Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 137 Cordyceps Parasitism Technique

Fang Shu walked out of the small stone house. Inside, there were two people who were not in seclusion: Mai Sheng'er and Black Rat.

Carrying his belongings, he pondered for a moment, but instead of leaving without saying goodbye, he chose to bow to the two of them.

“Fellow Daoists, I have found a way out. Perhaps we can give it a try. I will go now.”

Upon hearing this, both Mai Sheng'er and the black rat abruptly turned their heads and looked up.

The two men's expressions changed, especially Mai Sheng'er's, whose face showed the most surprise and curiosity.

A few moments of silence followed in the room.

Black Rat was the first to stand up, returned Fang Shu's greeting, and said in a deep voice, "I wish Fellow Daoist Fang a successful journey."

Mai Sheng'er couldn't help but ask, "Fellow Daoist Fang, are you accepting the job offer or going into seclusion?"

Faced with such a question, Fang Shu did not answer. He simply smiled, bowed to the two of them again, pushed open the stone door, and disappeared through the entrance.

After the person left, the stone house became even more desolate and cold.

Mai Sheng'er and Black Rat were alone in the room, a man and a woman, and there was no romance between them, only a sense of oppression.

Mai Sheng'er's face showed a mixture of envy and surprise, along with some unease, and she couldn't help but exclaim, "I didn't expect that Fellow Daoist Fang is also a person who keeps his abilities hidden."

Black Rat, who was usually quite aloof, sighed, "Time waits for no one."

Then, Black Rat nodded to Mai Sheng'er and scurried into his little stone house, disappearing without a trace.

Only Mai Sheng'er remained, her gaze blank as she stared at the small stone house Fang Shu was using, her mind churning with conflicting thoughts.

the other side.

Fang Shu left Hama Beach and, as if familiar with the place, arrived at the hermitage where Senior Sister Fang Lu was staying.

Today, my senior sister had already made preparations to go out. She was wearing a blue and white Taoist robe, and her hair ornament was still the same fish-tail gold crown.

The two rode together on a spirit deer, their hooves hopping merrily, and soon arrived at the Jin family's treasure hall.

It was still that same elegant room.

Yesterday's waiter, with a smile, laid out several books in front of Fang Shu for him to choose from.

The other party said, "These are the more commonly used and decent methods of cultivating spirits in our hall. Apart from these, there are some less common methods that I have not yet brought, but here is a catalog and a brief description."

Please take your time reading, sir/madam.

Fang Shu glanced at the table, but instead of looking at the table of contents, he picked up a booklet titled "The Heartless and Dog-Legs Mixed Spirit Technique".

Upon closer inspection, the method described in this book, as its name suggests, involves using the organs of two demonic beasts, namely "wolf heart" and "dog lungs," as materials to implant into the body and refine them for use.

Because it incorporates two kinds of demon beast organs in one go, after the spiritual root is successfully planted, not only will the lungs and internal organs be greatly enhanced, and the blood and qi be greatly increased, resulting in two hearts and three lungs, but also because wolves and dogs belong to the same kind of creatures, the planting difficulty is much lower than using different kinds of demon beast materials.

The Duobao Hall attendant added, "Our establishment has specially bred mother and cub wolves that guests can exchange for."

Fang Shu simply nodded, without looking up, and continued flipping through the booklet. However, after only a few pages, he only saw one secret text before he could no longer open the booklet.

Looking up at the waiter again, he simply smiled and said, "If you are sure you want this book, I will unlock the secret for you."

Without making a sound, Fang Shu immediately switched to another book to examine.

However, he sighed inwardly, realizing that his desire to obtain more spiritual root cultivation methods for free had once again failed: "As expected, just like in the demon market of Guling, the merchants in various places are not fools."

One after another, different kinds of spiritual root methods flowed past his eyes.

There is a technique called "Mysterious Root Grafting Technique," which requires selecting the main root of a spiritual plant that is over a hundred years old, cutting it into a "spiritual wedge" that matches the dantian, grafting it onto the dantian, and then using one's own essence and blood as "nutrient solution" to irrigate it. The root will gradually intertwine and coexist with the meridians of the elixir, forming a medicinal king-type wood spiritual root.

