Chapter 28 - Heavenly Familiar Ranking

"Let's go to Beastmaster Square and take a look."

Lu Ran didn't hesitate for too long. He wanted to know what this Heavenly Familiar Ranking looked like. How much would it affect him?

"Okay." Pig Farmer nodded, obviously also very interested in the Heavenly Familiar Ranking.

Now, their party, which consisted of two people, a pig, and a dog, headed towards Beastmaster Square.

***

Xia Empire, Limitless City #3, Beastmaster Square.

By now, there were already hundreds of people gathered in the square. Some of the previous generations of beastmasters were very moved. It was the first time they saw so many beastmasters gathered at once. Everyone stayed near the Heavenly Familiar Ranking, discussing and observing it with each other.

"This ranking seems to be regional, with each Limitless City being ranked separately. My friend in Limitless City #7 sent a message saying that someone there already made the rankings."

"Really? Each Limitless City is counted separately, which gives me hope, but I’m not sure how many crystal coins I can get when the rewards are distributed.”

"It will still be hard. I'm afraid that the number of beastmasters will increase in the future, so it will definitely be very competitive."

Crystal coins were the universal currency of Limitless City and were used everywhere. Now that there was a new facility rewarding crystal coins, the beastmasters were naturally very happy.

Lu Ran and Pig Farmer seemed to come at the right time. When they arrived at Beastmaster Square, one side of the Heavenly Familiar Ranking began to change.

[Regional announcement: Heavenly Familiar Ranking, Transcendent Ranking updated.]

[Heavenly Familiar added.]

[Species: Black Bear]

[Attribute: Dark]

[Species Rank: Superior-Transcendent]

[Level: 8]

[Beastmaster: Dark and Windy Night]

[Reason for inclusion: Evolved black bear with incredible strength and awakened the power of darkness. Overcame a two-level gap and killed a level 10 Intermediate Transcendent demon cat with a single palm in the Easy-Beginner Secret Realm, Demon Cat Forest!]

On the Heavenly Familiar Ranking, under the section for Transcendent species, first place was immediately occupied by the information on this black bear. The crowd in Beastmaster Square all heard the regional announcement, and many newcomers who just became beastmasters in the past two days were shocked to see the changes on the list.

Dark Black Bear... What does this guy do in real life?

The crowd buzzed with interest.

"Who is Dark and Windy Night? His initial familiar is actually a black bear? Was it born with the Dark attribute?"

It was not surprising that a level 8 Dark-attribute black bear could kill a level 10 demon cat with one palm strike since it had a higher species rank as well as a rarer and more powerful attribute.

Before anyone could figure out which force the monstrous newcomer called Dark and Windy Night belonged to, the list was updated again!

[Regional announcement: Heavenly Familiar Ranking, Transcendent Ranking updated.]

[Heavenly Familiar added.]

[Species: Tiger]

[Attribute: Rock]

[Species Rank: Superior-Transcendent]

[Level: 7]

[Beastmaster: Dragon Fighting Tiger]

[Reason for inclusion: Evolved Northeastern tiger with a high species rank and awakened its Rock attribute. Successfully hunted a level 8 transcended stone boar in the Normal Beginner Secret Realm, level 1 Wild Boar Valley!]

This time, the list changed, and Dark and Windy Night, who had just been ranked first for a few seconds, was immediately squeezed down to second place. This contracted tiger and the ruthless individual named Dragon Fighting Tiger immediately topped the list. It seems that Limitless City believed that the performance of the Rock-attribute tiger was better than that of the Dark-attribute black bear.

"So, so powerful..."

At this moment, just seeing these two people on the list had Pig Farmer stunned.

I have no chance of getting on this list. First, a bear and then a tiger. Although my wild boar is also very strong, it looks like it won’t be easy!

"It seems that this Transcendent Ranking is specifically prepared for the newcomers from the fourth generation," someone commented.

In addition to the countdown timer, there were a few more small lines of text below the Transcendent Ranking.

[Note: The Transcendent Rankings only includes new familiars and those that have been beastmasters for less than one year.]

[Note: Equipment, items, consumable resources, team assistance, and other external factors that increase the combat power of familiars will be weighted somewhat lower on the ranking.]

[Note: ...]

"It seems to be for preventing veterans from training new familiars to grab the resources meant for newcomers. Then again, familiars of the second and third-generation beastmasters fighting on the front line have mostly evolved into Champions, right? Those lists should be more competitive."

People were paying attention to the Champion and King Rankings. Overlord-rank familiars have yet to appear in the world.

The list was updated again.

Because the Heavenly Familiar Ranking had just appeared, the update frequency seemed particularly fast. This time, many people were excited because it was finally not the Transcendent Ranking that was updated, but...

[Regional announcement: Heavenly Familiar Ranking, King Ranking updated.]

[Heavenly Familiar added.]

