Chapter 473 - The Upcoming World War (Part 1)

After defeating the Fengyuan Sheep, Lu Ran carefully examined the rewards.

“Pathetic. I feel like the rewards from that illusion were even better.”

The Epic amplification card was likely a standard drop from Mythical secret realms. Lu Ran planned to give it to #18 to upgrade its components. With this, #18’s research capabilities should undergo a new transformation.

I wonder if another upgrade will help it research on heroic spirits...

“Fantasy Fruit allows the user to awaken unique eye techniques, granting quasi-Legendary illusion mastery. It’s completely useless...” Lu Ran muttered to himself.

On his team, only two familiars had ever dabbled in illusions. One was Dark Crow, and the other was Six-Path Flower. Dark Crow didn’t need this at all. All it had to do was say, “Fall into an endless illusion!” and it could cast illusions through the power of its Spiritual Speech.

In terms of strength, it was already at the quasi-Legendary level. All sorts of operations could be achieved through its Spiritual Speech, which was similar to invoking magic with words. Because of this, the Fantasy Fruit was just redundant for it.

As for Six-Path Flower, it was the most well-rounded familiar in Lu Ran’s team as it was proficient in all kinds of techniques. Back in the ascension realm, Six-Path Flower had feared that Lu Ran and the others wouldn’t be able to endure the real Hell Domain, so it had substituted it with hell illusions to train their willpower.

Now that Six-Path Flower had ascended to Legendary, its spiritual power had also reached Legendary level, making this quasi-Legendary illusion ability unnecessary.

As for Captain Doofus, Sudden Death King, Baby Cloud, and #18, none of them were a good fit. It wasn’t that the Fantasy Fruit was weak. In a way, it was similar to the Dog Demon Transformation Bracelet. Both were incredibly powerful, capable of instantly bestowing quasi-Legendary strength to the user.

The problem was that Lu Ran’s familiars were even stronger, rendering this Epic resource seemingly useless. If given to someone else, anyone could immediately gain a quasi-Legendary-level combatant.

To put it into perspective, even Bai Lu, the other Divine Deer messenger, didn’t have a quasi-Legendary familiar yet. That showed just how absurd this item was.

“Maybe I should eat it myself?” Lu Ran pondered and realized that consuming it himself might actually be the best option.

Although gaining an illusion ability wouldn’t be particularly useful for him, and the amount of its power that he could absorb would definitely be lower than familiars, it could still slightly enhance his spiritual energy. This would help him train and use beastmaster skills more sustainably.

Moreover, illusions were more subtle than Flame Spirit, sword intent, or physical combat. Having an extra trump card wasn’t a waste.

“I guess I’ll take it myself.”

Looks like I’m straying further from the path of humanity...

As for the Broken Horn of the Divine Sheep, Lu Ran didn’t know what connection the Fengyuan Sheep had with the Divine Deer, but the effect of twisting other lifeforms into plants and unlocking their hidden potential was quite impressive.

Of course, for Lu Ran, it was still useless. After all, it was just an Epic item. It was incapable of elevating Six-Path Flower’s potential. Lu Ran realized that the rewards from this secret realm were also designed as a set. This item was likely meant to be paired with the Plantmaster King skill, which had also dropped.

The effects of Plantmaster King were incredibly strong. It allowed unconditional control over plant life weaker than the user. In other words, a beastmaster with this skill could easily raise an army of loyal plant minions without even needing to rely on contracts.

Unfortunately, while this skill seemed great, it was still useless to Lu Ran. Its effect was similar to Six-Path Flower’s Beast Path talent. The Beast Path talent could enslave animals, while the Plantmaster King could control plants. However, if the control was limited to plants weaker than oneself, Lu Ran saw no point to it.

Similarly, Dark Crow could use Spiritual Speech to make weaker lifeforms obey unconditionally. As the Goddess of Plants, Six-Path Flower’s awakened transcendent plants already followed it like devout worshippers.

This skill could elevate anyone else to the throne, making them the undisputed King of Plants. However, for Lu Ran, it wasn’t even a case of adding wings to a tiger. The Plantmaster King skill could perfectly complement the Broken Horn of the Divine Sheep. First, one could use the horn to transform pests like insects or rats into plant life, and then command them to gather resources. The speed at which plant life could generate resources far surpassed that of animal species.

