The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 490: Seeing the Heavenly Spirit Tree

Xuanyuan Zhi climbed up from the ground in a disheveled state, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were dark and cold as he watched members of the various clans’ Gu cultivators rushing into the tomb tunnels. He was on the verge of losing his mind with rage.

At this moment, he was in a truly sorry state—his clothes were torn to shreds, his body covered in blood. It was obvious that he had suffered heavy injuries from the earlier explosion.

After closing his eyes briefly to sense his condition, his heart sank.

His injuries were far too severe. He had already reached the point where he had to sit down and heal immediately. Continuing to fight now would be utterly unwise. All he could do was watch helplessly as the Gu cultivators escaped one by one through the tomb tunnels.

“Damn it! What kind of monster is this? He actually has the ability to fuse Heavenly Fire and Heavenly Water. The resulting attack was strong enough to threaten even a Gu King. Who would've thought that a mere Spiritual Sea stage Gu cultivator would become such a variable!”

Xuanyuan Zhi smashed his fist into the ground, his expression darkening further.

“Your Highness! What should we do next? Shall we pursue them?” asked an old man exuding peak Gu King-level aura, frowning as he ran over.

Xuanyuan Zhi swept his gaze around and quickly took stock of their casualties. His fists clenched tightly, and his face grew even uglier.

The Xuanyuan royal family had brought over ten thousand elite cultivators, but after this explosion, more than half had perished. Less than two thousand survived—an unimaginably heavy loss.

Worse, those who had survived were all wounded, with many missing limbs, lying on the ground moaning in pain. Nearly half had lost all combat capability.

Everyone was now utterly terrified, eyes filled with dread, expressions blank—they looked as if they'd been bombed senseless. No fighting spirit remained.

Faced with such devastating losses, his vision darkened, and he nearly passed out.

In order to ensure total annihilation of the Eight Great Clans without letting a single one escape, the Xuanyuan royal family had mobilized its finest forces. Now that the majority of these elite troops had been lost, it dealt a severe blow to the royal family’s foundation. They could forget about recovering anytime soon. He had no idea how to explain this once he returned.

Taking a deep breath, rage boiling inside him for a long time, he finally said:

“Forget pursuing them. Our troops are either wounded or disabled. They’ve lost the will to fight. Continuing the chase will only bring even greater losses.”

“We no longer have the manpower to continue this chaos.” His face seemed to age years in an instant. Then his eyes sharpened, and he said coldly:

“Hmph! The Cangyue Imperial Tomb is filled with deadly traps. It’s certainly not a path to survival. Without us lifting a finger, most of them will die inside.”

“We only need to guard this spot and wait for the rabbits to come out of the hole. I refuse to believe they can stay in there forever.” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“As long as we stay here, we’ll kill them the moment they emerge. By entering the Cangyue Imperial Tomb, they face wolves ahead and tigers behind—it’s a dead end.” Xuanyuan Zhi sneered.

“All wounded are to treat their injuries on the spot. Those with lighter wounds are to guard each tomb tunnel and set up ambushes. Do not let a single one escape…”

At that moment, Long Xuan, who had already rushed into the tomb tunnel, suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. After checking his condition, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

His injuries were beyond severe—he was practically half-crippled. Most of his internal organs were heavily damaged, and this wasn’t something that could be healed quickly.

Anyone else would’ve already died a hundred times over from such injuries.

It was only thanks to his Water Bear Gu that he managed to cling to life.

The Distorted Jade technique was powerful, yes—but with great power came great cost. The explosion generated by the distorted force was so massive that it affected even the caster himself.

Due to its wide area of effect, there was nowhere to run. It was a technique that harmed both friend and foe—a move to be used only as a last resort.

Now, he was suffering the consequences. With his body in such a wrecked state, it would be incredibly difficult to face the dangers within the ancient tomb.

Looking up and sensing that there was no movement above, he realized the Xuanyuan royal family had not come down. He breathed a long sigh of relief. Their choice not to continue the pursuit was, at least for him, a good thing.

However, while the royal family didn't come down, Gu cultivators from the other clans had—all of them, including many Gu Kings, were behind him.

Long Xuan felt his head throb. He had accidentally injured many of them in the explosion—who knew if those Gu Kings would bear a grudge?

Now utterly weak, Long Xuan dared not be caught. He used the Earth Escape ability of his Bookworm Gu and immediately burrowed into the ground, vanishing.

Before, with the array formation protecting the Cangyue Imperial Tomb, Earth Escape wouldn’t have worked underground.

