Rebirth as a Demonic Cultivator: Starting with a Zombie Planet

Chapter 62: Must Pull Him into the Linjiang Army’s Camp

“It’s alright, Brother Xiong. It’s not your fault. None of us expected him to actually be an immortal…”

“Before we deployed, I told Qiao’er that immortals were just myths. If they were real, they would have saved Hailan Planet before the apocalypse tore it apart.”

Seeing the heavy guilt weighing on Xiong Xing, Li Tiemu offered what little comfort he could. Xiong Xing let out a long, ragged sigh and gave a stiff nod.

High above, Chu Xuan had already extracted the Two-Headed Python’s living soul and stowed away its massive carcass. Without sparing a single glance at the awestruck survivors below, he stepped onto his Heavenly Dipper Flying Sword and vanished into the horizon. He left the grateful Awakened Ones staring at the empty sky in stunned silence.

Chu Xuan hadn’t intervened to play the hero. He was simply harvesting the Two-Headed Python to serve as the main soul for his Formation. The tearful gratitude of the weak meant absolutely nothing to him.

“Brother Xiong,” Li Tiemu whispered, his tone shifting to practical concerns. “That Level 3 spiritual energy crystal is gone. How are we going to explain this to command?”

“It’s gone,” Xiong Xing said grimly. “As long as the Boat Gang didn’t get their hands on it, we can manage. Call this in immediately. Headquarters needs to know what happened today.”

“Understood,” Li Tiemu nodded.

***

Haotai Hotel, Rooftop.

A violent gale whipped across the concrete as Chu Xuan touched down.

With a thought, he summoned Xiao Long, Xiao Hu, and Xiao Bao from the Corpse Nurturing Tower. With another flick of his wrist, the Two-Headed Python’s colossal carcass crashed onto the roof.

Xiao Long crouched beside the dead beast, curiously prodding its scales. Xiao Hu remained a silent sentinel, standing rigidly at Chu Xuan’s side. Xiao Bao, however, wasted no time; in the blink of an eye, the zombie leopard had torn off a chunk of the snake’s tail and was happily crunching through bone and sinew.

Xiao Hu shot the leopard a disdainful glare before delivering a brutal backhand slap to its head.

“Roar! Roar!” Xiao Hu growled, clearly reprimanding the beast for lacking decorum in front of their master.

Xiao Bao let out a pitiful whimper and spat out the mangled flesh.

Chu Xuan watched their antics with mild amusement. “You both performed adequately. A reward.”

He flicked his fingers, sending two pitch-black Tai Sui Pills sailing through the air. Xiao Hu and Xiao Bao’s eyes gleamed with unnatural hunger. They snatched the pills from the air and swallowed them whole. They had no idea what the pills were, but their undead instincts screamed with ravenous desire.

Both Xiao Hu and Xiao Bao had reached the peak of Level 8 Corpse Soldiers. They were only a hair’s breadth away from breaking through to the Corpse General realm. The Tai Sui Pills would serve as the perfect catalyst. Chu Xuan had plenty in his inventory—more than enough to push all three of his elite Yin Corpses to the next tier.

Catching the scent of the pills, Xiao Long’s eyes burned with a sickly green envy.

“As for the python’s carcass,” Chu Xuan muttered, “let the fodder have it.”

He waved his hand, releasing over a dozen lesser Yin Corpses from the Corpse Nurturing Tower. While these thralls couldn’t compare to his elite trio, they were still terrifyingly lethal compared to the ordinary Zombies wandering Hailan Planet. It was worth investing a little biomass into them. High-quality cannon fodder always had its uses.

At their master’s silent command, the Yin Corpses swarmed the massive snake, tearing into the flesh in a frenzy of gore.

“Go hunt down some higher-tier Zombies,” Chu Xuan ordered.

“Roar!”

Eager to prove their worth, Xiao Long, Xiao Hu, and Xiao Bao vaulted off the roof and vanished into the ruined city.

Less than an hour later, twenty robust Zombies were unceremoniously dumped at Chu Xuan’s feet. A single glance told him these were prime specimens. They were all at least Level 1 mutants, having already condensed spiritual energy crystals within their rotting bodies.

“Acceptable. Your reward.” Chu Xuan tossed a Tai Sui Pill to Xiao Long. The zombie caught it in its jaws and eagerly scurried to a corner to digest the potent energy.

Seeing this, Xiao Bao’s eyes darted around. Desperate for praise, the undead leopard pounced on the captive Zombies, wildly shredding them with its claws to gouge out bloody cavities. It then flopped onto its belly in front of Chu Xuan, panting obsequiously as if showing off its handiwork.

Chu Xuan stared at the mangled, useless corpses and slowly rubbed his temples.

To use a living creature as an organic incubator, the flesh-substrate had to be carefully pierced at specific meridian points where the blood naturally pooled. It required surgical precision to plant the demonic seeds, not a mindless butchering!

