A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

With Kalina’s corpse safely preserved, the two rare talismans now attached to his body, and dozens of fresh materials for future Fiend refinement, the battle had yielded far more than Aksai had initially expected.

Aksai then took one final look across the battlefield.

The corpses had all been collected. The valuable items had been secured.

The only things left behind were scattered pieces of flesh, broken bones, pools of blood, and the remains of the disposable Fiends that had blown themselves apart during the battle.

The ground looked like a butcher’s yard.

He frowned slightly.

"It is indeed true what they say. The greater the risk, the greater the reward. But tonight’s battle really surpassed my earlier expectations. I couldn’t control the battlefield as efficiently as I wanted to."

He looked at the devastated surroundings before continuing.

"Even the quality and number of cultivators below the Lord Realm casually fielded by the royal faction are not something the Big Five Sects or the Major Three Demonic Sects can comfortably contend with. It is even less relevant to speak about the other sects present on the mainland."

He shook his head slightly.

"The royal faction’s cultivators are indeed valuable resources. But if I have to face them again in the next battle, I should prepare even more thoroughly. Wasting good resources isn’t something a Spirit Farmer should do, no matter how strong or powerful he becomes."

His eyes swept across the battlefield once more.

"Looking at the scene, I lost at least thirty percent of the corpses that could have been turned into Fiends had they remained intact."

Aksai felt the same sting a miser would feel after being forced to host an extravagant feast, only to witness the aftermath of such lavish spending.

He had indeed spent lavishly for this battle, relatively speaking. Forget about the disposable Fiends he had dispatched and lost in the battle. The Void Gu Bombs and the False King Essence Pills were rare resources. He didn’t have many of them in stock at this point. And it wasn’t easy to make them.

He sighed.

Then he shook his head and continued,

"Forget it. I can’t be too fixated on preserving enemy corpses every time. At least not against the Empire’s cultivators. It’s always better to fight with everything I have instead of underestimating anyone."

He paused briefly before adding,

"That being said... I’ll still have to do a cleanup job here."

He had no intention of leaving even these chopped remains and other traces behind.

Kalina was not a wandering cultivator. She belonged to one of the imperial factions of the Shinayin Empire. Sooner or later, her disappearance would be discovered.

The destruction of the entire royal faction army placed under her command would also be noticed.

When that happened, someone would certainly investigate.

Aksai did not know what methods those people possessed.

Perhaps they had tracking techniques. Perhaps they could reconstruct scenes from lingering Spirit Essence. Or perhaps they had strange abilities related to the Threads of Fate that he had never even heard of.

He wasn’t arrogant enough to believe the Empire lacked such methods.

Which was precisely why he refused to leave behind unnecessary clues.

Better safe than sorry.

He slowly circulated his Spirit Essence.

Behind his back, the muscles shifted.

Then, a thick vine burst out from behind him.

No...

It looked more like a tail.

A long green tail covered in bark-like scales extended several meters behind him before curling through the air.

At its tip, instead of ending normally, a snake’s head slowly emerged.

This was Verdant Elder’s snake tail.

After gaining the initial mastery of the Qi Shell Technique and reaching the initial-peak stage of the Aurous Body Realm, Aksai had finally managed to acquire this ability.

In fact, he could also summon the snake tail in the form of condensed Qi, just as he could manifest Verdant Elder’s turtle shell. With Aksai’s current ability in the body cultivation path, the turtle shell and snake tail in the condensed Qi forms weren’t really useful when they were used against someone like Kalina. As such, Aksai didn’t bother.

Plus, manifesting Verdant Elder’s snake tail in its True Manifestation and treating it as a part of his own body required much finer control over the Qi Shell Technique. That was why he had been unable to use it during his battle against Kalina.

Aksai was not really good at using fire-element Spirit Spells. His Spirit Root Aptitude made him unable to wield the flames spells with much potency. However, the Verdant Elder’s snake tail was different.

Due to it being the result of mutation in the Verdant Elder, the snake tail was like another creature with its own consciousness and personality. The snake tail also had its own well-defined aura and Spirit Signature, which was distinct from Aksai or any other cultivator.

And yet, it had no separate identity apart from that of the Verdant Elder’s. Plus, the Verdant Elder itself had been transformed into an Aether Beast, which was beyond the understanding of Dadangar World.

Using the snake tail for cleaning the battlefield would make it harder for the cultivators to know who did it even if they were to apply top tier investigation techniques. This was the perfect clean-up tool post battle.

The snake’s emerald eyes opened as soon as it appeared. Its jaws slowly parted. The creature silently looked around the battlefield as though waiting for an order.

Aksai pointed toward the ground.

"Burn everything."

The snake hissed softly.

The next moment, the snake tail extended as if an immortal whip with no end. The snake head acted on his own as it flew across the battlefield while spewing flames.

Whoosh!

A torrent of crimson flames burst from its mouth. The fire swept across the battlefield like a living wave.

Pieces of flesh instantly blackened. Blood evaporated with loud sizzling sounds. Broken bones cracked before turning into ash.

The remains of the disposable Fiends burned especially quickly. Their puppet bodies collapsed into black dust within moments.