Immortal Reincarnation Tribulation

Chapter 144 Refining the Mysterious Wood Silkworm

Of course, Du Fan was also greatly impressed by the amazing supernatural powers that the Xuanmu Silkworm had just displayed.

If this silkworm were to suddenly strike an enemy while concealing its form, it would likely be too much for even a cultivator at the seventh level of the Qi Refining stage to withstand.

It should be noted that only a powerful divine sense at the Foundation Establishment stage can barely sense the existence of this silkworm.

The drawbacks of the Xuanmu Silkworm are also obvious. The strange silk seems to consume a lot of the silkworm's energy, and it is obviously not something that can be released casually. Judging from the current situation, the silkworm only has the power to strike once in a short period of time.

Regardless, refining this silkworm is something that must be done immediately. Even a slight delay would increase the danger for Du Fan.

Du Fan's expression was solemn. He took a deep breath, sat cross-legged in front of the Xuanmu Silkworm, and, following the instructions on the jade slip, quickly cast various spells with his hands, which then entered the Xuanmu Silkworm's body, stirring up circles of light blue spiritual energy patterns.

After a short while, the Xuanmu Silkworm was covered by more than a dozen layers of spiritual patterns. At this moment, Du Fan's eyes suddenly flashed, and he bit his finger, spilling a drop of blood.

Du Fan separated a wisp of divine thought, leaving a divine imprint in the drop of blood essence, and then accurately shot it into the spirit pattern.

The originally light blue spirit patterns turned purplish-red instantly after the addition of that drop of essence blood.

A moment later, the purplish-red spiritual patterns vibrated violently. After a period of intense turbulence, they suddenly stopped, transformed into a vortex, and began to spin rapidly. They then flowed down a spot on the silkworm's body and quickly entered the body of the Xuanmu Silkworm.

Only then did Du Fan let out a heavy sigh, looking somewhat tired. However, he still carefully got up, took two steps back, and looked at the unconscious Xuanmu Silkworm with a wary expression, not daring to be careless in the slightest.

Half an hour later, the Xuanmu silkworm moved its body, showing signs of waking up.

Du Fan's spirits lifted, and he became extremely cautious, staring intently at the silkworm. He felt a bit nervous and took a step forward with his right leg, ready to run away at any moment.

After another cup of tea's time, the Xuanmu Silkworm slowly opened its eyes, a fleeting look of confusion before it fluttered its wings and instantly hovered in mid-air, its eyes gleaming with ferocity and its mouth baring fangs as it stared at Du Fan.

Du Fan's heart sank. Just as he was about to run away, his expression changed. He scanned the silkworm with his divine sense and found that it did not intend to attack immediately. Moreover, the crimson light in its eyes flickered, as if it were struggling.

Du Fan was overjoyed, knowing that the refining technique had worked. He temporarily abandoned his plan to run away and decided to observe for a while longer. At the same time, his eyes flashed with a strange light, revealing an extremely strong look of anticipation.

After a few breaths, the Xuanmu Silkworm's struggle gradually weakened, the fierce light in its eyes began to dim, and its mouth slowly closed, concealing its two menacing fangs that gleamed with a cold light.

At this moment, the silkworm's gaze toward Du Fan was no longer one of intense hostility, but rather one of bewilderment and curiosity. With a flutter of its wings, it slowly flew toward Du Fan.

Du Fan was naturally terrified at the sight, but he made up his mind and did not dodge, because he did not feel any killing intent from the Xuanmu Silkworm, and decided to take a gamble.

After flying to within a foot of Du Fan, the Xuanmu Silkworm stopped there, not moving forward an inch, as if it dared not act on its own without Du Fan's command.

Du Fan's heart stirred, and with a surge of divine sense, he connected with the divine imprint left inside the silkworm's body. The silkworm immediately reacted, sending Du Fan a signal indicating its willingness to submit, and uttering a silent "Master."

Du Fan's face lit up with joy. He stretched out his palm and commanded, "Come here."

After receiving Du Fan's affirmation, the Xuanmu Silkworm seemed quite happy. It opened its mouth and made a series of "hissing" sounds, then flapped its wings and flew into Du Fan's palm. Its two antennae on its head swayed affectionately from side to side, as if trying to please him.

Du Fan smiled slightly, looking at the adorable little guy in front of him, and nodded with great satisfaction.

Immediately, the two began a long communication. Du Fan learned from the Xuanmu Silkworm that during the time he was away, the silkworm had automatically advanced to the next level after waking up for some unknown reason.

The abilities of concealment and silk-spinning were developed after the silkworm advanced in rank; it did not possess these two abilities before.

Du Fan also learned that the strength of this Xuanmu Silkworm could be improved through cultivation, but the method of cultivation was somewhat special, leaving Du Fan speechless: it was called slumber.

In addition, the Xuanmu silkworm also said that it could quickly improve its cultivation by consuming hollow mulberry leaves, which would even greatly help its subsequent advancement. However, according to the silkworm, the leaves on the hollow mulberry branch were not tasty.

