45: New form

Feeling that all the chronic ailments in its body had dissipated and its strength had greatly improved, the azure male lion's gratitude towards Xu Yan reached its peak.

It quickly ran to Xu Yan, its massive body curving into a C-shape, enveloping Xu Yan. It affectionately rubbed its huge, thickly furred head against Xu Yan.

Suddenly surrounded by a large ball of fluff, and feeling the other party's unreserved gratitude and closeness, Xu Yan smiled and reached out, stroking the creature's body.

Far from avoiding or rejecting Xu Yan's actions, the azure male lion leaned into them, purring contentedly, seemingly very pleased with Xu Yan's petting.

Meanwhile, the two people nearby had already been stunned when they saw a new spirit beast they had never seen before appear after the light of evolution dissipated.

As General Rank Cultivators, they were there to proctor this assessment, a task they had taken on from the association to earn some extra money.

They had received professional training before starting, and had seen similar scenarios in the training materials: situations where an examinee suddenly created a big sensation during the assessment.

However, the images and videos they had seen in the training materials were completely different from witnessing it firsthand now.

The former would only make people marvel at the brilliance of geniuses, at most generating a feeling of envy and admiration from afar, but without much sense of reality.

But the latter, they had both witnessed with their own eyes: after Xu Yan provided the correct answer, it was as if he suddenly had an inspiration. He produced a potion using a material ratio they had never seen before, and successfully enabled the Wind Flame Lion to evolve.

Witnessing such unreasonable inspiration and Innate Talent from geniuses firsthand, a sense of powerlessness and despair spontaneously arose from the bottom of their hearts.

Admittedly, they also understood that Xu Yan's own efforts and accumulation were ample enough to materialize his inspiration and create that potion.

However, who among General Rank Cultivators would lack effort and accumulation? What they lacked was merely that flash of inspiration that they might not encounter in their entire lives.

Nevertheless, the internal shock and mixed feelings did not affect their professionalism.

After a moment of daze, one of them picked up the communicator from the table beside him and said into it, "An unexpected situation has occurred. Initiate Plan Seven."

The other person looked at Xu Yan, who was surrounded by the large azure male lion, and said, "Examinee Xu Yan, due to the evolution of an unknown spirit beast, we will temporarily skip this stage. More professional personnel will come later to verify and score it. You may proceed with the rest of the assessment."

Hearing the reminder, Xu Yan, who was playing with the evolved Wind Flame Lion, realized that he still had an assessment to complete.

He smiled apologetically at the two, then pushed away the large, reluctant mass of fur from his body, picked up the tablet, and began selecting materials.

Once the materials arrived, Xu Yan began crafting the spirit food.

Compared to his previous potion crafting, Xu Yan's spirit food crafting appeared even more skilled and precise.

Before he even finished, the Wind Flame Lion caught a tempting scent and began circling Xu Yan ingratiatingly, clearly attracted by the spirit food Xu Yan was making.

Had this happened before Xu Yan evolved the Wind Flame Lion, the two would have been absolutely stunned by Xu Yan's proficiency and the spirit food's powerful attraction to the spirit beast even before completion.

However, with Xu Yan having already evolved a new spirit beast, they merely felt that Xu Yan's subsequent performance was not particularly outrageous; in fact, there was even a feeling that "this level is normal."

After completing the spirit food, he displayed it to the two. The spirit food reached General Rank Upper Grade and was of excellent quality.

Then, under the Wind Flame Lion's drooling gaze, he placed it on a plate in front of it, signaling that it could eat.

Almost the instant Xu Yan gave the signal, the spirit food on the plate vanished, leaving only a large, satisfied azure lion.

In this situation, the two Examiners numbly gave Xu Yan a high score, close to full marks, on the score sheet.

Just as they finished scoring, the door to the assessment room was violently flung open, and a middle-aged man rushed in.

"Plan Seven, has a new species of spirit beast appeared? Where is it, let me see."

As his voice fell, the man's gaze was drawn to the huge azure male lion nearby.

The next moment, the man seemed to flash, appearing beside the Wind Flame Lion, and began to examine it thoroughly with a research-oriented gaze.

Naturally, the Wind Flame Lion was very displeased with the man's actions and was about to teach him a lesson while struggling to break free from his hands.

However, as soon as it made a move, its animal instincts sensed a crisis, as if some great terror would befall it if it truly acted.

Facing this sudden sense of danger, the proud great lion, though feeling somewhat humiliated, was able to adapt. It stopped its intended actions and actively cooperated, allowing the instrument tubes to be placed on its body.

As the instruments operated, the general information about the Wind Flame Lion's evolution quickly appeared before everyone.

Species: Wind Flame Lion King (Gene overlap 98.7%, suspected special form)

Attributes: Wind (Primary), Fire (Secondary)

Rank: General Rank Upper Grade (Rapid improvement, unstable strength)

Bloodline Rank: Commander Rank Low-grade (Insufficient conditions, evolution not complete, expected complete state is Marshal Rank Upper Grade)

Looking at the information displayed on the screen, Xu Yan, who had been extremely excited about evolving a new spirit beast based on his intuition, calmed down, and a slight sense of loss emerged in his heart.

Clearly, according to the information displayed by the instruments, the Wind Flame Lion had indeed completed its evolution.

However, it was not a new species of spirit beast as Xu Yan and the others had previously speculated, but rather a special form of the original evolved Wind Flame Lion King.

There were no significant changes in major aspects like the spirit beast species or bloodline rank; only the attributes and skill leanings had changed, from the original primary fire and secondary wind to primary wind and secondary fire.

Although there were changes, compared to discovering an entirely new evolutionary form from scratch, it still fell a bit short, which made Xu Yan, who had been extremely excited, suddenly feel a bit lackluster.