50: Insect farming techniques

He waited until he was in a place with no one around.

He quickly opened the bag and picked out the blood-stained toilet paper.

Taking advantage of the fact that the insect gathering incense's effect hadn't worn off, he threw it in.

This time, Ye Tian's heart lifted slightly.

After all, an experiment like this was truly no joking matter.

As time passed minute by minute.

Ye Tian held his breath and focused.

But inside the Fishing Box, there was still no movement.

"Human blood doesn't work either? Then why did it work for me?"

He furrowed his brows in confusion.

Ye Tian carefully recalled the process from making the insect gathering incense to his unintentional refinement of the Gu.

It seemed there was nothing special about him in that process.

But why was his blood able to succeed in refining the Gu?

Although this testing showed that only he could refine Gu, which was definitely good news, he still felt it was somewhat inexplicable.

He had clearly been an ordinary person from childhood to adulthood.

Or perhaps... because he grew up in Miaojiang and there were Gu Masters in the village, did something happen when he was a child?

Or was there something special about his bloodline?

Huh!

Stated that way, it made some sense.

But does this 'bloodline' thing really exist?

Actually, it's possible!

Since Gu Art exists, why can't bloodlines exist?

Ye Tian seemed to have sensed a key piece of information.

His restless heart gradually calmed down. Now that he had a hypothesis, he could just continue to verify it when he had time in the future.

Or, should he go back and flip through the true teachings of witchcraft and gu art again?

But that thing was just a thin little book; he had almost memorized it. After the Insect Gathering Technique came the Gu Insect Technique, and after that, only the Art of Raising Insects remained.

Speaking of the Art of Raising Insects, to Ye Tian, it felt like the simplest part.

Take the descriptions in the Art of Raising Insects as an example.

Different Gu insects have different characteristics, and the methods required to nurture them differ as well.

For instance, a Poison Gu Master who uses venomous insects as Gu, after obtaining a life-bound gu, must cooperate with their Gu insect and find food that can enhance the insect's venomous traits to feed it if they want to increase its power.

If merging and upgrading Gu insects is seen as raising the level of a cultivation technique, then external cultivation is like refining a magical treasure.

Gu Masters who use venomous scorpions, Centipedes, and the like as Gu insects need to find highly toxic insects, animals, plants, or even ores, and then find a way for their Gu insects to absorb them to achieve the goal of strengthening their toxicity.

Or for some hallucinogenic Gu Masters, their Gu insects are mostly toads, snakes, and the like. They need to find plants or minerals that can cause hallucinations in people to achieve the goal of allowing the Gu insect to control others.

It must be mentioned here that according to the records in the true teachings of witchcraft and gu art, in ancient terminology, 'insect' definitely did not just refer to insects, but was a general term for all animals. The meaning of 'Kun' was 'numerous' or 'vast'.

That is why the most numerous bugs in the world are called 'Kun-chong' (insects).

Therefore, in a Gu Master's concept, they are not limited to only using insects to raise Gu. Snakes, bugs, rats, and ants—as long as it's a living thing, it's an 'insect,' and it can be refined.

It's just that in the perception of normal people, toxicity is definitely the most impressive characteristic in nature.

That's why whenever people talk about Gu, they immediately associate it with poison.

And hallucination is actually a manifestation of toxicity.

Compared to venomous creatures, the less popular offensive-type insects are in the second tier. They are often characterized by being tiny, sharp, having strong attack power, and being difficult to detect.

When these types of Gu insects are cultivated, the power and shocking nature they can sometimes display might even surpass the visual impact brought by venomous insects.

A specific manifestation would be like in certain movies, where someone has a Gu planted in their heart, which sucks their lifeblood and then bursts out of the body.

Or using tiny Gu insects to manipulate a person's central nervous system and control their actions.

But regardless, all those impressive Gu insects have absolutely nothing to do with Ye Tian's current Cockroach.

In terms of size, cockroaches are definitely not small among common daily insects. In terms of toxicity, unless being disgusting counts as toxicity. In terms of combat power, a normal Cockroach can't even beat a large ant, other than eating the corpses of its companions.

Because of this, after Ye Tian obtained the Money Gu, he hadn't thought about studying the Art of Raising Insects. He really didn't know what there was to improve in this thing.

But now, through this night's analysis and experimentation.

Ye Tian felt it seemed necessary for him to research in this direction as well.

After all, if the Gu insect is strengthened, he can also be strengthened along with it.

As for specifically how to strengthen it, he probably has to figure it out himself.

Because the ancestor who wrote the Art of Raising Insects probably never imagined that someone would choose such a useless insect as their life-bound gu.

So there were no introductions in that regard at all.

Thinking of this, Ye Tian didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

With a self-deprecating laugh, he picked the toilet paper out of the fish box and threw it into the trash bag.

He composed himself.

He returned to the kitchen.

At this moment, the Spicy Chicken Ye Tian wanted to eat was already in the pot.

In more than half a pot of dried chili peppers, the golden and crispy fried chicken pieces were tossing up and down.

"Xiao Tian, tell your Sister Wang to clear a table. We're about to start the late-night snack."

"Coming!"

Ye Tian sniffed the air entranced, and scurried off to clear a table himself.

After a while, Li Ming came out carrying a large plate of Spicy Chicken.

Then he brought out some boiled peanuts and edamame, followed by several plates of braised beef and the like, setting them all on the table.

Finally, he popped open several bottles of ice-cold beer with a 'pssh pssh' sound.

"Brother Li, you're really going all out, aren't you?"

Ye Tian joked with a smile.

"What do you mean 'all out'? This is called drinking by decree. Actually, I wanted to have a few drinks with you during the day to celebrate, but I just couldn't find the time. Now that business has finally slowed down a bit, we have to have a good drink."

"Alright then, but we can't drink too much, so as not to delay serious business."

"Of course. Just these six bottles, three each. You'll be fine, right kid? Come to think of it, I've never seen you drink before."

"Drinking costs money, doesn't it? Would I have dared to drink in the past?"

Ye Tian laughed at himself.

"Hey, little brother, you're underestimating yourself. I saw it early on—you're definitely going to achieve great things. You just didn't have the chance before. Now that your status is different, don't say things like that anymore."

Li Ming directly raised his bottle and clinked it against Ye Tian's, speaking with an earnest expression.

"Understood, Brother Li!"

Ye Tian nodded, and after clinking bottles with Li Ming, he followed his lead and started chugging straight from the bottle.

More than half a bottle went down in one breath.

Although he didn't think it tasted that great, that ice-cold, refreshing feeling was quite exhilarating.

No wonder so many people like to drink.

Turns out this stuff is actually quite interesting.

With a glint in his eyes.

Ye Tian picked up a piece of Spicy Chicken with his chopsticks, chewed it, and then took another large gulp of beer.

He let out a beer burp, feeling comfortable all over.

Not bad, not bad at all.

Good food paired with good wine.

How long had it been since he had felt this kind of relaxed contentment?

Was it since the time his grandfather passed away? Or even before that? Or perhaps, since the mountain of life's burdens had been pressed upon him?