"Thank you, Immortal Lin!"
Overjoyed, Fang Tong tried to kneel in gratitude again, but Lin Ke once more held him up.
Looking at Lin Ke before him, Fang Tong's thoughts raced through a hundred twists and turns.
He could actually sense that Immortal Lin's aura had grown far more than ten times stronger since he first arrived.
By all rights, Immortal Lin could have left a remote place like the Green Mulberry Garden long ago, so why had he stayed here?
Then there was everything he had done on Golden Silkworm Peak, such as planting the mulberry trees in neat rows and asking them about the Blackgold Silkworms' living habits.
These were not things an ordinary immortal would think of, let alone do.
As for why Immortal Lin still chose to remain in the Green Mulberry Garden rather than seek a lucrative position in the sect, such as a steward's post?
Fang Tong knew that Immortal Lin had secrets.
For instance, after they handed their packed Insect-Rearing Jars and Insect-Feeding Boxes over to Lin Ke, the insects were transformed into spirit insects resembling hawk moths.
Then there were the Blackgold Moths that had vanished...
In short, Immortal Lin was no ordinary man!
Moreover, Fang Tong reckoned that Lin Ke would remain in the Green Mulberry Garden for a long time.
The reasoning was simple.
Even his son knew that when you got something tasty, you could not let others see it, or they would snatch it away.
Therefore, Fang Tong had to build a closer relationship with Lin Ke while he was still lying low in the Green Mulberry Garden.
If he waited until Lin Ke had risen in the world, it would be too late.
"There are many things you should simply keep to yourself. Don't go spreading them around."
Lin Ke's voice rang out at just the right moment.
Lin Ke did not know exactly what Fang Tong was thinking, but he could guess the general gist, so a reminder to keep things secret was enough.
As he progressed, some secrets would inevitably become impossible to conceal, such as his ability to cultivate special spirit insects.
But he would delay that day for as long as possible, at least until he had the strength to protect himself.
"Yes, Immortal Lin." Fang Tong understood, then solemnly swore, "Even if someone beat me to death, I wouldn't reveal your affairs, Immortal Lin. Neither would anyone in our Green Mulberry Garden!"
"Mm." Lin Ke nodded slightly. "Tell me about your Old Han inheritance."
Old Han!
The name sounded ordinary, even a little rustic.
But those who knew understood that it represented someone the local village revered and feared, a figure akin to the entire village's father, divine father, and decision-maker.
Simply put, the great shaman handled external warfare, while the Old Han managed internal affairs.
The great shaman fought using gu insects, while the Old Han cultivated them.
In other words, Fang Tong's inheritance concerned methods for cultivating and rearing gu insects.
"Actually, the Old Han inheritance I received was passed down to me by my father..."
Fang Tong immediately took out a dagger, stepped back, and removed his Miao Wei Black Tunic, revealing his sturdy, dark-skinned torso.
"Please forgive me, Immortal Lin. My father sewed this inheritance into my flesh when I was thirteen."
As he spoke, Fang Tong slowly cut into the side of his waist with the dagger, stopping at a depth of just under a centimeter before gently levering it up.
A rolled strip of wood, smeared with pale yellow fat and streaks of blood, rose through his skin and flipped out.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Fang Tong quickly pulled out the finger-wide strip of wood. Some fat and blood spurted out with it, and he pressed hard against the wound.
"I-Immortal, this is the inheritance..." Drenched in sweat from the pain, Fang Tong shakily handed over the wooden strip.
Unbothered by the mixture of blood and grease on it, Lin Ke accepted the strip of wood.
It had none of the appearance or feel of an immortal treasure he had imagined. Instead, the sight of it inspired nausea, horror, and fear.
"Immortal, please put this tick between your b-brows." Enduring the pain, Fang Tong trembled as he took out another object. "Otherwise... you won't be able to... see the inheritance..."
A tick?
Lin Ke's pupils contracted when he saw the small, round, brightly colored insect in Fang Tong's hand.
Ticks were bloodsucking parasites, insects that mammals detested and loathed.
He was supposed to put this visibly poisonous-looking insect between his brows?
He quietly moved Lin Can and a Stinger Hawk Moth from his Niwan Palace into the Golden-Wing Nest, just in case.
Then he gritted his teeth, accepted the tick, and placed it between his brows.
The instant he set it there, the tick drove itself fiercely into the flesh between Lin Ke's brows, like a desert traveler who had gone ages without sweet water suddenly discovering a clear spring.
Pain flared between his brows, but Lin Ke remained expressionless. Spirit Power gathered in his head, ready to crush the tick at the first sign of anything amiss.
Yet after a few seconds, the tick stopped reacting.
