Chapter 198: Hatching the Blood Qi Gu and Grinding Tasks

"You'er, when you have time, go visit your great-grandfather more often; he is old and has no children or grandchildren by his side."

Zhou Laodie puffed on his pipe and placed a fist-sized piece of pork knuckle into Zhou You's bowl; it was date-red, glistening with oil, and extremely tempting.

It was rare for the whole family to gather for a meal, and the location was in a temporary bamboo shed erected right next to the construction site.

The sound of laborers shouting while eating meat drifted vaguely on the wind.

His mother carefully picked out the fish bones, placed a large, fatty, tender piece of fish in his bowl, and urged him to eat more.

Zhou You buried his head in his rice, "I know. It's quiet near Great-Grandfather's place, and practicing my punches there won't disturb anyone."

He had to play the part to the end; although he didn't need to go out for a while, he still decided to keep living at his great-grandfather's house.

In the coming days, he had to go all out practicing his punches and completing tasks to save up enough Experience Points to upgrade to a Martial Master.

This process was crucial, and he needed his great-grandfather, this loyal old servant, to provide cover.

"Dad, do you still need money for building the house? I have some here..."

Before he could finish, Zhou Laodie waved his hand, "No need, I still have some surplus here."

"Spend your own money on yourself; don't forget to buy some food and supplies to show filial piety to your great-grandfather."

His father still held deep local sentiments, and for the sake of renovating the old house, he was willing to empty out decades of savings.

The money he had earned at the firm had all been poured into this major project.

Zhou You spent a few days accompanying his parents and also walked around the construction site; he was very satisfied to find that no one was slacking off or stealing things.

Anyone who has built a house in their hometown knows that you have to send people to guard the bricks, tiles, and cement at night, or they will go missing in large quantities at the slightest lapse in attention.

His great-grandfather favored this family's son, and Zhou Laiwei had already put in a good word beforehand, so the villagers dared not act out of line.

Zhou You had single-handedly knocked down several of Zhou Laixi's sons, and his fists were large and hard; his presence at the construction site had an excellent effect.

Zhou Laodie was a kind and honest man; while he assigned the work, he also took great care of the logistics, keeping the water boiling for tea all day for the laborers to drink, and providing plenty of fine grain and big portions of fish and meat to add oil to their meals after they finished working in the evening.

Precisely because of this, the speed of the Zhou Family's old house renovation set a local record.

Zhou You returned to his great-grandfather's house, not planning to go out for the time being, and focused on practicing his punches and cultivation.

During this time, he took out a Blood Qi Gu egg and refined it with his blood Qi.

After the little thing broke its shell, it was extraordinary from birth; its nearly transparent appearance and its ability to blend into blood Qi without any obstruction to become invisible made it a magical species that defied common sense.

Because it was hatched by feeding on Zhou You's own blood Qi, it was incredibly close to him, as if it were a brand-new part grown from his own body.

As the Blood Qi Gu grew, the amount of blood Qi it consumed rose sharply, which made Zhou You understand why Hua Zhuomo only raised one.

A martial artist at the middle stage of blood Qi, without affecting their daily punch practice, could at most sustain one Blood Qi Gu.

But Zhou You was different; he had the storage of blood Qi from his Outer Profound Heart, allowing him to feed three.

The little bug looked unremarkable in his hand, but once released, it could have a miraculous effect at a critical moment.

Hua Zhuomo had manipulated his companion to self-destruct, which had almost caused Zhou You to capsize in the gutter.

Thus, Zhou You hatched two more eggs, forming a group of three Blood Qi Gu, which he usually kept in his hair.

The only thing that was a bit off-putting was that spreading the Blood Qi Gu required physical contact.

Hmm, since he had the Blood Qi Gu, he might as well arrange for Hua Zhuomo's Tongue-Chewing Pain-Strike Great Art as well.

As the name suggests, this secret technique used the act of chewing one's tongue to pieces as a trigger to stimulate the blood Qi to expand and self-destruct, perishing together with the enemy.

Ordinary people would jump three feet high if they accidentally bit their tongue while eating, let alone chewing the entire tongue to pieces.

