Xiao Fei released his puppets and, in just half an hour, had emptied an entire spirit stone vein.
Originally, spirit stone veins possessed the ability to gather spiritual energy and generate spirit stones.
As long as mining was done with restraint, keeping the annual yield within a certain range, it could be a continuous source.
Now, with him having emptied it completely, this spirit stone vein was ruined.
Under normal circumstances, no one would resort to such extreme measures unless absolutely necessary.
Doing so was akin to cutting off one's own lineage.
However, the entire Eastern Continent had now fallen into the hands of the demon race, and the hope of reclaiming it was slim.
Furthermore, the demon race was preparing to pollute the spirit stones, transforming them into demon crystals.
Rather than leaving them to aid the enemy, it was better to mine them first and use them to fight against the demon race.
As for the depletion of spirit stones, that was a concern for after they defeated the demons and reclaimed the Eastern Continent.
The flying boat set sail again, preparing to head towards the next spirit stone vein.
Xiao Fei entered his spatial realm, where a group of puppets were busy sorting the freshly excavated rocks.
Countless spirit stones, large and small, were embedded within these rocks.
These puppets, though unsightly, were excellent workers. Wielding their dozen or so arms, they cut through the rocks as if they were tofu, precisely extracting the spirit stones.
Xiao Fei glanced at them and, not wanting to disturb their work, went to his medicinal garden. He pulled out a ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herb and began refining pills within the realm.
His cultivation of the "Wind Thunder Battle Body" required a substantial amount of pills to supplement his spiritual energy.
While thousand-year-old spiritual herbs would suffice, since he had ten-thousand-year-old ones in his spatial realm, he decided to be extravagant. This would also slightly accelerate his cultivation progress.
Xiao Fei was now proficient at refining ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, and soon a batch was ready.
This batch yielded nine pills, three of which were of medium grade. It seemed his alchemy skills had improved further.
Xiao Fei retrieved the nine pills from the cauldron. He casually picked out a low-grade pill, tossed it into the mouth of the Flying Fish, and it was gone.
Upon consuming the pill, the Flying Fish wagged its tail at Xiao Fei before sinking to the bottom of the lake to refine the medicinal properties.
Xiao Fei put away his alchemy tools and noticed that in the time it took him to refine pills, all the rocks had been processed by the puppets.
The extracted spirit stones were packed into several storage bags. Xiao Fei picked them up and took stock.
He had emptied an entire spirit stone vein and obtained a mere 130 million spirit stones.
While this number seemed large, it was a medium-sized spirit stone vein, and there weren't many veins of this scale on the Eastern Continent.
In the days that followed, the Flying Heaven Giant Boat abandoned its previous low-profile, elusive approach and became arrogant and unrestrained.
The flying boat specifically targeted spirit stone veins across various regions. Wherever it went, it would annihilate the demon forces stationed there, emptying the entire vein of spirit stones, leaving none for the demons.
Led by the Flying Heaven Giant Boat, the various human guerrilla cultivator teams had already become a major nuisance to the demon race.
Previously, due to the Flying Heaven Giant Boat's elusive nature, it had managed to operate with impunity.
Now that it dared to be so brazen, powerful demons had been alerted and were preparing to hunt down this flying boat.
One day, the flying boat arrived near a large spirit vein in the former territory of the Great Qin. As usual, it dispatched a team to easily eliminate the stationed demon forces.
The team returned, handing over the captured spirit stones to Huang Feifei. Xiao Fei disembarked from the flying boat and headed towards the spirit stone mine, intending to clear out its spirit stones as before.
However, as he approached the mine entrance, a strong sense of crisis washed over him.
"Not good!"
"Danger!"
The moment these thoughts arose in Xiao Fei's mind, he turned to attempt a teleportation escape.
However, the enemy was prepared and had no intention of letting him escape.
As soon as Xiao Fei conceived the thought of fleeing, and before he could even initiate his teleportation, a long tongue pierced through his body.
The owner of the long tongue was none other than the Black Scaled Demon, whom Xiao Fei had previously drained of demonic power, forcing him to retreat.
Having fought Xiao Fei for an entire day last time without even touching a hair on his head, the Black Scaled Demon naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity.
Looking at Xiao Fei impaled on his tongue, the Black Scaled Demon felt immensely proud.
"No matter how cunning you are, you have ultimately fallen into my hands."
However, the Black Scaled Demon's triumph was short-lived. The Xiao Fei corpse dangling from his tongue split into two pieces of lotus root.
At the same moment, within his divine sense, Xiao Fei had already appeared two li away.
"He escaped me again!"
The Black Scaled Demon felt a surge of annoyance. Missing this opportunity, it would be even harder to kill Xiao Fei later.
Although the person before him was only at the late Nascent Soul stage, he knew well how troublesome this individual was, like a stubborn patch of dog skin, impossible to shake off.
Yet, he couldn't retreat now. His previous retreat had been widely publicized by the human race, causing him to be ridiculed among the demons.
Simultaneously, Xiao Fei, who had just died for the second time, was also furious.
To think that a Divine Transformation cultivator would ambush him, a mere Nascent Soul cultivator, from the shadows. It was utterly shameless.
"You old scoundrel, knowing you can't defeat me, you resort to such despicable tactics, ambushing me from the shadows!"
Xiao Fei roared, brandishing his black demonic blade, and lunged towards the Black Scaled Demon.
At the same time, as usual, the Flying Heaven Giant Boat quickly raised its 108 layers of defensive formations, preparing its defenses.
Meanwhile, Huang Feifei on the flying boat retracted her Divine Transformation aura and stood on the deck, quietly observing the battle.
Divine Transformation cultivators could be defeated, but they were difficult to kill.
The demon race was unaware of her existence, and she could not act rashly.
She had fought alongside Xiao Fei for many years, and they had a tacit understanding. She was waiting for Xiao Fei to create an opportunity for a decisive blow.