Chapter 7
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/Around half a day after Sun descended on the Dead Planet…/
"GUOOOOOOO!!!"
"Damn… They just don't stop coming… They've completed filled some streets."
'It seems they're coming from another section of the city… maybe they've been hidding there?'
/Sha…/
"You know what? I'm going back to sleep…"
It had been already over four hours since Sun settled down above the shopping mall. Throughout those four hours, he did many things, including exploring the mall as the zombies perished around him.
With his cultivation, he could easily resist the power of the formation and explore the area.
Like that, he found many things in the rubble.
"First, I've confirmed this isn't Earth but another planet entirely. It's a bit bigger than Earth and has more landmass; however, the overall technology and culture are the same. Maybe humans are just like that at a fundamental level."
'Or my thoughts caused the mirror to send me here, somewhere familiar…'
"I can't read their books, but I can still make sense of images. Once I have the time, I'll try to familiarize myself slowly with their language so I can seek answers to what happened."
'Relying on some old newspapers and books isn't going to help me. But from the looks of it, the world was taken by a sudden storm. I need to determine if this was caused by war or an infection, man-made or natural… alien… or by the laws of Heaven.'
/Sha sha sha!/
"Hm?... You can't wait to devour that?... Fine, I was bored, take as much as you want."
Sun could roughly understand what his Centipede wanted, but this was the worst it would ever be. As its cultivation increased, so would its intelligence, and according to some records he read, powerful enough beasts were as intelligent if not brighter than most men.
Of course, the rate at which a creature grew smarter varied. Monkeys usually grew as smart as men when they reached Golden Core in strength.
Sun hadn't read many examples of such happening though, and even then, they were faded and old… Spiritual Beasts and the like had long vanished from the Guamo continent, probably one of the many signs of the Heavens changes and human brutality.
/Jump!/
/Absorb!/
/Shaa…/
"What?... Already?"
Barely a few seconds had passed and his centipede flew out of the Blood Essence ball, crawling back to his feet, bloated.
/Sha…/
"Hm… Aha! I see now!"
'In the end, this is but a nymph. It'll have to go through many molts to eventually reach its adult size. Despite all the energy it absorbed, it kept its birth appearance. No wonder it was so eager for more… it was holding itself back from molting and growing.'
"Sigh, I wronged you, friend."
/Sha!/
"Go now, grow… But you'll need some nutrients, and zombie flesh is… I have an idea."
Sun walked to the side, opening the spatial ring.
"Here, take these old pills… Although their spirituality is gone, its nutrients are still there."
'It was once a pill to help a Golden Core Cultivator break through to Nascent Soul, but the gem absorbed its spirituality, and now it's useless.'
'In this world, I have yet to find any clue of sustenance aside from a few old cans of food, which I don't dare to eat. These old pills are the only source of nutrients I may have…'
'I'm thankful for my hauling days, I have far too many items that can now be used for sustenance. Although their Spirituality is gone, it was their Spiritual Qi that preserved them for so long in the first place.'
"The only solution I can think of is for me is to spread Life Qi back into this world and see if I can miraculously grow trees again… Some seeds can last years buried on the ground, so a few should sprout if I inject enough Life Qi over a wide enough area."
"Life Qi is also rejuvenating, so even if they're dead, it might bring them back… In the worst scenario, I could use some of the seeds I brought but those are all Spiritual plants… they'll take far too long to grow even if I feed them with abundant energy. I'll starve before they sprout in some cases…"
"In any case, that's a long-term solution… now, take it, little guy."
/Grab…/
The nymph held the giant pill with its tiny mandibles before slithering to a corner in the ceiling, slowly weaving out a cocoon under Sun's watchful eye.
Once completed, it began its transformation.
"... Maybe I should also get myself going…"
/Step…/
He walked onto the blood pool, eventually standing right underneath the Blood Essence ball.
"Alright, it's now or never. I'll aim straight at the next stage."
"Let's go! Blood Essence Platform, activate!"
/SHINE/
/INJECT!/
"HAAAAA!!!"
/BREAK!/
Seventh Stage of Qi Refinement…
/BREAK!/
Eight Stage of Qi Refinement…
/BREAK!/
Ninth Stage of Qi Refinement…
/SHINE!!/
Peak of the Qi Refinement Stage!
His body began to ascend as his Qi kept rising…
/GLOW!/
Half-Step into the Foundation Establishment Realm!
"Hooo! There's still more in me! My body is far from done!"
'I must rein it in… This berserking power… It wants me to unleash it, but that's not the path I wish to tread.'
'I control this energy! It'll obey me and no one else! I'm not a Devil, nor a Demon nor Immortal!'
"This is my own path! Break again! The limits of my flesh!"
He could feel it, the invisible barrier inside his body, the strange force surrounding his mind, stomach, vessels, and cells…
"SHATTER!"
/BREAK!/
First Stage of Foundation Establishment!
/BREAK!!/
Second Stage of Foundation Establishment!
/BREAK!/
Third Stage of Foundation Establishment!
/BAM!/
A large echo rang above the mall as all the blood surrounding Sun splattered in all directions.
He slowly descended onto the floor once more… "I can feel it. My body is unrestrained, as if I could take to the skies if I wanted to. But that's only an illusion."
'Whenever you break through a new realm, a cultivator will temporarily feel the strength of their realm's peak. They call this phenomenon Breakthrough's Dream.'
'For a moment, you dream of your future self… And I can feel it, the power to stand equal to the Heavens…'
"The Golden Core Realm."
/Step…/
He scratched his chin, "Hoo… This probably took me around three thousand zombies… To break through the Golden Core Realm, I may need somewhere around fifty thousand zombies…"
"And then, to reach Nascent Soul, I'll probably have to consume… somewhere around a million zombies. And breaking through to the Soul Formation Stage may take me an entire country's population."
"It's about how it was back on the Guamo Continent. However, back then, high-profile Devilish practitioners would sacrifice entire cities of Cultivators as they're more energy efficient."
"If I could find a few dozen Foundation Establishment Cultivators, things would've been simpler, too… Wait… Maybe I can do that…"
Sun had an idea, "I was thinking of refining some Immortal Soldiers, but maybe… What if I refine some Corpse Puppets?"
