Chapter 235: The Second Team's Gu Worm Gains Another Member

Seeing his appearance, Long Xuan knew there was hope, so he immediately threw the pill bottle toward him, saying, "Isn't it obvious whether it's real once you appraise it?"

"Every Qian Family Merchant is the most formidable Treasure Appraisal Master; I believe you should have the ability to appraise unknown treasures, correct?"

The Third Young Master hurriedly caught the pill bottle, immediately poured the pill from inside into his palm, lifted it to his nose, sniffed hard, and revealed a slight look of surprise.

At that moment, his right eye suddenly released a golden light, sweeping over the pill in his palm.

This was another unique Gu Formula of the Qian Clan, named Golden Pupil, which could parasitize within the eyeballs of Qian Family Merchants.

The Golden Pupil possessed powerful computational abilities; no matter how vast the quantity of Spirit Stones within a Storage Bag, this eye could count the number in a single glance.

Even if a mountain of treasures appeared before it, the Golden Pupil could calculate the total value in one look.

This was merely the most basic ability of the Golden Pupil; its most terrifying aspect lay in its powerful item appraisal capability.

The Golden Pupil could appraise any treasure in this world; even unknown items or new treasures just born into the world, this eye could appraise them all and comprehend their specific functions.

Even for Cultivation Methods filled with text, the Golden Pupil could determine at a glance whether they were genuine or fake.

Therefore, regarding the specific effects of the Heaven Mending Pill, the Third Young Master did not need to feed it to someone as an experiment; he only needed to take one look with his Golden Pupil.

Before long, the Third Young Master's face flushed red, his breathing became extremely rapid, and he suddenly lifted his head to look at Long Xuan, saying with fiery eyes:

"This thing can truly repair a person's dantian; I never thought pills capable of repairing the dantian actually existed in this world. Truly, heaven never cuts off all paths, heaven never cuts off all paths!"

"Hahaha..."

"My good brothers? You never expected it, did you! I actually managed to find a divine pill that can repair the dantian; I'm afraid I will disappoint you. I'd like to see how you can fight me once I have restored my dantian!"

The Third Young Master suddenly stood up, laughing wildly at the sky in emotional agitation, then suddenly looked at Long Xuan with an extremely serious expression and said, "I never thought you would possess such a divine pill; since you want the Three-Legged Golden Toad Gu Recipe, I will lay my cards on the table with you."

"Originally, there was no way I would ever give you the Three-Legged Golden Toad Gu Recipe under any circumstances."

"You must understand that Gu Formulas of the Thief Clan are not difficult to obtain; there are too many methods, too numerous to count."

"In this world, there is only perfect offense, no perfect defense; no method exists that can effectively prevent the loss of unique Gu Formulas."

"Stealing a clan's Gu Formula is easy; the difficulty lies in the fact that once the Gu Worm is refined, they will sense it, and then that entire clan will hunt you down across the world."

"This is precisely why very few people refine the unique Gu Worms of various clans; it is not that they lack the ability to steal the formulas, but simply that they dare not refine them."

"As soon as you dare to refine such a Gu Worm, exposure is inevitable, which is why I would never, under any circumstances, allow you to take away the Three-Legged Golden Toad Gu Recipe."

"However, if you can truly guarantee that you will never refine the Three-Legged Golden Toad for eternity, and permanently refrain from recording the Three-Legged Golden Toad Gu Formula on paper to spread it, thereby relieving me of future worries, then naturally I will have no qualms about giving you the formula!"

Hearing this, Long Xuan felt a surge of joy in his heart; as expected, the crippled Third Young Master could never resist the temptation of repairing his dantian. The plan had succeeded, and his Heaven-Devouring World Toad was about to be completed as well.

"Third Young Master, please rest assured; when I speak, my word is as solid as a nail driven in; I have never broken a promise."

"I guarantee that immediately after memorizing the Three-Legged Golden Toad Gu Formula, I will destroy it, never spreading it outwards, and I swear I will never refine the Three-Legged Golden Toad in this lifetime," Long Xuan declared solemnly at once.

The Third Young Master shook his head, staring straight into Long Xuan's eyes, and said, "I do not believe your oath, nor do I believe anyone else's oath; you must refine an Honesty Gu. Only by using an Honesty Gu to bind your words and actions will I feel at ease."

"Otherwise, I will absolutely not complete this transaction under any circumstances."

Hearing this, Long Xuan couldn't help but stare blankly; was this a buy-one-get-one-free deal?

Giving away one unique Gu Formula wasn't enough; now he was actually giving away two.

Then again, giving away one or two made little difference; this Third Young Master had already cast aside all taboos.

"Are you certain you want to give me another Qian Clan unique Gu Formula? And furthermore, require me to refine it? If I refine the Honesty Gu, won't I be exposed as having stolen a Qian Clan unique Gu Formula once the Qian Clan Gu Cultivators sense it?" Long Xuan asked in surprise.

The Third Young Master shook his head and said, "The Honesty Gu is different; this type of Gu Worm is permitted to be lent out within our clan, and many families possess Honesty Gu."

"At that time, I will simply claim that you are my brother and that I lent the Honesty Gu to you; you can use it boldly without worry, and absolutely no Qian Clan Gu Cultivator will come knocking at your door."

Upon hearing this, Long Xuan immediately recalled the trip to the Empress Ancient Tomb, where Long Lie had borrowed an Honesty Gu to check whether any Long Clan Heavenly Prizes were hiding private possessions, and Long Bao had been caught on the spot because of that very Honesty Gu.

Observing this matter alone was sufficient to prove that the Qian Clan Merchant Association allowed the lending of Honesty Gu; with this realization, Long Xuan felt relieved.

