Each species would have things they were good and bad at. For the cannibals, they had powerful physical flesh and a brutal energy that made them incredibly strong. But their weakness was rather obvious as well. They were simple-minded, and their souls were innately weak. Because of that, it did not take Xiang Shaoyun long to gain full control of the cannibal king.
This control was completely different from the type of control he had exercised on Long Hui. The entirety of this cannibal king's soul and consciousness had been fully taken over by Xiang Shaoyun. After all, this cannibal king's soul was too weak and couldn't resist the Nether Dragon Soul Curse, resulting in his complete defeat.
And thus, both the soul and consciousness were fully under Xiang Shaoyun's control. Xiang Shaoyun then learned that the cannibal king's name was Xiong Bao. He had a rather high status among the cannibals as he was the son of their patriarch.
"Great, this will make things much easier." Xiang Shaoyun was overjoyed when he found out Xiong Bao's identity. He took out a spirit medicine and fed some of it to Xiong Bao before applying the rest to Xiong Bao's external wounds. He was not doing all this just to get a new puppet. Rather, he had something else he needed Xiong Bao for.
Soon, a day passed. Xiong Bao had recovered considerably. One had to admit that the cannibals really did have amazing physiques. Xiang Shaoyun no longer wasted any time and called Xiong Bao over before returning to the spirit crystal mine. Earlier when the cannibals had arrived, only Xiong Bao had gone after Xiang Shaoyun. The rest of the cannibals were still at the mine working.
"Go tell them to increase the mining speed," Xiang Shaoyun commanded through thought transmission.
The entirety of Xiong Bao's soul was already under Xiang Shaoyun's control. Thus, unlike Long Hui, he couldn't even think of resisting. He merely nodded obediently before heading toward the spirit crystal mine.
Xiang Shaoyun was still able to clearly sense Xiong Bao even with a large distance between them. He couldn't understand the cannibal language, but from Xiong Bao's soul undulations, he understood what was being said.
Xiong Bao was indeed doing as told.
"With free labor, I can now have a nice rest," muttered Xiang Shaoyun cheekily.
He then sat down and started meditating. In his Nether Soul Domain, the scenes of his battle with the cannibal king replayed repeatedly. After each battle, he would revise it to seek for his own insufficiencies. That was how he could further increase his combat experience, and it would help him greatly when he faced future opponents.
After fully analyzing his battle with the cannibal king, finding the weaknesses of the other cannibals he might encounter later would be easier as well. Soon, two days passed. Under the hard work of the tens of cannibals, the spirit crystal mine was completely emptied.
With the mining done, Xiang Shaoyun ordered Xiong Bao to send all the cannibals away. The cannibals would never disobey Xiong Bao, and they all left obediently. Next, Xiang Shaoyun rushed into the cave. He was greeted with piles of pure spirit crystals; a feeling of intense joy surged out from him.
"Haha, great! Awesome!" Xiang Shaoyun roared with laughter and started stowing the spirit crystals.
His current astral cosmos sea was big enough to store all these spirit crystals. After stowing them all, he found that a large part of the astral cosmos sea had been filled. A rough assessment of his concluded that the spirit crystals had occupied at least a space of 30 square meters.
With the average size of a spirit crystal, about 500 spirit crystals would take the space of one square meter. With 30 square meters occupied, after taking into consideration the height as well, he now had about 150,000 mid-grade spirit crystals in his possession.
That was an extremely large sum of wealth, more than what ordinary organizations would possess. Any Kings would go mad stumbling on such riches, and even Emperors would covet something like this.
After all, spirit crystal mines were extremely rare. Most of them were already under control of those large organizations. It wouldn't be easy for anyone else to get one for themselves. Xiang Shaoyun had only entered the Land of Soul Springs, and he already had such a harvest. One ought to admit that he was truly a person of great fortune.
With so many spirit crystals, I can do a lot more things in the future, thought Xiang Shaoyun.
Xiang Shaoyun then told Xiong Bao to bring him toward the lair of the cannibals. Why? Because he was now sure that the earthstone heart was being kept at a place important to the cannibals. There, it was placed on an altar, treated as the cannibals' most precious treasure. It wouldn't be easy for Xiang Shaoyun to obtain the earthstone heart.
There are a lot of Kings among the cannibals. Moreover, that earthstone heart is being kept in their ancestral temple. With Xiong Bao's identity, he can get it for me. But there is an even stronger cannibal king guarding the temple. Xiong Bao will not be able to retrieve it easily. I need to think of something, pondered Xiang Shaoyun.
After the two traveled for about half a day, they arrived near the cannibals' lair. He could sense a large number of cannibals moving everywhere. Occasionally, some cannibals could be seen returning with the corpses of humans and demonic beasts, which would serve as their food.
If it wasn't for Xiang Shaoyun's ability to detect the cannibals long before they neared him, he would have stumbled upon them by now.
Just as he was about to look for a place to hide himself, he sensed a battle happening not far away. After a slight hesitation, he brought Xiong Bao toward where he heard the battle. Soon, he saw a human fighting a group of cannibals alone.
When Xiang Shaoyun focused, he found that the human was actually Liang Zhuangmin from Cloud Margin Pavilion. Liang Zhuangmin was once a super genius of the Cloud Margin Pavilion, and he was the previous owner of Xiang Shaoyun’s first-class estate. But after being stuck in the Transformation Realm for seven years, he was kicked off the first-class estate by the disappointed higher-ups. He was also the society master of the Free Society.
As he fought, brown energy swirled around his body. With the prowess he was displaying, he was definitely a War King. Currently, he was fighting the cannibals with his physical flesh as well. Like a mad beast, he fought the cannibals head-on and killed them off one by one.
How strong, Xiang Shaoyun cried out inwardly when he sensed how overbearing Liang Zhuangmin's strength was.
Liang Zhuangmin was not only strong in terms of combat prowess. He also had a powerful defense that was akin to an impenetrable bastion. No matter how many bone clubs slammed into him, his defense stood tall.
That was why Xiang Shaoyun was so shocked. He watched on silently as Liang Zhuangmin killed about a dozen cannibals without even breaking a sweat. But since this place was near the lair of the cannibals, the battle had attracted a cannibal king.
The cannibal king immediately clashed with Liang Zhuangmin upon arriving. An intense battle erupted, and even when facing the cannibal king, Liang Zhuangmin was still able to stand his ground, showcasing his valiant strength.
However, Liang Zhuangmin had no intention to drag the fight on. Thus, he fought while retreating, trying to leave this place instead. But the cannibal king kept pushing on. To make things worse, a second cannibal king had also arrived. The two cannibals worked together and surrounded Liang Zhuangmin.
Liang Zhuangmin instantly sank into a crisis.