanyun? We meet again, huh? Didn’t expect you to survive that battle with the Teng Clan… you really have some luck.

He was immediately recognized by Long Xuan, but since Long Xuan always used a different face when traveling, Shui Juanyun did not recognize him at all. Upon realizing that his whereabouts had been so easily discovered, he was slightly shocked, unable to figure out how he had been exposed.

"Please don't misunderstand. I had no intention of following you two. It just so happened that the direction I chose to escape aligned with yours, and since neither of us changed course along the way, we ended up traveling together."

The man before him filled him with deep apprehension, so he did not dare to make an enemy of him and quickly explained himself.

"Do you know what exactly happened in Radiant Moon City? And what was that spirit beast covered in spiritual artifacts all about?"

"I've never seen a spirit beast that could use spiritual artifacts before. It’s absolutely absurd."

Shui Lao was far more curious than Long Xuan. At this moment, he could no longer suppress his curiosity and immediately asked.

"I only learned about this incident after arriving here, so I don’t know much."

"I just know that a monkey spirit beast named 'Artifact Fanatic' somehow mastered the human race's artifact refining techniques and even perfected them to an unparalleled level, surpassing all human genius artifact refiners. In the end, this spirit beast even won the championship of the artifact refining competition."

"After mastering the refining arts, it was only natural that it immediately began mass-producing spiritual artifacts, equipping its entire clan."

"Monkeys have bodies similar to humans, making them the best-suited spirit beasts to wield spiritual artifacts. Once armed with these weapons, their combat power skyrocketed, at least tripling in strength. Their first battle resulted in the complete annihilation of Radiant Moon City in an instant."

Shui Juanyun’s expression turned grim as he said solemnly, "A spirit beast that can refine artifacts is an enormous threat to humanity. If the refining techniques spread across the spirit beast world and a lasting inheritance is established, the consequences would be unimaginable."

"Even if the shapeshifting Demon Kings each possessed a single life-bound spiritual artifact, it would still pose a tremendous danger to humanity."

"Everyone understands how serious this issue is, which is why all the major forces in the Western Region immediately joined forces and mobilized an overwhelming number of Gu Kings to hunt down this 'Artifact Fanatic.'"

"The number of Gu Kings gathering for this event is beyond your imagination. Even many rogue cultivators and demonic cultivators, who have long coveted the divine weapon Prison Heaven Staff, have shown up uninvited."

"It’s no exaggeration to say that the number of Gu Kings assembled for this is far greater than even the ones gathered for the Demon Slaughtering Order. The supreme powerhouses of humanity are willing to pay any price to eradicate this 'Artifact Fanatic' as quickly as possible—they won't be able to sleep peacefully until it's eliminated."

"In the coming days, there will be quite a spectacle. Even if the 'Artifact Fanatic' is successfully eliminated, its Prison Heaven Staff, ranked as the third greatest divine weapon in the Gu world, will surely stir up a storm of bloodshed. Who knows how many people will die fighting over it?"

Shui Juanyun’s expression was filled with excitement, as if he thrived on chaos.

Upon hearing this, Long Xuan’s face showed shock. He hadn’t expected such a major incident to unfold in the Radiant Moon Empire—just as he happened to be there. Since he planned to stay in the Radiant Moon Empire for some time, he couldn't help but wonder if he would get caught up in this turmoil.

His gaze suddenly turned thoughtful. A spirit beast that could refine artifacts... He thought of the one that had come to his shop the other day to trade for an alloy insect armor.

Could it be the same one?

And could the Prison Heaven Staff, ranked as the third greatest divine weapon in the Gu world, have been forged using his fourth-grade alloy?

No way... right?

His expression turned strange.

Meanwhile, Shui Lao's face had darkened considerably—his expression was as grim as could be. He didn’t care how chaotic the world became, nor did he care how many people would die. At this moment, he was thinking about a different problem.

This incident had drawn an overwhelming number of Gu Kings to Radiant Moon City. And, unfortunately, the Tea Tasting Conference and the Wine Tasting Conference were scheduled to take place very soon—right around the same time as this crisis.

Once the Tea and Wine Tasting Gathering began, would those Gu Kings—realizing that the River God Secret Realm was so close—decide to pay it a visit?

And if they did, just how many Gu Kings would end up gathering inside the River God Secret Realm?

As this thought crossed his mind, he felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.

This was a huge problem.

The River God Secret Realm was likely going to be flooded with an overwhelming number of Gu Kings this time. The danger level would increase tenfold.

Originally, he had been completely confident about his journey to the River God Secret Realm. But now, with the arrival of so many Gu Kings, everything had changed drastically—the situation was now completely beyond his control.