Because this round of evolutions was carried out in batches, verifying the evolution requirements required far less effort.
All they had to do was allow those Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings that had already reached the limit of their Species Tier to stop suppressing their evolution energy.
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen new dragons appeared above Dragon Lake.
Drawing upon the data he had observed, recorded, and accumulated during previous training sessions, Jiang Xing easily summarized their evolution requirements—
Namely, Power Level.
The "Stairway to Heaven" challenge that relied on the Azure Dragon's might was an experiment Jiang Xing had devised to explore limit evolutions.
In reality, any Rainbow Dragon Hatchling capable of crossing the Dragon Gate had already proven its willpower and completed its growth.
Therefore, as long as Beast Tamers could train a Rainbow Dragon Hatchling to Mid Commander Level, it could directly evolve into a Rainbow Dragon.
The Azure Light Dragon's case was quite similar.
Tests confirmed that as long as a Rainbow Dragon Hatchling was inside the Azure Dragon Secret Realm, it had a chance of evolving into an Azure Light Dragon without requiring any additional conditions.
As for why it was only a "chance to evolve" rather than a "guaranteed evolution"...
First, the Azure Dragon Secret Realm was a dual-attribute special environment rather than a pure Wood-attribute environment.
Second, there was the Rainbow Dragon Hatchling's own "preference."
According to the Will-Based Selection Theory, when multiple evolution conditions were satisfied simultaneously, a Pet Beast's own preferences could influence its evolutionary direction.
As for Beauty, Friendship, emotions, rituals, and similar factors, the data Jiang Xing had collected showed that none of them had any meaningful impact.
Afterward, Jiang Xing applied for a batch of Wood-attribute Secret Realm Stones and conducted controlled variable testing.
The results revealed that some high-purity Secret Realm Stones could substitute for the Azure Dragon environment and allow Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings to evolve into Azure Light Dragons.
This proved that the role played by the Azure Dragon environment during evolution was not some combination of "complex magnetic fields and mythical power."
It was simply high-purity Wood-attribute energy, something that could be replaced.
The evolution requirements ultimately summarized were:
Power Level + High-Concentration Wood Attribute Energy.
After organizing the data on these two evolution forms, Jiang Xing continued conducting comparative experiments to explore the evolution requirements of the Aurora Dragon King.
At the same time, he began investigating even more possibilities for the Rainbow Dragon Hatchling.
After all, this wasn't like retraining Golden-Patterned Koi, which required enormous amounts of effort and time.
Judging from the Azure Light Dragon's performance, it seemed that simply using high-quality, high-concentration attribute energy to infuse a Rainbow Dragon Hatchling could potentially create entirely new forms.
There were more Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings than dogs in Jiang Xing's research institute. Running tests was practically effortless!
And so, only a few days later—
Several brilliantly colored Light Dragons had appeared among the dragon flock above Dragon Lake.
One of them was the Thunder Light Dragon, which evolved using an Eternal Thunder Stone. Its luminous whiskers had turned golden, metallic silver dragon horns grew atop its head, and lightning crackled across its body.
There was also the Fae Light Dragon, which evolved using a Fairy Stone. Its luminous whiskers became pinkish-purple and shimmered with countless starlike sparkles. Its scales turned blue and pink, while delicate ribbons wrapped around its dragon horns.
There was also the Lake Light Dragon, which evolved through a high-purity Water Stone and finally regained its Water attribute, as well as the Flame Light Dragon, which evolved through a high-purity Fire Stone.
However, not every attribute experiment proceeded smoothly.
For example, the Death Secret Realm produced no effect on Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings at all. They still evolved into ordinary Rainbow Dragons.
Likewise, Secret Realm Stones associated with Metal, Earth, Sound, Poison, Phoenix, Fighting, and numerous other attributes all failed to produce any effect.
It seemed that Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings simply didn't have a high enough affinity with those attributes to manifest the corresponding elemental forms—or perhaps the evolution requirements weren't complete and required additional conditions.
