Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat point - Chapter 368
Chapter 368: Chapter 361: The Black Spider Gu, One of the Eight Great Poison Gu
“Come with me, you few!”
Qin Niu selected a group of bees, including War Bees, and led them to the backyard.
In the lotus pond, the Ice Lotus quietly bloomed underwater, seemingly preferring to admire its own solitude.
It always bloomed quietly, like an orchid in a deep valley.
“Wait here!”
Qin Niu directly took the Ice Lotus out of the water.
It didn’t need to be rooted in soil, so moving it was fairly convenient.
But there was always the saying: plants die when relocated, people thrive when they move.
The Ice Lotus was thriving underwater, and relocating it would certainly cause it some harm.
If someone else moved it, it could easily die.
However, Qin Niu didn’t need to worry about these things. If anything, he could just channel a strand of Everlasting Spring Technique into it when putting it back in the water, sufficient to rapidly restore it to its peak vitality.
“Come and collect pollen!”
Under Qin Niu’s command, over a dozen bees flew over.
But as soon as the Giant Wing Worker Bees and Green Ring Worker Bees got near the Ice Lotus, they were instantly frozen and fled. Only three War Bees managed to land on the Ice Lotus and burrow into its heart to collect pollen.
Seeing this, Qin Niu was overjoyed.
This looked promising.
He had acquired the Ice Lotus some time ago; why hadn’t he thought of letting the bees collect its pollen and make honey?
“All the War Bees, come and make honey for me.”
Qin Niu’s bee hive was located just above the granary, making it very convenient to summon them.
To date, he had accumulated 27 War Bees.
Originally there were 29, but two had died in battle.
War Bees were a scarce breed among bees.
Their numbers were even fewer than those of honey-making bees.
Their combat abilities were formidable; even at Grade Two, they could easily confront fierce hornets.
After being nurtured with Ancient Banyan Tree Blood, they advanced to Grade Three War Bees, and their abilities multiplied in every aspect.
Despite appearing rather useless against enemies’ insects during battles, they were hardly seen as significant players.
They could only be used for aerial reconnaissance, surveillance, and other support tasks that did not involve contact with enemy insects.
But this did not affect their status as the strongest bee species in the hive.
At this moment, they were the only ones brave enough to land on the Ice Lotus to collect honey.
Ordinary Worker Bees dared not land there at all.
They could not withstand the cold air emitted by the Ice Lotus.
Bees were very sensitive to cold.
In the cold winter, if it was freezing, you wouldn’t see them at all.
In cold weather, they would huddle together inside the hive for warmth.
If the temperature was too low, their movements would become very slow, or they might even freeze to death.
The War Bees, while collecting honey from the Ice Lotus, seemed not to last very long.
All 27 War Bees completed only one round of honey collection before escaping the Ice Lotus. When Qin Niu called them over again, he found a light layer of frost on their bodies and they were shivering from the cold.
It seems that he could let them collect pollen from the Ice Lotus only once a day at most.
“Rest well, all of you!”
Qin Niu gently stroked these pitiful little creatures.
He returned the Ice Lotus to the lotus pond and casually channeled a wisp of Everlasting Spring Technique into its plant body, helping it quickly recover its vitality.
After all this was done, he went back to his study and started reading Mei Qing’s Insect Control Experience.
It was a match for Elder Jiu Yin’s insect breeding notes.
Qin Niu realized that these Spirit Qi Realm experts, once they achieved a certain level of success, liked to summarize their experiences, recording the growth process of their Insect Control Techniques in detail.
This was an excellent habit.
A good memory is not as reliable as bad handwriting; it’s useful to have some insect breeding methods and processes written down for easy reference.
Not just them, Qin Niu had this habit as well.
An Insect Master must continuously summarize to grow.
He read very carefully, wanting to find textual records about the Black Spider Gu.
Luckily, Elder Mei had indeed recorded it all.
Unlike the Puppet Gu Immortal Manual obtained by Elder Jiu Yin, what Elder Mei obtained was only a fragmented manual. This caused Elder Mei to fumble his way in rearing and controlling Gu, like a little horse trying to find its way across a river.