Immortal Soldiers were a vile creation made from the bones of hundreds of cultivators melted together into one singular vessel containing their entire power.
It was powered by True Qi, which was easy for him to get. Sun planned to use them to help him carve a formation around the entire city and cut down time.
But now… If he gathers thousands of zombies, he could have the zombies devour each other and grow. The strong ones can then be refined into corpse puppets, which can be used to cultivate and grow stronger.
It's all about efficiency. Sun could either use this method to improve it, or he could sharpen his formations further… Why not both?
"I'll have to be creative with my methods, but if I have a few hundred Corpse Puppets cultivating using Dead Qi, I can later sacrifice them to a formation and convert Dead Qi into Life Qi all at once!"
"These Zombies are technically alive, so as long as I change how the formations work a little… yeah… I have to try it out!" He said excitedly as he clenched his fist
"But first… I'll stabilize my cultivation and reach the next realm. I must also begin cultivating my techniques now that I'm a Foundation Establishment Cultivator."
"Speaking of that… What should I practice?..."
'So many options…'
…
/Later that day… As the sun slowly went out/
"Strange… The Dead Qi is getting thicker…"
/Thud…/
"Hm?..."
/Thud…/
On one street leading to the Mall's entrance, a tall humanoid creature slowly crawled towards him, going over everything in its path. An amalgamation of flesh and bone, it exuded a tall collum of Dead Qi visible for miles away…
"Well, well, well… That's new."
'I knew some zombies had mutated or strangely fused together, but I hadn't thought they could get like this.'
'This pressure… it's like a High-Level Foundation Establishment Cultivator! But this Blood and True Qi… this is a literal walking vault!!'
"And here I thought I would be having to make Corpse Puppets… These guys already figured out how to do something similar."
'If I can just use these mutating zombies… or if I figure out how they do it, then "farming" them isn't completely out of the window.'
/Thud…/
"Oh please, come to me, I'm more than happy to welcome you." He muttered to himself as he turned around
'I should be able to defeat it in my current state even if there's a difference in our strength, but I'm not a fighter… Besides, it's a creature I never saw before, and I'm unsure how strong it truly is. I can estimate its power based on the Dead Qi it exudes, but that's inconclusive. It could have the power of a Golden Core Cultivator.'
'And that would mean my end.'
"The mall has three floors. Once it gets on the entrance, its body will erode, and even if it rampages around, it shouldn't have the power to collapse everything before it's sucked dry."
'Maybe I should've spent some time applying some formations to strengthen the surroundings… well, now I know.'
"To ensure it dies quickly, I'll power the Formation. Let's see how long it'll last…"
…
/Half an hour later…/
"Fuck me, no wonder this thing took so long to get here… It's awfully slow. And it's taller than I expected, so I'm afraid it won't pass through the entrance…"
/SMASH!/
/Tremble…/
At that moment, the giant zombie smashed its body against the mall's entrance, collapsing it.
"Well… There goes my farming spot… But if I absorb its Blood Qi with what I gathered recently… I may be able to break through straight to the Golden Core realm, especially if I use one of the pills I brought with me."
/ROAAAAAAAAAAAARRR!!/
"Urg!!"
The creature uttered a horrendously loud cry, shaking Sun's eardrums and causing him to lose his balance.
/Tremble!/
/ROOAARR!/
/Tremble!/
"It's rampaging, it must've realized its body is decaying… At this rate, my mall is going to fall under."
"Very well, this is a good time for this."
/Gather…/
The Blood Qi on the formation condensed into a faint humanoid outline, and after a few seconds, it became exactly like him.
"A simple Blood Clone, Go! Distract him for me!"
/JUMP!/
The Blood Clone jumped to the Mall's entrance, rushing inside…
/ROAARRR!/
The trembling momentarily stopped, but the creature kept roaring as it ran after it…
One minute…
/ROAAR!/
Two minutes…
/ROAAAARR!/
Ten minutes…
/THUD!/
The massive creature finally fell as its body collapsed. But it was still alive, rampaging around.
The Clone walked next to it trying to get its attention, like candy before a baby, to avoid further damage.
Half an hour…
/Crunch…/
"It's done… I thought ridiculous, but maybe I can break through to the Golden Core today!"
Sun stepped into the Demonic Circle, and with a wide smile, he let the Blood Essence descend onto him.
"Blood Essence Platform, activate!"
/C-Crack!/
/BREAK!/
Fourth Stage of Foundation Establishment!
/BREAK!!/
Fifth Stage of Foundation Establishment!
/BREAK!/
Sixth Stage of Foundation Establishment!
/BREAK!/
Seventh Stage of Foundation Establishment!
/BREAK!/
Eighth Stage of Foundation Establishment!
"... The energy's almost over… I can't lose this momentum."
He reached for his ring, and something manifested on his palm, "... A Core Formation Pill, if I take it now it could be highly damaging… But when did a Demonic Cultivator ever care about that?"
/EAT!/
/SHINE!/
"AAARRRRRGGGGG!!!"
His veins grew as his body expanded from the influx of violent energy!
"I… Must… C-Condense it…"
The energy was trying to invade his Dantian and form the Golden Core, but it wasn't ready yet, his Cultivation was far too low… So it was destroying his body instead.
"BREAK!"
/CRACK!!/
Ninth Stage of Foundation Establishment!
'Not yet… I must raise my energy… and use the remainder of the Pill to form the Golden Core.'
'If I don't…'
"Tsk! I'm not holding back here!!"
/BURN!/
"HAAAAAA!!"
Sun began to burn the True Qi within his body, fusing it with the stored Qi he gathered before, and his energy once again exploded!
Something interesting happened, as from this reaction, the True Qi he gathered was consumed like a ball of napalm, igniting his Cultivation ablaze!!
/SHINE!!/
Peak of the Qi Foundation Establishment!
His Qi gathered around his Dantian, forming a faint golden curtain…
/GLOW!/
Half-Step into Golden Core Realm!
"HUOOOOOO!!!"
