The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 475: Formation of the Go Gu

“Can he really see through all the Void Bugs?” Ancestor Soaring Heaven's body tensed. A look of disbelief flashed through his eyes as his expression gradually turned grim.

“Courting death! If you have the ability to see through all Void Bugs, then sooner or later you’ll become a serious threat to me. I can’t let you live.”

Ancestor Soaring Heaven looked at Zhu Jiuge with a gaze full of murderous intent.

Just as he was about to make his move, an unexpected change occurred. The Sealing Spirit Pagoda that had floated into the sky suddenly began to crack at the bottom. The fissures were spreading rapidly.

His expression changed dramatically. “No good!” he muttered, quickly withdrawing the miniature tower from the air.

That pagoda contained countless Void Bugs. If it were destroyed, unleashing all of them, it would bring disaster not only to the world but also potentially lead to his own death at the hands of the powerful Void Bugs inside. The consequences would be unimaginable.

“Damn it! This girl must not be harmed!”

His eyes darkened as he looked at the girl. Seeing that the cracks on the Sealing Spirit Pagoda continued to spread, he gritted his teeth and decisively gave up on attacking Zhu Jiuge, fleeing the battlefield at lightning speed.

Sure enough, as he distanced himself from Zhu Jiuge, the cracks on the bottom of the Sealing Spirit Pagoda ceased spreading.

However, his sudden retreat left everyone on the battlefield dumbfounded.

Especially the cult leaders from the Demonic Sect who had come with him. Seeing him flee mid-battle filled them with the urge to spit blood in rage.

With the massive emergence of Shadow Demons, the battle situation was already turning unfavorable. Without Ancestor Soaring Heaven—by far their strongest combatant—the demonic cultivators attacking the Holy Gu Academy now faced the likelihood of total annihilation. Few would be able to escape this deadly conflict.

“Damn it! Ancestor Soaring Heaven! You coward, you've led us straight to ruin!”

The Blood God Sect Master roared, veins bulging on his clenched fists. He turned toward his disciples and shouted, “All Blood God Sect disciples, break out now! Run! As many as can escape, do so!”

His order caused instant chaos. Countless red-robed Gu cultivators withdrew from the melee and fled into the distance.

And it wasn’t just the Blood God Sect. Seeing Soaring Heaven flee caused panic across the ranks of the demonic cultivators. Morale collapsed, and many began retreating.

With these groups abandoning the battlefield, the remaining demonic cultivators, already under great pressure, could no longer hold off the encirclement by Holy Gu Academy’s Gu Masters.

Like a landslide, one move from Ancestor Soaring Heaven caused the entire demon coalition to collapse. They were slaughtered and routed beyond recognition.

“Heh! Run? Do you think Holy Gu Academy is a place you can come and go as you please?”

“Since you’re here, stay forever!”

The Headmaster sneered, activating the city-wide protective formation of Holy Gu City, trapping all the demonic cultivators who hadn’t managed to escape.

Now those trapped inside had no heaven to cry to, no earth to respond. All they could do was fall beneath the ruthless slaughter of the Academy's Gu Cultivators and the endless Shadow Demons.

The entire Holy Gu City had become a battlefield, chaos erupting in every corner.

But the bloodshed did not last long. The invading demonic cultivators were quickly wiped out. Before long, the city returned to a haunting silence.

In a distant valley, the remnants who had escaped Holy Gu City gathered.

“Ancestor Soaring Heaven! What the hell are you doing?! That battle was far from over—why did you run?”

“You’re the alliance leader! If you flee, the rest have no choice but to flee too!”

“You’ve killed more than half of my Blood God Sect!”

The Blood God Sect Master’s eyes were red with fury as he confronted Ling Tian’s back.

The rest of the demon cultivators also crowded around, glaring at him in anger, waiting for an explanation.

“Hmph! Why should I explain myself to you?” Ling Tian turned his head with a wicked grin. “Since most of your people died in Holy Gu City, why don’t you join them down there?”

“Your territories—Soaring Heaven Sect will be taking them over.”

“What?!”

Before they could react, screams rang out within the group. One by one, demonic cultivators fell into pools of blood, not even understanding how they had died.

Unable to see the attacks, panic erupted. In their fear, they struck out blindly. Many were wounded by their own allies. Chaos ensued.

Soaring Heaven sneered.

He knew his act of fleeing would earn the wrath of the demonic factions. Since he'd already made enemies of them, he might as well kill them all and be done with it.

