One batch took four hours, so twenty batches of elixirs meant eighty hours.
Ye Xuan spent over three days just doing alchemy.
And these were only level-four elixirs. As the elixirs grew stronger in the future, they would take even longer to refine—unless Ye Xuan’s Fire Attribute Spiritual Qi became much stronger.
Unfortunately, no matter how strong his Fire Attribute Spiritual Qi was, it still had a limit. To reach higher temperatures, he could only rely on burning for a prolonged period. In the future, when he encountered high-grade materials, just melting them down might take ten to fifteen days.
"Finally done. Counting the leftovers from before, I have a total of three hundred and fifty Super Spirit Pills. Two hundred and eighty are of supreme quality, and seventy are top-grade."
Recently, Ye Xuan had been producing a higher ratio of supreme-quality elixirs, likely because he was becoming more proficient. At this moment, he sat cross-legged, preparing to consolidate his cultivation. Once his foundation was stable, he would continue consuming Super Spirit Pills to push his cultivation to the 5th Layer of the Super Spirit Realm.
However, just as Ye Xuan was about to consolidate his cultivation, a noise suddenly came from the cave entrance.
He looked over. The entrance was pitch-black because he had shattered the rock face and blocked the opening with rubble when he first came in.
"Could that woman have survived the fire after all?" he thought. "Did she track me down? But how did she find this place? She isn’t giving me any time to improve my cultivation. Having only advanced by a single layer, I still lack confidence. I need to break through at least one more layer!"
The noise grew louder.
Suddenly, a shriveled hand punched through the rocks, letting light spill in from the outside. The hand then frantically dug at the rubble. The opening grew wider, and the light became brighter.
In the glow, a human shadow appeared. The person was severely emaciated, resembling a dried-up corpse.
"It’s not that woman!"
Ye Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. Golden Spiritual Qi erupted from him as he instantly charged at the uninvited guest. Whether this thing was man or ghost, he had to strike first.
Another mid-grade spirit-level longsword appeared in his hand. With a single slash, Ye Xuan cleaved the figure’s body in half at the waist.
However, a bizarre scene unfolded. Even after being cut in two, this monstrous, ghost-like creature didn’t die. Instead, it used its hands to drag itself toward him.
"What the hell is this thing? It’s still not dead? It can still crawl?" Ye Xuan was utterly astonished.
He thrust his sword again, piercing the creature’s heart and pinning it directly to the ground. Yet, the monster kept moving. It reached out, trying to grab Ye Xuan’s leg. Its stench-filled mouth snapped continuously, seemingly eager to tear into Ye Xuan’s flesh.
It wasn’t until Ye Xuan drove his sword straight through its head that the creature finally died and fell silent.
"What kind of freaks are these?"
Just as Ye Xuan was about to inspect the corpse closely, footsteps echoed from behind him. Someone was here! And it was more than just one person.
Turning around, Ye Xuan saw several more emaciated, corpse-like monsters. The moment they spotted him, they raised their arms and pointed at his face. Some of the dried corpses threw their heads back and let out a roar. The sound was bizarre and incredibly piercing, like a shattered harmonica.
Frowning slightly, Ye Xuan raised his sword and directly blew apart the heads of this mob of freaks. He had realized that as long as he destroyed their heads, these monsters—despite feeling no pain or fatigue—would die completely.
"Huh? This is... the Golden-Winged Roc Race crest!"
Suddenly, Ye Xuan raised an eyebrow. One of the corpses on the ground was wearing relatively intact clothing. He could clearly see a Golden-Winged Roc embroidered on it.
It instantly dawned on him: these half-human, half-ghost monstrosities were the Gongsun Clan Members who had previously entered the Forbidden Area. Though they weren’t dead, they had mutated into something grotesque.
Who did this? Were they possessed by evil spirits? Ye Xuan was completely baffled.
At that moment, more noises drifted over from the distant woods.
Several more corpse-like monsters shambled toward him, howling as they moved. As if realizing something, Ye Xuan glanced around. Apart from the Big Mountain behind him, these grotesque things were closing in from every other direction. It seemed their shrieks were a form of summoning.
His brows furrowed tightly. Instead of fighting them off, Ye Xuan quickly sprinted away to distance himself from the horde.
Along the way, he constantly spotted more of these emaciated figures. They wandered like the walking dead, their eyes only lighting up when they caught sight of him. Lunging at Ye Xuan, they roared aggressively.
Initially, Ye Xuan killed the ones in his path, but eventually, he resorted to just running.
He didn’t stop until a massive cave appeared in his line of sight. The cavern was enormous, and faint rustling noises echoed from within.
Ye Xuan hesitated, unsure if he should enter. But he desperately wanted to know what lay inside and whether the exit to the Forbidden Area was hidden here. Making up his mind, he slowly stepped into the cave.
Although the cave was vast, it wasn’t very deep, measuring only about a dozen meters. Creeping along the edge, Ye Xuan moved further inside. Upon entering, he was deeply astonished.
He actually saw living people.
In his line of sight were two disheveled, filthy men. Though their faces were deathly pale, they weren’t completely stripped of flesh like the dried corpses outside.
Besides the two men, there were quite a few others scattered around. While these people were alive, they were severely emaciated, as if suffering from extreme malnutrition. Wild fruits of unknown origin littered the ground. These survivors relied entirely on them to stave off their hunger. They were alive, but they lived in agony. Starvation had sapped them of all their strength, leaving them completely unable to circulate their Spiritual Qi.
Ye Xuan saw the two men, and they saw him in return. At first, their eyes were hollow and vacant. However, a spark of lucidity soon returned to their gaze.
"Run... away..."
Perhaps because he hadn’t spoken in a long time, the man’s voice was hoarse and raspy. Yet, Ye Xuan could still clearly make out his warning.
As soon as the words left his mouth, a naked, blood-haired woman slithered over his shoulders like a viper and sank her teeth into his neck.
It was the woman from the very beginning! She really hadn’t died.
GLUG GLUG GLUG.
The sound of gulping echoed. The woman appeared to be draining the man’s blood. His body shriveled at a visible rate. Ultimately, the light in his eyes faded away completely. Soon after, the man collapsed to the floor.
Just as Ye Xuan thought he was dead, the man stood up in an eerie, jerky manner. However, his eyes were entirely devoid of life.
"You... made me... hurt!"
At that moment, the woman spoke. She pointed a finger right at Ye Xuan’s face, her expression twisting with fury!
With her words, the newly reanimated man lunged at Ye Xuan, jaws snapping.
At this moment, Ye Xuan finally understood what these monstrosities were. He had read about them in the ancient records of the Profound Cloud Sect.
These freaks were called zombies. And zombies were created by a Spirit Corpse.
The woman before him was the Spirit Corpse! A Spirit Corpse was a special entity formed when the body of a mighty figure gained sentience after death.