Little Shrubby finally calmed down after a couple of minutes and Lin Mu was able to get up from the snow. He sat down and gazed at it for a bit before speaking.
"What happened while I was sleeping?" Lin Mu asked.
"I ate, I cooked, I hunted, I ate, I slept, I fought, and I grew." Little Shrubby answered simply.
'Why were there two ates?' Lin Mu wondered for a second before coming to the last part where it said it grew.
"How did you exactly grow?" Lin Mu questioned.
"One day I felt a lot of power in me after finishing the beast cores and I fell asleep. When I woke up I was bigger." Little Shrubby answered.
'Well, that was a straightforward and simple answer…' Lin Mu thought.
"Do you have any idea what happed senior Xukong?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Hmm… check its core again. I think you'll find it yourself." Xukong suggested.
Lin Mu extended his spirit sense and probed the beast core of little shrubby. There he finally found the biggest change. Not only was its core big, but it also had patterns on it. Lin Mu knew right away that it was an awakened bloodline, but the strange thing was there was more than one pattern on it.
"It has awakened a bloodline, but it is incomplete and along with that it is also mutating." Xukong suddenly spoke after seeing it through the shared vision with Lin Mu.
"It's mutating? Will that be bad senior?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Not necessarily. Its core is relatively stable, and its body seems to be normal too. From what I can tell, it was gonna awaken one bloodline but due to the many beast cores it has eaten along with the aptitude increase due to the Dual circle ascension fruit, it has resulted in this." Xukong answered.
Lin Mu thought for a bit before asking again. "What's the main bloodline that it has awakened?"
"From what I can tell, it seems to be that of the Flash Fire Liger, but its physique is vastly different from that. While Flash Fire Liger's are fast, they are not as fast as it either and are much bigger in size.
Every beast can have multiple dormant bloodlines hidden in them and which one is awakened depends on their concentration and the influence of external factors such as resources and fortunate encounters.
In little Shrubby's case, if it underwent a normal awakening after breaking through to the core condensation realm it would have become a Flash Fire Liger. But now there are multiple bloodlines mixed with it.
Usually, this would either cause the beast an injury or cause it to die instantly due to the incompatibility. But they seem to be rather stable for him. In fact, his body is actively trying to adapt to the bloodlines and is mutating itself further." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu was lost in thought after thinking this all and was wondering more about the bloodlines. He had hunted a lot of beasts and thus had given little shrubby a lot of the beast cores to eat.
If what senior Xukong said was accurate, each of those cores could have tens of bloodlines, and any combination of them could be contributing to the mutation.
"So what will be the final bloodline that comes out on the top senior?" Lin Mu questioned, feeling a bit unsure.
"I'm thinking that it will not be any of the bloodlines that he has. Rather, the bloodlines would mutate together to form a completely new bloodline that has likely been never seen before." Xukong answered.
Lin Mu was intrigued by this and was now looking forward to the day when it happens. But for now, the changes in Little Shrubby seemed adequate to him. His strength had certainly grown by a lot.
"Wait senior, currently it has the main bloodline as the Flash Fire Liger, right? What does it do, what is its ability?" Lin Mu questioned.
During the time Lin Mu had spent in the Sleepscape, he had gone through the beast records multiple times and he was sure that there was no mention of a flash fire liger in it. He reckoned that the beast was probably not native to this world or was lost in time.
"The Flash Fire Ligers have great speed and they can control Fire attribute spirit Qi. They can create flames from their claws and mouth that burn at high temperatures. The only disadvantage they have is that their firepower cannot be maintained for long.
They are more of a single hit attack type beasts that kill their prey instantly. Their fast speed and quick attacks ensure that their prey is surely killed." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu looked at little shrubby and spoke.
"You can use fire now?" Lin Mu asked.
"YES! I can make fire whenever I want now. When I grew, I learned how to use fire." Little Shrubby said.
It then flexed its claws and flames ignited on them. The flames were a bright white, and it seemed as if someone had ignited phosphorus. The flames must have only lasted for two seconds, but the snow in a two meter radius around them had directly evaporated.
Lin Mu felt hot on his skin and realized that his clothes had been ignited as well.
"Dammit!" Lin Mu cursed as he jumped into the snow, snuffing out the fire.
Half of his clothes had been burned and the parts that remained intact were now blackened with soot covering them.
~Sigh~
"They were new robes too… I should have expected something like this…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He looked back at Little Shrubby, who was gazing at him with a tilted head.
~chuckle~
Seeing the beast looking at him like that made Lin Mu chuckle, and he pushed the event of his clothes burning to the back of his mind.
"Okay, so you need to tell me if you're going to use fire near me again." Lin Mu stated.
"Okay," Little Shrubby spoke.