The Deerkin Elder looked in shock before saying, "That should be even more impossible. No human has ever managed to do that. That bloodline is hard to assimilate, and even if they assimilate it, they will die due to its abilities by falling into a long slumber."
The serpentkin elder's pupils constricted into thin slits as he stared at the inverted triangular sigil on the spectral bear's chest. "I have only seen that mark in ancestral carvings. Even our oldest bone tablets speak of them as legends."
Murmurs spread among the elders.
"An apex among apexes…"
"A slumbering calamity…"
"A Great bloodline…"
The Bear King himself remained silent for a moment longer, eyes locked onto the towering image behind Lin Mu. Then, slowly, something unexpected happened.
He smiled.
On a human face, it might have been warm. On a bear's broad, furred visage lined with fangs, it looked downright ferocious. But there was no hostility in it. Only astonishment, and something deeper.
Amusement.
