Seeing the golden dragon flying at him, Yuan subconsciously retrieved his Empyrean Overlord and took a defensive stance as it felt like an extremely powerful and violent beast was rushing at him at this moment.
"Brother Yuan?" Xiao Hua was puzzled by Yuan's sudden alertness and called out to him.
But alas, Yuan was too focused on the dragon to hear Xiao Hua's voice.
Whoosh!
The dragon slithered through the air in a smooth movement before headbutting Yuan.
Yuan held the Empyrean Overlord in front of his body to block the attack, but to his surprise, as though it was a ghost, the dragon went directly through his sword and straight into his body!
"Ah!" Yuan shouted in a surprised voice when the dragon suddenly invaded his body.
"What happened, Brother Yuan?!" Xiao Hua left the necklace and asked him.
"T-The golden dragon went inside my body!" He quickly said.
"Brother Yuan, Xiao Hua believes that the dragon is—"
Right as Xiao Hua spoke, a notification appeared before him.
Ding!
[Heaven Refining Physique activated]
[Minor Dragon Essence has been refined]
[Soul Strength +10,000]
[Your Divine Sense has reached a new level]
[Divine Sense Mastery Level (1) → (2)]
"—Dragon Essence, so it's not harmful to your body. In fact, it will even benefit you greatly!" Xiao Hua said.
"Dragon Essence? What is that? I just gained a lot of stats from absorbing the Minor Dragon Essence." Yuan said.
"What! Brother Yuan already absorbed the Dragon Essence?!" Xiao Hua looked at him with a gawking expression on her small face.
Unlike monster cores, monster essences are very unique in the way they are created and absorbed. When a magical beast dies, its Dantian will form into a monster core that allows Cultivators to absorb some of its spiritual energy. However, when it comes to essences, they can be created without needing the magical beasts' death.
With that being said, only powerful magical beasts have the ability to create essences, mostly Divine Beasts like the Great One, and even then it requires a lot of energy and time to form its own essence.
As for why magical beasts would waste their time and effort on creating essences— it's sort of training for them, like how Yuan trains his Divine Sense, as it strengthens their control over their own spiritual energy as well as their soul and mental strength.
"B-Brother Yuan, even though it's only a minor essence, it normally takes months if not years for an individual to fully absorb it, yet you managed to absorb it so quickly, almost instantaneously… It's almost as shocking as your eating habits…" Xiao Hua said to him with her eyes wide as saucers.
"Does absorbing monster essences not give you Qi like monster cores do?" Yuan asked her since he didn't get any Qi from absorbing the Dragon Essence.
"Essences are unique in the way that different essences will have different effects. Some essence can give you Qi while others will grant you other benefits such as increased physical strength or mental strength." Xiao Hua explained to him.
"I see… and the Dragon Essence happened to give me Soul Strength…" Yuan mumbled.
"WHAT!" Xiao Hua suddenly shouted in a shocked voice.
"S-Soul Strength?! The Dragon Essence gave Brother Yuan Soul Strength?! Is this true?!" Xiao Hua asked him in a somewhat nervous manner.
"Y-Yes…" Yuan nodded, startled by her reaction.
"That's incredibly lucky, Brother Yuan! Out of everything one can obtain from essences, Soul Strength is the rarest and most sought after essence by even top Cultivators since it directly improves your Soul Strength without needing any Soul Techniques or training!" Xiao Hua said to him in an excited voice, her body slightly shaking from excitement as though she was the one who received the benefit.
"Either the Founder of this place is incredibly generous to leave behind the Dragon Essence or he wasn't the one who put the Dragon Essence here!"
Yuan nodded and continued to ask, "By the way, it's only a Minor Dragon Essence. Does this mean there are even higher qualities of essences?"
Xiao Hua nodded and said, "That's right. There are Minor Essences, Major Essences, and Divine Essences."
"I see…" Yuan mumbled, and he continued, "What about methods one can use to find essences? This Dragon Essence was hidden in plain sight yet nobody managed to find it despite thousands of years."
However, Xiao Hua shook her head and said, "Just like how each essence has different effects, they also have different properties. Therefore, there is no single method to look for essences. They're all incredibly rare and can only be found by chance or fate."
"As for Brother Yuan… since only you managed to find it despite it being in plain sight for so many years, one can say the Dragon Essence was fated to be found by you. In other words, it's fate."
"Fate, huh…" Yuan suddenly recalled his meeting with Senior Bai and their talk about destiny and fate. Perhaps he was destined for this fortunate encounter.
Suddenly, another phenomenon occurred in the place, as all of the spiritual energy gathered at Dragon's Peak began dispersing in every direction.
"What's going on?" Yuan looked at the change with wide eyes.
Xiao Hua responded in a calm voice, "The Dragon Essence was what attracted the spiritual energy to this area. Now that it's gone since Brother Yuan absorbed it, there is no longer anything attracting the spiritual energy, so it's only natural they are leaving. Soon, this place will return to being a normal place without its abundance in spiritual energy."
"I see…"
Xiao Hua then continued, "Brother Yuan, you should take this opportunity to cultivate and absorb as much spiritual energy as you can since it'll take some time before the spiritual energy in this place returns to normal."
Yuan nodded and immediately sat down and began reciting his cultivation technique.
Whoosh!
The spiritual energy that was dispersing suddenly stopped leaving and began approaching Yuan as though they were attracted to him, quickly creating a small tornado around him. However, Yuan could only feel a gentle and comfortable breeze around him.
Meanwhile, his cultivation base began to soar closer and closer to Spirit Master!