Just like the Eevee family in the neighboring Pokémon world, only five of its forms evolved through Evolution Stones. The other three relied on Friendship-based evolution and also required factors such as time of day or specific moves...
If they wanted to explore even more evolution forms for Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings, they might need to consider additional variables as well.
As for what those variables were...
That would require much deeper research.
'Let's finish the existing entries in the compendium first.'
Among the four new attribute-based evolution forms, the Thunder Light Dragon, Lake Light Dragon, and Flame Light Dragon did not display any particularly powerful talents.
However, the strength of the Unceasing Heart talent was already comparable to that of an Overlord Tier Pet Beast, so it wasn't a major issue.
Compared to ordinary Rainbow Dragons, these triple-attribute Light Dragons mainly expanded their move pools and increased their coverage, allowing them to better complement a Beast Tamer's team composition and create a wider variety of tactics and strategies.
Most importantly, their versatility had increased even further!
After all, Beast Tamers who specialized in Dragon and Light attributes were extremely rare. Most Beast Tamers specialized in one of the "Five Element" attributes.
Under normal circumstances, Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings could only serve as powerful reinforcements. It was difficult for them to integrate into a team and become the core of a strategy.
But now things were different!
Wood-, Thunder-, Water-, and Fire-attribute Beast Tamers could all raise a Rainbow Dragon Hatchling and incorporate it directly into their own tactical systems.
Especially Water-attribute Beast Tamers, who had just received an epic-level boost.
Ink Realm + Rainy Weather + Lake Light Dragon...
A dragon and phoenix together.
Now that was a true dynasty.
'In the future, novice Beast Tamers in China won't even need to ask which Pet Beast they should start with.'
'I've got dragon hatchlings. Take your pick.'
That raised a question.
If dragon hatchlings were such a ridiculous wheelchair-level advantage, was there really no way to counter them?
Of course there was, brother. Of course there was.
As the saying goes, every poison has its antidote.
The first traitor of dragonkind had appeared.
[Name: Fae Light Dragon]
[Attributes: Fairy, Light, Dragon]
[Talent: Mystical Power — Whenever it uses an offensive move, an additional burst of energy is released, dealing Fairy-attribute damage equal to one-third of the original attack's power.]
[Species Tier: Mid Monarch Tier]
[Species Moves: Play Rough, Fairy Dragon Breath...]
[Description: A True Dragon-type Pet Beast that grows from a Rainbow Dragon Hatchling. It seems to be accompanied by invisible fae spirits that aid it in battle.]
Perhaps because the Fairy attribute had not yet fully stabilized.
Using a Fairy Stone, Jiang Xing had rather easily given a Rainbow Dragon Hatchling a head of pink hair, creating the first Fairy Dragon in the Beast Taming World...
That might also explain why the Faelight Dragon, like the Flower Fairy Attendant, displayed only a single talent.
However, that one talent alone was enough to firmly establish its reputation as the nemesis of Dragon-type Pet Beasts—
Although Mystical Power's numerical value was only one-third that of Verdant Power, it wasn't restricted by move attributes. It enhanced all offensive moves!
Not only that, the additional damage was always Fairy-attribute damage.
Which meant that whenever it attacked a Dragon-type opponent, that extra damage would always benefit from type advantage.
Do you like my basic attack combo with critical hits mixed in?
'What if Light Dragons are too strong?'
'Just beat them with Faelight Dragons.'
'Now the entire system is perfectly self-contained.'
As Jiang Xing looked at the various colorful Light Dragons soaring above Dragon Lake, he couldn't help but marvel.
These six varieties of Light Dragons alone, combined with the Aurora Dragon King, were enough to form a small Light Dragon team.
So the great revival of Dragon-kind depended entirely on dragon hatchlings?
The only downside was that they were far too flashy.
They looked like a gang of brightly dyed delinquents from every color of the rainbow...