I automatically filtered out the snake spirit's words. Gu worms that could be used by Miaojiang's Gu Matron were not simple worms.
The process of cultivating a gu worm was extremely complicated and bloody. At the same time, it was extremely cruel.
The people of Miaojiang had known about gu and raising them since ancient times. They generally divided the process into three stages: preliminary selection, cultivation, and formation.
In the preliminary stage, they would collect all kinds of poisonous insects and place them in a container, allowing them to kill each other and devour the corpses of their companions. The one who could survive to the end would be the best among them. But even so, this kind of tenacious poisonous insect was not enough to be called a gu. It just passed the preliminary stage.
Next, after the selection, these poisonous insects would be raised by the person who raised them. They would be fed with five-year scorpions, ten-year centipedes, and other poisonous things. This process was to awaken the poisonous insects' intelligence.
The scorpion's lifespan was less than five years, and the centipede's lifespan was difficult to exceed ten years. Although these poisonous creatures were not born with intelligence like humans, these old poisonous creatures would eventually develop a trace of intelligence. In the process of feeding, these poisonous insects gradually began to sprout intelligence.
After a few years of feeding, these poisonous insects that had sprouted intelligence had to go through another round of fighting. This time, the remaining poisonous insects could officially enter the stage of becoming a gu. After being carefully fed by the person who raised the gu, they would gradually develop intelligence and obey the Gu Matron's orders. Then, they could finally be called a gu.
It could be said that any gu worm was carefully raised by the person who raised the gu. After going through life and death battles again and again, it was not an exaggeration to describe it as outstanding!
This was just an ordinary gu worm. As the ancestral gu of Miaojiang, the process of raising the kirin gu was even more complicated and difficult.
The kirin gu was the natal gu, and it was born a powerful gu worm. It did not need to go through those battles and only needed to be fed carefully. However, in the process of feeding, the person who raised the gu not only had to find those old poisonous insects, but also had to feed it with their own flesh and blood from young, so that the gu worm would recognize their bloodline.
Therefore, for ordinary gu worms, the human was the master, and the gu was the servant.
But for the ancestral gu, the gu was the master, and the human was just a servant to feed the parasite.
Moreover, the kirin gu took a long time to grow. It needed a bloodline connected to the family to feed it for a lifetime. The mother died, and the daughter continued. It took several generations to successfully raise one.
It was precisely because the process of raising it was so difficult that the kirin gu had a strong and unique power.
Because of this, the Kirin Gu could stand at the top of the pyramid and become the king of Gu worms.
Ordinary Gu worms had intelligence, and the Kirin Gu's intelligence was no less than a human's. It definitely wouldn't become stupid after eating centipedes and scorpions.
After pondering for a while, I shook my head and rejected the Snake Spirit's absurd idea.
However, it was easy to overturn his words, but how could he explain the fact that the Qilin Gu's energy was gradually weakening?
The Qilin Gu was an Innate Ancestral Gu. During the feeding process, it did not eat ordinary insects. They were at least old poisonous insects that had sprouted lingzhi. In fact, it even had to be fed with other Gu worms.
With such a method of feeding, one could only imagine the amount of energy contained in its body.
Just like back then, the snake spirit was just a ghost, but with the help of the poisonous insects that the old witch fed and the True Dragon Saliva in my body, it was able to transform from a carp to a dragon.
This also proved that the energy of these poisonous insects was extraordinary.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the five poisonous items that the old witch in Miao's territory had carefully prepared contained energy that wasn't inferior to the Daoist immortal medicines refined by the Heavenly Masters of Mount Longhu.
Moreover, it was just the poisonous insects. During the process, the one who raised the Gu had to use his own flesh and blood to feed them. The old witch's cultivation base wasn't high, but after dozens of years, she had accumulated a terrifying amount of energy.
From this, I could guess what kind of energy this little Qilin Gu had.
According to the characteristics of ordinary Gu worms, once they parasitized someone, they could continuously absorb energy from the host to strengthen themselves.
I didn't know whether the Qilin Gu was different from other Gu worms, but even if it didn't absorb my energy, it could still be very strong. It wouldn't be like this. The lines that represented the energy of the Qilin Gu didn't become thicker. Quite the contrary, they were becoming fainter!
Why could the Snake Spirit use this energy to transform, but the Qilin Gu in my body hadn't done anything since I had planted it. Now, it was getting weaker and weaker.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was unbelievable. After pondering for a long time, I suddenly remembered what Yang Shilong had told me.
