While King Hong was observing the figure that had appeared to him as an illusion, Lin Mu was having a similar experience.
But in his case, instead of seeing it in front of him, he saw it in his mind. There, two figures were currently present. The first was none other than the Great Slumber Bear that seemed to be irritated upon being woken up and the second one was the illusory figure of the beast King Hong was seeing.
The two figures gazed at each other with wary eyes and their auras clashed.
"So this is a drake…" Lin Mu muttered as he observed the two beasts' bloodlines.
~flicker~
But just as Lin Mu was observing the drake's figure, it started to get blurry. Then in the next second, it faded away and its aura disappeared as well. Like a lamp that had run out of oil, its flame died out and the figure disappeared like it never existed.
The Great Slumber Bear closed its eyes and disappeared soon after that too, prompting Lin Mu to open his eyes in the real world.
~huu~
Lin Mu took a deep breath, remembering the scene from just before.
"So what do you think, senior?" Lin Mu questioned.
"There's no doubt that is a Flame Pool Drake." Xukong answered.
"A Flame Pool Drake, huh…" Lin Mu repeated, and tried to see if he could find any records about it.
"You probably won't find it that way. The Flame Pool Drake's are relatively rare among the Lesser drakes. But what you might be able to find information on is a flame Salamander." Xukong interrupted.
"Oh yeah, I think I know about them." Lin Mu said, recalling some information about Flame Salamanders.
They were beasts that were found even in the Xiaofan world. They chiefly lived in hot areas such as deserts, volcanoes, mines and even hot springs. They were beasts that had a varying cultivation base, ranging all the way from Qi refining realm, to the Dao Treading realm.
Though of course, there had been no recent records about a Dao Treading realm Flame Salamander existing in the current times. Though Lin Mu did end up finding information about the Lava fields of the Western Continent.
They were basically a group of volcanoes that had been destroyed a long time ago and had turned into a somewhat flat ground. Instead of a normal cone shaped volcano, they were more like flat lands filled with lava lakes all around.
This was an area that was fatal to most commoners and even cultivators. Only those which high cultivation bases or other specialized methods could go there. The region was a treasure trove of many cultivation resources, along with the different beasts that resided in that area.
Of course, this was all a long time ago before the collapse of the Western continent.
The Flame salamanders were common beasts that made the lava fields their habitat. Their population used to be rather high and they were considered to be a common beast. But after the collapsed of the Western continent, a majority of their population was wiped out and now only a few were left on the Great Zhou Empire.
The ones that were left were now mostly found in the deserts and small volcanoes of the Former Southern continent's region.
People often ignored the existence of the deserts and volcanoes that were present in the Great Southern forest due to the just how expansive the forest was. It made it hard to tell that deserts and volcanoes could also be present there.
"But what do flame salamanders have to do with Flame Pool Drakes, Senior?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Well, the Flame Pool Drakes are quite likely to evolve from the Flame Salamanders. The Flame Salamanders have the traces of Dragonic Bloodlines and can be considered to have slightly higher concentrations than other lizard and reptilian beasts.
Their unique environment sometimes allows them to awaken this trace. If they do manage to do that, they will turn into a Flame Pool Drake. This is of course, a rare occurrence and very few Flame Salamanders will actually be able to survive this process.
But those that do will become the kings of all the other beasts that are living there unless there is another superior beast present." Xukong answered.
Hearing this, Lin Mu finally understood better and could even guess as to why King Hong managed to find a fossil of such a beast in the Kong Plane.
The man in question looked at Lin Mu, wondering about what he had discovered. From the changes on Lin Mu's expression, King Hong could tell that he had learned something.
"Did you find anything?" King Hong questioned.
This snapped Lin Mu out of his thoughts and made him focus on the man in front of him.
"Oh yes, it did. The fossilized bones you found belong to a beast called as the Flame Pool Drake." Lin Mu answered.
"A Flame Pool Drake?" King Hong said, feeling a bit confused.
Seeing this, Lin Mu went on to explain a bit more about the beast and how it came to be. Having heard all that, King Hong felt a lot more excited.
"Then you mean to say… I have a Dragon's Bloodline inside me?" King Hong questioned excitedly.
"Well… Yes, but no. You did have it till now… but it was pretty much a fragment of a trace. But now that we had forcefully invoked it, it has faded away." Lin Mu answered.
"Oh…" King Hong's excitement plummeted almost instantly.
"But it's a good thing. If it really was a proper bloodline, you might have died and exploded." Lin Mu consoled.
"W-wait! What do you mean explode?" King Hong was taken aback.
"Well, from what I know, almost all Dragonic bloodlines are volatile and domineering. More often than not, the person or beast that tried to assimilate it injures themselves or just dies.
Even the Flame Salamanders that have the highest chance of awakening the Flame Pool Bloodline die ninety percent of the times." Lin Mu clarified, making King Hong feel relieved.
