A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

Sorting out the talismans, Aksai stood quietly before Kalina’s corpse. He folded his arms and fell into thought before sighing in the end.

"Tch. What a pity."

He slowly shook his head.

"Sadly, my Fiend Creation Technique isn’t advanced enough to refine the corpse of a Core Formation Lord."

His eyes swept across Kalina’s body once more.

"Otherwise... she would have become a top-notch Fiend in my collection."

His voice carried genuine regret.

Kalina’s cultivation base was only one reason.

More importantly, she possessed excellent combat instincts, rich battle experience, and an outstanding foundation. If someone like her could be transformed into a Sentient Fiend while preserving most of her intelligence, she would become an extremely valuable subordinate.

Unfortunately, that was currently beyond Aksai’s abilities.

The Fiend Creation Technique was something Aksai had developed himself. More accurately, it was a cultivation art jointly created by him and Nuri. Its foundation came from combining the core principles of the Bloodfiend Manual and the Scarecrow Puppet Technique.

Both were high-grade puppet creation arts.

However, neither of them contained the Chapters corresponding to the Core Formation Realm, at least not in the records possessed by Aksai.

The inheritances he possessed ended before reaching the Lord Realm. Under normal circumstances, Aksai should have been unable to continue using the technique after entering the Core Formation Realm.

Yet Nuri had changed everything.

Through endless analysis, deduction, and countless simulated experiments inside her virtual sandboxes, she had gradually completed the missing portions. Her vast database proved invaluable during this process.

That was why the Fiend Creation Technique could still barely keep up with Aksai’s current cultivation and needs.

Even so, its limits had become increasingly obvious, especially now that he was on the verge of becoming a late-stage Lord.

The Sentient Fiends it produced were still remarkably intelligent compared to ordinary puppets created through techniques of the same grade. They could think independently for the most part, learn to some extent, and adapt.

Some even retained fragments of their former personalities thanks to Nuri’s subroutine control.

However, their overall strength had started falling behind Aksai’s needs.

Creating a Third-Order Sentient Fiend from the corpse of an ordinary cultivator was also impossible because the main foundation of the technique—the corpse itself—was not strong enough to form a Corpse Pill within it. A Corpse Pill was similar to a Lord’s Spirit Core. However, instead of storing Spirit Essence, it accumulated Yin Essence and various death-related energies.

Aksai’s current Fiend Creation Technique simply had no way to strengthen a corpse enough for it to survive a Celestial Tribulation and form a Corpse Pill.

A Lord’s corpse, on the other hand, was already strong enough to survive a Celestial Tribulation to some extent. At the very least, the chances of a Lord-level corpse surviving the tribulation were far higher than trying to upgrade a Second-Order Fiend into a Third-Order one.

Alas, Aksai had no way to transform a Spirit Core into a Corpse Pill. Otherwise, he would have obtained his first Third-Order Fiend by now.

Aksai immediately gave up on experimenting with Kalina’s corpse.

Trying to refine the corpse of a late-stage Core Formation Lord was simply impossible for him, even with Nuri’s help.

His gaze lingered on Kalina’s peaceful face.

"So much potential... but I can’t make use of it."

He let out a helpless sigh.

"Never mind. I’ll preserve the corpse for now. I’ll think of a way to use it after obtaining a suitable Third-Order puppet creation technique."

That seemed like the most sensible decision.

Destroying such a valuable corpse now just to upgrade the Fiend Creation Technique to the Third Order through trial and error would only be shortsighted.

Experiments of that scale would require dozens of Core Formation Lord corpses.

Where would he even find that many?

Even though more Lords from the Empire were bound to arrive sooner or later, Aksai had no intention of setting traps for them in advance.

Killing Kalina was enough for him to understand the Empire’s strength and intentions.

If he continued fooling around like this, sooner or later he would be the one who suffered.

At that point, someone else would be searching for ways to turn him into a useful puppet after his death.

With a wave of his hand, space rippled faintly before him. The entrance to the Enchanted Everwood Farm silently opened.

Kalina’s corpse slowly floated into the air under the guidance of his Spirit Sense.

Despite everything that had happened during the battle, her body remained mostly intact.

The Void Gu had destroyed only her heart. Their attacks had left almost no external injuries.

As for Serya’s venom, it posed little problem.

