Acquaintance

Translator: Cinder Translations

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The old woman raised a large number of Beetle Gu, totaling over a hundred.

She kept so many Beetle Gu because, firstly, their combat strength was weak and they were easily killed, making them consumables that needed to be kept in surplus.

Secondly, the old woman hoped to induce a higher-level Sacred Beetle Gu through mutual consumption and mutation of the Beetle Gu.

The Sacred Beetle Gu retained the advantage of being hard to detect like the Beetle Gu, but its attack power was greatly enhanced. It became fierce and vicious, and had the miraculous effect of breaking through protective spiritual powers, making it an extremely rare second-level Gu worm.

Even Foundation Establishment cultivators with protective spiritual powers could be in danger if bitten by it due to carelessness.

However, the old woman never succeeded in breeding the Sacred Beetle Gu.

According to the methods recorded in the "Blood Gu Technique," Song Wen conducted vitality tests on the eight insect eggs and found that except for one with poor vitality, the other seven eggs showed good vitality. It seemed quite feasible to successfully hatch them.

Song Wen also learned from the "Blood Gu Technique" that Gu raising could generally be divided into two methods.

One was to cultivate Gu worms in a Gu Cauldron, feeding them various natural treasures and one's own essence blood.

The other method was body cultivation, using one's own flesh as the Gu Cauldron primarily fed with essence blood and supplemented with natural treasures to refine the Gu.

The combat power of Gu worms raised by both methods was almost the same. However, Gu worms raised by the former method might rebel and turn against the Gu Master if their strength far exceeded that of the Gu Master.

Gu worms raised by the latter method were absolutely loyal to the Gu Master and would not betray them. However, if the Gu Master provided insufficient essence blood and spiritual treasures to support the Gu worms' growth and survival, there was a risk of the Gu worms devouring the Gu Master's flesh.

The old woman practiced body cultivation for Gu raising, resulting in too many Gu worms and insufficient essence blood, which led to her internal organs being bitten and damaged.

Song Wen pondered for a long time, still undecided on which method of Gu raising to choose.

It was clear to Song Wen that raising Gu was a necessity.

Setting down the jade bottle containing the insect eggs, Song Wen left the cave with three bottles of essence blood.

According to the previous arrangement, he intended to first go to the market, dispose of the three bottles of essence blood, and exchange them for cultivation materials.

...

Song Wen went directly to the shop where he had previously sold the pill furnace. The servant boy there had mentioned before that their shop dared to accept any unidentified items, which was convenient for handling these essence blood.

As soon as he entered the shop, the servant boy recognized Song Wen at a glance and greeted him.

"Customer, what can I assist you with this time?"

"I want to sell some essence blood."

As Song Wen spoke, he took out a bottle of essence blood and handed it to the servant boy.

The servant boy took the jade bottle with a smile, uncorked it, and after inspecting it with his spiritual sense, his expression turned pleasantly surprised.

"Customer, the purity of this essence blood is extremely high, as pure as if it were obtained from refining a peak Qi-refining cultivator. It contains no impurities at all. Could it be obtained from refining a genuine cultivator?"

Song Wen remained expressionless and calmly replied, "Friend, you seem to be asking too much. Are you going to accept it or not? If yes, please quote me a price directly."

The servant boy chuckled apologetically, "I'm sorry, I spoke too much."

At this moment, the servant boy in his heart had already confirmed his initial speculation about Song Wen.

Song Wen must be someone from some power who specializes in selling stolen goods, otherwise, with his cultivation alone, how could he possibly produce such a bottle of high-purity essence blood.

Even if it was to give Song Wen a peak Qi refining body, Song Wen did not have the strength to fully refine the blood gas in the corpse.

The servant immediately looked for compensation, "I bid 120 spirit stones, can I collect this bottle of blood?"

"120?"

Song Wen was somewhat silent upon hearing this. He expected the value of this bottle of blood to be around 200 spirit stones, but that would require him to set up his own stall to sell it, greatly increasing his exposure to risk.

However, the other party only bid 120, which he felt was a bit low.

Seeing Song Wen hesitate but not immediately leave, the servant understood that the other party was dissatisfied with his offer but was not far from his psychological price.

The servant said, "How about 130?"

Upon hearing this, Song Wen hesitated, instead taking out two more bottles of essence blood.

"I have two more here. If your offer is suitable, I'll sell them to you together."

The servant's eyes lit up. "140, no higher..."

Before the servant could finish his sentence, Song Wen interrupted, "Done."

The servant hurriedly took the essence blood from Song Wen's hand and quickly counted out 420 spirit stones to give to Song Wen, as if afraid that Song Wen might change his mind.

The purity of the essence blood brought by Song Wen was too high. The servant believed that it could easily be sold. Between this buy and sell, the shop could easily earn around 200 spirit stones, and he himself would earn a substantial commission.

Watching Song Wen leave, the servant shouted loudly, "Customer, take care! Next time you have such high-quality essence blood to sell, please come to our store. I will definitely offer you a high price."

Hearing the servant's voice, Song Wen left without looking back. At the same time, he silently thought to himself,

"It seems that in the future, when selling essence blood, I must disguise myself and not be easily recognized. I can't come to this shop anymore."

With a large amount of spirit stones in hand, Song Wen went straight to a shop selling pills.

He did not buy the corpse blood pills he used to take, but instead bought Qi-gathering pills popular among righteous path cultivators.

Qi-gathering pills provide a large amount of spiritual energy to cultivators, promoting their cultivation. However, they do not contain the blood energy and corpse aura necessary for Corpse Demon Sect cultivators.

However, Song Wen already had enough blood energy and even purchased corpse qi, so he no longer needed to take corpse blood pills. Qi-gathering pills were more suitable for his current situation.

To avoid revealing his wealth, Song Wen spent 50 spirit stones to buy 20 Qi-gathering pills, enough to fully cultivate for about ten days.

After leaving the pill shop, Song Wen bought a second-hand Gu cauldron at a roadside stall.

This Gu cauldron was not a refined product and did not even reach the level of a lower-grade artifact. Moreover, it was second-hand, so Song Wen only spent a dozen or so spirit stones on it.

Song Wen planned to use this cauldron to hatch the beetle eggs first.

As for how to cultivate the beetles in the future, Song Wen hadn't figured that out yet.

Since this cauldron was not a refined product, it did not have much effect on the growth of the beetles. However, for Song Wen, who only wanted to hatch the beetles first, it was enough.

As Song Wen walked through the market, he suddenly saw a familiar figure.

"Hey, isn't this Junior Sister Chen?"

(End of the Chapter)