Chapter 1: The Awakening

In the endless darkness, Long Xuan woke up from a dream with a start.

"Where is this?"

He looked around in confusion, his brows tightly locked.

What appeared in his line of sight was a messy, dilapidated bedroom, and the air still carried a musty smell.

When his gaze swept toward a bronze mirror on the table, a handsome youth of fifteen or sixteen appeared in his sight.

He quickly realized that he had transmigrated, and immediately after, a vast amount of unfamiliar memories flooded into his mind, further confirming the guess in his heart.

This is a strange world similar to a cultivation world, with pills, artifacts, arrays, talismans, beast taming, insect taming, sword taming, puppets...

And the youth is a Gu cultivator who practices the path of insect taming, living in a region full of Gu cultivators. People in this region obtain powerful strength by raising and refining Gu.

The so-called Gu is to place different kinds of spirit insects in a vessel and make them kill each other.

Given time, there is a probability of giving birth to a more powerful new insect species.

The new insect species born in this way is called a Gu worm; Gu worms cannot reproduce and can only be obtained through the method of Gu refining.

According to the different types and quantities of spirit insects in the vessel, there are countless ways to combine spirit insects.

Different combination methods will give birth to different Gu worms, with different forms, some strong and some weak, and their abilities are also strange and varied.

But they can be roughly divided into two categories: one type is larger in volume and used for external combat, called External Gu.

One type is smaller in volume and can parasitize inside the Gu cultivator's body, growing with the nutrients of the Gu cultivator's body, feeding back various magical abilities to the Gu cultivator, enabling the Gu cultivator to have the ability to spit fire and summon thunder; this type of Gu worm is called Internal Gu.

Some Internal Gu are harmful and not beneficial to the Gu cultivator, so they can be thrown into the enemy's food; because of their small size, they are difficult to be detected and are fundamentally impossible to guard against, and those who are poisoned by Gu will often have their internal organs eaten and die from the Gu.

It is worth mentioning that many combination methods cannot refine Gu, and the combination methods that can refine powerful Gu species are even fewer and farther between.

Gu cultivators record the combination methods that can refine Gu on paper, which becomes a permanently passed-down Gu formula.

A Gu formula is the cornerstone of a family's long-lasting prosperity and is the most important thing for a family.

Every family regards it as a treasure and keeps it secret.

Therefore, it is a very difficult thing for ordinary people to learn Gu formulas.

And the original owner was just an ordinary person from a poor family, working as a handyman in a medicine garden to earn a meager income, with absolutely no opportunity to learn Gu formulas.

The original owner was also named Long Xuan, with a humble status, both parents died when he was young, and he was even born with a golden finger, a standard protagonist setup.

It's just that in the original owner's view, this golden finger was relatively useless and had no use at all, so this protagonist had always been destitute and had not become powerful because of having a golden finger.

Seeing this part of the memory, Long Xuan couldn't help but frown.

Can a golden finger be useless? It's simply unheard of; having read countless novels, this was the first time he had heard of it.

This protagonist's golden finger was not a system, but simply the ability to see the growth level of all things.

This was the only function, just being able to see it, not being able to change it; apart from being able to see a number visually, it had no use at all.

At first glance, it really had no use; spirit beasts and spirit insects can judge their growth situation by volume, and there are also many ways to identify the age of human spirit medicines, so he really didn't need to distinguish them.

Long Xuan showed a thoughtful look; according to the description in the memory, this is a pair of eyes that can see the growth level of all things, and this "all things" refers to all things in the world, not limited to living things.

It seems that all living and dead things that can be named can have their growth level seen.

However, "growth level" is not vivid when used on dead things; Long Xuan would rather use a modern term, collectively called "progress," which is more vivid.

An ability to see the progress of all things was considered very useless by the original owner, but Long Xuan did not think so; in his view, this ability still had great room for development.

There are no useless golden fingers, only useless hosts; it all depends on how strong the host's imagination is.