It neither sucked his blood nor burrowed deeper. Instead, after releasing some substance, it fell from between Lin Ke's brows.
One glance revealed that the tick was already dead.
"Immortal Lin, look at the Gu Tablet, quickly!" Fang Tong hurriedly reminded him from beside him.
At those words, Lin Ke immediately raised the object called the Gu Tablet.
In an instant, what had looked like rotten wood stained by soaking in sludge began to change.
The Gu Tablet twisted its body, swaying like a willow branch in the wind. As it swayed, it emitted strange, profound ripples.
In Lin Ke's eyes, those profound ripples became pieces of information he experienced as though hearing them with his ears, seeing them with his eyes, smelling them with his nose, and tasting them with his tongue.
"There is an insect called the mosquito, born in summer and dying in winter. Refined into gu, it gains spirituality; nourished with blood through shamanic arts, it rises, unceasing and without end..."
"There is an insect called the armor beetle, its shell as thick as metal..."
"There is an insect called the louse, swift as lightning's cry..."
Simply by looking, Lin Ke could obtain a vast amount of information from the Gu Tablet.
Information on raising gu insects-in other words, spirit insects!
The Old Han inheritance recorded in this Gu Tablet was an inheritance concerning spirit insects, otherwise known as gu insects!
It described many, many spirit insects Lin Ke had never seen or even heard of.
Among them were certain mosquitoes whose might even the original owner of his body had heard about.
For example, the Summer-Winter Mosquito originated from the Wind Mosquito, one of the Six Evils. It had to be nourished with blood using the shamanic arts recorded on the Gu Tablet, but afterward it grew ever stronger, with no end to its growth, possessing limitless potential like ordinary Demon Beasts.
The original owner of his body had heard of this powerful spirit insect called the Summer-Winter Mosquito during the Transmission Elder's lessons for the outer disciples.
Legend held that Summer-Winter Mosquitoes were immensely powerful, innately able to wield a mysterious, unfathomable four seasons power. Even Fusion Stage cultivators struggled to match them.
After qi refining came the Dao Foundation, after the Dao Foundation came golden core formation, the golden core broke open to form a nascent soul, and the nascent soul coalesced into fusion.
The sect master of the Golden Wing Sect was a Fusion Stage powerhouse.
Thus, the Summer-Winter Mosquito could be considered extraordinarily powerful.
However, the Summer-Winter Mosquito had long since vanished into history.
Lin Ke did not know whether the reason no one had cultivated a Summer-Winter Mosquito was that they had never obtained this Old Han inheritance.
"To think the inheritance for the Summer-Winter Mosquito was actually in the hands of your lineage's Old Han." After receiving all the information in the Gu Tablet, Lin Ke could not help marveling.
The cultivation method for the Summer-Winter Mosquito alone was enough to drive Nascent Soul Realm and Fusion Stage powerhouses mad.
And the Summer-Winter Mosquito was far from the only spirit insect recorded in this Gu Tablet.
"The ancestral inheritance passed from my grandfather to my father, but they were all stubborn. They would rather watch the tribe perish than hand it over to the sect in exchange for an opportunity..."
Fang Tong's eyes dimmed, and he sighed. "Many villages in other sects handed over their inheritances long ago. They enjoy wealth and glory and shelter their descendants. I... I don't want the whole village to fall into ruin in my generation."
"I understand." Lin Ke rose, patted Fang Tong's shoulder, and channeled Spirit Power into his body to ease his pain.
"Don't worry. The way of shamanism and gu is itself a great Dao. It merely lacks methods that lead straight to higher realms the way the immortal Dao does."
"At the very least, your son will learn immortal arts in the future. If he can thoroughly integrate the immortal Dao with the way of shamanism and gu, that won't count as the decline of your Old Han inheritance."
"Yes, yes." Hearing Lin Ke's words, especially that his son would learn immortal arts in the future, Fang Tong's expression improved considerably.
Feeling Lin Ke's Spirit Power nourish the wound at his waist, he said with emotion, "This Old Han has met many immortals, but you're different, Immortal Lin. Now it seems I made the right choice after all."
"I'll do my best." Lin Ke smiled at his words and held out the Gu Tablet. "Here's your Gu Tablet back."
"No, please keep it, Immortal Lin." Fang Tong smiled bitterly. "This thing was like a stone, stuck to my body and weighing on my heart. Now that I've handed it to you, I can finally rest easy."
"Very well." Lin Ke said no more and put the Gu Tablet into his storage pouch. Then he said, "In that case, we can put the insect-rearing methods in it into practice."
"How many of the Five Poisons and Six Evils are among the insects you've caught?"
Before you continue