Gu Worm Backlash

Ten days later, the black-spotted larva finally began spinning silk and forming a cocoon.

This larva's growth period had lasted a full month, ten days longer than the other larvae. Its aura was also dozens of times stronger than that of the other larvae when they formed cocoons.

Another half a month passed before it finally emerged from its cocoon, growing into a true Beetle Gu.

This Beetle Gu had not directly grown into the Sacred Beetle Gu as Song Wen had hoped.

According to the records in the Blood Gu Art, a Beetle Gu's body was gray, while a Sacred Beetle Gu was ink-black.

Yet only this Beetle Gu's abdomen was black. The carapace on its back and its head were still gray.

"What is going on?"

Song Wen frowned deeply. He lacked experience in raising Gu Worms and had no fellow cultivators to exchange knowledge with. He had raised them entirely according to the Blood Gu Art and the old woman's notes. With the Beetle Gu in this condition, he had no idea whether it was good or bad.

Just then, a sudden change erupted.

The Beetle Gu, which had been lying quietly in Song Wen's palm, suddenly became violent.

A powerful aura radiated from the Gu Worm. It had shockingly entered the Qi Refining Middle Stage, roughly at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer. It was far beyond what Song Wen, who was only at the Late Qi Refining Second Layer, could resist.

Song Wen's expression changed drastically as a bad feeling rose in his heart.

"Is this a Gu Worm turning on its master?"

Only now did Song Wen, who had been wholly absorbed in raising Gu Worms, suddenly recall that when using a Gu Cauldron to raise Gu, if the Gu Worm's strength greatly surpassed its master's, it would become unwilling to be controlled and might turn on its master.

"Ah!"

An intense, searing pain assaulted Song Wen's Sea of Consciousness, as though someone were driving countless steel needles into his brain again and again. Caught completely off guard, Song Wen cried out involuntarily, clutching his head as he began to howl in agony.

The Gu Worm's backlash came too quickly—so quickly that Song Wen barely had time to think of how to deal with it.

Even at this critical moment, Song Wen did not lose his composure.

According to the Blood Gu Art, he currently had only two ways to handle this.

The first was to forcibly release his spiritual control over the Gu Worm and grant it freedom.

The second was for Song Wen to use his own body as a Gu Cauldron and refine the Gu Worm with an ample supply of essence blood, making it completely obedient to him.

Without nearly any hesitation, Song Wen chose the second method.

The first method carried enormous hidden dangers. Once the Gu Worm gained freedom, it would no longer be controlled by Song Wen and might turn around and attack him. That would no longer be called a Gu Worm turning on its master, but an attack on a stranger.

If he chose the second method and succeeded, Song Wen would gain a powerful fighting force. At the very least, against cultivators in the Early Qi Refinement Stage, he would be almost unmatched.

Having cultivated the Soul-Banishing Technique, Song Wen's spiritual power was already stronger than that of most Early Qi Refinement Stage cultivators, comparable to the spiritual power of a Peak Qi Refining Third Layer cultivator.

Relying on his powerful spiritual strength, Song Wen suppressed the agonizing pain in his mind with one hand and swallowed the Gu Worm in a single gulp with the other.

The Beetle Gu, swallowed into his stomach, naturally had no intention of behaving. It burrowed directly into Song Wen's internal organs.

Fortunately, Song Wen's control over the Beetle Gu remained. While restricting its movements, he began refining it according to the Blood Gu Art.

Under Song Wen's control, a large amount of essence blood gathered around the Beetle Gu, surrounding it.

Essence blood, containing the essence of the human body, was precisely what the Gu Worm needed for growth. The Beetle Gu began actively devouring the essence blood.

As the Beetle Gu consumed more and more essence blood, Song Wen refined it faster and faster.

After the Beetle Gu had devoured roughly twice the amount of essence blood in Song Wen's own body, Song Wen finally completed its refinement.

The Beetle Gu quieted down, clinging motionlessly inside Song Wen's abdomen.

Having suddenly swallowed such a massive amount of essence blood, the Beetle Gu was somewhat indigested. It needed time to digest that energy.

Song Wen let out a long breath. The process of refining the Beetle Gu had truly been perilous beyond measure. The slightest lapse in concentration could have caused the Beetle Gu to completely slip out of control. If it went berserk inside his body, the only path left to him would have been death and the dissipation of his Dao.

"It seems that even when cultivating in the future, I must be exceedingly careful. The path of immortality is truly filled with danger at every turn. One careless step, and I could find myself at the brink of peril."

Song Wen looked at the seven ordinary Beetle Gu in the Gu Cauldron. Gritting his teeth, he simply refined all of them into his body as well.

At the same time, a bold idea arose in his mind.

He wanted to raise Black-Bellied Beetle Gu in large numbers!

For a long time to come, Black-Bellied Beetle Gu would greatly enhance his combat power.

Once Beetle Gu entered adulthood, they could begin mating and reproducing.

However, ordinary Gu Masters would restrict their Gu Worms from breeding freely. Reproduction consumed a large amount of the Gu Worms' own vital essence. If that essence could not be replenished in time, the Gu Worms might die or suffer a severe decline in strength.

To replenish a Gu Worm's vital essence in time required a large amount of Gu Master essence blood and resources.

At the same time, raising the next generation of Gu Worms also required a great deal of Gu Master essence blood and resources.

All of this constrained the number of Gu Worms a Gu Master could raise.

What Song Wen lacked least was essence blood. At worst, he could steal more essence blood from the Corpse Dissection Cave to feed the Gu Worms.

The resources needed to raise Gu Worms, however, were somewhat more troublesome.

The more than four hundred spirit stones Song Wen had received from selling essence blood last time had been reduced, after his daily cultivation expenses, to a little over two hundred and thirty spirit stones.

And now, Song Wen had another five bottles of essence blood waiting to be sold.

He had to be cautious when selling essence blood. If someone set their sights on him, or if an acquaintance from the Corpse Demon Sect recognized him, it would be difficult for him to explain where the essence blood had come from.

Still, even with the risks, the essence blood had to be sold. It was currently his fastest means of obtaining spirit stones and resources.

The Black-Bellied Beetle Gu was a male Gu Worm, while four of the remaining seven Gu Worms were female.

In order to produce stronger Gu Worms in the next generation, Song Wen restricted the mating rights of the three ordinary males. The Black-Bellied Beetle Gu alone occupied all four females.

In truth, even without Song Wen's restrictions, the three ordinary male Beetle Gu would most likely have been unable to obtain mating rights. After all, the gap in strength between them and the Black-Bellied Beetle Gu was simply too great.

One month later.

All four females began laying eggs. There were twelve eggs in total, with each female laying three.

It was worth mentioning that, supported by ample resources, Song Wen's cultivation had smoothly advanced to the Qi Refining Third Layer.

By then, Song Wen had been in the Corpse Demon Sect for six months. To avoid arousing suspicion, he concealed his cultivation aura at the Qi Refining Second Layer.

This also matched the cultivation progress expected of someone with a sixth-grade mid-level spiritual root.

Seven days later, the eggs began hatching inside Song Wen's body.

Perhaps because he was using his own body as a cauldron to raise Gu Worms, the eggs hatched extremely quickly. In merely one day, nine of the twelve eggs had hatched into larvae. All nine were ordinary larvae.

Yet the remaining three eggs showed no movement for a long time.

This could not help but fill Song Wen with delight. Perhaps these three eggs would develop in the direction he hoped for.