Studying Gu Arts, Awaiting the Venom Pit

According to the Dao Register, Fang Shu's sinew-and-bone transformation today had not only brought his pre-Dao cultivation to a single, complete success.

Moreover, his chances of entering the Dao in the future stood as high as ninety-nine percent!

Even that remaining one percent was, in truth, a purely hypothetical figure.

So long as Fang Shu was not plotted against during his entry into the Dao, and no earthquake or similar accident occurred to crush or otherwise kill him, then this ninety-nine percent could be regarded as a "one-hundred-percent chance."

Staring at the words in the Dao Register within his mind, Fang Shu was dazed for a moment. So I can enter the Dao securely now!?

The hardships of the past half year flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, leaving him with a faint sense of unreality.

After all, whether according to the Daoist books, the miserable sight of Venom Pit tribulations he had witnessed with his own eyes, or the rumors in the market, surviving a tribulation and entering the Dao was an exceedingly difficult matter—one that could bring glory to one's ancestors.

If one passed, one became a genuine immortal practitioner. If one failed, one remained a mortal; immortals and mortals stood worlds apart.

Yet Fang Shu soon gave a faintly mocking laugh.

He had already combined within himself two immortal arts, one swift and one slow. With the aid of a precious medicine such as Purple Lead Mica Milk, he had cleansed and tempered the sinews and bones of his body. Furthermore, the Dao Register monitored his body at all times, ensuring that no hidden ailments had ever been left behind.

More importantly, he was not yet seventeen. He was at the age when the human body brimmed most vigorously with life and grew strongest.

With such advantageous conditions, it would be a joke if he still could not enter the Dao securely.

Fang Shu thought to himself, Whether it was Cheng the Jar or Li Hou'er, after obtaining precious medicine, both of them entered the Dao and refined essence without issue.

This showed that entering the Dao truly was as Li Hou'er had once said: the difficulty lay in the frailty of the human body. The poorer one was, the harder it became.

After composing himself, the timidity in Fang Shu's heart vanished, replaced by swelling joy that brought anticipation to his face.

He truly wanted to head straight to the market, procure the ritual implements needed to undergo tribulation and enter the Dao, then set out the ritual array as he had just done and swiftly enter the Dao.

But Fang Shu still suppressed the restlessness in his heart.

"Being able to enter the Dao" merely meant that he had a high chance of successfully refining essence. It did not determine the quality of the precious blood he would refine afterward.

As far as he knew, after passing the first tribulation, the different precious bloods condensed by immortal practitioners each possessed different wondrous uses.

If he casually purchased ritual implements from the market to assist his entry into the Dao, he would be wasting his potential and ruining the quality of his precious blood.

In contrast, if he used the Venom Pit tribulation method of the Solitary Gu Hall, then so long as he successfully passed the threshold, coupled with cultivating insect arts day and night, what he would condense after entering the Dao would be a type of "Gu-Poison Blood."

Not only could it increase an immortal practitioner's resistance to poison, it could also facilitate their future cultivation of gu arts and poison arts, gu techniques and poison techniques.

Yet the more wondrous uses a precious blood possessed and the finer its quality, the more difficult it was to condense.

One might toil through it all, only to fall short at the final step and merely enter the Dao crudely.

Or a prospective immortal practitioner who should have been capable of entering the Dao might suddenly fail the tribulation and be knocked back into mortality.

But Fang Shu had no need to worry about this.

That was because the "chance of entering the Dao" assessed by the Dao Register in his mind had been measured based on the Venom Pit tribulation method of the Solitary Gu Hall from the very beginning.

Fang Shu thought to himself:

At the latest, the hall opens a Venom Pit once every two months. Rather than pursuing a faster entry into the Dao, I should focus on the quality of the precious blood refined during my Dao-entry tribulation.

His gaze flickered, and he suddenly closed his eyes, focusing his attention on the Dao Register's arts section.

Besides the Mouth-and-Stomach Secret Sword Technique and the Fur-Shedding Skin-Changing Technique, this section now contained an additional entry: [Gu Arts (Sleepy Insect Section)].

Whether Hall Master Du had done so intentionally or not, this gu art not only recorded the method for refining Sleepy Insects, but also included certain methods for creating Venom Pits.

Although the Venom Pits mentioned in this gu art could not be mentioned in the same breath as the hall-protecting Venom Pit in the cultivation hall, the principles behind the two were interconnected.

Both used the gu-raising method of mutual slaughter and devouring to stimulate the potential of gu insects or human bodies, thereby rousing qi and blood and fostering the birth of gu insects and immortal practitioners.

