"Hahaha…"
"Fellow Daoist! You've fallen for my... bah! My Seven-Step Soul Severing Incense. Just do as I say, and I'll..."
The burly man with a thick beard seemed too immersed in his role, now reverting to his male persona and speaking with difficulty.
"What must I do to do as you say? Don't do anything strange! I'm a respectable person!"
Xiao Fei rambled along, circulating the Hunyuan mana within his body, searching for the absorbed toxins and attempting to neutralize them.
"My..."
The bearded man realized his raised orchid finger was out of place and quickly rotated his wrist, changing it to a fist.
"Bah! I'm also a respectable person. I'm not interested in pretty boys like you. Hand over your storage bag, and I'll give you the antidote and let you leave safely."
By this time, Xiao Fei had discovered a foreign spiritual energy within him, rapidly corroding his body and mana.
He immediately circulated a large amount of Hunyuan mana to suppress and refine it.
However, the effect was very weak; the poison was indeed potent.
"Alright, I can hand over the storage bag, but I need to confirm you actually have the antidote. Otherwise, we'll both perish."
Xiao Fei held the storage bag, adopting a posture as if ready to destroy it at any moment.
With sufficient force, a storage bag could be destroyed along with its contents.
Many cultivators deliberately protected their storage bags during combat or avoided attacking them, making damaged storage bags rare in battles.
"Hee hee hee... cough cough cough!"
The bearded man found his laughter too feminine and quickly coughed, reverting to his manly demeanor.
"Since I've used this poison, I naturally carry the antidote with me."
As the bearded man spoke, he took out a jade bottle and waved it in front of Xiao Fei.
Seeing this, Xiao Fei gained some confidence and immediately unleashed a profound rune from within his body.
The long-nurtured Soul-Stabilizing Rune became even more radiant and, with a "whoosh," stuck to the bearded man's forehead.
The Soul-Stabilizing Rune could even momentarily immobilize Nascent Soul realm cultivators, let alone a mere Golden Core.
The reason for all the idle chatter was to extract information.
Xiao Fei lunged forward, grabbed the burly man, and mounted his flying fish, soaring into the distance.
Sitting on the flying fish's back, Xiao Fei took out a Heaven-Binding Rope refined from three thousand-year-old Blood-Devouring Demonic Vines and bound the bearded man tightly.
Only then did he retrieve his Soul-Stabilizing Rune, as it consumed energy and shouldn't be wasted.
The bearded man, who had been arrogant moments before, woke up to find himself securely bound by a Heaven-Binding Rope.
Numerous tiny thorns pierced his flesh, continuously siphoning his vital essence, making him dizzy and powerless.
"What's happening? Who am I? Where am I?"
The bearded man posed the three philosophical questions of life in his mind, his circumstances truly wondrous.
At this moment, Xiao Fei delivered a fierce kick to his backside, nearly splitting his round, perky buttocks into four pieces.
"Tell me honestly, is this bottle the antidote?"
Seeing his feminine attire angered Xiao Fei; he had almost fallen for the trap.
If his resolve hadn't been strong enough, and he had been tempted into doing unspeakable things, the thought alone was too much to bear.
"Yes, yes, yes! It's this one!"
The bearded man nodded quickly, no longer daring to lie now that he was in Xiao Fei's hands.
Xiao Fei had actually tested the contents in his spatial realm using Iron Fire Ants and confirmed it was likely this bottle, but he wanted to be absolutely sure.
After receiving confirmation, Xiao Fei poured out a pill from the bottle and took it. The foreign spiritual energy, heavily enveloped by Hunyuan mana, was quickly dissolved.
Two hours later, Xiao Fei entered a cave, dragging the bearded man with him.
Several layers of formations were set up outside the cave, yet screams of agony continuously emanated from its depths, chilling the bone and terrifying even ghosts.
A day later, Xiao Fei emerged from the cave alone and mounted his flying fish again, heading towards the next city.
Xiao Fei and the bearded man had a heart-to-heart, friendly exchange in the cave.
The bearded man was ultimately won over by Xiao Fei's charisma and voluntarily gifted him the formula for the Seven-Step Soul Severing Incense.
Xiao Fei, unable to refuse, reluctantly accepted.
Subsequently, the bearded man, deeply regretting his sins and finding no face to continue living, pleaded for Xiao Fei to mercifully end his life.
Xiao Fei, always kind and helpful, couldn't bear to see someone in such agony and promptly obliged, ending the bearded man's life.
He then gifted him a free fireball spell, transcending the bearded man into ashes and completely dissipating his sins.
At this moment, Xiao Fei sat on the flying fish, holding a pill formula.
It was the Seven-Step Soul Severing Incense that the bearded man had hidden in two white balloons. While this poison was far less potent than the one from Ancestor Shangguan, its ingredients were more readily available.
Ten days later, Xiao Fei appeared in a city within the Ring Mountain Kingdom. After a tour of the city, he gathered all the spiritual herbs for the Seven-Step Soul Severing Incense formula.
The refinement of this formula was not difficult, and he succeeded within two days.
However, he had no intention of carrying two balloons filled with poison on his person all day, like the bearded man.
He chose to store the poisons in porcelain bottles, which only needed to be shattered when used, making them convenient, albeit slightly less discreet.
After preparing the poisons, Xiao Fei sold two thousand-year-old spiritual herbs at the largest shop in the city, obtaining two million spirit stones before quickly departing.
This time, no one was foolish enough to cause trouble for him, allowing him to leave smoothly, rendering his newly refined Seven-Step Soul Severing Incense unnecessary.
In the following days, Xiao Fei continuously visited various cultivation cities, selling the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs that were becoming a flood in his spatial realm.
Smaller cities could only handle a maximum of two thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, while large cities like Xiancheng in Qin State saw him sell at most five.
Firstly, selling too many would overwhelm the city's capacity and spirit stone reserves, devaluing the herbs.
Secondly, he feared attracting unwanted attention and unnecessary trouble, aiming to minimize his impact.
During this period, he even disguised himself as a green frog and traveled to the East Sea.
The demon tribes of the East Sea possessed abundant spirit stones but were not adept at alchemy. Xiao Fei directly exchanged high-grade pills for spirit stones, earning the approval of the vast demon population there.
Xiao Fei leisurely traveled between major cities, stopping and going as he pleased. Over several years, he visited most of the cultivator gathering places.
He had now accumulated one hundred million spirit stones, which, even when converted entirely to mid-grade spirit stones, amounted to one million.