Wait a minute, where is my master?

The following morning broke clear and bright.

Within Capital City.

The air was suffused with a sense of tranquil bliss, indicative of a nation thriving and its people living in peace.

In the streets and within the grassy patches scattered throughout the city, the number of snakes, insects, rodents, and ants had noticeably diminished.

And on the daily publication of the Tingfeng Building, the first piece of information was this:

"Announcement from the Great Xia Dynasty through Tingfeng Building to all cultivators across the Nine Provinces"

"Those who come to Shangjing City for the Wash Essence and Marrow ritual, must ensure to extract Gu worms, artifacts, and all other unrelated foreign entities from within their bodies and the Sea of Consciousness in advance.

If not removed beforehand and lost in the process, compensation will not be provided by our side.

Cultivators must bear the responsibility themselves."

This last line had been added by the Taoist late in the night upon Kui Lei's request.

...

Last night, after Fu Ling reported to the Taoist all the Gu worms purified from her body,

Jin Xu allowed Little Black to begin its performance.

To say that Little Black was worthy of the title Insect Queen was an understatement.

After reconfirming the required Gu worms with Fu Ling, it dug several three-inch-deep square pits in the ground.

Then, it corroded a three-foot-deep larger square pit in the center with its venom and jumped down into it.

Once inside the large pit, Little Black exerted its full strength to emit its second type of aura, which attracted Gu worms and toxic substances.

In the meantime, Jin Xu, wanting to prevent the barefoot girl from being unable to suppress her Lifebound Gu, took the initiative to leap towards her.

He even thoughtfully wrapped Fu Ling in golden spiritual power.

Approximately half an hour went by.

Inside the three-foot pit where Little Black was situated, various mundane poisonous creatures had crawled in and filled it up.

Despite Little Black's intentional suppression, these toxic creatures were all still very much alive, albeit uncontrollable in their desire to draw near it.

After enduring in the pit for a good while, and seeing the number of creatures was about right,

Little Black catapulted itself, breaking through the blockade of venomous creatures, and soared into mid-air.

Next, one of the pale blue stripes on its back flickered lightly, emitting specks of luminescence.

This luminescence, blue shining through white, dotted the night sky like constellation stars, twinkling marvelously.

Little Black circled within the luminescence a few times, as if inspecting something. Once it stopped, it stayed by the side of the glowing orb as they both slowly descended.

Differently, the blue and white luminescent spots uniformly fell into the pit below, while Little Black landed on the ground.

As these specks of light scattered into the pit, the previously harmonious, intertwined poisonous creatures suddenly became violent, turning on each other in a frenzy.

Meanwhile, Little Black began to crawl rapidly across the ground.

"That woman, quickly spit out a mouthful of Heart Blood into that pit!"

Within moments, a line of text appeared on the ground.

Wrapped in golden spiritual power, Fu Ling was momentarily stunned before realizing she was "that woman."

The barefoot girl hurriedly activated the spiritual power within her body, giving a gentle tremor to her heart meridian.

"Uh."

With a soft moan, a glob of heart blood pulsating like flames was expelled from her mouth. The blood passed through the timely opened shield of golden spiritual power, landing precisely in the three-foot-deep pit, eagerly consumed by the frenzied creatures within.

Seeing this, Little Black stood up quite humanlike from the ground and gave a little bow.

It appeared to be showing its satisfaction.

Then...

It resumed its rapid scurrying on the ground.

"Master, give me a few Spirit Stones."

The writing this time was meant for the Taoist to see.

Upon reading the message, Jin Xu waved his hand, and more than a dozen high-grade Spirit Stones flew out from his storage magic, settling around Little Black.

Seeing the Spirit Stones in place, Little Black swiftly touched a few of them. The stones it touched rapidly degenerated, visibly decaying at a rate discernible to the naked eye, breaking down into fragments of rock.

