Chapter 132 - Replacement of the Seven Beast Generals

"What are you talking about?" Lu Ran frowned.

"Haha, don’t mind me. The only thing is that four swords is a pretty big order. Why don't you come pick them up tomorrow, and I'll make sure to have them extra sharp for you." Master Lin smiled.

"You want two different types of swords. Is the Fire-attribute sword for yourself, or did you contract a Fire-attribute familiar that gave you fire-related abilities?"

"Yeah." Lu Ran smirked.

I’m afraid to scare you by admitting that I pulled the signature skill of forgers.

"Damn kid, you’re growing pretty fast! What’s your budget this time?"

"I want to spend around 20,000 coins for all four swords."

They don’t need to be perfect. I just need temporary weapons for the competition.

Low-tier weapons were no longer suitable for his level. The Wind Slashing Sword got scrapped after just a few uses and was too short-lived. A mid-tier weapon would be a great fit, and wouldn’t end up getting thrown away after the competition.

The swords should also be useful in the kitchen. A set of Ice-attribute and Fire-attribute kitchen knives would be perfect for the two cooking skills he acquired.

After Lu Ran was done putting in his order, Master Lin immediately started to prepare the materials so he could finish on time. After Lu Ran paid, he returned to the training secret realm to practice various energy skills with Sudden Death King.

However, before starting their training, Lu Ran took out the Divine Deer Pendant and the Soul-Converting Pot.

The Level 1 training secret realm was set in a forest environment so Lu Ran hung the Divine Deer Pendant on a tree branch to charge it. As for the Soul-Converting Pot, Lu Ran put a Sky Tree Fruit in it and set it aside to let the fruit ripen.

The power of the Soul Converting Pot didn’t come from nowhere. The core principle was similar to that of the Divine Deer Pendant, which used Nature energy from the environment to improve food quality.

Rare resources such as the Sky Tree Fruit took a long time to ripen, so Lu Ran put it in the pot to make it ready for Captain Doofus to eat. As for Advance resources such as fresh Dragonfish meat, the speed was much faster. Even freshness could be enhanced prior to eating and didn’t require any preparation.

Later that evening in the training secret realm, Lu Ran grilled some dragonfish for Sudden Death King using the Flame Dragon Culinary Intent and cut up the Sky Tree Fruit with the Ice Culinary Intent for Captain Doofus, both of whom greatly enjoyed their food.

It was too bad they didn’t have anything to show for half a day of training. Sudden Death King couldn’t comprehend skills instantaneously like Captain Doofus, but Lu Ran was patient and didn’t rush it.

Lu Ran didn’t return to Green Sea City that night and chose to sleep in the training secret realm with his familiars. Training burned up a lot of Lu Ran’s stamina so he quickly fell asleep, albeit in discomfort.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

***

"Huh? Why am I in Red Leaf Park?"

Lu Ran was groggy, and couldn't quite remember what he was doing earlier. He opened his eyes to a familiar environment and subconsciously started to walk towards home.

However, just after a few steps, a huge spacial crack suddenly appeared above the city and a huge purple head gradually emerged from it before it let out a bellowing roar!

ROAR!

The soundwaves shattered all the windows of houses and cars alike across Green Sea City, stunning many of the weaker creatures. Countless people covered their ears while kneeling down and wailing in pain. The more powerful creatures could only look up at the giant head in the sky in horror.

Soon, the creature’s body descended as well, and it turned out to be a giant dragon. Its powerful body was made of ice and stone, while its wings were wrapped in wind and snow which spread over the entirety of Green Sea City. The whole city instantly plummeted into winter.

[Species: Giant Skyfrost Dragon]

[Attribute]: Dragon

[Species Rank: Superior-Overlord]

[Level: 76]

In Red Leaf Park, Lu Ran could only watch in shock. Coincidentally, the Giant Skyfrost Dragon also glanced at Lu Ran at this moment. It opened its giant mouth, and its terrifying icy breath that was capable of freezing the entire city engulfed Lu Ran in the blink of an eye.

"Ah————" Lu Ran screamed, suddenly waking up from his dream.

Woof!

Croak!

Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King gathered around Lu Ran, who was panting and shivering, in worry.

Did you have another nightmare?

This was a recurring problem for Lu Ran. Ever since Lu Ran gained his telepathy, he would often have nightmares about monsters invading the city. However, it stopped after he became a beastmaster.

Are the nightmares back?

"Yeah."

Lu Ran felt chills all over his body and pressed a hand to his chest.

