The Beast Taming Sect is located within the vast Qianming Mountain Range, which stretches thousands of miles, providing natural superior conditions for cultivating beasts for the sect.

You sped northeastward and arrived at the Qianming Mountain Range after seventeen days.

Instead of heading straight to the Beast Taming Sect, you wandered alone within the mountains for five days.

During that time, you captured over a hundred beasts and extracted their vital blood, inspecting it carefully multiple times.

With your level eight pill refiner skills and already advanced medical expertise, you found no issues; all the beast blood was perfectly normal.

You refined all the vital blood, but unlike before, you did not refine it within your body. Instead, you refined it outside your body into a state ready for fusion.

Still, no abnormalities were detected.

Although you found no problems, you prudently chose not to fuse the blood and stored all the refined vital blood in your spatial pocket.

You rubbed your chin and said, “It’s very likely that the small animals in the Beast Taming Sect are the ones having problems...”

But going directly to ask might not get you the truth.

So, using the invisibility feature of the Nuo Opera Mask, you sneaked into the Beast Taming Sect in the dead of night.

You arrived at the largest breeding ground in the sect, your eyes glowing red like a ghostly apparition as you floated silently through it.

In the blink of an eye, you extracted thirty-one drops of vital blood.

You came and went like the wind, unseen and unheard.

After leaving the Beast Taming Sect, you found a resting spot in the Qianming Mountains and began refining the vital blood outside your body into a state ready for fusion.

The first twenty drops refined without issue, but when refining the twenty-first, that strange sensation reappeared.

You vaguely sensed that something was dispersing from that drop of vital blood, after which it became indistinguishable from ordinary vital blood.

When you fused the vital blood of three Emberhawks, you experienced the same feeling: some original substance in the vital blood was dispersing within your body.

Your worry instantly lessened. Since something was dispersing, it wouldn’t affect your physical body.

You then refined the remaining nine drops, and no abnormalities occurred again.

You remembered that the drop which dispersed came from a very strong fierce beast.

You couldn’t help but speculate that the stronger the vital blood, the more likely it is to have that dispersing sensation!

You furrowed your brow and thought, “Could it be a problem with the Guarding Gate Body Technique?”

“Maybe the vital blood’s quality exceeded the refining limit of the Guarding Gate Body Technique, and the excess had to be discarded, which is why something seemed to dissipate?”

“Or perhaps the vital blood’s quality was too high, making the fusion process a bit unruly, so it struggled a little in the end.”

But no matter which was true, at least you were sure the Beast Taming Sect wasn’t deliberately doing anything.

You were also sure that these vital blood drops weren’t technologically enhanced or tampered with, so they had no negative effects on you.

Still, these were just your guesses. Until you fully understood the situation, you didn’t plan to fuse these vital blood drops.

Those thirty-one fusion-ready drops were also stored in your spatial pocket.

You planned to enclose an area within the Qianming Mountain Range and use the Beast Taming Sect’s secret beast taming manual to cultivate small animals.

You would also use the same manual to cultivate small animals at the Youtong County Zoo.

This way, with the Beast Taming Sect, the Qianming Mountain Range, and the zoo as three different control locations, you could verify under what conditions the vital blood became so potent.

During your refining, you noticed these vital blood drops were not as high quality as the three Emberhawks’ vital blood.

You silently smiled and thought, “Looks like those three Emberhawks are rare treasures even in the Beast Taming Sect. No wonder Kong Ling looks so heartbroken!”

You immediately planned to leave the Qianming Mountains, but then you remembered the many fierce beasts within the sect and their enticing vital blood.

Though these beasts were not as high quality as the three Emberhawks, their sheer numbers made up for it.

Even if you didn’t fuse them now, they could exist in your spatial pocket, waiting to be fused once you figured things out.

“But these beasts are after all raised by the Beast Taming Sect. Doing this feels unethical!”

You looked conflicted, troubled for exactly 0.1 seconds.

In the end, you decided to follow your profession’s motto: thieves never walk away empty-handed.

“Just one last time, I’ll take the last batch, and then I’ll quit starting tomorrow!”

You immediately touched down at various breeding grounds in the Beast Taming Sect and flickered through them, gathering four hundred and sixteen drops of vital blood.

Of course, this number was not the limit of all beasts in the sect; these were carefully selected drops.

Since getting a taste of the Emberhawks’ refined vital blood, you had become somewhat picky.

Actually, with your strength, you could have forced the Beast Taming Sect to willingly give you these treasures.

But that would risk exposing your cultivation of the Guarding Gate Body Technique and revealing your identity as He Yu.

Another minor reason was that you found sneaking around like this too thrilling!

After extracting the vital blood, you left the Beast Taming Sect without a sound.

At dawn, an ordinary disciple of the sect yawned and started his daily beast training.

When he summoned his Cold Shadow Leopard, he found it dull-eyed and listless, as if it had been tormented by its mother for three days straight.

The disciple quickly used true qi to investigate and discovered the leopard’s internal qi and blood were severely depleted and decayed.

He was shocked and about to ask others when everyone around suddenly howled towards the sky, “Who the hell did this?!”

By then, you were already on your way back to Youtong County.

Three days ago, you had finished refining all four hundred and sixteen drops of vital blood, which you also stored in your spatial pocket.

“Other people’s little beasts sure are fun to siphon from!” You felt a thrill like finding free money.

During refining, that dispersing sensation appeared fourteen more times.

You completely confirmed that the stronger the fierce beast, the more likely this sensation would occur.

You called this phenomenon “potent beast blood.”

You planned to wait a few years for the Beast Taming Sect to rehabilitate the batch of beasts you had drawn from before coming back for another harvest.

“The next time, the brothers in the Beast Taming Sect should agree, since they tacitly accepted it this time.”

Feeling good, you hummed a little tune as you returned to your He Manor in Youtong County.

Old Wang hadn’t seen you for a month or two and rushed out anxiously when he saw you, “Young Master, you’re finally back!!”

“Old Wang, your emotions are strong this time but overly eager with too little joy. Improve next time.”

“Not Young Master, this time it’s serious!”

You raised an eyebrow, “What’s wrong?”

“The He siblings helping you manage the zoo want to quit!”

“I left you enough silver before I left. How can you run out of monthly wages so quickly?”

“No, Young Master, I paid their wages as usual. It’s the He siblings who had a conflict with Dong Zhijie!”

“Tell me about it.”

As Old Wang explained, you understood that Dong Zhijie acted like an evil creature specialist, conducting crazy experiments in the zoo and creating many strange and disgusting things.

The two siblings were heartbroken watching their carefully cared-for animals being ruthlessly harmed by Dong Zhijie.

But Dong Zhijie was following your orders to create new species for you.

The He siblings knew they were just working for you and had no right to complain, so they had reluctantly endured for over a year.

Until recently, they couldn’t bear it anymore and wanted to resign, but you weren’t around.

Being honest, they didn’t run off home immediately but continued to care for the animals, waiting for your return to discuss quitting.

In recent days, the siblings had some conflicts with Dong Zhijie, nearly coming to blows.

That was why Old Wang hurried to tell you about the matter.

You nodded, “Alright, I understand.”

You headed straight to the zoo.

You found that the He siblings were indeed responsible, not just quitting outright but waiting for you to return.

You thought to yourself, “Perfect. I can rest assured sending them out.”

Also, you were curious about what Dong Zhijie had been creating that made the He siblings willing to give up high salaries and run away.