Spirit Insect

Biodata

Power Progression

Characteristics

Spirit Insects possess spiritual power and are far more formidable than their ordinary counterparts. Their traits can be enhanced further through Gu refinement, where they serve as the ingredients for a new Gu insect. 3

• Their value depends heavily on rarity, maturity, grade, and compatibility with a Gu recipe. 2 5
• Rare Spirit Insects are difficult to breed and can sell for immense prices, particularly when they are useful as ingredients in known Gu recipes. 2 33
• Different species possess different growth cycles and dietary needs; specialized feed can dramatically shorten maturation time and provide a major commercial advantage. 2
• Long Xuan’s growth-sensing ability displays their maturity as percentages. In his observations, additional decimal precision indicates exceptionally long maturation periods and can reveal potentially high-grade specimens. 3 4
• In this world’s classification, even creatures such as centipedes, venomous snakes, scorpions, spiders, and toads are treated as “insects”; these five groups are collectively known as the Five Poisons. 3
• A Spirit Insect’s lifespan is directly proportional to its grade. Insects produced by long-lived Spirit Trees and high-grade spirit medicines can therefore be exceptionally valuable. 61
• Most Spirit Insects possess physical bodies, but some exist in unusual energy forms. Void-type Spirit Insects are entirely incorporeal and hide within layers of space, while certain Natural Gu can likewise exist as energy entities. 14 223
• Although individual Spirit Insects are usually weaker than Gu insects, their ability to breed in enormous numbers makes swarm tactics viable. A sufficiently vast insect swarm can surround and kill even a supreme-grade Gu insect. 68 121
• Spiritual-energy scarcity has driven many Spirit Insect species extinct. Although Gu World still has several million Spirit Insect species, most of its original insect diversity has already disappeared. 145

Gu Refinement

Spirit Insects are placed together in a Gu vessel and made to devour one another. Given sufficient time, this process may create a new species known as a Gu insect. 1

• A refined Gu insect cannot reproduce; it can only be created through Gu refinement. 1
• A recipe’s main ingredient is the Spirit Insect intended to survive the refinement process. If it dies, the refinement fails. 5
• The grade of the main ingredient determines the resulting Gu insect’s grade. A low-grade main ingredient produces a low-grade Gu even if the final ability is unusually useful. 5
• Higher Spirit Insect maturity improves the success rate of Gu refinement. 2
• The number and combination of ingredients affect a Gu’s eventual form and abilities, though more ingredients do not necessarily produce a stronger or more practical result. 1 15
• A Gu insect’s quality is determined by the quality of its source Spirit Insects, while the number of materials largely determines the abilities it can carry. However, Heavenly Dao’s standards do not always align with practical combat value. 15
• Some Gu recipes also incorporate non-insect materials, such as favored food, leaves, or other substances associated with the chosen insect species. 116
• Gu insects are broadly divided into larger External Gu, used in direct combat, and Internal Gu, which parasitize a host and form a mutually beneficial relationship through spiritual power or vital energy. 1 3
• Eye Gu are an exceptional category of Internal Gu. Rather than feeding primarily on spiritual power, vital energy, or blood, they consume their host’s mental power. 14
• After refinement, a Gu insect begins again at 0% growth progress, regardless of the maturity of the Spirit Insects from which it was made. 16

Habitats and Sources

Herb Gardens

Spirit Insects may emerge among spiritual herbs. Insects born from common first-grade herbs are generally destroyed as pests, while insects associated with high-grade herbs may be valuable enough for Gu refinement. 8

Spirit-herb gardens can also support breeding operations. Long Xuan’s two purchased bees recovered by feeding on nectar and pollen, later multiplying into a colony of several hundred Spirit Bees. 4 22

High-grade medicinal gardens can produce large quantities of valuable Spirit Insects, particularly when supplied with a Spirit Spring and ten-thousand-year spirit medicines. Such resources also attract Spirit Bees, which can establish colonies among flowering spirit herbs. 63 116

Spirit beasts that feed on garden insects can become a serious threat to breeding operations. Chicken Bro grew into a second-stage spirit beast after consuming large numbers of Spirit Insects produced by Long Xuan’s medicinal garden. 116

Hosts and Underground Environments

Some Spirit Insects parasitize spirit beasts or humans. Those born within a person are called Innate Gu and may grant their hosts unusual abilities. 8

Others live underground, including earthworms, mole crickets, and ants. 8

Spirit Beasts can contain naturally born internal Spirit Insects, often within their Spirit Cores. These parasites may carry latent bloodline abilities that the host beast itself never awakened, so a Spirit Beast’s visible abilities cannot reliably reveal the value of the insect within it. 64 66

Spirit Beasts can also acquire external parasites, including fleas, lice, ticks, leeches, and unfamiliar local species. These insects are easier to notice than internal parasites but remain dangerous in the wilderness. 64 66

