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Gu Alchemist: Crafting Immortality with a Tardigrade Gu

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Synopsis
The soul of an entomologist traveled to the world of immortal cultivation and possessed the body of a humble, casual cultivator who practiced the art of controlling insects. After being given a new life, he just wanted to stay away from fighting and live a peaceful life in a mortal village. With incredible imagination and understanding, and unlimited time, he could create his own techniques, recipes for elixirs, recipes for instruments, array diagrams, recipes for poisons, recipes for wine... all by himself. While others cultivated the way of killing, he cultivated the way of self-creation.
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Chapter 1 - Starting with a Self-Created Gu Recipe

  "Where is this?"

  He looked around in confusion, frowning.

  What appeared in his sight was a messy bedroom, and the air still smelled moldy.

  When his eyes swept across a bronze mirror on the table, a handsome boy of fifteen or sixteen years old appeared in his sight.

  He soon realized that he had traveled through time, and then a large number of unfamiliar memories flooded into his mind, further confirming his guess.

  This is a strange world similar to the world of cultivating immortals, with elixirs, instruments, formations, talismans, beast control, insect control, sword control, and puppets...

  The boy is a Gu cultivator who practices insect control and lives in an area full of Gu cultivators. The people in this area raise and refine Gu to gain powerful strength.

  The so-called Gu involves placing different kinds of spiritual insects in a container and letting them kill each other.

  Over time, there is a probability that a more powerful new insect species will be born.

  The new insect species born in this way are called Gu insects. Gu insects cannot reproduce and can only be obtained by refining Gu.

  There are countless combinations of spirit insects, depending on the type and number of spirit insects in the vessel.

  Different combinations will give birth to different Gu insects, with different shapes, strengths, weaknesses, and abilities.

  But they can be roughly divided into two categories. One is larger and used for external combat, called external Gu.

  The other is smaller and can parasitize the body of a Gu cultivator, growing with the nutrients of the Gu cultivator's body, and feeding back to the Gu cultivator with various magical abilities, such as the ability to spit fire and call thunder. This type of Gu insect is called internal Gu.

  Some internal Gu are harmful to Gu cultivators and can be thrown into the enemy's food. Because of their small size, they are difficult to detect and almost impossible to prevent. Those who are poisoned by Gu often have their internal organs eaten and die.

  It is worth mentioning that many combinations cannot produce Gu, and even fewer combinations can produce powerful Gu species.

  Gu cultivators record the combination that can produce Gu on paper, which becomes a Gu recipe that is passed down forever.

  The Gu recipe is the cornerstone of a family's long-term prosperity and the most important thing for a family.

  Every family regards it as a treasure and never passes it on.

  Therefore, it is very difficult for ordinary people to learn the Gu recipe.

  The original owner is just an ordinary person from a poor family. He works as a handyman in a medicine garden to earn a meager income and has no chance to learn the Gu recipe.

  The original owner is also named Long Xuan. He is of humble status. His parents died when he was young. He was born with a golden finger, which is a standard configuration for the protagonist.

  However, in the eyes of the original owner, this golden finger is useless and has no practical use. Therefore, this protagonist has been poor and has not become stronger because of the golden finger.

  Seeing this part of the memory, Long Xuan couldn't help but frown.

  Can a golden finger be useless? It's unheard of. After reading countless novels, this is the first time he has heard of it.

  The protagonist's golden finger is not a system but simply allows him to see the growth of all things.

  This is the only function. It can only be seen, and it cannot be changed. Except for visually seeing a number, it is useless.

  At first glance, it is really useless. Spiritual beasts and insects can be judged by their growth situation by volume, and there are many ways to identify the age of human spiritual medicine. He really doesn't need to distinguish.

  Long Xuan showed a thoughtful look. According to the description in his memory, this is a pair of eyes that can see the growth of all things. This "all things" refers to all things in the world, not limited to living things.

  It seems that all living and dead things that can be named can have their growth seen.

  However, the growth rate is not vivid when used on dead things. Long Xuan prefers to use a modern word, and the general term "progress" is more vivid.