Clenching his teeth as blood seeped through very orifice, Sun let the rampaging energies converge on his Dantian, burning True Qi so it would resist the transformation.
/BREAK!/
First Stage of the Golden Core…
His body turned golden red as the dark mist surrounding him was expelled… It was like the sun shining through the clouds in the morning.
A complex symbol manifested before him as his body ascended to a new layer of existence!
In this stage, his body went through another transformation! His Revolving Heart Body became purer and more efficient, being integrated into his bloodline. His Demonic and Spiritual forces converged into one, shattering the line between them.
Now, he had truly achieved what he meant to do when he first created this constitution, to fuse the paths together into one!
His Dantian lit up with light, shining a path directly to his mind…
"Open! Mind's Eye!"
The first step in the Cultivation of the Golden Core… The Mind's eye!
Divine Sense!!
/BREAK!!/
Second Stage of the Golden Core!!!
/Shine…/
Sun slowly descended back to the ground, reveling in this foreign feeling… "Huff… I think I burned ten years of lifespan with that one… But it was worth it."
"A direct breakthrough to the second stage! Now that's a bounty…"
He opened and closed his fist, excited.
"With this, I can call myself a proper Cultivator… Now. It's time I began the cleanup of this city."
'I'll use this city as a base to learn more about this world and strengthen my foundation, practice more Arts and prepare.'
He then looked around, disappointed, "... My breakthrough shattered the entire ceiling. This place won't last long like this."
"Very well, I had enough of this place anyway… The problem is my centipede…"
'Hm… It shouldn't be too much of a problem to move the Cocoon around.'
"But first… I need to get the hang of flying…"
Once a cultivator breaks through to Golden Core, their Qi can lift them off the ground for extended periods of time.
Usually, as cultivation takes a long period to raise, a cultivator will get used to the changes. Not even feeling the difference as time went by.
But Sun's cultivation rose too quickly, and he's now confused about his own body…
"A-Ahem…"
/Fly…/
"This isn't that hard… Woah?!"
/Crash…/
"… No one can know this ever happened…" Sun said as he pushed himself off the rubble…
After a few minutes of experimentation, Sun brought the cocoon and his items with him back to his previous base before flying around the city, seeking something.
"If there was one such zombie, it's bound for more to exist… Oh, I found it."
In no time at all, Sun found a large gathering of Dead Qi, and at its center, he saw a massive zombie lying against a wall.
Another giant zombie, and in the middle of an expansive park!
'Perfect! I couldn't ask for more. Since I ended up devouring the other, this one will do.'
He went around the place without being noticed, slowly setting a formation with the zombie at its center…
/Around an hour later…/
/SHINE!/
/ROAARRR!/
Dozens of ethereal chains suddenly manifested in the air, trapping the giant zombie in place. It tried to free itself but it couldn't. It shook the world around it, but it barely moved an inch!
"That was easy… To think I would be able to trap a creature at the Peak of Foundation Establishment so easily… Now… for the next part."
/Open…/
/CLAP!/
Sun clapped his hands, causing a massive echo across the city.
'This one had to be heard within a few kilometers at the least. I'll gather all the zombies, and the strongest zombies will remain from their corpses! My very own Corpse Puppet.'
'And the rest… will become supplements for us.'
It was impossible to truly purify the city without a large-scale array, but with this method, all zombies capable of movement would eventually reach him, including the bigger ones.
/THUD…/
And they were already arriving.
"Manifest."
/RISE!/
A tall wall of blood formed between multiple buildings, isolating the area where the giant zombie was trapped.
"A thousand enter, one remains, the Gu poison ritual but with men. Fight, kill, devour, only the finest corpse will remain."
"With my refinement, a monster will be born." He said with a faint smile as he grasped the air
/Release…/
Sun released the zombie from the chains, and it soon began to rampage.
/ROAARR!/
Before long, dozens of zombies entered the arena and began fighting each other. Why? Because the array was also an illusion, the zombie mistakenly sensed Life Qi in its surroundings and was now attacking everything in its vicinity.
Zombies mostly moved by sensing the Qi in the environment and not through their senses, although some of the weaker ones were still profoundly reliant on them. If he made every zombie mistakenly sense Life Qi everywhere, they would begin fighting each other fiercely, like now.
As he learned from a few experiments, zombies seemed hellbent on devouring any Life Qi on their path and converting it into Dead Qi, which was why this was so full of it.
These Zombies had devoured it all.
"There's still much to learn, but that's why I'm here… One experiment at a time, one day of observations to be catalogued… I'll eventually figure it all out."
"There's definitely something strange going on with these zombies, something more… mystical. But that will have to wait for another time.
"Right now, I have another formation to set."
/ROAARR!/
…
The hours passed as Sun finished setting layer upon layer of formations on the walls of the buildings surrounding the arena.
When each zombie died, its body rapidly rotted and transformed into impure Spiritual Qi, which was then fed back into the Arena, strengthening everything inside.
Excess Qi would then gather atop the buildings, like glass marbles in the sky, reflecting sunlight in dark tints…
Quite psychedelic…
This way, over time, the arena became saturated with energy, making the zombies go berserk… growing stronger and stronger with each one they slew…
/CLANG!/
At the same time, the apartment buildings, which he promptly called 'towers', would release horrendously loud echoes so the sound could attract even more zombies throughout the whole city.
To prevent the towers and other structures supporting the formation from being damaged, Sun spent multiple days strengthening the formation and reinforcing the buildings so the zombies would be unknowingly directed where they should be.
"Hum… From my observations, some zombies seem to possess some rudimentary level of consciousness; however, about a third of them have shown complete immunity to the illusion formations. At least the ones that mess with the mind directly."
"Altering the terrain by meddling with the five senses is fine, but I have yet to understand how the zombies feel the surrounding energy… because I can't tackle that properly, some zombies aren't acting as I wanted unfortunately… it isn't a perfect Gu Crucible, but it works as intended."
"Multiple large zombies have made their way here. They seem to directly avoid clashing or going through large buildings and instead go through the roads. I wonder if this is a natural instinct, intelligence, or some fragment of their former selves… It's all so fascinating."
