Chapter 157 - Legendary Secret Realm! (Part 1)

Sky City, located in the center of the Xia Empire, was zoned to Limitless City #7.

The Champion Heavenly Familiar Rankings, which Lu Ran aimed to challenge, were in an awkward situation. Most first, second, and third-generation beastmasters had main familiars that were above level 30 and had undergone further evolution.

As a result, the main familiars of the first three generations—at least those of average strength—were King-ranked species or higher. This led to two typical scenarios on the Champion Rankings: either a beastmaster from the first three generations raising a new familiar still under level 30, or a less experienced beastmaster with a familiar that had failed to evolve into a King species.

This pattern was consistent across almost every Limitless City. However, a few exceptional fourth-generation beastmasters, such as Zhou Mo, Youxiong Anlin, Du Yuan, and Lin Yin, stood out from the norm.

Lu Ran believed it would be easier to rank in a domestic Limitless City rather than an international one. While he was mostly correct, he overlooked a crucial detail.

If he wanted to find a less competitive ranking, he shouldn’t have chosen Limitless City #7, where Sky City was located. Returning to Limitless City #3 or #5 would have been better options.

Limitless City #7 was the most competitive of the seven Limitless Cities in the Xia Empire. When Beastmaster University was established, it attracted not only the best fourth-generation beastmasters nationwide but also elite members of the first three generations.

This resulted in City #7 having more professionals than any other, a fact Lu Ran had completely forgotten. Had he checked the rankings first, he would have realized that the current first-place holder was Qin Ming, the dean of the Combat Academy, and a favorite to be crowned the strongest second-generation beastmaster.

[Species: Void Whale]

[Attributes: Water, Space]

[Species Rank: Superior-Champion]

[Level: 29]

[Evolution: Orca → Void Whale]

His familiar, evolved from an orca—an apex predator of the ocean—was a formidable force.

The remaining nine spots were also occupied by Beastmaster University’s leadership and professors, elites from across the country who secured their rankings effortlessly. Lu Ran realized there was no room for him to “shake things up.”

***

In his private room, Lu Ran was browsing through the list of secret realms when he suddenly noticed that a new secret realm had appeared!

“Did the secret realm list get updated?”

The number of secret realms available wasn’t fixed. Every now and then, a new secret realm would be released. Exploring new secret realms was a popular hobby amongst major guilds.

[Name: Dragon King's Lair]

[Grade: Rank 1]

[Difficulty: Legendary]

[Secret Realm Introduction: The Diamond Dragon, a mutated Stone Dragon, was the ace familiar of the legendary dragon rider, Ido, of the Stellar Moon Continent. The Dragon King's Lair was its birthplace.

Here, you will face the Diamond Dragon in its adolescence before it was contracted.]

[Name: Diamond Dragon]

[Attribute: Dragon]

[Species Rank: Superior-King]

[Level: 20]

[Entry Fee: 0cc]

"What the heck?" Lu Ran exclaimed.

He rubbed his eyes to make sure they weren’t playing tricks on him.

What's going on?

He assumed that Limitless City was introducing some new secret realms as usual, but he was intrigued by the "Legendary Difficulty" and the 0cc entry fee.

"I guess I’ll check it out."

Originally, he wanted to challenge something on Hell difficulty before going straight back to the faculty dorms.

He took out his phone to check the forums, and sure enough, a bunch of posts had cropped up, discussing the new secret realm.

[What is this Legendary-difficulty secret realm, Dragon King’s Lair? Has anyone else seen this?]

[I’m a level 2 beastmaster, and a Legendary level 2 secret realm, Death Cemetery appeared. According to the introduction, the boss seems to be the young version of an Overlord species, the Asura Centipede, that once destroyed an entire province of the Beastmaster Empire!]

[Ah? This is happening to everyone? Why is there no Legendary Beginner-ranked secret realm?!]

[There is no entry fee! Is Limitless City handing out subsidies?]

Every beastmaster was focused on the new Legendary secret realms that appeared out of nowhere. Although they popped up only a few minutes ago, there was already a lot of speculation online.

