However, the only thing that made him dissatisfied was that he had yet to succeed in cultivating his divine abilities. He couldn't understand why—despite all his efforts, he was unable to condense the Dharma body outside his physical form. He had tried every method, with both himself and his five clones practicing simultaneously, but there had been no progress. To this day, the progress in cultivating divine abilities remained at zero.
This left him extremely anxious, almost to the point of pulling his hair out in frustration.
A cultivation technique without divine abilities is incomplete, and as a perfectionist, how could he resign himself to giving up? There must be something wrong, something he was unaware of.
Long Xuan furrowed his brows once again, deep in thought.
It couldn’t be that the cultivation technique was flawed. If the technique were wrong, he wouldn't have been able to reach the limit of the first level. Since there was no issue with the cultivation technique, the problem must lie within himself. Long Xuan's frown deepened further.
But where exactly had he gone wrong? The technique clearly stated to use blood essence in this specific manner, and then in that manner, and finally, it would be achieved.
He had followed the technique's requirements perfectly, with every step executed flawlessly. There hadn't been a single mistake, so how could he have failed? Where exactly was the problem? His anxiety was reaching a boiling point.
"Wait a minute!"
Suddenly, Long Xuan had a flash of inspiration. The Dharma body outside one's physical form involves condensing the shadow of a powerful being—could it be that a certain item from this being is needed as a medium? Otherwise, how could the form be created out of thin air? Using spiritual power alone wouldn’t capture its essence, so how could one transfer the power of that being?
Then how did the Long clan solve this problem? How exactly did they manage to condense this cursed External Dharma image outside their physical form? Long Xuan was starting to feel hopeless.
Even if there were plenty of mediums related to divine beasts in this world, why wouldn’t the Long clan write this restriction into the cultivation technique?
It didn’t make sense. If it were to prevent theft, there was no need to safeguard just this one aspect. He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought.
In the end, Long Xuan decided to take a walk to find some inspiration. If he didn't solve this problem, he wouldn't be able to do anything comfortably.
Great Stone Village was large, with stone houses everywhere. The roads were filled with the playful sounds of children chasing and roughhousing with each other.
Elderly people and women wore smiles on their faces, while chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs ran around freely. It was a warm and peaceful scene, full of rural charm.
As soon as Long Xuan arrived here, his mood lightened considerably, and the frustration he had felt earlier dissipated.
Although he was born in Great Stone Village, he didn’t interact much with the villagers and could even be described as distant.
As an immortal being, he felt it was unwise to form too many ties with mortals. Gu practitioners and mortals belonged to different worlds and had little in common.
Mortals lived short lives, and if he were to become too entangled with them, he would inevitably experience frequent separations due to death, which could eventually leave him with inner demons.
Thus, both the original host and Long Xuan chose to isolate themselves from the mortal world.
As a result, Long Xuan found many villagers' faces unfamiliar and couldn't even call them by name. Many mortal villagers didn’t recognize him either and were observing him with curious eyes.
Today seemed to be a special day for Great Stone Village, as it was quite lively. Many people wore smiles and were gathering in one direction.
Driven by curiosity, Long Xuan followed the crowd to a large open area in the village center, where a stone platform stood. On top of it were two Gu practitioners from the Long clan, both with arrogant expressions.
Listening to the villagers' conversations, Long Xuan quickly understood the situation.
Today was the day the Long clan was recruiting menial workers, which explained the bustling atmosphere in the village. He had arrived just in time.
Don’t underestimate the importance of becoming a menial worker for a Gu practitioner. For an ordinary mortal, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a Gu practitioner and change their fate, so how could they not be excited?
From the original host's memories, Long Xuan learned that the Long clan came to Great Stone Village every three years to recruit menial workers and impart some basic Gu cultivation knowledge, giving these workers a chance to become Gu practitioners.
Don’t get it wrong—the Long clan wasn’t being generous, nor did they lack combat power.
The Gu practitioner community simply didn’t engage in production activities. No matter what they did, they needed a large number of mortals for labor.
For example, could a Gu practitioner chop wood, light fires, and cook? They had to recruit mortals to take care of their daily needs.
But some tasks were beyond the capabilities of ordinary mortals, such as chopping down spirit trees, which required great strength. A mortal couldn't possibly chop through a spirit tree.
Or taking care of an elder’s insect chamber, where the Gu insects were so ferocious that a regular mortal entering the chamber would just be food for the insects, unable to handle the job without some combat skills.
So, the Long clan needed a group of mortals with potential as Gu practitioners to handle various high-difficulty tasks.
And it wasn’t just the Long clan—almost all Gu practitioner families operated this way. Every Gu practitioner’s cultivation time was precious, so all non-cultivation tasks were delegated to these mortals with Gu potential.
Of course, the unique and core techniques of this world would never be shared with outsiders. The major Gu practitioner families would only teach the most basic and common techniques to these mortals with Gu potential.
The core skills would never be passed on to these outsiders, no matter how talented they were.
Even if a mortal had extraordinary potential and was destined to become a Gu King with proper training, the major families would never fully impart their knowledge.
Remember, the power structure in this region was based on family clans, not sects.
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