TFSRSO Chapter 157 (Gu Girl 7)

In a blink of an eye, two months passed. When the man appeared once again, Lin Dan was sitting in a cave grinding medicine. Yu Yeying didn't want to be alone with Zhou Nan, so she followed her out and curled up next to her. From time to time, she would hand Lin Dan some medicinal materials.

The man pinched a handful of medicinal powder and smelled it, raising his eyebrows and asking, "Is this Yinchong powder?" (T/N: raws say 引虫散, basically attracting bug powder)

If a Gu master wants to refine Gu, he must first catch the insects. This Yinchong powder is a kind of medicinal powder that will attract nearby poisonous insects once ignited in a copper furnace. That was how its name was brought about. The man had also studied Gu (T/N: raws say witchcraft but Gu makes more sense) before, so he naturally knew how to prepare this powder, but Lin Dan's formula was different from all the formulas he knew.

He lived for hundreds of years and was sealed for hundreds of years. When he reappeared in this world, everything had changed. Science and technology had advanced, and the country was prosperous, but Xuanmen was declining with each generation, reaching the end of Dharma (T/N: end of the Dharma era is the period of Dharma destruction a.k.a. they're not doing well). It was in this environment that Lin Dan started practicing. The inheritance she received was incomplete, so how could she embark on the correct path of cultivation? Thinking this, the man chuckled but didn't say anything. If Lin Dan was too lazy to talk to him, why should he help her answer her questions? He wanted to see what she could come up with on her own.

When the man disappeared, Lin Dan never thought about it. So when the man suddenly reappeared, she naturally didn't think much of it. She didn't even glance at the other party. She just pounded all the medicinal ingredients into powder according to the proportion, poured in her blood, and kneaded them into small pills.

Yu Yeying wanted to help her pound the medicine but was firmly refused. She could only hug her knees and shrink into a corner.

Lin Dan was afraid that she would think weirdly, that she disliked her, so she gave the refined Gu to her for safekeeping. At first, Yu Yeying was afraid of these bugs, but now, she can hold them in her hands and play with them, even showing a look of love. These are Lin Dan's treasures. Since Lin Dan likes them, she would naturally like them too. She didn't want to dig into Lin Dan's identity, nor was she curious about what she was doing. Insects were scary, but she knew that nothing was scarier than the human heart.

Lin Dan rolled ten pills into a small porcelain bottle and handed them to Yu Yeying per usual. Yu Yeying immediately held the bottle tightly, as if afraid that someone else would snatch it away.

Then, Lin Dan took out another medicinal material and beat it into powder.

The man looked at her quietly, his eyebrows rising higher and higher. He could tell from the smell that this medicine was also Yinchong powder, as several of the main ingredients had the effect of attracting poisonous insects. However, the adjuvant (T/N: This is like a side ingredient, something to enhance the effects of another medicine ) was different from the rest. In other words, this little girl was making two brand-new Yinchong powders. He didn't know if they had any effects yet, but she was very creative. She was studying the inheritance left by her ancestors, yet also finding a new, unique path of her own at the same time.

Putting aside the matters, her character alone was extremely extraordinary. The man looked at Lin Dan with concentration, and there was a hint of appreciation in his emotionless eyes.

Lin Dan was completely undisturbed by the human and the ghost next to her. After grinding the Yinchong powder, she started preparing the venom. The first step in refining Gu is catching insects, the second cultivating them, the third taming them, and finally controlling and raising them. Cultivation is the most basic, but most important step. In this step, the Gu master must feed the Gu with venom and her blood. The more potent the venom and the more powerful the blood, the more powerful the Gu would be.

At this point, Lin Dan could completely put aside her inheritance manual and use only her intuition to concoct the venom.

A large part of Gu art is dedicated to using herbs and poisons. This was exactly what she was best at, so she learned almost instantaneously. With a slap on her head (T/N: idek it was on the raws), she could instantly improve her ancestors' prescriptions. In the handbook, there was only one formula for Yinchong Powder, but she invented dozens of them. With her extensive knowledge of poison, she could easily concoct a thousand types of Gu. Her brain was like a treasure house, constantly providing her with pharmacological knowledge.

She put different-colored juices and several herbs into the pot and simmered them on low heat. A strong and pungent odor instantly spread through the cave, making it hard to breathe.

The man, being a ghost after all, had a strong resistance to foul smells. However, he still frowned and knelt down to identify the poison's ingredients. As for Yu Yeying, she was a human being, yet she sat calmly next to Lin Dan as if her sense of smell had long ceased to function.

The poisonous effect began. Lin Dan casually picked up a small wooden stick, and the moment it came into contact with the liquid inside, a series of sizzling sounds came out. The section of the stick immersed in the venom instantly melted, leaving only a charred trace. Yet Lin Dan remained unfazed, pulling another iron rod from her bag.

Yu Yeying watched quietly with a serene expression, not asking a single question.

Lin Dan inserted the iron rod into the pot, but it only lasted five seconds longer than the wooden stick. Fortunately, the pot left by her ancestors seemed to be made of the shell of some insect and could contain the most powerful poisons in the world. Otherwise, Lin Dan wouldn't have found a suitable tool to make her poisons.