"There's still much to observe! But right now… I'm going back to sleep."
'Tomorrow I'll continue inspecting and improving the formations… I'll also seek out more books and other documents and continue studying them.'
"My goal is to find a school or a daycare with simple books so I can start learning the language… if I can, I also want to try fixing the old machines and investigating their technology for the truth I want may be contained within…"
"Anyhow… just another day in my life… isn't that right, little guy?" He asked out loud as he looked at the cocoon on the side
'It's still going through its transformation… well… I'm the one who's rushing things, so I suppose this much time is natural.'
"Let's keep doing our best."
'I'll make the towers even louder so more zombies can reach us. I want all the city to hear us!!'
…
It had been around ten days since Sun had arrived in this world…
"... Is it over?" Sun asked as he opened his eyes
Sitting in a meditative lotus position, Sun quickly felt the silence in the arena, "Finally… A victor has emerged."
"If there's silence, it means all the Greater Zombies are gone and only the strongest is left… smaller zombies might still be making their way here, but they matter little. I didn't set this formation to clear the whole city anyway."
"Hooo… I can feel it, the Blood Qi is also exuberant."
Even if many zombies were lost or trapped somewhere in the city, Sun believed that at least 70% of this city's zombies had been sacrificed here over the last few days.
And that amounted to over 400000 zombies. Sun estimated this city probably had around half a million residents at its peak, maybe a bit more… You couldn't discount the animals and other creatures that were devoured!
He didn't know why these zombies had so little energy deeming all the potential Life Qi they consumed, but given the density of energy in the air, it all might've just decayed instead…
"Urg, the stench is absolutely unbearable… and I practically lived with corpses for half a century…"
/Pressure…/
"Ho?..."
Amidst piles of burning bodies, a single creature remained standing. A zombie with a burning body, it remained still, surrounded by strange zombie corpses.
"There you are… the strongest Greater Zombie… I'll call you an Irregular!"
'This zombie is burning because its body cannot contain the excessive Dead Qi that was forcibly injected into it by the formation. It can probably grow this strong naturally, but only through whatever process that originally mutated it… this is far beyond what it can take.'
"The only reason it's still here is because the formation is sustaining it…"
'Sixth… No… Seventh Stage of the Golden Core realm? Maybe even higher… Still not enough for me to reach Nascent Soul, but it doesn't matter much.'
"You're mine now."
"... Grrr…"
Due to the formation in place, the zombie did not notice his presence even as Sun approached him.
/Raise…/
Still, he couldn't play around. One wrong move and it would detect him. So before the creature noticed him, he raised the small metal stake he had brought with him and punctured the zombie's skull with it!
/SPLAT!/
As the metal rod punctured its brain, the zombie became completely unresponsive as it remained in place.
"Time to finish this."
…
For the next hour, Sun drew formation circles around the zombie before clasping his hands together.
/CONDENSE!/
The flames on the zombie's body condensed, and with it, the black flames receded back onto his skin.
"This won't last much long."
/BLAST!/
With his right hand, he blew a crater on the ground and threw the zombie inside before controlling the large formation around the park.
/POUR!/
Red rain began to pour inside the hole, submerging the zombie in it, causing steam to rise.
"The Blood Essence will nourish the body and strengthen it. Now, I only need to finish the final formation and refine the Corpse Puppet."
/CARVE!/
He began carving the earth around the zombie. It was a crude process, but he had to use what he had at his disposal.
And about two hours later…
"ACTIVATE!"
/SHINE!/
/SPLASH!/
He clasped his hands and circulated his inner energy immediately after he felt his True Qi be absorbed like a tide. But instead of letting himself be drained, he controlled the large formation and poured the gathered True Qi into the zombie, strengthening it.
"Urg… The energy's too violent… Shit… at this rate, the zombie will explode!'
He focused, feeling the zombie bloating as its body broke under the pressure.
And after an hour battling fate…
/BAAAAAMM!!!/
The crater exploded, throwing blood all around.
"Arg… Huff… Huff… Hahaha…"
'Worse than I thought, but… '
"I succeeded!"
A black zombie covered in red inscriptions on its skin rose from the crater, standing silently before Sun.
"It's strength… It's probably around Half-Step into Nascent Soul. Without a conscience and Soul, this is the best I can do."
'The only way to push a Zombie's strength beyond that without tapping into the Soul is through body cultivation, but I lack the resources for that.'
"Maybe if I had spent a few months to prepare, the result would've been better, but it doesn't matter."
"I'd say I already exceeded myself; the number of Demonic Masters that could refine a Puppet stronger than them in such little time without resources can be counted on one hand. And that was while having to alter the formations to fit this unusual scenario… I'm quite talented." He said with a smirk as he cracked his neck
'The only thing I used aside from the corpses of hundreds of thousands were the programmable Formation Cores… and a few other items from the ring.'
'I spent the last few days investigating the ring while I studied the language of this world…'
"Welcome to the world, my puppet!" He said with an evil smile as he opened his arms wide
The red sun high in the sky, this was the day the Blood Demon created his first slave.
…
"Hum… It's awfully silent. But it doesn't matter. I can use the corpse puppet to refine the Dead Qi more efficiently. I'll keep feeding it into him and eventually refine everything at once when the time comes."
"At the same time, I'll try to figure out what these creatures are… but that will take some time."
He looked at the apartment buildings, "Now then… time to raise my own strength. There's still a lot of Blood Qi left to be absorbed. I might have spent all of the True Qi, but there's an immense amount of Blood Essence up there."
"Once I break through, I'll move to another nearby city… hopefully one even bigger than this one… I'll probably repeat this process a few times over and make a few more corpse puppets until I reach the Nascent Soul realm."
"After I reach that realm, I can try to set up a large formation to refine the Dead Qi directly… I'll set up shop in a good environment where Dead Qi naturally pools and set up a city-wide formation to refine it into Life Qi."
"That'll be the beginning of my own holy land! From there I can slowly expand into other cities and create something like a state-wide formation… but that might be beyond the scope of a Nascent Soul cultivator."
