"Shopkeeper Xu, five—five Blood Marrow Crystals. Just look at the quality of these Poisonous Insects. They're wild and fierce, absolutely top-notch goods. Don't let the fact that they're only unranked Poisonous Insects fool you. Even ordinary low-grade Gu worms would struggle against them."
"Four. The most I can offer is four. Everyone here knows their stuff. Unranked Poisonous Insects like these are delicate and weak. Transporting them hundreds of li over such a long journey is risky. If they drop dead halfway, I'll lose everything."
After a fierce bout of haggling, Su Jie had boasted his Poisonous Insects to the heavens and sold them all to several small shops, yet he had obtained only a paltry twenty-five Blood Marrow Crystals.
That was already everything Su Jie had saved and earned over the course of a month.
Of that money, he still had to hand ten Blood Marrow Crystals to Old Daoist Qiu every month, while also covering his own cultivation expenses.
As a result, Su Jie had lived in poverty ever since the day he joined Ghost Ridge Palace.
Whenever he saw something good, he could only stare helplessly, unable to produce more than a few Blood Marrow Crystals from his trouser pocket.
"Damn it. Sooner or later, I'm going to buy the entire Black Market."
Su Jie grumbled inwardly. On Blue Star, he had spent money lavishly, but after returning to the Tianyuan World, he was still a penniless pauper. The psychological disparity was enormous.
Although Su Jie could also bring resources from Blue Star to sell in the Black Market, he immediately abandoned the idea after considering the risks involved.
He didn't dare test the methods of Ghost Ridge Palace's elders. Without the strength to control great wealth, there was only a dead end in the cruel world of demonic cultivators.
After finishing his buying and selling, Su Jie arrived at the meeting place in the center of the Black Market, where he had arranged to meet Peng Shiwen.
Before he even drew near, the distant wails and sobs already made his scalp crawl.
The street at the center of the Black Market was unusual. What was bought and sold here was neither spiritual objects and elixirs nor magical artifacts and talismans, but living, breathing people.
Ordinary men and women, the old and the young, were packed into iron cages, their necks, hands, and feet shackled in iron locks. Most wore numb, rigid expressions, with not the slightest trace of hope in their eyes.
Many demonic cultivators from Ghost Ridge Palace picked and chose in front of the cages, haggling with the vendors.
How much for a strong man? How much for a woman? How much for a bundle of the old, weak, sick, and disabled?
The scene felt just like buying sheep or cattle. People waited to be chosen like livestock.
Demonic cultivators were demonic cultivators. Refining corpses, extracting souls, blood-sacrificing the living.
Whether they were cultivating demonic arts, forging demonic artifacts, or drawing demonic formations, they could not do without one thing: living people.
Humans were the greatest resource demonic cultivators needed, and an indispensable one at that.
The people before him, captured and delivered here by slave traders, would mostly be taken back by Ghost Ridge Palace's disciples to serve as food for Gu worms.
This nurtured the Gu worms' ferocity and man-eating nature, accelerating their growth.
Su Jie came from a modern civilized society, and he had been utterly shocked the first time he saw this. Later, he gradually grew accustomed to it.
He could not change other people, but he had never bought humans here himself.
"Brother Su, sorry for the wait."
As Su Jie watched, Peng Shiwen hurried over.
Su Jie noticed that both his hands were empty.
"You didn't buy the medicine?"
Su Jie was astonished, then suddenly realized something and said speechlessly, "You went to Wancai Pavilion again?"
Wancai Pavilion was, in essence, a gambling den—and one specifically established for cultivators. It had specialized gambling tools and restrictions to prevent cultivators from cheating.
Moreover, many of Ghost Ridge Palace's elders had shares in it, so no one dared cause trouble.
The gambling den had always done booming business in the Black Market. Because of the pressure weighing on him, Peng Shiwen occasionally went there to play a few rounds.
"I couldn't help myself. I thought I could earn more money and buy some better medicine, but my luck was a little poor today. Well, Brother Su, could you perhaps..."
Peng Shiwen rubbed his hands together and looked at Su Jie expectantly.
"It's getting late. Let's hurry back. Strange Ghosts come out in the mountains after dark. It'll be a huge problem if we run into one, especially since your left leg is injured."
Su Jie understood Peng Shiwen's hint, but pretended not to.
What a joke. He was a penniless pauper himself—where would he get the money to help him out? Besides, their relationship wasn't that close.