[Legendary should be a level higher than Hell. In Hell difficulty secret realms, you start to encounter Overlord bosses around level 5. However, on Legend difficulty, it seems that Overlord bosses can appear starting in level 2 secret realms.

Additionally, a 0cc entry fee isn’t necessarily a good thing. Don't go in recklessly. Limitless City isn’t a non-profit. The likelihood of anyone clearing it is so low, that the city is just too lazy to even manage it.

If they don’t want your money, then they must be after your life!

Just by reading the introduction, you can tell that it won’t be anything easy to clear. It must be extremely dangerous. If you can't even pass a Hell-difficulty secret realm, don't even think about Legend difficulty!]

Many beastmasters felt that the post made sense, and no longer tried to take advantage of the free entry.

After scrolling around for a while, Lu Ran found out that only Beginner-level secret realms didn’t get any Legendary-difficulty maps. For level 1-5 secret realms, there was one Legendary realm for each level.

The level 1 Legendary secret realm was Dragon King's Lair. The boss was a purebred dragon mutant, the diamond dragon, that eventually became the ace familiar of a legendary figure.

The level 2 Legendary secret realm was Death Cemetery. The boss was the Overlord-ranked Asura Centipede that destroyed an entire province after it grew up.

Levels 3 and 4 also had Overlord bosses.

This update could be considered quite an upset, not just in Xia, but across the world. The international community was discussing resurrecting dinosaurs one minute, a second later, Legendary Secret Realm was all anyone talked about. Some wondered if Limitless City had a hidden agenda.

Overlord bosses?

Forget low-level beastmasters, even the upper echelon of the first generation needed to spend a lot of effort to beat one. Their familiars were already Superior-King species.

Low-level beastmasters haven’t created a formal raid team yet, and their familiars still have a long way to go. Even if they managed to put together a raid team, they still didn’t have a good chance of surviving or clearing one of these secret realms.

Beastmasters of the Stellar Moon Continent would only be classified as Legendary after they reached level 7.

When the classification was applied to secret realms, did that mean that it was something meant to be cleared by someone with the corresponding potential?

"Will Legendary secret realms become a regular thing going forward? Each with a boss creature from written about in legends?”

Lu Ran was just thinking about how things were getting interesting when a call from an unknown number rang.

"Who is this?" Lu Ran didn't want to answer it, but since it was a local area code, he answered it assuming that it was someone from the university.

Sure enough, he heard a familiar voice.

"It's me, Pluto."

"Really? How’d you get my phone number?" Lu Ran was caught off guard.

"Your contact information is publicly available within the Golden Hill branch of the Beastmaster Association, and my brother is a branch director. Actually, let's not get too deep into that. Did you see the level 1 Legendary secret realm, Dragon King's Lair?!

"The Legendary realms are about to become everyone’s top priority. Do you want to team up? We can find two more people for a team run.

"Being the first to clear a secret realm must give unimaginable rewards, not to mention one of a new difficulty."

"No." Lu Ran firmly declined. It turned out that Pluto wanted to join up with him.

"Why?"

"You’re too weak."

“What!?”

Pluto felt his heart shatter. He came to butter up Pedestrian A, but Lu Ran just shot him down.

“I am not weak! Didn’t you watch the competition? I am in the top 32. Please at least think about it!”

“Fine, I’ll let you know if I change my mind.” Lu Ran smiled.

Lu Ran was very curious about whether the new secret realm with its Dragon-attribute boss would drop any special traits or beastmaster skills.

Lu Ran didn’t want to rush into Dragon King's Lair because just like the forums said, it was sure to be a challenging and dangerous place. However, if he didn't challenge it, his curiosity about the potential rewards would eat away at him. They were sure to be very beneficial for his dragon cuisine.

It didn’t feel right to mooch off of others by taking advantage of his connections, but Lu Ran did think that the members of the Dragon King’s Lair team would be chosen from level 1 beastmasters.

Unless, of course, they need a dragon-slaying familiar like Captain Doofus. He was pretty confident in getting a spot on the official raid team.

After all, once he reached level 2, he wouldn't be able to challenge it anymore so he had some serious fomo.