第七章 灵气炼蛊

Ignoring the venomous resentment in He Ya's eyes, Huo Hai knew that as long as he did not leave the Huo family's territory, He Ya could do nothing to him. If He Ya dared to make a move himself, it was hard to say who would win and who would lose.

Huo Hai continued catching insects. After several days of observation, he had summarized the species and habits of the insects around him. He had even recorded them in a small notebook, occasionally using Chinese characters in it.

On one hand, Huo Hai did not want to forget where he came from. Constantly reminding himself that he was from Earth was also a kind of obsession. On the other hand, it was for secrecy. The Gu Refining Art had originally been something extremely secretive on Earth, rarely passed on to others. How could Huo Hai possibly let others learn it so easily? Even if they stole his notes, it would be useless.

After understanding their habits, Huo Hai had gained quite a bit of insight into raising insects and would no longer accidentally kill them. Next came the matter of medicinal herbs. Huo Hai had no idea what the medicinal herbs of this world were like.

With medical spirit masters around, no one paid any attention to ordinary medicinal herbs. Left with no choice, Huo Hai imitated Shennong tasting a hundred herbs. He carefully identified the properties of various herbs so he could use them.

Of course, Huo Hai was not foolish enough to eat them himself. Instead, he raised a small animal that ate grass. Only after it ate something without incident did Huo Hai dare to try it. As for things the little animal refused to eat, that was not up to it. Huo Hai had plenty of ways to stuff herbs into its belly. Over the past few days, he had killed who knew how many little rabbits.

Thus, He Ya's campaign of public slander gained a few more points. Claims that Huo Hai had turned into an idiot, that he ate grass instead of food, that he abused and killed little rabbits, and the like often came out of He Ya's mouth. It made the fire in Huo Hai's heart burn hotter and hotter.

Huo Hai said nothing. No one knew that beneath his madman-like behavior, Huo Hai had reaped enormous gains. Gradually, he came to understand many ordinary medicines. Some of their medicinal properties were just right for refining Gu.

In the end, Huo Hai selected three types of insects as the foundation insects for Gu refining. One was a centipede. If Gu refining did not even include a poisonous insect, would that not be far too regrettable? This centipede was highly venomous and was exactly the insect Huo Hai wanted as a base. The other two were a beetle and a small dragonfly-like flying insect.

Gu refining followed certain principles. Insects that devoured one another would acquire some of the other insects' traits. By adding flying insects, the Gu insect would have a strong chance of being able to fly in the future. For tiny insects, the ability to fly was immensely important.

As for the beetle, Huo Hai had chosen one with an exceptionally hard shell. He did not expect the Gu insect refined this time to possess much killing power. This was merely an experiment, and incidentally, something to use to retaliate against He Ya.

The process of raising Gu was extremely cumbersome, but with spiritual energy, things were different. For the first two days, Huo Hai stopped feeding the insects their usual feed and instead gave them specially prepared medicine as food. After eating these medicines, the insects became increasingly violent. Huo Hai knew this was because their blood was boiling.

When blood boiled, the bloodline would become completely active. If this continued for a long time and they managed to survive, perhaps the insects themselves would mutate. And if such insects devoured other insects, the likelihood of mutation would become even greater.

After feeding them medicinal herbs for two days, Huo Hai stopped feeding them and began starving them directly. The starving insects cried out constantly, and sometimes even gnawed at their grass cages. Anyone here would surely have their hair stand on end.

Fortunately, because so many insects were being raised in the house during this time, the servants had become unwilling to go near Huo Hai's courtyard. Thus, this courtyard became Huo Hai's private space, an absolutely quiet and safe place. After starving for several days, the insects were nearly dead from hunger. Yet supported by the medicinal power, they not only did not weaken, but became even crazier.

"Good. The timing is just right." Huo Hai smiled faintly and took out the jar he had prepared long ago. Then he pricked his index finger with a needle and let several drops of blood fall. This blood was the target the insects would fight over.

It was also an important item that would make the future Gu insect recognize its master. Back on Earth, after refining a Gu insect, one had to feed it with one's own blood every day for a long time. The spiritual energy within blood was the best nourishment for a Gu insect's growth.

But things were different here. Huo Hai smiled faintly. "I can finally test feeding them with spiritual energy. Even Grandma never tried this. I wonder what will happen." As he spoke, Huo Hai began injecting spiritual energy into the blood. Since he cultivated the Spirit Art, his blood had already contained a certain amount of spiritual energy.

After Huo Hai infused it with spiritual energy, even a single ordinary drop of blood seemed to radiate spiritual energy. This small loss was nothing to Huo Hai, so he did not show the pale face that other Gu refiners displayed after refining Gu.