From his palm, a silver miniature pagoda soared into the sky, expanding as it flew. The bottom four layers opened, and once again, countless Void Bugs swarmed out.

No one knew how many Void Bugs were sealed in the tower. It seemed limitless. Even though many had been slain by Shadow Demons in the previous battle, a new wave had emerged.

These Void Bugs were invisible to normal cultivators. Without someone like Long Xuan, none of the demon cultivators could see the ninth-tier Void Bugs.

Blind, they could only take hit after hit—slaughtered mercilessly.

Wave after wave of Void Bugs tore through the army of demonic cultivators, creating a sea of death. The cultivators had no way to fight back.

The valley soon ran red with blood, the ground littered with corpses from every level of Gu Master.

The demonic army that had barely escaped Holy Gu City—none survived.

Once again, the valley fell silent.

Soaring Heaven wiped the blood from his hands using a corpse’s robe, threw the bloodied fabric aside, and used his soul power to strip all the storage bags from the dead bodies before walking away leisurely.

Back in Holy Gu City.

After the battle ended, Long Xuan returned to the abyss beneath the Demon Suppressing Pagoda and finished repairing the formation completely. Exhausted, he finally dragged his body back to his warm little shop.

Because of the heavy casualties from the recent war, business was bleak. Not a single customer had entered the shop that day.

Long Xuan yawned. After working so long in the Abyssal Realm, he was mentally and physically drained. Just as he was about to close up and rest, he spotted a small, neatly written note.

Frowning slightly, he walked over and picked it up.

The message was short:

“You’re my only friend now. I don’t want to drag you into this. I’ve left. Don’t come looking for me.”

There was no need to guess. The note was left by Zhu Jiuge.

After completing her graduation mission for the Academy, she had no reason to stay. Leaving had become inevitable.

Long Xuan felt a tinge of melancholy. During his time repairing the formation in the Abyss, his Go Gu had been completed. Using this new-generation Go Gu to play against various prodigies allowed him to share a portion of their fortune. Accumulating it over time, he would become a Great Fortune Bearer.

The power of the Doom Gu is ineffective against one blessed with Great Destiny; it could be said that his Go Gu is one of the few natural counters to it.

Previously, when he approached Zhu Jiuge, he avoided becoming friends with her to evade the Doom Gu’s influence. But now, with the Go Gu in hand, he truly no longer has to fear it.

“Sigh! That pill strong enough to trigger the Life-Transformative Lightning Tribulation hadn’t even been delivered to her before she passed away. I wonder if I can still make her owe me for it.”

Long Xuan sighed, pocketed the slip of paper, and found the Go Gu already refined by one of his clones in the shop.

This Go Gu looked no different from before, still appearing like a game piece. However, it could now split into 361 sub-Gu pieces, each capable of growing stronger by playing games with geniuses from across the land.

This was a nurturing-type Gu. At present, it was extremely weak—no stronger than a low-grade Gu.

But once matured, and once all 361 sub-Gu reached their peak, there would be few Gu in the world that could rival it.

He knew he had to begin preparations to raise the Go Gu—an endeavor that would take time and persistence.

Thus, the Holy Gu Academy, where the continent's top geniuses gathered, became the perfect hunting ground for worthy Go opponents.

Though the recent battle had cost Holy Gu Academy a massive number of students, Zhu Jiuge turned the tide, and the academy’s top-tier geniuses had mostly been preserved.

Holding the Go Gu in his palm, Long Xuan beamed with pride and laughed:

“You were born under the rules of Nineteen-Way Go. I’ll name you 19!”

After a day of rest, Holy Gu City returned to normal operations.

Long Xuan’s coffee shop reopened as well. In order to play Go with Holy Gu Academy’s most talented students, Long Xuan decided to use Coffee Gu as bait. He had no intention of closing the shop in the short term.

That day, just as he opened the doors, his first customer arrived.

The newcomer had delicate brows, fair skin like jade, and an elegant temperament, her beauty seemed untouched by mortal dust—completely out of place among the common folk on the street.

She held a refined ancient zither in her arms and, dragging her long gown, walked into the shop. Her gaze landed on one of the store’s treasure-grade Gu, eyes filled with interest. Her crimson lips parted:

“An auxiliary-type Gu that can double the combat strength of one’s own Gu without condition... This is truly heaven-defying. With this Gu, a Gu Cultivator’s strength can be immediately doubled.”

