Inside the quiet immortal cave, Luo Chen stood before a worktable, meticulously studying the Hundred Poisons King Gu sealed in amber.
Because of what had happened with the Consonance Gu back then, Luo Chen was exceedingly wary of Gu insects, terrified of encountering another bug that had been secretly tampered with.
Just as when he had refined the Strength Gu and the Letter Gu earlier, he only proceeded with refining after taking every conceivable precaution.
Compared to low-tier insects like the Strength Gu and the Letter Gu, this Hundred Poisons King Gu was of a higher grade, standing firmly at the third tier, making the examination exceptionally tedious.
Fortunately, as Luo Chen's realm grew ever deeper, he had come to understand a fundamental truth.
All refining arts shared the same roots!
Whether pill refinement, artifact refinement, or Gu refinement, they all followed common principles.
Leaving a hidden trick or backhand in a medicinal pill, magic treasure, or Gu insect was by no means simple.
One needed a thorough understanding of the item in question and a dedicated countermeasure to plant a latent trap.
At least according to his thorough inspection, this Hundred Poisons King Gu was completely clean, showing no sign of hidden danger.
"That makes sense. It's merely a tier-three Gu insect. It wouldn't warrant an esteemed, top-tier Gu master of the Southern Border stooping to underhanded tricks."
Luo Chen gave a self-deprecating chuckle at his own vigilance, then shook his head.
The other party had offered a tier-three poison Gu and its accompanying cultivation method in exchange for a single intervention from him, the renowned 'Baxiu'—Heavenly Master Li had truly made a killing on that deal!
Of course, Luo Chen harbored no real resentment.
While the Hundred Poisons King Gu was indeed only tier three, its future potential was undeniably vast.
Once exposed to various toxins, its grade would rise swiftly, with tier four being the ideal projected state.
Under Heavenly Master Li's bold vision, if the host's body could endure it and there was a sufficient supply of potent venoms, this Hundred Poisons King Gu might even ascend to tier five one day.
From this, one could also see that this was an experimental path conceived by Heavenly Master Li to create a tier-five divine Gu.
Rather than refining it directly, he relied on the post-natal efforts of a cultivator to nurture and stimulate it step by step.
As for why Heavenly Master Li had eventually abandoned the Hundred Poisons King Gu, the answer was simple.
In this era, those capable of meeting those two conditions were exceedingly rare!
"Can I endure it?"
Luo Chen asked himself, then smiled knowingly.
If even he could not endure it, how many in this world were qualified to try?
Qingshuang? Wang Yuan?
Neither of them would choose such a crooked, unorthodox path. Even if the King Gu and the technique were laid right before their eyes, they would likely scoff in disdain.
Only someone like him, currently stuck at a bottleneck in body refinement, would treat a dead horse as a living one and give it a shot.
"Let me see what you are truly capable of!"
With a thought, a faint prick of pain arose at Luo Chen's fingertip.
A drop of essence blood radiating a formidable aura was squeezed out.
Trembling on the skin, it fell with a soft sound—
*Drip!*
The essence blood landed upon the amber, and the amber sealing the Hundred Poisons King Gu instantly dissolved like melting snow.
Spurred by the stimulus, the Hundred Poisons King Gu began to stir from its slumber.
Before it could react, Luo Chen's essence blood had already soaked into its body.
*Hiss...*
A silent, piercing shriek echoed within his mind.
Before his eyes, the pale, tender King Gu began to thrash violently, blood-red light repeatedly flashing across its surface as it struggled. As the crimson hue gradually subsided, Luo Chen knew the first phase of the refining process was complete.
As for what came next...
Without hesitation, Luo Chen drew his fingers together and slashed upward across his abdomen.
A gruesome wound opened, and grabbing the Hundred Poisons King Gu, he shoved it straight inside.
Under his powerful regenerative capabilities, the savage wound rapidly knit back together.
Within his perception, the pale insect made a beeline straight for his internal organs and stomach cavity the moment it entered his body.
