FVN Chapter 629 Gu Cultivation Techniques! Breakthrough to Core Formation!
Chapter 629 Gu Cultivation Techniques! Breakthrough to Core Formation!
Then, Chen Fan turned his attention to the ant colony.
Among the Gu practitioners, there are also methods to command swarms of insects in battle, known as "Insect Swarm Tactics" or "Insect Control Techniques".
It mentions that the overall strength of the swarm depends not only on the strength of individual swarms, but more importantly on the leadership and support of the "mother swarm" or "queen swarm".
The cicada plays a role similar to that of a "king insect" among these ants and insects.
The notes record a simple "armor-tempering technique" that involves soaking insects in a specific medicinal solution or feeding them to slowly strengthen their carapace and mouthparts.
Chen Fan compared the prescription with the ingredients he had and found that he could use them to make a simplified version of the "Iron Armor Quenching Liquid".
He set to work again, refining a small jar of gray liquid with a metallic sheen.
After diluting the medicine, sprinkle it into the specially made "feeding trough" in the ant nest.
The ants smelled the aroma and immediately became agitated, swarming towards the feeding trough and greedily sucking up the medicinal liquid.
Chen Fan observed quietly.
The ants that had ingested the medicine appeared to have darker exoskeletons, with a faint metallic sheen, and seemed to move slightly more swiftly. The effect was subtle, but it was undeniable.
"It seems this Gu cultivation notebook is indeed very useful for cicadas and ant colonies," Chen Fan thought to himself.
Seeing that the Gu cultivation method was indeed effective against the Golden Cicada, Chen Fan made a plan.
He took out the Gu Cultivation Notes again, turned to the page that recorded the method of cultivating the Soul-Devouring Gu, and studied it word by word several times, memorizing every step and every ingredient.
For the next three days, Chen Fan stayed in the Beast Taming Garden, devoting all his energy to the cultivation of the cicada and the ant colony.
Blood Yin bait is just a beginner's item.
According to the records in the notes of the Insect Master, the true cultivation of the Soul-Devouring Gu requires the decoction of 49 kinds of spiritual herbs to make "Soul-Devouring Liquid". The eggs or larvae are soaked in the liquid every day and then fed with the essence blood of demon beasts in order to stimulate the devouring instinct hidden in the Gu worm.
Although Chen Fan did not have all the spiritual herbs he had, the stock brought back by Baicaotang was enough to make up most of them, and the missing auxiliary herbs could be replaced with herbs with similar properties.
He set up the Qiankun Furnace in the Beast Taming Garden and used the Infant Fire to refine the Spirit Devouring Liquid.
The first batch was boiled for a full five hours. When the pot was opened, the liquid was dark green, viscous like honey, and emitted a pungent and spicy smell.
Chen Fan poured the medicinal liquid into a jade bottle, then took out the inner core of a Nascent Soul stage demon beast, ground it into powder, and mixed it with the Soul Devouring Liquid in a three-to-one ratio before carefully dripping the mixed medicinal liquid into the insect cage.
The cicada's reaction to the Soul-Devouring Liquid was far more intense than that to the Blood Yin Bait.
As soon as the medicine was dripped into the cage, it suddenly opened its compound eyes, propped itself up on its six slender legs, and pounced on the pool of dark green medicine with an almost greedy attitude.
It absorbed the medicine extremely quickly, finishing the entire drop in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Immediately, its body shone with golden light, and the blood-red patterns on its carapace seemed to come alive, twisting and writhing, emitting a scorching aura.
Chen Fan used his divine sense to closely monitor the changes within the golden cicada's body.
He could sense that a tiny golden vortex was gathering in the Golden Cicada's dantian. Although small, the vortex possessed a domineering devouring power, absorbing the spiritual energy from the medicinal liquid and the demonic energy from the inner core powder, refining it for his own use.
The principle behind this process is quite similar to that of a cultivator forming their core, only on a much smaller scale, yet it is much more refined and concentrated.
