Acquaintance

The old crone had raised an enormous number of Beetle Gu—more than a hundred in all.

There were two reasons she raised so many Beetle Gu. First, Beetle Gu were weak in battle and easily killed. They were expendable, so she had no choice but to keep plenty in reserve.

Second, the old crone had wanted to make the Beetle Gu devour one another, mutating and evolving into higher-grade Sacred Beetle Gu.

Sacred Beetle Gu retained the Beetle Gu's advantage of being concealed and difficult to detect, but their attack power was vastly enhanced. Their temperament also became combative and savage, and they had the remarkable ability to break through a person's protective spiritual power. They were exceedingly rare second-rank Gu insects.

Even Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators with protective spiritual power could face mortal danger if they carelessly allowed one to latch onto them and gnaw at them.

However, until her death, the old crone had never succeeded in cultivating a Sacred Beetle Gu.

Using the method recorded in the Blood Gu Art, Song Wen tested the vitality of the eight insect eggs. He discovered that, aside from one egg with relatively poor vitality, the other seven were quite vigorous. Hatching them successfully should not be a problem.

Song Wen also learned from the Blood Gu Art that there were broadly two methods of raising Gu.

One was to raise Gu insects inside a Gu cauldron, feeding them various heavenly treasures and one's own blood essence.

The other was to feed Gu with one's body, using one's own flesh as the Gu cauldron, blood essence as the main ingredient, and heavenly treasures as supplements to refine Gu.

There was little difference in the combat strength of Gu insects cultivated by either method. However, if the Gu insects raised by the former method grew far stronger than the Gu Master, there was a risk that they would rebel and turn on their master.

Gu insects raised by the latter method were absolutely loyal to the Gu Master and would not betray them. But if the Gu Master could not provide enough blood essence and spiritual treasures to support the Gu insects' growth and survival, there was a risk that the Gu insects would gnaw upon the Gu Master's flesh.

The old crone had fed Gu with her body and refined far too many Gu insects. Her blood essence had been insufficient, leaving her internal organs gnawed to tatters.

Song Wen pondered for a long time over which method of raising Gu to choose, but in the end, he could not make up his mind.

Song Wen's body could rapidly transform the blood essence of others into his own through devouring it. Logically, he should have chosen the method of feeding Gu with his body. But having just dissected the old crone's body today, the miserable state of her internal organs made Song Wen hesitate.

But one thing was certain: he had to raise Gu.

Song Wen set down the jade bottle containing the insect eggs, then left the cave dwelling with three bottles of blood essence.

Following his previous plan, he intended to first go to the market, dispose of the three bottles of blood essence, and exchange them for cultivation resources.

Song Wen went straight to the shop where he had sold the pill furnace last time. Back then, the shop assistant had said that their shop dared to accept goods of any dubious origin, making it the perfect place to dispose of this blood essence.

The moment he entered the shop, the assistant recognized Song Wen at a glance and said, "Customer, what do you need this time?"

"I want to sell some blood essence."

As he spoke, Song Wen took out a bottle of blood essence and handed it to the assistant.

The assistant accepted the jade bottle with a smile, uncorked it, and probed inside with his spiritual sense. After inspecting it, his expression turned delighted.

"Customer, the purity of this bottle of blood essence is extremely high—so pure it seems to have come from refining a single person, without a trace of impure aura. Could it have been obtained by refining a righteous-path cultivator at the peak of the Qi Refining Realm?"

Song Wen's expression remained cold as he said indifferently, "Fellow cultivator, aren't you asking a few too many questions? Are you buying it or not? If you are, just name your price."

The assistant gave an embarrassed laugh. "Sorry, I spoke out of turn."

At that moment, the assistant became even more certain of his earlier speculation about Song Wen.

Song Wen had to be some minor figure in a certain faction who specialized in fencing stolen goods. Otherwise, with Song Wen's cultivation, how could he possibly produce such a full bottle of high-purity blood essence?

Even if Song Wen were given the corpse of a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Refining Realm, he would not have the ability to completely refine the blood qi from the corpse.

The assistant immediately tried to smooth things over. "How about I offer 120 spirit stones for this bottle of blood essence?"

"120?"

Song Wen fell silent upon hearing this. He had estimated that this bottle of blood essence was worth around 200 spirit stones, but that would require him to set up a stall and sell it himself, greatly increasing the risk of exposing himself.

But the other party's offer of merely 120 felt rather low.

Seeing Song Wen hesitate without immediately leaving, the assistant knew that the other party was dissatisfied with his offer, though it was probably not far from his desired price.

The assistant added, "How about 130?"

Song Wen neither agreed nor disagreed. Instead, he took out the other two bottles of blood essence.

"I have two more bottles here. If your offer is suitable, I'll sell them all to you together."

The assistant's eyes lit up. "140. It can't be any higher. Any higher—"

Before he could finish, Song Wen cut him off. "Deal."

The assistant hurriedly took the blood essence from Song Wen while quickly counting out 420 spirit stones and handing them over, as though afraid Song Wen might change his mind.

The blood essence Song Wen had brought was simply too pure. The assistant believed it would be easy to resell, and the shop could easily earn around 200 spirit stones from this single purchase and sale. He himself would also receive a considerable commission.

Watching Song Wen's departing back, the assistant called out loudly, "Take care, customer! If you have such superior blood essence again, you're welcome to sell it at our shop. I'll definitely offer you a high price."

Hearing the assistant's voice, Song Wen left without looking back, thinking to himself, It seems I'll have to disguise myself before selling blood essence in the future. I can't let people recognize me so easily, and I can't come to this shop again either.

Having obtained a large sum of spirit stones, Song Wen went straight into a shop that sold medicinal pills.

He did not purchase the Corpse Blood Pills he had taken in the past. Instead, he bought Qi Gathering Pills, which were popular among righteous-path cultivators.

Qi Gathering Pills provided cultivators with a large amount of spiritual qi and promoted the growth of their cultivation. However, they did not contain the blood qi and corpse baleful qi required by Corpse Demon Sect cultivators.

But Song Wen already had sufficient blood qi and had also purchased corpse baleful qi, so he no longer needed to take Corpse Blood Pills. Qi Gathering Pills were more suited to his current circumstances.

To avoid flaunting his wealth, Song Wen spent 50 spirit stones to buy 20 Qi Gathering Pills. These pills were basically enough to support his full-force cultivation for around ten days.

After leaving the pill shop, Song Wen bought a secondhand Gu cauldron from a roadside stall.

This Gu cauldron was not even ranked and did not measure up to a low-grade dharma artifact. Since it was secondhand as well, it cost Song Wen only a little over ten spirit stones.

Song Wen planned to use this cauldron to hatch the Beetle Gu eggs first.

As for exactly how he would cultivate the Beetle Gu afterward, Song Wen had not yet decided.

Because this Gu cauldron was unranked, it was not particularly effective at promoting the growth of Gu insects. But for Song Wen, who only wanted to hatch the Gu insects first, it was already sufficient.

As Song Wen walked through the market, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure.

"Eh, isn't that Junior Sister Chen?"