The Command Letter was sent to the Command Hall via Messenger Crow, and for the following week, Su Jie and the others continued their stationing duties.
However, on the seventh day, Su Jie used cultivation as an excuse to return to Blue Star from Tianyuan World.
It was because the Thousand-Handed Centipede had reached the critical moment of its Second Spiritual Refining, and advancing in the Blue Star World was much safer.
...
Blue Star, Linping City, Yaogang Scorpion Breeding Farm.
Su Jie, accompanied by Chen Yaoguang, inspected the breeding farm after its expansion.
In one of the newly established three stocking yards, one was packed with cobras, forming a dense mass of snake nests and balls.
Another yard was filled with a large number of red-headed centipedes, with pairs of red thoracic legs crawling on the ground, inducing agoraphobia in anyone.
Yet another yard was stacked with large and small glass cages, all containing different types of spiders.
Such as bird-catching spiders, pleasing golden spiders, burrowing wolf spiders, and Chinese wolf spiders — because spiders have a habit of preying on their kind, they must be raised separately.
"Mr. Su, these are Poison Insects that were recently purchased from breeding farms in other regions, including a variety of poisonous snakes, centipedes, and spiders, costing about three million yuan in funds," Chen Yaoguang said, pointing to the stocking yards, all purchases of his effort.
"Don't be afraid to spend money, keep purchasing."
Su Jie looked around and saw that there was enough to easily satisfy the Thousand-Handed Centipede's advancement needs. Smiling, he patted Chen Yaoguang on the shoulder, "You must have been running around in other places for these Poison Insects—quite the effort. I've arranged a five-star hotel banquet for you all. Take the employees and have a good rest for two days. In addition, the wages of all employees will be doubled this month."
Chen Yaoguang's eyes widened, "What, really double the wages?"
"I don't like making empty promises like other bosses do. When I say double, it means double."
"Alright, alright, Mr. Su, I can't thank you enough on behalf of the employees."
Chen Yaoguang couldn't stop smiling as he repeatedly thanked Su Jie and turned to notify the other employees.
In a short while, the cheers of the employees rose and fell one after another in the breeding farm—Su Jie was an unusually generous boss.
After Chen Yaoguang took the employees away, the entire breeding farm was left with just Su Jie, along with a few guard dogs.
Su Jie calmly released the Thousand-Handed Centipede.
Woof woof...whimper...
The dogs were terrified by the sight, tucking their tails and shaking in their kennels.
The menacing body of the Thousand-Handed Centipede stretched out and crawled into the cobra stocking yard.
These cobras were bred for the extraction of their venom; their fangs and venom glands were still intact.
The Thousand-Handed Centipede was clearly interested in them, grabbing several cobras and stuffing them into its mouth to chew and swallow.
Hiss!
The cobras became restless, and some with fiercer temperaments even tried to bite into the Thousand-Handed Centipede with their venomous fangs.
But to no avail, as they couldn't even pierce its insect shell, let alone inject poison.
Moreover, the neurotoxin of these cobras was insubstantial to the Thousand-Handed Centipede—it was as if it were merely an itch.
The Thousand-Handed Centipede ignored them completely, treating these terrifying poisonous snakes for humans as delicious snacks, akin to spicy strips.
After consuming over a hundred snakes, the Thousand-Handed Centipede slowed its feasting. Its body coiled into a ball, its insect shell transformed into a semi-transparent cocoon, through which a dark shadow could be seen slowly squirming and struggling within.
The entire ascension lasted a full three hours.
When the accumulated nurturing power reached its peak, a new tender body cracked the insect cocoon and bit by bit, burrowed out of the old shell.
The newly transformed thousand-hand centipede grew over six meters in length, towering over a one-story house when half-erect, with a fierce and intimidating aura that unabashedly spread out, silencing the insects and snakes in the breeding farm.
In addition, the new outer shell of the thousand-hand centipede was a light purple color, full of a mysterious luster, becoming harder and harder.
It was unclear whether this was due to it having eaten the Iron-Eating Scythe Mantis, but when the insect shell was struck, it felt as though one was hitting a steel plate, with astonishing hardness.
Although its size had increased significantly, the thousand-hand centipede moved swiftly, even more agile and quick than before.
All of this was thanks to the increase in the number of pale corpse hands below its abdomen. Now there were hundreds of those hands, working in unison to propel it forward at an astonishing speed.
"Second Spiritual Refining succeeded."
Su Jie couldn't stop the smile forming at the corners of his mouth.
The thousand-hand centipede was now a low-grade second refinement poisonous insect.
Su Jie might not be clear about the situation with inner disciples, but he knew that among the outer disciples, he definitely had the highest quality Lifebound poisonous insect.
While other outer disciples were still struggling over a low-grade poisonous insect, he had already cultivated his thousand-hand centipede to the level of low-grade second refinement.
Sizzle!
The thousand-hand centipede emitted an excited sound. The reborn creature stretched its body and then suddenly swelled up, bursting apart noisily.
The enormous body transformed into tens of thousands of little centipedes to form a small insect sea that surged forward like waves, frantically tearing and devouring every living creature in sight, leaving nothing but bones of the snakes bred on the farm.
In the blink of an eye, the numerous small centipedes reassembled themselves, their flesh merging back into the six-meter-long original body.
This was the ability mastered by the thousand-hand centipede after the second Spiritual Refining, division, and super self-healing.
Division was what Su Jie had just witnessed, while super self-healing meant that during battle, even if thousands of the little centipedes were killed, as long as the one housing the soul was not caught, the thousand-hand centipede could survive. It would then rapidly feed to restore its original size afterward.
After demonstrating its new abilities, the thousand-hand centipede crawled back to Su Jie's side, seeking as in the past to lie on him and return nourishment for cultivation.
"Are you trying to crush me? You're so big and still want me to hold you."
Su Jie slapped the centipede's head unhappily, causing it to make sizzling noises, and it looked at Su Jie with its large, aggrieved eyes.
In such a ferocious beast, Su Jie actually saw an emotion of grievance, like that of a pitiful little thing abandoned by its parents.
"Coordinate with me by circulating your spiritual power; I'll shrink your size first."
Su Jie scratched the under-chin of the thousand-hand centipede, then placed both hands on its head, linking his inner spiritual power with the centipede.
To the naked eye, the thousand-hand centipede's size was visibly reduced until it became just as long as an arm.
This was one of the magic skills from the Hundred Poison Refining Gu Scripture, allowing control over the size of the poisonous insect.
Of course, this form was only suitable for carrying around; during combat, it would still need to revert to its original size.
The thousand-hand centipede comfortably lay on Su Jie's waist and began to feed back the immense spiritual power and vital essence it had acquired from its second Spiritual Refining.
This spiritual power was extremely refined by the centipede and, being from a Lifebound poisonous insect with which he shared a bond, had no rejection issues.
Under this nourishment, Su Jie's cultivation rose like riding a train, climbing steadily, and in just ten minutes, he broke through to the Fourth Level of Yunling Realm.
If told to others, they might not believe it; in just less than a month, Su Jie had advanced from the Second Level of Yunling Realm to his current Fourth Level. Even inner disciples did not have such a speed of cultivation.
Even Su Jie felt that in less than a month, with the help of the low-grade second refinement thousand-hand centipede, he could ascend once more to the Fifth Level of Yunling Realm.