Ye Yunfei explained to Elder Xue that he needed to go to a place to retrieve some items.
"Very well, Ye Yunfei. Your strength is considerable, so acting alone shouldn't pose much danger, but do remain cautious.
Retrieve what you need and return immediately." Elder Xue urged.
Following that, Ye Yunfei and Elder Xue parted ways, with Ye Yunfei heading towards the Small World where the Five Immortals Poison King had lived in seclusion.
Not long after, Ye Yunfei once again entered that secluded world, passed through the dense forest of Black Path Profound Ironwood, and arrived before the five Black Great Mountains.
"Elder Huang, you have cultivated Gu Arts and Poison Arts, so you should be quite sensitive to gu creatures and poisons. Go and search for them yourself," Ye Yunfei said to Huang Shang.
Huang Shang began searching the area.
"I'll go see if there are any insectoid poisons or other treasures!" The Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm wasn't idle either, transforming into a streak of golden light and scouring the area.
"Then I'll stand guard for you," Ye Yunfei said with a smile.
Half a day later.
Both Huang Shang and the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm returned before Ye Yunfei, both visibly excited, clearly having obtained decent harvests.
"I found a large batch of equipment, materials, magical tools, and resources specifically for breeding gu creatures, refining poisons, and taming venomous beings, along with a batch of gu creatures and poisonous beings tamed by the Five Immortals Poison King.
The haul is enormous. Starting now, it's as if I've inherited the mantle of the Five Immortals Poison King," Huang Shang said with a laugh.
"I found a batch of poisonous insects tamed by the Five Immortals Poison King, but I've subdued them all.
Moreover, I found one of the Five Immortals Poison King's treasure vaults, which contained a vast amount of various cultivation resources and treasures.
I've already taken the resources and treasures useful to me. You can have the rest," said the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm, offering several space rings to Ye Yunfei.
Both Huang Shang and the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm had quite good harvests, though Huang Shang's was undoubtedly the greatest.
"Alright then," Ye Yunfei stored the space rings.
"The gains during this period really have been excellent," Ye Yunfei thought to himself.
He had obtained a large batch of Primordial Space Crystals in the spatial turbulence zone, received a space ring as a gift from Elder Lu not long ago, and now acquired treasures from the Five Immortals Poison King's vault! He hadn't yet taken the time to inspect the space ring gifted by Elder Lu, but Ye Yunfei knew the items within must be of astonishing value.
"Alright, let's head back," Ye Yunfei said.
"Wait. There's a large number of people imprisoned within those five Black Great Mountains. They were people captured and brought here by the Five Immortals Poison King in the past to feed his gu creatures and poisons.
Right now, these people are suspended by venomous spiders within the five hollow mountains. When I went in earlier to check, they kept begging me to save them.
There is a group of venomous spiders inside those hollow mountains. I haven't subdued them yet, as I wanted to ask your opinion first," Huang Shang said.
"Those people are neither friends nor family. Why should I save them?" After thinking for a moment, Ye Yunfei spoke.
"If you won't save them, then I'll just subdue those venomous spiders and leave," Huang Shang said.
"Once you subdue those venomous spiders, will those people regain their freedom?" Ye Yunfei asked.
"Impossible.
Those people are already infected with Gu Poison and potent toxins, their auras feeble. Moreover, they've been sealed, and are tightly bound with tough spider silk.
Even if we take away those venomous spiders, the spider silk will remain, binding them until they die," the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm interjected.
"Listen, they're still crying for help," the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm said.
"Then this is what we'll do. You subdue those venomous spiders. As for those people, let them fend for themselves. I have no obligation to save them," Ye Yunfei said to Huang Shang after another moment of thought.
"I have an idea.
I can use Gu Arts and Poison Arts to control them, make them follow me for a period, during which they must obey my commands. Once the period ends, I'll grant them their freedom.
That way, we'll gain a group of enforcers. If those fellows recover their strength, their combat prowess will be quite decent," Huang Shang suddenly suggested.
"Oh?
You can use Gu Arts and Poison Arts to control them?" Ye Yunfei was somewhat surprised.
Among those people suspended by spider silk in the five mountains were quite a few Earth Immortals. Controlling them could indeed be very useful.
"Of course. Those guys are already infected with Gu Poison and potent toxins. By applying some additional techniques, they'll have to obey me obediently; otherwise, I can make them suffer a fate worse than death at any time.
Furthermore, the Gu Arts and Poison Arts I cultivate come from the Five Immortals Poison King. The Gu Poison and toxins they're afflicted with can only be cured by me. If they don't listen to me, they can just wait for the poison to flare up.
Actually, the Five Immortals Poison King could easily control them before too, commanding them to do various tasks. It's just that the Five Immortals Poison King also possessed a large number of tamed poisonous beings and gu creatures, and simply didn't need these people as subordinates. Instead, he extracted their flesh, blood, and marrow to nurture his poisons and gu creatures.
In fact, these poor souls were merely food resources for the poisons and gu creatures tamed by the Five Immortals Poison King," Huang Shang explained with a smile.
"Very well, give it a try then," Ye Yunfei nodded.
Huang Shang immediately rushed into one of the Black Great Mountains and began performing secret arts to control the people suspended by spider silk.
One hour later, Ye Yunfei received a voice transmission from Huang Shang: he had successfully controlled a portion of them!
"Excellent," Ye Yunfei felt a stir of excitement as well.
One day later.
Huang Shang successfully controlled all the living beings within the five great mountains.
These beings were already infected with Gu Poison and potent toxins, their cultivation sealed long ago, some even on the verge of death. Now, subjected to Huang Shang's Gu Arts and Poison Arts, they had no capacity for resistance whatsoever. Even the Advanced Earth Immortals, and a few Perfected Earth Immortals among them, were all controlled by Huang Shang.
Within each of these five Black Great Mountains, several thousand living beings were imprisoned. Added together, there were well over ten thousand.
Now, all these ten thousand plus living beings had to obey Huang Shang's commands!
Apart from these ten thousand-odd beings, Huang Shang also subdued a large group of venomous spiders.
"You've obtained all of the Five Immortals Poison King's poisons and gu creatures, and now you've gained over ten thousand subordinates as well. Starting from now, Elder Huang, you can practically swagger through the Three Thousand Worlds.
After all, you have a force of Earth Immortal-level subordinates," Ye Yunfei said with a laugh.
"All the insectoid poisons tamed by the Five Immortals Poison King now belong to me. I can easily deal with ordinary Earth Immortal experts!" The Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm declared smugly.
"Good. The number of insectoid poisons you obtained is terrifyingly large. Ordinary Earth Immortal experts would definitely flee at the very rumor of them.
When we need to fight in the future, I certainly won't forget you two," Ye Yunfei said, smiling.
"Alright, let's head back," Ye Yunfei said.