The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 516: The Shocked Dragon Emperor (End)

“Hehe! Brother Long Xuan, it’s been a while. I hope all has been well.”

The sudden voice interrupted Long Xuan’s train of thought. He raised his head and saw a familiar face, which made him smile faintly.

He didn’t know many people, and before coming here, he had only informed Long Dan in advance. Naturally, it was Long Dan who came to greet him.

As for old acquaintances like Elder Long, Long Ziyan, Long Qilin, and the rest of that older generation—they weren’t currently in Dragon Emperor City. Most were still stationed in the Western Region, so none of them were among the welcoming party.

Back during his Spiritual Sea stage, he often used the Sou Gu Hut to sneak over and share intimate moments with Long Ziyan, only returning after completely exhausting his energy. But ever since he broke through to the Gu King Realm, the Sou Gu Hut could no longer teleport those at the Gu King level, and so he hadn’t seen Long Ziyan in a long time.

Thinking of that beauty, he momentarily lost focus and was filled with the urge to upgrade the Sou Gu as quickly as possible.

Seeing Long Xuan didn’t respond, Long Dan smiled again and asked, “Brother Long Xuan, you’re several months late. Did something unexpected happen on the way?”

Hearing that, Long Xuan finally came back to his senses and smiled. “Yes, there were a few delays. I was concocting pills along the way and gathering materials, which took longer than expected.”

“So, how’s the situation in Dragon Emperor City? Not much warfare now, I suppose?” Long Xuan asked casually.

He had only come because he heard that the Dragon Soaring Empire had ceased its wars and was now stabilizing its conquered territories. If the empire had still been at war, he—being so cautious—would never have come at such a time.

“Hehe! You’re late. The war just ended. I was a key contributor to ending it, earning the highest honor of the Long Clan— the Hidden Dragon Tattoo, forever etched in the clan’s history!” Long Dan said with visible pride.

But while Long Dan valued the tattoo greatly, Long Xuan didn’t care for such things in the slightest. He didn’t even bother to ask about Long Dan’s war contributions.

“And how is Senior Long Xiaoyao doing?” Long Xuan asked, referring to the old master who had always shown him great care and support.

He was just making small talk; truthfully, he wasn’t very curious about the status of the chief alchemist of the Phoenix Heaven Empire.

Long Dan had initially hoped to boast about his achievements, expecting Long Xuan to inquire. But to his disappointment, Long Xuan changed the topic. His expression stiffened.

After pausing for a moment, Long Dan shook his head and said, “He is one of the empire’s most treasured assets and a priority protection target. How could he not be doing well?”

“However, during the empire’s conflict with the Mystic Moon Wolf Clan, a certain ancient ruin was discovered by chance.”

“The reason the Dragon Emperor City ceased its war and began recuperating wasn't just to stabilize territory. A significant reason was that ruin.”

“That ruin is no ordinary place—it contains an immense amount of treasure and has attracted the attention of countless native powers. The Dragon Emperor himself had to lead a large force of Long Clan experts to personally explore it. Long Xiaoyao was among those who followed.”

“However, the ruin is riddled with danger. I don’t think someone as important as Long Xiaoyao would enter it personally. So if you’re worried about his safety, you can rest assured.”

“Let’s not talk about this anymore. Let’s enter the city. Today, I’ll host. We’ll drink till we drop!”

“As for your future arrangements, that’ll have to wait until the Dragon Emperor returns.”

With a laugh, Long Dan draped an arm around Long Xuan’s shoulder and led him into the city.

The guards at the gate, seeing Long Dan, didn’t even bother to question and respectfully let them pass.

Watching their backs as they departed, the guards began whispering among themselves.

“Who is that man? He seems to have such a close relationship with General Long Dan—and even made him smile.”

“No idea. General Long Dan is known for being stern. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen him smile. Whoever this guy is, he must be something else.”

“General Long Dan believes in strength above all. Even in front of Princess Yuyao, he’s always stone-faced. Never once has he shown a smile. I have a feeling… this newcomer may soon change the future of the Dragon Soaring City!”

Three Months Later

It had been three months since he entered the city. Since that meal with Long Dan, Long Xuan had shut himself in the palace arranged for him and hadn’t stepped outside even once.

He had a lot to do. First, after reaching the Gu King Realm, his previous cultivation technique had become obsolete.

The Ten Absolute Scripture had only been deduced up to the third layer, which supported cultivation up to the Spiritual Sea Stage.

To cultivate at the Gu King Realm, he had to push the Ten Absolute Scripture to its fourth layer.

