NOVEL NEXT Chapter 167: 167
"Huh!?" Looking at the scene in front of her, Lin Meilin was finally unable to keep her cool. It took her a moment to realise what was going on.
"EVOLUTION?" She almost screamed at the top of her lungs.
In this world, demonic beasts evolving wasn't unheard of. In the endless mountain range as well as the ocean, there are numerous demonic beast tribes… a civilisation that is equally, if not more, advanced than humans. And just like humans, they have their own way of cultivation.
While the majority of them focus on increasing their strength, the true rulers of the demonic beasts put much importance on the evolution route.
According to the Demonic Beasts, there were three ways of progression.
The first one was the most crude way… simply increasing their realm. To do this, one needed resources and time, as well as countless opportunities. Although it was difficult, it could be done.
Then there was the second path that was the bloodline path.
According to this path, demonic beasts would purify and strengthen their bloodlines, taking them to their very roots, and in doing so, they would gain strength beyond measure.
And then, there was the third and most difficult path… the evolution path.
Some daring demonic beasts would choose to take this path. According to them, even if they refined their bloodlines, the most they could reach is a rank similar to their ancestors. But the evolution path opens up a completely different possibility. If one demonic beast evolved, their potential would be limitless.
And thus, the majority of the ruling classes in the Endless mountains as well as the ocean, focus on this route. They have already found a few paths, but all those paths resulted in different evolutions for different beasts. Even the two similar demonic beasts, when going through a similar process of evolution, would end up different. The process was always filled with uncertainty and failures. And even if a demonic beast manages to evolve, the question of whether it became stronger or weaker still remains.
Even the most powerful demonic beasts wouldn't guarantee success.
And now Yang Ze was not only trying to evolve, but he was also trying it on half-demonic beasts… Something that wasn't even a complete demonic beast and was akin to an insect. It didn't even have a cultivation base or any strength. Even a child could accidentally squash it to death.
For Yang Ze to take such risks for such an insignificant insect… Lin Meilin had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, she was impressed with his daring and conviction, while on the other hand, she almost wanted to slap him into the ground for doing something so reckless and stupid.
It was one thing if this evolution failed. But what if this evolution succeeded and resulted in some monster that tore him apart?
"Consider yourself lucky that I am still here." With a cold snort, Lin Meilin readied herself. In the worst-case scenario, she would just knock out Yang Ze and kill the beast.
Yang Ze, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of Lin Meilin. Looking at the spiritwing covered in a blue light, he almost jumped in excitement.
Without any hesitation, he once again looked at it via his All-seeing eyes, and this time, there was only a single row of text.
[Evolving… 1%]
Looking at the evolution progress bar, Yang Ze finally let out a sigh of relief as he simply closed his eyes and fell to the ground. Using his mental energy continuously like this has left a heavy toll on him. Right now, he just wanted to drift into sleep. But he knew it would be stupid of him to sleep out in the open. Even though he didn't see any demonic beasts or any other cultivators, it wasn't safe to sleep out in the open.
He just closed his eyes and entered the state of Enlightenment, visualising his next mortal object.
"Alseep already?" Lin Meilin, in the air couldnt help but shake her head in response.
"What a naive, stupid brat." With a cold snort, she merely waved her hand, enveloping the entire cliff with her internal energy, making it impossible for any other living being to enter its vicinity.
Yang Ze, of course, didn't notice any of it. He merely meditated with his eyes closed, hoping to visualise as many mortal objects as possible. By now, he had almost visualised more than twenty-five mortal objects, and in the next few days, he would definitely hit the one hundred mark.
At that time, his already increasing mental energy would increase even further, making his enlightenment last even longer.
As both Yang Ze and Lin Meilin waited in silence, the blue glow around the Spiritwing only increased further and further.
After what felt like eternity, the blue colour slowly began to fade as the evolution reached its final stage.
[Evolution… 99%]
Looking at the evolution process and the sky that was beginning to turn blue from the morning light, Yang Ze stretched his body before jumping off the ground and landing directly in front of the Spiritwing.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he gazed intently at the spiritwing that was still enveloped in a thin blue colour.
By this time, even Lin Meilin, who was dozing off in the air, came back to her senses and drifted towards the blue light. Even though she was just a few meters above Yang Ze, he still wasn't able to sense her in the slightest.
Compared to Yang Ze, she was much more interested in knowing whether it could truly evolve or not. If it could… then she had to reevaluate Yang Ze's importance once again.
Someone with such a heaven-defying physique, an otherworldly appearance and now a way to make demonic beasts evolve… Any of these was enough to send shockwaves throughout the cultivation world, and they all appeared in an eighteen-year-old boy.
"It's about to succeed." Just when Lin Meilin was wondering whether it would fail or not, the blue light in front of her cracked, and a dense aura of vitality leaked out of it, sending shockwaves through her heart.
"...." Lin Meilin immediately raised her hand, ready to knock out Yang Ze and squash any trouble in case the beast attacked, but to her surprise, such a scene didn't play out.
Soon, the entire blue light was filled with a dense number of cracks and with the sound of shattering, the blue lights disintegrated, finally revealing the scene underneath.