"Ultimate Move: Tongue-Chewing Pain-Strike Great Art."

After mastering the basics, Zhou You couldn't help but sigh; no wonder Hua Zhuomo didn't use it until he died—the threshold for this technique was too high. The pain aside, every use required chewing the entire tongue to pieces; there was no way to do it lightly.

As everyone knows, a person only has one tongue in their life, and once it's used, it's gone.

Unless one breaks through to a Strong Martial level higher than a Martial Master, reshaping the physical body and mastering various magical means like regrowing severed limbs.

It was fine to learn this method, but it must never be used unless absolutely necessary; the best way was like Hua Zhuomo, finding a scapegoat and using a Blood Qi Gu to control them in advance.

If one really had to sacrifice a tongue, it was naturally better to use someone else's tongue than one's own—a classic case of grafting flowers onto another tree.

After all, one only has one tongue, but there are thousands upon thousands of other people's tongues.

Mastering the Tongue-Chewing Pain-Strike Great Art also allowed Zhou You to fleece over 200 Experience Points, offsetting the time cost.

For the time that followed, he focused on practicing his punches and looked for opportunities to trigger new Trial Projects.

Hard work pays off, and he actually found one.

"Trial Project (Three-Star Level): Refine 1 Ten Thousand Poison Heart-Attacking Pill, Experience Points +1000."

The Ten Thousand Poison Heart-Attacking Pill was the companion pill for the Seven Step Poison Sand palm technique, and its effect was completely different from the Heart-Protecting Pill.

The Heart-Protecting Pill protected the heart from being invaded by palm poison, while the Ten Thousand Poison Heart-Attacking Pill was the exact opposite, specifically used to attack the heart.

This was a poison pill, and also an aid for practicing this poison palm to break through the late stage of blood Qi and combine body and poison to step into the Martial Master realm.

The name "Ten Thousand Poison" did not mean one had to find ten thousand types of highly toxic substances, but only to refine one type of poison that surpassed all others.

Coincidentally, Zhou You had one on him: the venom of the Gray Feather snake.

The other medicinal ingredients were not hard to gather; the dozen or so rare ingredients Zhou You brought back from the back mountain of the Ink Cloud Stronghold were enough.

Unfortunately, refining medicine required constant trial and error and correction, and the time cost was too high, so he wouldn't consider it for now.

There was also...

"Trial Project (Five-Star Level): Preliminary interpretation of the ancient characters on the tree stump by the river, Experience Points +3000."

This was the first five-star project, and Zhou You perked up when he saw the panel notification.

This proved that those dozen or so character traces, even if they weren't remnants of the Nine Tripod Cauldrons of the Heavenly Humans, were precious remnants second only to them.

The importance was directly raised to five stars, and the Experience Points had also once exceeded the three-thousand mark.

If he were still in Gongliang City, he could have subtly asked Ceng Fuzi for advice, but now that he was in the countryside, he was likely the most cultured person for a hundred miles around; with no one to ask, how could he interpret them?

Not to mention, interpreting ancient characters required consulting a large amount of data and studying through the night; the time cost made one's scalp tingle.

He had heard Ceng Fuzi say that some old scholars spent their entire lives interpreting only one or two ancient characters, which were then grandly inscribed on their epitaphs to be passed down to future generations.

Can't afford to waste time, can't afford it! And also...

"Trial Project (Three-Star Level): Use Tianfu Decipher Confusion to eliminate a Charm-beast that has just possessed a host, Experience Points +1200."

This one falls under the category of water from afar failing to quench a fire nearby.

Running into one by chance is the ideal state; wanting to specifically find a victim who has just been possessed is hard, extremely hard! One must know that Charm-beasts are cunning; once they possess a host, they will hide until they have merged with the body before daring to show themselves.

Zhou You examined it for a while and felt it was unrealistic, so he set it aside for now and continued to practice his fist techniques and cultivation.

Thinking optimistically, these projects won't disappear once they are refreshed; they just wait for the opportunity to be triggered, and naturally, he will be reminded to complete them.

Trial Projects are not shortcuts; they likewise require spending time and energy.

The initial thought of wanting to farm points quickly was still too shallow.

(End of this chapter)