Because Spirit Insects obtained from slain Spirit Beasts are effectively random “drops,” hunters usually gamble on their prey. Long Xuan is an exception, as he can inspect the progress of insects hidden inside a Spirit Beast before deciding whether to hunt it. 64 66

Fossils

During recurring Ice Ages, Spirit Insects may enter suspended animation underground and form protective stone shells. These insect-bearing stones are known as fossils. 8

• A dormant insect’s bodily functions and lifespan effectively pause, allowing it to survive for extraordinarily long periods. 8
• Most fossilized insects are dead; fossils containing living Spirit Insects are fewer than one in a hundred. 8
• Living fossils can contain ancient, rare, or extinct species, making them the foundation of the dangerous stone-gambling trade. 8
• Thick stone shells can conceal exceptionally valuable specimens, such as the insect within the Stone King. 8 13
• Long Xuan’s progress-sensing ability can locate a living insect within a fossil and estimate its size, allowing him to cut around it while concealing its existence from other gamblers. 13

Commerce and Breeding

Spirit Insects are regularly traded as Gu-refinement materials, but rare and endangered species are also valuable as potential breeding stock. Whoever develops a viable rearing method for a scarce species can establish a lucrative monopoly over its insects and specialized feed. 2 163

During resource crises, Spirit Insect prices can collapse because cultivators cannot afford to keep feeding them. The Western Land Long Family exploited Blackstone City’s blockade to purchase the city’s Spirit Insect resources at extremely low prices for Gu-recipe research. 185

Classification and Exceptional Types

Spirit Insects are commonly divided by quality into inferior, middle, superior, and supreme grades. Supreme-grade Spirit Insects are the rarest ordinary category and are frequently sought as foundations for powerful Gu insects. 193

Ten Heaven-Defying Spirit Insects

The Ten Heaven-Defying Spirit Insects are ten supreme-grade Spirit Insects whose abilities are considered so defiant of heaven that Heavenly Dao restricts each type to a single living specimen in the world. A replacement appears only after the previous specimen dies. 193

• Their uniqueness means that conventional Gu recipes for them are generally unavailable, though Long Xuan considers their Gu potential especially valuable. 193 250
• The Medicine Insect, ranked tenth, can accelerate spirit-medicine growth and break a spirit herb’s ordinary lifespan limit, potentially producing ten-thousand-year medicines and the supreme-grade insects they breed. 193
• The Repair Insect, ranked fifth, can restore damaged objects. In its Spirit Insect state, it is limited to comparatively low-grade objects and requires a lengthy cooldown after each repair. 250
• Long Xuan later possesses a Repair Gu capable of restoring a Hundred-Li Talisman, though the restoration of even one talisman requires a year. 317

Void-Type Spirit Insects

Void-type Spirit Insects have no physical bodies and hide in different layers of space. The deeper a Void Insect hides, the stronger the Eye Gu or Spirit Eye needed to perceive it. 223

• Void Gu refined from these insects are nearly impossible for ordinary cultivators to detect or counter. 223
• In an ancient era, Void Insects nearly drove humanity to extinction before Feng Jie created the Eye of Apocalypse and sealed them within ninety-nine Spirit-Sealing Towers. 223
• Long Xuan’s Eye of Heavenly Secrets can detect Void Insects that remain invisible even to conventional Eye Gu specialists. 223 478

Known Examples

Relationship with Long Xuan

• Long Xuan — Treats Spirit Insects as research subjects, Gu-refinement materials, commercial goods, and potential long-term breeding resources. His ability to observe growth progress allows him to identify promising specimens and optimize their feed. 2 3 4
• Spirit Beast parasites — Long Xuan can inspect hidden Spirit Insects within Spirit Beasts, allowing him to selectively hunt creatures containing valuable materials rather than rely on the luck that governs ordinary hunters. 64 66
• Supreme-grade Spirit Insects — He deliberately hunted Spirit Beasts for supreme-grade materials needed for the Dragon Gu Recipe, concealing discoveries such as the insect inside a pink Spirit Rabbit and the parasite within a Great Dragonfish. 66 70
• Rare and endangered species — Rather than immediately consume every rare insect as Gu material, Long Xuan collects and intends to breed many of them. He recognizes that selling the insects or their breeding methods can create monopolistic profits. 163
• Spirit Bees — Long Xuan provides access to spirit-flower nectar and pollen while the colony produces honey; he avoids disturbing their hive because of their dangerous stings. 22
• Ice Bees and Bingbing — He deliberately improved Bingbing’s diet with Fire Dragon Fruit Tree nectar, turning the Ice Bee colony into a large-scale source of superior honey, royal jelly, combat support, and ingredients for Spirit-Recovery Wine. 116 117
• Gu insects — Spirit Insects are their precursor materials. Once refinement succeeds, the resulting Gu follows a separate growth system beginning again at 0% progress. 16 49
• Void Insects — His Eye of Heavenly Secrets gives him an exceptional advantage against void-type insects, enabling him to restrain or expose threats that most Gu cultivators cannot even perceive. 223 478