Chapter 248 - A Place to Nurture Weapon Spirits

After obtaining important information, Lu Ran continued to ask about more.

“What about the location of the real Undead Secret Realm?”

Knowing the information about the key was useless without knowing the location.

Pan Kai replied, “A small island in South America. That’s the headquarters of the Other Shore.”

Lu Ran turned his head and exchanged glances with Gu Qingyi.

At this moment, Dr. Sheehan added, “Before we came, there was an internal conflict within the Other Shore. Now, the necromancers that are still at the headquarters are all hoping to cooperate with you, Lu Ran.

“Only a very small number of necromancers, for various reasons, do not want the Other Shore to cooperate with Xia. But these people are in the minority and have already been forced to leave the Other Shore due to the prevailing trend.

“Of course, I think these people are the ones we need to be most cautious about. They are not deeply involved with the Undead attribute and have complex backgrounds, with connections to various dictatorships and multinational corporations. They are true ambitious schemers.”

“Hmm... I can accept cooperation. However, this cooperation cannot be established openly. I can provide shelter for the Other Shore, but the way I provide shelter won’t exactly be gentle. So, the Other Shore will be destroyed, and most of its members will be arrested.”

“I understand. However, there might be some people who can’t accept this. They might be willing to cooperate, but they will definitely find it hard to accept having their fate controlled by others, or even changing their identities.”

“Then don’t cooperate with them.”

Lu Ran tossed a Soul Storage Ring to Pan Kai and said, “There are one hundred harmless souls inside that can be used as food. This is my sincerity. As for whether you can convince those people, that’s up to you.”

For an international criminal organization trying to clean up its act, this was an indispensable step. At that time, those who were forced to join the Other Shore and could be cleared would be cleared directly, such as Lu Ran’s parents, who were also victims.

Those with some blood on their hands would also be dealt with accordingly. Even necromancers were human. Most people had a moral benchmark in their hearts.

Even if they would kill beastmasters to level up, they would definitely choose to hunt corrupt officials and beastmasters full of sins first, to give themselves a heroic label.

“I only killed bad people. Consuming their souls was just a bonus.”

In Lu Ran’s view, this was completely acceptable.

As for those without any moral bottom line, even Lu Ran, who didn’t have a high moral standard, didn’t want to cooperate with them, as it would only bring risks to himself.

However, Lu Ran believed that such people wouldn’t have the willpower to sustain long-term activities and might have already gone mad and been dealt with.

Without a doubt, Lu Ran felt that the Other Shore would experience another internal conflict.

”Harmless souls...”

In an instant, Pan Kai’s attention was completely drawn to the ring in his hand. He swallowed hard, resisting the urge to summon his familiar to consume the souls immediately.

To stay clear-headed, he hadn’t let his familiar fight for a long time, fearing excessive consumption. But now, he urgently needed to let it eat.

“By the way, can you tell me more about the specifics of the Undead Secret Realm?” Lu Ran asked.

The specifics of the Undead Secret Realm...

Pan Kai held the ring and looked at Lu Ran, saying, “The Undead Secret Realm has no level restrictions. Anyone can challenge it infinitely. The secret realm will spawn initial enemies based on the beastmaster’s level. After winning a challenge, stronger enemies will spawn.”

Why does this sound so familiar? Didn’t the people who raised pandas say the same thing? Could it be that real secret realms all follow this mechanism?

However, unlike the relatively safe description from the Youxiong Clan, Pan Kai continued, “This Undead Secret Realm is still somewhat dangerous. The enemies that spawn are all undead, and their attacks are mostly soul attacks.

“There are many ways to heal physical injuries, and resources to heal mental damage are not nonexistent. But abilities and resources to heal soul damage are almost nonexistent.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

“To recover, one can only rely on consuming souls to slowly heal, but this requires consuming a large number of souls, which can affect mental state. So, challenging this secret realm is very dangerous. It’s best to achieve the minimum clearance standard and then retreat.

“Don’t try to pursue the highest score. Since no one has achieved the highest score, I don’t know what the best reward is. But even if you clear with a low score, the secret realm will at least drop an Undead Resurrection skill card. If you perform slightly better, you might also get a trait crystal known as Soul Burn.

“This trait crystal is actually quite useless. It enhances explosive power by intensively burning soul power. But as I mentioned earlier, there are currently no means to heal soul damage. Who would be willing to use such a trait? Its tactical value is far less than if you were to add a second attribute to an undead familiar.”

Hearing this, Lu Ran also dismissed this trait. Even if his familiar wouldn’t be affected by consuming souls, and even if he could create healing soul cuisine, he had no interest in a trait that only provided a burst of power.

Instead of fusing traits, wouldn’t it be better to directly train Energy Compression techniques? Why waste a trait slot?

Indeed, such repeatable traits had significant limitations. However, after hearing the description, Lu Ran quickly noticed another blind spot.

“Since the Undead Secret Realm is full of dead things, is the death aura there very dense?”