"I can definitely do it… it'll just take a long time… scouting the area, making the calculations, adapting the formations… carving it, starting it… that might take me a decade to finish. But it's something I'll have to do eventually."
"If I want to revitalize this world, it's the only way… There's also the question of time. Is it faster for me to go around and set the formation, or is it more efficient for me to move around consuming city by city instead? Which one would lead me to Soul Formation faster?"
"I want to try reaching Soul Formation before I become 100 years old… I'm barely over 60 now. Once I reach Nascent Soul, I'll finally be within the age gap of talents… just a little more…"
He looked at the large zombie and smiled, "Let's get things going… You can go absorb the Dead Qi or whatever, I'll go breakthrough… Clear the area around us and make sure nothing approaches me." He said out loud as he took to the skies
/Nod…/
While the zombie wasn't very smart before, after being refined into a Corpse Puppet, its intelligent had grown quite a bit, enough for it to receive and process orders efficiently.
Of course, there was still much for it to learn before it could make full use of its intelligence. Right now, Sun had to make do with giving it orders directly with his energy, otherwise, it wouldn't understand.
It was almost akin to controlling it like a puppet, but that wasn't exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted a servant able to perform some basic tasks while he did something else. If he wanted a mobile battery unable to think, he'd have simplified the process.
…
/Swoosh…/
"Haaa… Let's begin."
'This much Blood Qi should be enough to push me to the 7th Step of the Golden Core. Then there's the Yin and Yang Qi I collected as well.'
'This time I made sure to do so. I couldn't abandon it this time… there's a way to absorb those too. After all, there are no lack of techniques that aim to do it.'
"Adapting those to fit my body won't take long. I'll be able to adapt them all in due time… Now, enough waiting."
He sat down on a designed platform at the center of the apartment's ceiling.
"Blood Essence Platform, activate!"
/SHINE/
/INJECT!/
"URG!!! COME ON!"
'It's even more violent than before!'
/BREAK!/
Third Stage of the Golden Core!
/BREAK!/
Fourth Stage of the Golden Core!
/BREAK!/
Fifth Stage of the Golden Core!
/SHINE!!/
Sixth Stage of the Golden Core!
"Just a bit more… I was planning on leaving this for later, but who cares!"
'I'll refine the Yin and Yang Qi right now!'
"Both essences combine to form the purest energy. Like in Dual Cultivation, I'll use the Heavens as my cauldron and refine the primordial human power!"
From the towers surrounding the park, the dark and white spheres of energy flew towards him, condensing high above in the sky.
/CRUNK!/
/CRUNK!/
As they mixed in the air, waves of energy washed over him, releasing tremendous power that cracked and shattered the world around them!
Each wave was as powerful as the aftershocks of a Nascent Soul Cultivator! It was the primordial essence of half a million humans clashing together!
"Combine… combine… little by little…" He mumbled as he sweated heavily
Such power was too much for him to control. Even a Nascent Soul master of the demonic path would be overwhelmed. But Sun was no mere master, he was a Grandmaster!
Even so…
"I can't lose control! Even if I have to use my True Qi again! I'll burn thousands of years of my lifespan to live eternally!"
'I want to see if you can still act like this if I burn another decade of my lifespan!'
/CRUNK!/
/CRUNK!/
"Two decades!!"
/CRUNK!/
/CRUNK!/
With his losing vitality, his cultivation also grew unstable, falling back to the 5th stage…
"Fuse!"
/SHINE!/
A ball of tremendous energy formed above his head, the prismatic energy casting down luminous rays in the world beneath.
"Huff… now… absorb!"
/INJECT!/
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
'I can't lose consciousness! This energy… It's far more violent than I originally intended! I underestimated the resulting force of these energies fusing…'
"But I will persevere… Come!"
/BREAK!/
Sixth Stage of the Golden Core!
/BREAK!/
Seventh Stage of the Golden Core!
/BREAK!/
Eight Stage of the Golden Core!
/BREAK!/
Ninth Stage of the Golden Core!
"THERE'S STILL ENERGY LEFT IN ME!!"
/SHINE!/
Peak of the Golden Core!
/BURST!/
His body burst with light, a golden ball of fire igniting on his stomach. His clothes were cast asunder, and everything around him melted as he floated above the twisting building.
As the energy began to subside, he slowly fell to the half-molten ceiling, uncaring about the heat and his condition.
"Haaa… huff… I… I did it… I need to… to rest down for a while."
He took a deep breath, inhaling the black air before quickly spitting it out.
"Cough… This place is in shambles… I did well by breaking through far from the cocoon. Otherwise, I could've killed it."
He looked at his body, it was far healthier than before. His skin was glossy, and his muscles were now defined. His hair had turned fully red, looking almost like a waterfall of blood…
"I'm hungry… I haven't eaten much in the last few days, and this breakthrough has pushed me beyond the comfort zone. Even with my power, I can't live off energy alone."
As he stretched his body, he floated away from the building, "Time to leave to the nearest city. I checked some maps and books during the last ten days, and I think there's a large city to the West. I should be getting there in a few hours at most."
"I'll break through to Nascent Soul there, and after that, I'll spend a few months studying and getting myself familiarized with this land before looking for a proper place to settle."
"I have to prepare. After all, once I reach Soul Formation, going around the place to gather energy just won't cut it… I'll never charge the mirror like that either."
"While this world is a paradise for a Demonic Cultivator like me… if I can even call myself that now, I don't really want to spend centuries or longer surrounded by death."
"I have to prepare a massive formation, one that can cover an entire country if not a continent… to refine a tremendous amount of energy and inject it into the gem."
"The reason the Sect failed was that despite all of their efforts, they were unable to fully charge it. Only when they Sect was ruined and they didn't need to hold back anymore were they able to charge it… I can't hold back here either."
"In the worst scenario, I might have to refine this whole planet to charge it. But I doubt that's enough… The energy equivalent to the realms above Soul Formation should suffice."
He thought deeply, "The realms above Soul Formation, according to some of the records, went by many names… During the age of myth, they were most commonly called…"
"Heavenly Tribulation."
"Soul Integration."
