Chapter 96: Transforming Insect Embryo, Spiritual Sense Treasure Light
The insect egg entered the body, and even Fang Shu’s extremely poisonous flesh became nourishment for the insect egg, and it was a great supplement at that.
Fine cracks immediately appeared on the surface of the Gold Seeking Insect Egg, as if it was about to hatch at any moment.
This made Fang Shu’s brows furrow slightly. He muttered in a low voice: “Now is not yet the time for you to hatch.”
He extended a finger and pointed at his own brow center, using qi and blood to forcibly stabilize the restless insect egg.
Immediately after, Fang Shu divided his attention to circulate the qi and blood in his physical body, directing it all to rise to his face, with his brow center as the core, beginning to repeatedly scour it.
Streaks of metallic luster also emerged on his face, making him appear as if he were wearing a Silver Iron mask.
At this moment, Fang Shu was circulating《 Lead and Mercury Blood Treasure Seed Tool Secret Technique》, performing the Natal Artifact Embryo matter, intending to sacrifice and refine the Gold Seeking Insect Egg into his own Embryonic Tool.
From insect egg, to Embryonic Tool, and then to Natal Gu Worm.
These three steps formed the Gu Refining method that Fang Shu had constructed for himself.
Although the Gold Seeking Insect Egg had not yet hatched, this type of solitary insect could reproduce, and insects that reproduced in small numbers often passed down some spirituality and ferocity together in their offspring’s bodies, allowing them to sense fortune and misfortune from within the insect egg, facilitating decisions on whether to hatch.
At this moment, the Gold Seeking Insect Egg sensed the crisis and immediately began wriggling frantically, wanting to break out of its shell and escape the danger.
But unfortunately, Fang Shu had prepared for this day for a long time.
Without even lifting his eyelids, with just a slight movement of his sleeve cuff, a Treasure Bead appeared in his hand. He then pinched the Treasure Bead and pressed it against his brow center.
A wave of Metal and Stone Poison appeared, pressing down on the Gold Seeking Insect Egg, paralyzing it inside and out, while the poison assaulted the faint spirituality within the insect egg, allowing Fang Shu to refine it more effectively.
When the vitality within the insect egg fluctuated, Fang Shu would promptly remove the Lead Essence Treasure Bead, letting the insect egg catch its breath, and then urge his qi and blood to nourish it generously without stint.
In this repeated process, with fine grinding, the Gold Seeking Insect Egg became increasingly powerless in its struggles.
Time passed, and Fang Shu, without eating or drinking, had already sat cross-legged in the tunnel for three days and nights straight.
At this point, the spirituality within the Gold Seeking Insect Egg had been thoroughly extinguished by his qi and blood, replaced by a wisp of spiritual light newly nurtured from his qi and blood within it.
Ordinary Gu Worms, after Gu Refining, could retain their own spirituality, even if extremely faint—they were still separate individuals. But Natal Gu Worms were entirely different; what they required was to merge with the Gu Master as one, indistinguishable from each other.
Once refined successfully, a Natal Gu Worm was equivalent to an organ on the Gu Master’s body. Even if it could detach from the Gu Master, the faint consciousness and such within it were extensions of the Gu Master himself.
Therefore, when the original spirituality within the Gold Seeking Insect Egg was completely replaced by the extension of Fang Shu’s consciousness, this item would be successfully sacrifice refined.
At this time, Fang Shu finally released the suppression on the insect egg and instead actively fed it qi and blood, helping this insect break out of its shell.
In an instant, his brow center throbbed.
After throbbing several times, a cracking sound came from his brow center, and a tiny flesh worm appeared between Fang Shu’s eyebrows.
This flesh worm was precisely the juvenile form of the Gold Seeking Insect. Its first step after hatching was to gnaw away its own eggshell completely, then wriggle through Fang Shu’s flesh, voraciously devouring qi and blood, and instinctively seeking out places richer and more abundant in qi and blood to raise itself.
Fang Shu had also opened his eyes, a dazed expression appearing in his gaze.
Vaguely, he could sense the various conditions of the Gold Seeking juvenile worm, as well as waves of hunger emanating from its body.
This feeling, akin to using two minds as one yet not entirely so, was extremely profound and ineffable.
However, though his mind was dazed, it did not hinder Fang Shu from immediately constraining the Gold Seeking juvenile worm’s movements, lest this thing truly burrow into his eyes or organs to set up home, causing a grave mistake.
Under Fang Shu’s restriction, the Gold Seeking juvenile worm only crawled upward a few millimeters before settling in the center of Fang Shu’s forehead. It even wriggled outward, breaking through Fang Shu’s skin membrane and exposing its body.
The insect settled at the center of his forehead, like a golden thread, and due to its twisted shape, it seemed like Fang Shu’s third eye, tightly closed.
Its luster was golden and brilliant. Though it was an insect, it instead added a touch of nobility to Fang Shu, with outsiders unable to discern the truth.
After carefully inspecting it several times and confirming the insect was stable, Fang Shu finally let out a long breath of relief.
At this moment, he had already sacrifice refined the Gold Seeking juvenile worm into a Natal Artifact Embryo. It only lacked raising this thing into a Refining Qi Gu Worm, or a Fourth Calamity Gu Worm, and he would obtain a genuine Natal Gu!
At that time, he would truly be a Gu Master.
