The Ancient Sages Society maintained tight secrecy, and this base was clearly not one of their key installations.
Under Yu Xian's direction, Zhou Tai No. 2 took a quick walk around before returning to his room. Seeing that things were settled on that end, Yu Xian stopped monitoring him and went back to freeloading drinks and blood in the perfect creature factory.
After a while, a striking, magnificent perfect creature smashed through the floorboards from the lower level. It closely resembled a griffin, though only when it opened its maw could one see its dense rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Yu Xian's eyes lit up, and he urgently shouted, "Minister, hold your blade! Spare that monster!"
"What for?"
Yu Lie had been thoroughly enjoying the slaughter. Hearing this, he checked his swing and turned to Yu Xian.
Xiao Cheng, however, did not pause. Striking the butt of his staff against the ground, he froze the pouncing griffin-like perfect creature midair in an instant.
"I've awakened a new ability that lets me control these perfect creatures," Yu Xian said directly. "I want to give it a try."
Lowering his blade, Yu Lie sought confirmation. "Are you sure you can control it? Your rank is far below its level."
Though Yu Lie had been slicing them down as easily as minnows, giving the impression that these perfect creatures were weak, every creature emerging from below was actually a Dragon-rank monster. Even if Gong Qian were here, she could suppress at most one, and might not even win the fight.
It was only because Yu Lie was so overwhelmingly powerful that these perfect creatures appeared fragile.
Of course, by comparison, the true value of the Xingtian zombie king's defense was only becoming more impressive in hindsight.
"I'll give it a shot."
Yu Xian was not certain whether his Final Origin Blood could bring a Dragon-rank perfect creature under control either.
Still, if he didn't take advantage of having two ministers around to back him up, there was no telling when another opportunity like this would come along.
In truth, back when he saw the monsters controlled by Zhou Tai Three and the others, the thought of taking them over with Final Origin Blood had crossed his mind for a brief moment. However, those monsters were combinations of brain-hugging neural worms and the host beasts. While controlled by the worms, the beasts were not dead, meaning they remained two separate entities.
Under those circumstances, he had no way of knowing which entity his Final Origin Blood would take over.
If it infected the beast instead of Zhou Tai Three, the moment Zhou Tai Three noticed, he would instantly realize Zhou Tai No. 2 had been compromised, which would expose Yu Xian as well.
Weighing all those uncertain variables, he had ultimately refrained from acting against the other Zhou Tai clones.
Setting aside Zhou Tai No. 2—whom he had subdued almost by accident—this griffin-like creature in front of him was truly the first creature he would deliberately attempt to control with his Final Origin Blood.
Yu Xian stepped forward, used a spatial bubble to draw his own blood, and reshaped the bubble into a needle. But right after, an awkward problem arose.
The spatial bubble could not pierce the griffin-like creature's hide. Yu Lie could cut them down with a single strike, but against Yu Xian's ordinary means, its defense proved completely impenetrable.
"Minister..." Yu Xian turned around, looking rather embarrassed.
Speechless, Yu Lie stepped forward and dragged his three-pointed double-edged blade across the creature's body, leaving a bleeding gash. Only then was Yu Xian able to inject the Final Origin Blood into its system through the open wound.
All three men backed away. Once Xiao Cheng released his hold, the griffin-like creature began thrashing its head violently, even slamming its skull repeatedly against the ground.
"Is it working? If not, I'll butcher it," Yu Lie said.
Yu Xian could sense the Final Origin Blood invading the creature's brain. He nodded. "It's working. It won't be struggling for much longer."
Comparing this to his earlier experience, he could draw a clear conclusion: the weaker the creature, the faster the Final Origin Blood took hold; the stronger the creature, the slower the process, with a possibility of failure.
The griffin-like creature had even begun clawing and tearing at its own neck, seemingly trying to bite out the Final Origin Blood, but its efforts were entirely in vain.
After thrashing for about five minutes, its body shuddered slightly. Then, like a lapdog wagging its head and tail, it trotted up to Yu Xian, rolled onto its back on the floor, and exposed its belly.
Evidently, in the creature's mind, this was the ultimate gesture of submission.
"Get up!" Yu Xian commanded.
The next instant, the griffin-like creature scrambled to its feet, lowering its head to look at him.
It stood nearly five meters tall, its entire body packed with dense muscle, possessing an array of super abilities. Yu Xian even suspected that some researcher had engineered this monster specifically to create a griffin.
Otherwise, it could never have ended up so strikingly similar in appearance.
"From now on, your name will be... Yu Lie. Lie as in hunter..." A smile appeared on Yu Xian's face, but before he could finish, a smack from Yu Lie landed upside his head.
Yu Lie snapped in annoyance, "Keep clowning around, you little brat!"
"Then let's go with Xiao Jiuzi, like the 'jiu' in griffin!" Yu Xian quickly changed it.
Xiao Cheng couldn't resist scoffing. "Your naming talent really is atrocious. If you ask me, it should be called Lion-Griffin."
"..."
Both Yu Lie and Yu Xian stared at Xiao Cheng in silence. If Jin Sheng woke up and heard that name, he would probably pass out from sheer irritation all over again.
Just then, another perfect creature emerged from beneath the floor. Yu Lie and Xiao Cheng both looked at Yu Xian. Yu Xian took one glance at the newly surfaced monstrosity and shook his head. "Too ugly. Don't want it."
"Don't be so hasty. Is there an upper limit to how many you can control?" Xiao Cheng asked quickly.
Yu Xian shook his head. "No. As long as I have Origin Blood, I can control other creatures without limit."
"Then take control of it. If you don't want it, command it to obey my orders, and I'll deploy it to guard ordinary schools," Xiao Cheng suggested, a shrewd glint in his eyes.
Yu Lie nodded. "Good idea. But they'll need training first. They can only take up their posts once they pass."
The aberrant worm crisis was indeed behind them, but there was no guarantee other threats wouldn't arise in the future. If every ordinary school in every city were guarded by a Dragon-rank transcendent creature, the survival rate of the students would undoubtedly soar.
Still, to be safe, Yu Lie pressed for many more details about the ability. He even planned to conduct multiple inspections later to verify it was completely secure before putting any of them into service.
From then on, the three worked in tandem, subduing one escaping perfect creature after another and converting them into Yu Xian's blood scions via Final Origin Blood.
Eventually, the trio didn't even need to lift a finger. Whenever a new perfect creature poked its head out, dozens of subdued perfect creatures would swarm forward, instantly overpower the newcomer, bind it tight with tentacles, and drag it before Yu Xian.
After a flurry of activity, Yu Xian brought more than fifty perfect creatures under his control. Aside from one with a peculiar ability that sat at the Tiger rank, all the rest were Dragon-rank.
Of those creatures, aside from the handsome griffin and another that resembled a Western dragon, he handed over all the unsightly ones to Qilin.
He was confident that, in their respective posts, they would shine brightly and protect many more lives in the days to come.
Chapter 116