After a moment's thought, Du Fan had a guess. It was probably because the hollow mulberry branch was dry and its leaves were turning yellow. If he could cultivate these hollow mulberry leaves well and make them vigorous, they should be able to meet the requirements of the Xuanmu silkworm.

Finally, at Du Fan's command, the Xuanmu Silkworm reluctantly left Du Fan's palm, returned to the soil, and lay down at the base of the hollow mulberry branch to continue its slumber.

"This Xuanmu Silkworm is different from magical beasts. Its cultivation level cannot be classified according to the level of magical beasts. Instead, it is somewhat similar to the demonic beasts recorded in relevant classics. Therefore, the level of this silkworm should be that of a low-level demonic beast, corresponding to the Qi Refining stage of human cultivators."

Du Fan's eyes flashed, and he seemed to be deep in thought.

"However, there is no accurate ranking system for demonic beasts below the high level. It is impossible to determine the exact cultivation level and strength of this Xuanmu Silkworm for the time being. Well, this matter cannot be rushed and is not too important."

Du Fan sighed softly, glanced at the hollow mulberry branch, then composed himself and returned to the cultivation room in the pavilion.

Next, Du Fan sat on the futon in the cultivation room, and after taking half a bottle of Qi-refining essential oil, he began to cultivate.

During his time in Hundred Flowers Valley, Du Fan had already completed the stabilization period of the fourth level of Qi Refining, but even so, the Qi Refining Essential Oil had little effect on him now.

Out of curiosity, he took out a Qi Refining Pill and refined it within his body. Its weak medicinal power vanished instantly, like mud flowing into the sea, without causing even the slightest ripple.

"Even if I drink Qi-refining oil like water during my future cultivation, it will probably be ten years before I can advance to the next level..." Du Fan sighed, shaking his head and smiling bitterly.

In fact, from Elder Peony's jade slip, Du Fan already knew that not only him, but also all cultivators in the Qi Refining stage had reached a minor bottleneck at the fourth level.

Besides these, there are the sixth and seventh levels, which are minor bottlenecks at this stage. Then there is the major bottleneck for those at the Great Perfection of the Qi Refining stage who are trying to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Once one's cultivation reaches these levels, even cultivators with good spiritual roots will experience slow progress in their cultivation, relying on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for breathing exercises.

For most normal cultivators, this would be considered the fourth level of a bottleneck. For someone like Du Fan with a useless spiritual root, the difficulty is unimaginable...

Most importantly, there are no pills in the cultivation world of the Nine Provinces that correspond to the fourth level of the Qi Refining stage...

Thinking of this, Du Fan frowned deeply. But no matter what, cultivation still had to continue. Ten years it is. If anyone was to blame, it was only his own terrible aptitude...

In the following days, in addition to cultivating at a snail's pace, Du Fan also had to regularly operate, adjust, and collect the first-level ripening powder. He could never have too much of this ripening powder, as it was essential for both the production of special fertilizers and the future refining of pills and essential oils.

However, what comforted him somewhat was that his talent for cultivating magic remained sharp.

One day, feeling extremely depressed, he spent two hours mastering the only spell he hadn't cultivated to level two, which was also the most useless spell: the Cloud and Rain Spell.

Regardless, Du Fan has made up his mind to become a strongman. No matter how hard the cultivation is or how little progress he makes, he will still grit his teeth and persevere.

It wasn't until more than twenty days later, when the monster manure buried in the garden had fermented sufficiently, that he temporarily stopped cultivating and began researching the formulation of a special fertilizer.

In the following period, he took out some of the monster's excrement and brought it to the laboratory. Using a first-level ripening powder and with the help of a set of instruments, he continuously mixed and adjusted the two. Finally, after seven days, he tested and found the optimal ratio.

Thus, the special-effect fertilizer was finally born!

As to its actual effect, it naturally needs to be tested. However, even if it is not good, it will certainly not be worse than strong chemical fertilizer. Therefore, Du Fan took out all the fermented monster manure and directly formulated it into a large amount of special chemical fertilizer.

He then removed all the original high-efficiency fertilizer from the medicinal herb field in one go and replaced it with newly developed special-effect fertilizer. Only then did he put down his work, dive into the spirit pond to wash himself, and finally return to his cultivation room to continue cultivating.

……

Time flies, and two months have passed just like that.

Du Fan, who was meditating, slowly opened his eyes. Suddenly, his expression changed, and he murmured, "Huh? Miss Chen has been in seclusion for three months, hasn't she? Why haven't we heard any news of her successfully establishing her foundation? Could it be... that she failed...?"

"No way. If even she can't reach the Foundation Establishment stage, then there aren't many Foundation Establishment experts left in this world. Could it be... that she has already secretly emerged from seclusion?"

Du Fan's expression was somewhat uncertain. After pondering for a moment, he got up and summoned an inner sect servant, sending him to gather information.

He himself stepped into the medicinal field and began to check the growth of the medicinal herbs, using this as a basis to determine the accurate effect of the special fertilizer.

(I finished writing this ahead of time and uploaded it now. There's still one more chapter to go.)