Without a suitable technique for his current level, he couldn’t advance in cultivation. So this matter couldn’t be delayed—it had to be resolved as soon as possible.

Ever since breaking through, he had never stopped researching the fourth layer of the sutra.

However, the Gu King Realm techniques were far more profound than he expected—far beyond his ability to deduce. After all, creating a cultivation method required a vast foundation of knowledge, including studying numerous Gu King Realm techniques. Without such accumulation, even with his golden finger, he couldn’t craft something more advanced. Lack of exposure to the Gu King level was his greatest weakness.

Thus, his research had stalled. He felt utterly blocked, and without a cultivation method, his advancement naturally slowed to a crawl.

But once inside Dragon Emperor City, his inspiration returned.

Within the Scripture Tower, the empire had accumulated countless powerful techniques over the years—including many at the Gu King level.

With so many techniques to draw from, his theoretical foundation grew rapidly. He finally began making progress on the fourth layer of the Ten Absolute Scripture.

Over the past three months, he frequently used Seventy-Two Transformations to disguise himself as Long Dan and confidently walk into the Scripture Tower, where he released his clones and soul fragments to rapidly absorb the knowledge stored there.

After reading ten thousand scrolls, all the bottlenecks in his custom technique vanished. The long-stalled fourth layer of the Ten Absolute Scripture was finally being refined piece by piece. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He didn’t even have to rack his brain too hard. He just needed to follow the patterns from previous layers.

The first layer of the Ten Absolute Scripture required creating five types of mutated spiritual power: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

The second layer required creating five more types: Gold, Forest, Aqua, Blaze, and Mountain.

The third layer required fusing four attributes to create five mutated types: Metallic, Verdant, Torrential, Inferno, and Tremor, etc.

Following this pattern, the fourth layer would naturally involve the fusion of five elements.

That is, complete fusion of all five elemental attributes.

These five new variant spiritual forces were essentially the same in fusion concept, only differing in starting points. Hence, he named the five as:

Argent Spiritual Power.

Viridescent Spiritual Power.

Cerulean Spiritual Power.

Incandescent Spiritual Power.

Ochreous Spiritual Power.

The Incandescent Spiritual Power follows the sequence of fire, earth, metal, water, wood.

The Cerulean Spiritual Power follows the sequence of water, wood, fire, earth, metal.

The Viridescent Spiritual Power follows the sequence of wood, fire, earth, metal, water.

The Argent Spiritual Power follows the sequence of metal, water, wood, fire, earth.

The Ochreous Spiritual Power follows the sequence of earth, metal, water, wood, fire.

To achieve this, he barely used any time to read books using his soul clone. Nearly all his time was spent experimenting on these five mutated spiritual powers. If one counts the extended time spent in the Soul Library, the actual time he consumed far exceeded just three months...

That day, above the Dragon Emperor City, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. Wind and rain collided violently. Endless dark clouds suddenly enveloped the skies of Dragon Emperor City. Just moments ago, the sky was bright and sunny—but it turned pitch black in an instant.

The terrifying phenomenon shook every resident of the city. Their expressions turned grave. Slowly raising their heads, they gazed at the sky, where bolts of blinding thunder crisscrossed, and fear gradually filled their eyes.

Inside a grand palace, Long Xuan put down his brush and closed a thick tome labeled "Ten Absolute Scripture" on the cover. Just as he was about to smile smugly, a deafening thunderclap from outside startled him so badly he nearly lost his soul.

Sensing the blinding white lightning outside, Long Xuan’s jaw dropped in disbelief as he muttered,

“White lightning… this is actually the ninth-ranked Reincarnation Tribulation Lightning? How is this even possible?”

“Did I trigger this? Just by creating a cultivation method?”

“Sh*t! I miscalculated!”

Long Xuan was utterly dumbfounded, his eyes full of shock.

He had never imagined that by successfully deducing the fourth layer of the Ten Absolute Scripture, he would directly summon the Reincarnation Lightning. This far exceeded his expectations.

One must understand—this cultivation method only had four layers so far. Assuming one layer per major realm, a full cultivation technique would need at least twelve layers.

This meant that his current method was nothing more than a severely fragmented technique. And yet, this mere four-layered fragment was enough to summon Reincarnation Lightning—it scared him out of his wits.

He couldn’t help but think:

“If creating the fifth layer brings a stronger tribulation… what about the twelfth?”

At this moment, his lips were trembling; he could no longer keep calm.

