Mutation

Time flew by, and before they knew it, ten years had quietly passed.

On this day, inside the training stone chamber, Leian was circulating his cultivation method to restore his battle qi when his brows suddenly lifted and a trace of joy appeared on his face.

"Have I finally broken through?" Leian murmured to himself.

Just moments ago, when a newly generated stream of Destruction Battle Qi returned to his dantian through his meridians, Leian discovered that the liquefied Destruction Battle Qi within his dantian had suddenly begun to surge like crashing waves.

Rumble—

Amid the intense transformation, more and more Destruction Battle Qi was refined into his meridians. Then, under Leian's control, it flowed back into his dantian like great rivers. Before long, the Destruction Battle Qi in his dantian had returned to its peak.

Immediately afterward, his entire dantian shook violently. An invisible force seemed to expand outward from within the vast ocean of battle qi, supporting his dantian as it expanded once more.

Before long, his dantian had grown several times larger, and his battle qi had become far more abundant as well.

"Is this the Saint Realm?"

Feeling the changes in his dantian and battle qi, a smile finally appeared on Leian's face.

However, at that very moment, an unexpected change occurred. A purplish-black energy suddenly emerged from Leian's heart, then began circulating through his meridians toward his limbs and bones.

"Urgh—"

Wherever the purplish-black energy passed, Leian immediately felt an agonizing pain, as though his flesh, blood, tendons, and bones were being scorched by fire. The pain was no weaker than when he had fused with the Magic Crystal Core before, but to avoid drawing his parents' attention, Leian endured it without crying out.

Under the overwhelming pain, Leian could no longer care about his appearance. He collapsed on the ground like a dead dog.

At the same time, purplish-black dragon scales began emerging from beneath his skin, and Leian involuntarily began transforming into a magical beast.

Seeing this, how could Leian not realize that the changes in his body came from the Magic Crystal Core he had fused with before?

Though he did not know the reason, fortunately, aside from the agonizing pain throughout his body, he suffered no life-threatening injuries.

No one knew how much time passed. When the pain finally vanished completely, Leian slowly opened his eyes. After resting silently for a while, he propped himself up from the ground and prepared to examine the changes in his body.

However, the moment he moved, he sensed that something was wrong. After bracing himself with both hands, he suddenly discovered that he could not sit upright.

This frightened Leian badly, and he hurriedly lowered his head to inspect himself.

One look was enough to shock him. Leian discovered that his entire lower body was no longer in its previous beast-transformed state, but had become a genuine beast form.

At first, Leian was startled, but then he thought of the elves' fusion of Magic Crystal Cores.

According to the secret technique scroll from back then, after fully fusing with a Magic Crystal Core, elves could transform into the true form of a magical beast.

Perhaps that was his current situation!

With that thought, Leian subconsciously extended his spiritual power to inspect himself.

At once, the image of a divine magical beast appeared in his mind: a dragon's head, a lion's body, dragon scales covering its form, and four limbs resembling ox hooves.

"Just as I thought!"

Seeing his current form, a trace of understanding arose in Leian's heart. His appearance now was exactly the same as the Qilin that had appeared in his mind when he had fully fused with the Magic Crystal Core before.

This further proved that the transformation just now had indeed come from that Magic Crystal Core.

"I wonder if I can turn back into a human?"

As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, Leian felt his body begin to change as if by instinct. In less than a breath, he had returned to his original human form.

At that moment, as though enlightenment had descended upon him, Leian completely understood his own condition.

From now on, he would possess three forms.

The first was his normal human form. The second was beast transformation, where he retained a human shape but possessed magical beast characteristics, similar to Linley's dragon transformation. The third was his magical beast form.

In all three forms, his strength, speed, and defense increased from weakest to strongest. His human form was the weakest, while his magical beast form was the strongest.

Of course, after the ordeal just now, Leian's body had been strengthened once again, inside and out. Even in human form, he was several levels stronger than experts of the same rank.

At present, his physical strength alone was already comparable to that of an ordinary level-nine expert.

Leian was both delighted and puzzled by this change.

After all, aside from the elves, he had never heard of any human who could fully transform into a magical beast after fusing with a Magic Crystal Core.

