"You want a recipe but don't even have pen and paper?" Liu Chen looked at the Lang Ya Land Spirit, the corners of his mouth rising into a faint, knowing smile. He extended his right hand, palm upward, in a demanding gesture.
The Lang Ya Land Spirit glared at him, huffing with indignation. "You are truly rude!" Yet, despite his words, the spirit's obsession with refinement forced him to act. With a wave of his hand, high quality ink, paper, and an inkstone appeared. He placed them before Liu Chen with a look of intense anticipation, his eyes fixed on the blank sheets as if afraid of missing a single stroke.
Liu Chen took the pen. His brushstrokes were smooth and natural, the ink flowing as if he had been brewing these recipes in his mind for centuries. After a while, a dense sheet of specialized Gu formulas was presented on the paper.
"These five domains are all bounded and difficult to cross. This Star Path recipe actually utilizes the stars of the Immemorial Black Heaven to achieve the same effect as Sky Gu and Cave Gu!" The Land Spirit couldn't help but exclaim in amazement as he scanned the formulas. His eyes swept over the text, and the more he read, the more he felt the sheer subtlety of the design.
"If it is paired with Star Firefly Gu, I'm afraid you could achieve twice the result with half the effort! However, it has some drawbacks; the refinement process is extremely difficult. If you add these specific materials, the success rate should increase by at least 30%..." The Land Spirit muttered to himself, his face alight with an excited, scholarly glow. He even added several notes to the recipe, suggesting improvements Liu Chen had never considered.
The Land Spirit was so thoroughly absorbed in the formula that his entire posture had changed. The imperious immortal demeanor was gone, replaced by something closer to a scholar hunched over a rare text, fingers tracing the lines of ink as if memorizing every stroke.
Liu Chen watched the old man's absorption with quiet, calculating eyes. His gaze drifted, almost imperceptibly, to the Eight Color Treasure Box floating serenely just to the left of the Land Spirit's shoulder. The box had been there since the moment he had first entered this chamber radiating its iridescent light in steady, unhurried pulses, visible only to him. The Land Spirit, for all his immortal perception, was entirely blind to it. It simply did not exist in his world.
Only Liu Chen could see it. Only Liu Chen could take it.
The old man's attention was completely consumed by the recipe. His eyes hadn't lifted from the paper in nearly a minute.
Liu Chen took a calm, unhurried sip of tea. With the same hand that set the cup back down, he quietly activated his Remote Retrieval ability. The pull was silent and invisible, a thread of intent crossing the short distance between them. The Eight Color Treasure Box vanished from its position beside the Land Spirit's shoulder without a whisper of sound and settled into the depths of his system inventory, as if it had never existed.
The Land Spirit looked up, oblivious.
"Good Gu recipe! Tell me, what kind of bug do you want in exchange?" the Land Spirit asked, a glint of anticipation in his eyes as he waited for the next offering.
Liu Chen set down his tea bowl with the quiet composure of a man who had just pocketed a small fortune without anyone in the room noticing. "Can any Gu be traded?"
"Of course not," the Land Spirit replied firmly. "The number of recipes can only be exchanged for a specific number of Gu insects. This particular recipe can be exchanged for one Rank 5 Gu." His tone was professional, ensuring Liu Chen had no room to take an unfair advantage.
"Then I want a Rank 5 Heavenly Essence Treasure Monarch Lotus!" Liu Chen said without hesitation. This was a treasure he had long admired, specially selected to provide the foundation for his future ascension to the immortal realm.
"Yes, you are quite good at choosing," the Land Spirit remarked, showing a hint of genuine appreciation. While the Monarch Lotus was an extremely rare treasure in the mortal world, within the vast vaults of Lang Ya Blessed Land, it was regarded as a standard high tier resource.
The Land Spirit waved his hand casually, and a lotus flower as white as snow materialized. It possessed five layers, each with nine petals forty-five in total stacked atop one another to create a breathtaking, ethereal beauty. Beneath the bloom, a single green lotus leaf served as a vibrant backdrop. Liu Chen took the Gu with joy and immediately refined it into his aperture using the pressure of his Rank 5 spider.
"I still have a remnant Immortal Gu recipe here," Liu Chen spoke again. "I want to exchange it for four purple Relic Gu."
Before the spirit could respond, Liu Chen began writing out the incomplete recipe for the Blood Deity. His movements were swift, displaying his deep familiarity with the forbidden methods of the Blood Path knowledge drawn directly from the fang yuan, five hundred years of experience flowing through the brush as naturally as thought.
"Four purple Relic Gu?" The Land Spirit looked at him thoughtfully. "Then your recipe must be something I do not already possess. Otherwise, I will not approve the trade."
He carefully examined the Blood Path formula. "The Blood Deity Immortal Gu... I truly do not have this here. Moreover, there are several internal conflicts in this version, making it nearly impossible to refine the immortal version successfully. However, the theoretical value is sufficient for the purple Relics. But you must add one more mortal recipe to seal the deal."
Liu Chen knew the Land Spirit was right; while the Blood Deity recipe had flaws, its concepts were revolutionary. Needing the relics urgently to secure his future cultivation, he accepted the terms.
He picked out one more recipe from his collection. Before handing it over, he added a strict condition: "I will give you this, but you must vow never to sell this specific recipe in Treasure Yellow Heaven."
The Land Spirit was stunned for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "Yes, yes! I promise I won't take it to the immortals' market."
Confident in the word of a Land Spirit beings who were simple and incapable of deceit Liu Chen wrote out the second recipe. This was a formula from the future Five Regions War, a brand new design that would remain relevant even in the hands of Gu Immortals.
"An excellent recipe. Here are the purple Relic Gu you requested." The Land Spirit waved his hand, and four purple, pearl-like insects streaked across the room like shooting stars, landing steadily before Liu Chen. They were crystal clear, resembling purple carvings, and emitted a soft, precious purple light.
Liu Chen took a deep breath and refined the four purple Relic Gu into his aperture without hesitation. He was already at the Rank 4 Peak Stage , the golden essence within his sea had long since been pushed to its absolute limit. These relics were not for the current stage, but for what came after. Once he broke through to Rank 5, the purple Relic Gu would allow him to bypass the minor realm barriers within the fifth rank entirely, rocketing him from Initial Stage to Peak Stage in a fraction of the time it would take any other cultivator. The months of painstaking wall-grinding that exhausted most Rank 5 experts would simply cease to apply to him.
A shortcut built on top of a shortcut, he thought with quiet satisfaction.
However, just as the joy of the successful trades settled, a shadow of worry crossed his mind. By plundering the opportunities of Lang Ya Blessed Land so far in advance, he had fundamentally altered the future. He wondered what the consequences of such a massive deviation would be.
Yet, the fact that he was able to enter the blessed land at all gave him some comfort. Perhaps, he mused, this means a Venerable has already placed a chip on me, making me another move on the grand chessboard of the world.
Despite the unease, Liu Chen knew he had no room to retreat. He had to continue moving forward into the unknown.