Huang Feifei, filled with excitement from the Nascent Soul Pill Xiao Fei had given her, left to begin her closed-door cultivation. She entrusted the management of the flying ship to Old Ancestor Jin of the former Chiyang Hall.
Three months later, Huang Feifei found Xiao Fei, dejected. Her breakthrough had failed.
“Young Master! I’m too useless, wasting such a precious Nascent Soul Pill.”
“It’s alright! Everyone experiences failure a few times. We’ll just start over.”
Xiao Fei patted Huang Feifei’s back to comfort her and presented her with another Nascent Soul Pill.
“Breaking through from Nascent Soul to Soul Transformation is inherently difficult. Less than one in ten succeed. Your talent far surpasses ordinary people, so your chances of success should be much higher. Don’t be discouraged, you can do it.”
Before Huang Feifei could say anything more, Xiao Fei had already placed the pill into her embrace.
“Go! Try again!”
…
Three months later, Huang Feifei failed her breakthrough attempt once more. Xiao Fei continued to encourage her and gave her another pill, urging her to try again.
This was her third attempt to reach Soul Transformation, and she had already used three Nascent Soul Pills, a rarity in the cultivation world.
Huang Feifei felt she would have no face to see Xiao Fei again if she failed to break through to Soul Transformation this time.
As Huang Feifei’s closed-door cultivation reached the three-month mark, even Xiao Fei grew anxious, worried she might fail again. He had already prepared himself mentally; the breakthrough from Nascent Soul to Soul Transformation was extremely arduous, with a high failure rate. Furthermore, humanity lacked Soul Transformation seniors for guidance, forcing them to rely on self-exploration, which inevitably led to many detours.
However, this time, after three months, Huang Feifei had not emerged from seclusion. At least, she hadn’t failed yet.
The following fourth and fifth months passed without any reaction.
It wasn’t until the sixth month that a powerful aura suddenly erupted from Huang Feifei’s secluded chamber, soaring towards the heavens. This aura far surpassed that of Nascent Soul cultivators, reaching the level of Soul Transformation experts, and had already alarmed everyone on the flying ship. Even the demons within a ten-mile radius of the ship were struck with fear.
“Everyone, please remain calm! Fairy Huang is attempting a breakthrough to Soul Transformation. We will soon have a Soul Transformation expert.”
Seeing the slight panic among the people on the flying ship, Xiao Fei personally came out to reassure them. Previously, for the sake of secrecy, only he and Huang Feifei knew about this matter. Now, with Huang Feifei on the verge of success, it could be announced to the public.
“Ah!”
“Really?”
“Hahaha…”
“We’ll have a Soul Transformation expert too!”
Upon hearing Xiao Fei’s announcement, the nearly ten thousand people on the flying ship erupted in excitement! The first Soul Transformation expert of humanity was about to be born. From this moment on, they would no longer have to fear the Soul Transformation experts of the demon race and could finally hold their heads high. As for the two human Soul Transformation experts who had disappeared and gone into hiding, they had long been forgotten by everyone.
The older generation of Soul Transformation experts, who had once occupied positions of supreme authority, monopolized the resources of the Eastern Continent, elevated themselves to Soul Transformation, and simultaneously blocked the advancement of others. When humanity faced peril, they hid themselves away, prioritizing their own safety. This left millions of humans to be slaughtered by the demons.
From this day forward, they finally had their own Soul Transformation expert. This expert would fight for the future of humanity and fight alongside them to the very end, never abandoning them. If, one day, they were to learn that Huang Feifei would abandon them at any moment for Xiao Fei, one could only wonder what their thoughts would be.
“The leaked aura might attract powerful enemies. Let’s leave this place first!”
Under Xiao Fei’s command, the flying ship emerged from a lake and quickly departed from its hiding spot. The aura emanating from Huang Feifei’s breakthrough was like a beacon in the dark night. In the demon territory, it was far too conspicuous. If a demon Soul Transformation expert were to be attracted, it would undoubtedly affect Huang Feifei’s breakthrough.
Indeed, after the flying ship left, a Soul Transformation demon flew above the lake to investigate.
