Celestial Demon Starting from Attribute Points-Chapter 69 - 68: After the Calamity (Part 2)

The young man was the first to emerge from the cellar, turning the stored corpses into ghosts obedient to him.

He also tried to transform the corpses of creatures like the crow or the wild boars into ghosts, but failed, which explained why there were no ghostly beasts during the attack on the Luoshi Sect.

At this moment, one by one, the corpses crawled out of the ice and snow, bowing before Li Xuan.

The dried corpses were revitalized by the moisture from the ice and snow.

Li Xuan began to feel mental fatigue when he reached a thousand recruits, and a strong sense of mental fatigue at one thousand two hundred.

He realized he was nearing the limit of {spiritual fatigue}, and withdrew his tendrils, reverting to his original form.

Looking at the ghosts kneeling before him, Li Xuan selected two hundred to remain in Xiongshan County — these were either the "last remaining member of their family" or "living alone in this place, rarely interacting with others, even dying alone in a small hut unnoticed."

As for the thousand others, he used them to execute his plan — nurturing his forces.

Even if this plan was mere imagination, he would still execute it.

"Xiaoying, you should understand my idea very well."

He tugged at the hood of his gray cloak, covering his nose.

Snowflakes fell like feathers on the black wool, forming patches of pale white.

His gaze swept over the thousand ghosts, saying, "You should all understand very well."

The ghosts carried out his will but were not controlled by him; they did not share their vision with him.

In other words, as long as he issued a command, the ghosts would use their intelligence to resolve it.

The level of their intelligence was entirely related to their life before.

Previously, all the ghosts were instinctively completing the task of "luring people to the Luoshi Sect," but now they began executing the new master’s orders.

"Master, we understand clearly."

Liu Yingyi said, lifting his face, drawing a knife from his waist and scraping it over his face, leaving a knife mark.

The rest of the thousand ghosts followed suit.

Soon, the thousand ghosts’ faces were filled with knife marks.

However, there was injury without blood, quickly forming scars.

From now on, they are disfigured, no one recognizing their original appearance.

Li Xuan looked up, thought for a while, and said, "I remember in the Hundred Flowers Mansion’s army supply depot there are quite a few soft armors and silver... go..."

The thousand ghosts bowed and quickly dashed westward.

Li Xuan returned to the cellar.

The two hundred ghosts re-integrated into Xiongshan County.

Slowly...

People among the two hundred ghosts began appearing on the streets.

They cheered in the snow, shouting, "Gone! Gone!"

"The epidemic is gone!"

Their actions quickly drew the attention of the remaining county citizens of Xiongshan County.

An acquaintance of a "certain ghost" secretly opened a crack in the window, shouting, "Niu the Second, how dare you?"

The ghost laughed heartily, saying, "Gone, the epidemic is really gone, look, I’m fine!"

The acquaintance sneered but still dared not leave the house, just watching with the window tightly shut.

This scene appeared in many places.

People didn’t dare to go out.

But quickly, people realized that the batch of unusual people who had previously provided them with food had disappeared; in other words, if they didn’t go out to fetch things, they would starve.

Some endured, some still had supplies.

But this situation was completely broken after three days.

When people saw the ghosts completely fine and eating heartily, they finally rushed out of their homes to the streets, raising their hands to the sky, deeply breathing the fresh air, shouting joyfully, "Really gone, really gone!"

...

the Li family.

Li Xuan waited another week, and only after various situations repeatedly proving that the epidemic had truly disappeared did he lead his family out of the cellar.

This time, the Li family had lost three nursing home guards, four servants, and three maids.

Among them, one guard and two maids were transformed into ghosts by him.

The ghosts usually behaved like normal people, and would bleed if injured; unless someone capable of seeing through illusions happened to see them, they would never be identified as ghosts.

...

The epidemic had sealed the city for half a year.

The farmland outside had long been abandoned, and even the crows pecking at the corpses on Chaotic Crow Ridge had significantly decreased.

However, many people died in the county, and originally, the grain silos of the Li and Tian families only had enough food for the whole county for six months, which now clearly was enough for a whole year.

Master Li waved his hand, shouting, "Distribute the grain!"

Each household queued up, bringing sacks to collect it.

And porridge stalls were also set up throughout the county, as a supply for those unable to cook for themselves.

After the initial joy of lifting the seal, the bleak clouds of sorrow gradually covered the county citizens’ hearts.

In this epidemic, who hadn’t lost two relatives?

...

On the other side, the Li family also welcomed back those relatives who miraculously survived.

Master Li saw the surviving relatives and felt as happy as a child.

The mistress also saw her surviving sister.

Xu Chenhong ran from a distance, hugging the mistress and shouting, "Sis."

Li Xuan stood with his wife and maids, watching these scenes, sighed gently in his heart; this year, he had lost too many relatives...

But in the future, he would protect his relatives even better.

His fist clenched tightly.

Tian Yuan held his arm, leaning on his shoulder.

Li Xuan glanced at Wei Yao beside him and shouted, "Senior sister, what we discussed before."

Wei Yao blushed, stomped, saying, "Can you stop calling me that, my master hasn’t accepted you as a disciple."

Li Xuan said, "Why don’t you accept me on behalf of your master, if he knows from the afterlife that he has me as his disciple, wouldn’t he be happy?"

"What nonsense." Wei Yao was overwhelmed.

She hurriedly ran out.

Previously, in the cellar, Li Xuan actually discussed the "affairs after the epidemic" with her.

Chaos was almost inevitable.

Therefore, Li Xuan wanted her to immediately form a county army under the name of "Xiongshan County soldiers", firstly for self-preservation in chaotic times, and secondly to enhance the Li family’s influence in Xiongshan County.

...

Wei Yao brandished her spear and ran out.

Master Li saw it and followed, as after all, this county army was in name county soldiers but was actually his Li family’s private army, and his Li family wanted to fortify.

Now, the Li family had wealth, virtue, soldiers, and armor; forming a county army was not difficult.

A month later...

A full thousand county soldiers were formed, although only three hundred wore soft armor among them, yet weapons were equipped for everyone.

Wei Yao led the thousand county soldiers but chose not to teach the "Six Harmonies Phoenix Spear," instead opting to teach a second-rate martial art knife technique.

A month of sticks, a year of knives, a lifetime of spears; spear skills were actually difficult to practice.

And the knife is the heart of all weapons; when truly fighting, as long as one is ruthless enough, they can always kill.

Initially, some strong young men were mischievous, but after Wei Yao slightly demonstrated her power, those strongmen immediately became respectful and obedient.

Her whole body emitted white steam, covering several feet in a single step, her spear moving like a dragon, commanding awe-inspiring power...

Such a terrifying strong woman, who would dare disobey?

While the county soldiers trained, Li Xuan was not idle.

He took a ten-foot chained iron hook from his family’s blacksmith shop and repeatedly practiced the "Soul-Departing Love Hooks."

Now... he had mastered it.

He tested his newly learned three Grandmaster cultivation techniques to see if any could be adapted to Secret Martial Arts.

The result was none.

This meant that Li Xuan could not convert any of these three techniques into Secret Martial Arts; he had to patiently wait, patiently collect more cultivation techniques.

However, now that the epidemic had passed, it was time to return to Baifu City.