134: Chapter 134 Blood Gu

Three months passed in the blink of an eye.

Right now, you are following the Youquan Tribe team toward the Qingshui Sacred Mountain.

One month was already enough for you to completely integrate into this faction and gain a rough understanding of the surrounding situation.

Qingshui Sacred Mountain, a territory garrisoned by a Core Formation cultivator from Chandu Palace.

The surrounding tribes frequently need to go there to offer tributes to the divine Gu in exchange for the sacred mountain water capable of nourishing Gu insects, which is what they call the divine spring.

This type of spring water can accelerate the growth of the Gu insects inside their bodies, allowing them to absorb and exhale spiritual energy more efficiently, which is also a disguised enhancement of the talent of cultivators.

And from Liu Guanzhi, you heard a much more straightforward truth.

Once the cultivators here reach the Foundation Establishment peak cultivation, they will be harvested by Chandu Palace, extracting the mature Gu insects from within their bodies.

Yet if they do not cultivate, sooner or later they will be annihilated and devoured by the surrounding powerful tribes.

Although a portion of the people know the truth, under the might of the Core Formation cultivator and Chandu Palace, even with all sorts of unwillingness and fear in their hearts, no one dares to harbor even a shred of rebellious thought.

The more you listened, the more wrong it felt; was this not blatantly using humans to raise Gu?

The inherently evil Chandu Palace actually hides such a vicious method. In the future, once your cultivation is successful, you will definitely have to go plunder it, and let such an ex... atrocious heritage perish in your hands!

Just as you were feeling indignant, Liu Guanzhi, who was walking by your side, glanced at the sky and then slightly raised an eyebrow at you, and you immediately understood his meaning.

His cooperation with you was very simple: you help him annihilate nearby tribes to obtain the Gu insects inside the bodies of other people, and he gives you a type of Gu insect called "Blood Qi Gu".

This kind of Gu insect is completely useless to ordinary cultivators, but it has a huge effect on body-refining cultivators.

The methods of body refining lead to the same destination by different paths, and can generally be divided into two routes.

The first is "internal refining".

It requires stirring up the vital blood within the body to refine some extremely special energy. After the vital blood is tempered to become increasingly condensed and heavy, it is then fed back into the fleshly body, solidifying the foundation from the inside out.

The second is "external cultivation".

It requires consuming a massive amount of rare medicinal herbs, boiling them into medicinal soup or transforming them into medicinal power, and forcibly polishing the tendons, bones, skin, and flesh through external force.

The first kind is purer—difficult at first and easy later, and the path ahead is also much clearer. As for the second kind, its early-stage progress is rapid, but the path ahead is bleak; it is generally a method used by major factions to cultivate death squads.

Just like the "Taiyin Xuanshu Body-Refining Scripture" you cultivate, it draws upon the power of lunar essence to temper the vital blood.

Although this method is wonderful, every time a cycle is run, the consumption of vital blood far exceeds ordinary cultivation techniques. This is also the reason why your foundation is stronger than ordinary body refiners, and the reason why wanting to advance further now requires a hundred years of time.

However, wanting to enhance vital blood is an extremely difficult matter.

Taking a Foundation Establishment body refiner as an example, if one wants to elevate the vital blood foundation of this realm, it requires at least a millennial spiritual herb as a baseline, and the vital blood that can be increased is also extremely limited. If one vainly attempts to rely solely on this method to sustain the massive consumption of daily cultivation, it is no different than a fantasy.

As for this Gu insect named Blood Qi Gu, it can double the vital blood of a cultivator within a certain period of time, similarly playing a role in accelerating body-refining cultivation.

However, the price is not small either, requiring the consumption of the lifespan of the cultivator.

That is right, it is lifespan rather than vitality!

Hearing this side effect, you almost laughed out loud. What kind of price is this?

Yet at the same time, you developed quite a bit of interest in the Gu insect. You must know that lifespan is ordained by the heavens, and this tiny Blood Qi Gu actually involves abilities akin to rule-based ones—it was simply outrageous to the extreme!

Taking advantage of the rest of the team, the two of you quietly retreated into the darkness...

"Hey! My Blood Qi Gu is gone again; can you advance me one ahead of time?"

In mid-air, you bumped your shoulder against him and muttered discontentedly.

Having already grown accustomed to the cultivation thrill of doubled vital blood, now suddenly returning to such a turtle-like speed, you naturally found it unbearable.

Liu Guanzhi did not expect you to pull this move; his figure staggered in mid-air, and then he expressionlessly recovered his balance.

He turned his head sideways, his eyes devoid of the slightest emotional fluctuation landing on you. You only felt your spine turn cold, with a sense that something major was about to go wrong.

Your fingertips moved slightly, seizing the opportunity to clutch a section of his sleeve and gently shaking it.

Then you raised your head, a touch of just-right grievance welling up in the depths of your eyes, and spoke in a soft, gentle voice:

"Sorry~ It is not like I did it on purpose..."

"Swoosh~"

A streak of tiny red light flew out, hovering right in front of you.

You happily snatched the Blood Qi Gu and instantly refined it!

This gave you an incredulous guess in your heart: the youth before you seemed to slightly loosen some of his bottom lines towards you when you acted coquettishly.

Could it be that he likes this type?

However, you quickly overturned this guess. Three months of getting along had allowed you to more or less understand a part of the personality of Liu Guanzhi.

Fickle, calm, with emotional control approaching perfection, it seemed as though all matters were within his calculations.

You simply could not find any breakthrough point; you had tried various methods, all of which were easily dealt with, yet you could never stir even a fraction of romantic affection.

However, occasionally lowering your posture to act cute could always win some substantial benefits from his hands. Regarding this, your heart was completely at ease, not feeling embarrassed in the slightest.

Cultivating immortality, after all, is not disgraceful.

"We have arrived."

A long while later, the voice of Liu Guanzhi interrupted your thoughts.

The two of you hovered side by side above a basin, looking down from above. You saw that the bottom of the valley was densely packed with houses, resembling an ant nest dormant in the shadows.

"Is this that Qingshe Tribe?"

This was the third target of your cooperation. The first two were both factions garrisoned only by Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivators. Under the thunderous methods of the two of you, without even stirring up a tiny splash, they were quietly erased.

Yet the tribe before you was completely different; it was said to have two Foundation Establishment Mid-Stage and one Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivators.

Hearing this lineup, on the spot you wanted to refuse, but this brat actually disregarded martial ethics, directly tossing out the chips of three Blood Qi Gu, plus the promise that he would handle the late Foundation Establishment one, prompting you to reluctantly agree.

You must know that in the first two cooperation instances, Liu Guanzhi had bitten down and refused to relent, only giving a single Blood Qi Gu insect, and each Gu insect happened to be able to sustain one month of cultivation.

This made you extremely uncomfortable. If not for the first one being considered a free trial, you might not have agreed to cooperate with him.

Yet once you tasted the sweetness of doubled cultivation speed, you could no longer bear to let go. After all, in this cultivation world, means to accelerate the body-refining progress were truly too scarce.

Liu Guanzhi nodded slightly, his five fingers slowly opening.

Several rays of black light flew out from his palm, silently falling toward the surroundings of the valley entrance.

Having finished these, he then turned his head to look at you, speaking with an indifferent expression:

"Let us strike."

...

...

...

(It is out, it is out, wuwuwu~)

(Four updates will resume tomorrow!!!)