An Acquaintance

The old woman had raised an immense number of Beetle Gu, well over a hundred in total.

She kept such a massive swarm for two reasons. First, the Beetle Gu possessed weak combat strength and were easily killed; as mere consumables, she had to maintain a constant surplus.

Second, she wanted to force the Beetle Gu to devour one another, hoping the survivors would mutate and evolve into a higher-tier Holy Armor Gu.

The Holy Armor Gu retained the Beetle Gu's natural advantage of being incredibly stealthy and difficult to detect, but its attack power was vastly superior. Ferocious and aggressive, it possessed the unique ability to pierce through a cultivator's protective barrier. It was an exceptionally rare Rank 2 Gu insect.

Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator possessing protective barrier Qi could find their life in jeopardy if they grew careless and allowed the creature to latch onto them and gnaw at their flesh.

Yet, the old woman had failed to breed a single Holy Armor Gu by the time she met her demise.

Following the methods recorded in the Blood Gu Technique, Song Wen inspected the vitality of the eight insect eggs. He discovered that aside from one that showed weak signs of life, the remaining seven possessed excellent vitality. Hatching them successfully should not pose much of a problem.

Song Wen also learned from the Blood Gu Technique that there were generally two methods for raising Gu.

The first was to breed the insects inside a Gu cauldron, feeding them various heavenly treasures and one's own essence blood.

The second was to use one's own flesh as the vessel. By turning the physical body into a living Gu cauldron, a master would refine the insects by relying primarily on their own essence blood, supplemented by heavenly treasures.

While the combat strength of the insects produced by both methods was practically identical, the former carried a severe risk. If the Gu grew significantly stronger than the Gu Master, it could rebel and unleash a fatal backlash.

The latter method guaranteed absolute loyalty, as the insects would never betray their host. However, if the Gu Master failed to provide enough essence blood and spiritual treasures to sustain their growth and survival, the insects would turn inward, devouring the master's own flesh.

The old woman had chosen to use her body as the vessel. Because she had refined far too many insects, her essence blood had run dry, leaving her internal organs gnawed into a tattered mess.

Song Wen pondered the matter for a long time, unable to decide which path to choose.

His physical body could rapidly convert the consumed essence blood of others into his own, so theoretically, using his body as a vessel was the most logical choice. However, having just dissected the old woman's corpse today, the gruesome state of her ruined organs made him hesitate.

One thing was certain, though: he absolutely had to raise these Gu.

Song Wen set down the jade bottle containing the insect eggs, took up three bottles of purified essence blood, and stepped out of his cave dwelling.

He intended to proceed with his original plan-head to the market, dispose of the essence blood, and exchange it for cultivation resources.

Song Wen went straight to the shop where he had previously sold the alchemy furnace. On his last visit, the shop assistant had boasted that they dared to accept items of any origin, making it the perfect place to liquidate the essence blood.

As soon as he stepped inside, the assistant recognized him instantly.

"Customer, what can I help you with today?" the assistant asked.

"I want to sell some essence blood."

As Song Wen spoke, he produced a jade bottle and handed it over.

The assistant took it with a smile, pulled the stopper, and swept his spiritual sense inside to inspect the contents. Instantly, a look of pleasant surprise crossed his face.

"Customer, the purity of this essence blood is remarkably high! It is so untainted that it looks like it was refined from a single source without a single speck of impurities. Could it be that you refined a righteous path cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining?"

Song Wen's expression remained detached as he replied coldly, "Fellow Daoist, you ask too much. Do you want it or not? If you do, just give me a price."

The assistant gave an awkward laugh. "My apologies, I overstepped."

In his heart, however, the assistant felt his previous suspicions were confirmed.

Song Wen had to be a minor lackey for some organization, tasked specifically with fencing stolen goods. Otherwise, given his meager cultivation level, how could he possibly produce a full bottle of such highly purified essence blood?

Even if someone handed Song Wen the corpse of a peak Qi Refining cultivator, he wouldn't possess the skill required to completely extract and refine the blood vitality within.

The assistant quickly tried to mend the situation. "I can offer one hundred and twenty Spirit Stones for this bottle. How does that sound?"

"One hundred and twenty?"

Song Wen fell silent. He estimated the actual market value of the bottle to be around two hundred Spirit Stones, but achieving that price would require him to set up his own stall, greatly increasing his risk of exposure.

Even so, an offer of one hundred and twenty felt a bit too low.

Seeing Song Wen hesitate without walking out, the assistant knew the youth was dissatisfied but likely close to his acceptable threshold.

"How about one hundred and thirty?" the assistant pushed.

Song Wen neither agreed nor disagreed. Instead, he produced the other two jade bottles.

"I have two more bottles here. If you give me a fair price, I will sell them all to you right now."

The assistant's eyes lit up. "One hundred and forty! I cannot go a single stone higher. Any more and..."

Before he could finish, Song Wen interrupted, "Deal."

The assistant hurriedly snatched the bottles from Song Wen's hands while quickly counting out four hundred and twenty Spirit Stones, delivering them as if terrified the youth might back out.

The purity of the essence blood Song Wen had brought was exceptional, and the assistant knew it would sell easily. Through this single transaction, the shop would comfortably net a profit of nearly two hundred Spirit Stones, and he would pocket a hefty commission.

Watching Song Wen's departing back, the assistant called out loudly, "Take care, customer! If you obtain more high-grade essence blood in the future, please bring it to our shop. I guarantee I will give you a premium price!"

Hearing the shout, Song Wen kept walking without looking back, thinking to himself:

'It seems when I sell essence blood in the future, I must disguise myself to avoid being easily recognized. I cannot return to this shop again.'

Now flush with a vast sum of Spirit Stones, Song Wen walked straight into a pill pavilion.

Instead of purchasing the Corpse Blood Pills he usually took, he bought the Qi Gathering Pills favored by righteous path cultivators.

Qi Gathering Pills provided a vast amount of Spiritual Qi to boost a cultivator's advancement, but they lacked the blood vitality and corpse evil Qi typically required by disciples of the Corpse Demon Sect.

However, Song Wen already possessed an abundance of blood vitality within his body and had already purchased corpse evil Qi separately. He no longer needed to take Corpse Blood Pills; Qi Gathering Pills were far better suited to his current situation.

To avoid attracting unwanted attention by flaunting his wealth, Song Wen spent fifty Spirit Stones to purchase twenty Qi Gathering Pills. This batch would be enough to sustain ten days of cultivation at full capacity.

After leaving the pill pavilion, Song Wen browsed the roadside stalls and bought a secondhand Gu cauldron.

The cauldron was ungraded and fell short of even a Low Grade Magical Artifact. Since it was secondhand, it only cost him a dozen or so Spirit Stones.

Song Wen intended to use it solely to hatch the Beetle Gu eggs for now.

As for how he would nurture them in the long run, he still had not made a definitive choice.

Because the cauldron lacked a grade, it would provide no significant benefits to the growth of the insects, but for his immediate goal of hatching them, it was more than sufficient.

As Song Wen walked through the market, a familiar figure suddenly caught his eye.

'Huh? Isn't that Junior Sister Chen?'

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