"Fortunately, I consumed a vast amount of Five Temples Immortal Brew over the years, fortifying my five viscera to an extraordinary degree unseen in the world. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to offer this Hundred Poisons King Gu a stable home."
Murmuring softly, a gleam of light swirled at the brow of the miniature Nascent Soul within Luo Chen's violet palace.
It was the Spirit Illumination Gu he had refined earlier!
To prevent any unforeseen accidents, the Spirit Illumination Gu needed to remain active at all times, constantly monitoring the Hundred Poisons King Gu.
From the looks of it so far, everything was proceeding smoothly.
The initial discomfort the Hundred Poisons King Gu felt upon entering the stomach vanished the instant it met Luo Chen's terrifying gastric fluids—juices potent enough to dissolve practically anything. It immediately took to the environment like a fish to water.
A sense of hunger was transmitted directly into Luo Chen's consciousness through their spiritual link.
"Eager already?"
Luo Chen smiled faintly, then retrieved a black jar from his storage bag.
When he opened the jar, a small, emerald snake flicked its tongue and slowly slithered within.
This was a green jade snake, a tier-one monster beast carrying deadly poison.
Any Qi Refinement cultivator careless enough to be bitten would suffer cardiac paralysis and perish.
It was also one of the hundred fundamental tier-one venoms required to initiate the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique.
A hand was placed right in front of the small green snake.
Without hesitation, the green jade snake struck, sinking its fangs into the flesh.
Yet that bite could not even leave a faint white scratch on Luo Chen's skin.
Luo Chen shook his head. "Too troublesome."
Pinching with two fingers, he plucked out the venom gland of the green jade snake in a single motion.
In an instant, the snake went limp and listless.
Facing a lethal venom that countless Qi Refinement cultivators avoided like the plague, Luo Chen swallowed it with a light chuckle.
The toxin slid down his esophagus and dropped into his stomach.
Drawn by the scent, the Hundred Poisons King Gu devoured it voraciously.
Its pale, tender body gradually darkened to pitch-black.
However, this transformation was fleeting; it soon reverted to its original white jade appearance.
Seeing this, Luo Chen began circulating the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique.
As the cultivation technique flowed, the spiritually linked Hundred Poisons King Gu reacted accordingly.
A plume of hazy mist drifted out from its body, slowly corroding Luo Chen's flesh and blood.
A tingling, intensely itching sensation welled up from deep within.
Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. He allowed the stinging itch to spread throughout his body, remaining as immovable as a mountain!
Gradually, under the toxin's corrosion, Luo Chen's flesh and blood showed faint signs of withering.
Yet his formidable physical self-healing kicked in, restoring it in an instant.
The stinging itch vanished just as swiftly.
Witnessing this, Luo Chen sank into deep thought.
After reviewing the memories recorded by the Spirit Illumination Gu once more, comprehension dawned upon him.
"So that's how it works!"
No wonder this Hundred Poisons King Gu served as the core of this high-tier body refinement method, and no wonder the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique had been tailored specifically for it.
The insect itself was extraordinary!
It was a top-tier venomous creature, but its innate toxicity was utterly restrained, incapable of harming the cultivator on its own.
However, upon absorbing other poisons, that toxicity would fluctuate.
Circulating the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique stimulated the King Gu, causing the consumed venom to multiply in potency before being released to temper the host's physical body.
The Hundred Poisons King Gu could be regarded as a middleman or a converter.
If one were to draw an analogy...
Luo Chen pondered for a moment and thought of a technological device from his past life—a transformer.
Just as a transformer stepped voltage up or down, the Hundred Poisons King Gu could amplify or diminish the toxicity of whatever venom it was fed.
Feeding that modified venom back to the host allowed it to temper the physical body.
Moreover, this tempering differed from conventional body refinement.
It was a slow corrosion, an unending dissolution.
If the host's body were not sufficiently strong, this constant corrosion and dissolution would only cause grave self-harm.
Only an exceptionally robust body could steadily grow stronger through the relentless cycle of corrosion, breakdown, and regeneration!
