Chapter 626: Choice

The Mortal World

As a result, this person existed in the form of a Gu-worm body, yet possessed Nascent Soul level power!

Reading this rumor in the jade slip, Qin Sang found it utterly sinister. It rivaled Wu Shang's act of willingly refining himself into a living corpse just to form his Core. The difference was, Wu Shang failed. However, the rumored cultivator surnamed Fang succeeded, merging with his own natal Gu-worm and transforming into an insect. The rumor was relatively recent; if this person truly existed, they might still be alive today. Qin Sang was very curious and decided to inquire after leaving the West Frontier to see if such a ruthless individual truly existed.

Natal Gu-worms offered numerous benefits. Not only could they assist in breaking through bottlenecks, but if they transformed alongside their master's cultivation advancement, their power would surpass even a natal artifact. During combat, they required no effort from the master, essentially providing a two-on-one advantage. Not to mention, many spiritual insects also possessed various peculiar talents and divine abilities.

Of course, the prerequisite for all of this was that the natal Gu-worm could transform in time and keep pace with its master. Spiritual insect transformation was extremely difficult, even harder than a cultivator breaking through a realm. Refining a spiritual insect into a natal Gu-worm involved feeding it essence blood and utilizing unique insect-controlling techniques to aid its transformation, but the difficulty remained significant. Just like human cultivators who, after forming their Core, could only use talismans as stopgaps, often spending decades or even centuries searching for spiritual materials before they could finally refine their natal artifact. Similarly, many Witch tribe cultivators, even after forming their Core, found their natal Gu-worms still stuck at the second transformation. They too had to go to great lengths to search for spiritual objects and elixirs to aid their natal Gu-worm's transformation. Finding a suitable natal Gu-worm and knowing the exact auxiliary transformation items could yield twice the result with half the effort. For the major Witch tribe powers, the core of their insect-controlling techniques lay precisely in this.

The criteria for the Witch Insect Ranking were also related to these factors. A spiritual insect's bloodline potential was only one part of it. The Witch tribe cultivators compiled the Witch Insect Ranking for most of their fellow cultivators to refer to. The spiritual insects ranked higher were not necessarily those with extremely high potential. They must possess the potential for a second transformation to be eligible for the list. Potential for a third transformation was ideal; beyond that, the impact wasn't significant.

In addition, important factors included the spiritual insect's combat power during its first three transformations, as well as the ease or difficulty of its second and third transformations, especially the third. These were the most crucial factors that determined a spiritual insect's ranking on the Witch Insect Ranking. Those rare spiritual insects possessing the potential for a fifth, sixth, or even higher transformation were regarded as "unique insects" by the Imperial Spirit Sect, yet they ranked very low on the Witch Insect Ranking. Firstly, their strength was weak in the early stages, and their divine abilities were unremarkable, preventing them from forming effective combat power. Secondly, their transformation difficulty was extremely high, even harder than a cultivator's own breakthrough. Using such spiritual insects as natal Gu-worms would only mislead cultivators.

When Ghosthead Bees were in their first transformation, their individual combat power wasn't strong. Only when they gathered in swarms during combat did they become truly terrifying. However, after their second and third transformations, Ghosthead Bees' combat power would undergo a qualitative leap. Precisely because of this, despite their high transformation difficulty, Ghosthead Bees could still rank over 500.

Of course, a ranking on the Witch Insect List was one thing; actually finding the insect was another.

Qin Sang took out both the Witch Insect Ranking and the Unique Insect Ranking. He believed that before the Core Formation stage, choosing a natal Gu-worm based on the Witch Insect Ranking was certainly appropriate. However, since he had already formed his Core, it would be best to also refer to the Unique Insect Ranking when selecting a natal Gu-worm, taking into account the spiritual insect's potential and future development. This demonstrated the preciousness of the Unique Insect Ranking. The transformation methods for the unique insects listed on it could even reach the fourth and fifth transformations and were extremely detailed. However, the problem was akin to a clever housewife lacking ingredients for a meal – possessing the knowledge but lacking the necessary resources.