[Species: Nine-star Shining Tail Sparrow]

[Attribute: Light, Space]

[Species Rank: Low-King]

[Level: 43]

[Beastmaster: Nebula]

[Reason for inclusion: A perfectly evolved King-ranked familiar possessing two special attributes, Light and Space. In the level 4 Hard secret realm, Sky Island, it crushed a level 41 Low-King-ranked sky serpent with its special move, Flashing Galaxy!]

"It’s Guildmaster Nebula!?"

Compared to the two unknown newcomers, this beastmaster named Nebula seemed to be very famous in Limitless City #3. The crowd went wild again when they saw him top the King Ranking. Veterans began to patiently explain who this person was to the newcomers.

"Nebula..."

"Do you know him?" Lu Ran asked.

"I know him. The guild I joined is called Galaxy. This Nebula... is the guild master. Sister Hua said that he is a powerful figure amongst second-generation beastmasters, and his family is in real estate..."

"Uh, no wonder that guild is so generous."

Lu Ran was stunned. His neighborhood actually seemed to be called Starlight.

Could it belong to this person's family? Whatever...

"I’m not going to keep watching."

By this point, Lu Ran had a rough understanding of the Heavenly Familiar Rankings, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, this Heavenly Familiar Ranking only had a limited impact on him. Only part of a beastmaster’s record would be made public, so it wasn’t some sort of exposé.

It was just a highlight reel of combat achievements and noteworthy performances. The risk of his Epic-ranked item being exposed was a lot lower. Reading the descriptions, most people would definitely pay attention to the individual performance of the familiar.

Although huskies were common and not very powerful, there were always exceptions. It wasn’t surprising that a strong one could suddenly appear. After all, there were even higher species of insects.

Attracting attention was inevitable, but crystal coins were rewarded to compensate. There were pros and cons.

However, Lu Ran thought it was pointless to overthink, especially since, having seen that the Heavenly Familiars on the rankings were all so powerful, it wasn’t guaranteed that he and Captain Doofus could even make it on the list.

It was still difficult for Captain Doofus to compete with those high-level familiars. The only hope was for it to learn some powerful techniques before those high-level pets could, leveraging its comprehension ability and Super Beast Mimicry 2.0. Lu Ran felt that the Divine Deer Pendant could actually help Captain Doofus train powerful techniques.

The main issue with energy compression was that it had a heavy impact on the body and was difficult to control, but as long as the backlash could be healed, the skill’s proficiency could be improved rapidly.

"I'm going to do some shopping. Are you going to stay here to watch?" Lu Ran questioned.

"Huh, you don't want to watch anymore?"

Pig Farmer was still eagerly watching the rankings as if he wanted to stay.

"What's the point of looking at this thing? You won’t make the ranking, so you might as well hurry up and cultivate your familiar. That way, you’ll have a better chance of getting ranked," Lu Ran laughed.

Ah, young grasshopper...

Limitless City was really toxic. With this structure in place, how many guilds and beastmasters would fight for the honor of having a Divine Familiar? Wasn't this just like competing for a high rank in online games?

Wait, could the official story made up by the government be true? Could this Limitless City really have been created by a certain civilization to pass on its inheritance and cultivate beastmasters?

***

At the same time in Green Sea City.

After Fang Lan woke up, she thought about it and told her parents that she had been chosen to be a beastmaster, like Lu Ran suggested.

"So that’s the current situation. It's a rare opportunity, especially since I'm favored by Dr. Gu! You don't want to disappoint someone of her level, right? Little spiders might fall out of my eyes if you don't support me."

Can you reign it in? That’s creepy, you know? It’s supposed to be pearls that fall from your eyes[1]!

Fang Lan's parents frowned and remained silent. They obviously saw the shocking news, but...

What's going on?

They should be happy that their daughter was chosen. It proved that their daughter was talented, but the news also said that the secret realms of Limitless City were very dangerous.

Which parent wanted their children to frequent such a dangerous place? Although, their daughter wasn’t a saint either.

"No, it's too dangerous. I won't let you enter secret realms. It's ok to be ordinary. How about doing what you said before and becoming a veterinarian?" Fang Lan's mother advised.

"How about becoming a vet for familiars?"

"That’s not happening! That would be a waste of my Superior-Transcendent familiar! My little spider will cry. It can only poison people, not heal them."

"..."

Fang Lan's father tried to keep a straight face.

"Why not follow Dr. Gu's advice and go to Beastmaster University to study hard and train, making a decision after graduation? At your age... going to school is the most important. Of course, you’re also not allowed to get into an early relationship; that is even more unacceptable!

"As for Lu Ran, you better find him quickly and keep an eye on him. Don't let him do anything dangerous... You two are both the type that would cause people to worry. If something happens to him, how can we explain it to his parents when we see them in the afterlife?"

"I..." Fang Lan was speechless, and her mind was a mess. She was an adult, so all that talk about falling in love early was complete BS!

Stupid Lu Ran. It turns out that Lu Ran told me to come clean just to have me take the lead in convincing my parents! He’s so scheming. Why can’t he be more like Captain Doofus?

1. In Mandarin, zhizhu 蜘蛛, the word for spider, sounds like zhenshu 珍珠, the word for pearl ☜