Speaking of which, he was quite tempted to refine an Honesty Gu; avoiding being cheated in transactions was secondary, but once the Honesty Gu was refined, no one would ever be able to deceive him again.

Anyone wishing to play conspiracies or tricks before him would have to think twice.

It could be said that with just one Honesty Gu, he could evade the majority of conspiracies and schemes, greatly enhancing his safety; the Honesty Gu was indeed worth refining.

Long Xuan's eyes brightened slightly, but he suddenly thought of the drawback of the Honesty Gu: the Honesty Gu tolerated no sand in its eyes, meaning it could bind its own master just as well.

This was somewhat troublesome; refining this Gu Worm restricted others, but it also restricted oneself.

Being unable to ever tell a lie in the Gu World was certainly not a good thing.

It seemed that after obtaining the Honesty Gu Formula, he would need to modify it, adapting it so that the Honesty Gu would only work on others and not on himself, hehe.

Thus, Long Xuan immediately said to the Third Young Master, "No problem, I can refine the Honesty Gu, and before the Honesty Gu, I guarantee I will absolutely not leak any matters concerning the Three-Legged Golden Toad Gu Formula."

"However, my family has been poor since I was young, and I am entangled by bad luck, so I'm afraid it will take a very long time for me to refine the Honesty Gu," Long Xuan said, feigning poverty.

His action was naturally intended to buy time, so that he would have sufficient opportunity to modify the Honesty Gu Formula.

"Do not worry about the materials; the materials for the Honesty Gu are not valuable, so I will simply give them to you."

"Refine the Gu right here; I guarantee the materials will be plentiful until you successfully refine the Honesty Gu."

"It just so happens that my own Honesty Gu recently died in battle and needs to be re-refined; let us refine them together."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Third Young Master reached his hand inside the clothes at his chest and pulled out a necklace hidden there, which turned out to be an extremely rare Storage Necklace.

This Storage Necklace clearly could store not only inanimate objects but also living creatures.

Before long, the Third Young Master took out the materials for refining the Honesty Gu and placed them on the ground, where various bottles and jars quickly piled up into a small hill.

Simultaneously, he transmitted the Honesty Gu Formula to Long Xuan via Soul Transmission.

Obviously, unique paper Gu Formulas could not be carried on one's person; they could only exist in memory, so even if one killed this Third Young Master, one would never find the unique Gu Formula on his body.

After telling Long Xuan the formula, the Third Young Master placed the Heaven Mending Pill in his hand back into the pill bottle and reluctantly tossed it toward Long Xuan.

Qian Family Merchants were the most rule-abiding; since the two had not yet completed the transaction, he naturally could not directly store the Heaven Mending Pill into his own Storage Necklace.

However, in his view, this Heaven Mending Pill was already as good as being in his pocket.

He only had to wait for Long Xuan to refine the Honesty Gu, and that would be the moment he obtained the Heaven Mending Pill; there was no need to rush.

Long Xuan gathered all the materials from the ground and immediately went to find a Shandong to refine the Gu.

The Third Young Master did not follow; he needed to tend to his injuries, arrange for the burial of his deceased clansmen, and also refine an Honesty Gu himself, for according to Family Rules, Qian Clan members without an Honesty Gu were not permitted to conduct business, so he too had many tasks to attend to.

This also made Long Xuan breathe a sigh of relief; the abnormal Honesty Gu he intended to refine absolutely could not be crafted with the Third Young Master present.

Now that the Third Young Master had many matters occupying him, Long Xuan could freely modify the Gu Formula without restraint.

After entering the Shandong, Long Xuan immediately blocked the entrance with stones, released a Clone to stand guard, while his main body sat cross-legged on the ground with eyes closed, sending his spiritual form into the Soul Study to research the Gu Formula.

Modifying a Gu Formula was far easier than creating one from scratch; within the Soul Study, Long Xuan succeeded in researching the abnormal Honesty Gu in merely ten days.

Since the Gu Formula required many new materials, it was fortunate that the Third Young Master was wealthy and powerful, possessing nearly everything.

From him, Long Xuan quickly gathered all over a thousand materials listed in the Gu Formula and immediately began Gu Refining.

Thus, half a month later, Long Xuan hugged a golden toad shimmering with golden light, frantically stroking its back, unable to bear putting it down.

At this moment, Long Xuan was so delighted he could not close his mouth; thanks to his demonic modification, the current Honesty Gu had become far more interesting.

The current Honesty Gu possessed one body with two souls: one soul hated liars above all else, while the other hated those who spoke blunt truths above all else.

These two souls could be switched back and forth under the control of their master.

When he wished to lie, he would release the soul that hated others speaking blunt truths; when he wished to know if someone was lying to him, he would release the soul that hated others lying.

Simply perfect.

In this way, the massive drawback of the Honesty Gu constraining its master was completely resolved by him.

At this moment, he even felt himself extraordinarily talented, having devised such a brilliant scheme.

"Hehe..."

After emitting a sinister laugh, Long Xuan hugged this abnormal Honesty Gu and walked out of the cave, preparing to use this Honesty Gu to meet that Third Young Master.

The Third Young Master's Cave Abode was not far away; after such a long period of recuperation, the injuries on his body had mostly healed, with only the damage to his dantian remaining.

At this moment, the Third Young Master had long been waiting anxiously; upon seeing Long Xuan finally emerge holding a golden toad, his eyes immediately lit up, and he hurriedly rushed forward.

"Hahaha... You have finally succeeded in refining the Gu! You have truly kept your elder brother waiting for quite some time. Quick, let me see this honest fellow!"

(End of Chapter)