After handling his blood, Huo Hai's hands danced swiftly as he placed all the insects he had prepared into the jar. Then he sealed the mouth of the jar. However the insects struggled inside was none of Huo Hai's concern.

Seeing that the time was about right, Huo Hai sat down beside it and cultivated the Spirit Art by himself. Cultivating the Spirit Art had nearly become a habit by now. The comfortable feeling it brought each time also made Huo Hai unable to stop.

After cultivating for the past few days, spiritual energy had been transforming Huo Hai's body faster and faster. His entire body radiated a spiritual air beyond that of ordinary people. He had gradually moved from the entry stage of the Spirit Body into the early stage of the Spirit Body realm, nearing its peak. If he continued cultivating like this, he did not know how long it would take before he reached the late Spirit Body stage. The Spirit Body realm might not differ much in combat power, but it was the best period for laying foundations.

At this moment, all kinds of sounds were already coming from inside the jar. The sounds of insects slaughtering one another, the sounds of insects devouring one another. No one knew what it looked like inside. Huo Hai wanted to lift the lid and take a look, but after thinking it over, he held himself back.

Was it not just insects devouring insects? What was there to see? How could Huo Hai admit that he did not want to witness something so disgusting?

And so, the entire day passed just like that. The next morning, Huo Hai quietly opened the jar and discovered that the insects inside had vanished. In their place was a bizarre-looking creature.

Calling it an insect, it actually looked more like a large cocoon with a mouth. It resembled a silkworm, yet Huo Hai knew that it definitely was not one. He had not put any silkworms inside, nor had he used any similar catalytic medicine. How could such a thing possibly appear? This phenomenon showed that the Gu insect had been successfully refined, but was not yet complete.

Huo Hai knew that what it needed now was feeding. At this point, Huo Hai did not need to use much of his own blood. He merely dripped one drop onto the insect's head to make it recognize him as its master, then sent in a strand of spiritual energy to feed it.

This was an experiment. Huo Hai wanted to test whether the spiritual energy Grandma had spoken of was the same as the spiritual energy of this world.

As spiritual energy entered its body, the insect indeed stopped moving. The now-quiet insect rose and fell with each breath. It seemed that something was being nurtured within the great cocoon. When a Gu insect was being formed, it required an enormous amount of energy. As long as it had energy, anything would do.

"Whew, it really works. From now on, I can raise insects with spiritual energy. I'd like to see who can still stand against my insect army." Thinking of that happy prospect, Huo Hai could not help laughing aloud. On Earth, the number of Gu insects one could raise was limited. At the root of it, one simply did not have enough blood to feed so many Gu insects, nor enough vital essence.

But Huo Hai was different. He had the Spirit Art and could use spiritual energy. With spiritual energy as support, what could mere Gu insects do to him?

After that, Huo Hai returned to a regular life. Every day, he either cultivated the Spirit Art or fed his insects. As for whether He Ya could find him, Huo Hai did not care. His entire heart was now focused on his Gu insect.

With spiritual energy feeding it, the Gu insect developed much faster. Originally, it would have been impossible to refine it successfully without ten days to half a month. But now things were different. Fed with spiritual energy, the insect showed movement after merely three days.

That day, Chu Yuntian was carrying out his usual task of feeding the insect. Suddenly, he heard a faint sound. When he opened the lid, he saw that at some point, a crack had appeared on the great cocoon. "Judging from the position of this crack, it should be coming out soon. It seems to have wings too. This time, my efforts were not in vain." Huo Hai muttered to himself.

A slit opened along its back, growing wider and wider until it spread across a third of the great cocoon. At that moment, a pair of wings suddenly stretched out. That was right, a pair of wings, like dragonfly wings, carrying a faint golden gleam.

The wings slowly extended, followed by the insect's body. As the insect crawled out segment by segment, Huo Hai finally learned what he had refined. What he had used was not some ready-made method recorded by others.

Instead, he had attempted to refine it based on his own research and understanding of this world. Beneath the wings was a centipede, and a golden centipede at that. Its small wings were completely out of proportion with its centipede body, yet with a flutter of those disproportionate wings, the centipede floated into the air. It was not merely because of the wings.

"Eh? Such a tiny thing can actually use spiritual energy too. A Gu insect truly lives up to being a Gu insect. I just wonder how strong it is in battle."

No sooner had he spoken than an awareness appeared in Huo Hai's mind, roughly conveying affection and declaring that it was very formidable. Huo Hai froze. After being refined into a Gu insect, had its intelligence actually increased? If this continued, would it reach the level of a human?

Before Huo Hai could react, the golden centipede suddenly dropped from the air and landed in the center of the jar. Opening its mouth, it bit by bite devoured the great cocoon that had originally wrapped around it. During the process, the centipede's body slowly grew larger.