"You brat, you've finally arrived."
Suddenly, a loud voice rang directly in Kent's ears, startling him.
"Lord Saint, where are you?"
Because the voice seemed to come from nowhere, Kent couldn't tell where it had originated.
The Heavenly Fire Kylin didn't answer directly. Instead, it controlled a piece of reddish-golden high-grade red fire ore to float into the air, leading the way.
Kent quickly followed the floating ore, walking briskly. He wasn't worried that the Heavenly Fire Kylin would kill the four of them later, because beings of such high rank and intelligence would never go back on their word.
The view created by the massive crack in the ground was still quite spectacular. Kent estimated that after traveling about 1,200 meters underground, he finally saw a gigantic palace. The structure and scale of the palace were completely different from human designs. At first, Kent was surprised, but then a thought crossed his mind: this palace couldn't have been built by the Heavenly Fire Kylin itself.
Creatures with such intelligence, though capable of thinking and creating, would never sully their dignity by building their own lairs.
Furthermore, a palace large enough to accommodate the colossal size of the Heavenly Fire Kylin couldn't possibly be of human origin. Kent suddenly wondered if it had been constructed by giants.
That thought was fleeting, and then he saw the Heavenly Fire Kylin sitting in the center of the palace. Its body took up a tenth of the space, while the exotic fire kylin obediently lay beside it.
Two other exotic fire kylins also appeared, curiously eyeing Kent. They were both mid-tier Heavenly stage, one at level 53 and the other at level 56. Clearly, they were from the same batch of offspring as the one that Long Buyu had stolen from the red fire ore vein.
"Lord Saint, what about my three companions?" Kent asked calmly. Although it didn't matter to him whether they lived or died, he still needed to confirm their fate.
"Don't worry, they're fine." The Heavenly Fire Kylin exhaled, and a water mirror appeared in the grand hall, showing a scene where Long Buyu and the others were sitting idly in a small cave.
Kent nodded and then turned his gaze toward the exotic fire kylin. He saw that its experience had surpassed 2 million, reaching 2.39 million, which was enough for it to evolve and level up by three stages.
"Alright, I can begin the evolution of the exotic fire kylin now. However, I'll need a quiet environment for about half an hour," Kent requested.
The Evolution System wasn't omnipotent. The higher the rank and level of the creature to be evolved, the more time it required. Of course, it wouldn't take as long as half an hour—at most, about ten minutes. Kent simply wanted to downplay his abilities to avoid raising suspicion.
However, for the Heavenly Fire Kylin, half an hour seemed like an incredibly short amount of time. It had expected the process to take at least three to five days, or even three to five months. So, when Kent claimed it would only take half an hour, the Kylin paused, thinking it had heard wrong.
Seeing Kent's serious expression, the Kylin quickly realized he wasn't joking.
"Half an hour?" The Heavenly Fire Kylin's massive head nodded, "Alright, third child, take this human to the back chamber."
The third child referred to the exotic fire kylin that Long Buyu had stolen. Apparently, it was the third in line, with the others being the eldest and second eldest.
Kent was soon led to the back chamber. Although the third exotic fire kylin had intelligence, it couldn't speak, so it could only watch Kent curiously.
Kent smiled lightly and then whispered, "Evolution."
A crisp sound came from within the exotic fire kylin, and a massive golden light enveloped it. Under the golden radiance, the kylin's body began to grow taller and larger.
About three minutes later, the transformation was complete. It had doubled in size, and its eyes turned a dark gold. Its hooves grew stronger, and the flames on its body burned even more fiercely, increasing by 50%. Its aura shifted from mid-Heavenly stage to low-Saint stage.
Kent watched it with a satisfied expression, allowing the creature to adjust to its newfound strength.
Ten minutes passed, and Kent pointed again. Another golden light shone from the exotic fire kylin's body, subtly increasing its power.
The exotic fire kylin now understood—Kent was the one who had caused these changes. It didn't understand why these transformations were happening, but it realized that this seemingly insignificant human was extraordinary.
Seeing the exotic fire kylin gazing at him in awe, Kent wasn't bothered. Instead, he closed his eyes, quietly waiting for the time to pass.
About five minutes later, Kent opened his eyes and pointed once more, leveling the exotic fire kylin up again.
…
In the main hall, the Heavenly Fire Kylin waited quietly. Its two other children, however, couldn't sit still. They kept glancing curiously at the direction of the back chamber, trying multiple times to sneak a peek, but the Heavenly Fire Kylin stopped them each time.
"If our tribe weren't so few in number, I would never have mated with that endless fire sparrow. Now I have three children, but because the fire sparrow is of low-Saint rank, the bloodline of its offspring is weaker. Though these three children are primarily of my bloodline, they're still only at the mid-Heavenly stage, which isn't ideal."
The Heavenly Fire Kylin also had its concerns. As a mother, even though all three of its children were only mid-Heavenly stage exotic fire kylins, it loved and cared for them dearly. After all, some species were born with extraordinary potential, blessed by the heavens, so their numbers were extremely rare.
The Heavenly Fire Kylin had been lonely for a long time, and now that it had three children, it wanted them to stay close and grow stronger. If it encountered something good, it would want to share it with them.
Now, a human had appeared claiming to be a spirit beast master with the ability to help evolve its children's rank. This made the Heavenly Fire Kylin overjoyed. While the mid-Heavenly stage was decent, only by reaching the low-Saint stage could they have a chance of becoming truly powerful beings.
"Only five minutes left. Just five minutes until half an hour." The Heavenly Fire Kylin appeared calm, but inwardly it was counting down the seconds. Every minute and second felt like an eternity. Fortunately, it had grown accustomed to solitude, so it was able to endure the wait.
Finally, the last second of the half hour passed. The Heavenly Fire Kylin's eyes snapped open, and it looked toward the back chamber with anticipation.
At that moment, the door to the chamber opened, and Kent stepped out, looking relaxed and pleased, with a smile on his face.
"Did it work?"
The Heavenly Fire Kylin felt a slight tremor in its heart. Judging by Kent's expression, it seemed to have been a success, but since it hadn't seen the transformation firsthand, it still felt a bit nervous.