The Taoist, using his Spiritual Eyes, observed from the side and noticed that, after absorbing the Spirit Stones, the Insect Queen rapidly spawned a swarm of insects identical to those in the Qingmu Secret Realm.

These small insects were manipulated, crawling neatly into those three-inch-square pits nearby.

The Insect Queen bounced back into the large pit in the middle, and according to a certain rhythm, extracted the poison inside into the surrounding three-inch pits.

When the large pit in the middle was empty,

the young Taoist noticed that the small insects secreted by Little Black had automatically started to form a thin yet seemingly tough blue-gray film over each three-inch pit.

"Master, all set."

Little Black bounced back in front of Jin Xu, crawling out four characters on the ground.

"Do we just have to wait until tomorrow morning for the Gu Worms to be ready? Also, Little Black, didn't you say earlier that you could nurture them directly? Why all this trouble now?"

Jin Xu was quite puzzled when he asked this question.

Previously, when he inquired, Little Black had replied that it could nurture them directly, but now it was digging pits, attracting poisonous substances, and packaging them.

Clearly, it was different from what had been said before.

"Master, the Gu Worms that I nurture directly would have their strength fixed in place, making it very difficult for them to improve any further. However, those that come out of this battle, along with the Origin Force from within me, will have a much higher potential in the future.

This is the first time you tasked me with something, Master, and I felt that I must do it impressively."

The willing Insect Queen explained to Jin Xu why she went through such an elaborate process.

The young Taoist stared at the words on the ground and glanced over at Little White, who was being tapped like a wooden fish by Yu Yaoer.

Suddenly, he felt a surge of contentment within his heart.

Finally, one of these three demon pets exhibited high emotional intelligence!

It was just a shame that it could only type, not speak.

He nodded affirmatively at Little Black and encouraged it in a deep voice, "Nicely done. How long will it take for these Gu Worms to be successfully nurtured?"

"After they fight each other, they need to absorb my Origin Force, which might take some time.

But it won't be too long.

About this time next year, these Gu Worms should be able to emerge from their cocoons."

Little Black scurried around.

Jin Xu, however, narrowed his eyes subconsciously and asked again, "How long until these Gu Worms are successfully nurtured!?"

"To answer master's question, it will take a year."

Perhaps afraid that his master wouldn't understand what 'this time next year' meant, Little Black opted for a different way to describe the time.

"And you call this 'not too long'?"

The young Taoist frowned, speaking somewhat incredulously.

He had only been in this world for slightly over a year, and now these Gu Worms were going to take a full year to be nurtured?

The key issue was that Fu Ling was still waiting for compensation.

He couldn't possibly ask her to wait here a year, could he?

Jin Xu sucked his teeth in resignation, feeling a headache coming on.

Meanwhile, Little Black on the ground couldn't understand why its master was reacting this way.

To a cultivator of the Master's level, one year was nothing; surely it wouldn't even suffice for one session of magic cultivation.

Clearly, this new demon pet had yet to learn about the meaning of "Jin Xu Speed."

Moreover, the young Taoist himself did not understand what it meant for a Gu Cultivator to obtain a Gu Worm containing the Insect Queen's Origin.

At that moment, Jin Xu was helplessly pinching the bridge of his nose, contemplating how to explain the situation to Fu Ling and the other woman.

But the barefoot girl, who had witnessed and heard the entire conversation, didn't wait for the young Taoist to speak up. She gleamed with excitement and said proactively,

"Taoist Jin Xu, it's only a year, I can wait.

If it's not convenient for me to live in this residence, I can buy another one nearby.

As long as you allow me to wait, that is all I need!"

A Gu Worm containing the Insect Queen's Origin—no, not just one but a total of nineteen!

And to obtain them, she would need to wait only one year!

If she didn't wait and her sect found out upon her return, her master would be infuriated to death!

The young Taoist watched the animated Fu Ling, feeling a bit surprised.

"Eh, things seem to be a bit different from what I expected."