The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 479: Meeting Di Xin Again

After reading the message on the communication talisman, a thought stirred in Long Xuan’s heart—there was going to be a genius tournament held in the Xuanyuan Empire.

It was truly a case of what you lack is what the heavens provide. He had been planning to find a place densely populated with geniuses to seek out fated individuals, and unexpectedly, he encountered a genius tournament. There probably wasn’t any place more packed with talent than this.

The corners of Long Xuan’s mouth curled up as he took out another communication talisman from his storage ring.

This particular talisman was the one he and Di Xin had exchanged. There was no way he would pass up a figure like her—someone prophesied to overturn the entire Gu Realm.

He had to move quickly to play that Go match with her. At her cultivation speed, if he delayed a few more days, she might break through to Gu King. At that point, his Go Gu ability would be useless against her—he would die of regret.

Long Xuan wrote on the talisman:

“Are you there? It’s been years, I’ve missed you. Could we meet?”

As his brush fell, the talisman transformed into a streak of light and flew from his hand.

Not long after, the storage ring on his finger trembled slightly. Long Xuan retrieved a communication talisman from it. Upon glancing at the elegant handwriting, a faint smile appeared on his lips.

The Next Day.

In an unnamed mountain range, there stood an old pavilion, aged yet graceful.

"Not bad! Not bad! So this is the coffee that’s taken the world by storm recently? The flavor is truly rich and leaves a lasting impression. Definitely worthy of being the world’s third most consumed beverage. I’m even tempted to refine a Coffee Gu now."

"By the way, just how many schools or factions have you founded now?"

A young girl in a yellow dress took a light sip of her coffee and teased the man across from her.

Long Xuan cracked his knuckles, realizing that the number had indeed become too many to count.

"You’re not wrong. I really can’t count them anymore. Even the recently popular 19-Line Go was invented by me. I made some fun rule changes. Interested in a match?"

With just a few words, Long Xuan had skillfully steered the conversation toward playing Go, revealing his intentions with a sly grin.

Di Xin rolled her eyes dramatically. She was far too sharp not to see through him. After years of no contact, suddenly coming all this way just to play a game? Of course she didn’t buy it.

With a smirk on her lips, Di Xin said teasingly,

"Since you created this 19-Line Go, you naturally need to refine a Go Gu that works under its rules."

"I heard that refining a Go Gu requires battling geniuses across the world. Looks like that’s your real reason for finding me. You’re trying to fleece me again, aren’t you?"

Thick-skinned as always, Long Xuan remained unfazed and chuckled,

"Just helping an old friend with a small favor—nothing but a simple effort."

Di Xin glared at him,

"Freeloading again? Dream on. I never do favors for free. If you want me to help, you'd better offer something that satisfies me."

"What do you want?" Long Xuan asked.

It was as if Di Xin had long anticipated this. She instantly pulled out a thick book from her storage ring and placed it on the table before him.

"This is a forbidden technique I poured my heart and soul into for years. I named it the Bone Tempering Technique."

"Bone Tempering Technique is extremely dangerous. It must be cultivated with someone standing guard. If you can help me master it, I’ll play a game of Go with you. If not—don’t even bother."

She raised her chin, arms crossed, gazing off into the distance.

Long Xuan took the thick book curiously, wondering just how terrifying a forbidden technique this genius girl could have created.

One had to know—Di Xin had frequently plundered the treasuries of noble clans and even robbed the imperial treasury. What kind of heaven-defying techniques hadn’t she seen?

Yet she chose not to cultivate any of those and instead created her own forbidden art. That alone showed just how extraordinary this Bone Tempering Technique must be—surely far superior to anything in the imperial palace. Long Xuan felt a spark of anticipation.

Even so, he had mentally prepared himself for its power—but after flipping through just a few pages, he couldn’t help but inhale sharply, eyes wide with shock.

The Bone Tempering Technique was a body-refinement technique focused on forging the very bones of the cultivator.

Those who trained in it would gradually refine their bones until they became harder than the hardest metals of the world.

Eventually, the bones would turn completely golden, reaching a terrifying level of hardness.

But merely having hard bones wasn’t what made this technique horrifying.

Transforming the entire skeleton into gold was only step one.

The most terrifying part was that countless formation patterns had to be engraved directly onto the golden bones, turning the body itself into the foundation for a moving, unparalleled killing formation.

Di Xin was actually planning to refine herself into a mobile apocalyptic formation array—a thought so insane it shocked Long Xuan to the core.