He had said that before the Qilin Gu broke out, it would continuously improve the host's innate talent, which would help the host's cultivation.
At that time, I didn't pay much attention to it. However, now that I thought about it, I felt that it wasn't normal.
The Qilin Gu could help the host's cultivation. What if the so-called help wasn't improving the host's innate talent like Yang Shilong had said? What if the Qilin Gu directly transferred its energy to my body?
If that was the case, everything seemed to make sense.
These years, my cultivation speed had been very fast. I was even faster than the geniuses of the cultivation families. On one hand, it was because of my hard work and all kinds of miraculous encounters. On the other hand, was it because of the Qilin Gu's secret help?
And if it transferred its energy to my body, it would naturally weaken the Qilin Gu!
My heart jumped. If that was the case, I was afraid that my view of the Qilin Gu would change.
Previously, I had thought that the Qilin Gu's intelligence was comparable to a human's. But now, it seemed that it wasn't just comparable. The Qilin Gu's intelligence was obviously higher than a human's!
Among humans who were born with peerless intelligence, how many of them could distinguish between gains and losses?
But this Qilin Gu didn't hesitate to give up its energy to help me enter the Sky Master realm.
There was a saying in philosophy that you could gain as much as you lose.
This saying seemed to be very appropriate here. The Qilin Gu could give up its own energy to help me, and in the future, it could absorb all of my cultivation!
It was like a cunning schemer hiding in my body, silently watching the plot that it had planted, waiting for the moment it would blossom and bear fruit.
After staying silent for a long time, I asked the snake spirit again, "Did you feel the existence of the Qilin Gu in my body?
Or did you feel a trace of its aura? "
Maybe it saw my solemn expression, but the snake spirit didn't bullshit this time. It simply waved its hand, "No."
This answer wasn't out of my expectations. In fact, it wasn't just the snake spirit. Even I didn't feel the existence of a Qilin Gu in my body.
After such a long time, the Qilin Gu that the old Qilin Gu had given me didn't cause any discomfort in my body. I didn't even feel anything.
In the past, if I couldn't feel the existence of the Qilin Gu, I would be secretly happy and think that I wouldn't be affected.
But now, I knew that it wasn't a good thing.
It was like a person holding a pen, a cup, or other inanimate objects in their hands. They might be busy with other things and forget about the things in their hands.
But if they were holding a cat or a rabbit in their hands, they wouldn't forget them no matter what they were doing.
This was the difference between a living thing and an inanimate object. Living things had spirituality, so they naturally had a biological magnetic field that could be easily sensed.
The reason why I couldn't sense the Qilin Gu wasn't because it didn't have enough spirituality. The only possibility was that it was stronger than me, or even stronger than the snake spirit. It was consciously hiding in my body, making the snake spirit and I unable to find it.
Earlier, because of Little Wang Li's matter, I had the thought of ignoring the threat of the Qilin Gu and breaking through to the Heavenly Master realm.
My original thought was that since I was a dual witchcraft cultivator and had practiced the Nine Star Heavenly Dipper, I would be stronger than an ordinary Heavenly Master. I also had the snake spirit and Tong Tong with me. Perhaps I would have a way to resist the Qilin Gu when it acted up.
But at this moment, I became cautious again.
The power of the Qilin Gu might be much stronger than I had imagined. It wasn't a good idea to break through rashly.
With this thought, I gradually calmed down and gave up on the idea of taking the risk to break through.
Although the Qilin Gu was strong, there was still the sacrificial evil spirit. Since he had specifically told me about this, he would have a way to deal with it. For the time being, I pinned all my hopes on him.
I shook my head and called back the snake spirit. I didn't think about this matter anymore and lay on the bed to sleep.
Zhang Kanwen and I had made an appointment to check on Little Wang Li tomorrow, so I had to rest early today.
The next morning, I got up at around 6: 00 AM. After washing up, I hurried to Zhang Kanwen's room.
Zhang Kanwen had gotten up earlier than me. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, casting a spell on Little Wang Li in front of him.
Little Wang Li was lying motionless on the crib. His entire body was wrapped in a strong aura of the Way. At this time, Zhang Kanwen was holding the Yin-Yang Yama Brush in his hand. He was chanting mysterious spells and drawing some patterns on little Wang Li.
I had seen Zhang Kanwen nurture Little Wang Li's body before. It was the same every time, so I didn't find it strange. I directly walked in.
