Mo Yunxuan nodded and said to Wang Yuan, "Uncle Wang, you can go for now. Have the Elite Vanguard gather here in a little while."
"Yes, my lord."
Wang Yuan nodded and headed out of the training ground.
After Wang Yuan left the training ground, Mo Yunxuan tried to extract essence from the Fierce Beasts.
[Essence extraction failed. Please ensure the Magic Beast is dead.]
Mo Yunxuan's mouth twitched as he read the prompt on the system panel.
This system was so damn stupid—not even a manual! There was nothing he could do. He would have to wait until the Elite Vanguard arrived and see what happened then.
As for opening the cages himself, killing the Fierce Beasts, and extracting their essence?
Give him a break. Did they even know who Mo Yunxuan was? The Duke of Wei of the Dagan Dynasty, in command of two hundred thousand Imperial City Imperial Guards.
He'd have to kill a Magic Beast himself? What a joke!
It wasn't long before the Elite Vanguard began filing into Training Ground No. 3.
Once the training ground's gates closed, no one outside could learn what was happening within without drawing attention.
Mo Yunxuan spotted a familiar figure at a glance and waved to him.
"Li Tieniu, take your men and kill all the Fierce Beasts first."
Li Tieniu cupped his fists and accepted the order. The other Elite Vanguard Soldiers didn't wait for him to give instructions.
As if by tacit agreement, they formed groups of ten and fanned out to hunt the Fierce Beasts trapped in their cramped cages.
In less than five minutes, not a single Fierce Beast in the training ground was still breathing.
Mo Yunxuan waded through the pool of blood and used Essence Extraction on the Giant Strength Ant's corpse inside its cage.
A progress bar immediately appeared on the system panel.
As the bar advanced, cracks gradually spread across the Giant Strength Ant's corpse.
When the bar filled, the corpse was finally reduced to a pile of powder that scattered across the ground.
[Level Three Blood Essence ×1]
Mo Yunxuan tried to take out the Blood Essence that had appeared in the system, but after trying for quite a while, he still couldn't get it out.
When Li Tieniu came closer, the system suddenly prompted him:
[Use Level Three Blood Essence to reinforce this unit?]
Mo Yunxuan, who had nearly gone mad with frustration, raised an eyebrow. So it could only be used directly!
Stupid system! It couldn't even give a prompt. It had made him waste all that time trying.
But he could complain all he wanted; Mo Yunxuan still selected "Yes" on the system panel.
After Mo Yunxuan confirmed that he wanted to use the Level Three Blood Essence on Li Tieniu, the Blood Essence on the system panel vanished in an instant.
This gave him a fright. He thought the system had malfunctioned again, but then a gust of air suddenly burst from Li Tieniu.
It blew the unprepared Mo Yunxuan back two steps before he managed to steady himself.
Then came a series of crackling sounds. He couldn't see what was happening to the muscles beneath Li Tieniu's armor,
but the muscles on Li Tieniu's face and hands seemed to come alive, writhing uncontrollably.
The sight made Mo Yunxuan's scalp crawl!
Once all the movement around Li Tieniu had stopped, Mo Yunxuan opened his Attribute Panel:
[Name: Li Tieniu] [Faction: Dagan Dynasty Wei State Duke Mansion] [Cultivation: Mid Golden Core] [Cultivation Method: Blood Battle Scripture]
Seeing how effortlessly Li Tieniu had advanced by a whole stage, Mo Yunxuan was overjoyed.
But curious about the process of fusing with the Blood Essence, he asked, "Tieniu, how was it? What did it feel like?"
Li Tieniu had only just come back to his senses after experiencing his increase in strength. His eyes were still a little unfocused.
He answered instinctively, "Uh, it felt great. My whole body felt comfortable throughout the advancement, and my physical cultivation naturally broke through to Mid Golden Core."
Mo Yunxuan hesitated, then asked with a conflicted look, "Was there any pain along the way?"
Mo Yunxuan stared intently at Li Tieniu. Aside from the time at the barracks, this was the most serious he had ever looked.
In his previous life, Mo Yunxuan had been a grown man, but his tolerance for pain had been pitifully low.
Since coming to this world, he hadn't encountered any situation that could properly make him feel pain, so he'd naturally forgotten about it.
But after seeing the somewhat frightening scene of Li Tieniu's advancement with his own eyes, his fear of pain surged back in an instant.
The key was that fusing with Blood Essence to increase his strength was simple and convenient, with no side effects. It was countless times better than sitting around alone and cultivating.
On top of that, with so many protagonists of one sort or another, using Blood Essence to increase his strength would inevitably become his main method of advancement in the future.
If he didn't ask now and prepare himself mentally,
and it turned out to hurt like hell, wouldn't he be rolling around on the ground?
Then his dignified image as the Duke of Wei would be ruined.
After taking a moment to adjust to his enhanced body, Li Tieniu said to Mo Yunxuan:
"Reporting to Your Grace, while absorbing the Blood Essence, my entire body was completely relaxed. I didn't feel the slightest pain."
Hearing his answer, Mo Yunxuan nodded in satisfaction. The heavy stone in his heart had finally fallen away.
Then he walked over to the Qingyan Turtle's corpse and began extracting Blood Essence again.
When the extraction was complete, the Qingyan Turtle's corpse, like the Giant Strength Ant's, had turned into a pile of powder.
The panel still recorded:
[Level Three Blood Essence ×1]
This gave Mo Yunxuan a few ideas:
Could the level of Blood Essence be determined solely by the Fierce Beast's level?
Was it unrelated to anything else?
With that question in mind, Mo Yunxuan called over another Elite Vanguard Soldier.
[Name: Chen Yuanshan] [Faction: Dagan Dynasty Wei State Duke Mansion] [Cultivation: Early Golden Core] [Cultivation Method: Blood Battle Scripture]
He opened Chen Yuanshan's Data Panel. It was exactly the same as Li Tieniu's had been before his advancement.
Then Mo Yunxuan fused the Qingyan Turtle's Blood Essence into Chen Yuanshan's body.
After another eerie writhing of flesh, Chen Yuanshan's Data Panel changed to:
[Name: Chen Yuanshan] [Faction: Dagan Dynasty Wei State Duke Mansion] [Cultivation: Mid Golden Core] [Cultivation Method: Blood Battle Scripture]
Seeing the change in cultivation on the panel, Mo Yunxuan's earlier guess was confirmed.
After that, Mo Yunxuan didn't continue experimenting. Instead, he quickly extracted the Blood Essence from the remaining corpses.
[Level Three Blood Essence ×598]
Looking at the amount of Blood Essence on the panel, Mo Yunxuan felt twice as satisfied.
But when he looked at the Elite Vanguard present, he sighed inwardly.
Alas, I'd only just stockpiled all that Blood Essence, and now it's about to be gone...
There was no helping it. For his sake, for Meng Qianxue's sake, and for the sake of the entire Wei State Duke Mansion,
what did a little Blood Essence matter? When the new came, the old had to go.
In the future, he'd stockpile even more Blood Essence!
While his enthusiasm still lasted, Mo Yunxuan began another round of experiments.
This time, he wanted to see whether another portion of Level Three Blood Essence could advance someone from Mid Golden Core to Late Golden Core.
So Mo Yunxuan called Li Tieniu over again and used a portion of Blood Essence on him.
Before you continue