Chapter 168: Chapter 154: Nether Fire Crocodile, A Thorny Existence

As the old saying goes, a Beast Master who doesn’t want to evolve their Soul Beast to a higher Talent is not a good Beast Master.

Han Ning had just made that up.

Since he could guarantee Egg Pancake’s evolution to the limit of its own bloodline, it was only natural to think about the possibility of it becoming a Dragon or a Giant Beast.

"A Dragon... a Giant Beast..."

Muttering these two words, Han Ning picked up a booklet of bound A4 paper from his desk and began to look through it carefully.

Aside from insects, nearly twenty percent of the life forms on the Insect Continent were other types of creatures. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

A thought suddenly occurred to him. ’Even if no pure-blooded Kemo Battle Beasts or Red Lotus Battle Lizards exist, what if there are creatures that carry their bloodline?’

’Egg Pancake can evolve into the Giant Beast branch, which means it contains a diluted Giant Beast bloodline. So, a similar but higher-level, higher-Talent Soul Beast should have a correspondingly richer Giant Beast bloodline, right?’

’The panel doesn’t require a pure-blooded Giant Beast, just something around fifty percent.’

At this thought, he couldn’t help but start flipping through the various records left behind by the Taman Insect Masters and the Yinsaike Race.

"Dragons... Dragons exist on the Insect Continent..."

Han Ning first turned to the sections concerning the interactions between the Yinsaike Race and Dragon Type Soul Beasts.

The Yinsaike Race’s guardian Soul Beast, the Jade Spirit Damselfly, possessed a rich Dragon Type Bloodline. The reason they were able to cultivate this Soul Beast was that their first Clan Leader had happened to rescue an injured Wood Type Flood Dragon in a place called the Fansen Forbidden Land.

In this world, there existed the Western Giant Dragon Species, which resembled the dragons of Blue Star’s Western mythology—huge, lizard-like creatures.

There were also the Huaxia Dragon Species, which resembled the divine dragons from the legends of Xia Country.

Most of the Giant Dragon Species had powerful physical bodies, immense size, and were covered in fine Dragon Scales that could resist elemental damage of many Attributes. They were masters of close combat.

The Eastern Dragon Species were mostly Flood Dragons. Compared to the massive Giant Dragons, they were more adept at manipulating elements and mystical powers, summoning clouds and rain, and breathing lightning and fire.

Of course, Han Ning felt that the combat abilities of the Eastern Flood Dragons were nothing to scoff at either.

No matter which Dragon Species the insects of the Insect Continent encountered, they were at an innate disadvantage before the fight even began.

Dragon Species possess an innate Dragon Mighty, which has an extremely strong bloodline suppression effect on insect-type Soul Beasts.

This wasn’t just Han Ning’s wishful thinking; it was written in the records of the Yinsaike Race.

They simply referred to both Western and Eastern dragons as the Dragon Race.

To distinguish between the two forms, they used different syllables to identify them.

When translated, Lena had changed them to "Giant Dragon" and "Flood Dragon."

Before the Yinsaike Insect Master Family was exterminated, their home was located in the eastern part of the Insect Continent.

The so-called Fansen Forbidden Land was a forest surrounded by towering trees, inhabited by numerous dangerous Soul Beasts.

Because the Soul Beasts within were deliberately ostracized and sealed away by the Ancestor Families, the Insect Masters of the continent referred to these sealed-off areas as Forbidden Lands.

Most of the Soul Beasts living inside were not insects. Of course, a small number of insects did exist there, a complete reversal of the outside world.

Han Ning deduced, ’The Soul Beasts living in the Forbidden Lands, even those at the top of the food chain, are surely not as strong as the top-tier Soul Beasts cultivated by the Ancestor Families. Otherwise, how could they have been sealed away?’

However, these Soul Beasts were extremely dangerous to the vast majority of Insect Masters, and even to all but the very top Insect Masters of the Ancestor Families.

There’s strength in numbers... which is why most of the scattered Dragon Type Soul Beasts that didn’t form clans or gather in groups were driven into the Forbidden Lands by the Ancestor Families.

