Chapter 252: Golden Warlion

After thinking about Lǚ Yang, whom he had seen yesterday, and feeling the strength of the golden cicada in the Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yao confirmed once again that the golden cicada was not Lǚ Yang’s opponent.

However, Lin Yao, who understood this, was not disappointed. This was not the reason he’d turned the golden cicada into a dependent. What he wanted was its auxiliary ability, and that did not disappoint him. He was satisfied with both the Cicada Chirp—Clear Sound and the Cicada Perception—Sensing Autumn Before It Approaches abilities. In fact, it was the spirit essence of another beast, the Celestial Warlion, that gave him the confidence to fight with a gold warlord!

The whole body of the Celestial Warlion was golden, as if it had been cast in gold. Therefore, it was also called the Golden Warlion. This was a beautiful creature with a magnificent body. It had billowy golden hair and majestic facial features when sitting down, which made it look like a king.

At the same time, as a celestial creature, the Celestial Warlion had wings.

Although it had only been left with a soul, Lin Yao was very satisfied with the appearance of this creature.

‘After signing the contract, it would be very impressive to ride such a creature.’

As Lin Yao thought about this, his mind jolted and the Celestial Tree exuded light aura, merging with the soul of the Celestial Warlion.

The remnant spirit essence of the Celestial Warlion was attracted by the aura and was incorporated into the Sea of Consciousness by Lin Yao without a trace of resistance. It was entrenched under the Celestial Tree, and a steady flow of the original power of light was injected into the soul of the Celestial Warlion.

This recasting was no different from the golden cicada. However, Lin Yao would not be able to have the capabilities to compete against the top 50 geniuses in the Hidden Dragons List with this alone.

Although the Celestial Warlion was powerful, it did not have a physical body. Even though Lin Yao spent a lot of energy to recast it into an energy creature, despite the fact that it was powerful by nature, it would at most have a genius template, which was the lowest among the templates. It broke through with only about 500% of physical strength.

The physical body had a great impact on living creatures. With a physical body, the Celestial Warlion, which was a genius among powerful beasts, could reach 1,000%. Because of its strong physical body, it would be able to store more energy. Powerful beasts were generally stronger than humans, and a team of humans was needed to control a similar beast. Therefore, the approximate strength of a complete Celestial Warlion would be around 1,500%.

Without a physical body, the beast in the same realm would only have 500% of strength. The combat power was reduced to one-third of its original strength as well.

Besides, this was only possible because of the fact that the Celestial Tree consumed its origin to recast it, as well as because of the dual cultivation of the Celestial Warlion. Beasts such as flesh monsters like the behemoth and the blood ape, which relied on their physical strength to dominate, would only have one-tenth of their strength left when they had no body.

In fact, without the protection of the sacred tree, what bothered them was not how they could maintain their own strength but how they’d survive. After absorbing yin aura, they would become more and more manic and eventually lose all sanity. They also had to worry about exhausting all that was left of their souls and vanishing in a puff of smoke.

It was also because of these concerns that they did not put up any resistance when they encountered the sacred tree. Instead, they allowed the sacred tree’s aura, which had the same origin, to infuse their souls and were hence able to live forever in the world with the help of the sacred tree’s aura.

‘The genius template is not weak, but my opponents are all super-geniuses. I can’t beat them with the Golden Warlion alone.’

Although Lin Yao was very clear about the situation, he was still very confident.

He looked at the Golden Warlion, who received the aura of the Celestial Tree, and his mind jolted. The Tree of Heaven Punishment on the other side suddenly trembled, and branches spread out from the tree, reaching out toward the Golden Warlion.

Subsequently, a huge amount of thunderous aura was also injected into the Celestial Warlion.

Next, the soul of the Celestial Warlion was completely enveloped by light and thunder, and its aura was rapidly strengthened by the injection of these two auras.

Light and thunder attributes!

The celestial Golden Warlion was very powerful, and its dominance was not only attributed to its majestic body and celestial holy light. Thunderbolt was also its attribute, and Lin Yao happened to have both the light sacred tree and the thunder sacred tree.

Therefore, both the Celestial Tree and the Tree of Heaven Punishment helped recast the Golden Warlion.

As the sacred trees that Lin Yao had planted were not fully grown, a single one of them could not turn a dependent into a gold warlord. However, it was different when two sacred trees were activated.

The two sacred trees consumed the origins, and the spirit essence of the Golden Warlion quickly turned into dazzling light surrounded by thunder and lightning. Amid the dazzling light and thunder, the Golden Warlion’s aura kept increasing and soon broke through to the silver peak and reached… the gold warlord level!

‘Even the most common beginner gold warlord can compete with the top 50 elites through rank suppression. The Golden Warlion that I recast is at least an elite. If it keeps advancing, it will become a genius template. With this, I will definitely get to the top 50 of the Hidden Dragons List.’

There were no hitches in the recasting process. The Golden Warlion was known for its tyrannical combat power, but it did not have the alertness of the golden cicada. It was at ease as it absorbed a large amount of the sacred tree’s aura during the early stage. When the sacred tree’s aura filled most of its soul, it could no longer resist even if it wanted to. Besides, since it used to be a diamond-level powerhouse when it was alive, its hypostasis was still there, and with the infusion of the sacred tree’s aura, which was of the same origin, it broke through to the gold level without any issues.

Soon, the recast Golden Warlion appeared in Lin Yao’s Sea of Consciousness.

It was a majestic warlion composed of golden divine light, with a height of 7.8 meters and a body length of 10 meters.

Thunder and lightning kept shining around the golden light that formed the lion’s body. With a single look at the seated Golden Warlion, a sense of sacredness flooded Lin Yao’s body and mind.

In addition to its sacredness, the huge body of the Golden Warlion also exuded domineering power and might.

The Golden Warlion left a powerful and sacred impression on anyone who saw it.

However, in contrast to the tyrannical Golden Warlion, the Celestial Tree and the Tree of Heaven Punishment seemed to be withering.

At that moment, all of Lin Yao’s three sacred trees had damaged origins, which made him feel very distressed.

There was an energy light cluster in the sky that looked like a green sun. Lin Yao injected a large part of the energy into the three sacred trees without a trace of hesitation.

The green energy was like the natural origin, and the three sacred trees soon recovered from their withered state.

‘Although the sacred trees have recovered, and the original aura has also been slightly compensated, I can no longer extract more aura from them. Continuous extraction can easily cause irreparable damage. Plus, I have consumed 100,000 grams of energy during the recovery of the three sacred trees.’

The consumption of a large amount of energy was naturally distressing, but upon seeing the majestic Golden Warlion and the cicadas singing constantly, Lin Yao felt happy again. This was especially so after he discovered that the Golden Warlion template was a genius one. He could not contain the happiness he felt.

‘Well, with this combat power, I can at least stand firm… In other words, I seem to be transitioning to a summoner.’

He now had the feathered serpent spirit, the golden cicada, the Golden Warlion, and Virtues, which was the main soul of the Celestial Tree. He could summon even more creatures. Soon, he was reminded that this was the usual path that immovable sacred trees adopted. Just like the Locust Tree, which nurtured ghosts and spirits, and the Tree of Life, which nurtured elves, Lin Yao, who planted the sacred trees in his heart, would be considered an oddity if he did not have a summoned beast.

‘Forget it, I will go ahead with my plan. I will study today, and tomorrow, I will challenge the top 50 on the Hidden Dragons List. I am bent on getting 5 billion yuan!’