"Deity Transformation."
"And lastly… Divine Challenger. The final step is where a cultivator challenges the Heavens to ascend beyond its grasp."
"I fear the Cosmos Reflecting Gem can only be charged by someone either at the Heavenly Tribulation realm or at the Soul Integration Realm… Perhaps only someone at the Deity Transformation can do it multiple times, and perhaps only a Divine Challenger can make something like it."
"That said, dimensional traversal is still not something I can even begin to comprehend… It'll take quite some effort for me to get there. I fear that even if I were to refine ten billion zombies, I wouldn't reach Heavenly Tribulation beyond Soul Formation."
"Perhaps if I could set up a formation that encompasses this whole world… then I would be able to slowly make my way to that realm and beyond… but that would be more akin to ordinary Immortal cultivation than Devilish or Demonic…"
"Well… It's not like I lack the time. A Qi Refinement Cultivator can easily live 100 years while maintaining their youth. A Foundation Establishment Cultivator can reach 200 years if they're lucky, but it's common for people to spent their True Qi in multiple scenarios, be it during cultivation or during combat."
"Golden Core masters can live between that and 400 years. It depends on the techniques they practice… Lifespan only explodes once someone reaches Nascent Soul."
"Nascent Soul Cultivators can easily reach 500 years of age, but what matters most is their Soul, through certain techniques they can extend their live well past their vessel's death, potentially even reincarnating themselves in the body of a mortal… regardless of that, their Soul only has a lifespan of 1000 years."
"Soul Formation Cultivators can reach that 1000 years due to a closer connection between body and mind. However they cannot go past it due to the laws of heaven… Only Heavenly Tribulation that breach that barrier can live longer."
"In fact, it's said that if a Soul Formation master reaches 1000 years of age, a tribulation will descend on them, and if they survive, they'll automatically reach the next realm regardless of their previous cultivation."
"In any case, Heavenly Tribulation legends are said to live for thousands of years, but it's unknown how long given the age of their Soul, according to some records, breaking through that realm only causes the age of your Soul to reset, and considering there are ten stages, you can reset your age ten times and potentially live ten thousand years… which is an entire Karmic Cycle!"
"But doing that just seems… such a pain in the ass. Having to time your development only so you can live longer… such a terrible way to live. Might as well just reincarnate and keep going through the tribulations instead… but I think there's something about the tribulations growing stronger the more you undergo them, so there's definitely a limit to how much someone can abuse them."
"Soul Integration is hard to define. Records of it are… scarce… and I can't even speak on Deity Transformation and Divine Challenger Cultivators. Just how long could each of them live?"
"I assume that a Divine Challenger Cultivator might be able to live past a Karmic Cycle or exist within one, maybe tying their lifespan to the rules of the very Heavens… but that's just an assumption."
"In any case, I don't lack time. If I sit down and start studying, it might take me only a few hundred years to go through it all. I mean, most of it will be spent on the complex techniques I was never able to tap into due to my lacking cultivation. There is much from both the Immortal and Demonic Paths, not to say the documents within the Patriarch's Palace and everything the Ancestors left behind in the rings."
"It's more than enough for a Nascent Soul Cultivator to study throughout their lifetime… far more than that even!"
'The simplest solution is to increase my cultivation so I can study things faster and make the most of my time. That's why I must move forward and progress onward!'
"My goal is to reach Soul Formation before settling down for real… making my formations and condensing the energy of an entire country in one area."
/Growl…/
"But before that… some food." He said with a faint smile as he tapped his stomach
…
/Hours later…/
/Swoosh…/
/Swoosh…/
Outside the city, Sun could be seen on the shoulders of his giant Corpse Puppet as it ran across the desert. The white cocoon floated behind him like a balloon as he pulled it throughout the vast expanse.
"This place… It was probably once full of green. Hills everywhere covered in vegetation. Now I only see sand and dead tree trunks… and even that is rare to see." He mumbled as he looked around
'The city I'm going to should be the capital of this state, the biggest city in the region.'
"While I haven't studied much, I was still able to find some basic books. With those I acquired a basic understanding of the language."
'With a cultivation of the Golden Core, reading a few mortal books was far too easy. I could master them in minutes, much less a few days…'
"A city of that size should have well over five million inhabitants. I'll use this chance to become a Nascent Soul master, and at the same time set up my first large scale formation to refine Dead Qi into Life Qi."
"I'll treat this as an experiment…?!"
/GROWL!!/
A distorted, gruesome creature jumped out of the sand as it aimed not at the zombie but at Sun himself!
/SPLAT!/
However, before it could even reach him, the Corpse Puppet moved at breakneck speeds, slashing the beast in half!
/Swoosh…/
Sun jumped away from the mess as he assessed his surroundings, "No wonder I hadn't seen a zombie in a while… These creatures must've consumed them all."
"This must be the state of the world… Inside cities you have human zombies and their mutated forms, outside you have these zombified monsters that consume everything in their path."
"Its strength is quite high as well… or rather, the energy it contains. Hum… somewhere around the 5th stage of the Golden Core… It doesn't seem able to use any technique or even a fragment of its true power. It's just a walking battery at this point."
"My original calculations involved only zombies, but if I add up these creatures… if they're everywhere between cities, accumulating power and devouring other zombies… then things change."
"Not that it matters though… my mental cultivation is only about Nascent Soul. So once I reach it, I'll have to sit down and study again before moving on. There's no point in rushing things now."
/SPLAT!/
As the corpse puppet pinned the creature on the ground, Sun drained its Blood Qi before allowing the puppet to absorb the Dead Qi within its body. It did so quite naturally, a trait he knew the puppet would have as it was intended.
"Hum… If I kill another hundred like this I'll advance to Nascent Soul stage… I would release my Life Qi to try to attract as many of them as I can, but if there's a Nascent Soul monster like these, things could get tricky. Albeit considering their low intelligence, I wager even a low-level Golden Core if not a Foundation Establishment Cultivator would be able to take it down."
He shook his head, "Let's just move to the city and settle down there… some risks just aren't worth taking. Between advancing within a few days and a few weeks… It doesn't really matter when you'll be living for thousands of years."