Seeing me, Zhang Kanwen didn't move. He just signaled me with his eyes. His hands didn't stop moving as he continued to cast a spell on Little Wang Li's body.
The spell he used was very magical. He drew something on Little Wang Li's body like he was writing. Then, messy lines appeared in the air, hovering above Little Wang Li's body. They faintly flashed with colorful lights.
"Little Wang Li, be good. Master will cast a spell for you. It'll be done soon."
While casting the spell, Zhang Kanwen took the time to comfort Little Wang Li while chanting the spell. My heart warmed when I saw that.
Although this fellow had mentioned killing Little Wang Li many times, he was actually like a gentle father. Perhaps he cared about Little Wang Li more than I did.
After a full half an hour, when the messy lines emitting colorful brilliance all fell and melted into Little Wang Li's body, the spell casting finally ended. Zhang Kanwen withdrew his hand, wiped the sweat on his forehead, and let out a long sigh of relief.
"Brother Zhang, how is it?" I hadn't said anything because I was afraid of disturbing Zhang Kanwen. Now, I finally dared to speak.
"The situation … isn't good."
Zhang Kanwen shook his head with a wry smile. "This spell was passed down by the ancestors of Mount Wen. I don't dare to say that it can heal the dead, but I've never seen a better effect in nurturing a person.
Over the past few months, I've been using this method to nurture Little Wang Li's body, hoping to dispel the evil aura coming from the pit so that Little Wang Li's body can be stronger and hold on for a few more days. It might even be able to delay the arrival of the evil creature.
Unfortunately … as you can see, I've been busy for a few months, but Little Wang Li's condition hasn't improved at all. It seems that the situation is much more serious than I estimated! "
Listening to his words, my heart tightened. Zhang Kanwen was even more puzzled. After a moment of silence, he said with a wry smile, "It really doesn't make sense … That evil creature is still dormant and won't actively resist. How come it doesn't have any effect?"
As Zhang Kanwen spoke, he shook his head, his voice tinged with bitterness.
"Could it be that I'm wrong?
Every day, I exhaust my Dao energy, but it doesn't have any effect on that evil creature?
Or is it because that evil creature's cultivation base is too strong, and my Dao energy isn't enough to affect it? "
At this moment, Zhang Kanwen was analyzing and muttering to himself as if no one else was around.
However, his words reminded me of something.
Last time, when the evil creature in Little Wang Li's body temporarily descended, I was there and felt the evil creature's aura.
Judging from the weak aura on Wang Li's body, the evil creature was indeed strong, but it wasn't strong enough that Zhang Kanwen couldn't shake it with his cultivation base.
After all, the evil creature was still at the other end of the passage. What appeared on Wang Li's body was just a trace of its aura. With Zhang Kanwen's cultivation base, he should be able to deal with it easily.
This was also the fundamental reason why Zhang Kanwen was confident that he could help Little Wang Li get through the first two hurdles.
What went wrong? Why didn't Zhang Kanwen's situation get better after working so hard for so many days? Instead, it got worse?
I hesitated for a moment, and a vague idea popped up in my mind.
There were only two types of sources that cultivators cultivated. One was the Qi of the Way, and the other was the Qi of Witchcraft.
If Zhang Kanwen used his witchcraft energy to raise Little Wang Li every day and there was no effect, could he try witchcraft energy?
This wasn't an idea I came up with on the spur of the moment. Every power had a limit. Zhang Kanwen had been exhausting his own Dao energy every day for several months. When added together, the power of his Dao energy was terrifying. If there was still no effect, it could only be said that it wasn't that his Dao energy wasn't enough, but that his Dao energy was useless.
In the world, there were only two kinds of sources. If Dao energy didn't work, then he could only try witchcraft energy.
"Brother Zhang, do you think it will be useful if I use my witchcraft energy to raise Little Wang Li?" I asked after some consideration.
Hearing my words, Zhang Kanwen was stunned at first, but he quickly reacted and blurted, "Yeah, why didn't I think of that?
Maybe that evil creature's power is strange, and my Dao energy is useless against it!
That's not right. If my Dao energy is useless against it, it might backfire and speed up its awakening!
No wonder I felt that Little Wang Li's condition didn't improve, but worsened!
That must be it. Hurry up and try! "
As the saying goes, 'Those closely involved can't see clearly'. After I pointed out another possibility, Zhang Kanwen seemed to have gone crazy and muttered to himself. Then, he didn't bother to listen to my reply and pulled me to sit on the bed. He asked me to try to use my shaman energy.