"It's not your fault, brother Xiong. Nobody expected he was an immortal," Li Tiemu said, trying to console Xiong Xing.
"Before coming here, I even told Qiao'er that there are no such things as immortals. If there were, they would have saved this planet before the apocalypse even began," he added.
Xiong Xing sighed deeply, nodding slightly.
After extracting the soul of the two-headed python, Chu Xuan also took its body away. Having completed these actions, he stepped onto his Heavenly Star Flying Sword and vanished without a trace, leaving behind a crowd filled with gratitude.
Chu Xuan's intervention wasn't to save anyone; it was merely to slay the python to obtain a main soul for his formation. The people's grateful tears meant little to him.
Li Tiemu spoke quietly, "Brother Xiong, the third-level Psionic crystal is gone. How are we going to explain this when we get back?"
Xiong Xing replied gravely, "It's gone, and that's that. As long as it didn't end up with the Ship Gang, it's fine." After a pause, he added, "Send word of today's events back to headquarters."
"Okay," Li Tiemu nodded.
The wind howled as Chu Xuan landed smoothly. He released Long, Hu, and Bao from the tower and casually tossed out the massive body of the two-headed python.
Long, curious, crouched down to examine the python's body. Hu, as always, stayed close to Chu Xuan, not moving away. Bao, in a blink of an eye, had a piece of the snake's tail in his mouth, crunching away happily.
Hu glanced at him and gave him a shove.
"Ho ho ho! Roar!" Hu seemed to scold Bao for disturbing their master.
Bao whimpered pitifully and was forced to spit out the snake's tail.
Chu Xuan watched their antics with amusement. "You two did well this time, here's the reward."
With a flick of his fingers, he sent two dusky Earth Evil Pills flying towards them. Hu and Bao's eyes lit up as they caught and immediately swallowed them. They didn't know what these were, but instinctively craved them. So without a second thought, they ate them.
Hu and Bao had already reached the eighth level of corpse soldiers. One more step, and they could attempt to become corpse generals. Feeding them Earth Evil Pills now could speed up this process.
Chu Xuan still had plenty of Earth Evil Pills left, enough to advance all three of his corpse puppets to the rank of corpse generals.
Long also caught the scent of the Earth Evil Pills and his eyes turned green with envy.
"As for the body of the python, just let ordinary corpse puppet eat it," Chu Xuan thought, waving his hand and releasing a dozen more corpse puppets from the tower.
These corpse puppets might not be as formidable as Long, Hu, or Bao, but they were still significantly stronger than ordinary zombies. A little cultivation would do them good. Perhaps they would be needed as cannon fodder in the future.
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At their master's command, the corpse puppets surged forward.
"Go fetch me some formidable zombies," Chu Xuan commanded.
Long, Hu, and Bao eagerly dashed out, showing impressive zeal in their task. In no time, they returned with twenty robust zombies, throwing them down before Chu Xuan.
Chu Xuan glanced over them and recognized that these were no ordinary zombies; each one was at least a first-level zombie, already evolving Psionic crystals within.
"Well done, here's your reward," Chu Xuan said as he flicked an Earth Evil Pill towards Long, who caught it with his mouth and scurried away to digest it.
Bao, with a cunning gleam in his eyes, approached the zombies and started gouging bloody holes in their bodies. He then lay down before Chu Xuan, seemingly bragging about his efficiency.
Chu Xuan looked at the mutilated zombies with a facepalm. "Using living beings as cauldrons requires precision in making blood holes at the convergence of blood vessels, not just random gashing."
"Take him out and discipline him," Chu Xuan ordered calmly.
"Roar!" Hu nodded vigorously, cracking his wrists before grabbing Bao by the leg and tossing him off the rooftop. A series of crashing sounds soon followed from below.
"These zombies are now useless," Chu Xuan stated as he applied his blood extraction technique, drawing all their blood into a large orb.
He then methodically created precise blood holes in the remaining first-level zombies, implanting various seeds.
As Chu Xuan's cultivation advanced, the need to enhance his corpse puppets and gu insects grew. More zombies would be needed as cauldrons in the future.
"I need to create a zombie farm, treating the zombies like soil, so I don't have to keep hunting for them each time," Chu Xuan mused aloud, smacking his lips. "I wish there were a zombie spawner cage. Imagine having a spawning ground right here."
Alas, this was reality, not a game.
"Go play," he waved Long and the others off to amuse themselves. Chu Xuan then mounted his flying sword and entered the Yin Evil Soul-Snatching Array.
The Yin Evil Qi rampaged unchecked within the array, a vision of hellish evil in the eyes of righteous cultivators, a place that ought not to exist and should be destroyed. However, to demonic cultivators like Chu Xuan, it was a vibrant scene of thriving life and flourishing potential.
Chu Xuan took a deep breath, feeling refreshed and nearly ethereal.
With a gesture, the Evil Soul Chain appeared in his hand, and Huikong's evil soul emerged, feeling as though it had arrived in paradise. Surrounded by dense Yin Evil Qi, it excitedly absorbed within sight.
Chu Xuan casually released the python's soul as well. As he had anticipated, there was indeed something peculiar about the soul of the python.
Ordinary souls could not withstand the scouring of the Yin Evil Qi. They would dim and dissipate after a few exposures.
However, the soul of the python had endured seven or eight washes of the Yin Evil Qi. It had merely faded slightly. Upon closer inspection, his soul had even assimilated some of the Yin Evil Qi! No wonder this creature could store Yin Evil energy within itself.
"It seems I have stumbled upon a treasure."
Chu Xuan's face broke into a smile. All he needed to do was to leave the python's soul here, to be refined over the years, and it would eventually transform into a powerful malevolent soul. In time, it would more than suffice as the main soul for his array.
"Now, it is my turn to begin cultivation."
Chu Xuan seated himself at the center of the array, resting in meditation, breathing deeply as he practiced his skills.
In cultivation, time does not exist.
Chu Xuan sat in silent contemplation. Whatever happened in the outside world was of no concern to him.
General Ye Nantian set down the satellite phone, his mind reeling from the report he had just received from Xiong Xing. The details lingered in his thoughts:
"…General, Lin Qiao has fallen, devoured by the two-headed python…"
"…General, we were no match for the python, but that mysterious immortal appeared and killed it single-handedly. He even extracted its soul…"
"…The immortal took the python's body, and we couldn't retrieve the Psionic crystal…"
Staring towards the south, Ye Nantian felt a profound disturbance that he couldn't settle. "The two-headed python... I might have been able to defeat it after my promotion to a fourth-level superhuman, but killing it so effortlessly and cleanly would have been impossible. That cultivator must possess the strength of at least a fifth-level superhuman! Such formidable power could influence the balance of power in the region with a mere gesture. We must bring him into the Linjiang Army's fold. At the very least, I cannot allow the Ship Gang to recruit him."