If one could carry an absolute killing formation into battle, who could possibly defeat such a person?

It was now clear to Long Xuan why Di Xin had insisted he help with this cultivation.

The surface area of human bones was limited, not nearly enough to inscribe all the formation patterns needed.

To engrave such a complex formation on her bones, each array would need to be reduced ten thousandfold in size.

The reason this book was so thick was precisely because of the sheer number and complexity of the formations—it wasn’t something ordinary people could even begin to handle.

And in this world, there was only one person capable of engraving miniaturized formations onto her golden bones—Long Xuan himself.

He sighed inwardly. It seemed Di Xin had long known of his ability to engrave miniature formations.

Of course she would. She had spent so long aboard his ship—how could she not have uncovered its secrets?

Perhaps it was his own influence that inspired her wild imagination, leading to this insane forbidden art.

"The number of formations in this book is absurd. If I were to engrave all of them onto your body, not only would you endure pain worse than death, but it would also take an enormous amount of time."

"If we start now, you’ll probably miss the Genius Tournament in the Western Region," Long Xuan reminded her with a deep breath.

Di Xin gave him a scornful look and sneered,

"You think just because I’m in the Xuanyuan Empire I’m interested in that little talent show?"

"That’s just a bunch of kids playing games. This empress has no time to mess around with those little brats. The so-called rewards? A complete waste of time."

Long Xuan’s lips twitched. She had just dismissed the largest genius gathering in the entire Western Region as a child’s game.

Clearly, she didn’t consider any of the Western Region’s so-called prodigies worth her time.

Either she truly possessed the power to disregard all geniuses—or she was bluffing outrageously.

"Then what exactly brought you to the Xuanyuan Empire this time…?"

Di Xin immediately replied, “I’ve already touched the bottleneck of the Gu King realm. As long as I can find the right breakthrough resources, I can advance to Gu King at any time.”

“But as you know, breaking through to Gu King as a mortal is incredibly difficult. Conventional Breakthrough King Pills are completely ineffective for me.”

“I can only scour the world for the most potent breakthrough spiritual herbs.”

“After years of investigation, I discovered the existence of a Heaven-grade spiritual herb known as the Heaven Spirit Tree.”

“The Heaven Spirit Fruits borne from this tree have a fifty percent chance of pushing one to the Gu King realm—even if eaten raw.”

“The medicinal power of Heaven Spirit Fruit will definitely help me break through—I must obtain it no matter the cost.”

As she spoke, Di Xin clenched her fists, her eyes radiating an intense light.

“And through my years of research, the Heaven Spirit Tree was taken into an ancient tomb by Emperor Cangyue.”

“To this day, no one knows where Emperor Cangyue’s tomb is. But based on my deductions, it should lie within the borders of the Xuanyuan Empire, and very likely right in the region we’re standing in now.”

“This area is especially suited for laying terrifying murder formations. But despite searching for days, I haven’t found a single clue.” Di Xin looked down in disappointment as she spoke.

At that moment, Long Xuan was shocked. Good heavens, this Di Xin is actually after Cangyue’s ancient tomb—such audacity. That’s the imperial mausoleum! Anyone with half a brain knows how terrifying it must be.

Even if Di Xin were lucky enough to locate the tomb, there’s no way a mere Spiritual Sea-stage Gu cultivator could loot it.

Long Xuan had studied the history of the Xuanyuan Empire and learned that its predecessor was the Cangyue Empire, an extremely ancient nation.

While the Empress’s tomb in the far western lands may have belonged to a peak Gu King at most—and was likely just the burial of a Clone of the Empress—

Emperor Cangyue was undoubtedly a being far beyond the Gu King level. He didn’t even belong to the current Era of Diminished Qi. The Cangyue Empire was so ancient that no one truly knew how high the founding emperor’s cultivation had been.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the danger of Cangyue’s Imperial Tomb far exceeded that of the Empress Yao Guang’s tomb. Facing such a lethal tomb, even Long Xuan felt fear in his heart and dared not enter lightly.

Yet the Heaven Spirit Tree remained a source of irresistible temptation—like a devil’s voice luring him into the tomb.

The Heaven Spirit Tree is the superior form of the Earth Spirit Tree and is a treasure Di Xin is willing to risk everything for—and so is Long Xuan.

As a Ten Absolute Body, ordinary breakthrough pills are also useless to him. He, too, had to search the world for the most powerful breakthrough spiritual medicines.

