Dozens of demon race members arrived with imposing auras, only to fall like dumplings, their corpses plunging into the East Sea.
Xiao Fei had his puppets retrieve these demon race powerhouses, piling them all on the shore, turning the scene into a seafood auction.
As a renowned commercial hub, Meteor Island saw a constant stream of cultivators.
Many high-grade seafood from the East Sea were highly sought after by humans.
However, the East Sea did not fall under human jurisdiction, so they could only catch small fish and shrimp along the coast.
Venturing deep into the East Sea for large-scale fishing would first risk their lives, ultimately becoming fish fodder, and it was hard to say who would be eating whom.
Even if they were lucky enough to avoid being eaten by the East Sea demons, such actions would trigger a war between humans and demons.
Therefore, this high-grade seafood had always been a luxury item among humans, commanding exorbitant prices.
Especially when transporting this seafood to inland cities on the Eastern Continent, the prices would multiply several times over.
Xiao Fei kept a portion of the tastier seafood for himself, and the rest was quickly snapped up.
The sight of human cultivators eagerly bidding for seafood truly terrified the sea demon who had just surrendered. His dozen or so legs trembled throughout the entire process.
He feared that if Xiao Fei's seafood wasn't enough, he would be directly chopped up and sold, as his own flesh should fetch a good price.
Only after Xiao Fei finished selling the seafood and packed up did the burly sea demon finally relax a little.
However, he was still worried that Xiao Fei might keep him to eat fresh.
Xiao Fei was unaware of the sea demon's inner turmoil. When he ate chicken, duck, or fish in the past, he never considered what inner feelings the food might have.
He had no immediate plans to kill this sea demon. Instead, he placed a restriction on it and confined it to a prison on Meteor Island.
Within his spatial artifact, the 28 puppets that had participated in the battle were lined up. Xiao Fei walked behind them.
He reached out and felt a puppet's backside, producing a fist-sized stone box.
The moment he took out the stone box, the puppet immediately closed its eyes and fell into slumber.
This fist-sized stone box was an energy core he had designed and manufactured himself.
Despite its fist-sized appearance, looking like an ordinary stone, it held a universe within.
In fact, it was a refining material called Azure Sky Stone, used to forge storage artifacts.
Within each puppet, he had refined such an energy core using Azure Sky Stone, containing a space with a diameter of over ten feet.
If this small space were filled with low-grade spirit stones, it could hold a staggering 30 million spirit stones, which was more than enough, and Xiao Fei did not possess that many.
Besides storing spirit stones as energy, this stone box was also engraved with dense arrays and runes.
These arrays could release the spiritual energy from the spirit stones within the box and transmit it into the puppet's body.
Xiao Fei opened a lid on the stone box and poured out a large pile of white powder.
These were the remnants left after the spiritual energy in the spirit stones was depleted. Judging by these residues, this single puppet had consumed at least 2 million spirit stones.
Calculating this, the 28 puppets had consumed fifty to sixty million low-grade spirit stones in this battle.
This was a substantial expenditure, confirming that war was indeed a costly affair.
Fortunately, he had sold all that seafood, recouping almost all of these spirit stones.
After a great victory, it was essentially a no-gain, no-loss situation.
If he had lost and failed to seize spoils, he would have been ruined!
Xiao Fei poured out the residue, replenished the stone box with more spirit stones, and reinserted it into the puppet's backside.
The reason he installed the energy core in the backside was not to satisfy some perverted hobby. He had no such inclinations and had never even heard of such a thing.
It was a conclusion drawn from his years of combat experience. Generally, the head and chest were considered vital areas, most susceptible to attack.
Many people even had the cruel habit of decapitating or disemboweling opponents.
However, the backside was fleshy and not a vital organ; a few stabs wouldn't be fatal.
Therefore, in intense combat, apart from a few deviants, no one would voluntarily attack the backside.
When designing the refining process for these puppets, Xiao Fei placed both the energy core and the consciousness core in the backside.
In principle, even if his puppets were decapitated, their functional impact would not be significant, and they would still possess the ability to continue fighting.
After replacing the spirit stones for all these puppets, the spirit stones he had just earned were all spent again.
It seemed that although the puppets were useful, they still needed to be used sparingly; he truly couldn't afford the consumption.
Moreover, he was constantly troubled by the shortage of spirit stones.
In terms of cultivation, he lacked no spiritual herbs, nor spirit stones, but his internal space was a bottomless pit that devoured spirit stones.
To increase the spiritual energy in his space and accelerate the flow of time required a massive amount of spirit stones.
Especially during each advancement, the amount of spirit stones needed was astronomical. His last advancement consumed over a hundred million spirit stones.
If he were to successfully reach the Nascent Soul stage, he had no idea how many spirit stones he would need.
Xiao Fei still possessed a large quantity of rare spiritual herbs in his space, including many ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herbs. Just a few of these could cause a sensation throughout the entire cultivation world.
But he was more worried that the entire Eastern Continent's spirit stones would not be enough for him.
The total circulation of spirit stones in the cultivation world was limited. Even with spirit stone mines, spirit stones were not infinite.
If he were to throw out a large number of spiritual herbs in exchange for spirit stones, the initial impact would be minimal, and he should be able to acquire a considerable amount.
However, as the circulating quantity of spirit stones decreased, it would lead to deflation, a drop in prices, and an increase in the value of spirit stones.
At this point, many cultivators would be reluctant to part with their spiritual items or would be unable to sell them at all, while the value of their spirit stones would continuously increase. They would hoard spirit stones more tightly, keeping them at home and unwilling to use them.
By then, if Xiao Fei were to still offer rare spiritual herbs for sale, the price he could fetch would be progressively lower.
Eventually, even if there were still many spirit stones in the cultivation world, he would not be able to obtain a single one.
But Xiao Fei could only ponder this for now. These were natural economic laws, and even as a cultivator, he could not resolve them.
Unless he possessed absolute strength and could simply seize them.
However, he would need to at least advance to the Nascent Soul stage to possess such strength, and to reach the Nascent Soul stage, he needed a large quantity of spirit stones...
After Xiao Fei finished replacing the spirit stones for the puppets, he sighed a few times and exited his spatial artifact.
Outside the cave dwelling, Green Bean Eyes, having taken the healing medicine, had now regained consciousness. His father and son were both waiting outside the cave dwelling to request an audience with Xiao Fei.
Upon exiting his spatial artifact, Xiao Fei welcomed the two into the cave dwelling.
"Many thanks to fellow Daoist Xiao for saving our lives again!"
Green Bean Eyes and his son bowed deeply to Xiao Fei.
"Fellow Daoist, there is no need for such formality. I am merely curious as to why these East Sea demons have been relentlessly pursuing you.
I wonder if any other powerhouses will come looking for trouble with you later. I fear my abilities may be limited and unable to guarantee your complete safety!"
Having said this much, Xiao Fei had made his intentions clear.
Green Bean Eyes and his son knew that they could no longer conceal the truth. Moreover, Xiao Fei had a large sea demon imprisoned, from whom the truth could eventually be extracted.
"To be honest, fellow Daoist, my son and I obtained a treasure in the ancient ruins of Turtle Island. It is of some help in advancing to the Nascent Soul stage.
For some unknown reason, this information leaked out, resulting in various powerhouses relentlessly pursuing us.
I have specifically prepared a portion for fellow Daoist Xiao as well. Please accept it!"
As Green Bean Eyes spoke, he presented a black box to Xiao Fei, essentially paying for protection.