Chen Qing's thoughts stirred, and the blood-red leech tattoo on the back of his hand responded, rising up. A strange, blood-red tattoo appeared on his palm, and his true essence mingled with the power of the gu worm, creating a peculiar suction force.
He focused on sensing this power, then simply sat down, circulating his true essence through his meridians.
As the bronze true essence, imbued with the gu worm's blood-sucking power, coursed through his body, he noticed a wisp of blood-colored vortex forming in his right hand, like the swirl of a leech sucking blood, yet firmly controlled by Chen Qing.
"It seems this blood-sucking ability isn't just for devouring blood and flesh; it can also convert vital energy into true essence…" Chen Qing's eyes gleamed.
Suddenly, he flicked his fingertip, and a drop of blood floated in the air.
He extended his tattooed right hand to touch the blood, and a halo of blood light wrapped around it, instantly sucking the blood drop dry.
The vital energy flowed along the Texture and converged into his aperture.
The bronze true essence sea within the aperture rose slightly, but the amount was so small that it was barely noticeable without careful observation.
"Though the amount is small, it's still a recovery," Chen Qing smiled faintly.
Chen Qing mobilized his true essence to form a blood-colored vortex and hurled it at a rock.
The rock shattered instantly, with a wisp of vital energy still clinging to it.
"The power is decent, and that vital energy… if it hits a living creature, it would probably inhibit wound recovery," Chen Qing commented.
"From now on, this gu will be called the Blood Qi Vortex Blade Gu," Chen Qing murmured, looking at his right hand.
He slowly stood up, walked to the cave entrance to retrieve his basket, then returned and began to fill it with the primeval stones produced by the primeval spring, one by one.
Before long, the basket was full.
Chen Qing looked at the oval, grayish-white primeval stones stacked in the basket.
"It seems I'll have to stay here for a while."
Chen Qing wasn't worried about people from Red Maple Village looking for him.
Firstly, he was an unknown presence in the village, deliberately hiding himself every day, fearing that his identity as an otherworldly demon would be discovered.
However, these mortals probably didn't even know what an otherworldly demon was.
Secondly, although Red Maple Mountain wasn't as grand as other mountains, it was still very dangerous.
It was normal for an unknown commoner to go into the mountains to gather herbs and disappear; no one would care.
That's why Chen Qing was so relaxed.
"It's time to cultivate." Chen Qing sat down cross-legged and began to mobilize his true essence to scour his aperture.
He had already wasted too much time searching for gu worms, but with his A-grade 99% aptitude and a primeval spring at his disposal, he lacked neither cultivation resources nor gu master aptitude, so the wasted time was harmless.
As Chen Qing's thoughts stirred, ripples spread across the bronze true essence sea.
The ripples came in waves, growing more numerous and larger, gradually forming surging tides.
The tides relentlessly scoured the surrounding aperture walls.
It was like seawater crashing against reefs; most of the true essence splashed back into the primeval sea, while a small amount was consumed, transforming into wisps of mysterious power that merged into the light membrane of the aperture wall.
Chen Qing held a primeval stone, simultaneously scouring the aperture wall and extracting natural true essence from the stone.
Although multitasking presented a slight challenge for the current Chen Qing, it wasn't a major problem.
"Again!" The emerald true essence, following Chen Qing's will, made the waves grow larger and larger.
Chen Qing continued this for several hours before slowly stopping the scouring of his aperture wall.
Chen Qing exhaled a mouthful of stale air and picked up a primeval stone to absorb true essence.
"If I remember correctly, the original hard worker cultivated his aperture wall for a period of time before breaking through to Rank One middle stage, then used the Wine Gu to refine his initial stage true essence to middle stage, and spent a whole night doing so," Chen Qing muttered to himself.
"Now, I don't lack primeval stones, and my aptitude is A-grade 99%. Even without experience, as long as I have enough time, it shouldn't be difficult," Chen Qing said, eating the dried meat he had brought up the mountain.
"Hmm… a bit salty," Chen Qing commented as he ate.
After eating for a while and filling his stomach, he resumed scouring his aperture.
"Although I don't have the Wine Gu, my aptitude is 99%, and I have a large supply of primeval stones.
I should be able to achieve something similar to the hard worker," Chen Qing began to muse to himself again.