Chapter 641: Divine Pattern Ends

Rain hit the bluestone.

"How many resources can a mere Qi Cultivation stage disciple consume? Just cultivate her in secret. Back then, among so many Saintesses in Yihui Village, Old Ghost Qin specifically chose the mute girl. Perhaps she will be the link between us and Old Ghost Qin."

Cui Xuanzi waved his hand, dismissing Junior Brother Tong.

The secret chamber was quiet and secluded. Cui Xuanzi summoned his Natal Spirit Gu, a scorpion comparable in size to his palm.

The venomous scorpion was snow-white all over, its skin smooth and warm to the touch, as if carved from jade. However, the stinger at its tail was faintly visible, almost illusory. This was the Illusion-Tail Venomous Scorpion, one of the Five Insects that the Five-Insect Sect specialized in cultivating.

Cui Xuanzi gently stroked the Illusion-Tail Venomous Scorpion. A moment later, another smaller Illusion-Tail Venomous Scorpion crawled out from the larger one's abdomen, rubbing lightly against his fingertip with extreme intimacy. The aura of this one was much weaker, only at the peak of the First Transformation.

Looking at the two scorpions, one large and one small, Cui Xuanzi sighed softly. Both scorpions were his Natal Spirit Gu.

Back then, when Cui Xuanzi was refining his Natal Spirit Gu using the Blood Refinement method, he discovered that there were two identical twin larvae in the egg.

There are two methods for blood refining a Spirit Gu. One method uses an adult insect. After blood refinement, no matter its previous cultivation level, it will revert to a larva. This method has a low success rate because the adult insect will resist strongly; the stronger it is, the fiercer its resistance. Cultivators can only suppress the spirit insect with their own strength. If the spirit insect's strength surpasses the cultivator's, success is impossible. However, there is one advantage: after refining it into a Natal Spirit Gu, subsequent transformations are easier.

The second method is to directly select a larva, which is also the choice of most people. If one chooses a larva for blood refinement, identical twins or multiple births are not uncommon. One must choose the strongest one and abandon all the others, as there can only be one Natal Spirit Gu.

But for some unknown reason, Cui Xuanzi somehow muddled through and refined both Illusion-Tail Venomous Scorpions into Natal Spirit Gu, possessing twin spirit gu. This made him ecstatic. After all, his talent was not exceptional, and having two Natal Spirit Gu, though more difficult to cultivate, was equivalent to double the combat power. He knew he was special and could not reveal this, so he had never displayed it in front of others. Only his master knew.

During the Qi Cultivation stage, Cui Xuanzi relied on his two Natal Spirit Gu, achieving extremely high combat power and repeatedly performing great deeds. He received priority cultivation from his sect and soon successfully established his Foundation.

Unexpectedly, after he established his Foundation, when he tried to improve his Natal Spirit Gu, he found that one successfully transformed, while the other's growth stagnated and stubbornly refused to begin its second transformation. Cui Xuanzi never gave up, pouring countless resources into it, but it still had no effect. Finally, he had to admit that this Illusion-Tail Venomous Scorpion had completely lost its potential for transformation. Perhaps this was the price of twin spirit gu. Now, the second spirit gu was like a chicken rib, becoming increasingly useless in the future, but he couldn't bear to discard it.

Amidst countless mountains and valleys, where poisonous miasma filled the air and human traces were rare, a figure effortlessly passed through the miasma and jungle, moving more nimbly than a flying bird.

"This is the place."

Qin Sang landed on a rock, looking up at the high mountain ahead. At the peak of the mountain, clouds formed a circular barrier, sealing off the mountaintop and remaining there year-round. It was said that there was an ancient hall on the mountain, and some had obtained inheritances within it.

By this time, Qin Sang had been away from the Xiongshan region for almost two months, and it had been more than half a year since he first awoke while drifting on the water. In the past two months, Qin Sang had left the Xiongshan region and searched all nearby dangerous areas and secret realms. Except for one extremely dangerous area, which he still dared not delve too deep into, Qin Sang had investigated all the rumors collected by the Five-Insect Sect, whether founded or baseless. The mountain ahead was the last one. He still hadn't found any traces of an ancient teleportation array. Although Qin Sang couldn't reach the core of that dangerous area, he could tell a thing or two: the possibility of an ancient teleportation array being there was extremely low. He wasn't without gains; Qin Sang had collected several spiritual herbs usable by Foundation Establishment cultivators, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

"This is the last place," Qin Sang murmured to himself, making a decision. "If it's not here either, I'll put it aside for now and go to the heart of West Xinjiang to seek insects. I wonder how the Five-Insect Sect is doing with their task? Once I choose a Natal Spirit Gu, I'll return to the Xiongshan region, then leave West Xinjiang. Cultivating outside while inquiring about Senior Qingzhu's whereabouts wouldn't be a bad idea either. Senior Qingzhu's talent is so extraordinary, comparable to the brightest moon; there must be some trace of her."

Qin Sang pushed off with his foot, like an eagle spreading its wings, soaring towards the opposite mountaintop.

"It seems to be a unique restriction of the Witch Tribe. If only I knew the divine patterns of the Witch Tribe, breaking through these cloud and wind barriers would be much easier." Qin Sang stood in mid-air, staring at the cloud ring, contemplating a way to break it.

He now understood the Witch Tribe very well, and his doubts about divine patterns were finally resolved. The divine patterns of Witch Tribe cultivators, at their strongest, were only slightly more powerful than peak Qi Cultivation stage spells, useful only in the Qi Cultivation stage and early Foundation Establishment. And then their path ended completely! Throughout the entire Witch Tribe, countless brilliant and astonishing individuals spent their entire lives diligently researching divine patterns, trying to find a path forward and reshape the grand Dao of Witch Tribe divine patterns. Even including Nascent Soul Patriarchs, all failed. Witch Tribe cultivators after the Foundation Establishment stage could only abandon divine patterns. Even those sect disciples who believed they had great futures did not cultivate divine patterns during the Qi Cultivation stage to avoid wasting time.

Qin Sang had previously thought that divine patterns, as a unique power of the Witch Tribe, were extremely compatible with the Witch Tribe's bloodline and might even be more authentic than Natal Spirit Gu. It now seemed that many ancient Witch Tribe sages also held similar thoughts to Qin Sang. Unfortunately, the path was broken.

Summoning the Flying Yaksha to stand guard, Qin Sang took out the Ten Directions Yama Banner, forming an array with three banners. The Nine Nether Demonic Flames gathered into a fireball, which then shot out towards the cloud ring.

'Boom!'

The black flames surged into the cloud ring, like a drop of ink on white paper, quickly spreading. The cloud ring began to churn. At the point where the Nine Nether Demonic Flames struck, the clouds rapidly dispersed, becoming extremely thin. The Flying Yaksha and Qin Sang, one after another, broke through the clouds and clearly saw the ancient hall on the mountaintop, bathed in sunlight, shining with a golden radiance.

An hour later, Qin Sang left the ancient hall, shaking his head. This place had been visited by countless people; its treasures had long since been plundered, leaving it completely empty.

Once again, having returned empty-handed, Qin Sang formally entered the heart of West Xinjiang, embarking on his journey to find insects.

A month later, in a vast wilderness where the wild grass grew as tall as a person, Qin Sang held a topographic map and had been searching for several days in search of an underground cave entrance. The topographic map only had rough markings for spirit insect nests. Often, people had seen such spirit insects in the vicinity and then marked an approximate area without actually seeing the nest itself. Furthermore, with the passage of time, the terrain had changed. To find the exact location, it still required considerable effort.