There is a technique called "Hundred Beasts Blood Fusion Hundred Aperture Technique," which involves taking the essence blood of a hundred kinds of demonic beasts and inserting it into the hundred apertures of the body with silver needles. This technique can strengthen the physical body, but it carries the risk of bloodline conflict and physical transformation into a demon. The mind may become bloodthirsty and manic, and the patient will need to take calming pills regularly in the future.

There is a technique called "Dantian Sword Seed Technique," which involves inserting a natal sword embryo into the dantian (lower abdomen) to make it a part of the body, known as the "Sword Spirit Root."

When the sword embryo enters the body, it is like being pierced by ten thousand swords. If you are not careful, you will be injured by the sword energy, and your body may be cut in half from the inside out. However, you can continue to find rare gold and stones to feed the sword embryo, and its killing power will be great!
In addition, there are other techniques such as "The Cold Flame Seed of the Netherworld Lamp," which uses the physical body as a lamp and the yin fire as a seed; "The Green Willow Wedding Dress Technique," which uses willow clothing as skin and the physical body as a base; "The Bone Embedding Technique," which involves removing bones and extracting marrow to transplant demon bones; "The Evil Ghost Soul Seed Technique," which uses a vengeful ghost as a child and a human soul as a mother... and so on.

One after another, wondrous methods came into Fang Shu's view, which surprised him greatly, and he felt that his eyes had been opened.

He examined all these methods, along with those in the catalog, and found a total of twenty-four methods, each complete and without any similar effects. Each method was unique and innovative.

This amazed Fang Shu, who secretly sighed, "If the Jin family alone has so many spiritual root secret techniques, then the other families, especially those in the Five Organs Temple, must have even more."

This not only shows that the cultivation of pseudo-spiritual roots is indeed bizarre and varied, but also that spiritual root cultivation methods are hard to find within the sect, and are indeed purely man-made.

Fang Shu now even suspects that once they successfully cultivate Qi, the immortals, with a little skill, might be able to develop their own methods for cultivating spiritual roots.

Otherwise, if Qi Refining Immortals could exchange for Spirit Root Techniques at a higher price, why would there be so many Immortals in the temple claiming to possess some kind of secret spiritual technique?

Suppressing the various distracting thoughts in his mind, Fang Shu did not rush to make a selection.

He closed his eyes slightly, his thoughts were racing, and the Taoist talisman in his mind was trembling slightly, with lines of text appearing one by one.

Although he hadn't managed to get the complete method for free, only catching glimpses of the introduction and a few lines of incantations or secret texts, it was still a gain for him. He was currently analyzing and deducing the strengths and weaknesses of each method.

Soon, his thoughts turned to a spiritual root cultivation method called "Cordyceps Parasitism Technique".

This method is a spiritual planting method developed based on the life and death of cordyceps. It uses the body of a spiritual insect as the mother plant, and a spiritual fungus is planted in it. The two intertwine and become a spiritual root that is neither alive nor dead, and resembles both grass and insect. This root is then planted in the human body.

Like the "Wolf Heart and Dog Lung Mixed Spirit Technique," it also uses two materials for planting. After successful planting, compared to a single spiritual root, there is a greater probability that the immortal will possess two strengths.

Of course, this does not mean that a spiritual root made from a mixture of two spiritual objects is necessarily stronger than a spiritual root made from a single spiritual object.

Its main advantage lies in its ability to combine the strengths of two relatively common spiritual materials, or even one spiritual and one non-spiritual material, to create a better spiritual root.

The reason Fang Shu focused on this method instead of looking at other insect spirit roots such as the "Morphing and Feathering Technique" and the "Symbiotic Technique of Demon Insects" was because, apart from the Dragon-Seeking Gold-Touching Insect, he also possessed a spirit fungus—the flesh spirit fungus he obtained from the medicine cave.

In the elegant room.

The more Fang Shu pondered, the more amazed he became: "Compared to simply using insects as roots and tools, this technique of using insects to grow herbs and the transformation of insects and herbs is undoubtedly more profound."

Furthermore, by choosing this method, he no longer needed the Jin family to provide either spirit insects or fungi, thus preventing them from tampering with the materials they provided.

