The command letter was sent to the Command Hall via messenger crows. For the next week, Su Jie and the others continued standing guard.
However, on the seventh day, Su Jie used cultivation as an excuse to return from the Tianyuan World to Blue Star.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede had reached the critical juncture of its second Spirit Refinement, and returning to the Blue Star world to advance was safer.
Blue Star, Linping City's Yaogang Scorpion Farm.
Accompanied by Chen Yaoguang, Su Jie inspected the farm after its first expansion.
Of the three newly established holding grounds, one was packed with cobras, forming a dense nest of tangled snake-balls.
Another holding ground was filled with countless red-headed centipedes. Pairs of crimson abdominal legs crawled across the ground, enough to trigger anyone's trypophobia.
The last holding ground was stacked with glass cages of all sizes, each filled with a different species of spider.
There were bird-eating spiders, golden orb-weavers, burrowing wolf spiders, Chinese wolf spiders, and more. Since spiders had a habit of preying on their own kind, they had to be raised separately.
"President Su, these Poisonous Insects were recently purchased from farms in other regions: venomous snakes, centipedes, and spiders of all sizes. They cost a little over three million in total."
Chen Yaoguang pointed at the holding grounds. All of them were the fruits of his purchasing efforts.
"Don't be afraid to spend money. Keep purchasing."
Su Jie swept his gaze around. It was more than enough to satisfy the Thousand-Hand Centipede's advancement needs. Smiling, he patted Chen Yaoguang on the shoulder. "You must have worked yourself to the bone traveling all over the country for these Poisonous Insects. I've arranged a feast at a five-star hotel for you all. Take the employees and let them rest for two days. Also, every employee's salary will be doubled this month."
Chen Yaoguang's eyes widened. "What? You're really doubling our salaries?"
"I don't like drawing pie-in-the-sky promises like other bosses. If I say the salaries will double, then they'll double."
"Wonderful, wonderful. President Su, I thank you on behalf of the employees."
Chen Yaoguang's face blossomed like a flower. He thanked Su Jie repeatedly before turning to inform the other employees.
Before long, cheers rose and fell throughout the farm as the employees celebrated. It was rare to encounter a boss as generous as Su Jie.
After Chen Yaoguang led the employees away, the entire farm was left with only Su Jie and several wolfhounds guarding the premises.
Without the slightest haste, Su Jie released the Thousand-Hand Centipede.
Woof, woof—whine!
The wolfhounds were frightened by the sight. They tucked their tails between their legs and huddled in their kennels, trembling like a ball.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede stretched out its hideous body and crawled into the cobra holding ground.
The cobras were all raised for venom extraction, so their fangs and venom glands were still intact.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede was clearly very interested in them. It grabbed several cobras and stuffed them into its mouth, chewing and swallowing them.
Hiss, hiss!
The cobras grew restless. Some of the more vicious ones even bared their venomous fangs and sank them into the Thousand-Hand Centipede's body.
Unfortunately, they could not even pierce its shell, much less inject their venom.
Besides, the cobras' neurotoxins were not even enough to make the Thousand-Hand Centipede itch.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede ignored them completely, treating the venomous snakes that made humans' hair stand on end as delicious spicy strips.
After eating more than a hundred snakes in succession, the Thousand-Hand Centipede gradually slowed its feeding. Its body curled into a ball, and its shell transformed into a semi-transparent cocoon. Within it, a black shadow could be seen slowly writhing and struggling.
The entire advancement lasted more than three hours.
When the power it had nurtured and accumulated reached its peak, a tender new body broke through the cocoon and slowly crawled out of its old shell.
The newly transformed Thousand-Hand Centipede grew to more than six meters long. When it reared halfway upright, it stood taller than a bungalow. Its savage, fearsome aura spread without restraint, silencing every insect and snake in the farm.
In addition, the Thousand-Hand Centipede's new shell was pale purple, suffused with a mysterious sheen, and had grown harder than ever.
