The third type of malevolent energy, compared to the second, was lesser in quality.
They could be seen and felt, but were neither liquid nor solid, but a true form of "qi."
The fourth type of malevolent energy was already incorporeal, invisible, but essentially existing.
The fifth type of malevolent energy was incorporeal, invisible, intangible, and could not even be sensed.
This type of malevolent energy could be said to be the most mysterious and precious, as its existence could not be observed subjectively.
It was akin to emptiness in nature.
The preciousness of the five types of malevolent energy was ranked from most to least abundant.
The fifth type, akin to emptiness, was the most precious and the most difficult to collect.
For how could malevolent energy without form, invisible, intangible, and unfeelable, be collected?
The secret chamber did not contain the fifth type of malevolent energy.
But it did contain the other four types.
Quan first found the Earth Dragon malevolent energy.
Earth Dragon malevolent energy, as the name suggested, was the malevolent energy emitted by a strange beast called an Earth Dragon.
The so-called Earth Dragon was a type of dragon, whose bloodline could theoretically be traced back to the primordial divine being of ancient times – the Azure Dragon.
The primordial divine being, the Azure Dragon, was the lord of all dragons, its bloodline of ineffable nobility.
But similarly, all dragons in the world traced their bloodline back to the Azure Dragon, meaning that tracing one's bloodline back to the Azure Dragon was not particularly remarkable – in principle, all commoners could trace their bloodline back to the First Human Emperor.
The Azure Dragon, a primordial divine being, the ancestor of all dragons, was truly extraordinary. Even if the Taihang Mountain Cultivation Group had only a few dozen Core Formation realm cultivators, even if all commoners in the world, millions of them, possessed Core Formation realm cultivation, they still could not harm the primordial divine being Azure Dragon in the slightest.
The primordial divine being Azure Dragon, in its time, could contend with the First Human Emperor, the human race of the first-tier bloodline. Although it was defeated and easily vanquished by the Human Emperor, it was at least the strength of the second-generation Human King, the second-tier bloodline. Naturally, it could not be defeated by a group of Core Formation realm cultivators of the so-called fourteenth-tier bloodline, no matter how many there were.
But Earth Dragons were different.
Earth Dragons, though named dragons, were no longer recognized as dragons by the myriad races. This was because Earth Dragons were best at digging holes underground, which was not very dragon-like, but more like earthworms. In fact, Earth Dragons could not fly at all and indeed possessed the bloodline of earthworms.
Moreover, Earth Dragons were merely low-grade strange beasts.
For the myriad races other than humans, humans themselves had classifications.
The first type was wild beasts.
Not only did the bloodline abilities of humans weaken and eventually disappear with inheritance, but the strange races and myriad races were also like this.
Among the myriad races, if bloodline abilities completely disappeared, leaving no supernatural power, regardless of whether their intelligence was awakened or not, whether they possessed wisdom or not, they were given a classification: wild beast.
Wild beasts, regardless of their type, were within the range that commoners could deal with, the only difference being the number of commoners required.
The second type was strange beasts.
Strange beasts were those among the myriad races that possessed bloodline abilities and could unleash innate divine powers.
Some strange beasts were intelligent, while some strange beasts acted on instinct and lacked true intelligence.
But this did not prevent commoners' means and weapons from being unable to cut through the fur of the lowest-grade strange beasts, and approaching them would result in injury from their malevolent energy.
Strange beasts could also be divided into low-grade, medium-grade, and high-grade strange beasts.
Earth Dragons were low-grade strange beasts. However, even such low-grade strange beasts were not something commoners like Quan could come into contact with, let alone collect malevolent energy near them.
The third type was ferocious beasts.
Ferocious beasts also possessed bloodline abilities, but the word "ferocious" indicated a higher level of bloodline ability than that of strange beasts.
They were called ferocious beasts because strange beasts were still within the range that human races of the Southern tribes could contend with, but ferocious beasts possessed bloodline ranks of at least the seventeenth tier or higher.
This meant that most human races not classified as nobles could not contend with ferocious beasts.
The fourth type was demonic beasts.
The so-called demonic beasts were beings with bloodline ranks of the fourteenth tier or higher.
Demonic beasts were further divided into ordinary demonic beasts and demon kings.
The Southern region had nine great demon kings, almost each of whom possessed strength comparable to that of a great tribal chief or elder.
And the gap between the demon kings of the South and the demon kings of the North was also immense.
This stage encompassed a vast range; theoretically, the first batch of post-natal beings could also be called demonic beasts.
The fifth type was primordial divine beings, but in the current world, no primordial divine beings existed, so there was no need to concern oneself with them.
Earth Dragon malevolent energy was the malevolent energy diffused from the low-grade strange beast, the Earth Dragon.
Quan knew that Earth Dragon malevolent energy, along with two other types of malevolent energy, would be used to concoct elixirs.
These two types of malevolent energy were Bright Light malevolent energy and Tortoise-Snake malevolent energy.
Tortoise-Snake malevolent energy referred to the malevolent energy collected near a medium-grade strange beast that had a tortoise shell but a snake inside.
This strange beast was said to possess the bloodline of the primordial divine being Xuanwu, but like the Earth Dragon, it had been passed down for countless generations, and there was nothing special about it.
At most, it could only be comparable to human races with a twenty-tier bloodline.
Bright Light malevolent energy, however, was a different kind of malevolent energy from Tortoise-Snake malevolent energy and Earth Dragon malevolent energy.
As mentioned before, malevolent energy had five natures and five types.
Although most malevolent energy was generated by strange beasts themselves or their surroundings, since it was said to be "most," there were naturally a minority of malevolent energy that did not belong to these categories.
Bright Light malevolent energy was an example.
Bright Light malevolent energy required slaughter to occur in the world. The more beings were slaughtered, the more killings were created, and the better the quality of the malevolent energy.
It did not originate from a specific strange beast.
Instead, it was gathered and refined from the world through immortal secret arts once a certain amount of killing occurred among strange beasts of different species.
Of course, killing an equivalent number of humans was also possible.
Bright Light malevolent energy did not arise from the vicinity of strange beasts, but was refined from the concept of killing in the world, borrowing the bodies of living beings. Naturally, it was not limited to strange beasts.
Of course, the Taihang Mountain Cultivation Group would likely prefer to refine Bright Light malevolent energy from strange beasts rather than from humans.
Cultivators were also human. Compared to alien races, they would naturally lean towards humans. When given a choice and equal benefits, they would generally not use humans of the same caliber for refinement.