In an abandoned relay station close to twenty kilometers away from Dragon Serpent Mountain, Granny Sun's grandson, the undead Sun Xian, opened his eyes and sighed, "It's a real shame that neither the White Sun Religion nor the Holy Fire Sect is willing to work with us. It's also unfortunate that this undying body of mine isn't at the peak of its powers. Otherwise, Huang Daoxu would've far more to deal with than he does right now."

At this moment, Sun Xian appeared no different from a vibrant and healthy boy. As a true undead being, he would only gradually turn into a living corpse over the course of countless deaths.

Standing beside Sun Xian was a young woman with blond hair and blue eyes, and she asked, "Why isn't this undying body of yours at the peak of its powers, Master?"

"According to my divination, this boy was truly dealt a cruel hand by fate," Sun Xian explained. "He was supposed to suffer a terrible, excruciating death, and in his dying moments, his resentment toward the world would've reached its peak, turning him into the perfect undead vessel. However, he died by drowning instead, so the resentment in his heart wasn't anywhere near as fierce as I anticipated. I wonder how that could've happened..."

***

In September of the fifteenth year of the Yong'an Era, Imperial Censor Li Xian traveled to the nine northern border military bases under orders from the emperor to implement widespread reforms.

He was met with fierce opposition from the soldiers. Not only was he brutally beaten, he was also impeached by other imperial censors, who claimed that he had misused his authority to oppress the people of the military bases and embezzle military funds. According to them, he had essentially forced the soldiers to revolt and beat him to the brink of death.

In the end, Li Xian was banished to the border, while the soldiers who led the revolt were executed by decapitation. It seemed that the attempt to implement reforms had ended in complete failure, and nothing appeared to have changed in the nine border military bases.

***

While overseeing the construction of Hidden Fiend Village, Chu Qiguang was informed of these recent developments by Qiao Zhi, and he sighed, "The leaders of the border military bases are so used to ruling unopposed that they think they're untouchable. Looks like the border military bases won't be around for much longer."

"How did you guess that?" Qiao Zhi exclaimed. "Right now, they have two Dao Comprehension-state martial gods among them, and everyone in the imperial court is saying that Grand Secretary Wu made a severe mistake by pushing the border military bases too far."

"From the moment those soldiers rose up in revolt and attacked Imperial Censor Li Xian, they had already committed an unforgivable transgression as far as the emperor is concerned," Chu Qiguang explained. "The emperor is only leaving them alone for now to maintain peace and stability in the empire, but their days are numbered. Why don't you tell me how they die?"

Qiao Zhi told Chu Qiguang what he knew, and a thoughtful look appeared in the latter's eyes as he said, "So Wu Siqi intentionally made an excessively aggressive move to provoke a reaction from the nine border military bases. That's the only way that he can convince the emperor that the border military bases must be abolished. At the same time, it'll also make the leaders of the military bases even more arrogant and conceited, causing them to act even more recklessly, and make more enemies in the process.

"Given the close ties between the nine border military bases and the wealthy, powerful clans in the north, Wu Siqi knew from the very beginning that the attempted reforms would end in catastrophic failure. What he's betting on is that once trade relations are established, all the prominent northern clans will benefit and form a new alliance of their own. Once that happens, they will begin to see the nine border military bases as competitors and enemies.

"It'll likely take a year or two for this plan to come to fruition, and by then, he will have already established firm control over the imperial court. At that point, the entire imperial court and all the prominent northern clans will share a common enemy in the form of the nine border military bases, and that's when they'll fall."

"Is that how it happens?" Qiao Zhi asked with a dazed expression.

A year or two from now, I should be able to play a role as well, Chu Qiguang thought to himself.

Over a month had already passed since he moved to Hidden Fiend Village with the sixty or so new fiend recruits, and for the first ten days, he spent virtually all of his time here.

Initially, the new fiend recruits harbored a great deal of hostility toward the fifteen elderly villagers from Southern Ravine Village, but they quickly began to get along after Chu Qiguang used the Heavenly Fiend Foundation Establishment Technique to transform the elderly villages into their fiend forms.

The elderly villagers had seen Chu Qiguang before, but they didn't know who he was, so after seeing Chu Qiguang in his fiend form, they also began referring to him as Master Omniscient alongside the other fiends.

