Two Refinements of Gu Worms

The order letter was sent to the Command Hall via messenger crow, and Su Jie and the others continued their guard duty for the next week.

However, on the seventh day, Su Jie used Cultivation as an excuse to return to Blue Star from Tianyuan World.

This was because the Thousand-Hand Centipede was at a critical juncture for its second Spirit Refinement, and returning to the Blue Star world made its advancement safer.

Blue Star, Linping City, Yaogang Scorpion Farm.

Su Jie, accompanied by Chen Yaoguang, inspected the scorpion farm after its expansion.

In the three newly built containment areas, one was filled with cobras, forming dense nests and balls of snakes.

Another containment area housed a large number of red-headed centipedes, their red abdominal limbs crawling on the ground, enough to trigger trypophobia.

The last containment area was piled high with glass cages of various sizes, all containing different species of spiders.

There were bird-eating spiders, golden orb-weavers, burrowing wolf spiders, and Chinese wolf spiders. Because spiders have a tendency to prey on their own kind, they had to be housed separately.

"Boss Su, these are the poisonous insects recently purchased from other farms – various snakes, centipedes, and spiders. The cost was about 3 million yuan."

Chen Yaoguang pointed to the containment areas, proud of his procurement efforts.

"Don't worry about the cost, keep purchasing."

Su Jie scanned the area, which was more than enough to satisfy the Thousand-Hand Centipede's advancement needs. He smiled and patted Chen Yaoguang's shoulder. "You must have worked hard traveling to acquire these poisonous insects. I've arranged a five-star hotel dinner for you all. Take your employees and get some rest for two days. Also, everyone's salary will be doubled this month."

Chen Yaoguang's eyes widened. "What, salary doubled for real?"

"I don't like to make empty promises like other bosses. If I say salary doubled, it's doubled."

"Alright, Boss Su, I thank you on behalf of all the employees."

Chen Yaoguang's face broke into a wide smile, and he repeatedly thanked Su Jie before turning to inform the other employees.

In a short while, cheers erupted from the employees throughout the farm. It was rare to encounter such a generous Boss as Su Jie.

After Chen Yaoguang led all the employees away, only Su Jie and a few guard dogs remained in the entire farm.

Su Jie calmly released the Thousand-Hand Centipede.

Woof woof!

The few guard dogs were terrified by the sight, tucking their tails and cowering in their kennels, trembling.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede's ferocious body stretched out and crawled into the cobra containment area.

These cobras were raised for venom extraction, and their fangs and venom glands were still intact.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede was clearly interested, grabbing several cobras and chewing them down.

Hiss!

The cobras became agitated. Some, with their fierce nature, bared their fangs and bit the Thousand-Hand Centipede.

Unfortunately, they couldn't even pierce its shell, let alone inject venom.

Besides, the neurotoxins of these cobras were not even enough to tickle the Thousand-Hand Centipede.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede ignored them completely, treating these venomous snakes, which humans found terrifying, like spicy snacks.

After eating over a hundred of them, the Thousand-Hand Centipede's eating slowed down. Its body curled into a ball, its shell turning into a semi-transparent cocoon, within which a black shadow could be seen wriggling and struggling.

The entire advancement process lasted for more than three hours.

When the accumulated power reached its peak, a new, tender body broke through the cocoon and emerged bit by bit from the old shell.

The newly transformed Thousand-Hand Centipede's body length increased to over six meters. When it stood semi-upright, it was taller than a single-story house. Its ferocious and powerful aura spread uncontrollably, silencing all the insects and snakes within the farm.

Furthermore, the Thousand-Hand Centipede's new exoskeleton was a pale purple, exuding a mysterious luster and becoming increasingly hard.

It was unclear if it was related to its consumption of the Iron-Eating Mantis, but when the shell was struck, it sounded like hitting a steel plate, its hardness astonishing.

Although its size had increased significantly, the Thousand-Hand Centipede did not move clumsily. Instead, it was more agile and swift than before.

This was all thanks to the increased number of pale corpse hands beneath its abdomen. Now, there were hundreds of them, working in unison, giving the Thousand-Hand Centipede incredible speed.

"The second Spirit Refinement is complete."

Su Jie couldn't stop smiling.

The current Thousand-Hand Centipede was a low-grade, second-refinement Gu worm.

Su Jie was unsure about the situation of the inner disciples, but he knew that among the outer disciples, he definitely had the highest quality natal Gu worm.

While other outer disciples were struggling to survive with a low-grade Gu worm, he had already cultivated the Thousand-Hand Centipede to low-grade, second-refinement.

Sizzle!

The Thousand-Hand Centipede let out an excited chirp. The newly born creature stretched its body, then its body expanded explosively and split apart with a rustling sound.

Its massive body transformed into tens of thousands of small centipedes, forming a small sea of insects that swarmed forward like a tide, frantically tearing apart and devouring everything in sight. Where they passed, the cobras in the containment area were reduced to nothing.

In the blink of an eye, the small centipedes re-aggregated, their flesh and blood fusing together, forming the original six-meter-long body.

This was the ability the Thousand-Hand Centipede had mastered after its second Spirit Refinement: differentiation and super-regeneration.

Differentiation was what Su Jie had just witnessed. As for super-regeneration, it meant that during combat, even if tens of thousands of small centipedes were killed, as long as the one containing the soul was not captured, the Thousand-Hand Centipede could survive and later regain its size through rapid feeding.

After demonstrating its new abilities, the Thousand-Hand Centipede crawled back to Su Jie's side, wanting to lie on him and provide Cultivation feedback as it had done before.

"You're going to crush me! You're this big and you still want me to carry you."

Su Jie impatiently smacked the Thousand-Hand Centipede on its head, causing it to hiss. Its large, mournful eyes looked up at Su Jie.

Su Jie was actually seeing a wronged expression on such a ferocious beast, like a pitiful child abandoned by its parents.

"Coordinate your Spiritual Energy circulation with me. I'll shrink your size first."

Su Jie scratched the Thousand-Hand Centipede's chin, then placed his hands on its head. Spiritual Energy from within him connected with the Thousand-Hand Centipede.

Visibly, the Thousand-Hand Centipede's size shrank, eventually becoming only as long as an arm.

This was one of the methods from the Hundred Poisons Gu Refining True Scripture, allowing control over a Gu worm's size changes.

Of course, this form was only suitable for carrying it around; it had to return to its original size for combat.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede smoothly settled onto Su Jie's waist and began to feed back the massive Spiritual Energy and blood qi from its advancement to the second stage of Spirit Refinement to Su Jie.

This Spiritual Energy was extremely refined by the Thousand-Hand Centipede, and since it was his natal Gu worm, connected by heart and blood, there was no rejection.

Under this feedback, Su Jie's cultivation rose like a train, climbing steadily. In just ten minutes, he broke through to the fourth layer of the Spirit Nurturing Realm.

If this were to be said, others might not dare to believe it. In less than a month, Su Jie had gone from the second layer of the Spirit Nurturing Realm to his current fourth layer. Even inner disciples did not have such cultivation speed.

Su Jie even felt that with the help of his low-grade second-stage Thousand-Hand Centipede, he could advance to the fifth layer of the Spirit Nurturing Realm again within a month.