If necessary, Aksai could always extract the poison before beginning the refinement process in the future. The venom itself had not permanently damaged the corpse, at least not to the extent that it would interfere with puppet creation.

Without hesitation, Aksai sent Kalina’s body into the Enchanted Everwood Farm.

The moment it entered the pocket world, he immediately contacted Yelia through his connection with the farm.

"Yelia."

A gentle voice quickly answered.

"Master."

Aksai gave his instructions through their mental connection.

"Preserve this corpse. There should be enough Third-Order herbs and preservation resources inside the farm. I don’t want its essence to deteriorate."

"I understand."

Yelia accepted the task without asking any questions.

She immediately began arranging various preservation herbs, medicinal liquids, and nourishing Spirit plants around Kalina’s body.

Inside the Everwood Farm, preserving a Lord’s corpse for many years was not a difficult task.

Watching through his connection with the farm, Aksai nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. Let’s wait until I find a suitable inheritance."

He smiled faintly.

"Perhaps... one day you’ll become my first—and eventually one of my strongest—Third-Order Fiends."

Aksai smiled to himself as the thought crossed his mind.

His gaze then slowly swept across the ruined ground until it landed on dozens of lifeless bodies scattered everywhere.

They belonged to the royal faction.

The Spirit Gathering Novices and the Foundation Establishment Experts. Almost all of them had died terrible deaths.

Some had been blown apart by the Gu Poison Bombs. Others had been torn apart by the disposable Fiends Aksai had released earlier.

Many corpses carried signs of poison corrosion. Others had missing limbs or broken bones.

Aksai merely glanced at them before shaking his head.

"They’re in terrible shape."

Still, he had no intention of leaving them behind for various reasons. He first collected the storage rings and other storage-type artifacts of these dead cultivators and sent them into the farm.

Then with a wave of his hand, corpse after corpse floated into the air under the guidance of his Spirit Sense before disappearing into his storage ring.

He showed no hesitation. These bodies were valuable resources. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Unlike Kalina’s corpse, these cultivators simply weren’t strong enough for him to pay special attention to.

Their cultivation bases were too low, their foundations too ordinary. Even so, Aksai could still make excellent use of them.

Recently, he had been running dangerously low on "raw materials" for the Fiend Creation Technique. His recent battles had consumed far too many disposable Fiends. Especially during the assault against the royal faction.

He had practically ordered wave after wave of them to charge toward the enemy in suicidal attacks.

Although they had accomplished their purpose, the losses had not been small.

Fortunately, the battle had replenished part of his supply and even added to the lost count.

Aksai still possessed several Sentient Fiends inside the Enchanted Everwood Farm.

However, he had no intention of using them unless absolutely necessary.

Those Sentient Fiends were no longer merely battle puppets. They had become workers.

Caretakers.

Craftsmen.

Laborers.

Every day, they maintained the Enchanted Everwood Farm, tending Spirit fields, harvesting herbs, managing resources, and assisting with countless routine tasks. They had become an indispensable part of the farm’s operation.

Sacrificing them on the battlefield whenever possible would simply be wasteful. Disposable Fiends existed precisely to prevent that from happening.

Aksai looked at the damaged corpses inside his storage ring and nodded slightly.

"Hmm. The condition isn’t ideal but it’s still acceptable."

Most of the damage could be repaired during the refinement process.

Broken bones could be replaced with metal ore bones. Missing flesh could be restored using refined

Damaged organs could be reconstructed.

The Fiend Creation Technique already contained methods for repairing damaged bodies before transforming them into puppets.

More importantly, Aksai never lacked refinement materials.

Inside the Enchanted Everwood Farm, he possessed an enormous stockpile of First-Order and Second-Order Spirit herbs, medicinal plants, ores, monster materials, and countless other cultivation resources. Repairing these corpses would cost him little.

The Spirit Gathering corpses would mostly become disposable Fiends. They were perfect for dangerous missions where survival wasn’t expected.

As for the Foundation Establishment Experts, Aksai believed several of them still had enough intact potential to become Sentient Fiends.

They would not be particularly strong. But strength wasn’t the only thing he valued.

Additional hands were always useful. Especially intelligent ones. The Everwood Farm never seemed to run out of work.

Aksai smiled faintly.

"It seems tonight wasn’t a complete loss after all."