The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 480: Zhang Renshan

"This matter is settled then. When do you plan to begin cultivating the Bone Tempering Technique?"

While flipping through the Bone Tempering Technique manual in his hand, Long Xuan asked casually.

"I urgently need to enter the tomb to search for the Heaven Spirit Tree. I don’t want to waste time. The sooner, the better. Let’s begin now!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Di Xin rose to her feet and headed toward a cave not far away.

Long Xuan nodded, put away the manual, and hurriedly followed her.

At the same time, he dispatched his Fire Clone, instructing it to head in the direction of Xuanyuan City.

He hadn't forgotten about the Western Region Genius Tournament. This event was an excellent opportunity to find fated individuals, and he did not want to miss it.

Since his main body was needed to assist Di Xin in cultivating the Bone Tempering Technique, the task of finding fated people had to be entrusted to the clone.

As for participating in the Western Region Genius Tournament himself—he had never intended to from the beginning.

An event as grand as the Western Region Genius Tournament obviously couldn't be held in any ordinary city.

The largest city within the Xuanyuan Empire was undoubtedly the imperial capital—Xuanyuan City.

Naturally, the Western Region Tournament was to be held in Xuanyuan City. It was worth mentioning that Xuanyuan City wasn’t far from Holy Gu City.

Although the tournament was still more than a month away, many geniuses had already arrived early to secure inns.

In fact, some of them had arrived as early as two months ago.

At this point, Xuanyuan City was already teeming with geniuses. Earth-grade and Heaven-grade talents, rarely seen in ordinary times, were now everywhere in the city. One could say that Earth-grade geniuses roamed the streets, and Heaven-grade talents were as common as dogs.

You could casually throw a stone on the street and hit a genius.

After arriving in Xuanyuan City, Long Xuan went straight to the marketplace and casually set up a street stall.

Most of the geniuses who had entered the city would stroll through the marketplace in their leisure time, so setting up a stall there was a good way to encounter many of them.

To attract as many geniuses as possible, Long Xuan boldly laid out numerous rare and seldom-seen treasures—most of which he no longer needed.

For example, the Tear of the Moon—a key material for the second evolution of the Eye of Heavenly Secret. It was extremely expensive, primarily made from the leaves of the Moon Tree, a Heaven-grade spiritual herb.

However, Long Xuan had already reached the Spiritual Sea peak stage, and he used the Tear of the Moon to cleanse his Eye of Heavenly Secret daily. The medicinal power had long since reached saturation.

As such, the Tear of the Moon had become entirely useless to him—yet he had a large surplus. And since the item couldn't be stored forever, leaving it unused for too long would only cause it to deteriorate.

Taking this opportunity to set up a stall, Long Xuan decided to liquidate all his remaining Tears of the Moon. Rather than letting them go to waste, it was better to exchange them for useful resources.

But just as he had placed the small bottle containing the Tear of the Moon on the stall, a burly man approached.

After scanning all the treasures at the stall, his gaze fixed on that small bottle. Upon reading the label on the bottle, his interest instantly surged.

“Tear of the Moon?” The man muttered. “Wiping it on the eyes grants immunity to all illusion techniques—and it even works on high-level cultivators? This eye potion is practically defying the heavens.”

Zhang Renshan picked up the bottle, carefully examined it, and the more he looked, the more his eyes sparkled. It was clear he greatly valued this treasure.

As a pure body cultivator, his greatest fear was precisely illusion techniques, which were difficult to guard against and extremely effective against his kind. Illusions were practically the natural nemesis of body cultivators.

The Western Region Tournament was gathering geniuses from across the entire region—there was no way it wouldn’t include experts proficient in illusion arts. In fact, their numbers were likely significant. If he were to face one of them, his odds of defeat would be high.

But now that he had this treasure, the situation was different—it would allow him to ignore any illusion technique from his opponents.

If illusions were no longer his weakness, then he was confident he could place in the top three of the Western Region Genius Tournament.

Zhang Renshan clenched his fists, his eyes brimming with unshakable confidence.

He was determined to obtain this treasure—even at any cost.

Long Xuan looked up at the man and carefully examined him from head to toe. He couldn’t help but be shocked.

Good heavens—this guy was a body cultivator, and a terrifying one at that. His muscle density far surpassed even a Gu King’s.

Body cultivators were not uncommon, but they were rarely seen at high levels. Most body cultivators didn’t even qualify to duel with Gu cultivators. In this tournament, this man might very well be the only body cultivator competing.

And any body cultivator bold enough to participate in the Western Region Genius Tournament was clearly not an ordinary person. Long Xuan was sure that this man was an exceptional genius.

But whether or not he should “play Go” with this man left Long Xuan torn. He had never seen a truly powerful body cultivator before, and this man’s name was completely unfamiliar—no fame, no background.

Trading with this person seemed risky, and Long Xuan was conflicted.

"Your eye potion is impressive. I've never heard of anything called 'Tear of the Moon' before. You must have formulated it yourself?"

“I’m very interested in your Tear of the Moon. What do you want in exchange?”

Zhang Renshan suddenly spoke, snapping Long Xuan out of his thoughts.

