Beetle Gu

Two days later.

The first Gu egg successfully hatched.

The Beetle Gu larva resembled a tiny maggot, milky white and wriggling about inside the Gu cauldron.

Song Wen tossed in a stalk of Azure Spirit Grass. As if it had caught the scent of food, the larva crawled onto a blade of spirit grass and began nibbling away at it.

Three more days passed. All seven highly active eggs had hatched, while the one with poor vitality remained motionless.

Song Wen had nearly decided to discard it, but seeing its vitality steadily grow stronger, he decided to observe it for a few more days.

Every day, these larvae lay sprawled across the Azure Spirit Grass, eating without pause as though their bellies could never be filled.

What was strange was that despite eating endlessly, they showed no signs of growing. Song Wen had no idea where all the Azure Spirit Grass they consumed had gone.

Another two days passed.

That day, when Song Wen returned from the Corpse Dissection Cave, he discovered that the final egg had hatched as well.

The newly hatched larva was not entirely like the others. There was a tiny black spot on its back, especially conspicuous against its milky-white body.

"What is wrong with this larva? Could it have mutated?"

Song Wen observed it for a long time but found nothing particularly unusual about it. The Blood Gu Art contained little information on larvae either, so in the end, he could not make heads or tails of it.

However, after watching it for some time, Song Wen noticed that although this larva had only just been born, it ate no slower than the other larvae that had hatched days earlier.

Each larva consumed one stalk of Azure Spirit Grass a day. Eight larvae ate eight stalks daily, which cost one spirit stone—enough for Song Wen to buy 2.5 Qi-Gathering Pills, sufficient for an entire day of cultivation.

If the Blood Gu Art had not stated that the Beetle Gu larval stage lasted only around twenty days, and that its appetite would instead decrease after it matured, Song Wen would have begun to doubt whether raising such a Gu worm with so little offensive power was worthwhile.

Half a month later.

The larvae gradually began spinning silk and forming cocoons around themselves. This was a sign that the Beetle Gu larvae were beginning to transform into adults.

Song Wen dripped blood essence onto every Gu worm cocoon. At the same time, following the incantations recorded in the Blood Gu Art, he sent one hand seal after another into the cocoons.

As the hand seals entered, the originally milky-white cocoons gradually became stained with streaks of black patterns, giving them a mysterious yet somewhat eerie appearance.

This was the easiest time to refine Beetle Gu. The moment they emerged from their cocoons, the Gu worms would come under Song Wen's control.

Of course, Gu worms like those of the old crone, which were raised inside her body and completed their hatching, larval stage, cocooning, and emergence all within her body, did not require these steps.

Gu worms that hatched and grew within her body would innately regard her as their mother Gu and obey her commands.

Yet the larva with the black spot showed no signs of forming a cocoon.

Its aura had already grown more than ten times stronger than that of the other Gu worms, and its appetite had become increasingly enormous. It ate nearly three stalks of Azure Spirit Grass each day, forcing Song Wen to go out and purchase more Azure Spirit Grass.

This made Song Wen hold a special measure of anticipation for this unusual larva.

Perhaps he would have the chance to raise the Sacred Beetle Gu that the old crone had never managed to breed.

Another seven days passed.

The cocoons began to crack open. One tiny gray beetle after another crawled out, each one less than half the size of a grain of rice.

The Beetle Gu flew up from the Gu cauldron and began circling around Song Wen's body.

Song Wen could sense goodwill and closeness from them.

Watching the beetles flutter about, Song Wen found it difficult to believe that these insects, so small they could easily be overlooked, were actually Gu worms that struck terror into people's hearts.

Every one of these beetles possessed the strength of Qi Refining Level One. According to the old crone's notes, some Beetle Gu could advance to Qi Refining Level Two, while an extremely small number could reach Qi Refining Level Three.

Song Wen pinched one beetle between his fingertips and gradually increased his grip.

He discovered that with the strength of his physical body alone, he could not crush the Beetle Gu to death.

This thing might lack offensive power, but its defense was fairly solid.

Song Wen was now at Qi Refining Level Two, and he cultivated a demonic body-refining art.

Wanting to test the Beetle Gu's limits, Song Wen began circulating the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art with all his strength.

As the cultivation art circulated, dense corpse qi gradually rose from Song Wen's body, while his skin slowly turned iron-blue and black.

The flesh and blood all over his body gradually became dry and shriveled, like a desiccated corpse that had not fully lost its moisture.

His fingertips became tough, flickering with a faint cold gleam that carried a chilling, bone-deep frostiness.

The Beetle Gu suddenly began struggling violently and actually started gnawing at Song Wen's finger.

This was a sign of the Gu worm's backlash!

Sure enough, raising Gu with a Gu cauldron could not completely refine the Gu worms. When they encountered mortal danger, they could turn on their master at any time.

Song Wen had no choice but to release the Gu worm he had worked so hard to raise. He could not casually play it to death like this.

As the mortal threat faded, the Beetle Gu's hostility toward Song Wen, its master, gradually subsided as well.

Song Wen estimated that the Beetle Gu could barely withstand attacks from a Qi Refining Level Two cultivator. After all, ordinary Qi Refining cultivators had weaker attack power than body cultivators.

The Beetle Gu's offensive power, meanwhile, was on par with a Qi Refining Level One cultivator.

At this point, Song Wen finally understood why people said Beetle Gu lacked combat power.

Unless their numbers reached a certain level, Beetle Gu could hardly form any real fighting force. Only if they happened to enter an enemy's body through the mouth or nose might they inflict enormous harm.

In every sect, including among Rogue Cultivators, Qi Refining Level One and Two cultivators were the lowest rung. They generally lived cautiously, eking out a miserable existence, and seldom ventured out to take risks.

Naturally, the Beetle Gu's little bit of combat power was of little use.

But if their numbers rose to several hundred or even a thousand, then even Late Qi Refinement cultivators could only flee in panic upon encountering them.

Next, Song Wen tested the Beetle Gu's scouting ability. This was its primary use, at least according to the old crone.

Following the experience the old crone had left behind, Song Wen attached his spiritual power to a Beetle Gu and sent it flying into the distance.

Song Wen found that with the help of the Beetle Gu, he could scout roughly forty meters away. Beyond that distance, his spiritual power could no longer sustain itself.

Without the aid of a Beetle Gu, given the current strength of his spiritual power, he could only investigate a distance of around fifteen meters.

That was already the result of his cultivating the Soul-Banishing Technique. Ordinary early-stage Qi Refining cultivators could generally only extend their spiritual power about ten meters at most.

The Beetle Gu greatly extended Song Wen's range of perception.

Moreover, the Beetle Gu made almost no sound while flying and was difficult for others to notice. It truly was an excellent tool for scouting and clearing the way.

This made Song Wen hold even greater expectations for the black-spotted larva. He wondered what sort of surprise it would bring him.

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