Gu Worm

A successful birthday meal was made, the family were happy and the future seemed to be bright.

After some discussion with her grandmother, Ki finally decided the roles in which Evie and Miranda would take up to decide their current needs for education.

Miranda would become the head figure within the business, all store or affiliated business heads would report directly to her and she reports back to Ki or the family if she encounters any problems.

She would also rarely have to personally negotiate deals herself and attend social gatherings to promote businesses and gain relationships if the client or specific business deal was very important, so Ki asked that she be instructed on further political, negotiation skills, business bookkeeping and how to take up a role as a leader or what to expect.

Evie would be in charge of the family territory and nurturing or collecting needed resources to help the Bombyx family grow while managing the profits from the businesses and the households living expenses.

As the head treasurer her duties were working out where to best spend the leftover money, to nurture and collect Qi medicine, purchase martial arts books the family lacks or buy weapons or necessary materials.

Ki asked her grandmother to mainly focus on teaching household bookmaking skills, territory management, how to use profits effectively and keeping a log of inventory for stored items, ready to be sold goods and needed items.

Both Evie's and Miranda's roles were to manage their own group of people for a specific role or task.

Miranda's role would be to manage the external side of the family business while Evie handles the internal affairs of the family.

If Miranda was Ki's front support then Evie would become the back.

Ki needed many people to make her dreams become a reality and she also needed people to manage those groups of people.

Those pillars would support her future vision and she would be the central figure to hold them all together and lead them forward.

Ki returned to her room after her daily practice where a new change took place.

The cauldron was engraved and inscribed with pigments made from different herbs and had a small smell of blood mixed into the herbal fragrance.

Ki took out a small pouch filled with several small worms, moths, ants, butterflies and even small spiders.

She opened the lid of the cauldron a little and emptied the bugs into the small gap, when she opened the lid a small amount of gaseous red and purple energy was released which created a murderous, poisonous and bloody atmosphere.

She quickly took a spoon full of a purple liquid which seemed to be made of the same herbs used on the outside of the cauldron and dropped a little blood into it after piercing her finger with a needle as if she had carried out the same action many times.

She poured the mysterious liquid into the cauldron and closed the lid while chanting in an unrecognisable language, faint sounds of rustling came from inside the cauldron in the same location the liquid had been dropped into.

Some time passed, Ki took a deep breathe. "It is time! All this preparation and it is time for the completion of the ritual."

During the 3 months Ki completed her mystical cauldron to make a leader class Gu Worm, after adding the liquid and beginning the ritual the worms or bugs would begin to murder one another in a frenzy.

As more time passes the murderous aura of death slowly accumulates the surviving gu worm increases it presence and authority compared to ordinary bugs, the more time spent and more it kills over that time during the repeated rituals the stronger the aura becomes.

Sadly the gu worm cannot live outside of the cauldron after completing its change so the final ritual is to form a mystical pact within the gu masters body.

Ki removed the lid completely this time, took a small inscribed ceremonial dagger, began to chant while making a small piercing on the right eyelid with the tip of the dagger.

Blood began to drop into the cauldron when suddenly the gas began to flow from the cauldron into the mark made by the dagger.

Upon completion all that remained within the cauldron was dead bugs and a small beauty mark appeared under Ki's right lower eyelid.

She faintly could feel the connection between her and her gu worm.

As if sensing their contract, a small white silkworm settled within Ki's blood as it's new home and began to rest after the long process of constantly killing for months.

"Indeed it was the silkworm my brother gave me for my birthday which survived until the end, although it did get a little help at first getting easy or weak opponents at first." Ki faintly sensed the silkworms tired state and did not urge it to perform any further task letting it rest. "Let's see… like most leader types they commonly have the basic abilities of issuing commands to other gu worms that are placed in others bodies however since it is a silkworm species I expect their silk production would be increased and the silk produced would be much stronger and sharper so much so it could be used for setting traps like using a thin metal wire. Of course in order to survive and provide these abilities to their owner the silkworm would need to survive by consuming a small amount of blood every week. The gu worm can also feed on poisons so they are perfect to be used when continuing my Extreme Noxious Qi Art. I will no longer need to be so cautious about leaving lingering poison in my body during practice."

The next stage of the poison Qi art required careful consideration, once a foundation for poison has been built then the next poisons added will either help to increase or decrease the poisons lethality.

The Extreme Noxious Qi Art can help to collect and build up the suitable poisons and absorb them to boost the poisonous Qi but the useless and unused parts would remain in the body and cause problems.

The slightest miscalculation in use of herbs, poisons or venoms can lead to death and that is how dangerous the art is and why it is best used by someone with a poison immunity body or someone who is knowledgeable of poisons while being cautious when practicing.

The addition of the gu worm or silkworm within Ki's blood helped make up for this fault, any lingering poison would become a tonic for the silkworm while Ki can freely promote her practice at a faster pace so long as she does not try to rush things too much.

If she has a little poison left over then that poison may be a little helpful in forcefully poisoning oneself to strengthen the bodies immunity while enduring the effects but too much would prove fatal.

After all there is a limit to how much of the poison the silkworm would be able to consume at once before then spending some time digesting it.

A small and mysterious black beauty mark was shown under her right eyelid which helped only to amplify her beauty and signified her completion of one of her tasks.

As if mirroring her silkworms state she yawned and went to bed after cleaning up the mess in the cauldron before placing it under the bed once more.