She rapidly stirred the bubbling venom, then tossed the half-melted iron rod aside, removed the firewood, and waited for the venom to cool.

The man was originally unimpressed by this transparent venom, but after witnessing its power, his face was filled with astonishment. The corrosiveness alone was already so strong; one could only imagine how toxic it was. If this venom were used to cultivate Gu, the results would be...

The man shook his head, his eyes full of interest. In just two months, the little girl had grown enough to make him suspicious. If she had been born a thousand years earlier, in the same era as him, and learned a more complete witchcraft, she might have become his greatest opponent.

What a pity, really... The man sighed and urged, "Both the Yinchong powder and the venom are prepared. Why not try their effects?" He was eager to see what the young girl had learned in the past two months.

Lin Dan turned a deaf ear to his words and began to methodically clean the various tools: she wiped the medicine bowl clean, neatly tied up unused herbs and put them into a sheepskin pouch, and cleaned the extra porcelain bottles with a cloth-wrapped stick.

Her movements were leisurely, contrasting with the man's eagerness.

The man chuckled at Lin Dan's indifference. Since Yu Yeying couldn't see him, he stretched out his arms to wrap Lin Dan in his embrace. His exceptionally handsome face drew close, and he blew into her ear with a warm smile. His deep and resonant laughter could captivate any woman's soul. (T/N: bro what a creep. y'all readers can report him to the police)

However, Lin Dan was not one of those women. She waved her hand around her ear as if shooing away a fly, dispersing the man's illusory figure. The man who had regrouped his body, chuckled slowly as if he encountered something amusing.

"Yeying, I'm going to start catching insects. You wait up there," Lin Dan pointed to a stone platform in the cave.

"Okay." Yu Yeying climbed onto the platform, watching Lin Dan quietly.

Once she was seated, Lin Dan placed a pill into the copper furnace and lit it. A faint green smoke spread in the air. Outside the silent cave, rustling sounds could be heard, as countless poisonous insects rolled in like a tide, then split into several streams and all entered the copper furnace, beginning a deadly battle.

The man, who had also refined gu before, was supposed to be accustomed to such scenes. However, at this moment, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. He just realized that all the venomous insects attracted by Lin Dan were ants, without any miscellaneous species. How was this possible? The fragrance of the Yinchong powder should lure insects of all species.

Lin Dan, on the other hand, found nothing strange. After the battle ended, she captured the only surviving black ant in a small bottle and then threw another pill into the copper furnace. The insects attracted this time were all centipedes, which turned into a snow-white Gu.

She threw another pill, attracting nearby scorpions, refining a blood-red Gu. In this way, two more times, she refined a golden toad and a red spider, collecting five types of poisonous gu.

It wasn't until then that the man saw a clue and couldn't help applauding, "Genius, what a genius! Your Yinchong powder is categorized, unlike the ancient method, which can only attract poisons indiscriminately. With this, you can catch whatever insects you want for refining, without having to search all over the mountains and plains for them."

In just two months, she had mastered her inheritance and then independently created her own Gu art. Although he already held Lin Dan in high regard, he couldn't help but feel amazed. This little girl was extraordinary. Once she left this mountain and ventured into the outside world, she would definitely stir up a storm.

Yu Yeying witnessed these wonders with her own eyes, yet there was no sign of fear on her face Lin Dan was mysterious, yet formidable, making her feel increasingly secure and reluctant to distance herself or leave Lin Dan. Whatever Lin Dan wanted to do, she would support it wholeheartedly.

"Lin Dan, can I come down now?" she asked eagerly.

"Come down." Lin Dan waved and said, "Take out the Gu I gave you a few days ago."

"Okay." Yu Yeying quickly jumped down from the platform, ran to Lin Dan's side, and took out the small porcelain bottle from her backpack, neatly arranging them on the ground.

Lin Dan poured all the Gu into the cooled venom, then dripped in her blood, allowing them to continue their battle. Refining gu was actually straightforward. To put it bluntly, it is selecting the best from the best (T/N: natural selection-ish). Lin Dan gathered various types of Gu creatures, let them compete, eliminated the weaker ones, and ultimately chose the strongest. The Gu that survived through hundreds or even thousands of rounds of battles and remained standing could be called the Gu King.

Although the Gu Lin Dan was currently refining had not yet reached the level of a Gu King, they were not far off. Two months were still too short for her.

The clear venom was slowly contaminated by the blood and remnants of the various Gu, turning it into a turbid mess. Constant hissing and biting sounds emanated from the pot, a sound that could cause goosebumps on a grown man. After about half an hour, this brutal struggle finally came to an end, and a multicolored scorpion crawled out slowly from the venom. The venomous needle at its tail continuously swayed, and a cold light gleamed.

The man was stunned, then chuckled, "Five-colored Gu? On your first attempt at refining a Gu King, you actually refined a five-colored Gu?" He thought he already knew the extent of her abilities but ended up underestimating her once again.

T/N: SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATES T^T SCHOOL IS RLY HECTIC

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