Chapter 52 - Evolution (2)
Chapter 52: Evolution (2)
Purple-colored patterns extended on its back from its tail to neck, and from there, starting to extend in a non-straight line into two paths: the first one going to the top of its head and the second one going to the bulge above its neck.
A peculiar spiritual energy was calmly undulating. The Earthfire Lizard suddenly seemed to be in pain, but it was mostly excited. Its body started to shake violently. This unstable spiritual energy was still surging out in the shape of purple-colored lines, but the level of these undulations clearly exceeded what an average second step magical beast could do.
“Evolution?! This Earthfire Lizard wants to evolve!” The handicapped elder cried out in alarm. A magical beast evolving was not a rare thing, but generally, only magical beasts above the fifth step had the possibility to evolve. This Earthfire Lizard was merely a second step magical beast, but right after having received Long Hao Chen’s blood, it wanted to evolve!
With a _Pu_ sound, intense purple-colored turbulences suddenly appeared in the air, and immediately, its one meter tall body started to grow at an intense speed that could be seen with the naked eye.
The evolution was not just about the size of its body, the scales also underwent fantastic changes: from their originally flat and slippery appearance, they became sharper and longer, visibly thicker. The most peculiar change was on the bulge above its neck: this bulge, unexpectedly, expanded together with the rest of the body.
With a _Puchi_ sound, the body of the Earthfire Lizard suddenly became stiff, and immediately afterwards, from the bulge on its neck, a brand new head started forming, appearing by the side of its former head. At this moment, its body grew two meters long from its former length of a meter.
A purple light suddenly shone and it was as if everything became motionless. The purple colored patterns extended to its second head, a few traces of bulges forming above this second head; it looked much fiercer.
It seemed that after the evolution, there was no difference between the second head and the first one. The only thing that was not similar was the color of the eyes. This second head had a pair of gold-colored eyes.
After the evolution of the Earthfire Lizard, its four main limbs became much thicker and the shell on its back more resistant. Its new appearance after the evolution, resulting in this pair of heads, did not look handicapped anymore like it used to because of the former bulge on its neck.
After having evolved, by the root of the neck of the second head, a new bulge appeared again. Only, it was not as big as the former bulge, it was just the size of a fist.
“Fourth step middle rank?” Ye Hua and the handicapped elder looked at each other, face to face; in their eyes, there was a look of extreme shock.
Each magical beast step was divided into low rank, middle rank, high rank, and peak rank. To jump from the middle rank of the second step to the middle rank of the fourth step was an eight-stage evolution!
Not even speaking about having seen that in the past, they had not even heard about this kind of phenomenon. Ordinary evolutions of magical beast were supposed to make only a few changes to the body at most, increasing strength by a bit and raising from the middle rank to the high rank. A step evolution was something they never heard of, but it was just accomplished by this Earthfire Lizard before their eyes.
No, it could not be called an Earthfire Lizard anymore: the second head’s attribute was completely different, emitting a holy aura.
A dual-headed dual-attributed lizard race magical beast, what kind of species was that?! In particular, after the breakthrough that occurred during this evolution, the new appearance of this Earthfire Lizard was not that of a good-for-nothing magical beast anymore.
Ye Hua paid special attention to the new bulge that appeared from its new head; could it be that a third head would appear in the next evolution of this Earthfire Lizard?
Ye Hua swallowed a gulp of his saliva and asked the elder by his side, “Elder, do you recognize this kind of magical beast?”
The elder bitterly laughed as he shook his head, “Not in the least. There is no one who can identify all the kinds of magical beasts, especially those summoned from different dimensions. It looks like this little guy had picked up a treasure! So long as this lizard can evolve once more, Long Hao Chen will possess an outstanding mount. Yi , what is he doing?!”
While they were speaking, the two-headed lizard who just completed its evolution lowered its pair of heads. Long Hao Chen watched attentively, also shocked by the evolution. The long tail was swung from behind to the front and the second head bit into it, effusing an insipid purple colored blood. With this evolution, the color of its blood had also unexpectedly changed.
The agreement mark appeared once more, but this agreement mark on the back of the lizard did not grow bigger together with the evolution; this time, the lizard was the one who triggered its apparition.
The long tail slowly moved forward, purple blood flowing at the edge of its tail, directly aiming for the mark on Long Hao Chen’s forehead.
Long Hao Chen’s body remained stiff as he felt a warm blazing current flowing, pouring into his forehead, and instantly spreading through his entire body.
“Returning the favor. He’s using his own blood to transmit it to Hao Chen.” Ye Hua was amazed at this scene.
The higher the level of a magical beast, the more intelligent it was supposed to be. Magical beasts above the sixth step were supposed to have an intelligence superior to that of humans, but this two headed lizard before their eyes seemed excessively intelligent; it had even learned the method Long Hao Chen used to help him to make up for the deficiency of Long Hao Chen’s blood.
Two heads, four eyes, two red and two golden colored, warmly gazed at Long Hao Chen, the body of the two headed lizard lightly shaking.
Veins started to appear, going from Long Hao Chen’s forehead to the rest of his body; he felt as if his whole body was a kind of forge and was unable to say if he felt painful or comfortable. He could only vaguely sense his blood vessels filling with a scorching hot feeling, undergoing changes capable of turning heaven and earth upside down. His dull feeling gradually disappeared in this scorching hot feeling.
The insipid blood was flowing out from the two headed lizard’s body, taking the shape of a red halo, slowly converging and then gathering into the agreement mark on its back.
Long Hao Chen and the lizard shook simultaneously, and both sides sensing a vague familiar feeling.
“Their blood contract is even deeper than the relation between master and servant.” The handicapped elder involuntarily shouted out, “Starting a blood link to save his master! This two-headed lizard is really repaying Hao Chen for his kindness.”
Ye Hua also knew about the blood contract, a rare kind of extreme contract: as long as Long Hao Chen was the slightest bit harmed, this two-headed lizard would be harmed too. And if Long Hao Chen was to die, then it would undoubtedly die as well. However, if he was the one to die, that would not affect Long Hao Chen the slightest bit.
A blood contract was said to have a lot of other uses: it was even possible for one to transmit his capabilities to his master through it. Though generally, no magical beast was willing to enter this kind of contract; thus, the mysteries of blood contracts were something known by only a few people.
The handicapped elder took a deep breath, speaking slowly: “Whether this lizard can or cannot evolve once more in the future, he will be far closer to your disciple than any other knight companion. This is, perhaps, something beneficial coming from this setback.”
The radiance gradually vanished and the purple veined patterns on Long Hao Chen’s body were slowly disappearing. The two-headed lizard took back its tail, advancing to Long Hao Chen’s side, using its two heads to gently stroke his leg.
“I have such a great companion! My name is Hao Chen, and I will give you this name, Hao Yue”
,
cry of surprise
皓月The Hao ‘bright’ from Hao Chen, the Yue ‘moon’ from Bai Yue, and the whole word is the same as the name of the city.
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don’t ask me about the tree sap