"No wonder he's a born mutant," Chen Fan muttered to himself.
Subsequently, Chen Fan refined three more batches of Soul Devouring Liquid, adjusting the proportions of each batch slightly based on the cicada's reaction.
The second batch increased the proportion of spirit-devouring herbs, while the third batch added a small amount of demonic energy crystals brought back from Demon Abyss Island, attempting to stimulate the cicada's devouring instinct with both immortal and demonic energies.
If the Insect Master knew about this audacious act, he would probably curse him severely!
It is important to know that the most taboo thing in the cultivation of Gu worms is the conflict of attributes. The two energies of immortality and demonism are inherently incompatible, and if they are poured into the body of a Gu worm at the same time, the slightest carelessness will result in the worm exploding and dying.
However, with the Golden Bowl in hand and the Fixed Word Technique to precisely control the flow of every strand of power, Chen Fan managed to maintain the immortal and demonic energies at a delicate balance.
Instead of exploding, the cicada underwent an astonishing transformation under the dual stimulation of immortal and demonic energies.
On the evening of the third day, the cicadas began to spin silk.
The extremely fine and tough thread, pale golden in color, was continuously expelled from its mouthparts, forming a cocoon the size of a fist within the insect cage.
The cocoon wall is semi-transparent, and through it you can see the cicada's body undergoing dramatic changes!
Its carapace was peeling away layer by layer, and the new carapace was darker in color and had denser patterns. The blood-red lines on its back had spread into the shape of a pair of faintly visible wings.
Chen Fan sat cross-legged in front of the insect cage, his consciousness never leaving the golden cicada.
He could sense a power brewing within the cocoon that far surpassed any previous moment. That power was domineering and pure, carrying a ferocity originating from the depths of his bloodline.
Several hours later, the first crack appeared on the cocoon wall.
A blinding golden light shot out from the crack, and then the entire cocoon burst open with a bang. A cicada with a dark golden body flapped its wings and flew out, circling several times in the insect cage before landing back on the spiritual soil.
Core Formation level.
Chen Fan's gaze fell on the golden cicada. It was smaller than the three-day-old cicada, shrinking from the size of a thumb to the size of a broad bean, but its aura was more than ten times stronger than before.
The crimson patterns on the carapace had transformed into two pairs of thin, golden wings, each edged with an extremely fine bloodline, which emitted a faint buzzing sound when vibrated.
Those compound eyes also turned dark red, with a faint light flowing within them, full of spirituality.
What surprised Chen Fan even more was that the golden cicada's aura carried a hint of demonic power.
The spiritual energy within its body was no longer pure righteous spiritual energy, but mixed with a wisp of demonic energy, which echoed the state of cultivating both immortals and demons within its body.
This golden cicada unintentionally completed the initial fusion of the celestial and demonic energies.
The cicada flapped its wings and flew to Chen Fan's fingertip, rubbing its head against his fingertip and emitting a very faint buzzing sound.
The buzzing sound carried an intimacy and dependence, clearly a sign that it recognized him as its master.
A barely perceptible smile appeared on Chen Fan's lips as he took out another drop of Soul Devouring Liquid from the jade bottle and fed it to the creature.
After happily finishing its meal, the cicada flapped its wings and flew back to its cage to continue absorbing the remaining medicinal properties.
At the same time, changes in the ant colony are more readily apparent.
After the simplified version of the armor-quenching liquid was completely consumed by the ant colony, Chen Fan refining a whole jar according to the complete "Armor-Quenching Technique" recipe in his notes.
The complete armor tempering technique requires refined iron marrow, black tortoise shell powder, and black jade lingzhi as the main ingredients, supplemented with more than ten kinds of mineral powders, and is refined in spiritual spring for seven days to complete.
Chen Fan didn't have the patience to wait seven days. He directly used a golden bowl to purify all the impurities in the medicinal liquid, and then used infant fire to accelerate the refining process. In just half a day, he produced a jar of armor-tempering liquid with a dark silver luster.