This Witch Insect Ranking was a universally used and widely circulated list among the Witch tribe. Among them, for five types of spiritual insects on the list, the Five-Insect Sect possessed unique insect-controlling techniques, which were also the core of the sect's true heritage. Only after Qin Sang swore he would never leak them did Cui Xuanzi agree to hand them over. Major powers certainly also had similar secret arts, all of which were closely guarded. He wondered if the insect-controlling techniques of those major Witch tribe powers were richer and more detailed than his Unique Insect Ranking.

The insect-controlling techniques were very complex, and Qin Sang spent a long time reading through them from beginning to end. After reviewing this information, Qin Sang resolved to choose a suitable spiritual insect and refine it into his natal Gu-worm, replacing his natal artifact.

There were many reasons for this. Human cultivators dared not take this path due to fear of retaliation from the natal Gu-worm. However, Qin Sang possessed the Jade Buddha, which could perfectly circumvent this hidden danger. Moreover, even Witch tribe members were not his equal in this regard. At that time, Qin Sang could unreservedly allow his natal Gu-worm to undergo its fourth transformation. When he was in the Pseudo-Core stage, he could easily control the Flying Yaksha. Even Yi Tiannie, despite exhausting all his efforts, failed to erase Qin Sang's spiritual imprint—a testament to the Jade Buddha's power.

Qin Sang was immediately deeply attracted upon realizing that natal Gu-worms possessed the miraculous ability to help break through bottlenecks. Recalling the past, Qin Sang could imagine the immense difficulty he would face in forming a Nascent Soul in the future. Qin Sang felt very uncertain whether a single Doomsday Elixir would be enough to help him form a Nascent Soul. He had to firmly grasp even a tiny sliver of an opportunity. Even without the Jade Buddha to eliminate hidden dangers, Qin Sang would still try his best to refine a natal Gu-worm. Since he no longer had to worry about future repercussions, he certainly couldn't miss this opportunity.

Additionally, the information the Imperial Spirit Sect obtained from ancient texts, especially the insect-controlling techniques unknown even to the Witch tribe, and the Cinnabar Gold in his possession, also gave Qin Sang the confidence to pursue this path.

The Scarlet Gold Vine absorbed the world's spiritual golden-fire energy and bore fruit, which was an unformed Cinnabar Gold. Originally, it could be used for artifact refinement. However, a senior from the Imperial Spirit Sect once obtained an ancient beast-controlling secret manual from the relics of an ancient cultivator. They discovered that if the Scarlet Gold Vine fruit was not refined, but only its pulp extracted and fed to spiritual insects, it surprisingly had a certain chance to help spiritual insects break through! Back in the ancient cultivator's abode, Qin Sang personally witnessed that after Elder Di Que fed the Cinnabar Gold to the Fire Jade Centipedes, they immediately showed signs of transformation.

After obtaining the Cinnabar Gold, Qin Sang had been constantly on the move to improve his cultivation and restore his foundation, never having the energy to focus on the path of insect control. Even when he was lucky enough to encounter Ghosthead Bees, they were mutated ones that had lost the ability to continue improving and transforming. As a result, the Cinnabar Gold had been lying unused in his mustard seed bag, truly a pearl cast before swine.

Now, the Cinnabar Gold finally had a purpose. Although Qin Sang only possessed one Scarlet Gold Vine fruit, since each person could only have one natal Gu-worm, it wouldn't be difficult to support it until its third transformation, with some even left over. For Qin Sang, cultivating a natal Gu-worm to its third transformation held great promise. Then, spending a few centuries preparing spiritual medicines to aid its fourth transformation would be more effective than his own aimless cultivation. After Qin Sang's aptitude was enhanced by the Killing Talisman, his cultivation speed could be considered upper-middle tier, and he was now qualified to divide his attention.

However, what initially drove Qin Sang to choose a natal Gu-worm was not these reasons.