Translator: Cinder Translations
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Opening the courtyard door, Song Wen saw that it was the old man Ai Kun who had come to visit.
It had been a while since Song Wen had seen Ai Kun, and today, he noticed that Ai Kun looked much more haggard, as if he had aged ten years in a short time.
"It's only been a month since we last met. How have you aged so much?"
Ai Kun walked into the courtyard and sighed deeply.
"Recently, I've been frequenting the Hehuan sect's Heavenly Spring Courtyard a bit too often."
"Please take it easy, Elder."
"This old man has only this little hobby. If even this is taken away, what's the difference between living and dying?"
Ai Kun's gaze suddenly fell on Song Wen, and he looked surprised.
"Have you broken through to the sixth level of Qi Cultivation?"
Hearing this, Song Wen realized he had forgotten to conceal his cultivation level after his recent breakthrough.
Noticing that Ai Kun had seen through it, Song Wen did not hide it anymore and nodded in acknowledgment.
"Yes, I just broke through recently."
"I remember when you first came to the market, you were only at the fourth level of Qi Cultivation. It hasn't been long, yet you've already reached the sixth level. Why is your cultivation progressing so quickly?"
Song Wen explained, "When I first came to the market, I was already at the peak of the fourth level of Qi Cultivation, so it's just a matter of moving up a level and a bit more."
Ai Kun's tone was envious.
"Could it be that you're just accumulating a lot of energy and making rapid progress? Perhaps I should cut back on my visits to the brothels; maybe I'd have a chance to break through to the late stage of Qi Cultivation."
After chatting for a while, Ai Kun left.
Shortly after Ai Kun's departure, Song Wen also went out of the courtyard. He strolled around the market, then in a secluded area, he disguised himself as he did when he rented the adjacent small courtyard, and entered Courtyard No. 36.
Once inside the courtyard, Song Wen went directly to the underground secret room.
During the chat with Ai Kun, he had sensed a change in the Gu parasites inside him.
The fifth Sacred Gu, which he had been feeding with silver-horned grass, had spun a cocoon a dozen days ago. At this moment, there were signs of it breaking out of the cocoon.
He took out the cocoon and placed it in the Gu cauldron.
After an hour, a new Gu emerged, having broken through the cocoon.
With the experience from the previous Sacred Gu, Song Wen took out a Beast Refining Pill and fed it to the new Gu.
Song Wen then took out a bottle of essence blood and slowly fed it to the Sacred Gu.
After another half-month, the newly emerged Sacred Gu had stabilized its cultivation level.
Song Wen began preparations to let the two Sacred Gu mate and breed the next generation.
However, things did not go as smoothly as Song Wen had hoped. Although the two Sacred Gu mated successfully, the female Gu showed no signs of fertilization or egg-laying.
Song Wen did not give up easily. After three months of attempts, the female Sacred Gu finally started to produce eggs.
A month later, the eggs were successfully laid, but there was only one egg.
Another half-month later, the egg successfully hatched.
A new Sacred Gu was born!
Thus, after two months, Song Wen had successfully raised six Sacred Gu.
All other first-tier Gu, except for the two normal beetle Gu, had become unnecessary and were fed to the Sacred Gu.
TL: I'm not sure if the author meant Sacred Gu or Black Armored Gu, I think it should be Sacred Gu, so I changed it from black-armored Gu to Sacred Gu...
The two first-tier beetle Gu were kept mainly because their strength was weak and their aura was minimal. They were less likely to be noticed as ordinary Gu and were kept for emergencies.
Raising the two first-tier Gu larvae required a minimal amount of spirit stones, which was negligible for Song Wen.
During these two months, Song Wen continuously took the new Blood Qi Pills. His cultivation in the "Longevity Technique" had made remarkable progress, reaching the ninth level of Qi Cultivation, and he was not far from reaching full Qi Cultivation.
He had one Foundation Establishment Pill and four Heavenly Spirit Fruits. Once he reached full Qi Cultivation, he could advance to the Foundation Establishment stage and cultivate the "Longevity Technique" to that level.
Song Wen stood up, stretched his somewhat stiff body, and decided to go out for a walk.
After days of hard cultivation, he felt a bit bored and decided to get some fresh air.
He headed directly to Zhao Dapeng's small courtyard. Song Wen's courtyard should have been rented out.
Knocking on the courtyard door, Song Wen waited outside for a moment before Zhao Dapeng opened it.
Song Wen handed over thirty spirit stones and said, "This is the rent for three months."
Zhao Dapeng nodded, did not say anything, and turned to close the door.
Since discovering that Zhao Dapeng had used his own younger brother to refine a corpse, Song Wen had suppressed his desire for revenge, wanting to see what Zhao Dapeng was up to.
As a result, he had waited for over two months.
The man with the rat-like eyes had been tortured by the corpse energy to the point of barely resembling a human, but he still miraculously had not died.
A mortal being subjected to corpse energy for over two months neither died nor turned into a zombie.
This was quite miraculous to Song Wen, a practitioner of corpse techniques.
A zombie that had not been thoroughly turned into a corpse was barely of any combat power in the cultivation world.
This only increased Song Wen's curiosity about what Zhao Dapeng was really doing.
Another thing that puzzled Song Wen was that Zhao Dapeng's practice of raising corpses was a severe taboo among righteous sects. How had he managed to avoid detection for two months?
It was quite baffling!
Or had someone already discovered it but chose not to reveal it?
Or perhaps Zhao Dapeng's actions had the tacit approval of the Beastmaster Sect?
Driven by strong curiosity, Song Wen had considered killing and searching the soul, but he had suppressed the idea.
Zhao Dapeng rarely left the market, so killing a disciple of the Beastmaster Sect in the market would not be wise.
Moreover, Song Wen wanted to see what kind of zombie Zhao Dapeng would eventually make out of his younger brother.
After leaving Zhao Dapeng's house, Song Wen wandered around the market and bought some medicinal herbs for alchemy.
The Beast Refining Pills he had obtained from the Heng couple had been used up a month and a half ago.
Before that, Song Wen had started preparing to make Beast Refining Pills himself. With his Foundation Establishment stage spiritual awareness, he met the requirements for refining seventh-tier pills.
To make pills, he first needed to prepare the required medicinal herbs.
Most of the herbs for refining Beast Refining Pills were relatively common, but two of the seventh-tier herbs were hard to find.
These two seventh-tier herbs were not sold in the market's herb stores.
However, occasionally, a few plants were available at the scattered cultivators' stalls, though not enough to meet Song Wen's needs.
Later, Song Wen solved this problem by going to the Ghost Market.
Refining Beast Refining Pills was more complex than refining Blood Qi Pills. Since Song Wen did not dare to use demonic energy, using "Longevity Technique" spiritual energy made the process a bit weaker. He could only refine one batch at a time, which would deplete his spiritual energy, requiring him to meditate and recover.
As a result, it took him seven or eight months to refine the first batch of Beast Refining Pills.
With the Beast Refining Pills, he could quickly enhance the strength of the Sacred Gu.
(End of the Chapter)
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