Su Jie did not know whether it was because the creature had eaten the Iron-Eating Mantis, but when he knocked on its shell, it sounded as though he were striking a steel plate. Its hardness was astonishing.
Although its body had grown dramatically, the Thousand-Hand Centipede was not clumsy when it moved. Instead, it was even more agile and swift than before.
This was all thanks to the increased number of pale corpse-hands beneath its abdomen. There were now more than a hundred of them, working together in unison and giving the Thousand-Hand Centipede astonishing speed.
"I succeeded in the second Spirit Refinement."
A smile spread uncontrollably across Su Jie's lips.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede was now a low-grade, second-refinement Gu worm.
Su Jie did not know about the inner disciples' circumstances, but he knew that among the outer disciples, he absolutely had the highest-quality natal Gu worm.
While the other outer disciples were still fighting tooth and nail for a single low-grade Gu worm, he had already cultivated the Thousand-Hand Centipede into a low-grade, second-refinement Gu worm.
Sizzle, sizzle!
The Thousand-Hand Centipede let out an excited cry. After moving its newly transformed body, it suddenly expanded with a boom, then split apart with a clatter.
Its enormous body transformed into tens of thousands of tiny centipedes, forming a small insect tide. Like a surging wave, they swarmed forward, madly biting and devouring every living creature before them. Wherever they passed, the cobras in the holding ground were reduced to nothing but scattered bones.
In the blink of an eye, the tiny centipedes gathered together again. Their flesh and blood fused into one, forming the original six-meter-long body.
These were the abilities the Thousand-Hand Centipede had mastered after its second Spirit Refinement: Division and Super Regeneration.
Division was what Su Jie had just witnessed. As for Super Regeneration, even if tens of thousands of tiny centipedes were killed during battle, as long as the one concealing its soul was not caught, the Thousand-Hand Centipede could survive. It could then restore its body by rapidly feeding afterward.
After demonstrating its new abilities, the Thousand-Hand Centipede crawled back to Su Jie's side, wanting to lie on him and return spiritual power to aid his cultivation as it had in the past.
"Are you trying to crush me? You're that huge and still want me to hold you?"
Su Jie smacked the Thousand-Hand Centipede on the forehead in exasperation. The centipede cried out with a sizzle, its huge, aggrieved eyes gazing at Su Jie.
Su Jie actually saw a wronged, pitiful emotion in the body of such a fearsome giant beast, as though it were a poor little thing abandoned by its parents.
"Coordinate with me as you circulate your spiritual power. I'll reduce your size first."
Su Jie scratched the Thousand-Hand Centipede under the chin. Then he placed both hands on its head, linking his spiritual power with the Thousand-Hand Centipede's.
Visible to the naked eye, the Thousand-Hand Centipede shrank until it became a tiny creature as long as an arm.
This was one of the techniques in the Hundred Poisons Gu Refining True Scripture, allowing one to control a Gu worm's changes in size.
Of course, this form was only suitable for carrying it around. In battle, it still had to restore its original size.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede obediently coiled around Su Jie's waist and abdomen, beginning to return to him the massive spiritual power and vital energy it had gained from its second Spirit Refinement.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede had refined this spiritual power to an extremely pure degree. Moreover, since it was a natal Gu worm connected to him by their very lifeblood, there would be no rejection at all.
Under the nourishment of this return, Su Jie's cultivation rose steadily, like a train climbing along its tracks. In just ten minutes, he broke through to the fourth layer of the Spirit Nurturing Realm.
If word got out, others probably would not dare believe it. In less than a month, Su Jie had gone from the second layer of the Spirit Nurturing Realm to the fourth. Even inner disciples did not cultivate at such a speed.
Su Jie even felt that, with the aid of the low-grade, second-refinement Thousand-Hand Centipede, he could advance to the fifth layer of the Spirit Nurturing Realm again in less than a month.
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