The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 400: Hidden Motives

Chapter 400: Hidden Motives

Two days later, inside the Soul Library, Long Xuan gazed at the alchemy recipe filled with intricate writings on the table and revealed a slight smile.

The Enlightenment Tea had indeed proven its worth. In just two days of external time, he had successfully developed the Estrus Pill.

The Estrus Pill's effect was simple yet astonishing—it induced mating in spirit insects, ensuring that they laid eggs.

Such an effect was nothing short of heaven-defying. As long as there were enough Estrus Pills, the number of peak-grade spirit insects could be increased at will, and the best part was that it had no side effects on the insects.

Of course, it wasn’t without drawbacks. The biggest issue was the rarity and cost of the materials. Due to these constraints, the Estrus Pill could not be mass-produced.

The difficulty in acquiring large quantities of the pill meant that even gathering ten thousand Gold-Eating Insects would take him considerable time.

However, Long Xuan was already satisfied. At worst, he would simply wait a hundred or even a thousand years—he had plenty of patience.

After some thought, he put away the recipe for the Estrus Pill and took out a blank sheet of paper.

He felt that the original Estrus Pill was too heaven-defying and was reluctant to hand it over.

Thus, he decided to develop a weakened version of the Estrus Pill with reduced potency.

The weakened version would ensure a 100% egg-laying rate for high-grade spirit insects and below, while peak-grade spirit insects would require a stroke of luck to lay eggs.

At that moment, Long Xuan suddenly felt a faint throbbing pain in his brain. He understood that, despite having six more days left, he was already nearing his mental limit after developing two alchemy recipe.

Enlightenment Tea had side effects.

While it could push the brain to operate beyond its limits, it greatly exhausted mental strength. As a result, it could not be consumed frequently—roughly once every fifty years was the safest interval.

After formulating two different pills, his mind was already at its breaking point, and he had little time left.

Long Xuan dared not delay. Clenching his teeth, he immediately began working on the weakened version of the Estrus Pill.

Creating a new pill recipe was difficult, but simplifying an existing one was far easier. The weakened Estrus Pill wouldn't take too much of his time.

Meanwhile, on his right side, Duan Tianwu, who had been meditating with his eyes shut, suddenly smirked. It was clear that his own research had also succeeded.

He had developed the Inheritance Pill.

Once consumed, it would instantly grant the user a specific inheritance, saving them from spending centuries learning a skill. It was truly a heaven-defying creation.

However, all miraculous pills had drawbacks, and the Inheritance Pill was no exception.

One major flaw was that it required a living person as a refining ingredient, which was considered a significant drawback for righteous Gu cultivators.

Additionally, his version of the Inheritance Pill was not yet perfect. While it could seal a person’s inheritance inside a pill, it would also carry that person’s will into the pill.

Absorbing too many different wills was dangerous—it could lead to mental instability and eventual madness.

Yet, even with these flaws, this pill could still be considered a divine-grade creation.

For example, a fourth-grade Inheritance Pill could allow a novice to instantly possess the skills of a fourth-grade Alchemist or a fourth-grade Blacksmith.

Such an alchemical creation was utterly heaven-defying!

In the Gu Realm, becoming a fourth-grade Alchemist before the age of fifty was nearly impossible. Across ten thousand years, only two exceptions had appeared—Ancestor Burning Heaven and himself.

Had this pill existed earlier, the current Alchemy Competition’s fourth-grade participants would have been overflowing.

This severely disrupted the world's balance, and he was reluctant to hand it over.

After some thought, he remained motionless, deciding to use his remaining time to create another pill recipe.

His brain was already aching, nearing its limit due to the effects of Enlightenment Tea.

Researching another pill on the same level as the Inheritance Pill was clearly impossible at this stage. However, he could still create a recipe for a pill that required less research time.

As a demonic cultivator, his first instinct was to focus on pills that used living beings as ingredients.

Why not throw a Gu King into the alchemy furnace and refine its entire spiritual energy into a pill?

A Spirit Gathering-stage Gu cultivator only needs to consume this pill to absorb the spiritual power of a Gu King, instantly becoming a Gu King-stage expert at the initial level. However, the price of this forced advancement is that their cultivation will forever be stagnant, unable to progress even an inch.

A pill as demonic as this would never appeal to talented Gu cultivators, but for impoverished and untalented rogue cultivators, it would be something they would fight over desperately.

This is an against-the-heavens pill capable of mass-producing Gu Kings for a clan. Any power that possesses this pill recipe could easily dominate an entire region.

It goes without saying that such a pill recipe would be fought over by major factions at any cost. Its value is self-evident.

Since the grading standard for the fourth round of the competition is based on the value of the pill, Duan Tianwu was absolutely confident that this pill would earn him the highest score.

A smirk appeared on Duan Tianwu’s lips as he immediately began researching the Gu King Pill. Yes, that was the name he gave it—Gu King Pill. He didn’t bother coming up with a more creative name since he wouldn’t be using it himself.

At this moment, to his right, Ancestor Burning Heaven also relaxed his furrowed brows, a faint smile forming on his lips.

After days of enlightenment, he had finally succeeded in creating the formula for the Hundred Lives Pill.

The Hundred Lives Pill allows a person to recall memories from their past life. However, it is not limited to just the most recent past life—there is a high probability of awakening past life memories upon consumption, with a smaller chance of recalling memories from lives further back, potentially even from the last hundred lifetimes.

However, the further back the memories, the lower the probability of recalling them.

At the same time, every pill has its limitations, and the Hundred Lives Pill is no exception.

Upon consuming the pill, the memories recalled are random and only a small segment can be remembered—it is impossible to recall an entire past life in full detail.

This means that after taking the Hundred Lives Pill, the memory one recalls might just be a trivial, useless fragment of daily life, wasting the precious opportunity entirely.

This flaw exists because the pill’s grade is simply too low.

A mere fourth-grade pill is far from being able to support the immense medicinal power required to recall an entire past life.

To achieve such a feat, nothing less than a twelfth-grade pill would suffice.

Ancestor Burning Heaven sighed in his heart. The current version of the Hundred Lives Pill was far from satisfying.

However, it was fine. Since the memories recalled were random and limited, he would compensate with quantity instead.

If he consumed one hundred Hundred Lives Pills, he refused to believe that every single recalled memory would be something mundane.

But then, Ancestor Burning Heaven's expression darkened again, and his earlier joy vanished.

Despite its many flaws, the ability to recall past life memories was still far too heaven-defying. How could he willingly hand it over?

After some contemplation, he decided to hide the recipe for the Hundred Lives Pill and use his spare time to create another pill recipe instead.

The enlightenment tea’s medicinal effects were already mostly exhausted, making it impossible to create another pill on the same level as the Hundred Lives Pill. In that case, he would use the remaining medicinal power to create a new pill that was at least decent.

After thinking for a moment, his frown disappeared, and a plan quickly formed in his mind.

He was a demonic cultivator who stood tall and unyielding. If he were to create a pill, it would naturally have to be a devilish one.

Thus, he decided to throw a group of Gu cultivators into a pill furnace, refining their soul power together into a single pill.

This pill would be named the Soul Supplement Pill. Inside, it would contain the soul essence of multiple Gu cultivators, allowing the user to increase their innate soul power upon consumption.

This was truly a brilliant idea. A sinister smile curled at the corners of Ancestor Burning Heaven’s lips.

While this pill might not be as heaven-defying as the Hundred Lives Pill, its ability to enhance innate soul power was still something that could be considered an against-the-heavens medicinal effect.

He refused to believe that submitting such an incredible pill recipe wouldn’t earn him the highest score in this round of the competition.