Xiao Fei, with his Iron Fire Ants and zombies, managed to wear down a Golden Core realm expert, though he himself suffered heavy losses.
Of his hundred thousand Iron Fire Ants, only a little over ten thousand remained. His zombies were reduced to just five.
However, he obtained the corpse of a Golden Core expert and all the belongings of the evil cultivators who had fallen into the canyon.
At the time, the storage bags of these evil cultivators had been confiscated by the Golden Core evil cultivator, and anything edible had already been consumed.
But there were still a large number of inedible items. Just the various spiritual artifacts alone numbered two to three hundred, with each spiritual artifact priced at at least 1,000 spirit stones, some of higher quality costing tens of thousands of spirit stones.
These spiritual artifacts alone could be sold for hundreds of thousands of spirit stones.
There were also piles of spiritual materials for refining artifacts, crafting talismans, and setting up formations.
And countless jade slips.
Evil cultivators often spent their lives either killing or fleeing from pursuit, lacking trustworthy companions and experiencing extreme insecurity.
Therefore, evil cultivators preferred to carry all their wealth on their person.
This fortunate turn of events benefited Xiao Fei, as it all became his spoils of war.
Of course, among these numerous treasures, the most valuable was the black sword magic treasure belonging to the Golden Core evil cultivator.
At that time, when the evil cultivator unleashed this treasure, it emitted black light that could sever life force, making it extremely sinister.
Xiao Fei held the magic treasure in his hand and tried to infuse it with his spiritual power to control it.
However, he was nearly drained dry, and the magic treasure only managed a slight tremor.
As for the skull that could spew demonic flames, he searched the Golden Core evil cultivator's body thoroughly but found no trace of it.
Xiao Fei was somewhat disappointed, as he had witnessed the power of this skull; within a hundred zhang, nothing could survive, and all his Iron Fire Ants and zombies had been incinerated.
Xiao Fei carried the Golden Core evil cultivator's corpse back to the lakebed space.
"Second Sister, I've brought you something delicious!"
As Xiao Fei spoke, he tossed the corpse onto the grass in front of Xiao Lan.
"This is a Golden Core expert?"
A Golden Core expert possessed a Golden Core within them. Even after death, it could usually be preserved, and one could discern it with a spiritual sense scan.
Xiao Lan's face showed surprise, which quickly turned into exasperation, and she grabbed Xiao Fei's ear.
"You've gotten bold? Challenging a Golden Core expert alone! What if you had died?"
She was furious that Xiao Fei would undertake such a dangerous task. The Xiao family had only this one descendant left. What made her even angrier was that he hadn't taken her along.
"Second Sister! It hurts, it hurts!"
With his ear pulled up, Xiao Fei could only stand on tiptoe.
"You're overthinking it. How could I have such ability? He jumped into the lake and drowned himself. I just picked up a corpse."
"See, I'm perfectly fine, not even a hair out of place."
Xiao Lan was somewhat skeptical and scrutinized Xiao Fei from head to toe. He truly didn't look like someone who had just battled a Golden Core expert.
"You really just found it?"
"Really! Absolutely he drowned himself by jumping into the lake." Xiao Fei patted his chest to guarantee it.
"Second Sister, quickly check if the remnant soul is still there?"
Xiao Fei, to be safe, had waited until the opponent was completely dead before daring to collect the corpse. He wasn't sure if the remnant soul had dissipated.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Lan transformed into a wisp of green smoke and merged into the corpse.
After a long while, Xiao Lan flew out of the corpse, her aura fluctuating violently.
Since entering Ying Shan Country, her diet had been excellent, and her cultivation had reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.
Now, after devouring the remnant soul of the Golden Core evil cultivator, her aura surged again, reaching the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
She was now only a small step away from crossing the threshold and breaking through to the Golden Core realm, becoming a Ghost Commander.
However, this step was extremely perilous for a ghost cultivator, and it was highly possible she could perish.
Leaving the Golden Core evil cultivator's corpse, she dared not use her blood threads to devour it again. She feared that taking one more step would invite heavenly lightning strikes.