  The ability to see the progress of all things seems useless to the original owner, but Long Xuan does not think so. In his opinion, this ability still has a lot of room for development.

  There is no useless golden finger, only useless hosts. It all depends on how strong the host's imagination is.

  As a traverser, the most lacking thing is imagination, and soon many magical ideas appeared in his mind.

  He hurriedly got out of bed and walked to the table, took out paper and pen from the drawer, quickly wrote the two big words "Gu Recipe" on the paper, and then wrote a material called ghost spider below.

  As expected, the progress immediately appeared on the paper, but the progress changed from the original 10% to 20% to the digital expression of the previous life. Obviously, the expression of the golden finger is mainly based on the host's cognition.

  At this time, a string of 1.5% numbers appeared in his sight.

  Long Xuan was thoughtful. According to his guess, the residual recipe is also a kind of thing, so naturally the progress can be seen.

  The progress of the Gu recipe obviously represents the degree of incompleteness of the Gu recipe.

  The more complete the Gu recipe is, the higher the progress is, and the more incomplete the Gu recipe is, the lower the progress is.

  However, a Gu recipe that is only 1% incomplete is also called a residual recipe, and a Gu recipe that is only missing one material is also called a residual recipe in theory.

  So it is simple, how difficult is it to forge a residual recipe with only one material left?

  He only needs to guess a residual recipe with visible progress and then continue to write down the materials he thinks are correct.

  If the progress disappears, it means that he guessed wrong. He can erase it and change to another material.

  If the progress increases, it means that he guessed correctly and can continue to guess.

  When he guesses 100%, it means that he has successfully guessed a Gu recipe.

  He just deliberately wrote the insect species of his previous life on paper, but he can also see the progress, which shows that the criteria for the Golden Finger to judge the residual recipe include theoretical existence.

  In other words, he can use this Golden Finger to create his own Gu recipe and create new Gu species that have not yet appeared in this world.

  There is no cost of trial and error, and he only needs pen and paper to study the recipe. For him, creating his own recipe is just a matter of time.

  Having a strong soul and strong comprehension in two lives, coupled with his identity as an entomologist in his previous life, he was confident that he could use his knowledge and imagination from his previous life to research an incredible Gu recipe, which would be enough to shine in this world.

  Long Xuan was extremely excited and full of expectations for the future. After studying his golden finger for a while, he finally opened the door and walked towards the medicine garden that the original owner was responsible for.

  It takes a lot of start-up capital to refine Gu, and this medicine garden may be his first pot of gold.

  The medicine garden is owned by a Gu cultivator named Long, and outsiders call him Long Lao.

  Long Lao comes from a Gu cultivator family called Longjia. He was ordered to garrison this village called Dashi Village to defend it from the invasion of spirit beasts and the looting of demon cultivators and robbers.

  What Dashi Village needs to pay is more than half of the food, including meat and eggs.

  I don't know how many villages are similar to those controlled by the Long family.

  In this world, Gu cultivators cannot farm. This group will only practice continuously, not engage in production, and are particularly good at eating. The source of food can only come from mortal villages of all sizes.

  The Gu Cultivation Clan provides shelter for the Mortal Village, and the Mortals provide food for the Gu Cultivation Clan.

  The more powerful the Gu Cultivation Clan, the more Mortal Villages it controls. Wars between Gu Cultivation Clans also involve the plundering of Mortal Villages.

  Dashi Village is a large village with a population of up to 3,000. It has grown to its current size because of the only market in the Far West nearby.

  Because it is closest to the Long Family, it has become one of the villages under its protection.

  The Long Family is one of the seven strongest Gu Cultivation Clans in the Far West, and no one dares to provoke them. Therefore, there has never been a plundering incident in Dashi Village.

  Such a safe environment is exactly what Long Xuan is satisfied with.

  The area of ​​Long Lao's medicine garden is very large, and more than 100 kinds of spiritual medicines are planted.

  The grades of spiritual medicines can be divided into one to ten grades from low to high, and then there are earth grades and heaven grades that only exist in legends.