“I heard this is a Coffee Gu created by Zhu Jiuge, named Jiuge Gu.”

“How do you intend to sell this Jiuge Gu?”

Long Xuan looked at the visitor and immediately identified her.

Since he was raising a Go Gu, he had thoroughly researched the academy's most famous geniuses.

This woman was Qin Mingyue, known as the number one beauty of Holy Gu Academy and the top of its Four Flowers of the Academy. More importantly, she was currently ranked number one on the academy’s Heaven's Pride Leaderboard.

Such a talent fit his criteria perfectly. He had to bind her to one of his Sub-Go pieces.

Long Xuan’s spirits lifted. He immediately responded:

“You must know the rules here. If you want to purchase one of my shop’s peak-grade Gu, you must play a game of Go with me.”

“As for the trade item, just offer something of equal value.”

Since all materials to refine the Go Gu were already collected, and since he was determined to win her over, he didn’t impose strict requirements on the exchange. As long as it was fair in value, he would accept it.

As for this Jiuge Gu, it was drawn randomly when he had first opened the store with Zhu Jiuge.

She named it Jiuge Gu outright.

Jiuge Gu possessed a Domain of Amplification—any allied Gu within its range could have their strength doubled without condition, regardless of number.

This ability was beyond extraordinary, easily surpassing most peak-grade Gu, and had already replaced the Sleepless Gu as the shop’s core treasure.

Unfortunately, since its amplification effect was similar to his Tea Gu, the effects couldn’t be stacked. As both were amplification-type Gu, they couldn’t boost each other. He had no choice but to give up the idea of forming a blood contract with a Jiuge Gu himself. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Otherwise, his terrifying collection of peak Gu would become absolutely monstrous if they were all doubled in strength.

Upon hearing this, Qin Mingyue nodded. She pulled a bug jar from her Gu nurturing pouch and placed it on the table, smiling:

“This is a peak-grade Spirit Gu known as Bookworm Gu. I obtained it by chance.”

“Don’t be fooled by its ordinary appearance. It’s extremely rare, and has a 100% success rate in Gu refinement, so its value is equivalent to that of any peak-grade Gu.”

“Would you trade your Jiuge Gu for my Book Gu?”

Hearing that a Book Gu was inside the jar, Long Xuan immediately became excited.

His mind held countless classical literary masterpieces from his past life. In this world, they were like divine revelations. With the Bookworm Gu, he would be like a tiger with wings.

No matter if the deal was profit or loss—he was determined to get that Bookworm Gu.

“Alright. I was just planning to refine a Bookworm Gu next. I never expected my thoughts to come true. We have a deal.”

“But before we trade, we need to play a game of Go. And it must be my original Nineteen-Way Go. You don’t mind, do you?”

As he spoke, Long Xuan walked over and sat at the Go board table.

This time, the “Go pieces” weren’t just stones—they were little Gu insects with legs wriggling under them.

Refining one Go Gu was equivalent to refining over 300 Gu at once. He couldn't help but sigh—raising a Go Gu was a bargain, truly buy-one-get-361.

“No need to explain. It’s not just the city anymore—the whole world is playing Nineteen-Way Go now. The old Seventeen-Way Go has been abandoned.”

“You’re a true genius. Just to create a Go Gu, you rewrote the rules of Go, and forced the world to adapt. And somehow, you actually succeeded.”

Qin Mingyue smiled softly, walking over and sitting across from Long Xuan.

“I specialize in the Dao of Zither, not Go. I’m not used to this new format you invented.”

“For fairness, would you allow me a four-piece handicap?”

At this, Long Xuan shook his head like a rattle drum. He had once given a nine-piece head start to show off and lost several matches.

This game was critical. Only by defeating her could the Go Gu's ability activate.

Under no circumstances could he afford to lose—not even to a beauty. He had to win decisively.

“Not even one piece!” Long Xuan said sternly, his tone brooking no argument.

“How about a two-piece handicap?”

“Not even one!”

“Such a petty man... Then, how about letting me go first? Surely you wouldn’t reject such a small request?”

“No way! This is my domain, I make the rules—I go first!”

As his words fell, Long Xuan inserted two fingers into the Gu jar, pulled out a black sub-Gu twitching its legs, and slammed it onto the board’s right corner.

Seeing his lack of chivalry, Qin Mingyue rolled her eyes dramatically and inserted her slender fingers into her Gu jar…