Could it be that some elven blood actually flowed through this body of mine?

Or was this merely a change brought about by that Magic Crystal Core?

After pondering for a long time, Leian still could not make sense of it. Fortunately, the change brought only benefits and no harm, so he simply stopped dwelling on it.

"Since I've finally made a breakthrough, I should rest for a few days."

After coming back to himself, Leian planned to relax. Only then did he notice that his clothes had split in several places because of the transformation. Fortunately, he had spare clothing in his Interspatial Ring, so he immediately took out a set and changed into it.

Rumble—

Leian pushed open the stone chamber door from within. The moment he stepped outside, he saw Selina. She was actually sitting outside the door, waiting for him—a rare sight.

The next moment, Selina's voice rang out in his mind.

"Did you break through level nine and enter the Saint Realm?"

Her voice was hurried, yet carried a hint of anticipation.

"Mm."

Leian nodded. Seeing the expectant look in Selina's eyes, he guessed what she wanted and asked, "What is it?"

Leian was not at all surprised that Selina had rushed here to ask him immediately. With the master-servant contract between them, Selina could vaguely sense changes in him.

"Can you get me a Saint Realm Magic Crystal Core? A dark-element one!" Selina asked nervously.

Hearing that, Leian thought, Just as expected. After a brief pause, he smiled. "I can, but before that, shouldn't you tell me about your background first?"

Leian asked because he had noticed that Selina was very familiar with human life, as though she had lived in human society before.

Moreover, ever since they had formed the contract, Leian had never heard Selina call him "Master." That was clearly unusual.

Selina fell silent. After a long while, she replied, "Actually, before I met you, I had another master. It was Margaret, whom you met while training in the Youquan Mountain Range."

"Margaret?" Leian's mouth fell open, his expression filled with surprise.

"Mm!"

Selina nodded, then began recounting her past.

As a magical beast, Selina had a far longer lifespan than humans. According to her, she had been born more than three thousand years ago.

Not long after she was born, her parents were killed by a level-nine expert. She narrowly escaped with her life, then encountered Margaret, who had still been a level-nine warrior at the time, and became her magical pet.

As a disciple of the Goddess of Dark Night, Margaret possessed not only great talent but formidable strength. As her magical pet, Selina never needed to participate in battle. She only needed to act cute.

During her childhood, Selina followed Margaret and lived a very carefree life. The relationship between them was also extremely close.

But Selina had never forgotten avenging her parents. After Margaret entered the Saint Realm, Selina begged her to obtain a dark-element Saint Realm Magic Crystal Core so she could break through to the Saint Realm.

The reason she insisted on reaching the Saint Realm was that the level-nine human expert who had killed her parents was also highly talented and had long since broken through to become a Saint Realm expert.

Originally, with Margaret's strength, obtaining a Saint Realm Magic Crystal Core would not have been difficult. Yet for some unknown reason, Margaret had never agreed.

Later, perhaps because Selina had begged too many times and annoyed Margaret, Margaret directly dissolved their master-servant contract and sent Selina back to the Youquan Mountain Range.

From then on, Selina had lived alone in the Youquan Mountain Range until she met Leian and became his magical pet.

Leian had never expected Selina to have such an experience. Thinking of how he had already promised her a Saint Realm Magic Crystal Core, he could not help feeling a headache coming on.

As for why Margaret had refused to help Selina, Leian could roughly guess the reason.

According to Selina, her enemy was named Jabir. Leian had heard of him as well; he seemed to be an expert at the peak of the Saint Realm.

With Jabir's strength, even if Selina became a Saint Realm magical beast, she would likely still be no match for him. Margaret had probably refused to help because she did not want Selina to throw away her life for nothing.

With that thought, Leian honestly told Selina his speculation.

Upon hearing it, Selina immediately wilted like an eggplant struck by frost.

The reason she had so readily agreed to become Leian's magical pet was that she had seen his extraordinary talent and believed he could become a Saint Realm expert, allowing her to obtain a Saint Realm Magic Crystal Core.

Yet after calculating everything, she had failed to account for the strength of her enemy.