  Although Long Lao's medicine garden is large, it grows only the lowest grade of spiritual medicines, and the types are all flower spiritual medicines

. The medicine garden is filled with various rich flower fragrances, which are refreshing.

  Long Xuan followed the instructions in his memory and walked into the medicine garden with a bucket of green liquid. The green liquid was fertilizer.

  The fertilizer for spiritual medicine is not smelly feces, but this green liquid that can only be bought at the Chamber of Commerce. Long Xuan prefers to call it ripening liquid.

  Using ripening liquid on spiritual medicine is enough to shorten the growth period of spiritual medicine by half.

  Long Xuan was very interested in this ripening liquid. He sniffed it again and again, as if he wanted to study its ingredients.

  Ordinary ripening liquid can produce such a heaven-defying effect. Wouldn't the advanced ripening liquid be able to shorten the spiritual medicine that takes a thousand years to mature to a hundred years?

  He firmly believed that as long as he knew the formula of this bucket of ripening liquid, he could definitely study the formula of the advanced ripening liquid through the golden finger.

  "It's a pity, it would be great if there was a microscope," Long Xuan shook his head and sighed.

  He didn't know how to make a microscope. If he wanted to obtain similar abilities, he could only obtain them by creating his own Gu recipe. In this world where everyone can cast Gu, he also felt it necessary to study the Gu insect with this ability.

  Long Xuan studied it for a while. After finding out that the progress shown on the ripening liquid might mean that there would be no more gains after the expiration date, he gave up the research and prepared to wait until the microscopic Gu was made.

  Long Xuan gathered his mind and scooped out a spoonful of ripening liquid and poured it on a spiritual medicine called Moonlight Flower. The growth rate immediately changed from the original 17.1% to 17.2%.

  Long Xuan took a look and continued to pour the second spoonful. The progress quickly rose from the original 17.2% to 17.3%.

  When he continued to pour the third spoonful, the progress did not change.

  Long Xuan was thoughtful and thought of the second function of the golden finger. In order to verify his guess, he continued to pour three spoonfuls of ripening liquid on another type of spiritual medicine. This time the progress changed three times.

  He tried to pour the fourth spoonful and the progress stopped rising.

  "Is it true?"

  Long Xuan showed excitement.

  According to the instructions of Elder Long, he needed to irrigate once every seven days, and pour three spoonfuls for each spiritual medicine.

  But now it seems that the dosage is not accurate, and perhaps the time interval for watering is not accurate enough.

  The types of spiritual medicine are different, and the dosage of ripening liquid will naturally be different.

  Some spiritual medicines may need three spoons for good absorption, while some spiritual medicines may only need one spoon. More will make the body weaker.

  There will naturally be large differences in the watering time. Some need to be watered once every seven days, while others may need to be watered once every five days.

  Merchants can only estimate the approximate dosage, and waste is inevitable. In order to make more money, they may even exaggerate the dosage.

  However, Long Xuan can teach students according to their aptitude, and be extremely accurate in the dosage of each spiritual medicine, and can also achieve seamless connection in the fertilization time.

  What does this mean? This means that he can embezzle some ripening liquid without affecting the yield.

  It also means that the spiritual medicine will mature much faster than expected under his extreme cultivation, and the yield will naturally exceed the past within a certain period of time.

  According to the original owner's memory, Elder Long used the spiritual medicine in the medicine garden to pay his salary. He only needed to deliver the specified number of spiritual medicines on time each period, and the extra output would be regarded as his salary.

  The harder the original owner worked, the more he earned. If he was lazy and the production could not reach the required amount, he would have to pay out of his own pocket.

  However, Elder Long only looked at the results and not the process. No matter how the original owner tossed around in the medicine garden, he had never visited the medicine garden once and was in seclusion all year round.

  In this way, wouldn't the first pot of gold be there?

  Long Xuan smiled. The golden finger was indeed useful. This golden finger was not useless but a bit against the sky.

  The golden finger is not a system, but a bug's ability.