"No wonder Heavenly Master Li didn't place much stock in this high-tier body refinement art. Its fundamental principle is remarkably simple. Even without the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique, as long as I have this King Gu, I could devise my own Thousand Poisons or Ten Thousand Poisons body refinement method tailored to it."
After this careful assessment, Luo Chen understood a great deal.
For this technique to advance rapidly, three conditions had to be met:
First, the host's baseline physical toughness; second, the degree to which the cultivation art stimulated the King Gu; and third, the external supply of toxic resources.
"None of these are difficult!"
Licking his lips, another pang of hunger surged from within his body.
Luo Chen chuckled softly. He retrieved a large quantity of low-tier venomous materials from his storage bag, extracting their toxins one by one to feed the Hundred Poisons King Gu.
At the same time, under the direction of his primary soul, the newly initiated Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique began circulating naturally.
A dense shroud of poisonous mist, centered on his stomach, began to diffuse through every corner of Luo Chen's body.
***
After joining the Fierce Peak Zombie Alliance, Luo Chen's previously nomadic, wandering life abruptly settled down.
Every day, he either secluded himself in his cave to practice the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique or wandered up and down Mount Mijie, ignoring the stares of others as he studied the ubiquitous natural spatial restrictions.
During this time, the venomous resources Heavenly Master Li had promised were delivered in successive batches.
Of course, these supplies were not provided free of charge; Luo Chen had to pay a certain price to purchase them.
Fortunately, before leaving the Eastern Desolation, Luo Chen had reaped massive rewards at the Five Elements Divine Sect, followed by substantial gains from the Shadow Reflecting Sect. Paying for these low-tier poisons was more than manageable.
With a steady supply of low-tier toxins and his terrifying regenerative physique, his proficiency in the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique soared, improving noticeably with each passing day.
From Entry to Proficient took barely a month.
Reaching the Master tier was just around the corner.
After devouring vast quantities of toxins, the Hundred Poisons King Gu itself began to undergo gradual changes in grade.
The only thing that left Luo Chen slightly dissatisfied was that although his body refinement bottleneck had loosened and was progressing toward the late fourth tier, the overall improvement was quite limited.
Had an ordinary person obtained this art, the stimulation from such terrifying toxins would have caused their body refinement to make leaps and bounds.
However, his physical foundation was simply too monstrous—strong enough to contend with great demons and rival desolate beasts. The physical enhancements born from this continuous destruction and reconstruction were merely gilding the lily.
He understood that, ultimately, the Hundred Poisons King Gu's own tier was too low.
Only by raising it to the fourth tier could it provide substantial benefits to him.
Toxic materials of the first and second tiers were clearly insufficient to advance the King Gu's grade.
Tier-three poisons might be effective, but toxins at that level were considered high-tier resources and were quite limited in quantity.
If he wanted immediate results, perhaps only tier-four poisons capable of threatening Nascent Soul True Persons could trigger a qualitative transformation in the Hundred Poisons King Gu!
Yet toxins of that caliber were exceptionally rare in this world.
Luo Chen could not rush it; he could only grind away patiently, bit by bit.
Even gilding the lily was still progress, and at the very least, he had found a clear path forward.
Throughout this process, Luo Chen's comprehension of natural spatial restrictions also grew increasingly profound.
He even used materials on hand to secretly craft several spatial treasures to verify what he had learned.
In a mist-shrouded mountain ravine, Luo Chen looked down at the storage pouch in his hand.
This was a spatial treasure he had crafted himself. The materials were not particularly expensive; what made it remarkable was the technique.
"No wonder storage pouches have always fetched such high prices."
"It was never the raw materials that were costly, but the craft of making them!"
Luo Chen sighed with emotion, then struck abruptly!
A hard squeeze!
*Pop!*
The storage pouch in his hand, filled with scattered spirit stones and worthless magical instruments, suddenly ruptured.
Luo Chen's eyes widened, staring intently at the point where the pouch had shattered.