He was now close to touching the Gu King bottleneck himself. Missing this opportunity to find the Heaven Spirit Tree might delay his breakthrough by many years.

Long Xuan found himself torn—should he take the risk?

Instinctively, he poured all his mental energy into his Eye of Heavenly Secret, activating it at full capacity to scan underground.

Very soon, his scalp tingled—Good heavens, Di Xin was actually right! The Cangyue Imperial Tomb was indeed hidden in this mountainous region.

And, as fate would have it—it was directly beneath this pavilion! Below was a startling progress bar marked ∞ (infinite).

However, whatever it was, it lay buried incredibly deep—already at the Eye of Heavenly Secret’s maximum detection depth.

It was precisely this extreme depth that prevented Di Xin from locating the tomb so far.

Long Xuan took a deep breath and said with gravity, “Wait here.”

With that, Long Xuan activated the first ability of his Bookworm Gu, burrowing into the earth right before Di Xin’s eyes and vanishing.

“Earth Escape Ability?” Di Xin’s pupils contracted as she looked on in shock.

While the ability to tunnel underground isn’t exactly heaven-defying, it allows for easy discovery of underground tombs, spiritual stone veins, and rare metal ore deposits.

Because of this, the Earth Escape ability was heavily restricted by the Heavenly Dao and categorized as a Heaven-Envied Ability.

Such powers aren’t forbidden, but can only appear under rare and fateful circumstances. In the Gu Realm, they are almost never seen. Di Xin hadn’t expected Long Xuan to possess such a rare talent.

With this ability, the odds of locating the buried Cangyue Imperial Tomb would drastically improve—Di Xin couldn’t help but smile.

Long Xuan rushed straight toward the location of the infinite progress reading. Since the tomb lay so deep underground, it took quite some time before he reached the ancient stone gate.

He felt along the gate’s timeworn surface, closed his eyes, and attempted to replicate the tomb with his Origin Realm. But shortly after, he frowned slightly.

This ancient tomb was no simple structure. Many of its sections couldn’t be replicated even with the Origin Realm. Even if copied, it would be useless. The danger level here was far beyond what a mere Spiritual Sea-stage Gu cultivator could handle.

After a basic survey of the tomb, Long Xuan came to a firm conclusion: he and Di Xin absolutely could not loot this tomb on their own.

To obtain the Heaven Spirit Tree, they would need a horde of Gu Kings to charge ahead as cannon fodder—breaking through most of the tomb’s dangers—after which the two of them could reap the rewards from behind.

The plan was simple: leak the information that a tomb existed here, and naturally, hordes of Gu Kings would swarm in, eager to explore.

Of course, this plan had obvious downsides—most of the tomb’s treasures would be taken by others, and competing with so many Gu Kings would be like stealing meat from a tiger’s mouth—an extremely risky venture.

Long Xuan’s eyes flickered, and he finally gritted his teeth. Between two dangers, he chose the lesser one. In his view, it was far safer to let other Gu Kings explore the tomb than go in alone.

With his decision made, Long Xuan immediately shot back up to the surface.

Moments later, Long Xuan burst out of the ground and faced Di Xin directly. “I’ve found the location of the Cangyue Imperial Tomb—it lies directly beneath this pavilion.”

“However, based on my investigation, the two of us alone absolutely cannot plunder this tomb.”

“I plan to lure a group of Gu Kings inside to explore it for us. Of course, this means we’ll have to share a much smaller portion of the loot. What say you?”

Hearing that Long Xuan had located the tomb so quickly, Di Xin was stunned. Truly worthy of the Earth Escape ability—what convenience for tomb-hunting.

Knowing the tomb’s location, Di Xin was overjoyed. She laughed and said, “To think I searched so long in vain, and the Cangyue Imperial Tomb was right beneath my ass!”

“If not for you today, I really would have missed this opportunity.”

“I agree with your plan. It’s not just that we can’t loot this tomb alone—even if we had an eighty percent chance of success, I wouldn’t take the risk.”

“Luring a bunch of Gu Kings to go in first is the safest method. So what if we get less of the spoils? I don’t lack treasures—I want only that Heaven Spirit Tree.”

“Let’s do it your way. Once I complete my Forbidden Art, you can reveal the tomb’s location during an auction.”

“In this way, not only can we trick many Gu Kings into entering the tomb, but we can also make a massive profit.” Di Xin’s smile turned devious.