Lies!

With the help of the Blood Condensation Art and Passive Gluttony.

Zhou Feng generated blood qi at an extremely rapid rate.

So there was not the slightest danger that night. The Bloodthirsty Gu truly began its first transformation and reciprocation.

It had been mentioned before: as long as you provided the Bloodthirsty Gu with enough blood qi,

then, as its host, you could also gain quite a few benefits.

Normally, among the many newly initiated disciples,

not a single one could provide enough blood qi for the Bloodthirsty Gu to undergo a true transformation.

Usually, they could only barely feed the Bloodthirsty Gu, then rely on the methods recorded in the Blood Condensation Art

to make the Bloodthirsty Gu spit out a trace of pure blood qi. Being able to accomplish even this much already counted as talent.

And this was, in truth, the Three Gu Sect's real initiation trial.

Though the Three Gu Sect seemed to have no threshold for accepting new disciples,

the threshold was actually right here. Only those with talent for controlling Gu insects could be brought to Gu Mountain—the Three Gu Sect's headquarters.

The place where Zhou Feng and the others were now was merely a small mountain far from Gu Mountain.

What had been described above was merely the situation ordinary people encountered.

Zhou Feng's situation, however, was completely different.

Because the blood qi he provided was far too abundant, the Bloodthirsty Gu had actually transformed directly.

And Zhou Feng himself had no idea what the Bloodthirsty Gu's transformation truly meant.

"Do your utmost to circulate the blood qi through your entire body and open up the blocked meridians..."

As he muttered, he controlled the pure blood qi that the transformed Bloodthirsty Gu had returned to him.

The little booklet had recorded that after the Bloodthirsty Gu returned pure blood qi, one had to immediately use that blood qi to open up one's meridians.

The more meridians one opened during this process, the easier one's future cultivation would become.

Pain! Pain! Pain!

The process of opening his meridians was even more agonizing than he had imagined.

It felt as though his body were being torn apart.

Yet at this moment, he displayed astonishing perseverance and forcibly endured it.

He let that stream of pure blood qi travel throughout his body.

And so, large numbers of blocked meridians were opened, while some impurities within his body were expelled along the way.

Marrow Cleansing! Wasn't this Marrow Cleansing?

If some older Three Gu Sect disciples had witnessed this scene, they would surely have been consumed by envy, jealousy, and hatred.

For this was one of the Bloodthirsty Gu's greatest benefits.

Though the Bloodthirsty Gu had all manner of drawbacks, and one could even be sucked dry if careless,

the reason it had earned the Three Gu Sect's favor was that once it was raised to a certain point, it could help cleanse one's marrow and refine one's essence.

And this Marrow Cleansing was continuous, an unending flow.

That pure blood qi would gradually transform your body into an Innate Body.

And the starting point of cultivation was transforming oneself into an Innate Body.

But making the Bloodthirsty Gu willingly help you cleanse your marrow and refine your essence was an exceedingly difficult matter.

After all, every Bloodthirsty Gu was a Pixiu, almost all taking in without ever giving out.

Who knew how many Three Gu Sect disciples of the Bloodthirsty Gu lineage had waited until the Bloodthirsty Gu drained them dry

without ever receiving a large return of blood qi for Marrow Cleansing.

Usually, getting the Bloodthirsty Gu to return even a trace of pure blood qi for cultivation was already quite good.

"So this is the legendary Marrow Cleansing?"

Zhou Feng slowly opened his eyes and saw the thick layer of grime covering his body.

Amazing! This Bloodthirsty Gu was actually this incredible!

He wiped away the filth and looked at the smooth skin revealed beneath it, unable to stop himself from sighing in awe.

This was practically being reborn. This Bloodthirsty Gu was way too powerful!

"Grrr~~"

Yet before he could marvel for long, his stomach began to rumble again.

The transformed Bloodthirsty Gu began drawing large amounts of blood qi from within him.

Zhou Feng seemed to hear the Bloodthirsty Gu urging him to hurry up and eat, converting food into blood qi.

"Damn it!"

In that instant, he felt as though he were about to be sucked dry.

The suction unleashed by the Bloodthirsty Gu far surpassed the previous times, and it was exceedingly brutal, knowing no restraint whatsoever.

Driven into a corner, Zhou Feng had no time to clean the grime from his body.

He could only begin eating frantically, relying on the Gluttony passive

to continuously break down food and transform it into blood qi for the Bloodthirsty Gu to draw upon.

Yet the blood qi converted by the Gluttony passive was faintly beginning to fall short.

That was because the Bloodthirsty Gu in his body had previously been unranked, not even possessing a grade.

But after the transformation just now, the Bloodthirsty Gu within him had entered a grade, and its demand for blood qi had directly doubled.

Not to mention that the Bloodthirsty Gu had just transformed and needed vast amounts of blood qi to replenish its previous losses.

Zhou Feng, who had looked somewhat stronger just moments ago, visibly grew thinner at a rate the naked eye could see.

His smooth skin also became dry and cracked.

From a distance, he looked like nothing but skin stretched over bones.

"It finally... stopped!"

Fortunately, the Bloodthirsty Gu within him had now slowed the rate at which it drew blood qi.

He had finally endured this ordeal.

The Bloodthirsty Gu had now stabilized. From here on, he only needed to keep eating and replenish his blood qi to recover the state he had been in after the Marrow Cleansing.

And while Zhou Feng underwent these wild ups and downs,

the other courtyards were scenes of utter misery.

A full ninety percent of the newly initiated disciples had been sucked into dried corpses.

In their despair, some rushed out of their courtyards, only to be seized by patrollers in an instant.

The sun slowly rose, and a new day arrived as usual.

After barely sleeping the entire night, Zhou Feng performed a simple wash and stepped out of the courtyard.

"Hm? Not bad! You actually survived!"

The moment Zhou Feng emerged from the house, he ran into Wei He.

A hint of surprise appeared on Wei He's face. He seemed genuinely startled.

As though he had not expected Zhou Feng to survive.

"Good! Follow me!"

Completely unaware of what was going on, Zhou Feng obediently followed behind Wei He.

Then, with his own eyes, he watched Wei He remove dead Bloodthirsty Gu from one dried corpse after another.

All along the way, not a single person had survived.

Even the neatly dressed villagers had been sucked to death alive.

Judging from their twisted expressions, they seemed to have suffered immense agony before dying.

"Oh? There's another one?"

Only at the very end did Wei He discover someone besides Zhou Feng who had survived.

It was a young woman, her dry, withered hair fluttering in the wind.

Her gaunt appearance looked somewhat terrifying beneath the sunlight.

"Not bad! Two people actually managed to survive! Congratulations! You have officially become disciples of the Three Gu Sect!"

A faint smile appeared on Wei He's face, and he seemed to be in a rather good mood.

Officially become disciples of the Three Gu Sect?

Hearing those familiar words, Zhou Feng suddenly realized that Wei He's earlier words had seemingly all been lies.

What official disciples of the Three Gu Sect? What cafeteria where they could eat whatever they wanted?

Those had probably all been lies. Only those who survived last night's trial could be considered true initiated disciples of the Three Gu Sect!

Remembering the dried corpses he had just seen, he could not help but feel a chill crawl down his spine.