A storage pouch contained its own internal space, interwoven with restrictions. Once broken, it collided and merged with the external space.
In the past, Luo Chen had witnessed this scenario many times.
After all, during battles, there were always occasions when an enemy's storage pouch was accidentally destroyed.
Back then, he had never paid close attention to the details, only noticing on occasion that certain spoils were missing when inspecting the loot after a fight.
Now, observing it carefully, he noticed an uncanny phenomenon.
As the internal space collapsed and clashed with the external environment, a multitude of spatial restrictions rippled across the void, constantly extinguishing and reforming like ripples on water.
Among the items hidden within the internal space, some were shredded to powder by the terrifying spatial restrictions, some miraculously survived, while others vanished mysteriously into the void, their whereabouts entirely unknown.
"Where did they go?"
Murmuring to himself, Luo Chen swept his powerful divine sense across the open mountain ravine, but found nothing.
Inside that storage pouch, aside from the worthless instruments, he had deliberately left behind something of value.
A green lamp!
Obtained from the Shadow Reflecting Sect, it had been stealthily scavenged for him by Black King.
By rank, it was at the level of a magic treasure.
Luo Chen had not bothered to study its specific functions, but he had left his divine sense imprint on it specifically to test his findings.
Yet right now, no matter how powerful his divine sense was, he could not locate that 'Form-Breaking Green Lamp' anywhere.
Frowning, Luo Chen shifted his focus back to the shifting spatial restrictions he had witnessed.
"A Nascent Soul's ability to shrink the earth to inches and flee a thousand li is essentially an instinctive utilization of spatial restrictions, a natural act of flowing alongside spatial changes."
"Yet Qingshuang defied common sense, physically traversing the void and moving like an apparition. That was clearly a method of rebelling against spatial order..."
"Shattering and reconstituting, slipping through the brief gaps while the spatial restrictions repair themselves to enter and exit at will."
"This heaven and earth is like an airtight net. A Nascent Soul is like a tiny shrimp, able to dart freely through the mesh. The reason my Hunyuan Cauldron can suppress Nascent Souls is that it forms its own independent space, blocking off those transit openings. But a great fish like Qingshuang breaks the nodes of the net and tears through with brute physical force, reaching a realm where the net breaks while the fish survives."
"Could that be it?"
Luo Chen wore a dazed expression, murmuring the question to himself.
No one could give him an answer; he could only rely on future study to verify his hypothesis.
From time to time, waves of stinging itch pulsed across his body, but Luo Chen suppressed them with his primary soul, refusing to let them disrupt his focus.
Ending his research for the day, Luo Chen headed back to his cave dwelling, his mind filled with questions.
Just as he arrived, he found Marquis Ziyi waiting outside.
Luo Chen paused, then set his thoughts aside and took the initiative to greet him.
"Apologies for keeping you waiting, Fellow Daoist."
Marquis Ziyi waved his hand nonchalantly. "Think nothing of it. As you well know, for those of us marked with the Fierce Peak Seal, our cultivation efficiency is nowhere near what it used to be. Rather than wasting effort on negligible gains, I might as well take a stroll."
Luo Chen smiled faintly. This was likely the shared grievance of most Nascent Soul cultivators in the Southern Border today!
Even though the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth had increased, they dared not cultivate freely.
To lift this restriction, they had to uncover its root source before they could ever return to their former carefree days.
After a brief chuckle, he asked, "Did you come today on important business?"
"Nothing urgent." Marquis Ziyi shook his head, then produced a jade slip. "Here, this is the intelligence you asked for."
Luo Chen's face lit up with delight. "Regarding the Demonic Heart Gu Emperor?"
"Part of it is, but not all. There are also updates gathered by the Fierce Peak Zombie Alliance through various channels regarding recent major events across the Mountain Sea Realm."
Luo Chen raised his brows and took the jade slip.
The very first glance made his heart clench.
"Over in the Eastern Desolation, fighting has finally broken out!"
Chapter 951