Starting with the Corpse-Eating Worm, he worked his way up to become the Left-Winged Immortal Lord.

Gu Qing did not sleep well that day.

He worried that when he woke up, the "golden finger" would be nothing but a desperate fantasy before he died of exhaustion, but the extreme fatigue eventually made him fall asleep until the afternoon.

The first thing Gu Qing did upon waking up was to bring up the daily evaluation panel.

Seeing the panel there, Gu Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's not a dream..."

Just then, a young Taoist who had already woken up hurriedly walked into the dormitory room. "Fellow Taoist Gu, your parents have arrived."

parents?

Gu Qing's memories flashed back to the original owner's parents.

Gu's father and mother were no ordinary people; they were merely second-rate mountain hermits who had practiced for twenty or thirty years but had not yet made a name for themselves.

Having endured years of hardship in the mountains, the two knew the bitterness of unorthodox schools of thought. If Gu Qing were to continue his ascetic practices in the mountains, he would only be repeating the same old path.

So the two of them emptied their savings and sent him to Wufeng Temple.

Thank you.

After bowing to the messenger, Gu Qing rubbed his aching arm as he walked to the back door of the woodshed.

Upon opening the back door, one sees a middle-aged, thin man with graying temples and a simply dressed woman in blue.

The two were Gu's father, Gu Shenyan, and Gu's mother, Li Ru.

"Qing'er."

Li Ru looked Gu Qing up and down, her eyes immediately filling with tears.

"It's only been a month, how did you become so thin?"

As she spoke, Li Ru quickly reached into the cloth bag on Gu's father's back and took out a piece of dried meat wrapped in a large lotus leaf. As soon as the lotus leaf was unfurled, the aroma of the meat wafted into Gu Qing's nostrils, invigorating him.

"Mother, what is this?"

Gu Qing asked curiously.

Li Ru explained, "This is the flesh of the mountain spirit Lengshan Zun. Eating it nourishes the body and makes one feel cold and yin. The corpse energy from the tomb corrodes the body, and if it continues for a long time, it will shorten one's lifespan. After your father found out, he obtained this item from a certain unorthodox sect in the mountains."

"Did you really manage to exchange it?"

Gu Qing looked suspicious.

If memory serves me right, Mr. and Mrs. Gu already knew about the burial a month ago.

But no meat was delivered at that time.

Knowing his son wasn't stupid, Gu's father quickly interjected, "Don't worry about so much. Our family has finally found a righteous path, so just focus on your cultivation... As for the rest, you don't need to worry about it."

Upon hearing this...

Gu Qing was almost certain that the piece of meat was borrowed.

"I understand." Gu Qing didn't ask any further questions, because asking would be pointless.

Father Gu handed over the cloth bag, saying, "There's some dried wild meat here, which can nourish your body and strengthen your bones. You can find an opportunity to offer it to that Master Duofu. I don't expect him to treat you well, I just hope he won't..."

Gu's father didn't continue, but Gu Qing understood.

I don't ask for preferential treatment, but I do ask that you not be harsh.

"Thank you, Father."

Gu Qing raised her hand.

The two had emptied their savings to send him to Wufeng Temple.

He was extremely grateful that they were now sending him meat.

Parents' hearts are truly full of love and worry.

"Now that I've taken your body, I'll take care of your parents in your place," Gu Qing thought to himself, before taking the meat from his mother's hands.

He dared not take it back, fearing it would be stolen.

So, right in front of Gu's parents, he ate all of Lengshan Zun's flesh.

Before long, he felt his body heating up, which felt extremely comfortable, and the hunger and muscle soreness gradually dissipated.

After finishing his meal, Gu Qing didn't exchange many pleasantries, left a message, and returned to Wufeng Temple.

"Father, Mother, rest assured, I will definitely make a name for myself!"

As soon as Gu Qing returned, his father and mother also hurriedly headed down the mountain.

"She's gotten so thin in just one month, how will Qing'er survive these past five years...?"

Li Ru's tears finally streamed down her face uncontrollably.

Father Gu frowned and said, "We can only borrow more and buy more animal meat, preferably the meat of Lord Lengshan."

"But what will we use to repay them?"

"If all else fails, sell the family property."

"Can……"

"There's no 'but' about it; you have to give something to get something."

……

soon.

Night fell again.

Gu Qing followed the other Taoist disciples down the mountain again, carrying the coffin from the county mortuary straight to the tomb.

There were only five coffins tonight, so they should be able to finish work earlier, but for some reason, the graveyard was unusually cold tonight. However, no one cared about that; they grabbed picks and shovels and started digging the pits without daring to delay for a moment.

Not long after.

Li Fu appeared.

