Insect Harmony Mantra (Level 7, 2/10000)

  At the seventh level, the Insect Harmony Mantra gave Lu Qingshan a big surprise. Simply by chanting it, he could temper his upper aperture and eventually open it fully. It replaced the Blood Seas Inner Force's method entirely, although the two could still combine for even greater speeds.

  It was his greatest boon in a situation where he had no viable enemies to battle. Sometimes, parts of the greater swarm drew near his area and forced them to hide within the insect-repelling phenomenon. He couldn’t afford to provoke them. But now, that had all changed.

  Lu Qingshan found the crystal cicada completely enthralled by his murmurs. He didn't know when it had entered the area, but right at the moment it was sitting frozen by his shoulder.

  A tinge of spiritual connection allowed him to gauge what it was feeling. The crystal cicada was feeling…longing? Lu Qingshan turned his focus to each of the other insects in the area.

  His Viscera Tempering Bloodseeker Fly felt hunger, and the Berserk Bug felt rage, but that was obvious. The Bloodsense Bug’s main emotion was thirst, somehow different from hunger. What surprised him was that the human-faced spiders he’d left outside held a range of different emotions. They varied from joy, to sorrow, in a spectrum encompassing a host of a myriad human emotions, albeit muted. He had some crawl towards him, testing if he could bypass the restrictions.

  And it was just as he thought — the Insect Harmony Mantra prevented the insects from falling into the demonic cultivators’ arrangements. The spiders skittered up and down the trees, remaining under his visible control.

  The range of the mantra’s effects had also increased once again. Another swarm of demonized insects was coming, and this time he was fully ready for them.

  Lu Qingshan looked towards the mountain. Now that they could resist the control of the demonic cultivators' spell, perhaps it was possible to awaken the insects from their demonized state.

  He waited until they were right at the entrance to his secluded spot. His low murmurs seemed to attract some attention. As the rest of the insects slowed down, a little confused, seven of them splintered off from the rest of the swarm to head towards him.

  Lu Qingshan guided the giant insects deep inside, where he and the three cultivators were waiting with a large jar at their side. In the past two months, he’d forced them to learn the inner workings of the artifact. They had complained — something about how this was a heretical path, unsupported by other cultivators — but eventually realized it was the only way to survive.

  With spirit qi, the artifact could finally display its true powers. Lu Qingshan lacked the ability to work with insects larger than a certain size. If he had to do this alone, he would have to get the demonized insects to fight each other on the surface, and that was just plain inefficient.

  The gu jar meant he could complete a successful refinement far faster than he expected. Not months to experiment with Daoist Qingxu’s methods to figure out a way to incorporate the procedure into the area, but days.

  Song Lin activated the artifact. The seven insects shrank slightly and were pulled into the mouth opening of the jar. Throughout the process, none of them struggled.

  Strangely, these insects provided him with no emotional feedback through the spiritual connection. Not even hunger. He’d have to test regular insects to see if this was normal, but even the Bloodseeker Flies felt hunger.

  Lu Qingshan was able to catch several more insects from the swarm and bring them into the jar as well. He’d have to repeat this several times over the next few days. The recipe outlined in Daoist Qingxu’s journal required

  Most rearers of gu worked primarily with poison. Have a hundred lethal venomous insects crawl into a jar, and battle one another to produce a venom above all the others. But that was just the beginning of the profession.

  Daoist Qingxu’s research took it a step further. With enough monstrous insects, they didn’t need to be venomous. The process would imbue the survivor with a newborn venom, more spiritually powerful than before. It depended on how powerful the insects placed inside were, though.

  Lu Qingshan suspected the entire arrangement of demonized insects were a part of Daoist Qingxu’s plan. But the prerequisite was that the gu breeder had to have the ability to control the demonized insects. Not just repel them.

  Over the next week, Lu Qingshan stacked a hundred insects into the jar. His Insect Harmony Mantra was far from the limit, however. He could continue. Especially since they became more docile once they were in the jar.

  Even better was that his upper aperture was continuing to improve. Perhaps it would only be a few more weeks before he could attempt opening his upper aperture. A major benefit of the process was that his senses began to improve even further, and Lu Qingshan was able to discern the minute changes in the air.

  The demonic cultivators moved with greater frequency. It was as if something had lit a fire underneath them, forcing them to move around the area day and night. With Lu Qingshan’s enhanced senses, he was able to get everyone to hide, ignoring the next batch of demonized insects. They waited out the moment and later emerged to find all the insects dead, their insides burning with swathes of fire.

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  A Qi Refinement realm cultivator had made a move. But Lu Qingshan remained calm, waiting out the frenzy with the other three cultivators. His points continued to tick up slowly.

  The Golden Drop Inner Force reached level four during this time. His small droplet of golden internal force swelled into large beads. Each one carried the essence of metal, and all of them combined could imbue his entire arm with a razor sharpness. He lightly swung his hand, and a stone was split into half.

  More months passed before the demonic cultivators recovered from their fury, though there was still a lingering tension in the air. What had happened? All Lu Qingshan knew was that they hadn’t gone deep into the forest for a while now. Perhaps other immortal cultivators had formed an alliance to try and enter the fog wall, forcing them into battle.