In no time, one could establish a fabulously wealthy plant empire. With these resources, paired with a plant familiar that mastered Legion Skills, one could become invincible. However, Lu Ran could already achieve all this effortlessly with Six-Path Flower’s abilities alone, even without the horn or the skill. This was already happening in the Amazon Divine Nation.

If Lu Ran learned Plantmaster King, it might relieve some of Six-Path Flower’s workload, but it would also cost him a skill slot. His storage was filled with far more suitable beastmaster skills. While Plantmaster King was powerful, it wasn’t the best choice for him.

It’s

mediocre and not worth keeping, but a shame to discard.

“So the best reward this time is probably this Divine Faith Fruit. Thankfully, the Legendary resource didn’t throw any curveballs.” Lu Ran sighed in relief.

If the Wind Dog God used faith power to resurrect and recover, and the Golden Rooster God used it to nurture weapons, then the Fengyuan Sheep primarily used faith power to strengthen the unique plants it cultivated.

Take that illusion tree, for example. It hadn’t even developed consciousness, yet under the Fengyuan Sheep’s faith-enhanced power, it could unleash Legendary-level illusion waves, easily ensnaring Lu Ran and Sudden Death King.

This was the Fengyuan Sheep’s faith enhancement at work. The Divine Faith Fruit contained the pure essence of faith refined by the Fengyuan Sheep, capable of elevating one of a plant’s abilities to Legendary level. This was perfect for Six-Path Flower.

Although most of Six-Path Flower’s abilities were already at Legendary, these were mostly its long-established skills. For example, its Six-Path Talents and alignment power. These were abilities it had honed over a millennium, the very foundation of its Legendary breakthrough. However, beyond these, Six-Path Flower had many newer abilities like lucky power, dominion power, and so on.

Even as a Legendary lifeform, it couldn’t possibly develop these newly acquired traits to Legendary level in just a few months. For instance, with its lucky power, the weaker the target, the more they were affected by luck. The stronger the target, the harder it was for luck to influence them.

If Six-Path Flower wanted to condense a lucky flower to boost the fortune of a Low-Legendary being, it currently couldn’t do it. However, with the Divine Faith Fruit, it could skip countless years of training and instantly elevate its lucky power to Legendary level.

Initially, Lu Ran had worried that the Legendary resource might be useless because Six-Path Flower was too powerful, but now he was relieved. While the Divine Faith Fruit couldn’t enhance its Six-Path Talents or alignment power, it could strengthen its other new abilities, which were still great.

“So, the plan is to give the Divine Faith Fruit for Six-Path Flower, to boost one of its harder-to-train new abilities. The Epic amplification card goes to #18, and the Fantasy Fruit goes to me. As for the Broken Horn of the Divine Sheep and Plantmaster King... even if they’re mediocre, leaving them in the storage bag would be even more wasteful.

“If nothing unexpected happens, my next beastmaster skill should be Happy Beastmaster. Not even Guardian Contract is as suitable. With Happy Beastmaster, the energy cost of using Flame Spirit, Time Acceleration, and Soul Amplification would be drastically reduced. It will significantly boost my combat power.

“Besides, I need to continue condensing soul clones to prepare for Captain Doofus’ next soul evolution.

“The Plantmaster King skill probably won’t make the cut. Most of the skills in my backpack are the same.”

Lu Ran glanced at Captain Doofus, who had exhausted its energy and reverted to its ordinary husky form, sprawled on the ground alongside its three swords. Then, he checked his backpack.

[Beastmaster Skill Cards: Super Modification, Guardian Contract, Dragon Amplification, Reincarnation, Purifying Hand, Flourishing Vitality, Armor Fusion, Undead Resurrection, Damage Transfer, Happy Beastmaster, Plantmaster King]

“Since that’s the case, I might as well hand over the unusable skill cards to the imperial beastmasters to enhance their strength. This way, the Beastmaster Empire’s foundation can grow, and the imperial seal can reach Legendary grade sooner. That’s far more important to me right now than letting these cards gather dust in my backpack.”

