Ye Wuji exhaled slowly, his gaze settling on the corpses scattered across the cave floor. Seven bodies in total.
He turned around to look at Bai Qi and Chen Xi.
Chen Xi stared at him in horror, and Bai Qi trembled as the air was thick with the scent of blood and burnt flesh.
"You don't mind if I take all the loot, right?" Ye Wuji asked with a smile.
The moment they saw that smile, both Bai Qi and Chen Xi shuddered. It was the same smile he had given Feng Jun and his three companions… right before he slaughtered them without any mercy.
"N-No, of course not," Bai Qi stammered, his face pale. "It's your loot. We… we were just hiding. We didn't do anything."
Chen Xi nodded frantically, his voice shaking. "That's right! We-we can't even move in your presence… J-Just saving our lives is already more than we deserve, Lord…"
Ye Wuji continued to smile. "If you both insist that much, I won't hesitate and gladly accept your generous offer."
Bai Qi and Chen Xi bowed slightly, their heads bobbing. "It's our pleasure, Lord."
Ye Wuji nodded and turned his gaze toward Si Wei and Xue Sha, who were already hunched over the corpses, tearing into the bodies like starved beasts. Blood splattered across their faces and chests. The sickening sound of ripping flesh and crunching bones echoed through the cave.
"Si Wei. Xue Sha," Ye Wuji called out, his voice calm and devoid of any emotion. "Search their bodies. Take their storage bags and any other valuables. Extract the blood essence, and after that, you can eat the rest."
The two corpse soldiers paused mid-feast, clearly reluctant to stop. But after a moment, they still obeyed, moving between the corpses with eerie precision, rummaging through them, taking their storage bags and extracting their blood essence.
Ye Wuji sighed inwardly.
"This is the disadvantage of using control seals… They're not completely bound to my will. But until I reach the Nascent Soul Realm, I can't use anything better."
"Still, they're easy to appease. All they need is food, and with the apocalyptic world full of zombie cultivators, that's not a problem anymore. If it continues like this, I could even make them completely loyal to me."
Soon, Si Wei and Xue Sha returned with seven storage bags and seven blood essence crystals.
Ye Wuji took them without a word and placed them into his storage bag. Though he possessed a far better storage ring, he didn't show it. The ring was a secret, just like his Wings Gu. Both of them were his hidden trump cards.
He nodded. "Alright. You can eat the rest."
He had barely finished the sentence when both Si Wei and Xue Sha lunged for the corpses, falling upon them like ravenous beasts once again.
Si Wei slammed his fists into one of the half-eaten bodies, cracking open the chest cavity. With both hands, he ripped out the rib cage entirely, snapping bones and tossing them aside like a trash. He dug into the open torso, slurping down slivers of lungs and heart, dragging his fangs along the spine to suck the marrow straight from the vertebrae, leaving only hollow husks behind.
Xue Sha grabbed one of the dismembered heads and bit into the face, tearing through cheek and jaw until he could reach the tongue. With a sickening shllk, he ripped it out and chewed it like meat on a skewer. He then crushed the skull between both hands until the brain burst out of the ears, smearing grey matter across the floor.
Organs were tossed aside, only to be devoured moments later. Blood sprayed in arcing fountains as they tore into spleens, kidneys, and spinal cords. Each sound of tearing flesh was sharper and louder than the last.
The sounds of tearing flesh echoed like a symphony through the blood-soaked cave.
The floor was now a canvas painted in red, a grotesque art piece formed by slaughter.
Ye Wuji stood motionless, watching without blinking.
There was no disgust in his eyes.
No pity.
No joy either.
He was simply doing what needed to be done and what was best for him.
These corpses were good meat, and feeding on them would only strengthen Si Wei and Xue Sha further.
Meanwhile, behind him, Bai Qi and Chen Xi stood frozen. Their faces were pale, and their hands were trembling.
Even though they had seen such horrors before. Even done them themselves. But this… this was different.
Because now they didn't know if they were next.
Would they be fed to those monsters, too?
That was the only thought running through their minds right now.
Ye Wuji turned back to them and smiled again, hands clapping together softly.
"Let's get back to business," he said. "How much do you want for the Blood Essence Harvesting Array?"
"Lord—" Bai Qi began, but Ye Wuji raised a hand, cutting him off.
"Stop calling me 'lord.' We're all brothers from the same sect, aren't we?"
They both nodded quickly, though their nerves hadn't calmed in the slightest.
"If it's alright, brother…" Bai Qi began hesitantly. "Could I ask what you need it for? The four righteous sects are tightening their net right now and if you activate a Blood Essence Harvesting Array anywhere in the Crimson Phoenix Empire, they'll come swarming to you before the extraction even finishes."
Ye Wuji smiled, unbothered. "That's my problem. Just tell me the price."
They exchanged a nervous glance, sweat trickling down their brows.
"Then… if you want it brother… just take it," Bai Qi said. "No need to pay. We don't even use it anymore."
"Same with me," Chen Xi said quickly. "I don't need anything, just take it."
Ye Wuji's smile didn't waver. "I appreciate the gesture, but I insist on paying. Name your price. I can offer blood essence crystals or spirit crystals. Just make your choice."
After a moment of hesitation, Bai Qi let out a sigh. "Then… ten medium spirit crystals and ten blood essence crystals."
"Same here," Chen Xi said.
Ye Wuji nodded and tossed each of them thirty medium spirit crystals and thirty blood essence crystals.
Both of them caught them and stared at him in disbelief.
"Take it," Ye Wuji said, still smiling. "Consider it as a token of goodwill and hand over my arrays."