Joyful in his heart, Fang Shu even drew out much of his physical body’s qi and blood to nourish the flesh worm at his forehead center.
In an instant, various profound realizations emanated from the Gold Seeking juvenile worm’s body, appearing in his heart and becoming known to him.
These realizations were precisely the various habits passed down from the mature Gold Seeking Insects, which could help the juveniles better survive. And now, these habits also became aids for Fang Shu to better control and raise this insect.
“So that’s how it is. No wonder when Gold Seeking Insects mature, they take no fixed form and change according to what they consume,” Fang Shu realized in his heart.
As for the Dragon Seeking Gold Worm, what this thing excelled at most was unexpectedly not seeking dragons and gold or tracking spiritual energy and metal qi—these strengths were actually just to help them find powerful provisions to promote their own growth and give birth.
Its true strength lay in absorbing the characteristics of what it consumed to enhance itself and change form.
Moreover, because Flood Dragons and metals were among the extremely powerful and hard things between heaven and earth, Gold Seeking Insects would often admire such things, attempting to attach themselves to them and gain traces of Dragon Qi and metal qi, scheming to become powerful and hard themselves.
Thus, in the eyes of the world, they became associated with dragon corpses and treasure metals.
But in reality, aside from Flood Dragons, other powerful corpses and Precious Medicines were equally attractive to Gold Seeking Insects, able to help them grow and give birth—and the fresher the corpse, the better.
It was just that this insect was weak in strength and often solitary rather than in swarms, so they could neither hunt nor snatch fresh corpses, and could only eat leftovers.
Realizing this, Fang Shu’s gaze flickered for a moment.
His thoughts suddenly shifted from the insect’s “seeking dragons and gold” ability to its “parasitic transformation” ability.
This ability was weak at first, and even if it truly consumed a Flood Dragon corpse, it did not mean the Dragon Seeking Gold Worm could transform itself into a Flood Dragon insect.
But its wonder lay in the fact that Gold Seeking Insects were not limited to consuming just one thing; they could consume many types, and to a certain extent, could revert changes through shedding their shells.
They could even fuse several characteristics together, facilitating survival in different terrains.
Precisely because of this, Gold Seeking Insects could live underground, underwater, or even survive in magma.
Fang Shu pondered this point, feeling joyful in his heart as he secretly thought:
“With such an ability, on an insect it merely helps them adapt to environments, but in my hands, it seems it could be developed into many ingenious uses!”
For example, he could have the Gold Seeking Insect consume other Gu Worms, absorb their characteristics, making it convenient to manage Gu Worms and serve as the lead worm.
For example, he could sacrifice and refine the Gold Seeking Insect as a Magic Tool, attempting to inscribe Secret Scripts into it, to see if he could obtain a versatile Magic Tool.
Or for example, he could sacrifice and refine the Gold Seeking Insect into an organ on his body, giving himself an extra heart, a pair of lungs, a stomach pouch, and so on, which could later be changed, facilitating his activities in earth, water, fire, and more…
However, all the above were merely Fang Shu’s momentary ideas; whether these ideas could be realized would depend on future attempts.
After fantasizing for a bit, Fang Shu touched his forehead center, anticipation on his face.
The Gold Seeking Insect having this “transformation” ability undoubtedly added a layer of adaptability.
Using this insect as his Natal Gu might not be brilliant, but at least in the future, this insect would not be useless; it could adapt to the terrain and change with the times.
Using this insect as Natal Gu was not a loss!
While pondering, Fang Shu suppressed stray thoughts and secretly thought again:
“Moreover, for the current me, this insect is a perfect match.”
With a stir of his mind, a burst of golden spiritual light suddenly throbbed at his forehead, buzzing as it bloomed.
It was precisely that twisted Gold Seeking Insect thread emitting light, as if a tightly closed eye had opened a slit.
Fang Shu and this insect were already connected by bloodline and consciousness; the insect’s body was his body.
In a daze, though his physical eyes were tightly closed, strands of drifting spiritual energy appeared before him—thick or thin, high or low.
Without entering meditation, the spiritual energy had manifested before him, and clearer and more intuitive than what he had sensed before.
Besides heaven and earth spiritual energy, he also simultaneously saw the various metal qi around him, and in a certain direction, faint treasure light emerged, making the insect thread at his forehead quiver lightly with desire.
Fang Shu suddenly felt he had gained a new way to sense heaven and earth—perceiving what could not be seen even without sight.
The surrounding Feng Shui terrain all presented themselves intuitively in his mind.
This ability seemed somewhat similar to the divine sense described in books.
And divine sense was an ability that Refining Qi Immortals could only birth after condensing their yin god soul.
After a long while, Fang Shu slowly opened his two physical eyes.
The various spiritual energies in his vision were still there, not an illusion; it was just that due to unfamiliarity and the influence of his physical eyes, they had dimmed somewhat.
Fang Shu now surveyed the surrounding terrain, examining and comparing one by one. His comprehension of a certain magic suddenly surged greatly, giving rise to many ingenious ideas.
This made joy appear uncontrollably on his face, and he could not help but mutter in a low voice:
“Seeking dragons and gold is not bad either.”
Immediately after.
Fang Shu narrowed his eyes slightly, looking toward the place where the “insect eye” saw faint treasure light emerging.
Perhaps, besides the great joy of refining the Natal Gu Embryo this time, there might be other happy events as well?