Groping in the dark and learning as he went.
The Gu rearing technique obtained by Elder Mei specifically cultivated one of the eight great poisonous Gus, the spider Gu.
The Black Spider Gu that burrowed inside Qin Niu was one such spider Gu, but it was a half-finished product.
Even Elder Mei couldn’t fully control it.
After keeping this Gu inside his body, Elder Mei suffered daily from the agony of the Gu poison eroding his flesh. It also granted Elder Mei a special ability, which was immunity to all poisons.
Ever since he had the Black Spider Gu inside his body, whether Elder Mei was bitten by a venomous centipede, a poisonous snake, or if someone poisoned his food, he would not be harmed.
Moreover, he discovered that each time he was poisoned, the Black Spider Gu inside his body would grow stronger.
Latter on, Elder Mei even began to actively seek out venomous creatures to bite him.
The Nine Insect Gang had many powerful Insect Masters.
Finding some highly toxic creatures was incredibly easy.
However, as Elder Mei was bitten by more and more poisonous creatures, he gradually became frustrated by his inability to find even more potent poisons.
The Black Spider Gu inside him was very peculiar.
If he could find sufficiently venomous creatures to bite him, the Black Spider Gu would be very content.
If several days passed without finding more venomous creatures or snakes to bite him, the Black Spider Gu would become restless. It would attack its host, causing unbearable pain.
There was one time when Elder Mei couldn’t find a stronger poison for more than a month, and the Black Spider Gu nearly killed him.
That experience was the most deeply ingrained in Elder Mei’s memory.
In his notes on Gu rearing, he wrote that if he could start over, he would definitely not touch the spider Gu. The spider Gu inside his body was like a bottomless pit, never to be satisfied. Each time I was wounded by a poisonous creature, it would help me by absorbing all the poison from my body.
At the same time, it would grow stronger.
The next time, in order to satisfy it, I had to find a more poisonous creature to wound me.
I dare not imagine what would happen if one day I can no longer find a more lethal poison.
After finishing reading, Qin Niu felt a chill run down his spine.
It’s said that rearing Gu is a double-edged sword, it can harm others while potentially backfiring on oneself.
He hadn’t believed it before, but now he did.
What was more fatal was that the terrible Black Spider Gu had already burrowed into Qin Niu’s body. He had become the new host.
From now on, he would desperately search for more lethal poisons to harm himself, this vicious cycle would befall on Qin Niu.
“The malicious Elder Mei, even at the brink of death, planted such a curse inside me.”
Qin Niu finally understood what Elder Mei’s eerie smile before dying meant.
Elder Mei was certain that there would come a day when Qin Niu could no longer satisfy the Black Spider Gu.
And then, he would surely die.
And his death would be particularly tragic.
“No wonder that sending so many Dark Poison Ants to bite Elder Mei had no effect. No wonder Elder Mei didn’t carry any Detoxification Pills on him.”
Many doubts were cleared up in his mind.
“If Elder Mei could transfer this Black Spider Gu onto me, can’t I also transfer it to someone else?”
Qin Niu began to ponder.
It wasn’t that he was evil.
But it stemmed from his instinct to survive.
A fellow cultivator may die, but not oneself; such is the essence of all cultivators.
Being compassionately foolish in the world of cultivation would only lead one to their own demise.
With an agitated heart, he continued reading this cultivation experience notebook.
Soon, his hope turned into complete despair.
The notes on Gu rearing clearly stated that the Black Spider Gu was one of the world’s eight great poisonous Gus. This Black Spider Gu was a half-finished product that Elder Mei had cultivated based on the incomplete Gu-rearing secret technique, supplemented by his own Insect Control Technique.
To put it more bluntly, it would be more appropriate to call it a problematic Gu.
Only when the host dies can they transfer it to someone else just before death. Otherwise, there was absolutely no way to get rid of it.
Elder Mei had thought of countless methods but none were successful.
