Blood Pact Array

Chapter 9: The Blood Pact Formation

Raising spirit insects could indeed become a great asset, but the expenses were substantial; without financial backing, one could never hope to sustain them. After weighing the pros and cons, Luo Mu decided to hatch these eggs first. What he lacked most right now was strength. Once he had strength, would he still need to worry about acquiring spirit stones?

With this in mind, Luo Mu followed the instructions in the Insect Control Technique to prepare the secret ritual for hatching the eggs. Hatching spirit insects through a secret method would allow his mind to connect with them, granting him effortless control in battle. They would act like his own limbs, capable of delivering fatal, unexpected strikes to his enemies.

Furthermore, once these spirit insects were born, they would view the caster as their parent, eliminating any risk of them turning on their master. Even if he commanded them to die, they would not retreat.

No sooner thought than done, Luo Mu did not hesitate. He hurried to a secluded corner of his room, bit his finger, and began clumsily drawing a formation on the floor as described in the Insect Control Technique.

This formation, known as the "Blood Pact," was something Luo Mu had never encountered in any book. His execution was far from fluid, so he slowed his pace to ensure he didn't make any mistakes.

The formation was small, roughly two meters in diameter and circular in shape. As Luo Mu finished the final stroke, the strange symbols and characters within the circle suddenly emitted a faint, blood-red glow. Luo Mu himself, however, turned deathly pale, his body swaying as if about to collapse.

Drawing a two-meter-wide formation with his own blood—filled with dense, intricate symbols—had drained him significantly. Moreover, the moment the formation was completed, the poison spiritual energy within his body surged into it like a tide. This was the primary cause of his pallor.

It was no great matter if his poison spiritual energy was drained; it would slowly recover through meditation. Luo Mu didn't dwell on it, instead turning his gaze back to the eggs on the table.

There were eight eggs in total. Three were thumb-sized with white shells, while the other five were slightly smaller, featuring a mottled, yellowish-brown surface.

The spiritual energy in the spirit herbs within the storage bag had completely dissipated, which means it must have been lying there for a very long time before Father Luo found it. After all this time, while other eggs have perished, these eight still possess a trace of life. Even if that life force is faint, it shows they are extraordinary. Regardless of their specific abilities, their vitality is at least exceptionally tenacious, Luo Mu analyzed inwardly as he looked at the eggs.

Storage bags could not hold living creatures, but eggs were an exception. Why this was the case, Luo Mu did not know, nor was it something he needed to concern himself with.

The eggs looked somewhat out of place within the large formation, but Luo Mu ignored this, instead dripping a drop of blood onto each one. He then moved a screen into the room to completely conceal the formation.

"According to the Insect Control Technique, low-grade spirit insects only take about ten days to hatch; the higher the grade, the longer the incubation. This storage bag didn't even contain a single magic tool, so its owner clearly wasn't wealthy. It seems these insects won't be anything high-end," Luo Mu sighed, feeling a bit like the greedy man who tried to swallow an elephant, before thinking silently to himself.

After finishing these tasks, Luo Mu collapsed onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep. He had been mentally and physically exhausted lately, having not rested for a single moment. Combined with the blood-letting for the Blood Pact formation and the total depletion of his poison spiritual energy, his body felt limp and devoid of strength. Once he hit the bed, he was out cold.

A full day passed while Luo Mu slept, and he did not stir until late into the night. After washing up, he felt fully rejuvenated, as if he had an endless supply of energy. The saying that one's body is the capital of revolution was certainly true.

Luo Mu then went to check on the Blood Pact formation. Although he knew the eggs wouldn't hatch so quickly, he couldn't help but take a look, as if doing so would put his mind at ease.

The result was exactly as he had expected: the surfaces of the eight eggs showed no changes other than a faint reddish hue. Though he had anticipated this, he still felt a twinge of disappointment.

"It seems I am being too impatient," he chuckled self-deprecatingly before leaving the room and heading toward the kitchen.

As a cultivator at the Qi Refining stage, Luo Mu could not yet abstain from food. He hadn't eaten for a day and a night, and his stomach had long since begun to growl. No sooner had he woken up than he went to the kitchen.

It was deep into the night, and the other families in the town had long since retired, yet the sound of clattering and banging echoed from Luo Mu's clinic...

After his meal, the well-rested Luo Mu felt no drowsiness. Full of energy, he took the Insect Control Technique out of his storage bag and began to read it carefully.

Yesterday he had only skimmed it to get a general idea, but tonight was for serious study. Throughout the night, the book never left his hands, and the expression on his face shifted constantly as he turned the pages.

A cultivator's memory far surpassed that of an ordinary person. In one night, while Luo Mu couldn't recite the book backward, he had memorized nearly everything. It wasn't until the sky turned bright that he slowly closed the book.

He closed his eyes, his face calm, and began to digest the knowledge he had acquired.

A long while later, Luo Mu opened his eyes, having gained a new concept of spirit insects.

So-called spirit insects were the eggs of graded insect-type demonic beasts that, after being hatched by a cultivator using various methods and becoming their pets, were referred to as spirit insects.