As a transmigrator, the thing he lacked least was imagination, and soon many magical ideas appeared in his mind.

He hurriedly got out of bed and walked to the table, took out paper and pen from the drawer, quickly wrote the two big characters "Gu Formula" on the paper, and then wrote a material called "Ghost Spider" below it.

Things were indeed as he expected; progress immediately appeared on the paper, but the progress changed from the original 10% or 20% expression form to the numerical expression form of his previous life. Obviously, the golden finger's expression form is based on the host's cognition.

At this time, a string of 1.5% numbers appeared in his line of sight.

Long Xuan was thoughtful; according to his guess, a fragmentary formula also counts as a thing, so naturally, he can also see the progress.

The progress of the Gu formula obviously represents the incompleteness of the Gu formula.

The more complete the Gu formula, the higher the progress; the more incomplete the Gu formula, the lower the progress.

However, a Gu formula that is only 1% incomplete is also called a fragmentary formula, and a Gu formula that is only missing one material is theoretically also called a fragmentary formula.

So it became simple; what is difficult about forging a fragmentary formula that only lacks one material?

He only needs to randomly guess a fragmentary formula that can see progress, and then continue to write down the materials he thinks are correct behind it.

If the progress disappears, it means he guessed wrong, so he erases it and changes to another material.

If the progress rises, it means he guessed right, and he can continue to guess downward.

When he guesses to 100%, it means he has successfully guessed a Gu formula.

He deliberately wrote the insect species of his previous life on the paper just now, but he could also see the progress, which shows that the golden finger's judgment standard for fragmentary formulas includes theoretical existence.

That is to say, he can create his own Gu formulas through this golden finger, creating new Gu species that have not yet appeared in this world.

There is no trial-and-error cost, and researching Gu formulas only relies on paper and pen; creating Gu formulas is just a matter of how long he has to grind for him.

Having lived two lives, his soul is strong, his comprehension is strong, plus his identity as an entomologist in his previous life, he is confident that he can use the knowledge and imagination of his previous life to research incredible Gu formulas, enough to shine in this world.

Long Xuan was extremely excited at this time, full of expectations for the future; after researching his golden finger for a while longer, he finally pushed open the door and walked toward the medicine garden that the original owner was responsible for.

Gu refining requires a considerable amount of startup capital, and this medicine garden might become his first pot of gold.

The medicine garden belongs to a Gu cultivator surnamed Long, and outsiders all call him Long Lao.

Long Lao comes from a Gu cultivator family named the Long Clan, and was ordered to guard this village named Big Stone Village, to defend this village against the invasion of spirit beasts and the looting of demon cultivator bandits.

And what Big Stone Village needs to pay is more than half of its food, including meat and eggs.

I don't know how many villages similar to this are controlled by the Long Clan.

In this world, Gu cultivators cannot farm; this group only knows how to practice continuously, does not engage in production, and is particularly able to eat, so their food source can only come from mortal villages of all sizes.

Gu cultivator families provide shelter for mortal villages, and mortals provide food for Gu cultivator families.

The more powerful the Gu cultivator family, the more mortal villages they control, and the wars between Gu cultivator families also include the looting of mortal villages.

Big Stone Village is a large village with a population of up to three thousand, and it has formed its current scale because there is the only market in the Far West Region nearby.

Because it is closest to the Long Clan, it has become one of the affiliated shelter villages.

The Long Clan is one of the seven strongest Gu cultivator families in the Far West Region, and no one dares to provoke them, so Big Stone Village has never had any looting incidents.

Such a safe environment is exactly what Long Xuan is satisfied with.

Long Lao's medicine garden is very large and has planted more than one hundred kinds of spirit medicines.

Spirit medicine grades can be divided from low to high into one to ten grades, and after that, there are Earth Grade and Heaven Grade that only exist in legends.

Although Long Lao's medicine garden is large, all the spirit medicines planted are the lowest grade one spirit medicines, and the types are all flower-type spirit medicines; the medicine garden is filled with various rich floral scents, which are refreshing.

