I tamed beasts and achieved immortality in the world of cultivation.

"This desolate world is my beast-taming space..."

Chen Qing muttered to himself, a strange feeling rising in his heart.

Withdrawing his thoughts, Chen Qing looked back at the system screen, where new instructions had appeared:

[Note: The Legion Sub-System can extract gene fragments from contracted spirit beasts and consume "Essence" to create exclusive legion units. Legion units will inherit a portion of the original body's combat power, up to 80%.]

[Current Essence: 4538]

[Note: After activating the Legion System, the host can obtain essence by "harvesting" any living being. Harvesting method: After killing a living being, the system automatically extracts the essence.]

Chen Qing quickly read the instructions twice, and his eyes gradually brightened.

"Extracting gene fragments...creating a unique legion..."

Isn't this just the unit system from those strategy games in my past life?

Chen Qing opened the Legion interface, and a semi-transparent panel appeared before his eyes, listing the three contracted spirit beasts he currently owned: Qingtian, Danyu, and Yinyue.

Below each spirit beast's portrait is a "Create Legion Units" button, next to which is a description of the amount of essence consumed and the combat power of the generated unit.

Chen Qing clicked on Qingtian's exclusive legion option, and a detailed explanation immediately appeared:

[Skybreaker Legion (Unnamed) Unit]

[Current Combat Strength: Tier 1, High Grade]

Current Legion Unit Options:

Elite Unit: Consumes 800 essence, combat power is 80% of the original unit.

Standard unit: Consumes 500 essences, combat power is 50% of the original body.

• Basic unit: Consumes 200 essence, combat power is 20% of the original unit.

Chen Qing looked at the three options, thought for a moment, and then chose "Basic Unit".

[Consuming 200 Essence, generating...]

[Generation complete.]

[Current Essence: 4338]

In less than ten breaths, just as the text on the light screen disappeared, Chen Qing sensed a faint aura in the Beast Taming Space. With a thought, a cyan rift suddenly opened in front of him, and the figure stepped out.

Chen Qing looked closely, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

That was a... little monkey.

To be precise, it's a miniature version of Optimus Prime.

It was only a little over three feet tall, thinner than Qingtian, and had three golden hairs on its head, but much shorter than Qingtian's. Its pair of black, monkey-like eyes were looking around in confusion.

"squeak?"

When the little monkey saw Chen Qing, it tilted its head and cried out. Then, imitating the image of Qingtian in its memory, it clasped its fists together, put on a stern face, and struck a pose as if to say, "Greetings, my lord."

But that small frame paired with that serious expression just looked ridiculous no matter how you looked at it.

Chen Qing finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Qingtian leaned closer to take a look, first stunned, then his eyes widened, and the three golden hairs on his head stood on end: "What...what is this thing?!"

When the little monkey saw Qingtian, its eyes lit up, and it immediately ran over and hugged Qingtian's leg, chirping incessantly. Its affection was just like that of someone who had seen their own father.

Qingtian looked down at the miniature version of himself and was completely dumbfounded.

"Chen Qing, this...this is my son?"

"No." Chen Qing shook his head, suppressing a laugh. "This is your legion unit, generated using essence. It's like a... uh... clone."

"A clone?" Qingtian scratched his head, then squatted down and poked the little monkey's head with his finger.

The little monkey stumbled from the poking, but quickly regained its balance, looked up at Qingtian, squeaked twice, and its eyes were full of admiration.

Qingtian was silent for a moment, then suddenly his eyes lit up and he grinned, waving his hand: "Squeak squeak squeak! (Alright! From today onwards, you are my soldier, Qingtian! I'll give you a name, it'll be... Wenchang!)"

The little monkey seemed quite pleased with the name, squeaking and doing two somersaults on the spot.

Watching this scene from the side, Dan Yu's black bean eyes flashed with disdain. He turned his head away, elegantly straightened his feathers, and gave off an expression that said, "I don't know these two idiots."

As Chen Qing watched Qingtian and "Wen Chang" interacting, he began to make plans in his mind.

He opened the legion interface and carefully examined Wen Chang's attributes.

[Skybreaker Legion - Wen Chang]

[Realm Level: Mid-Grade First Tier]

[Features: Can cultivate on its own; killing living beings provides the host with essence]

[Note: After being killed in battle, units can be revived by consuming essence. The amount of essence required for revival depends on the unit's level.]

"First-tier, mid-grade... that's about the fourth level of Qi Refining."

Chen Qing had a plan in mind.

Qingtian is currently a first-tier high-grade cultivator, with strength equivalent to the eighth level of Qi Refining. Wen Chang inherited 20% of his combat power, which translates to around the fourth level of Qi Refining—not particularly strong, but not too weak either.

It's more than enough to deal with those low-level skeletons, at least those at the first or second level of Qi Refining.

More importantly, there's the description that "killing living beings can provide essence to the host."

Chen Qing's eyes flickered slightly.

This means that he doesn't need to take action himself; as long as the legion units kill living beings, the system will automatically harvest the essence.

Moreover, you can be resurrected after being killed!

Although it consumes essence, it's still much better than having your hard-earned combat power wiped out in a single day.

"It's like having an extra group of workers who can be resurrected indefinitely..."

Chen Qing stroked his chin, glanced at the three soaring sword lights and the blood-red skeletons fighting in the distance, and then sensed the skeletal army surging towards the battlefield around him. He felt somewhat relieved.

"Let's go, let's try out this legion system."

Chen Qing pointed in another direction far from the battlefield, and with Qingtian, Danyu, and the newly created "Wenchang," they silently swept towards the edge of the Bone World.

……

Along the way, Chen Qing encountered many lone skeletons.

Most of these skeletons only had the strength of the first or second level of Qi Refining, pitifully weak, and Qingtian could smash a group of them with a single punch.

But Chen Qing didn't rush to act. Instead, he carefully observed the changes in the system's light screen and had Qingtian kill a skeleton at the first level of Qi Refining.

[Skybreaker kills the creature "Skeleton", Essence +0.1]

Chen Qing raised an eyebrow.

0.1?

Can this essence come in both whole and odd portions?

Chen Qing then had Dan Yu kill a skeleton at the second level of Qi Refining.

[Niwa kills the creature "Skeleton", Essence +0.2]

Chen Qing nodded thoughtfully.

It seems that the acquisition of essence is directly related to the cultivation level and the strength of the life force of the creature. These skeletons are just skeletal structures with little life force; it's already good enough that they can contribute essence.

……

The world of bones was much larger than Chen Qing had imagined.

He walked along the bone forest for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, and finally stopped in a relatively open area.

This place is at least twenty miles away from the battlefield where Gao Fu and the other two were fighting. Even if the battle there was chaotic, only a faint spiritual energy fluctuation would reach here, which would not affect his experiments at all.

Just as Chen Qing was about to continue walking forward, his spiritual senses suddenly stirred.

About a hundred feet ahead, a dozen faint auras were moving rapidly, heading straight this way.

"Blood bats?"

Chen Qing raised an eyebrow, scanned the area with his spiritual sense, and immediately understood the situation.

Blood bats usually appear in groups of hundreds or thousands, but this group only had thirteen of them, all around the third level of Qi Refining, clearly trapped in this Bone Secret Realm. They were also smaller than the ones Chen Qing had seen in the black market jade slip, with wingspans of only about a foot, and their bodies were dark red, as if soaked in blood.