Suppressing his emotions, Fang Shu examined the situation repeatedly before making up his mind.

He opened his eyes and immediately pointed to the book "Cordyceps Parasitism" in the catalog:
"Thank you for your trouble, fellow Daoist, to fetch this item."

The waiter and Senior Sister Fang Lu in the private room were both somewhat surprised to see Fang Shu make a decision so quickly.

The waiter also said:
"This technique is somewhat unorthodox. Although it can be freely combined, it is best to have some background in witchcraft or spirit beast taming. Are you sure you want to choose this technique, sir?"

In addition, we have a corresponding cordyceps blend, using a special insect fungus strain that has been successfully cultivated several times before. Would you like some, sir?

Fang Shu said in a deep voice, "This is the technique. As for the materials, as we discussed yesterday, your esteemed institution only needs to provide auxiliary materials."

Seeing this, the waiter nodded and got up, gathered all the booklets on the table, and quickly left.

In the elegant room, only Fang Lu and Fang Shu remained for a moment.

Senior Sister Fang Lu did not criticize Fang Shu's choice. She just pondered to herself that Fang Shu must have chosen this technique because he was confident in his ability to refine Gu poison.

Before long, the waiter brought out the "Insect and Herb Parasitism Techniques," a booklet that was unremarkable in appearance and made of a material similar to silk.

Fang Shu opened the booklet in front of the waiter, glanced at it briefly, and also let Fang Lu, his senior sister, catch a glimpse of it.

The waiter glanced at Fang Lu, who was helping with the inspection, but didn't say anything more.

After scanning the text, Fang Shu had already absorbed all the contents of the method into his mind, and the secret text was also engraved into his mind. However, due to his limited knowledge, he could not confirm the authenticity of the technique in a short period of time.

Only after Fang Lu, his senior sister, nodded secretly did he close the booklet and bow to the waiter, saying, "Thank you for your kindness."

"Excellent!" The attendant from Duobao Hall smiled and then led the two towards the private room.
"I have already had the necessary materials delivered to the spirit room. Please come with me and see the specifications of this spirit room; it will not disappoint you."

The Jin family's spirit chamber was located underground, riddled with traps and surrounded by array formations. It took the three of them a full cup of tea to walk there before they arrived.

When Fang Shu took over the spirit chamber, he was from the same mountain and naturally couldn't see anything special. He only felt that the spiritual energy here was no less than that of Senior Sister Fang Lu's exquisite residence, and it also had the same spirit gathering array and mind-clearing array, which was simply excellent.

Furthermore, according to the attendant, the concentration of spiritual energy in this spiritual chamber is three times that of the one on Toad Beach!

However, Senior Sister Fang Lu was quite dissatisfied with the Jin family's spirit chamber.

She was first dissatisfied with the low ceiling, then complained that there was no water in the room, or that there was water but no pool, making it look like a grave. Even the stone bricks in the spirit room were broken, and she said that it would affect her meditation, so she kept replacing them.

After much deliberation, the waiter from Duobaotang, carrying a pile of items, rolled his eyes repeatedly, too lazy to run any further.

Having no other choice, the fellow sighed and led the two to an ordinary-looking spirit room, saying only:

"This room is also a Class C spiritual room, so there's no extra charge, but the concentration of spiritual energy is three to five times that of Toad Beach..."

Fang Shu's eyes brightened slightly.

Before the waiter could say anything more, Senior Sister Fang Lu made the final decision: "This is it."

Immediately after the transaction was completed, Fang Shu walked alone into the spirit chamber.

He stood tall and bowed deeply to Senior Sister Fang Lu outside the house.

Senior Sister Fang Lu smiled but remained silent.

With a tremor, the stone door slammed to the ground, and a surge of spiritual light appeared, completely isolating the interior from the exterior.

Fang Shu suddenly felt a complete silence in his ears, and could only hear his own breathing and his heart pounding like a drum.

He remained silent, but as he stroked the silkworm book in his hand, his expression gradually hardened, and his eyes seemed to burn with fire.

Having obtained the wonderful method, I will remain in seclusion until I break through the barrier!

(End of this chapter)