Chapter 53: The Promotion Enigma

  Afraid! Of course afraid!

  Now in the imperial capital, from dukes to barons, from high-ranking officials to low-ranking clerks, who is not afraid of the evil Duke?

  When the hall is not in harmony, he dares to kill people, dare to kill the king's minister, Skarmory is just a demon minister, and Li Xie is naturally trembling with fear, afraid that Li Xie will be unhappy and kill him!

  "The Duke's demeanor is extraordinary, I'm not afraid, it's respect, it's respect!" Scamode was too afraid to say he was scared.

  Li Xie slightly shook his head, probably also aware of the problem. He himself was not a person who liked to bully others, on the contrary, he treated people very kindly, as could be seen from how he treated his guards and attendants. Of course, on the premise that others did not come to bully him!

  Li Xie didn't make any explanation, he took out a chair and sat down, took out wine, thought of the meow at home that didn't come with him, couldn't help but chuckled, then took out three bottles of fine wine, gave one to each of his attendants Kano and Zeinard, and another one was for Skamord.

  Scarmouche accepted the cup with a mixture of fear and trepidation, wanting to drink but not daring to, which amused Li Xie. He laughed and said: "My dear Scarmouche, the wine I gave you isn't poison, why are you so scared? Look at Cano and Zain, hey, you two don't drink too fast, or I won't give you any more!"

  "The wine given by the adults is certainly not poison, it's not poison." Skamord felt his tongue was tied up, anyway he thought that the evil duke always emitted a terrifying aura, as if he were not a human being, but a fierce beast hiding its ferocity!

  "By the way, Skamord, why are all the magical beasts here so low-level? The Empire wouldn't just have this little stock of low-level magical beasts, would it?" Li Xie casually asked during the brief pause while the servants were taking blood.

  Scamador hastily replied: "The ones here are all domesticated magical beasts, usually easy to manage, so they are raised here. Other high-ranking magical beasts or some powerful magical beasts are in other places."

  "What? High-ranking magical beasts and powerful magical beasts, what's the difference?" Li Xie was somewhat puzzled.

  "Sir, there are many species of magical beasts, and naturally, there are strong and weak ones. Generally speaking, magical beasts born at level 5 or above are always stronger than those below level 5. For example, a level 5 adult magical beast is more powerful than a level 3 Teddy bear that has been promoted to level 8. Therefore, magical beasts below level 5 are basically not used as summoned pets. And among the magical beasts above level 5, there are also strong and weak ones. For example, the combat power of a naturally born level 6 Earth Lion is stronger than that of a naturally born level 7 Spirit-horned Turtle. The more powerful or higher-level the magical beast, the stronger its wildness and arrogance, making it difficult to domesticate, so they need to be cultivated in specific places. Therefore, sir, you should look at those powerful or high-level magical beasts and have them transferred to other places."

  "Uh, it's too complicated, no need to say all that. Just go and hurry them up." Li Xie felt a headache coming on as he thought about how he didn't have any magic or martial arts skills, and even if he did want a magical pet, he only needed one contract beast, so there was no need to know all that much.

  Scamode mistakenly thought he was being careless and hastily took out a notebook: "Your Excellency, this is the humble notes of the lower official, recording the magical beasts that the lower official knows, as well as some skills and strengths of the magical beasts. If Your Excellency doesn't despise it, please accept it."

  This notebook was said to be ordinary by Scamode, but in fact, its value is immeasurable! It records all the magical beasts that Scamode knew throughout his life, not only their levels are clear, but also the skills that can be developed are recorded clearly, and even some beast-taming techniques! And most importantly, it records the habitats of some powerful magical beasts! If obtained by a mercenary on the mainland, one can even make a fortune or capture some powerful magical beasts with this information.

  "Huh?" Li Xie didn't know the value of this notebook, but he thought that since there was a book with such clear records, he might as well take it and read it when he had time to gain some knowledge. After taking advantage of someone else's kindness, Li Xie habitually returned the favor: "If you're not happy being the Beast Minister or if you have any troubles, just let me know."

  "Thanks, Your Excellency!" Scamode was overjoyed, Li Xie's casual remark, but Scamode understood that from now on, if he got into trouble, he could find this evil duke!

  This promise is no less valuable than Mercedes-Benz's gold medal today!

  Li Xie naturally wouldn't give promises casually, but since Skamoed is also a high-ranking official in the imperial court and is responsible for one of the country's most important matters - the demon beast affairs, he must have some abilities. Giving him a promise might come in handy in the future.

  This is perhaps the path that all those in power must take - forming parties!

  Before long, the servant finally collected the blood of the demon beasts, a total of three large buckets, which were the blood of the third-order black scale horse, the fifth-order demon beast and the sixth-order demon beast.

  This was what Li Xie had instructed, mainly to see if the energy of the blood was also different for magical beasts of different levels.

  Looking at the bright red, emitting a fragrance that was both sweet and extremely tempting to Li Xie, he ignored the onlookers and picked up the wooden bucket, starting to drink from it!

  This made Scarmode, the demonic minister who had seen Li Xie drink blood for the first time, frown slightly, but now that Li Xie's power was so great, he didn't dare say anything.

  It's precisely because of today's power that Li Xie is even more daring, openly drinking blood! Rather than hiding and concealing it, it's better to drink openly and let everyone know, so it won't be a secret anymore. And once everyone knows about it, they'll find it easier to accept and won't make an issue out of it.