After regaining his composure, Long Xuan spoke up:

“My Tear of the Moon eye drops are extremely expensive to produce. The main ingredient comes from the leaves of a peak-grade spiritual tree, and the supplementary ingredients are all equally precious.”

“Moreover, the medicinal effect of one bottle of Tear of the Moon is negligible. You need to use at least a hundred bottles to fully unleash its illusion-breaking capabilities.”

“If you want one hundred bottles of Tear of the Moon, then hand over a treasure worth more than one billion spirit stones in exchange,” Long Xuan said.

He wasn’t asking an exorbitant price—the Tear of the Moon truly was worth that much. Its ability to grant complete immunity to all forms of illusion made it highly desirable. In fact, many would gladly pay a billion spirit stones for it, and his price might actually be on the low end.

“Oh, and I have one more request. If you wish to trade for my Tear of the Moon, you must also play a game of Go with me. To be honest, I’ve refined a Go Gu, and I’m optimistic about your future,” Long Xuan added.

Ultimately, he chose to trust his judgment. The Go Gu tested one’s ability to discern people, and he believed that someone with such exaggerated muscle density couldn’t possibly be ordinary—this man would surely make a name for himself.

“Hahaha! Your judgment is sharp indeed! You could tell at a glance that I am extraordinary. I’m destined to become one of the Ten Great Powerhouses of the Gu World! You’ve picked the right person—good eye!” Zhang Renshan laughed loudly, brimming with confidence.

Hearing this, Long Xuan couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.

One of the Ten Great Powerhouses of the Gu World? This guy really dares to dream.

Was he just boasting? Or did he truly possess such power?

Long Xuan chose not to use the Integrity Gu to test the truth of his words. Some people are so convinced by their own bragging that even a Integrity Gu can’t determine whether they’re lying—because they believe it themselves.

“This is a peak-grade Gu, the World-Breaking Gu. Its value easily exceeds one billion. As a body cultivator, I have no use for it, so I’ll use it to trade for your Tear of the Moon.”

Zhang Renshan chuckled as he tossed a Gu jar toward Long Xuan.

Catching the jar, a gleam flashed in Long Xuan’s eyes.

The World-Breaking Gu was indeed an extraordinary item. Its power was similar to that of the innate spiritual treasure World-Breaking Pearl—both capable of shattering space to traverse between worlds. However, its use was limited to small worlds with weak spatial barriers; it had no effect on large realms like the Spirit Realm or the Divine Realm.

Back during the alchemy competition, the Four Evildoers had used a World-Breaking Pearl to tear through the barrier of the Medicine Realm. The World-Breaking Gu could do the same, though it was single-use—possessing only one instance of space-breaking power.

Still, even with that limitation, its power was extraordinary. The ability to freely enter a small world was something everyone desired, and it was more than enough to be worth a billion spirit stones.

Long Xuan nodded, storing the World-Breaking Gu, planning to study it further. If he could modify it to traverse even the Spirit Realm, that would be ideal.

This Gu was of great use to him.

“Deal. Now, let’s begin. Please, you go first.”

Long Xuan did not immediately produce the one hundred bottles of Tear of the Moon. Instead, he first pulled out a Go board and laid it flat between them.

Zhang Renshan was not polite—he inserted two fingers into the Gu jar, pulled out the brightest black Go piece, and heavily placed it at the center of the board—the Tengen position.

Long Xuan’s mouth twitched again. This big guy… didn’t seem to know how to play Go.

...

A month passed in the blink of an eye. Long Xuan had already spent a full month in the trading market.

During that time, he had completed countless transactions and met countless prodigies—but the number who could actually play a game of Go with him could be counted on one hand.

Long Xuan was incredibly picky. Even in Xuanyuan City, a place overflowing with talent, very few individuals met his standards.

So far, only three prodigies had played Go with him in that month.

One of them possessed the Body of Ten Thousand Poisons—a super-genius physique somewhat similar to the Disaster Poison Gu. To strengthen this body, one had to scour the world for poisons to refine it.

The Body of Ten Thousand Poisons was one of the Ten Strange Physiques and fully met Long Xuan’s criteria. The stronger the talent connected to the Go Gu, the greater the benefit to him. Thus, Long Xuan generously offered him a sample of radioactive metallic toxins.

Such a deadly poison, never before seen in this world, immediately captivated the young genius. His eyes lit up the moment he saw it, and he couldn’t tear himself away.

Using that toxin, Long Xuan successfully traded for five of the Ten Ultimate Poisons of the Gu World. Once the Disaster Poison Gu consumed all five, its combat strength more than doubled.

It was a highly profitable deal for Long Xuan.

However, that poison-resistant prodigy had since been poisoned unconscious in his inn and had not yet awakened. It remained unclear whether he’d make it to the upcoming competition.

The second genius Long Xuan had met a few times before—she was the girl from the Jiu Clan, who possessed the Wine King Gu.

The more types of fine wine the Wine King Gu absorbed, the stronger it became. Long Xuan naturally spared no effort to cultivate her, as she was linked to the Go Gu. The stronger she got, the better for him. In the end, he traded a wide variety of distilled liquors for treasures that proved beneficial to him.

And finally, the third person was none other than that boastful body cultivator—whose Go skills were abysmal. There’s not much to say about him.