Chapter 641: End of the Divine Pattern

"How many resources can a mere Qi Refining Realm disciple possibly consume? Just cultivate her in secret. Back when Winged Serpent Village had so many saintesses, Old Ghost Qin chose none of them and instead picked Mute Girl. Perhaps she might become the link between us and Old Ghost Qin."

Cui Xuanzi waved his hand, signaling Junior Brother Tong to withdraw.

The secret chamber fell into stillness. Cui Xuanzi summoned his life-bound insect gu, a scorpion the size of his palm.

The scorpion was pure white, its skin smooth and glossy like warm jade. Its venomous tail, however, shimmered faintly, almost illusory.

This was the Venomous Illusory-Tailed Scorpion, one of Five-Insect Sect’s most expertly cultivated insects.

Cui Xuanzi gently stroked the scorpion. A moment later, a smaller Venomous Illusory-Tailed Scorpion crawled out from the belly of the larger one and affectionately rubbed itself against his fingertip.

Its presence was much weaker, only at the peak of the first metamorphosis.

Looking at the two scorpions, one large and one small, Cui Xuanzi sighed softly.

Both of them were his life-bound insect gu.

Back then, when Cui Xuanzi used the blood refinement method to forge his life-bound insect gu, he discovered that the egg contained a pair of identical twins.

There were two methods for blood-refining an insect gu.

One involved using a mature insect, which, after blood refinement, would revert into its larval form regardless of its previous level.

This method had a low success rate because mature insects fiercely resisted. The stronger the insect, the greater the resistance. The cultivator had to suppress it with their own power. If the insect was stronger than the cultivator, failure was inevitable.

However, this method had one advantage. Once refined into a life-bound insect gu, it would be easier for it to undergo future metamorphoses.

The second method was to use an egg from the beginning. This was the path most cultivators chose.

In the case of refining an egg, having twins or multiple larvae was not uncommon. One must always choose the strongest and discard the rest, since a cultivator could only have one life-bound insect gu.

But for some unknown reason, Cui Xuanzi somehow muddled his way into refining both scorpions into life-bound insect gu, ending up with a pair of twin gu.

This delighted him beyond measure. His own talent was not particularly outstanding, so gaining a second life-bound insect gu meant twice the potential combat power, even though the difficulty in nurturing them also doubled.

Knowing this anomaly was unique, he kept it a closely guarded secret, never revealing it to others. Only his master knew.

During the Qi Refining Realm, Cui Xuanzi relied on the two gu to achieve exceptional combat strength. He earned numerous military merits and was soon given the sect’s focused support, allowing him to reach the Foundation Building Realm in short order.

Yet after reaching the Foundation Building Realm and attempting to improve his life-bound insect gu, he discovered that one had successfully undergone metamorphosis while the other had stagnated. It could not advance into the second metamorphosis, no matter what he tried.

Despite this, Cui Xuanzi never gave up. He poured vast resources into the stagnant scorpion, but nothing changed.

In the end, he had to admit that this scorpion had entirely lost the potential to undergo further metamorphosis. Perhaps this was the price of having twin gu.

Now, the second insect gu was useless yet difficult to discard.

***

Amid countless ravines and stretches of poisonous miasma, in a place rarely visited by man, a lone figure weaved effortlessly through the fog and forest, more agile than any bird.

"This is the place."

Qin Sang landed lightly on a boulder and looked up at the towering mountain ahead.

At its peak, a ring-shaped cloud barrier sealed the summit throughout the year, never dispersing.

It was said that an ancient hall stood atop the mountain, and someone had once obtained an inheritance from within.

Qin Sang had already left the Bear Mountain region for nearly two months. It had been over half a year since he first awakened while drifting across the water.

Over the past two months, he had scoured the surrounding danger zones and hidden realms.

Other than one place that was far too perilous to explore, he had visited every rumored site Five-Insect Sect had managed to learn about, regardless of whether the rumors had any substance.

This mountain was the last on the list.

Still, he had found no trace of an ancient teleportation array.

Though he had not reached the core of that perilous site, he could already tell that the chance of it housing a teleportation array was extremely slim.

That was not to say his journey had been fruitless. He had harvested a few spiritual herbs useful for Foundation Building cultivators, making the trip worthwhile.

"This is the last one. If there is nothing here either, I will shelve the search for now and head deeper into Xijiang to hunt for insects."

Qin Sang murmured to himself, making up his mind. "I wonder how things are progressing on Five-Insect Sect’s end. Once I choose my life-bound insect gu, I will return to Bear Mountain, then leave Xijiang. Cultivating while searching for news of Senior Qingzhu outside may not be a bad plan. With a talent like Senior Qingzhu’s, there must be some trace left behind."

With a tap of his foot, Qin Sang soared like an eagle toward the summit.

"It seems to be a unique barrier of the witch race. If only I knew the divine patterns of the witch race, breaking through this wind-cloud barrier would be much easier."

Qin Sang hovered in mid-air, gazing at the cloud ring as he contemplated a way to break through.

By now, he had gained considerable understanding of the witch race, and the mysteries of their divine patterns were finally becoming clear to him.

The divine patterns of the witch cultivators, at most, were only slightly stronger than the peak Qi Refining Realm spells. They were only useful during the Qi Refining Realm and the early stage of the Foundation Building Realm. Beyond that, their path came to a complete and absolute halt.

Utterly and thoroughly severed.

Countless brilliant and gifted individuals throughout the entire witch race had spent their entire lives studying divine patterns with single-minded devotion, hoping to uncover a way forward and reconstruct the Great Dao of divine patterns. Some among them were even grandmasters at the Spiritual Infant Realm. Yet all had failed.

Once they reached the Foundation Building Realm, witch cultivators had no choice but to abandon divine patterns.

There were even sect disciples who, believing they had great potential, refused to practice divine patterns during the Qi Refining Realm so as not to waste time.

Qin Sang had once believed that divine patterns, being a power unique to the witch race and deeply intertwined with their bloodline, were perhaps even more orthodox than life-bound insect gu.

Now it seemed that many of the wise elders of the witch race had held thoughts similar to his.

Unfortunately, the path had been severed.

Summoning the flying yaksha for vigilance, Qin Sang retrieved the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions. The three banners formed an array, drawing the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells into a single blazing sphere, which he hurled at the cloud ring.

Boom!

The black flames shot into the ring of clouds like a drop of ink falling on white paper, quickly spreading outward in a blur of darkness.

The cloud ring trembled violently. Where the flames struck, the clouds rapidly dispersed and thinned.

The flying yaksha and Qin Sang pierced through the barrier one after the other. What greeted them was a clear view of the ancient hall atop the mountain, bathed in sunlight and gleaming with golden radiance.

An hour later, Qin Sang stepped out of the ancient hall, shaking his head.

Who knew how many people had already visited this place? The treasures had long been taken, and the interior was completely bare.

Having returned empty-handed once more, Qin Sang officially entered the heart of Xijiang and began his journey in search of spiritual insects.

***

One month later.

In the middle of a vast wilderness, wild grass reached as high as a grown man.

Qin Sang held a geomantic map in hand. He had already searched through the plains for several days, trying to locate the entrance to an underground cavern.

The geomantic map only contained rough markings of spiritual insect nests. Most of the time, it was based on sightings of such insects in the area. The map merely indicated a general location; few had ever seen the nest with their own eyes.

On top of that, the terrain might have changed with time.

To pinpoint the exact location, he would have to spend considerable effort.