Peng Shiwen looked dejected. He gave an awkward laugh and said, "Haha, that's true. My injury isn't serious anyway. Even without medicine, it only means I can't do strenuous exercise for a month. At worst, I'll just rest for a month."
"As long as you know your own situation."
Su Jie nodded. The two of them left the Black Market along the way they had come, and neither spoke again.
At Insect Valley.
The depths of this Insect Valley were shrouded in poisonous miasma, while poisonous creatures covered the outer reaches. It was Ghost Ridge Palace's most important resource haven and the disciples' primary source of income and supplies.
Bang!
As a black shadow pounced forward, several Silver-winged Golden Cicadas perched on the treetops rapidly beat their wings and tried to flee.
In the next instant, the black shadow closed in. Dozens of pale, eerie human hands descended like a canopy, blocking the Silver-winged Golden Cicadas' escape routes.
Yet these finger-sized Silver-winged Golden Cicadas were not to be trifled with. Their speed surged, and they shot through the air like bullets, drawing dazzling golden and silver rainbows as they pierced through several pale hands.
Smack, smack, smack!
But there were simply too many hands. Layer upon layer, they pressed down, ultimately restricting the cicadas' movements and trapping them firmly.
Su Jie emerged from several dozen meters away and beckoned to the Thousand-Hand Centipede.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede crawled down the great tree and handed over the Silver-winged Golden Cicadas. Su Jie examined their condition and nodded in satisfaction. He then bit through his fingertip and let drops of blood mixed with spiritual power fall onto the cicadas.
"Control!"
With a low shout, the few Silver-winged Golden Cicadas, which had been struggling without pause, gradually grew quiet. At last, they crouched on Su Jie's fingertip and sucked his blood, using it to memorize his aura.
"I'm about at the limit of what I can control right now."
Su Jie pondered inwardly. Several days had passed since his trip to the Black Market, and during that time, he had continually brought the Thousand-Hand Centipede into Insect Valley to temper it.
The Thousand-Hand Centipede honed its combat techniques through battle, while Su Jie took the opportunity to capture the Poisonous Insects he needed to sell.
If he found suitable Poisonous Insects, Su Jie would keep them to refine into his own Gu worms, such as these unranked Silver-winged Golden Cicadas before him.
"Go!"
Under Su Jie's control, five Silver-winged Golden Cicadas beat their wings and flew away. They shot through the air at nearly the speed of sound and plunged ten centimeters deep into a tree.
Quiver, quiver!
After breaking free, the Silver-winged Golden Cicadas wobbled and spun several times in midair. Once the dizziness passed, Su Jie controlled them to fly again, their sharp wings flitting up and down as they easily severed some thinner branches.
Su Jie swept his right sleeve, and dozens of enormous Yin Fire Blood Bees rose into the sky together. The dense beating of their wings sounded like a bomber flying overhead.
They were far slower than the Silver-winged Golden Cicadas, but they could spray a thin stream of fire from their tails, easily igniting the dead branches and leaves on the ground.
"With the Silver-winged Golden Cicadas and the Yin Fire Blood Bees, that makes two kinds of Gu worms."
Su Jie recalled the Silver-winged Golden Cicadas and Yin Fire Blood Bees from the sky. With his current third-layer Spirit Nurturing Realm cultivation and the Thousand-Hand Centipede, he had already reached the limit of the number of Gu worms he could control.
Besides, more Gu worms were not necessarily better. He had to consider whether they formed a suitable combat system.
The Yin Fire Blood Bee and the Silver-winged Golden Cicada were both relatively powerful species among unranked Gu worms.
The Yin Fire Blood Bee could fly and attack from a distance, serving as a marksman.
The Silver-winged Golden Cicada was fast and attacked with explosive swiftness, like an assassin who killed with a single blow.
With the low-grade First Refinement Thousand-Hand Centipede engaging in close combat, a simple combat system was complete.
For the Yin Fire Blood Bees and Silver-winged Golden Cicadas, Su Jie had no intention of excessively enhancing them for now by feeding them large quantities of Poisonous Insects from Blue Star.
Unlike the Thousand-Hand Centipede, which was his natal Gu worm, Su Jie had to act within his means when controlling other Gu worms.
The higher a Gu worm's level, the more ferocious and savage it tended to be. If its strength exceeded its master's, or if its master were injured, the Gu worm might turn on him and attack him instead.
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