She needed to make some preparations at least, to increase the success rate of transcending the tribulation.
Xiao Fei looked at the Golden Core corpse on the grass and began to formulate a plan.
He had inherited the sect leader's methods of refining corpses. Over the years, through his own exploration, he had gained considerable insight into the path of corpse refinement, otherwise, he wouldn't have been known as a corpse driver in the evil cultivator world.
Normal people used corpses as materials for refining corpses. Only evil cultivators with flawed minds, like the sect leader, would use living people to refine corpses.
This Golden Core corpse before him was indeed an excellent material for corpse refinement.
That old fellow had destroyed so many of his zombies. It was only fitting that he should use his physical body to settle the debt. After all, in this day and age, many people repaid debts with their bodies.
"Second Sister, if you don't want this corpse, I'm taking it away!"
As Xiao Fei spoke, he dragged the Golden Core evil cultivator's corpse back to the secret chamber, closed the door, and entered the space.
Inside the space, the Iron Fire Ant queen was mating with over a dozen male ants. After mating, they would lay a large batch of ant eggs.
The ant eggs laid earlier had been taken by Xiao Fei to stir-fry and eat. With the heavy losses of the Iron Fire Ants this time, it was naturally impossible to eat them again.
Since he began cultivating Iron Fire Ants, this was now the third generation of ant queens.
The third-generation ant queen was several times more powerful than the first generation, and the offspring they bred were also stronger.
Within the space, there was a spiritual peach orchard, and one of the spiritual peach trees grew rather unusually.
When he reached Foundation Establishment, the space underwent a massive transformation, its area increasing more than tenfold. This tree also began to mutate.
By now, the tree's mutation had finally completed.
The spiritual peaches were larger than before, and the spiritual energy they contained was more concentrated.
Eating one spiritual peach had an effect comparable to consuming a second-tier Yang Yuan Pill.
The most important thing was that the taste was even better – fresh, tender, and juicy, with juice overflowing with every bite, and a fragrant peach aroma filling the air.
Xiao Fei, pulling the Golden Core evil cultivator's corpse, passed by the peach orchard and couldn't help but take a deep breath of the spiritual peach fragrance.
In a corner of the space, Xiao Fei had specifically set aside an area for refining zombies.
Xiao Fei tossed the Golden Core evil cultivator's corpse into a medicinal pool and added some more medicinal liquid.
Xiao Fei had personally experienced the effectiveness of this medicinal liquid for corpse refinement. Its effects were undeniable; everyone who used it praised it, with zero negative reviews to date.
Next, it would require time for the medicinal liquid to slowly permeate the corpse and modify its physique.
Because dead bodies absorbed medicinal properties slowly, the sect leader had thought of using living people for corpse refinement.
Living people absorbed medicinal properties ten times faster and more effectively than corpses.
Therefore, it would take a long time for this Golden Core corpse to be fully refined into a zombie.
Xiao Fei left the space after soaking the corpse in the medicinal liquid, only entering occasionally to check on it, perhaps to turn it over.
While waiting for the zombie to be successfully refined, Xiao Fei had already begun to ponder the path of artifact refining.
The Soul Nurturing Wood in the space continued to grow, now taller than Xiao Fei.
Its thicker branches were about the size of an egg.
Xiao Fei was reluctant to chop down the entire tree. He planned to use a relatively thick branch of the Soul Nurturing Wood for now to refine a larger dwelling for his second sister. He couldn't refine artifacts yet, so he would craft something rudimentary for now, just to get by.
When the Soul Nurturing Wood grew further and his artifact refining skills improved, he would refine a deluxe version for his second sister.
Since the Golden Core evil cultivator had drowned, he had collected many jade slips related to artifact refining.
The more than a hundred evil cultivators who had fallen into the canyon each had their own areas of expertise.
The jade slips they carried contained a wide variety of information.
Among these deceased evil cultivators were several excellent artifact refiners. The jade slips they left behind were perfectly suited for Xiao Fei to learn the path of artifact refining.