"I doubt I'll even remember this day when I'm that old…"
/DASH!/
He jumped onto his puppet's shoulders and put his hand on its back, letting the beast run wild into the distance.
On the way, they'd hunt several more creatures before finally arriving at their destination.
…
/DASH!/
"Hum… Oh? I can finally see it now that the sandstorm has weakened… So this is Camaroon City. The largest city in the Drangoon state."
'It looks just like your average metropolis… My goal is to settle at its center where those tall buildings are. I'll use them as the pillars of my formation that will cover the entire city and beyond.'
"In the next few months I'll use this place as my base as I further my research… Maybe I'll take this chance to create a few more Corpse Puppets and have them move around the place, especially here at the wilderness so they can gather Dead Qi from the bodies of these beasts."
"The process is slower than just setting formations, but if I have dozens… hundreds of these creatures walking around the place, then over the next few months to years I'll be here, they'll be able to go quite far and gather a lot of Qi I wouldn't be able to get if I remain here all the time."
"Above all, I can use them to scout around and see if there's anyone still alive… Humans can be resourceful, it wouldn't take much for a group of humans to settle down in a bunker and live there for a few decades."
"Dead Qi can be corrosive, but what destroyed their society wasn't the Qi… It was the zombies. Their existence has caused life aboveground to perish… I would like to believe that life in the oceans is fine, but if this virus has infected not only humans but animals too, then it would be foolish to believe the oceans were spared."
"The only life I can tell for certain is still around would be microbial in nature. Bacteria and the such would be able to live deep underground without issue and so would be some species of insects… though at least for the later, I can't tell if they're still around."
"If this virus or whatever also targets such small life… then this world is truly done for on its own… Thankfully though, the Heavens summoned me here."
"There's no need to rush though, one step at a time. If the humans have lived until now, they'll manage a few extra months… hopefully."
"Onwards!"
/DASH!/
The Corpse Puppet ran through the sands, entering the long-dead city…
…
/Jump!… Jump!…/
/CRASH!/
Using the houses and buildings as platforms, the Corpse Puppet jumped its way to the center of the city, slamming against one of the skyscrapers deep inside.
"Phew… a little rough but we're here… Hum… this place seems to be an office building." Sun said as he looked around
He patted his Corpse Puppet, "Let's begin our work… You'll remain here little one." He said as he lodged the cocoon on the building's walls where it remained secured.
Sun soon climbed to the top of the building with the Corpse Puppet behind him. Because of its massive size, the creature had to shrink its body to half its original size, to about 2.8 meters tall.
It had to duck its head whenever it moved, but at least it could follow him.
'No zombies around, huh… I saw many skeletons lying around in unusual places. At least this shows they didn't die all of a sudden like in my previous world… although I already believed that to be the case.'
'This is just confirmation.'
Once they reached the ceiling, sun looked around the city with a faint smile.
"Excellent size… mostly plain… There's a river cutting through the city which can mess up the formation, but I can see another large center with a few tall skyscrapers beyond it."
"I can connect this sector with that one… if I could find another good place I could build a triangle-shaped formation… It would be best if I left it exact, but if I do that, it leaves me with only two possible spots."
"One of them is already impossible… that would leave the triangle's tip in the middle of the river… while the other side… hm… that could work."
Sun could see a tall church in the distance, 'If I consider that church as the formation's tip… then I could fit two buildings as the base without an issue.'
"It's done then. I'll start my work in building a Dead Qi refining formation… It'll be the standard Heaven to Earth type. It'll have three main nodes, and the rest I'll think of later."
'At the center of the nodes, the Dead Qi will be attracted. It'll form a large cloud of smog in the heavens.' He thought as he pictured the scene as he looked at the sky
"Following the principles of the natural cycle, I'll purify the Dead Qi in the heavens and inject it back onto the Earth! This will create a closed-off cycle that will keep purifying the land by mimicking how things should've been."
"From this reaction, a portion of the Dead Qi will be converted into Spiritual Qi which will be used to power the formation. I don't really need to find a way to pull the Dead Qi into it since a siphon will naturally form."
'With the Life Qi being injected into the Earth, the Dead Qi will rush to take void in the Heavens… only for it to fall right into the formation and be purified.'
'The longer the formation goes, the stronger this effect will become… so I must build it to last. At least until I can improve it again or to give me time to do so.'
"I can think ahead and add on extra formations to stabilize the Dead Qi so it doesn't create turbulence… I also can't just inject the Life Qi into the Earth without precautions. Rather, I'll add another formation on the ground to condense this Life Qi."
"If I keep injecting the Life Qi without pause, I could end up blowing this whole city up… Besides, I'll need it to cultivate so yeah… Better create a space where the Life Qi will gather… like a lake of some sort."
"In the future, I can then release this Life Qi somewhere else. But until then, it'll pool around here."
He thought deeply… "That's it for the Dead Qi, but what about the zombies?… Should I make this formation even more complex so it refines the zombies as well? That would be too much…"
'The formation will end up taking the Dead Qi from them, which is the same as draining someone of their Spiritual Qi… they won't die but will end up weakened. Greater and Irregular zombies might end up dying though.'
"I can't let their Blood Qi go to waste… very well them, I'll make a layered formation."]
'Multiple formations atop each other working together… The core of this formation will be this central plaza down there. I'll need to make this formation strong enough to withstand the pressure of the energy and with enough space for development in the future.'
"The fact that it's a large-scale one is also quite a pain… I don't really need to make it perfect though. Just enough for it to work a few years while I study further."
"I'll begin with the core of the central formation, but I won't finish it. After that is done, I can move on to the ordinary Blood Qi refinement formation. I'll set it up around the whole city so that zombies from outside attracted to the Life Qi will end up dead before they can even reach the central region!"
"It seems I have a plan… time to work."
'But first, I'll scout the place and select a few fitting zombies and turn them into Corpse Puppets… I'll need some help to inscribe these formations.'
"There's a lot of work ahead of me." He said as he sighed out loud
With that done, Sun began his work, the first day of many months he'd spent there.