  Furthermore, Li Ye is just drinking blood, who dares to mention it now?

  Li Xie drank the blood of a third-order Black Scale Horse, and the fresh blood went down his throat, tasting as sweet as human blood. However, Li Xie only felt refreshed in spirit and had no other sensations!

  "No energy? Not even a feeling of refreshment like drinking human blood!" Li Xie muttered to himself, and immediately picked up the fifth-tier demon beast's blood to drink again.

  The blood of a fifth-tier demonic beast was sweet and refreshing, Li Xie not only felt invigorated but also felt his body refreshed, as if he had just finished a morning exercise and taken a hot shower.

  And this feeling is just like he's drinking the blood of a soldier!

  "Is it that for some reason, only the blood of a more powerful demon or human can provide me with energy?"

  Li Xie seemed to be deep in thought, and he drank the last bucket of blood. Although the total volume of all the blood was several times larger than Li Xie's body, for vampires, blood only exists as a feeling of fullness, not physical satiety. Drinking more would allow his body to absorb it immediately!

  The third bucket, the blood of a sixth-order magic beast goes down the stomach, in addition to the previous feeling, there is also a subtle vitality, a fullness of power that spreads throughout the body!

  And this physical absorption of blood and the resulting sense of power, Li Xie only had a similar feeling when he absorbed the blood of Zaynarde's ninth-order giant dragon!

  "This is the real energy!" Li Xie's eyes shone brightly: "The blood before was too low-level, it could only provide a little recovery energy for my body, but couldn't make me stronger! Only the blood of high-level magic beasts contains more energy, can provide extra upgrading energy for me! The blood of 6th level magic beast already has some extra energy, but it's too little!"

  Through the blood of three different levels of magical beasts, as well as his past experiences of absorbing other blood, Li Xie came to a conclusion: The blood of people or magical beasts from other realms all contain energy that Li Xie can absorb! The difference lies in the fact that the blood of weaker magical beasts or humans can only be used by Li Xie to recover from physical injuries. Only when he absorbs blood of a certain level can it provide additional energy for him to upgrade!

  There is a problem, that is, the energy for Li Xie to repair physical injuries and the energy used for promotion are the same. In other words, if we represent it with data, suppose Zain's blood can provide 10,000 points of energy to Li Xie, while an ordinary person's blood can only provide one point of energy to Li Xie.

  In the absence of physical trauma, just one million ordinary people's blood can provide energy equivalent to that of Zeinard! So theoretically, if Li Xie absorbs the blood of one million ordinary people, he can advance from a Black-eyed Vampire to a Yellow-eyed Vampire!

  But the fact is not, the blood of 10,000 ordinary people can only be used to repair physical injuries. In a physically intact state, Li Xie cannot absorb any energy at all! And Zayn's blood, not only can it repair Li Xie's physical injuries, but also help him upgrade!

  Hence, Li Xie came to another conclusion: there was something wrong with his body or something that existed within him that suppressed the absorption of energy from the blood of the weak even when he wasn't injured!

  To put it more directly, for some reason, Li Xie's absorption of energy from any blood was being suppressed, but the energy in the blood of a high-ranking strong person exceeded this suppression, so Li Xie could fully absorb the energy in the blood!

  "What is it that's suppressing my energy absorption? The difference must be between when I'm injured and when I'm not! And what's the difference between my body when I'm not injured and when I'm injured? Weakness?"

  Li Xie couldn't quite figure it out, so he thought about investigating further later. For now, he was fairly certain that the blood of high-ranking magical beasts or powerful humans could shake off this restraint. The stronger the blood, the more it could shake off this restraint, allowing Li Xie to absorb even more energy!

  The energy provided by a bucket of sixth-tier demonic beast blood, although having some "power feel", was too little, compared to the energy provided by Zayn's blood it was like fireflies and the bright moon!

  According to the energy contained, Li Xie only needs to absorb as much blood as Zainnarde did last time, which is one-tenth of Zainnarde's body's blood, and he can advance to become a Qingyan Vampire! And if you want to rely on the blood of a sixth-level magic beast, I'm afraid it would take a thousand barrels!

  However, there are only a thousand sixth-grade magic beasts here, and the blood in one bucket is about 30 liters. If you want a thousand buckets, even if all the sixth-grade magic beasts here are slaughtered and drained of their blood, it's still far from enough!

  Then we can only target high-level demon beasts!

  "Scamode, let's go take a look at the high-level demonic beast!" Li Xie decided to change locations and go extract blood from the high-level demonic beast!

  Scamode said: "Sir, are you going to use the blood of a magical beast for cultivation?"

  That's why I asked, because Li Xie was just muttering to himself, and Scamode guessed roughly from what Li Xie said.

  "So be it." Li Xie said without evasion.

  "How much is needed?" Scamandros asked again.

  "Extremely many." According to the proportion of six-stage magical beasts, Li Xie must need a lot of blood from seven-stage or eight-stage magical beasts. Unless there is blood from a nine-stage magical beast, in which case the quantity may not be too much. But nine-stage magical beasts, in the Dordonne Empire, are probably only found in Zeenarnad and that newly-promoted Great Earth Lion Randolf of Duke Laine.

  Scammon immediately said: "Sir, if you want a large quantity, I have a proposal."

  "Oh? You said."