“Drag it away and beat it,” Chu Xuan ordered coldly.

“Roar!” Xiao Hu nodded enthusiastically, cracking its knuckles. It grabbed the terrified leopard by the hind leg and casually hurled it off the edge of the roof.

A moment later, the wet, heavy sounds of a brutal one-sided beating echoed up from the alleyway below.

“These specimens are ruined as incubators.” Chu Xuan raised a hand, channeling the Blood Transformation Spell. The ruined Zombies violently desiccated as their remaining blood was forcefully extracted, condensing in the air to form a dense, crimson Blood Bead.

He turned his attention to the surviving Level 1 Zombies. Moving with clinical efficiency, he personally punctured their flesh at the correct convergence points, burying a variety of demonic seeds deep within their rotting muscle. These seeds—the Flesh Tai Sui, the Blood Demon Fang, and others—were parasitic by nature. They required a living biomass to root, feed, and bloom.

As his Cultivation base expanded, the resource demands of his Yin Corpses and Gu insects would only multiply. He was going to need an industrial-scale supply of organic incubators.

“I need to establish a dedicated flesh-farm,” Chu Xuan murmured, his mind calculating yields. “If I can corral these Zombies and use them as a self-replenishing flesh-substrate, I won’t have to waste time hunting for fresh soil.”

He clicked his tongue. If only there was some sort of infinite spawning artifact in this world. He would have built an automated meat-grinder of a harvesting facility by now. Unfortunately, this was reality, not a simulation.

“Dismissed. Go entertain yourselves.”

Chu Xuan waved them off. He stepped back onto his Heavenly Dipper Flying Sword and glided directly into the heart of the Yin-Fiend Soul-Stealing Grand Array.

Inside the Formation, the atmosphere was thick with suffocating Yin-Fiend energy and a surging, malevolent aura. To a righteous Cultivator, this place would be a blasphemous hellscape—a festering wound on reality that needed to be purged with fire. But to a demonic Cultivator like Chu Xuan, it was a paradise of boundless vitality and infinite potential.

Chu Xuan took a deep, intoxicating breath. The dense, corrupted energy washed over him, leaving his meridians feeling pristine and invigorated.

He extended his hand, summoning the Fiend Soul Chain. The Fiend Soul, Huikong, immediately materialized from the dark metal. For the corrupted monk, this was absolute nirvana. Surrounded by an ocean of pure Yin-Fiend energy, Huikong let out a silent, ecstatic howl, greedily devouring the dark miasma in its vicinity.

Chu Xuan then released the Two-Headed Python’s living soul into the array. His eyes narrowed in analytical satisfaction. Just as he had hypothesized, this beast’s soul was an anomaly.

An ordinary living soul would have been shredded by the corrosive currents of the Yin-Fiend energy, dimming and dissipating into nothingness within seconds. Yet, the Two-Headed Python’s soul endured wave after wave of the dark tide. It only grew slightly translucent.

Upon closer inspection, Chu Xuan realized the soul was actively assimilating the Yin-Fiend energy into its ethereal form. It made perfect sense; this was exactly how the beast had managed to store such highly toxic energy within its physical body while alive.

“A high-yield asset,” Chu Xuan murmured, a cold smile touching his lips.

He would leave the python’s soul anchored in the array. Let it steep in the corrosive currents. Over time, the relentless tempering would forge it into a terrifyingly powerful Fiend Soul—the perfect, unyielding core for his Formation.

“Now, it’s time to process my own gains.”

Chu Xuan sat cross-legged at the epicenter of the Formation. He steadied his breathing, centered his mind, and began to cycle his Cultivation technique, drawing the ambient energy into his core.

In the pursuit of power, time was a meaningless construct. Chu Xuan sat in absolute stillness, completely detached from the apocalyptic struggles of the world outside.

***

Longjiang City, Linjiang Army Headquarters.

Ye Nantian slowly lowered the satellite phone, his mind racing. Xiong Xing’s after-action report echoed relentlessly in his head.

“…General, Lin Qiao was KIA. Devoured by the Two-Headed Python…”

“…We were completely outmatched. But then that mysterious immortal appeared. He butchered the beast single-handedly. He even extracted its soul…”

“…He took the carcass with him. We failed to secure the Level 3 spiritual energy crystal…”

Ye Nantian stared out the window toward the south, a profound sense of inadequacy washing over him.

The Two-Headed Python… Even after advancing to a Level 4 Esper, he knew his limits. He might have been able to repel the beast, but killing it? Impossible. And to do so with such clinical, effortless brutality?

That Cultivator must possess the combat power of at least a Level 5 Esper! Such formidable strength could shift the balance of power in the region with a single step.

We must pull him into the Linjiang Army’s camp. At the very least, we cannot allow him to be recruited by the Boat Gang.