…
Sun started by moving around the city with his Corpse Puppet. He needed a good mental image of the region to start formulating the formation.
In the meantime, he looked for zombies with the power of either the Late Stage Foundation Establishment, or the Early Stage Golden Core. Turning them one by one into Corpse Puppets of around the same level… either the 3rd or 4th Level of the Golden Core Realm!
He killed and fed the remaining powerful zombies to his puppets, strengthening them as he absorbed their Blood Qi directly.
Ge only stopped when he had gathered around five such zombies. Not because he wanted to but because he was having difficulties, finding high-quality zombies to turn into puppets. Because of this, he settled down with the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm instead.
He easily gathered about a hundred such zombies, dividing them into five groups where each of the five Golden Core zombies led. This made it easier for him to command them.
With that army, he slowly swept through the outskirts of the city, mapping it out as he searched for blueprints and other images of the city so he could build an even stronger image of the surroundings.
This process alone took him four months.
With the area mapped. Sun remained the rest of his time on the tallest skyscraper in the city, which he had promptly turned into his home.
Since he was going to spend months if not years there, he made it as accommodating as possible, looking around for good furniture and items to decorate it.
He settled down and began his research, calculating and preparing, refining his ideas and improving them even more. With his cultivation as high as it had ever been, he couldn't stop having ideas and kept improving his design, making it more and more ridiculous each month he spent studying it.
He took out his two ancient scrolls with his notes on the Demonic and Immortal Paths as well as the many jade slips within the ring, studying them so he could sharpen his ideas even further.
He kept studying, eating and drinking the materials within the ring. With his cultivation, he could make do with a cup of water and a plate of food every few weeks, so he wasn't that pressed for sustenance.
In the meantime, he had his puppets go around the outskirts to hunt for creatures. If they found one at the Golden Core realm, they were to bring it back to him so he could absorb it directly… because of this, before he could even set the formation, Sun broke through to the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!
His breakthrough was quite fantastic. Dark energy rushed to the skies, bloating the sun and covering the city in a wide red blanket… soon enough, his energy receded, and he was officially at the realm few in his past world could reach in modern times.
With his cultivation, his studying speed increased. Many mysteries he couldn't understand before now made considerably more sense. With that alone, he had pushed the completion of his formation together by several years.
With his zombies seeking out powerful sacrifices, Sun soon found it a bother to absorb them directly, so with a struck of genius, he turned the large fountain at the city into a large sacrificial pot.
The zombies just had to go and throw their offerings into the fountain, and the zombies would be refined directly. The Blood Qi would pool for him while the Dead Qi would be released for the zombies to consume and grow stronger.
This allowed him to focus solely on his progress and forget everything else.
Sun would often also pick a few of those zombies and increase his army of Corpse Puppets. After all, the more, the merrier, right? If he had enough zombies prowling the wastelands hunting other zombies, then he could have a good enough supply to boost him through his cultivation!
In either case, the less work, the better. Sun's only work now was to check up on the zombies from time to time and absorb the Qi from the fountain, the rest of his time was instead spent on his studies and sometimes touring around to find more furniture and other items to add to his collection.
He also needed to improve his knowledge of this world, so he also went around the place to gather knowledge. After all, out there in the elements, many documents and books had long since decayed and were now unreadable. He needed to find and protect them before it was too late.
Like this, he slowly modified his home, turning each floor of the skyscraper into its own dedicated area…
Time passed… and before he knew. Ten years had gone by. In ten years, not much seemed to have changed in the city. The zombies were still out there hunting, and Sun was still in the skyscraper studying.
The only difference was that now he had seven hundred zombies in preparation for his future plans, of which twelve had reached Nascent Soul, the strongest being at the 5th Stage and the weakest at the 1st, while the rest were all between the 4th level and the Peak of Golden Core.
The thing was that the more puppets he had, the faster they worked, but at the same time, the longer it took for them to return each time.
They had already cleared most of the surroundings all the way to distant cities and towns… Still, with their strength, they could cover such distances within a day at most. They usually left and returned on the same day, albeit some zombies took two or more days to reach even further places.
In these ten years, Sun lost none of his Corpse Puppets. Although there were times they were faced with extremely powerful zombies with enough energy to compare with a Nascent Soul monster, none of his puppets had ever lost to one.
A being made for combat with the ability to execute techniques and tactics would never lose against a mass of just instinctual aggression… There were close calls but none ever fell.
Sun even joked his zombies would end up clearing the country before he finished his studies… and at their speed, they might end up doing it.
After ten years of absorbing their sacrifices, Sun had reached the 4th Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm after consuming thousands of Golden Core and even a few Nascent Soul Zombies. The only reason it wasn't higher was that he was taking his time with his cultivation and he needed more time to solidify his understanding of the realm.
He also left some energy in the fountain for the future… he was going to need power to quick-start his formation, and better this than draining his own.
In either case, after ten long years, Sun was satisfied with how his formation looked. He had considered so many things it was hard to name them, and he couldn't wait to see it in action.
He knew there was still much space to improve it, but he couldn't keep himself like this forever… after all, despite his zombies having yet to find a human, they could still be out there hiding… waiting for something to change… for life to return.
He needed to begin his work. It was time to start his work!
He called back his zombies, giving them new orders. They were to move around the city carving and preparing the terrain under his calculations. In the meantime, he'd prepare the three main nodes as he had originally envisioned many years ago.
His formation had evolved greatly. Although he kept his three main nodes, the formation now had twenty-seven minor nodes and two hundred and forty-three points of stability. And that wasn't counting all the work that had to be done to connect them all together.
It was like one grand magical array…
The puppets could handle everything down to the points of stability. But for the main and minor nodes, he'd have to do them on his own. His puppets were intelligent, but they weren't that independent.
He had thought about creating more complex corpse puppets, but for now that wasn't his goal. It took more effort to create corpse puppets with a "Soul" and given he hadn't reached Nascent Soul for long, he was still getting used to the realm by learning new concepts he couldn't understand before.
Handling the Soul was no easy matter.
In any case, with all of them working in tandem, the formation was ready within a short two months!
…
.
.
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Notes