"It's that same nightmare again. I haven't had it in so long. I’m not sure if this is a one-time thing, or if they’re back for good."

The dream was a little clearer this time than before. This time, he actually had an Advanced Eye of Detection and was able to see the monster's information. He didn’t die cluelessly, unlike every other time he had this nightmare.

"What's going on?"

Lu Ran was a little agitated. Anyone who was tortured by such a strange dream for so long would be pissed off. Can't he have some normal dreams for once?

As he recalled the strange dream, Lu Ran was sure that if the dream came true, then it shouldn’t be the powerful creature from the Blue Planet attacking the city following the spiritual energy revival. Instead, it seemed like a creature from another world invaded the Blue Planet.

Lu Ran couldn't sleep after waking from the nightmare, so he looked at his familiars and said, "Let’s get up and continue to train."

Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King: ಠ_ಠ

***

Lu Ran and his familiars continued to train into the second day, and by the morning, Sudden Death King finally made some progress.

It learned how to discharge electricity and could now release Lightning energy consistently to form a powerful attack.

"Sudden Death King, use Thunderbolt! I mean, Discharge."

Lu Ran accidentally called out the wrong skill name. Under his command, the three-meter-tall dragon lizard opened its mouth which was filled with red lightning. Sudden Death King exhaled and the lightning transformed into a beam that drew a brilliant line through the air before hitting a tree!

Bang!

The tree exploded and left behind a burnt crater.

"Not bad, but it's not practical. It can't continuously discharge electricity. You need to master Energy Acceleration as soon as possible."

Burp.

Beside him, Sudden Death King looked displeased as sparks flashed around its mouth. It wasn’t a big fan of the skill. When it shot out the lightning beam just now, it could feel itself consuming a large amount of energy.

That energy could’ve been used to sustain a shield for half a day. Projection skills consumed too much energy. However, having gone through Lu Ran's training, Sudden Death King knew that it had to master these foundational skills. Even if this wasn’t going to be its area of focus, it still had to have some basic knowledge of it.

"Keep practicing. Today’s training session actually won’t be that long.”

Lu Ran took out his phone to check the time.

"I'll go to Master Lin’s to pick up the weapons, and then pack up so that we’re ready to go to Golden Hill. I have to participate in a preliminary exam tomorrow. Sudden Death King, you will be the one to fight the examiner's familiar tomorrow."

"Croak?"

Sudden Death King was surprised by Lu Ran’s plan.

"Woof!"

Captain Doofus, who was training to multitask by using wind to shake two different branches, cast a resentful glance at Sudden Death King.

It was upset by the decision. Why didn't Lu Ran choose

it

to fight!? Sudden Death King didn't want to fight, but it was more than willing! In fact, thinking about beating the examiner's level 30 familiar made it excited. Captain Doofus looked at the confused Sudden Death King with jealousy.

Why do you always get to do the fun stuff?

Sudden Death King was speechless.

***

After Lu Ran picked up the Blizzard Swords and Flamestorm Swords from Master Lin, he returned to the Green Sea City and immediately called Fang Lan.

"Hello? I still need some more time. Let's leave in two hours. Did you book the ticket?" Fang Lan said over the phone

"What ticket? I'll find someone to teleport us there later. You can take your time," Lu Ran answered.

"Huh? Great!" Fang Lan exclaimed. "By the way, Lu Bing and Pig Farmer are also in Golden Hill right now. We can have a get-together."

"Got it."

Pig Farmer had intended to apply for Beastmaster University from the beginning for the competition’s prize money. People from Lu Village, on the other hand, didn't want to apply for the university at first, but after hearing about the competition and generous prizes, Lu Bing and a few others decided to come as well.

Among the fourth-generation beastmasters of Lu Village, four of the best were encouraged to participate in the competition and develop further at the university. The group consisted of Lu Bing, Lu Yi, Lu Dingding, and Lu Xiaowu.

As for the others, they stayed in the village to continue hunting and making money in Limitless City.

A month ago, Lu Ran took Lu Bing and Lu Yi to train in secret realms and made them the best of the fourth-generation beastmasters in the village. They then helped strengthen their former teammates, Lu Dingding and Lu Xiaowu.

In turn, the four of them began to level up all the other villagers. As the village’s hope for the next generation, they also received most of the inheritances left by the previous generations of beastmasters from Lu Village, which further enhanced their strength. They were now the strongest team in Lu Village.

"I wonder how strong they’ve become."

Since he was waiting for Fang Lan, Lu Ran took some time to check on his Seven Beast Generals. However, they should be called the Six Beast Generals now that Sudden Death King had been promoted to the king's personal guard.