But now, the protective tomb formation had been broken by Di Xin, so Earth Escape was no longer restricted.

With the ability to tunnel, tomb raiding became incomparably easier when searching for treasure.

Shortly after Long Xuan disappeared, a graceful figure arrived at the spot he vanished from. She frowned slightly.

“Where is he? How did he just vanish into thin air? This guy’s mysterious trump cards are endless.”

Qin Mingyue showed a look of puzzlement. Hearing footsteps getting closer from behind, her expression changed. She had no choice but to abandon her questions and continue running forward.

Behind her were several Gu Kings—she dared not face unfamiliar Gu Kings directly.

Using Earth Escape like a cheat, Long Xuan tunneled underground without a care, avoiding the trap-laden corridors, secret chambers filled with unknown dangers, and leaping over layer upon layer of death traps—heading straight toward the location marked with an infinite progress symbol.

With an ability to bypass obstacles and precisely locate his targets, he was essentially a bug in this ancient tomb. All the deadly designs might as well not exist for him.

Within the Cangyue Imperial Tomb, there were multiple locations marked with infinite progress. Remembering Di Xin’s words—that the Heavenly Spirit Tree wasn’t the final tomb-guarding treasure—Long Xuan headed toward the nearest infinite progress point.

Before long, he shattered some bluish-green stone bricks with a punch and entered a spacious underground chamber. Soon, a towering green tree appeared before his eyes.

The ancient tree had thick, tangled roots and lush leaves. Vines hung down from the branches, exuding an aura of ancient majesty.

Amid the dense foliage, he could vaguely make out large blue fruits, each glowing faintly. In the dim underground, they were especially striking.

Seeing the glowing blue fruits, Long Xuan’s eyes widened with fiery brilliance, his breathing growing rapid.

“The Heavenly Spirit Tree! This is the Heavenly Spirit Tree! So it really does exist within the Cangyue Imperial Tomb! Hahaha… all the risk I took was worth it—even these heavy injuries mean nothing now!”

“As long as I use the Heavenly Spirit Fruits as the main ingredient to create an even stronger Heavenly Spirit Pill formula, I’ll break through to Gu King! Once I become a Gu King, I’ll soar like a phoenix, and no one—certainly not those Xuanyuan royal family Gu cultivators outside—will be able to stop me!”

Upon seeing the Heavenly Spirit Tree, Long Xuan was wild with joy, all his worries instantly swept away.

As long as he obtained the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, he could resolve all his troubles and easily weather this crisis.

Long Xuan clenched his fists. Though he was overwhelmed with excitement, he did not let his joy cloud his judgment.

He scanned his surroundings with caution, not daring to act rashly.

After all, this was the Imperial Tomb—the most perilous of places. Every mechanism within was designed to the extreme to kill tomb robbers, leaving not a sliver of escape. In such a deadly place, how could he afford to be careless?

There was no need to think further—given the Heaven-defying value of the Heavenly Spirit Tree, there were certainly deadly traps or guardians around it. If he charged forward recklessly, he wouldn't even know how he died.

Long Xuan carefully examined his surroundings and cautiously probed for dangers. When he noticed multiple disturbances in the underground river that nourished the Heavenly Spirit Tree, he understood.

He saw no other signs of mechanisms or formations in the chamber, which suggested the threat originated from within the river.

Long Xuan channeled his vast spiritual power into the Eye of Heavenly Secret, maximizing its X-ray vision capabilities. He could vaguely make out the forms of the unknown creatures in the river.

“Crocodiles? The creatures in the river are crocodiles?” Long Xuan murmured softly, his brows furrowing.

Crocodiles, as spiritual beasts, were slow on land but had overwhelming combat ability in water.

Encountering crocodiles in a river usually meant certain death.

The problem was, the underground river tightly encircled the Heavenly Spirit Tree. To reach the tree, one had to cross the river. And crossing it would certainly provoke the crocodiles and invite attacks from all sides.

Many of these crocodiles were Fourth-Grade Spirit Beasts, their combat strength comparable to that of a Gu King. In water, they were even more fearsome than a Gu King. Attempting to cross the river recklessly would mean being torn to shreds.

It was no exaggeration to say that this river could block dozens of powerful Gu Kings. If one tried to take the Heavenly Spirit Tree by force, who knew how many Gu Kings would have to die before it could be retrieved.

Long Xuan was suddenly troubled. Even a peak Gu King would struggle to take the Heavenly Spirit Tree—let alone him, a mere Spiritual Sea stage Gu Cultivator.

