"Kill!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
Amidst the Lümen Mountain Range, in an unremarkable valley, a group of cultivators arranged a special combined attack formation, channeling all their strength to a single point for a powerful assault.
"Junior Brother Xiao, after three months of practicing the formation you provided, these one hundred cultivators are now capable of fighting their way into the ranks of Foundation Establishment cultivators. The power they can unleash should be equivalent to the combat strength of several dozen early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators."
Xiao Fei and Huang Feifei stood on a large rock above the valley, observing the formation practice below. Fei Xin stood by his side, constantly providing explanations.
"Excellent, this has been hard work for you, Senior Brother Fei! We can continue to improve their cultivation and strength. I will find a way to secure the resources."
Xiao Fei was very satisfied with this team of only one hundred people. Among these hundred, there were only eight Foundation Establishment cultivators, but through the formation, concentrating everyone's power, their might was already equivalent to dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Once he expended more resources to further enhance their strength, they would be ready for use.
The cultivation world was currently in a state of constant warfare and unrest, with the demon race lurking in the shadows and observing. All of this left Xiao Fei feeling utterly insecure. Moreover, he had a bold idea that required a large number of subordinates to help him achieve it.
"Senior Brother Fei, let's send out more people to recruit children under ten years old with spiritual roots from the populace. We can cultivate them from a young age and continuously replenish our ranks with fresh blood."
"Understood. This matter can be handled by the merchant caravans," Fei Xin readily agreed. The merchant caravans of the Treasure Pavilion traveled across various regions year-round, allowing them to come into contact with more places and people, making it easier to find suitable talents.
"Senior Brother Fei, I still have a few thousand-year-old spiritual herbs. You can put them up for sale at the Treasure Pavilion. The proceeds from the sales will be used to cover the expenses of cultivating the guard team."
As Xiao Fei spoke, he took out several jade boxes from his storage bag and tossed them to Fei Xin. Cultivating a team of elite guards with combat capabilities was not a small undertaking. First, there were the materials required for each person's cultivation; second, there were the weapons and equipment to be equipped for each person; all of these required significant resources.
"These thousand-year-old spiritual herbs might attract some trouble. Find a few Nascent Soul cultivators from the Lümen sect to help protect the place. They also own a ten percent stake, and they should exert some effort at critical moments."
Thousand-year-old spiritual herbs were of great use to Nascent Soul cultivators. Without Nascent Soul experts guarding the place, the Treasure Pavilion would likely be ransacked as soon as the news spread. Furthermore, he suspected that the batch of thousand-year-old spiritual herbs he released might be bought by the Lümen Nascent Soul cultivators who had the advantage of proximity, even before the news got out.
Throughout the Eastern Continent, thousand-year-old spiritual herbs were considered rare and hard to come by. Since thousand-year-old spiritual herbs had appeared right under his nose, such old monsters would certainly not let them go. Xiao Fei's actions, besides raising resources for the guard team, were also a way of giving them benefits, as everyone was now on the same boat.
After observing for a while, Xiao Fei and Huang Feifei returned to their cave dwelling. His own cultivation was the most important.
However, only three days later, Xiao Fei received an invitation from Ancestor Shangguan. The invitation stated that she had a sudden whim and wanted to celebrate her birthday. Naturally, Xiao Fei would not refuse. He was contemplating what kind of gift to prepare, as he couldn't be too stingy with a Nascent Soul ancestor.
Just then, he received another invitation. Upon opening it, he saw that Ancestor Jin of the Chiyang Hall also intended to celebrate his birthday. This was too coincidental! Were they born on the same day, month, and year?
However, his confusion didn't last long. He received two more invitations, and it turned out that the other two ancestors also planned to celebrate their birthdays. The Lümen sect had a total of five Grand Elders. Apart from Huang Feifei, the other four had simultaneously decided to celebrate their birthdays.
Generally, Nascent Soul cultivators, having lived for too long, rarely celebrated their own birthdays. Some careless cultivators even forgot their exact age. When something is out of the ordinary, there must be a reason!
Nevertheless, Xiao Fei prepared to meticulously prepare a grand gift for each of the four ancestors, as the proper etiquette had to be observed. He wasn't short of resources. Picking a few spiritual herbs from his spatial realm and sending a jar of spiritual wine should be quite grand.
The speed of time in Xiao Fei's spatial realm had accelerated, leading to a significant increase in the production of spiritual herbs and spiritual wine. There were at least hundreds of thousand-year-old spiritual herbs in his spatial realm, and a large pile of spiritual wine had accumulated. He couldn't consume so much himself. The high-grade spiritual herbs and century-old spiritual wines that others cherished so dearly were often used by Xiao Fei to feed his flying fish. Additionally, his Iron Fire Ants had also benefited greatly, though the Iron Fire Ants were now struggling to keep up with his combat prowess.
However, when he walked out of his cave dwelling with gifts, he saw that all the disciples of the Lümen sect were looking dejected, worried about raising the funds for the four birthdays. It was then that he finally guessed that the four ancestors celebrating their birthdays was a pretense; the real intention was to collect gifts. The goal of the four ancestors in gathering money was naturally to purchase the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs that Xiao Fei had recently released.
The Lümen sect was not what it used to be. Even the Nascent Soul ancestors were short on funds. To acquire money to buy those thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, this was their only resort. Indeed, the longer one lived, the thicker their skin became.
Xiao Fei pretended not to know about this, presented his birthday gifts to the four ancestors respectively, offered a few insincere pleasantries, and then took his leave. Subsequently, more and more disciples from the sect sent their congratulatory gifts. After celebrating their birthdays, the four ancestors had essentially scoured all the disciples in the sect, obtaining enough resources to purchase the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs in one go. As expected, Xiao Fei's guess was correct. After gathering sufficient resources, the four ancestors rushed to the Treasure Pavilion and bought the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs he had just released. Although their three halls owned a ten percent stake in the Treasure Pavilion, they could not take items from the Treasure Pavilion freely; they still had to purchase them with spirit stones and resources.
After obtaining the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, the four Nascent Soul ancestors immediately announced their seclusion, likely to tinker with the spiritual herbs they had acquired.
On this particular day, just as Xiao Fei was about to close the door of his cave dwelling and enter his spatial realm to take a look, a patch of black ghost mist rose before him, engulfing an area of several miles.
"Second Sister!"