“Looks like I really have created something outrageous. Cultivation methods that summon tribulation lightning in this world are extremely rare—practically unheard of. I never thought the Ten Absolute Scripture I created would be this heaven-defying!”

Long Xuan stared solemnly at the sky, not knowing whether to be terrified or thrilled.

After a brief daze, he finally stepped outside.

Now that the lightning tribulation had descended, he had no choice but to face it head-on.

Fortunately, he had the Tribulation Gu, so he wasn’t too worried about being struck down by the Reincarnation Lightning Tribulation.

On the contrary, he even saw it as an opportunity to refine his body through tribulation, strengthening his physique further.

This sudden lightning tribulation… wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, for him, it was a kind of supplement—the more, the better.

Meanwhile, inside a majestic hall, a tall and imposing figure stepped outside with a group of retainers. He looked up at the white lightning-filled skies, his expression deeply solemn.

“This… This is the legendary ninth-ranked Reincarnation Lightning? I’ve never witnessed the might of a tribulation lightning before—who would have thought I’d live to see it.”

“Who is it? Who could possibly have summoned such a tribulation?”

“If this Reincarnation Lightning descends, won’t it destroy the entire Dragon Emperor City?!”

Even the Dragon Emperor's voice wavered. The usually dignified sovereign now showed an unusual hint of panic.

Long Xiaoyao frowned as he stared at the sky. His trembling hand tugged at his beard, trying to mask his nervousness, and hesitated:

“The wood-element spirit energy in the air is active… and the clouds contain terrifying mental energy. This seems like a sign of a heaven-defying cultivation method being born!”

“Legend has it that when someone creates a method that is too heaven-defying, Heaven itself will send down tribulation lightning to destroy it.”

“The Heavenly Dao does not allow things that break its balance to exist—including cultivation methods.”

“Could it be… that some monstrous genius in the city has created a technique powerful enough to provoke the Heavenly Dao?”

Long Xiaoyao’s hand suddenly slipped, pulling out a tuft of his own beard.

Yet, he didn’t feel the pain on his chin. He muttered as if soulless:

“How could this be…? In this era, the highest cultivation stage known is Gu King, and the most advanced cultivation methods only have four layers. It’s been believed that no technique today can trigger tribulation lightning.”

“But this one—just its first four layers already summon such terrifying tribulation! And it's none other than the Reincarnation Lightning!”

Long Xiaoyao gasped in astonishment.

“What?! This phenomenon is caused by someone creating a cultivation method? What kind of heaven-defying method could possibly draw out the legendary Reincarnation Lightning? Who is the genius behind it?”

Even the Dragon Emperor shouted in disbelief, clearly losing his composure.

“Judging from where the phenomenon centers… could it be him?”

Long Dan slowly squinted his eyes, his gaze becoming more intense as he looked in the direction of a certain palace.

It was the residence he had personally arranged for Long Xuan after receiving him—he knew that location like the back of his hand.

And the epicenter of the phenomenon was exactly that place.

Thinking of how this shameless scoundrel had snuck into the Scripture Pavilion disguised as him, freeloading cultivation techniques, his heart skipped a beat. Suspicion toward Long Xuan instantly deepened—no, there was no need to suspect. This was definitely his doing.

Long Dan clenched his fists tightly, eyes filled with disbelief.

Though Long Xuan was roughly the same age as himself, he had already created his own cultivation technique—and not just any technique.

It was powerful enough to summon the Reincarnation Lightning Tribulation.

Such a feat was truly beyond imagination.

To self-create a cultivation method that could attract tribulation lightning—not to mention how rare the ability is—even when looking across all ages since mankind’s inception, those who’ve succeeded are vanishingly few.

That Long Xuan could accomplish such a thing at his young age placed him among the monsters of the ages, enough to suppress all other eternal geniuses. His name would certainly go down in history.

Long Dan gave a bitter smile.

“So we’re both geniuses... but how is the gap between us so vast? Since Long Xuan was born, why was Long Dan even needed?”

Now he was truly curious about what kind of cultivation method Long Xuan had created.

TL Notes: And that’s a wrap, folks! Thanks for diving into Path of Immortality: Starts with Creating Water Bear Gu. It’s been a wild ride, and I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did translating it. For those unaware, this was the final chapter before the author went radio silent, so it’s likely been dropped. An unfortunate news, I know—we may never see Long Xuan’s full journey to immortality, but those shenanigans he did. will always stick with us, haha. Thanks for reading and sticking around!

PS: Will soon update next novel to be translated and update on future plans, so look forward to that!