He considered tunneling from underground to bypass the river directly. But the roots of the Heavenly Spirit Tree drew nourishment from the river and extended too close to the edge.

At such close range, any emergence from the ground would surely attract the attention of the crocodiles.

Fortunately, he had cheated his way through all the previous traps and dangers to reach this place. The others were still held back by the tomb’s many perils and wouldn't arrive here anytime soon. He had plenty of time to think.

After pondering for a while, Long Xuan finally came up with a risky idea he wasn’t very confident in.

His desperate plan was to use the Seventy-Two Transformations to turn into a crocodile identical to those in the river, then walk across openly and pluck the Heavenly Spirit Fruit in broad daylight.

Though the Seventy-Two Transformations didn’t physically alter his body—it was merely a visual illusion—it was incredibly hard to detect flaws. Fooling the river crocodiles should not be a problem.

The only thing that concerned him was the intelligence of the crocodiles. If they were as smart as humans, seeing another of their kind approach for no reason—even if they couldn’t spot any flaws—they might still become suspicious.

If the crocodiles' intelligence truly rivaled that of humans, his plan was doomed. So, he was gambling that the crocodiles were dumb.

Because the plan carried such a high risk and was extremely dangerous, Long Xuan ultimately decided to send his Fire Clone—the expendable one—to carry it out. He himself would stay near the earth to escape with Earth Escape at the first sign of danger.

He didn't believe these crocodiles knew how to earth tunnel. As long as they couldn’t do that, even if they were Fourth-Grade Spirit Beasts, they couldn’t possibly catch him.

That’s why Earth Escape was considered a Heaven-Envied ability. Unless one was in a formation-restricted area, Earth Escape could avoid most dangers in the world—it was basically broken.

Before long, a large black crocodile boldly crawled toward the underground river.

Watching the crocodile slowly inch forward, Long Xuan hid in a concealed corner, eyes filled with nervousness.

“This trick of yours really going to work?”

A sudden voice in his ear startled him so much that he shuddered. He turned sharply and glared at the person next to him.

He didn’t need to look. Just from the voice, he knew who it was.

Who else could it be but Di Xin, who had entered earlier?

That she had reached the location of the Heavenly Spirit Tree so quickly truly surprised him.

Even though Di Xin had entered early to break the Cangyue Empire’s Imperial Tomb defense formation, the formation had only just been dispelled moments ago. They had arrived at almost the same time—only a short interval apart.

Long Xuan was deeply curious as to how she got here so fast.

“Could she have a map of this place?” Long Xuan wondered.

“Scaring people like that can get them killed, you know! Can’t you give me a warning before speaking?” Long Xuan gave her a grumpy glance.

Di Xin didn’t reply. Her gaze was fixed on the crocodile crawling toward the river, her expression extremely serious.

Someone could actually transform into a crocodile—in her view, this was simply unbelievable. She had never seen such an ability in her life, and even with all her experience, she couldn’t help but show shock.

Her eyes flickered with interest. She had to admit, turning into a crocodile to steal the fruit was quite a clever tactic. Against low-intelligence spirit beasts, it had a high success rate.

But wasn’t this too cruel on the clone? Wasn’t it a bit inhumane?

“The world really is full of wonders,” Di Xin said. “I never imagined there would be a Gu that allows one to transform into anything, with almost no flaws.”

“I’ve never seen this kind of Gu before. It’s never appeared in historical records either. Don’t tell me this is another one of your original creations? Can we trade for one?”

She turned her eyes toward him, gaze burning with interest.

With her sharp perception, she naturally realized how practical this ability was and how much convenience it could bring when stealing. She immediately wanted to trade for it.

Long Xuan immediately shook his head and smiled, “It’s not that I’m stingy. This ability comes from a Book Gu that acquired it from reading a novel—it can’t be duplicated.”

“A Book Gu can only be refined once per novel. You can’t make a second identical one.”

“That’s a pity!” Di Xin showed a brief flash of disappointment but didn’t doubt his words. Her eyes returned to the crocodile—Long Xuan’s transformed Fire Clone.

By now, the crocodile had reached the riverbank. With a loud splash, it entered the water.

Long Xuan immediately tensed up, clenching his fists, fearing crocodiles would rush in from all directions and tear his poor clone to pieces.

Fortunately, his fears were unnecessary. When the black crocodile entered the water, the others treated it like one of their own, showing no reaction. They simply let it swim slowly toward the Heavenly Spirit Tree.

Seeing this, Long Xuan relaxed and unclenched his fists, exhaling deeply.

As expected, the crocodiles were unintelligent—his plan had succeeded.