The same logic applied to spirit beasts and demonic beasts. As for the grading of spirit insects, it was no different from demonic beasts: levels one through nine, with level one being the lowest and level nine the most formidable.

Luo Mu did not know the level of the eight eggs he was hatching. According to the Insect Control Technique, the higher the grade of the spirit insect, the more tenacious its life force, though there were exceptions—some low-grade insects possessed terrifyingly strong vitality.

Luo Mu didn't know if his eggs belonged to the former or the latter; he would only know once they hatched.

His immediate priority was to improve his strength as quickly as possible. Only with greater strength could he accumulate wealth more easily, allowing him to purchase the various poisonous herbs required for his cultivation.

He planned to take the two hundred or so spirit stones he had found in the storage bag to a large city to buy some poisonous herbs. While two hundred stones wasn't a fortune, it should be enough to purchase a significant quantity of low-grade, first-tier poisonous herbs.

Within the same grade, spirit herbs were twice as expensive as poisonous herbs because cultivators had a much higher demand for the former, which was the primary reason for the price disparity.

Furthermore, while finding a single spirit herb in the wild might be difficult, finding a poisonous herb was much simpler. Since ordinary poisons no longer helped his cultivation progress, Luo Mu decided to head out today.

His plan was twofold: first, to try his luck along the way to see if he could find any graded poisonous herbs; and second, to visit Jinxiu City to purchase more. Whether he would refine them into pills or consume them directly, he wasn't sure yet—he would decide when the time came.

He hadn't given much thought to the cost of pill formulas for refining poisons, as he didn't know if he could afford them anyway.

As for why he chose Jinxiu City, it was because it was the closest city to Dragon Gate Town, and he was familiar with the route.

After tidying up slightly and packing plenty of dry rations, Luo Mu locked the clinic's front door, hung a "Closed" sign, and slipped away silently.

Luo Mu's departure went unnoticed by any of the townspeople, and for a long time afterward, the clinic's doors would never open again...

Luo Mu had brought plenty of rations for this long journey. He had traveled before; whenever Father Luo went to the city to buy spirit herbs for him, the destination was always Jinxiu City, and Luo Mu had accompanied him several times, so he knew the way.

However, this time, Luo Mu did not intend to take the old path, choosing instead to stick to the sparsely populated mountain trails.

To find spirit herbs and poisonous herbs, deep mountains and old forests were essential destinations. Although these places were home to demonic beasts, Luo Mu had to steel himself and go; his two hundred low-grade spirit stones wouldn't last forever, and if he wanted to truly improve his strength, he had to rely on himself.

Luo Mu also wanted to see how his poison spiritual energy differed from that of ordinary cultivators and whose was more powerful. Finding some low-level demonic beasts to spar with and improve his combat skills was indeed a good choice.

Only by being baptized in blood could one become a true powerhouse!

Moreover, demonic beasts were treasures from head to toe. If he could hunt one or two along the way, the trip would be profitable, perhaps even earning him a few extra spirit stones.

By now, Luo Mu had been away from Dragon Gate Town for a day and was deep within a massive mountain range, several peaks away from the town.

Usually, the hunters of Dragon Gate Town only operated in the woods near the town or at the very edge of the mountains. They dared not venture deep inside because of the presence of demonic beasts.

For many years, as long as the residents didn't venture too deep, there were basically no incidents of demonic beasts killing people. This was because wherever there was a town, the surrounding mountains were cleared by disciples of the Wanfa Sect. Powerful beasts were exterminated, and those that remained were low-level, first-tier beasts that did not actively attack humans.

Of course, if there was a conflict of interest, these low-level beasts could still inflict harm, much like what had happened to Father Luo.

This was the reason the townspeople were unwilling to venture too deep into the mountains; a single mistake could lead to an innocent loss of life.

Luo Mu did not avoid these low-level demonic beasts; instead, he darted through the vast mountains in search of spiritual herbs.

Just like that, only a day after leaving the small town, Luo Mu truly managed to find one low-grade rank-one spiritual herb, three low-grade rank-one poisonous herbs, and even one mid-grade rank-one poisonous herb, which left him ecstatic.

In the past, he would never have dared to venture so deep into the mountains to forage, but things were different now. Possessing poison spiritual power, Luo Mu charged straight into the depths of the mountains in one breath—truly a case of high skill emboldening the heart.

Along the way, Luo Mu also tested the might of his poison spiritual power, and the results left him astonished. Ordinary wild beasts, once touched by his poison spiritual power, would bleed from their seven orifices and die in an instant, a sight too gruesome to behold.

This left Luo Mu both delighted and apprehensive. He was delighted because the toxicity contained within his internal poison spiritual power was unexpectedly potent, ensuring he would hold the upper hand in battle. Yet, he was apprehensive that this dalliance with poison might one day lead to his own demise.

However, this worry existed in Luo Mu's mind for only a fleeting moment; before he could indulge in further speculation, he was stunned by the scene unfolding before his eyes.