Chapter 31: Shedding Skin, the Stubborn Foolish Worm

Since the day he was chosen from the jar, Ji Ming had been abandoned by that man in a pitch-dark space.

Compared to the round-bellied jar, this space was square and angular.

Inside lingered a metallic scent, along with traces of poison, decay, and other foul odors.

Ji Ming guessed this was the medicinal cauldron Lady Zhang once mentioned, the kind used for nurturing and refining the Five Immortals within the great mountain of Panhu.

The days that followed were nothing but routine feeding.

Whenever the fresh, innocent scent of a child approached, it signaled the beginning of another feeding cycle.

Every day, a designated child would clean the cauldron and drop in fresh water, insect eggs, poisonous food, and the like.

Yet Ji Ming always felt he lacked proper attention—attention befitting a rare species.

This world’s centipede strain, into which he had reincarnated, clearly possessed the traits of the Iron-Backed Centipede; its owner could not be unaware of its value.

He needed only to molt a few more times, grow into a great centipede, and his dark, segmented shell would rival the hardness of refined steel.

Logically, even if the man didn’t inspect him daily, he should check in every few days.

But since the day he was taken from the jar, Ji Ming had never again caught the man’s scent.

Newly born and lacking cultivation, Ji Ming could not use his senses to observe the world, nor could he discern external circumstances.

He didn’t know that, in the man’s mind, he was destined to be sent away.

“No hurry, take it slow. Strive to molt into an adult, then make other plans.” Ji Ming kept reassuring himself.

Over the next month, he molted three times.

His centipede body grew three or four more segments, far outpacing the growth rate of common centipedes—truly worthy of being a rare breed.

Though he grew quickly, as a newborn he was still only the length of a finger and as thick as a chopstick.

Inside the pitch-black cauldron, Ji Ming’s body was as hard as iron; only when the lid was lifted did his antennae stir ever so slightly.

In the second month, the child’s feeding became noticeably more sluggish, and the supply of specially prepared poisonous food was reduced.

Ji Ming surmised that this attitude was likely due to the master’s indifference, leading the child to believe Ji Ming had been abandoned.

After all, people adjust their behavior according to their master’s wishes, even toward a centipede.

The Iron-Backed Centipede was superior to ordinary centipedes in every way, but Ji Ming was far from adulthood, still quite weak, unable to lift the heavy lid or escape the cauldron.

A few days later, the child stopped coming altogether.

If he were to starve to death inside the cauldron, wouldn’t that be a miserable end? Ji Ming’s chelicerae tapped restlessly inside the cauldron.

Suddenly, with a scraping sound, the lid was thrown open.

A familiar scent—a man’s—was caught by his antennae; Ji Ming knew he was unlikely to starve any further.

Not long after, a round object was tossed into the cauldron, rolling in circles as a sticky, bloody scent spread throughout.

Blood.

Child.

Spherical.

Human head?

Ji Ming was startled; every clue told him this was the child’s severed head.

Soon, sticky blood pooled at the bottom.

Ji Ming clung to the wall, able to imagine the terrifying expression frozen on the head.

Shortly after, another fresh, youthful scent approached—a new child assigned to care for the cauldron.

This newcomer glanced indifferently at the mangled, blood-soaked head, and instead poured in a steady stream of poisonous insects.

Scorpions, spiders, venom ants, green-waisted beetles, centipedes, and more.

These venomous insects began to battle fiercely, dragging Ji Ming into their war.

Fortunately, his hard shell rendered him immune to their attacks; when they tired, Ji Ming cleaned up the remnants, feasting well.

This new child was much more diligent, opening the lid every hour or two to check.

Whenever Ji Ming finished eating the poisonous insects, the child immediately poured in another batch, letting Ji Ming gorge himself.

Clearly, the new child had learned from his predecessor’s fate.

Yet, despite his diligence, the child dared not dispose of the human head, leaving it to rot and breed maggots inside the cauldron.

Ji Ming admitted to bouts of depravity, but no matter how twisted, he could never stomach raw human flesh.

Driven to desperation, he slowed his consumption of the poisonous insects, letting them devour the rotting head.

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.

One night, in the square, millstone-sized copper cauldron, the heavy lid was gently pushed open from within.

A pair of whip-like antennae stretched through the opening, flicking about in the darkness to capture every bit of information.

After confirming the area was deserted, the lid was moved aside from within.

A black-backed centipede, about two feet long—roughly the length of an arm—crawled out of the cauldron, swiftly skittering across the slick ground.

“The scent of freedom!” Ji Ming waved his antennae, greedily sampling the air, and thought to himself, “And snakes, too.”

The snake scent was overwhelming—clearly a snake pit, a place never touched by sunlight.

That man’s body, too, carried a terrifying, highly dangerous snake aura, like a natural enemy.

Ji Ming crawled purposefully outward; he needed to reach the world outside, to beseech the Yellow Heaven Moon for a precious gift of spiritual energy.

Only with cultivation could he break free of the centipede’s bodily limitations, unlock all five senses, and not rely solely on his antennae—a painfully inefficient way to gather information.

Emerging from the pit, a streak of moonlight touched the edge.

Ji Ming coiled himself in the light; his iron-backed segments reflected a gentle glow.

On his head, the pair of venom-tipped chelicerae moved restlessly, revealing his inner turmoil.

After more than half a year, he was ready to practice the Moon Worship technique again, absorb spiritual energy, and embark on the path of Transformation.

As his head arched high, his segmented shell rising, the radiant silver disc above shed drops of lunar spiritual energy into his mouth.

The energy flowed through his body, inside and out, dissolving ignorance.

The entire process lasted until dawn, but the results left Ji Ming heavy-hearted.

The difficulty of cultivating a centipede body was far greater than he had imagined.

All the spiritual energy he absorbed that night had barely begun to change his shell, let alone dissolve the crossbones within.

They say a beast becomes a spirit in a hundred years, an insect in a thousand—now Ji Ming understood just how hard it was for insects to attain spirit.

Luckily, he had some treasures.

But it was not yet time to retrieve the treasures of his previous life, so Ji Ming chose to return to the pit.

Outside, the child was sweating anxiously; seeing the arm-length black centipede crawl down from the top, he was both shocked and delighted.

Ji Ming waved his segmented legs, crawling straight back into the cauldron, signaling to the frightened child to continue feeding him poisonous creatures.

Ordinary poisons no longer satisfied him.

The insects provided by the child barely left him half-full.

Over the following weeks, Ji Ming often ventured out at night, practicing Moon Worship and absorbing spiritual energy.

The child tending the cauldron, once panicked, gradually grew used to Ji Ming's peculiar routine.

As the days of cultivation passed, his senses opened one by one—sight and hearing, though not fully developed, could now distinguish objects.

Only his sense of taste he wished he'd never unlocked; the flavor of these poisonous insects defied description.

One day, as Ji Ming rested in the cauldron, the lid was suddenly flung wide.

A cold, shadowed face appeared, laced with a dangerously familiar scent—it was the man.

“Oh—”

Yu Xiao, seeing the black centipede inside, was surprised. Then he placed a hand on Ji Ming’s shell, exclaiming, “Spiritual energy within—so you’ve mastered the Transformation technique on your own?!”