An Acquaintance

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

There were two reasons she had raised so many Beetle Gu. First, Beetle Gu were weak in battle and easily killed, making them disposable items that required ample reserves.

Second, the old woman had wanted the Beetle Gu to devour one another and mutate into higher-ranked Sacred Beetle Gu.

Sacred Beetle Gu retained the Beetle Gu's advantage of being hidden and difficult to detect, but their offensive power was greatly enhanced. They also became combative and vicious, with the remarkable ability to break through a person's protective spiritual energy. They were extremely rare second-rank Gu Worms.

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

However, until her death, the old woman had failed to cultivate a Sacred Beetle Gu.

Following the method recorded in the Blood Gu Art, Song Wen tested the vitality of the eight eggs. Aside from one egg whose vitality was somewhat poor, the other seven all showed considerable vitality. Hatching them successfully should not be a problem.

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

One was to raise Gu Worms in a Gu Cauldron, feeding them various heavenly treasures and one's own essence blood.

The other was to nourish Gu with one's body, using one's own flesh as a Gu Cauldron, with essence blood as the primary ingredient and heavenly treasures as supplements to refine Gu.

There was little difference in the combat power of Gu Worms cultivated by the two methods, but Gu raised by the former method might rebel and turn on their master if their strength greatly surpassed that of the Gu Master.

Gu raised by the latter method were absolutely loyal to their Gu Master and would never betray them. However, if the Gu Master could not provide enough essence blood and spiritual treasures to support the Gu Worms' growth and survival, the Gu Worms might gnaw away at the Gu Master's flesh.

The old woman had nourished Gu with her body and refined too many Gu Worms. Her essence blood had been insufficient, leaving her internal organs gnawed to pieces.

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

Song Wen's body could rapidly transform others' essence blood into his own by devouring it. Logically, he should have chosen to nourish Gu with his body. Yet he had only just dissected the old woman's corpse today, and 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 eggs, took three bottles of essence blood, and left the cave abode.

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

Song Wen went straight to the shop where he had sold the pill furnace last time. The attendant had said then that their shop dared to accept anything of unknown origin, making it the perfect place to dispose of this essence blood.

The moment he entered the shop, the attendant recognized Song Wen at a glance and said,

"Customer, what do you need this time?"

"I want to sell some essence blood."

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

The attendant accepted the jade bottle with a smile, uncorked it, and extended his spiritual sense inside to inspect it. His expression immediately turned delighted.

"Customer, the purity of this bottle of essence blood is extremely high—so pure it seems as though it came from refining a single person, without a trace of turbid qi. Could it be that you obtained it by refining a righteous-path cultivator at the peak of Qi Refinement?"

Song Wen's expression remained cold as he said indifferently,

"Fellow cultivator, aren't you asking a little too much? Are you buying it or not? If you are, just give me a price."

The attendant gave an awkward laugh. "My apologies. I spoke out of turn."

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

Song Wen must have been some small-time figure from a certain faction who specialized in fencing stolen goods. Otherwise, how could someone with Song Wen's cultivation possibly produce such a full bottle of high-purity essence blood?

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

The attendant immediately tried to smooth things over. "I'll offer 120 Spirit Stones for this bottle of essence blood. How does that sound?"

"120?"

Song Wen fell silent upon hearing this. He had estimated that this bottle of essence blood 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 exposure.

But the other party was offering only 120, which he found somewhat low.

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

The attendant added, "How about 130?"

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

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

The attendant's eyes lit up. "140. No higher. Any higher and—"

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

The attendant hurriedly accepted the essence blood from Song Wen and quickly counted out 420 Spirit Stones for him, as though afraid Song Wen might change his mind.

The purity of the essence blood Song Wen had brought was simply too high. The attendant believed it would be easy to sell, and the shop could effortlessly earn around 200 Spirit Stones from this purchase and resale. He himself would also receive a considerable commission.

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

Hearing the attendant's voice, Song Wen left without looking back. At the same time, he silently thought,

It seems that if I sell essence blood again in the future, I must disguise myself. I can't let people recognize me so easily, and I can't come to this shop again either.

With his windfall of Spirit Stones, Song Wen entered 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 vast amounts of spiritual qi and promoted the growth of their cultivation. However, they did not contain the blood qi and Corpse-Baleful Qi required by cultivators of the Corpse Demon Sect.

But Song Wen himself already had enough blood qi and had also purchased Corpse-Baleful Qi, so he no longer needed to take Corpse Blood Pills. Qi-Gathering Pills were better 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 more or less enough for him to cultivate at full speed 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 had yet to reach the level of a low-grade magical artifact. Since it was secondhand as well, it cost Song Wen only a dozen or so Spirit Stones.

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

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

Since this Gu Cauldron was unranked, it did not greatly aid the growth of Gu Worms. However, for Song Wen, who only wanted to hatch the Gu Worms 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?"