  Now was not the time to act. Lu Qingshan glanced over at the gu jar filled with shrunken demonized insects. They were behaving more skittishly as of recently, and would likely break free from his control. The jar had reached its limit.

  Lu Qingshan had not stopped chanting the Insect Harmony Mantra this whole time, even during his sleep. The three cultivators had long learned he had a special ability. But it wasn’t as if they could do anything about it — they were tied too deeply with his chariot.

  On a clear, warm day, Lu Qingshan sensed the time was right. His mind felt full for the lack of a better term. Three days had passed without a single further improvement to his senses.

  He closed his eyes. The upper aperture was located near his brow, accessible through the brain. Failure meant death.

  But his spirituality had been tempered to a level beyond the reach of most martial artists. He sent his primordial energy through his body. It rushed up into his brow and swirled around, attempting to locate the aperture.

  His body began to heat up rapidly, a backlash of the process. Soon he found it, and he poured his internal energy into that empty space. A very small clink was heard, and then Lu Qingshan fell into a stupor.

  His mind had expanded to a higher level. Each of his senses became razor-sharp, and Lu Qingshan knew the demonized insect swarm was coming once again. But this time, he could tell which insects were in this batch. The skittering legs, movements of antennae, even the small, unique sounds they made — all of it helped him identify what was happening.

  Lu Qingshan opened his eyes. He reached out to the gu jar. It was time to begin the refinement process.

  “Make sure no one enters,” he said to the An siblings. “Song Lin, come here.”

  To use some of the features in the artifact, spirit qi was necessary. With the demonic cultivators stirred up, they likely wouldn’t have the chance to run far enough to evade their detection methods. This round of gu refinement had the chance to draw the attention of every demonic cultivator in the vicinity.

  Lu Qingshan hoped they were too busy to notice a stray surge of energy right under their noses. Otherwise, a life and death battle would begin.

  He released his hold on the demonized insects inside the gu jar. In an instant, a berserk rage overtook them, and the jar began shaking rapidly.

  That wasn’t how it worked. Instead, Lu Qingshan turned them calm again, and then waited until they were all in the same space. Then he melted away the feeling that connected each insect with the rest of the swarm.

  He released his hold again. The insects turned wrathful again, but this time, it was against each other. The jar shook, but managed to withstand the damage without all the insects uniting to attack it.

  Song Lin began using his spiritual energy to monitor the refinement process. Each injection into the jar was carefully placed to maximize the potential of each demonized insect, slightly healing their wounds just to keep them fighting for a few moments longer.

  Torn insect limbs, fleshy masses, and blood poured into the jar's open receptacles. They were ground into paste by Song Lin's spiritual qi, merging together in a putrid mixture. As more and more insects were ripped apart, the pile of sludge began to build up.

  Fire-element spirit qi flowed into the jar and activated a slow flame. The mixture started to bubble. Dozens of murky colors and turbid shades began to meld together, slowly transforming into a single tinge of dull green.

  Lu Qingshan gathered the human-faced spiders, looking for the one most likely to survive the concoction. In Daoist Qingxu's recipe, there was a chance of failure. Often, it was the insect that couldn't survive the process, and so a proper rearer of gu had to raise the correct insect and keep good details about their condition.

  His Insect Harmony Mantra gave him the ability to identify with an insect's emotions, and right now he could count on one hand the number of spiders giving off a strong survivor's instinct. It was the same feeling he vividly remembered when he fought demonic cultivators — especially the two that slew Yan Xi. Lu Qingshan chose the one he resonated with the most, a scrappy young spider with a missing eye.

  He let it crawl onto his arm and walk into the mixture itself. For a moment, the spider's emotions remained stable. Then they twisted into sheer agony, almost making Lu Qingshan flinch from the feedback. But he quickly adjusted to the spiritual connection.

  As the insect writhed inside the mixture, a scream rang out from An Xin. She was clutching her eye — a needle-like spike had pierced through the socket, only barely missing her vitals.

  "What do we have here?" a twisted voice said behind them. "A few lost lambs?" It laughed.

  "Sister!" screamed An Zichen. He mustered up the strength to cast a spell, only for the newcomer to bat it away with a single hand. Another spike soared through the air and barely missed him.

  "Scram!" the demonic cultivator laughed wildly. Three more spikes emerged from the earth and shot towards them like rockets. They burned with a flame this time, and even Lu Qingshan felt the danger.

  But he just couldn't bring himself to turn away from the jar. Something big was happening, and he refused to miss it.

  Song Lin barely absorbed the blow. An Zichen stumbled and fell, blood in his arms. He had successfully shielded his sister from the attack, but at what cost? The two of them were going to die and they knew it.

  Lu Qingshan only moved to deflect the projectile coming his way. Then he froze while the noise faded away. His senses were telling him the process had finished. A new spiritual insect, free of pain, birthed deep inside the jar.

  He whispered the Insect Harmony Mantra, ordering the spider to carry itself out and burrow right underneath their feet. The Eight Thorns Spider — his newest weapon. Ambusher, and supreme poisoner.

  Lu Qingshan finally turned around.