Under Chu Qiguang's leadership, everyone began working on the construction of a new village.

The elderly villagers and Jin Ji were tasked with selecting a suitable plot of farmland. All the elderly villagers were veteran farmers, while Jin Ji had learned some very advanced farming techniques from the Great Zhu Nation. Working together they were quickly able to select a suitable plot of land in the basin.

All the fiends possessed decent physical constitutions to begin with, while the elderly villagers had been taught the Heavenly Spirit Body Refinement Fist Techniques by Chu Qiguang. They had been taught these fist techniques simply to strengthen their bodies, not necessarily to improve their combat prowess.

Under Qiao Zhi's watchful eye, the elderly villagers were cultivating in everything that they did, whether it was tilling the land or removing weeds, and he was very pleased.

This is the essence of martial arts, he mused to himself. Martial arts should be incorporated into every single movement in all of one's everyday activities. That way, they'll be able to cultivate while simultaneously completing their work with greater efficiency and less energy expenditure.

In the beginning, the fiends didn't take farming very seriously. Aside from Jin Ji, none of them had ever done any farm work. To address this problem, Chu Qiguang implemented a rule where the thirty fiends that felled the most trees each day would be allowed to eat as much meat as they pleased, while the remaining fiends would have to survive on flatbread and wild vegetables. With meat on the line, all the fiends began taking their farm work much more seriously.

Chu Qiguang instructed the fiends to fell trees, remove weeds, and till soil, training them to gradually grow accustomed to securing food through their own labor. After that, he began teaching them how to count. He split the fiends up into five groups, with three of the elderly villagers in charge of each group of around a dozen or so fiends.

The five groups were ranked based on the amount of work they completed each day. The top three groups could eat as much meat as they liked, while the bottom two groups were once again only allowed to eat flatbread and wild vegetables.

A few days later, Chu Qiguang made the fiends choose their own group leaders, and in order to be able to eat meat, all the groups chose the elderly villagers that could maximize their productivity. From there, Chu Qiguang began to implement a system of assessments, rewards and punishments.

With food serving as an incentive and the two Chongming Birds constantly watching over them, the fiends' productivity began to increase by leaps and bounds. They began to divide their duties, such as felling trees, tilling soil, building shelter, cooking, and collecting feces.

According to Jin Ji's plan, they would have to make large quantities of fertilizer, gather wood ash, and dig trenches for water to flow through. Only once all of the preparatory work was complete would the land be ready for crops.

Over time, the fiends grew more and more accustomed to working together and eating together.

I knew it! The dreaded Kay Pee Eyes or whatever are back! Qiao Zhi thought to himself in dismay.

Chu Qiguang also began assigning work to the living corpses. Each group was given a few living corpses, and plows were tied to their bodies. After that, some of the smaller bird fiends led them along to plow the fields.

As he watched the living corpses toiling away, Chu Qiguang decided that he had to capture someone from the Immortal Dao and learn how to control them.

Zheng Sanshui was also among them. Unfortunately, even the Heavenly Fiend Foundation Establishment Technique was unable to ward off the effects of the Elixir of Undying.

In the grand scheme of things, Zheng Sanshui was completely insignificant, but for some reason, Chu Qiguang had treated his "passing" like an important event, instructing all the fiends to gather around during Zheng Sanshui's final lucid moments.

***

"You won't remain conscious for much longer, Warden Zheng. Before you lose your senses, I want to ask if you want to be cremated or buried, or if you want to continue existing as a living corpse to contribute to the village?"

Zheng Sanshui had already made up his mind. For the villagers of Southern Ravine Village, becoming a living corpse wasn't something to fear. In fact, in their eyes, it was a hopeful new beginning.

As his consciousness began to fade, he replied, "I want to continue to keep the children company..."

"Even after Warden Zheng loses his senses, his spirit will remain in his body, and he will continue to strive for the betterment of our village! I think his selfless spirit is worthy of everyone's respect and admiration! Even in death, we should all ignite ourselves to illuminate the village! That is the spirit of death of our Hidden Fiend Village! Death is not the end. Even in death, we will continue to serve the village and give rise to new life!"