Chapter 53: Gu Worms Are Not Inconvenient Things
Fang Shu returned to his own room, unfolded that thin booklet, and immediately flipped through it eagerly.
After a cup of tea, he roughly finished reading the booklet, a look of realization appearing on his face.
“No wonder Du Shi specially had Senior Sister Fang copy this book for me from the Immortal Sect. It seems that the Natal Gu is indeed of utmost importance to us Immortal Cultivators of the Witchcraft and Suppression School.” He thought to himself.
According to the booklet, after the Natal Gu is refined, it is intertwined with the Immortal Cultivator’s life, truly one prospers together, one suffers together.
Between the two, if the person lives the Gu lives, if the person perishes the Gu perishes.
But if the Natal Gu perishes, the Immortal Cultivator may not necessarily die, only suffer injury.
Because the Natal Gu inherently has the use of blocking disasters, and it can even be said that this function is the greatest benefit of refining this thing.
It must be known that after stepping into Refining Qi, the Immortal Cultivator’s various magic techniques are no longer as crude and simple as in the Refining Essence stage; they can fly swords over a hundred paces, drive ghosts and summon souls, or even curse kill enemies from afar!
And the Witchcraft and Suppression School was named as such precisely because it excels most in this path.
Since it excels in this path, it naturally has considerable defenses against curse killing techniques.
Moreover, when performing curse killing techniques, if countered or interfered with by someone, such magic is extremely prone to backlash and self-injury.
At such times, the Natal Gu comes into play.
This Gu, because it is intertwined with the Immortal Cultivator’s life, gradually has its spirituality eroded by the Immortal Cultivator over time, becoming something akin to a split soul.
If a thief comes to curse kill, or backlash descends, the Natal Gu can block a disaster for the Immortal Cultivator, sparing them calamity.
This is also why the Dojo Master instructed Fang Shu, hoping he would refine this thing into his body upon breaking through to Refining Qi.
For Immortal Cultivators of the Witchcraft and Suppression School, refining this thing is equivalent to gaining half an extra life.
Furthermore, beyond blocking disasters, the Natal Gu will have different strengths depending on the Gu Worm selected.
There are those who use Moonlight Bugs as Natal Gu, which can enhance the Immortal Cultivator’s sensitivity to moonlight, increasing ingestion efficiency and thus boosting cultivation speed; there are those who use Hundred Grass Bugs as Natal Gu, which can increase affinity with plants, making it easier to hide in mountain forests and seek spiritual plants.
There are even Immortal Cultivators in the world who use Essence Bugs as Natal Gu, allowing them to control this bug to sow seeds from afar, possessing the ability “pregnancy with a glare,” which is extremely convenient for breeding Demonic Beasts.
Fang Shu pondered this point, his expression turning peculiar for a moment, his thoughts wandering, immediately imagining if the materials for refining an Essence Bug Natal Gu were replaced with those from a human body, then wouldn’t it…
Suppressing the stray thoughts in his mind, he looked at the booklet in his hand and began to mull over:
“So, which Gu Worm should I choose to serve as my Natal Gu?”
His gaze shifted, involuntarily landing on the lump of Gold Seeking Insect feces wrapped in talisman paper, his eyes lighting up slightly.
The Gold Seeking Insect.
It is innately a Treasure Bug, exceptionally sensitive to heaven and earth spiritual energy, skilled at digging and burrowing, also known as the “Treasure Seeking Insect,” on par with treasure seeking rats, mountain searching dogs, and truffle pigs.
If he could use this bug as his Natal Gu, Fang Shu might in the future rely on it to seek spiritual veins and gather Precious Medicines from the mountains.
Imagining this, Fang Shu sighed in his heart again:
“It’s just a pity that the traces of this bug in the Qian Shan Mine were fake. The Gold Seeking Insect’s whereabouts are too secretive, a bug that can be encountered but not sought.”
Moreover, even if he accidentally obtained this Treasure Bug, whether he could sacrifice and refine the Gold Seeking Insect into a Natal Gu is another matter.