“This powerful aura is usually only present during a cultivator’s breakthrough or when a rare treasure appears,” the demon mused, then plunged into the lake, searching for any treasures that might have emerged.
The flying ship had already found another concealed location and was temporarily hidden.
Huang Feifei did not emerge from seclusion until a year later. At last, the human forces of the Eastern Continent had a Soul Transformation expert to rely on. From this day forward, humanity would no longer be completely defenseless against demon experts.
However, the news of Huang Feifei’s Soul Transformation was still kept secret, known only to those on the flying ship. Xiao Fei and Huang Feifei were already planning to give the demons a big surprise while they were unaware of this development.
“According to the intelligence sent by Second Sister, the demon race has recently developed a method to contaminate underground spirit ore veins, including spirit stone mines, turning them into demon crystal mines.”
Huang Feifei now referred to Xiao Lan as Second Sister, following Xiao Fei’s lead, and the address had become quite natural.
“We need to hurry and seize as many spirit stones as possible from the demon race.”
Xiao Fei was now filled with an intense desire for spirit stones. He needed vast quantities of them. The flying ship required spirit stones, and the large number of puppets he had refined consumed spirit stones. Increasing the time flow within his spatial dimension required a massive amount of spirit stones, and if he wished to break through to Soul Transformation himself, he would need tens of billions of spirit stones. He truly wondered if the entire Eastern Continent could even produce so many spirit stones. If these were now to be contaminated by the demon race’s special methods and turned into demon crystals, it would directly cut off his path of cultivation advancement.
Therefore, he had asked for his intelligence network, through Xiao Lan, to mark all the spirit stone veins on the Eastern Continent. He planned to sweep through them one by one, prioritizing the acquisition of spirit stones from the Eastern Continent before the demons could spoil them. He had harbored this idea for a long time, but his strength was insufficient, and attempting such a feat would have been extremely dangerous. Now, with Huang Feifei leading the charge and capable of holding off a demon Soul Transformation expert, the problem should not be significant.
“There is a medium-sized spirit stone vein on the hill ahead. The demons have only dispatched two Golden Core demons to guard it.”
Huang Feifei stood on the deck of the flying ship, pointing to the small hill in front of them. At that moment, the demons guarding the mine had already detected their arrival and were preparing to flee.
The flying ship hadn’t even activated its spirit energy cannons. A small team of over ten cultivators, led by a Nascent Soul expert, directly charged towards the small hill ahead. In just a moment, the Nascent Soul cultivator returned to report.
“Reporting to Divine Maiden! The demons guarding the mine have all been slain. A total of 3.7 million spirit stones were seized. There are 2,680 human miners in the mine, all of whom have been released.”
The Nascent Soul cultivator respectfully handed a storage bag to Huang Feifei.
“Good! Thank you for your hard work, everyone.”
Following this, the flying ship remained suspended in place and did not depart. Xiao Fei stepped out of the flying ship and entered the mine alone. The miners had already been released and departed. The sprawling mine tunnels were now silent and deserted, dark passages leading in all directions.
With a wave of his hand, Xiao Fei summoned a large group of crudely made puppets. In their construction, he had prioritized extreme cost-saving. Many puppets lacked even a complete face, and some even lacked heads. He simply created a clumsy body and attached over a dozen arms for labor. These puppets were made in his spatial dimension in a hurry, with practicality being the sole focus, saving on anything superfluous.
With a wave of his hand, hundreds of puppets marched into the various mine shafts in an orderly fashion. Although these puppets were simple in construction, their strength was not weak, with the weakest possessing Golden Core cultivation. A puppet with over a dozen arms, each wielding a magical treasure-grade blade, cut through the spirit stone-embedded rock walls as if slicing tofu, cleanly separating entire sections.
Xiao Fei directly collected entire rock formations into his spatial dimension. The spirit stones were embedded within the rocks, and after collection, they would need to be painstakingly extracted from the stone, piece by piece. With hundreds of these puppets mining spirit stones in the most brutal manner simultaneously, they emptied the entire spirit stone vein in just over half an hour.