“Yes... The background of this Undead Secret Realm is said to be a legendary battlefield, so it’s filled with death aura.”

Lu Ran was very surprised. This was a stroke of luck. He needed a place with a high concentration of death aura, where many transcendent beings had died, to nurture weapon spirits.

On Blue Planet, such places were rare. Lu Ran had been quite conflicted about where to start his project. After much thought, he had only considered various secret realms in Limitless City with similar locations.

However, the biggest challenge with choosing a secret realm was the need to constantly enter and exit, which was quite draining.

Now, this real secret realm gave Lu Ran another option.

Nice. Nurturing weapon spirits location: +1.

Although it was still a secret realm type, which was quite draining and had shorter single nurturing sessions, it was a legendary battlefield teeming with undead creatures.

It seemed very suitable, and the quality of the death aura might significantly reduce the nurturing time. This added another reason to seize the Other Shore’s headquarters.

“By the way, can I try this now?"

At this moment, Pan Kai, holding the ring, couldn’t help but ask. As he had said on the phone, he was on the verge of breaking down.

Lu Ran remained silent for a moment, then said, "Alright, let’s stop here. We’ll meet on Blue Planet."

With that, he glanced at Dr. Gu and the cat. The cat teleported them away in an instant.

At the Cat Maid Cafe, Manager Ying smacked its lips and said, “So next...”

“Next, leave it to me. Lu Ran will wait in Green Sea City. I’ll take a group of first-generation beastmasters to South America and secure the territory first. Once the situation there stabilizes, you should find an opportunity to go over,” Gu Qingyi said.

“Alright.” Lu Ran nodded. “Then I’ll stay in Green Sea and forge weapons for Captain Doofus. I’ll also continue to process more beast souls and forge more Soul Storage Rings.”

“Right.” Gu Qingyi nodded.

After all, they were about to take over the Other Shore. Most of these people wanted to join Lu Ran for the harmless souls. If Lu Ran wanted them to willingly work for him, he couldn’t expect them to do so without offering anything in return.

As for the beasts themselves and the materials for forging Soul Storage Rings, Xia would provide the majority. Relying solely on Lu Ran’s personal resources and Bai Qi’s hunting speed from the Netherworld Department was far from enough.

Through this process, Lu Ran’s Psychic Sword Intent and Soul Forging techniques would also become more proficient.

***

The matter of the Other Shore was now entirely in Dr. Gu’s hands, while Lu Ran returned to Green Sea.

Back in Green Sea, Lu Ran originally planned to continue practicing Soul Forging, but he suddenly remembered something and asked another clone of Manager Ying who was overseeing the Weather Spirit.

“Has the Queen Ant’s Egg not been traded yet?”

“The Queen Ant’s Egg has been traded, but we haven’t found suitable resources for you yet.” Manager Ying looked up.

“What? Then what did the other party trade for the Queen Ant’s Egg?”

“Nutritional supplements for my main body,” Manager Ying said eagerly. “When we find suitable resources for you, I’ll buy them for you! Didn’t I already give you two Treasure minerals as a deposit?”

After a moment of silence, Lu Ran said, “Forget it. Who did you trade the Queen Ant’s Egg with?”

“Lin Nian.”

“Her? She has special abilities. Why would she...”

Lu Ran was about to say that someone who has special abilities wouldn’t want a Metal and Rock dual-attribute Queen Ant Egg, but he quickly realized that someone with special abilities commanding a legion would indeed be better than an ordinary beastmaster doing so.

“To be precise, Lin Nian got it for her sister, Lin Yin.” Manager Ying shrugged. “You know, Lin Yin has started challenging Legendary Secret Realms. She only has one familiar, so having another King familiar would make things much easier.”

“Fuck.”

“What?” Manager Ying was puzzled.

Lu Ran turned toward it. “Fang Lan seems to have teamed up with Lin Yin. If she sees the Queen Ant Egg I dropped had ended up with Lin Yin, it would be so awkward... She was already unhappy about Xia Ri coming to Green Sea. Why did you sell it to Lin Nian?”

Manager Ying looked at Lu Ran with disdain. “You had something good, and instead of thinking of your sister, you sold it to me first... but now you’re blaming me?”

“It was mainly because Fang Lan’s contract slots are full now. Giving her the Queen Ant Egg would be useless. Whatever; when she reaches level two, I’ll find a Poison-attribute King cub for her,” Lu Ran said.

“Ah, never mind; I’m off to forge—”

At this moment, there were five days left until the next Evolution Secret Realm opened, and sixteen days left until the fourth Evolution Secret Realm opened.

Lu Ran felt that Captain Doofus shouldn’t evolve in the third Evolution Secret Realm. Five days was too short, so it was unlikely to make significant progress.

It would be better to catch the last Evolution Secret Realm and take Captain Doofus to evolve then.

Half a month later, after Captain Doofus’ evolution, Lu Ran planned to enter a level 2 ascension realm to become a level 3 beastmaster.