Chapter 134 - The Battle of the Schools

What the fuck? Is that cat holding a sword?

Lu Ran’s group couldn’t help but be confused.

The apprentice who came out for some fresh air also saw the bunch of deer in headlights.

"Brother Lu Ran?" The apprentice asked while rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

Meow? (Are you the one giving this idiot the stupid ideas?)

"Who are you?" Lu Ran asked.

"I’m Ning Fan, an apprentice here at Rainbow Dojo. We’ve met before." Ning Fan excitedly introduced himself to his idol.

"Oh yeah."

Lu Ran still didn’t actually remember him. Back when he lived at Rainbow Dojo, there were plenty of apprentices who greeted him.

At the time, Lu Ran was the only beastmaster in Rainbow Dojo, but with the dawn of the Beastmaster Era, many of the teenagers were keenly interested in becoming one as well.

Some of them nearly quit swordsmanship to train under Lu Ran as beastmasters. Lucky for him, Lu Ran was able to sneak out of there before he got swarmed by his junior apprentice brothers and sisters.

"Big brother! I finally found you! I didn’t expect you to be the number one on the Heavenly Familiar Rankings!"

"Huh?"

Did Master Jiang tell them about me?

Master Jiang and Senior Brother He should’ve been the only ones in the dojo to know that he was Pedestrian A.

"What's up with your cat?" Lu Ran couldn’t resist asking.

"It's like this. Recently, three apprentices at the dojo, including myself, became beastmasters. We heard about your accomplishments while in Limitless City as well as your sword-wielding husky. Later we asked the master about it and he confirmed everything."

So that's what happened.

Although Lu Ran's face wasn’t well-known around Limitless City, everyone knew that his familiar was a husky. While Lu Ran was staying at Rainbow Dojo, Captain Doofus often wandered about while holding a sword in its mouth.

As Pedestrian A’s reputation rose, it wasn’t a stretch for the apprentices to make the connection between his alias and his real identity, especially since Rainbow Dojo was well-known throughout the empire. If a dog learned swordsmanship, then it was more likely to be at Rainbow Dojo than anywhere else.

"The three of us thought that your swordsdog was really cool, so we copied you."

"..."

There are three of them!?

Manager Ying and Fang Lan both glanced at Lu Ran.

I knew it. He’s the root of the problem. Also, what’s wrong with this dojo? Why are there so many weirdos here?

The fact of the matter was that normal teenagers were busy studying, gaming, or flirting. They wouldn’t be learning swordsmanship in a dojo.

"However, Master found out and made us stop. He told us about what happened to senior brother Condor Hero." Ning Fan sighed.

"I still think my cat looked really cool with a sword, so although I’m not teaching it to fight with one, I still have it carry one around for the aesthetic."

"You made the right decision," Lu Ran replied. "Swordsmanship isn’t compatible with familiars. My situation is unique and isn’t something to aspire toward. Why don’t you bring me to see Master and I’ll tell you all about it."

"Okay!"

Ning Fan led Lu Ran and Fang Lan into the dojo. Manager Ying, on the other hand, having dropped off Lu Ran at his destination, yawned and turned around to leave.

"Master is training with Senior Brother Jin and Senior Sister Fan right now. I just finished and went out for some fresh air," Ning Fan explained as they entered the dojo.

When they entered the training area, Lu Ran saw a man and woman around his age sparring against Master Jiang together.

From the perspective of physical fitness, the two young beastmasters undoubtedly had the advantage, but from the results of the battle, it looked as if they were severely suppressed by the older Master Jiang Dou.

"Did y’all forget to eat lunch? I've told you so many times already that you need to be fast and decisive when you draw! The arc of your draw should be like that of a rainbow. Why are you still so slow?

"Don't wait until your opponent moves before thinking about how to counter it. You need to take initiative and set the rhythm of the battle."

Crack!

In the blink of an eye, the wooden swords were knocked out of the apprentices’ hands.

"Your master is so strict," Fang Lan commented as she watched the match from the bleachers.

"He’s pretty cool about everything else, but he’s completely serious when it comes to swordsmanship," Lu Ran explained.

"Master, look who's here," Junior Brother Ning called out. Master Jiang looked up, and was a bit surprised to see Lu Ran.

"Is that you, Lu Ran?" He asked before turning to the two apprentices. "Your long-awaited Senior Brother Lu is here."

"He will instruct you on how to utilize swordsmanship as a beastmaster a little later. You should properly learn from your Senior Brother Lu Ran. Although y’all are about the same age, he has already begun to master sword intent."

"Master, we actually already mastered it." Lu Ran updated his master.

"Oh, you already mastered it... Huh? You already mastered it?" Jiang Dou’s eye’s bulged.

"Wait, what do you mean 'we'?"

The old man suddenly had a bad premonition.

No way. There’s no way that even the husky already...

"Senior Brother Lu Ran!"

Junior Apprentice Brother Jin and Sister Fan stared at Lu Ran in admiration.

Is Senior Brother Lu Ran really Pedestrian A? He’s ranked first on the Heavenly Familiar Rankings, and his familiar made the rankings by wielding a sword. They’re so cool.

"Who is this?"

Although he still had questions about the sword intent situation, Master Jiang decided to ask about Fang Lan, having never met her before.

Did Lu Ran get a girlfriend? Why did he bring her here?

"This is Sister Fang Lan. She’s also a beastmaster. We came to Golden Hill to participate in the preliminaries of the Beastmaster University competition. We plan to stay in the dojo for a couple of days."