’Driven out... not killed outright. This means the Ancestor Families don’t have the power to completely exterminate the Dragon Race.’

This was the information Han Ning read between the lines.

Because of this, the Dragon Race within the Forbidden Lands despised the insect-manipulating Insect Masters.

After receiving the Wood Type Flood Dragon’s gift, the Yinsaike Family’s Clan Leader used cultivation techniques originating from the Ancestor Families to actually combine the bloodlines of an insect and a dragon, creating an entirely new species.

This event sent shockwaves through all the Insect Master Families of the Insect Continent.

Perhaps it was due to that Flood Dragon’s unique Talent, or perhaps it was just a stroke of luck, but afterward, no other Insect Master on the entire Insect Continent was ever able to replicate the feat.

Furthermore, the Jade Spirit Damselflies could not reproduce. Like a Phoenix Nirvana, when they grew old or were near death, they would use a peculiar Talent to revert to their first form. All their accumulated memories and strength would vanish, and they would start over from scratch.

"Wood Type... that doesn’t match Egg Pancake’s Attributes... And there are no other dragons in the Fansen Forbidden Land besides the Wood Type Flood Dragon..."

Reading this, Han Ning sighed and continued flipping through the pages.

"The Fansen Forbidden Land is in the Jade Mountain Range. The Jade Mountain Range... why does that sound so familiar?"

"Poison Blood Mushroom, Moss Mark Mushroom King... This... The Mushroom Forest is actually inside the Jade Mountain Range! Then the mountains three hundred kilometers north of the academy must be an offshoot of the Jade Mountain Range."

The Mushroom Forest wasn’t within the Forbidden Land’s boundaries and was still quite a long way from the Fansen Forbidden Land. Han Ning had originally wanted to search the various notes for the existence of any Earth or Fire Attribute Dragon Race members.

Instead, he unexpectedly discovered that the Yinsaike Race had even described information related to the underground of the Jade Mountain Range.

A description of the world below immediately caught his attention.

The Jade Mountain Range was actually formed by a dormant volcano that hadn’t erupted in many years (as speculated by Lena). Beneath this mountain range was a wealth of geothermal resources, which the Insect Masters called the Earth Flame Forbidden Land.

The Earth Flame Forbidden Land was immense in both breadth and depth. Legend had it that numerous Soul Beasts lived thousands or even tens of thousands of meters deep underground.

"Although no traces of dragons have been found in the Earth Flame Forbidden Land, there is a Soul Beast called the Fire-breathing Crocodile that bears some resemblance to the Red Lotus Battle Lizard described on the panel."

"An adult Fire-breathing Crocodile possesses strength at the Extraordinary Limit... Their leaders are generally their evolved form—the Nether Fire Crocodile, at the War General Level..."

Reading this, Han Ning couldn’t help but frown.

’War General Level... that’s basically on par with a Soul Beast meticulously cultivated by an Insect Master.’

"How troublesome..."

Han Ning shook his head, made a special note of this information, and continued to look through other records about dragons.

"Dangbo Lake... inhabited by a Water Type Giant Dragon."

"Celestial Rift Canyon... inhabited by a small clan of Metal Sub-dragons..."

Soul Beasts possessing a certain amount of Giant Dragon bloodline were collectively known as Sub-dragons.

A moment later, he had finished flipping through all the papers. Han Ning stared blankly at his desk.

There were no records of the Earth, Fire, or Dark Dragon Species he had hoped to find.

"Does this mean that on this continent, there are only Water, Wood, and Metal Type Dragon Species, and no other Attributes...?"

After a long silence, he reopened the section regarding the Nether Fire Crocodile.

Among all the translated information from the Yinsaike Family, only the Nether Fire Crocodile offered a slight possibility of helping Egg Pancake evolve into a Red Lotus Battle Lizard.

’If I want to go explore the underground, the safest method would be to help Yin Yi advance to the War General Level... hmm... I should also raise the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm’s strength to the Extraordinary Level and have it simulate a few Water Attribute Extraordinary insects to act as backup.’