During this unique enslavement process, Shao Xuan put the Gomphos next to the pterosaur and compared the two creatures.
He didn’t use as much energy to enslave the Gomphos. It required less energy and was a lot simpler. This might be due to the fact that the Gomphos no longer had self-consciousness, but the main underlying cause was the creature’s inherent characteristics.
Even though the Gomphos’s bones had a higher active potential, its quality wasn’t good enough. Simply put, its bones couldn’t hold too much of the fire seed’s energy. This was just a typical wild beast in the forest after all. It was in the lower levels of the food chain, so it couldn’t hold as much energy within its bones.
The pterosaur wasn’t large either. It was even smaller than the Gomphos but Shao Xuan noticed that the pterosaur’s bones could store more of the fire seed’s energy than the Gomphos.
The size of the animal’s bones was not at all correlated with the amount of energy it could store.
Then, could it be that the more advanced the species, or the stronger the person, the more energy it can store?
Shao Xuan decided he would have to test on a fearsome beast freshly slaughtered at the market.
He was just planning to leave but suddenly thought about the pterosaur that was still flat on the table. He turned around to look at it. The creature also twisted its neck rigidly to look at Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan turned his head and walked out the door of the secret room. He pulled the thick and heavy stone door behind him and shut it tightly as he left.
The same moment Shao Xuan shut the door, he freed the pterosaur from telepathic control. He didn’t walk far though. He stayed and waited beside the door.
Shao Xuan could sense the pterosaur’s movements within the room. It was as if the picture was projected within his mind. It was crystal clear. However, it wasn’t a picture of the creature’s entire body. He could only see its skeletal structure. This was because its bones were filled with the fire seed’s energy, so even when the creature swung its tail from side to side, he could see those movements clearly.
After Shao Xuan left, the pterosaur regained its freedom. After it got on its feet, it scanned the room cautiously and cried out once to make sure no one was around. After waiting patiently for a while, it finally turned and crawled towards the Gomphos on the other table.
The pterosaur’s wings were a lot more flexible now compared to when the ice in its body first melted. It was also crawling a lot faster now.
The stench of blood coming from the Gomphos’ dead body aroused the hunger within the pterosaur and it was crawling even faster now. As soon as it reached the Gomphos, the pterosaur extended its neck and bit down deep into the Gomphos. The small slice Shao Xuan fed it was clearly not enough to sate its hunger.
The creature wasn’t strong, so it was only tearing small slices of meat with its sharp teeth from the Gomphos’ body. It didn’t tear out large pieces each time, but it was eating very quickly.
Shao Xuan left after he watched from outside the door for a while.
There wasn’t anything important in the room, so Shao Xuan wasn’t worried. No matter how much damage the pterosaur did, there was no way it could barrel through the thick stone walls of the secret chamber, right?
At the same time, Shao Xuan also wanted to know the distance in which he could maintain a stable control over the pterosaur.
The more time he spent learning about it, the more secrets he discovered about this enslavement method. It allowed him to understand more about the person who invented enslavement too.
Up till now, no one knew who or which group was the mastermind behind all the monsters. Yi Si said that the Yi family was involved but he wasn’t sure exactly how many. Then there was the person who had left the Yi family a thousand years ago. What exactly was his role in this matter?
Shao Xuan shook his head and continued to walk out the castle. At the same time, he was watching the projected image in his mind. As long as he was within the control radius, he could see the pterosaur’s movements.
Shao Xuan could still see a clear picture in his mind of the room all the way until he walked out the Flaming River Castle. The pterosaur was still eating.
Shao Xuan went to a stall that sold fearsome beast meat and picked a beast that was recently slaughtered. He carried it all the way back to the secret room. The pterosaur was still tearing at the Gomphos’ meat but it suddenly stopped eating and retreated into one corner when it heard Shao Xuan’s footsteps.
Shao Xuan ignored it. Instead, he set the fearsome beast he carried down on the stone table. The beast had already been cleaned and its internal organs removed. All of its blood had been let out and he even rubbed it to see if there was still blood in the creature. Only a few drops of blood dripped on the table.
When the pterosaur smelled the fresh blood from the beast, its head protruded from behind the Gomphos and looked in Shao Xuan’s direction. It was testing whether Shao Xuan would force it to get down on all fours as he did before. It looked at the fearsome beast again. The pterosaur looked like it wanted to advance, but didn’t dare to. It was clear the pterosaur was interested in the fearsome beast. Fearsome beast meat was different from wild beast meat after all. This kind of meat would attract different kinds of predators.
From the pterosaur’s actions, Shao Xuan could tell that it preferred fearsome beast meat more than wild beast meat. The only thing that was holding it back was its fear of Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan used the same method and performed the same kind of enslavement on this beast.
It was exactly what he had expected. Fearsome beast bones could be merged with more energy from the fire seed and it could absorb more energy than the wild beast. Even so, it couldn’t be compared to how much a human can absorb. When Shao Xuan was experimenting with the monster, even though he didn’t get to finish his experiment, he could already guess what the results were. After a few rounds of testing, Shao Xuan finally deduced that humans could absorb more energy from the fire seed than fearsome beasts. This was probably why the people from Rock Hill City chose to use humans as subjects for enslavement instead of fierce desert beasts.