"Hello, Master Jiang Dou. Sorry to bother you," Fang Lan greeted politely.

"Oh, it’s no bother at all. Welcome! Please treat this place as your own home." Master Jiang understood who she was.

It turned out that she was the daughter of Lu Ran's adoptive parents. Jiang Dou lost a custody battle against the Fang couple for Lu Ran so he had a deep impression of them.

"By the way, kid, what did you say just now? You have already comprehended sword intent?" Jiang Dou still couldn't believe it.

Lu Ran’s three fans were surprised as well.

The three of them had been training for a long time, but still haven’t even mastered sword momentum. Could it be that this legendary Senior Brother Lu Ran already comprehended the sword intent that even eluded Senior Brother Condor Hero?

"Yeah." Lu Ran nodded.

"Hahahaha." Jiang Dou couldn’t hold back his laughter.

"That's good. I’m happy to hear that! If you meet a girl named Xia Ri in the university competition, give her a good beating for me."

"Huh?" Lu Ran was caught off guard.

How did the subject change from sword intent to Xia Ri? Who is she?

"She’s the apprentice of an old rival of mine. We’re both trained in weaponry. I practice the sword while they practice spears. His apprentice became a beastmaster, and is rumored to have comprehended spear intent. The old guy called me to brag nonstop, and I can’t take it anymore!

"Now that you comprehended sword intent, I feel a lot better. If you meet my rival’s apprentice, you have to beat her."

"What? Xia Ri comprehended spear intent? As in, she achieved Intent Formation?"

"That's what her master said. By the way, her familiar supposedly has the Fusion talent, and she follows the same path as your Senior Brother Condor Hero, focusing on strengthening herself."

"I see."

Ugh, the freshman competition is gathering so many talents, and now there’s one more to add to the pile.

Lu Ran knew the real difficulty of comprehending sword intent. If it wasn't for Captain Doofus’ compatibility with the Weapon Control trait, they wouldn’t have had any chance of comprehending sword intent.

However, it wasn’t impossible for Xia Ri to comprehend spear intent. Lu Ran's sword training was part-time at best. If she practiced the spear with a master since childhood, then she would be significantly more experienced than Lu Ran.

There were very few inheritors of weaponry arts that were like Lu Ran who just learned it as a hobby. Most apprentices in Rainbow Dojo planned on participating in various sword competitions to live off the prize money. For example, Senior Brother Condor Hero achieved a good ranking in an international sword competition.

On top of everything else, her familiar’s species talent was Fusion. Once Xia Ri fused with her familiar, they would share each other’s power. If her familiar mastered energy formation, combined with her talent with the spear, it wasn’t not impossible for her to comprehend spear intent.

Even so, it was still very impressive. After all, fourth-generation beastmasters have only been around for a little over three months. At this point, those who could comprehend Intent Formation must have top-notch intelligence and comprehension.

"Don't worry, I will defeat her if we run into each other." Lu Ran assured his master.

Although she was bound to be a powerful opponent, Lu Ran didn’t cower.

"If I meet her, I will also defeat her for you, Master Jiang Dou. Don't worry!" Fang Lan interrupted with a smile.

"Forget about it. You think you can beat her?" Lu Ran looked at her with a doubtful expression.

"Don't underestimate me," Fang Lan replied in dissatisfaction.

Although Intent Formation was very powerful, she was well versed in poison. Especially after getting the Fusion skill, she had many more tactics in her arsenal than before.

She had to be careful before because she wasn’t immune to poison and could accidentally hurt herself. However, now that she had the Fusion skill, the issue was resolved.

For instance, she could use Energy Compression to create a poison gas grenade and set it off to create a giant poison cloud to cover the area. She could also create a poison liquid grenade which she could set off in the sky to cause poison to rain down. Her opponent would be in for a world of hurt!

The opponent only had a spear. It’s not like she had a gun, so it wasn’t an issue.

"Hahaha, thank you."

Jiang Dou appeared to have a real grudge against this old rival of his and what he was hearing was putting him in a good mood.

"So Brother Lu Ran, you should be considered the representative of swordsmanship in this competition, right!?" Junior Sister Fan asked curiously. "The forum is discussing which school of beastmasters would perform the best.”

"That's not technically accurate. Swordsmanship means that the beastmaster is utilizing the power of the familiar fight with a sword, but Brother Lu Ran is different. It’s his familiar that’s holding the sword. This is a style that has never been seen before.

"This is a new style. The sword-wielding-familiar style!" Brother Ning exclaimed.

Nowadays, there were many schools of beastmasters. Some would use familiars to fight each other, while other beastmasters would fight themselves by using their familiar to augment their strength. Each of these schools would then further divide into smaller branches.

For example, those that fought directly could be divided into the physique branch, weapons branch, and even the rarer spiritual branch. These schools were all born of different beastmaster skills. Which school was stronger had always been a controversial topic in the beastmaster world.

Supporters of the various schools wanted to validate their beliefs through the competition held by the Beastmaster University. This was the first large-scale beastmaster competition in the Xia Empire in which countless battles will be endlessly debated.

The three junior apprentices were excited, but they were still weak and couldn’t make any waves in the competition, unlike their Senior Brother Lu Ran who was a crowd favorite.

The only problem was Lu Ran's sword-wielding-familiar branch didn’t seem to fit in with any existing school. Was a new school about to emerge and become viral by stomping out the old schools? They were curious, especially since they were beastmasters already influenced by it.