According to the instructions in his memory, Long Xuan carried a bucket of green liquid and walked into this medicine garden; the green liquid is fertilizer.

The fertilizer for spirit medicine is not smelly feces, but this kind of green liquid that needs to be bought at a merchant association; Long Xuan would rather call it "ripening liquid."

Applying ripening liquid to spirit medicine is enough to shorten the growth period of spirit medicine by half.

Long Xuan was very interested in this kind of ripening liquid, and he leaned his nose forward to sniff it again and again, as if he wanted to research what the ingredients were.

Ordinary ripening liquid can produce such an heaven-defying effect, wouldn't high-level ripening liquid be able to shorten spirit medicine with a thousand-year maturity period to a hundred years?

He firmly believes that as long as he knows the formula of this bucket of ripening liquid, by drawing inferences from one instance, he can definitely research the formula of high-level ripening liquid through his golden finger.

"Unfortunately, if only I had a microscope." Long Xuan shook his head and sighed.

He doesn't know how to manufacture a microscope; if he wants to obtain similar abilities, he can only obtain them through the method of creating his own Gu formulas. In this world where everyone knows how to cast Gu, he also feels it is necessary to research Gu worms that possess this ability.

Long Xuan researched for a while longer, but apart from researching that the progress displayed on the ripening liquid might represent the shelf life, he gained nothing else, so he gave up the research and prepared to wait until the Microscope Gu was made before talking about it.

Long Xuan collected his mind, scooped out a spoonful of ripening liquid and poured it on a spirit medicine named Moonlight Flower; the growth level immediately changed from the original 17.1% to 17.2%.

Long Xuan took a look and then continued to pour the second spoonful; the progress quickly rose from the original 17.2% to 17.3%.

When he continued to pour the third spoonful, the progress did not change at all.

Long Xuan was thoughtful, and another function of the golden finger came to his mind; in order to verify the guess in his heart, he continued to pour three spoonfuls of ripening liquid on another type of spirit medicine, and this time the progress changed three times.

He tried to pour the fourth spoonful, and the progress stopped rising.

"Sure enough?"

Long Xuan showed an excited look.

According to Long Lao's instructions, he needs to pour it once every seven days, and pour three spoonfuls for each spirit medicine.

But now it seems that the dosage is not precise, and perhaps the interval of pouring is also not precise enough.

The types of spirit medicines are different, and the dosage of ripening liquid will naturally be different.

Some spirit medicines have good absorption and may need three spoonfuls, while some spirit medicines may be enough with one spoonful, and more will be counterproductive.

There will naturally be large differences in the pouring time; some need to be poured once every seven days, and some may need to be poured once every five days.

Merchants can only estimate a rough dosage, and waste is inevitable; in order to make more money, they may even exaggerate the dosage.

And Long Xuan can completely teach students according to their aptitude, precise to the extreme in the dosage of each spirit medicine, and can also achieve seamless connection in the fertilization time.

What does this mean? This means that he can embezzle a portion of the ripening liquid without affecting the yield.

It also means that under his extreme cultivation, the maturity speed of the spirit medicine will be far faster than expected, and the yield within a certain period of time will naturally exceed the past.

According to the original owner's memory, Long Lao uses the spirit medicines in the medicine garden to pay his salary; he only needs to deliver the specified amount of spirit medicines on time every period, and the excess yield is treated as his salary.

The harder the original owner works, the more he earns; if he is lazy and causes the yield to fail to reach the specified amount, then he has to pay out of his own pocket.

And Long Lao only looks at the results and not the process, letting the original owner mess around in the medicine garden; he has never inspected the medicine garden once, and has been in seclusion all year round.

In this way, isn't this first pot of gold here?

Long Xuan's mouth showed a smile; the golden finger is indeed not useless; this golden finger is not only not useless but a bit heaven-defying.

The golden finger is not a system, but an ability of an insect.

(End of chapter)