After he finished testing, Shao Xuan was about to carry the fearsome beast out. The only thing he did with this meat was he used it to test the special enslavement method. It could still be eaten after testing. Of course, he wouldn’t put it out for sale at the stalls. He would just give it to the other Flaming Horns. The bones of this fearsome beast were fused with the energy of their fire seed. It was different from other meat.
The pterosaur was still looking at Shao Xuan before he carried it away. He picked up a knife and sliced out a piece of meat and left it on the stone table. Then, he carried the fearsome beast and walked away.
After he left the secret room, Shao Xuan handed this beast to the soldiers who were just about to head out for lunch.
“Take out the bones and cook soup with it. Don’t waste any of the bone marrow. These bones have merged with our fire seed,” Shao Xuan said.
The warrior held the fearsome beast Shao Xuan handed him. He looked at the fearsome beast in his arms. He still couldn’t understand what had happened, but he didn’t care too much. He knew he just had to follow whatever the Grand Elder said. He walked a few steps forward and then slapped his head. All the Grand Elder said was “eat”! This he knew!
When Shao Xuan went back to the secret room, he noticed that only two-thirds of the fearsome beast meat on the table was left. The piece of meat Shao Xuan left behind was about the same size as the pterosaur. Seeing how it was still eating aggressively and had no intention to stop, he could only wonder how much the creature would end up eating at the end.
The pterosaur probably got bolder after noticing how Shao Xuan didn’t attack him anymore. It was probably because of the food too. It was bolder in front of its prey, but it still did not dare approach Shao Xuan. The creature’s eyes were filled with fear and terror whenever it looked at Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan didn’t look in that direction anymore after he caught a glimpse of what was happening. He was planning on testing it out on the half-rotten Gomphos. He already brought it all the way here. It would be a waste if he didn’t use it.
When Shao Xuan was starting the enslavement, he stayed cautious and observed the pterosaur’s reaction. Just now, when he was enslaving the fearsome beast, he noticed how terrified the pterosaur was. Even though it didn’t scream, it hid behind the Gomphos. In Shao Xuan’s mind, he could still see it shivering in fright.
Now, when Shao Xuan summoned flames to his hands, the pterosaur dropped its food and immediately looked for a place to hide. Panicking, it hid under the stone table right away. If it didn’t open up its wings, it would most likely have fallen. The creature had just woken up from ice so it was still fairly weak.
The half-rotten Gomphos didn’t waste too much of Shao Xuan’s time. Shao Xuan took the least time enslaving this one. However, under Shao Xuan’s control, the Gomphos’ bones fell apart after it stood up and took a few steps. It was just like a broken machine. He could not control it well.
“It doesn’t work if the active potential is too low.”
So it was the active potential in the bones after all! No wonder the people from Rock Hill City didn’t use any rotten bodies when they made the monsters. All of the bodies they had selected seemed carefully processed before they were enslaved. They seemed to value the quality of the monsters’ bodies.
After Shao Xuan learned about the secret behind the secret desert monster, he told everyone at a meeting of senior Flaming Horn members.
However, not everyone could use this method to enslave any recently dead fierce beasts. None of the others succeeded, not even Zheng Luo, Duo Kang, or the two retired shamans. Gui Ze had not given it a try because she was studying a new herb. Now, in the Flaming Horn tribe, amongst all the people who knew about this secret, the only person who could successfully perform this type of enslavement was Shao Xuan.
Everyone was curious when they heard that the ancient creature came back to life.
Most of the insects that had been extracted from the ice had been made into fertiliser. Only a few unique ones that were more complete and undamaged were kept. The two retired shamans found a cave atop a high hill to store them. They wanted to keep these so their descendants could study them. After all, these creatures came from very very long ago. They could very possibly be older than all their ancestors.
Now, when these two old shamans heard that one of these creatures actually survived, they all couldn’t wait to see this strange creature. Duo Kang also mentioned that this creature was similar but different from a bird.
Shao Xuan had been training the pterosaur for the past few days inside the secret underground room. This was an ancient fierce beast after all. Even though it was smaller in size, he still had to be careful. Shao Xuan already noticed how aggressive it could get in the past few days as it slowly recovered. It wouldn’t be good if he let it out and it attacked his own people.
That was why the first thing they smelled when the group of people followed Shao Xuan to the secret room was the stench of blood.
Shao Xuan also felt that the smell in the room was too strong, but this was the best he could do for now because the beast had not been tamed or trained.
There was a piece of meat on the stone table that had been chewed halfway. Most of it had been torn off.
The water moon stone on the wall was still glowing. There was a rattan birdcage in one corner of the room. It was empty, but there were faeces at the bottom of the cage.
If they merely relied on their hearing, they wouldn’t have been able to tell where the pterosaur was hiding, but through sensing the fire seed’s energy that coursed within its body, they could tell where it was.
A figure hid under the table in a dark corner. It looked like a bat and was hanging upside down from the side of the table. The people standing at the door couldn’t see it clearly due to their angle and the lighting in the room.