An interrupted evolution

This time, Mo Yan offered Impmon no further guidance.

He could tell that Impmon had his own ideas this time.

First, Impmon condensed a fist-sized Dark Night Flame in his palm.

Only then did he concentrate on sensing the flow of magic power within it and the transformations taking place between the data.

After spending some time experiencing it firsthand and pondering it, Impmon began to form a few ideas.

And so, Impmon made his first attempt at compressing magic power.

The magic power hidden within the Dark Night Flame was prevented from spreading.

The data that constituted the magic power slowly gathered together.

Time ticked by as Impmon kept adjusting his control.

Through Impmon's efforts, the fist-sized Dark Night Flame shrank a little.

Soon, however, Impmon hit a bottleneck.

Once Impmon compressed the fist-sized Dark Night Flame to half its original size, it stopped changing.

And as far as Impmon could sense, there was no room left to compress the data that constituted the magic power.

Impmon knew he had reached his first hurdle.

Looking at the Dark Night Flame in his hand, Impmon stole a glance at Mo Yan.

Deep down, Impmon still very much wanted Mo Yan's guidance.

But his childish refusal to admit defeat also made him unwilling to accept Mo Yan's help.

So, after some thought, Impmon decided to take a risk.

Having made up his mind, Impmon embarked on his first reckless attempt to court disaster.

Naturally, Impmon's furtive glance did not escape Mo Yan's keen senses.

Mo Yan, who was watching him closely, also noticed his intention to make a bold attempt.

Mo Yan neither stopped Impmon nor said anything.

As a future Wizard, Impmon needed ideas of his own, along with the courage to try them.

Otherwise, Impmon would not get far on the path of a Wizard.

The Dark Night Flame in his palm began to flicker, and Impmon could feel it growing unstable under his attempts.

But Impmon had no better solution.

After all, he was working through trial and error, searching for a way past the bottleneck before him.

Focused entirely on finding a breakthrough, Impmon failed to notice that his flame-related data was surging.

As the flame data surged, a faint red silhouette enveloped Impmon.

Seeing the phantom form that bore some resemblance to himself, Mo Yan shook his head.

Now was not the time for Impmon to evolve.

Specializing exclusively in one attribute was certainly powerful, but it hindered further evolution and offered little potential for growth.

A proper Wizard should develop in multiple directions and master several attributes.

Only then could they attain more, stronger evolutions and enormous potential for growth.

Of course, this applied specifically to Digimon.

That was why Mo Yan would not-and could not-let Impmon evolve into Flame Wizardmon.

With a thought, a DigiCore appeared behind Impmon.

A moment later, a concealed Magic Circle took shape.

As the Magic Circle formed, Impmon's rapidly increasing flame data was curbed.

The DigiCore shone, revealing a power capable of extracting data.

From Impmon's growing flame data, the DigiCore extracted everything that did not suit him, everything useless, and everything he had no use for.

As the data was refined and extracted, Flame Wizardmon's phantom form slowly vanished, and Impmon's evolution was cut short.

Mo Yan sensed the newly added flame data in the DigiCore, along with a little data related to courage.

Should I find some data related to lions, courage, and the sun? Mo Yan wondered.

If so, should I really...

Don't go there. Don't go there.

Mo Yan reined in his increasingly wayward thoughts and focused on Impmon.

With the rapidly growing flame data in his body curbed and refined, Impmon's improving condition was interrupted.

Impmon's first attempt ended in failure.

Bang!

This time, the Dark Night Flame exploded with more than twice the force, blasting Impmon away.

A white light flashed, and Impmon was restored once again.

"I was about to succeed. What did you do?"

Rolling his neck, Impmon questioned Mo Yan.

When his evolution had begun, Impmon had felt that he could successfully compress the flame.

But that feeling had quickly vanished, causing his compression to fail and the Dark Night Flame to explode.

He had also felt as though something belonging to him had been taken away, extracted from him.

The Digimon before him seemed to be the only one capable of doing all that.

"You were about to evolve, and I interrupted that evolution."

Without concealing anything, Mo Yan calmly admitted what he had just done.

"You!!!"

Mo Yan's words undoubtedly left Impmon furious and bewildered.

Impmon even suspected that the other Digimon feared he would become stronger than him after evolving.

And that was why he had interrupted his evolution.

But then Impmon remembered the Flame Angemon and Coredramon the other Digimon possessed.

Angel-type and Dragon-type Digimon were universally recognized as powerful forms in the Digital World.

Even with all his pride, Impmon did not believe his evolved form could compare to an angel or a dragon.

So why had the other Digimon interrupted his evolution?

And had his repeated claims to be Impmon's mentor all been lies?

After all, what mentor would not want to see their teaching succeed and bear fruit?

"Which do you think matters more, the present or the future?"

Faced with Impmon's anger, Mo Yan unhurriedly posed a question.

"What kind of stupid question is that?

If you've got something to say, say it. Why beat around the bush?"

Instinctively, Impmon snapped back at Mo Yan.

As soon as he said it, Impmon regretted it a little, but since the words were already out, he could only fold his arms and keep up his defiant front.

"Then I'll be direct. You can achieve a better evolution.

So why settle for the form you were about to take?"

Mo Yan did not take issue with Impmon's childishness and instead offered him praise.

His past experiences made it impossible for Mo Yan to get angry with or argue with a Digimon who still retained such childish innocence.

Besides, Digimon born from collections of data possessed an exceptional ability to understand.

Rookie Digimon were also exceptionally sensitive.

As someone who had already passed through that stage, Mo Yan naturally knew how to get along with him.

There was no need to flatter him, discourage him, or be harsh with him.

He only needed to be honest and say enough to make his point.

"..."

Feeling both acknowledged and valued, Impmon did not know what to say and could only remain silent.

Impmon quietly walked back to Mo Yan and sat cross-legged before him, the two facing each other without a word.

Opening his palm again, Impmon could only pour all his tangled thoughts into compressing the Dark Night Flame.

The faintly purple flame burned fiercely, giving off light and heat.