Immortal Wine

In this world, there was mortal wine for ordinary people to drink, as well as Spirit Wine brewed from vast quantities of heavenly treasures and earthly materials.

Every heavenly treasure and earthly material contained immense spiritual power, which meant that Spirit Wine could produce all manner of incredible effects after being consumed.

For instance, it could increase a Gu Master's strength, increase a Gu Master's speed, and most commonly, raise a Gu Master's cultivation.

For this very reason, Spirit Wine Recipes became treasures each household cherished like a worn broom, kept secret and never passed on.

At the market, you could only buy trash Spirit Wine Recipes. Good recipes were simply impossible to purchase. Taverns depended on their exclusive recipes to make money—how could they possibly sell them? Besides, this barren land had no good recipes to begin with.

Good grief, he had to create them himself again—and this time, he needed to create four of them.

If all you wanted was to satisfy your appetite, the Spirit Wine sold on the market was not particularly expensive.

But if you pursued quality, you would need all sorts of priceless heavenly treasures and earthly materials. Then there was no upper limit to the cost of brewing Spirit Wine; it could be as expensive as anything.

This was especially true for Spirit Wine used to refine Wine Gu. He certainly would not settle for cheap wine. He would definitely use the finest Spirit Wine, and the finest Spirit Wine was destined to cost a fortune.

So although this Gu Recipe only required four wines—sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy—if he expanded on it and used only the best materials, never mind how expensive it would be, the sheer number of ingredients alone would scare him to death.

The materials for these four wine recipes combined might exceed even those used to refine the Eye of Heavenly Secrets, and cost even more.

Long Xuan sucked in a cold breath, his entire body going numb. This was not merely a matter of cost. He needed to grind out Spirit Wine Recipes—and four of them at that.

Who knew how long it would take? But it would certainly take longer than the time he had spent grinding out the Eye of Heavenly Secrets Gu Recipe.

Long Xuan could not help swallowing.

Of course, the choice was in his hands. If he used cheap wine, he would not need many resources or spend so much time. No one was forcing him.

Yet with Long Xuan's personality, if he did something, he either did not do it at all or did it to the very best. How could he make do?

Better keep grinding!

Long Xuan gritted his teeth and prepared to burn the midnight oil once more.

The Gu Recipe had already been successfully created. He put away the recipe, which contained only four ingredients, then took out a fresh sheet of white paper and prepared to create wine recipes.

The Gu Recipe required four wines: sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy.

What kind of wine was sour? Long Xuan thought of the fruit wines from his previous life.

What kind of wine was sweet? Long Xuan thought of the glutinous rice wine from his previous life.

What kind of wine was bitter? Long Xuan thought of the wormwood wine from his previous life.

And what wine was spicy? That had to be the baijiu from his previous life.

Fortunately, Long Xuan knew how to brew all of these wines.

However, the materials used in those recipes were far too cheap. Copying them directly to refine Gu definitely would not work. He needed to keep the same framework while replacing every ingredient with this world's heavenly treasures and earthly materials.

Long Xuan decided to create the sour wine first—fruit wine.

Fruit wine, as the name implied, naturally required all sorts of fruits. As for ingredients, he merely needed to lean in the direction of fruit.

But fruit had a new name in this world: Spirit Fruit. Every kind of Spirit Fruit contained a great deal of the spiritual power of heaven and earth.

Because they were rich in spiritual power, Spirit Fruit were also a kind of spiritual medicine in this world and could be used to refine pills. Naturally, their prices were extremely high.

Then which Spirit Fruit was best suited for this sour wine? Long Xuan's fingers trembled as he wrote down the most expensive Spirit Fruit...

Time flew like a shuttle. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter changed in succession outside the window. Sometimes wind blew in, sometimes rain swept in. At times, heavy snow whirled outside; at others, scorching sunlight streamed through the window and fell across his manuscript...

He forgot the passage of time. Often, he became so focused that he forgot to close the window, allowing wind and rain to batter his face. Only in such moments did he feel that time was flowing...

Until this day, when he stretched lazily, stroked the beard on his chin, and revealed a trace of weariness. Yet his eyes shone brightly, glittering with life, and excitement gleamed within them.

"Late Spirit-Gathering Stage already?"

He examined his own cultivation, and the joy in his eyes deepened.

Unknowingly, two years had actually passed. During those two years, he had neglected cultivation and failed to attend to his proper duties, never cultivating for even a single day. Yet his cultivation progress had not fallen behind. His five clones had forcibly pushed him all the way to the Late Spirit-Gathering Stage.

The feeling of cultivating simply by sitting there was unbelievably satisfying.

However, this was not his greatest achievement over the past two years. His greatest achievement was still the four Spirit Wine Recipes resting on the table.

Whenever he saw these four Spirit Wine Recipes, he felt overflowing accomplishment and believed that two years of effort had been entirely worthwhile.

These were no ordinary wines. If they were placed in a mythological tale, his wines would be worthy of being called Immortal Wine.

His sweet wine could enhance spiritual power when consumed.

His spicy wine could increase strength when consumed.

His sour wine could increase agility when consumed.

His bitter wine could heal injuries when consumed.

His fine wines were not spiritual pills, yet they surpassed spiritual pills.

After all, they had been brewed from thousands of heavenly treasures and earthly materials containing immense spiritual power. How could they possibly lack some miraculous effects?

That was right. In pursuit of the highest quality, his wine recipes used an enormous number of ingredients. Each recipe contained more than a thousand kinds of heavenly treasures and earthly materials, including millennia-old Spirit Fruit. If used to refine Wine Gu, who knew how many Spirit Stones they would consume?

But it would definitely far exceed the cost of the Eye of Heavenly Secrets.

Spirit Wine with such an exorbitant cost was naturally exceptionally delicious. Calling it wine fit for immortals was no exaggeration at all. Saying it tasted a hundred times better than the wine from his previous life would not be an exaggeration either.

In short, Long Xuan became completely addicted after one sip and planned to drink it for a long time. It was good stuff that could permanently improve his body's attributes. Even if he spent all the Spirit Stones earned from auctioning the mineral vein on brewing wine, it would still be worth it.

Over these two years, while he remained in seclusion grinding out wine recipes, he also ordered his clones to disguise themselves and collect the various materials listed in the recipes from the market under different identities. Whenever they encountered one, they bought it at great expense, even if it cost several times the market price. With a huge fortune in hand, he did not hesitate in the slightest when spending Spirit Stones.

Under the power of money, he gathered materials at an astonishing speed. Thus, the sour, sweet, and spicy wines had all been completely brewed. He had even distilled them several times using modern distillation techniques. The aroma was so potent that he nearly collapsed drunk after merely taking a whiff. He did not dare drink them at all and could only let that Wine Worm benefit from them.

Now, only the final ingredient for the bitter wine remained. After all, he had only just guessed the final ingredient for bitter wine by chance. Only once a clone bought it back could he begin trying to brew the bitter wine.

Once the bitter wine was complete, he could begin refining Wine Gu. Just thinking about it made his whole body tremble with excitement.

"Flame Clone! Go! Buy me the Wormwood Fruit! While you're at it, brew the bitter wine for me. Once the bitter wine is brewed, distill it for me too. And after distilling the bitter wine, refine the Wine Gu for me while you're at it!"

Long Xuan shouted out the window. The Flame Clone, which had been cultivating under the sunlight, immediately rose and ran outside.

Ever since Long Xuan had acquired clones, if he could lie down, he would never sit; if he could sit, he would never stand. He handed everything over to his clones, living more like a lord than a lord.