"The King's Six Beast Generals doesn’t have that ring to it. I should find a suitable replacement to fill the empty spot."

Lu Ran sent a message through the crows and summoned Dark Crow to the window.

"Long time no see, my liege!" Dark Crow exclaimed as it landed outside the window.

[Species: Black Crow]

[Attribute: Dark]

[Species Rank: Superior-Transcendent]

[Level: 17]

Lu Ran's Eye of Detection could finally reveal Dark Crow’s information. Its level still wasn’t high enough. Dark Crow should be the strongest among the Seven Beast Generals, excluding Sudden Death King.

The strength difference between the other five wasn’t very big. Lu Ran assumed that they should all be around level 15. This wasn’t good. They were still too weak. How could they protect Green Sea City?

What’s the best way to train my Seven Beast Generals?

Lu Ran pondered.

Being confined to a small place like Green Sea City did in fact restrict their growth. The top-tier creatures in the deep sea and the Amazon rainforest were already over level 40, which were on par with the main familiars of second-generation beastmasters.

Their growth and evolution speed were unimaginably fast. These places were notable cradles of resources.

Every country was starting to worry about these beasts growing too fast and dethroning humans as the apex predator of the Blue Planet.

Lu Ran didn’t share with the crow what he was actually thinking.

"The Seven Beast Generals have a vacancy. Are there any suitable candidates to replace Sudden Death King?"

"Did the Thunder Dragon General suddenly pass away!?!” Dark Crow was shocked.

"No, I contracted it," Lu Ran explained.

"Besides the six of you that are left, who is the strongest transcendent creature in Green Sea City?"

"The Queen Bee is on the same level as us!" Dark Crow quickly replied.

"So it's her. That’s not unexpected." Lu Ran nodded. Transcendent honey was Lu Ran's favorite resource, so he gave the Green Sea City’s bees certain privileges. They had priority when it came to collecting honey from the transcendent plants around the city.

This was an important privilege as it kept the bee colony well-fed. Lu Ran remembered that the most talented queen bee in the city’s bee colonies was Grass attribute. Although its initial evolution wasn’t as good as One Ear and the others, it was still considered a top-tiered creature under level 10. It should have even been a Superior-Transcendent species.

Now, after nearly two months of growth, it seems that it has caught up with One Ear and the gang.

"Then pass down the order for Queen Bee to join the king's Seven Beast Generals, codenamed 'Queen Bee.’ By the way, also tell Queen Bee that I want some honey."

Lu Ran felt like he was soliciting a bribe, but that wasn’t his intention. He honestly wanted to cultivate the Seven Beast Generals and he was just choosing the best candidate.

"Kaw!"

***

After Dark Crow left, Lu Ran decided to train creatures that weren’t on his roster. If his nightmare really came true, Lu Ran felt that it wasn’t reliable to count on the power of Captain Doofus and others alone.

"I need to raise an entire legion!" Lu Ran determined.

In the early stage of the spiritual energy revival, every country faced a difficult problem which was the fact that many mutant beasts lived in packs. They would form groups that numbered in the hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands.

Beastmasters sometimes would rather face a single powerful individual than a large group of creatures.

Somewhere in North America, a transcendent seagull riot occurred. Thousands of Wind and Water seagulls launched coordinated attacks which created a terrifying storm that caused a tsunami. They sank an entire island that was comparable to a second-tier city.

According to the reports, the average level of this group of seagulls was below level 10, but once they teamed up, there was a qualitative change caused by their sheer quantity. Even higher-level creatures would find it difficult to achieve something of similar scale.

Although some experts suggested that they may have just predicted the weather and taken advantage of natural forces, it was undeniable that an organized and coordinated army of transcendent creatures could create catastrophes.

Lu Ran believed that he should make good use of his telepathy and raise an army of transcendent creatures. After all, the pieces were already in place. As the king of Green Sea City, it would be a waste to only have Dark Crow and the others maintain order and carry out surveillance.

"Dark Crow is very intelligent and leads thousands of crows while still recruiting crows from other areas. I can use them as a test case. Compared to other animals, crows have much higher intelligence and are easier to train.

"More importantly, most crows are Wind attribute, which is easier to combine into a combination skill.

"I’ll start by training a crow legion to use a combination skill. If it’s feasible, then I’ll create other legions."

At that time, these transcendent legions could not only help to protect the city together but also expand their territory to plunder resources from other countries after reaching a certain scale. Dark Crow had this ambition from the very beginning.