"I'll return immediately after burying it. I have other matters to attend to, so I won't be staying here today." After leaving these words, he disappeared into the forest.

After Li Fu left, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took a break.

After days of digging pits to bury corpses, coupled with the scarcity of meat in their food, their bodies ached from their toes to their ears every day.

As soon as she took a break, Gu Qing's thoughts began to wander.

As a Taoist disciple, he had very little access to things, and for a time he did not know what kind of supernatural being he should communicate with.

He had considered mutating a divine corpse, but Guan Zhong deliberately collected corpses and buried them in the forest, clearly for some other purpose. If it were a mutated divine corpse, it would be difficult to guarantee that the anomaly wouldn't be noticed, and the corpse would be far too conspicuous.

Once someone has become possessed and has gained supernatural powers, they can control even a conspicuous corpse, which might be suppressed in an instant.

"But the corpse energy is shortening my lifespan. To solve this problem, I may only be able to rely on a supernatural object or its feedback. So this matter cannot be delayed." Gu Qing's thoughts were churning, but before he could come up with a solution, he heard a cracking sound coming from the wooden coffin beside him, and the noise was getting louder and louder.

What's going on?

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound, and then they heard a soft "plop" as a dark figure bit through the coffin wall and fell to the ground with a round, clumsy sound.

Under the candlelight, everyone stared intently and finally saw its full appearance.

An insect.

A plump black worm, about the size of a thumb.

It has no feet, but its head and tail are covered with densely packed teeth.

"What is this?"

One person cried out in surprise.

A notification popped up in front of Gu Qing's eyes.

【Corpse Eater】

[Ranked 1326th on the Zerg leaderboard.]

[Has a penchant for cannibalism and is adept at hiding]

[An excellent choice for those seeking supernatural powers!]

There was even a reminder.

Although I don't know what this list of strange insects is, being on it proves that it must be extraordinary.

"It ran away!"

Just as I was pleasantly surprised, I heard a gasp.

The corpse-eating worm had curled up into a ball of flesh and rolled forward with a gurgling sound, its speed almost matching that of a person running at full speed.

"Chase!"

Gu Qing immediately spoke up.

The others exchanged glances and quickly followed suit.

However, the night was so dark that they couldn't see their own hands in front of their faces. By the time they turned around to pick up their lanterns, the corpse-eating worms had already disappeared into the darkness.

Only Gu Qing, relying on the prompts on the panel, relentlessly pursued the enemy, biting her fingertip as she did so.

After chasing for a mile, Gu Qingfang pounced and grabbed the corpse-eating worm. Before the worm could bite, Gu Qingfang smeared blood from his fingertip onto the worm and then quickly chanted the incantation from the Transformation Divine Connection.

In a short while.

The corpse-eating worms, which were initially frightened and about to resist, gradually calmed down, and a notification popped up in front of Gu Qing's eyes that he had successfully transformed into a god.

[Transformation and divine access successful!]

【Corpse Eater】

[Status: Larva (1/50) - Breeding Direction: Black Armored Carcass Worm]

【Cultivation Method - For ordinary corpse-eating worms to transform into adult worms, they must be raised in a shady place using a worm-raising container made of corpse soil, and fed the essence and blood of the worm tamer every day until they have been fed for forty-nine days.

Such feeding inevitably shortens lifespan, and if the corpse-eating worms do not eat human corpses for a day, they are very likely to turn on the worm-controller.

However, the transformed, spirit-possessed corpse-eating worms can be nurtured in yin places using corpse energy, animal corpses, and human corpses. Corpse energy is the least effective, while human corpses are the most effective. Just be careful that the corpse-eating worm larvae are not exposed to daylight and are not fed during the yang hours.

"This mutated supernatural power technique is indeed formidable!"

Gu Qing was overjoyed.

However, the thought that Li Fu might return to the tomb at any moment made him quickly suppress his joy, hide the corpse-eating worms in the dead leaves, and then run towards the light in the dark.

When they returned to the tomb, the Taoist disciples had already opened the wooden coffin.

After Gu Qing returned, they didn't even have time to glance at him, because the corpse in the temple had been gnawed down to just a skeleton.

"What should we do?"

"If the Taoist priest finds out about this, we'll be in deep trouble."

The faces of everyone present were extremely grim.

Gu Qing did not hesitate and quickly closed the coffin.

"Once you've rested enough, hurry up and bury the coffin. Nothing happened tonight!"

Hearing this, although everyone was still uneasy, they had a pillar of support and quickly followed Gu Qing's lead.

When it was time to bury the coffin, it was buried immediately.

of course.

Gu Qing did not forget to bury the corpse-eating worms as well.