It must be known that sacrificing and refining a Natal Gu also carries the risk of failure, and its failure rate is far higher than ordinary Gu refining, requiring multiple sets of materials to be prepared.
Fang Shu did not dare guarantee he could succeed on the first try.
If he really wanted to refine it, he would have to do everything possible before sacrificing and refining the Natal Gu to improve his Gu refining skills and the success rate of refining the Natal Gu.
As he pondered, Fang Shu’s gaze shifted again, suddenly falling on the Dojo Master’s calling card.
“Lead and Mercury Blood Treasure Seed Tool Secret Technique.” He silently recited the name of Shao Wei Guan’s Lead Skill, his eyes narrowing slightly.
According to the booklet copied by Senior Sister Fang, the “Gu” encompasses not just bugs, but all things in the world that are like insects—those with weak or no spirituality.
For example, venomous snakes and plants; before they become Spirits, they have little spirituality and can be sacrificed and refined into Gu Worms.
But once they become Spirits, gaining demonic energy and intelligence, they are Monsters. Gu Masters can only kill them or dispel their spirituality before refining.
Besides tangible living things, intangible living things like Essence Bugs and plagues; even dead things like miasma and Poisonous Water, which have no spirituality at all, can also be sacrificed and refined into Gu.
It can be said that living or dead, tangible or intangible, large or small, all things under heaven can be whittled down and refined into Gu.
And the small Gu Worms are merely the most common image of Gu Dao in the eyes of the world.
The “Gu” has never been something inconvenient!
Fang Shu calculated: “It seems that this Lead Skill of Shao Wei Guan can not only promote my cultivation, but also possibly help me refine the Natal Gu early.”
He now fully understood the Dojo Master’s earlier reminder.
《Lead and Mercury Blood Treasure Seed Tool Secret Technique》 can sacrifice and refine an Embryonic Tool, making it convenient for Immortal Cultivators after breaking through to Refining Qi to refine it into their Natal Magic Tool.
And “Embryonic Tool” and “Magic Tool” are also “Gu refining materials” as described in the booklet, especially the Embryonic Tools nurtured by this Lead and Mercury, which are flesh Magic Tools like the Long Tongue Sword, making them even more suitable for sacrifice and refining into Gu.
It might even be that he, Fang Shu, could first seed the “Embryonic Tool,” then sacrifice and refine the Embryonic Tool into a Natal Gu, taking two steps to greatly increase the success rate of refining the Natal Gu.
With this thought, Fang Shu frantically pondered in his mind.
The Dao Talisman in his mind buzzed and trembled incessantly.
Although the Dao Talisman could only perform analysis and not directly help him derive cultivation methods, it could extract all the myriad principles recorded within, discern truth from falsehood and feasibility, for his reference and sorting.
This function was equivalent to enhancing his wisdom and spirituality, quite profound and hard to describe.
After a surge of thoughts, Fang Shu’s face flushed red, his Qi and Blood steaming, the sweat on his head evaporating into a puff of white vapor.
But his gaze was bright, and the more he pondered, the more feasible it seemed.
“Others might only use Lead and Mercury as reference, but with the Dao Talisman to assist me, why settle for such inconvenience!”
Fang Shu had decided to attempt dividing the sacrifice and refining of the Natal Gu into two steps.
If this plan worked, he could refine the Natal Gu during the Refining Essence stage; even if using an ordinary Gu Worm as the Natal Gu, it would be greatly worthwhile!
With the thought settled in his mind, Fang Shu abruptly stood up.
He deftly took out flint from the room, first burning Senior Sister Fang’s gifted booklet into paper ash, then pulverizing it into unrecognizable bits.
He had already fully recorded the contents of this booklet into the Dao Talisman, no need to look again. Moreover, it contained no secret scripts, so burning it after reading was the most convenient and would not expose anything.
After handling everything, Fang Shu pocketed the Dojo Master’s calling card and eagerly left the dojo, heading straight for Shao Wei Guan.