Within the quiet room, Fang Shu had long since read this gu art countless times and knew it by heart. The Dao Register had also helped him unravel all its mysteries long ago.

It was only because he had never had the time to try refining one himself that he remained at the stage of "the eyes know, but the hands do not."

After pondering carefully, a contemplative look appeared in his eyes.

The Venom Pit tribulation is, in truth, simply treating the hall's disciples as gu insects and raising gu through tribulation...

In that case, the best method of undergoing tribulation is not merely to passively endure the bites of venomous insects and grit it out, but to actively refine the venomous insects in the pit, thereby stirring up one's qi and blood?

He examined the matter over and over, becoming increasingly convinced that this was the case.

It was simply that for the lower-ranking disciples of the Solitary Gu Hall, merely enduring inside a Venom Pit swarming with venomous insects was already impressive enough. Actively refining gu and stimulating themselves was even more out of the question.

As he considered it repeatedly, the light in Fang Shu's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Ordinary disciples may not be able to do it, but that does not mean I cannot. Besides, I have the Dao Register monitoring my body at all times. If anything goes wrong, I can stop decisively and will not become numb or careless.

With that thought, his heart stirred even more, and he began considering how to turn passivity into initiative during the Venom Pit tribulation.

As for why Fang Shu so badly wanted to improve the quality of his precious blood, aside from his desire to strive for perfection, there was another reason.

On the Dao Register in his mind, one line of text read:

[Innate Talent: Above Average]

Compared to before his sinew-and-bone transformation, the benefits he had gained this time were substantial. His innate talent had risen by a full two levels.

Yet it was still only an average innate talent.

What Fang Shu hoped was that he could undergo a solid, thorough transformation of his body during the Venom Pit tribulation and see whether he could use it to elevate his innate talent again, reaching the superior grade.

He thought to himself:

Even if the Venom Pit cannot elevate my innate talent, the better the precious blood I refine, the greater my advantages in insect arts and poison arts will be in the future.

At that point, his talent in the path of insect arts and poison arts might perhaps be equivalent to the superior grade as well.

After giving the matter thorough thought in the quiet room, Fang Shu finally rose slowly to his feet.

Unhurriedly, he put away every item in the quiet room and erased all traces of the ritual, preventing outsiders from learning of it.

After that.

Fang Shu slowed his tempering of the body and began concentrating on researching the Venom Pit tribulation.

This action left the hall's disciples rather surprised. They thought he had finally run out of steam.

Thus, the Solitary Gu Hall's cultivation hall changed from two rising branches standing side by side into Shi Hou, the bitterly cultivating youth, shining alone.

But Fang Shu paid no heed to such trivialities. He went about his own business, devoting himself wholeheartedly to gu arts.

His primary method of research was to personally refine the gu formula page given by the hall master and see whether he could produce the so-called Sleepy Insects.

Fang Shu had assumed that this gu art, which contained no specialized secret text and overlapped with insect arts, would not be especially difficult to refine.

Reality, however, made him slam headlong into a wall.

When refining gu arts, the nine secret texts of insect arts were merely the foundation. At best, they allowed him not to fear gu insect toxins and gave him a certain affinity with gu insects.

Actually refining gu insects did not simply mean tossing insects into a basin and letting them slaughter one another.

Fang Shu had to understand the habits and conditions of every insect placed into the basin as clearly as the back of his hand. Beforehand, he had to use essence blood to nurture and select gu materials; during the process, he had to specially blend medicines to stimulate the gu insects; afterward, he had to nourish them like magical implements.

Gu arts were also a field of practical verification.

Fang Shu even felt that this "minor side-path art" was more mysterious and profound than lead arts, insect arts, the Tongue Sword, or skin-changing arts!

Moreover, every principle written in the formula was easy to learn but difficult to master.

Thus, after researching for more than half a month, he was still stuck at the "during the process" stage of gu refinement, unable to produce a true First-Tribulation Sleepy Insect.

Yet he had gained much. His insect arts, which had already reached completion, had unexpectedly improved through the experience he gained from studying gu arts, the two corroborating and benefiting each other!

Can the path of gu arts also feed back into cultivation? he marveled inwardly.

Even his completion-level insect arts had improved, so Fang Shu's confidence in the Venom Pit tribulation had undoubtedly increased by several degrees.

He could now be said to have everything ready; all he lacked was the opening of the pit for tribulation!

And soon enough.

At the end of that month, the Solitary Gu Hall's group of paying disciples gathered once more in the cultivation hall...