On the cliff, hanging upside down was a palm-sized butterfly entirely blue in colour with breathtaking blue wings which gleamed like gems.
"Holy!" Yang Ze almost shouted in shock as he looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar butterfly in front of him.
The first thing he noticed was the size… Earlier, it was just like any regular butterfly with a finger-sized body. But now… Now it was almost twenty times larger than before. Yang Ze even raised his hand to measure the size and realised that it was almost the size of his open palm.
But the changes in the spiritwing weren't limited to just its size.
Its previous listless and lifeless appearance was now gone, replaced by a lively appearance. And its beautiful blue wings were covered in dense wind patterns which seemed to be moving constantly, making it feel like the wings were akin to a live painting.
"How beautiful…" These were the only words Yang Ze could mutter after seeing the changes.
This time, he used his system to look at its personal panel, and the moment he did, he almost let out a sharp breath.
[Name: Zephyr Spiritwing]
[Species: Demonic Beast]
[Talent: Cutter Gale Wings(Green), Sky Weave(Green), Breeze Echo(Green), Windborne(white)]
"Hiss…" Looking at the massive changes at the spiritwing, Yang Ze couldn't help but let out a deep breath.
Everything about it has changed. From its appearance to its skills… everything was different.
Even the most prominent skill of the spiritwing, the sevenfold illusion, has now disappeared, replaced by something else entirely.
"Gulp!" Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Yang Ze didn't know whether it was a good thing or not. But this thought of his only lasted for a few minutes till he saw the newly listed skills.
"I still have the sign-in opportunity today, right?" Licking his lips, he immediately looked at the four skills before deciding to pick the white one. He was going to get all of them, so the order didn't matter. He just wants to confirm his doubts about the skill.
"Sign in to Windborne." Muttering to himself, Yang Ze used his daily sign-in attempt and the next moment, his heart almost leapt with joy when he saw the description of the skill.
[Sign in successful.]
[Congratulations on getting Windborne(Green)]
[Windborne(Green): Control the winds to take off flight.]
"A FLYING TALENT!" Yang Ze couldnt help but widen his eyes in excitement before letting out a wild laughter.
When he first saw the name of the talent, he had imagined it to be like a floating talent, using wind to float in the air. But who would have thought that he would instead get the talent of flying?
For a while, Yang Ze felt like he was dreaming.
At the moment, he was in the 1st Vein Expansion realm. He needed to open five more veins and then step into the Core Condensation realm, and then the Soul Tempering realm, before stepping into the Heaven Realm to be able to fly.
At first, he thought it was going to take an extremely long time for him to be able to fly. But who would have thought that he would be able to fulfil his dream so soon?
He couldn't help but jump in joy watching the talent.
It took him a great effort to suppress his excitement and focus on the Zephyr Spiritwing with some nervousness. Even though he could feel the connection between the two of them that was due to the contract, he wasnt sure if there were some other unpredictable changes in the spiritwing.
But thankfully, Yang Ze's worries were unnecessary.
The spiritwing, which was back to its lively appearance, immediately flapped its wings, and with that, a gust of wind appeared out of nowhere.
It then immediately floated towards Yang Ze before resting on his shoulders, all the while its wings would occasionally caress Yang Ze's face as if expressing its happiness.
"Heh." Yang Ze merely chuckled in response as he shook his head with a smile.
He looked at the Spiritwing on his shoulder before using his All-seeing eyes once again, hoping to see whether there was something else he was missing and sure enough…
[Evolution Route → Windbound Spiritwing]
[Survive 7 Natural Days and Nights in a storm before consuming a wind core and going through a moult at a place where wind and water meet.]
"Um…" Yang Ze merely looked at it for a moment before immediately closing it. What a joke… he couldnt even keep the cyclone for eleven minutes. Wanting him to keep it for seven days was a pipe dream.
"Well, we will have plenty of time for it later." Yang Ze didn't think too much about it. His priority to evolve Spiritwing came from his need to save its life. Otherwise, he wouldn't have left Cang Yue alone in the Sword Sect to run to this desolate place all alone.
Just thinking about Cang Yue's haughty face, a smile ran across his face. Although it's been a few days, he was already beginning to miss her.
"Shall I head back now?" Now that his goal of coming here was accomplished, there was no need for him to waste another second here. But thinking about how this was the perfect place for him to test his and Spiritwing's newly gained abilities, he decided to stay here for the time being.
Taking a deep breath, he pointed towards a small stone in the distance before shouting in a low voice.
"Go…"
"Use Cutter Gale winds." The moment he spoke, the Spiritwing on his shoulder fluttered into the air as it suddenly flicked its wings, and a three foot long balde of wind manifested in front of it before shooting at the rock, cleaving it in half.
"...."
"...."
"HOLY SHIT." Yang Ze couldnt help but shout at the top of his lungs in disbelief.
On the other hand, Lin Meilin felt like her worldview was about to collapse.
From the very moment she saw the Spiritwing Evolve, she felt like her understanding of the world had fallen apart.
"...." She wanted to say something, but not a single word came out. In the end, she could only keep her mouth shut and look at Yang Ze, who was busy playing around with his newly gained spiritwing.