Beetle Gu

Two days later.

The first insect egg successfully hatched.

The Beetle Gu larva looked much like a tiny maggot. It was milky-white, twisting and wriggling inside the Gu cauldron.

Song Wen tossed a stalk of Azure Spirit Grass inside. As if smelling the food, the larva crawled onto a leaf and began to nibble at it meticulously.

Another three days passed, and all seven of the highly active eggs hatched. Only the single egg with poor vitality remained completely motionless.

Song Wen even considered discarding it, but seeing its internal vitality growing stronger, he decided to observe it for a few more days.

These larvae spent their days clinging to the Azure Spirit Grass, eating endlessly as if they could never be full.

Bizarrely, despite their constant feeding, they did not grow in size. It was a mystery where all the consumed Azure Spirit Grass was going.

Another two days went by.

Returning from the Corpse Dismemberment Cave that day, Song Wen discovered that the final egg had finally hatched.

This newly hatched larva was not quite the same as the others. It had a small black dot on its back, which stood out starkly against its milky-white body.

What is going on with this larva? Could it be a mutation?

Song Wen observed it for a long while but could not discern anything particularly special about it. The Blood Gu Technique did not contain extensive records on the larval stage, so he ultimately remained clueless.

However, prolonged observation revealed that despite being freshly born, this larva's eating speed was not the slightest bit slower than the ones hatched days ago.

Each larva consumed one stalk of Azure Spirit Grass daily. Eight larvae meant eight stalks a day, which equated to one Spirit Stone. That was enough wealth for Song Wen to buy two and a half Qi Gathering Pills-sufficient for his daily cultivation needs.

Had the Blood Gu Technique not recorded that the larval period of the Beetle Gu only lasted around twenty days, and that their appetite would actually decrease upon reaching adulthood, Song Wen would have severely doubted if raising such weak-attacking Gu insects was worth the cost.

Half a month later.

The larvae gradually began to spin silk, wrapping themselves into cocoons. This was the sign of a Beetle Gu larva transforming into an adult.

Song Wen dripped his essence blood onto each cocoon. At the same time, following the methods detailed in the Blood Gu Technique, he struck a series of hand seals into the cocoons.

As the seals sank in, streaks of pitch-black patterns gradually stained the originally milky-white cocoons, giving them an air of profound mystery tinged with eeriness.

This was the easiest stage to refine the Beetle Gu. The moment they broke out of their cocoons, the Gu insects would fall under his absolute control.

Of course, someone like the old woman-who nurtured the Gu inside her own body, allowing them to complete the entire cycle of birth, larval stage, pupation, and emergence within her flesh-did not require these steps.

Gu insects hatched and raised inside the body would innately view the host as the mother Gu, obeying their every command.

Meanwhile, the larva with the black dot showed no signs of forming a cocoon.

Its aura was already over ten times stronger than the other Gu insects, and its appetite was only growing. It consumed nearly three stalks of Azure Spirit Grass a day, forcing Song Wen to make another trip out to purchase more.

This gave Song Wen a sense of special anticipation toward this anomalous larva.

Perhaps he had a chance to cultivate the Holy Armor Gu that the old woman had forever failed to produce.

Another seven days passed.

The cocoons began to crack open, and gray beetles crawled out one by one. The beetles were incredibly tiny, smaller than half a grain of rice.

The Beetle Gu flew up from the Gu cauldron, swarming and dancing around Song Wen's body.

From them, Song Wen could sense a distinct feeling of goodwill and intimacy.

Watching these hovering beetles, Song Wen found it hard to believe. These bugs, so minuscule they could easily be overlooked, were actually the terrifying Gu insects that struck fear into the hearts of men.

All of these beetles possessed strength equivalent to the first layer of Qi Condensation. According to the old woman's notes, a portion of the Beetle Gu could advance to the second layer of Qi Condensation, and an extremely rare few could even reach the third layer.

Song Wen pinched a beetle between his fingertips and gradually applied pressure.

He discovered that with his current physical strength alone, he actually could not crush it.

Although this thing lacked offensive power, its defense was quite respectable.

Song Wen currently possessed the strength of the second layer of Qi Condensation, and what he cultivated was a demonic path body-refining art.

Eager to test the Beetle Gu's absolute limits, Song Wen fully activated the Corpse King Blood Refining Art.

As the technique circulated, dense corpse qi rolled off his body, and his skin rapidly turned a dark, iron-blue hue.

The flesh and skin all over his body withered and shrank, leaving him looking like a partially dehydrated corpse.

His fingertips turned incredibly tough, gleaming with a faint, cold light that exuded a chilling, bone-piercing dread.

The Beetle Gu suddenly began to struggle violently and actually started biting into Song Wen's finger.

This was a sign of a Gu insect's backlash!

As expected, raising Gu with a cauldron could not achieve complete refinement. When faced with lethal danger, the Gu insects could rebel against their master at any moment.

Song Wen was forced to release his grip. He couldn't casually toy to death the Gu insect he had gone through so much trouble to cultivate.

As the mortal threat faded, the Beetle Gu's hostility toward him, its master, gradually dispersed as well.

Song Wen estimated that the Beetle Gu could barely withstand an attack from a second-layer Qi Condensation cultivator. After all, an ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator's attack power would be weaker than that of a body-refining cultivator.

The Beetle Gu's own offensive power was on par with a first-layer Qi Condensation cultivator.

At this point, Song Wen finally understood why it was said that the Beetle Gu's combat strength was lackluster.

Unless the Beetle Gu reached a certain quantity, it was almost impossible for them to form any real combat effectiveness. Only if they managed to enter an enemy's body through the mouth or nose by sheer luck could they potentially inflict massive damage.

Across all sects, and even among Rogue Cultivators, those at the first and second layers of Qi Condensation were at the absolute bottom of the hierarchy. They generally lived cautious, miserable lives, strictly avoiding any outside risks.

Naturally, this meager level of combat strength from the Beetle Gu was of little use.

However, if their numbers scaled up to several hundred or even a thousand, even a late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator would be forced to flee in panic upon encountering them.

Next, Song Wen tested the Beetle Gu's scouting capabilities. This was their primary utility-at least, it had been for the old woman.

Following the insights left behind in her notes, Song Wen attached a thread of his spiritual sense to a Beetle Gu, sending it flying off into the distance.

Song Wen discovered that by using the Beetle Gu, he could scout up to a distance of about forty meters. Beyond that range, his spiritual sense could no longer sustain the connection.

Without relying on the Beetle Gu, his current spiritual sense strength only allowed him to perceive his surroundings up to roughly fifteen meters.

And this was only because he cultivated the Divine Restriction Technique. The spiritual sense of an ordinary early-stage Qi Condensation cultivator could reach a maximum of ten meters.

The Beetle Gu vastly extended Song Wen's perception range.

Furthermore, the Beetle Gu made virtually no sound during flight, making them extremely difficult to detect. They were truly an excellent tool for spying and scouting the path ahead.

This left Song Wen with even higher expectations for the black-dotted larva, wondering just what kind of surprise it would bring him.

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