***

After exiting the secret realm, Lu Ran immediately changed his name back. With the Mythical secret realm cleared, his next step was to return to Blue Planet and prepare for the next ascension realm. Although he had considered helping #18 find a Time-attribute awakening resource in the Stellar Moon Federation, he was unfamiliar with the place.

After some thought, Lu Ran decided it would be better to procure it in the ascension realm. If he got a lead there, he could just snatch it before leaving. In the Stellar Moon Federation, even if he had the ability to take it by force, it wouldn’t leave a good impression since they were neighbors.

Additionally, while Lu Ran wanted Sudden Death King and Dark Crow to also claim Mythical secret realm rewards, they currently lacked the strength to defeat such secret realms. He’d have to try again later.

“Let me see what’s happening online.”

To gauge the reaction to his Mythical secret realm clear, Lu Ran browsed the Stellar Moon Federation’s news. The comments under the articles quickly amused him.

└Infinite Sword Beast. What kind of species is that? A Mechanical beast? A modified creature or a Knight-type mech?

└It’s definitely an animal species like the Saber-Toothed Tiger. Didn’t you see the participant was ‘a general under the Beastmaster King?’ According to online rumors, the Beastmaster King’s true identity might be the emperor of the Beastmaster Empire. Given the current situation, this seems accurate. After all, even an imperial general has appeared. Back then, during the Beastmaster Empire era, mechanical beasts didn’t even exist.

└Seriously? If it’s really the ancient emperor of the Beastmaster Empire revived, won’t he restore the imperial system and rebuild the empire? Wouldn’t that make him an enemy of our Stellar Moon Federation?

└Most likely true. I have an uncle in the federation’s upper sect, but we don’t know which emperor it is yet.

“I thought using my ‘Divine Sword Dog’ to challenge the Mythical secret realm would make people connect ‘sword’ and ‘dog’ to Pedestrian A. However, thanks to the soul evolution, Captain Doofus changed its species at the last minute.”

Although the name included “sword,” it seemed no Stellar Moon beastmaster had made the connection to a certain Blue Planet beastmaster’s Sword Domain Dog.

Good.

Compared to Pedestrian A, the Stellar Moon Federation’s higher-ups were probably more concerned about the origins of the Beastmaster King. He searched for more information about himself and found that he was still mostly tied to Baby Cloud. By now, his declaration in Blue Planet’s second-stage evolution realm had spread to the Stellar Moon Federation.

The Blue Planet participants who entered the ascension realm had loudly broadcast his words, though twisting them slightly.

Damn it. I only said I’d crush all their contestants in the World War, not that I’d screw all the Stellar Moon girls. Which bastard spread that rumor and ruined my reputation?

Lu Ran’s expression twisted as he read some of the headlines.

“Manager Ying, investigate this for me. When I get back, I’ll have Dark Crow exterminate his entire bloodline.”

Most headlines read, “Blue Planet’s Lu Ran perfectly combines the Mechanical and Elemental attributes. Despite being only level 5, he has not only evolved a quasi-Legendary familiar but has also already secured a spot in Blue Planet’s top ten.”

“Blue Planet participant claims that with Lu Ran, the World War will be a slaughterfest for Stellar Moon.”

This makes more sense.

As Lu Ran expected, this news caused an uproar in the Stellar Moon Federation. Quasi-Legendary was an exceptionally rare rank even in the Stellar Moon world. No one had anticipated Lu Ran’s absurd progress. In just one year as a beastmaster, he had achieved such heaven-defying feats.

However, Stellar Moon didn’t let Lu Ran hog the spotlight for long. Soon, rumors emerged that the Mechanical Leader had broken through to level 8 ahead of the Divine Throne, becoming the first Epic-Legendary powerhouse of the Stellar Moon Federation era. Moreover, using the mechanical legacy of the Mechanical Era, he had modified a quasi-Legendary Mechanical familiar.

With his exclusive beastmaster skill, he could temporarily push his familiar’s combat power to near-Legendary levels. This rumor instantly sent Stellar Moon into an uproar.

Even if Lu Ran had gained significant opportunities in the Mechanical Era, evolving an elemental-mechanical hybrid, the Stellar Moon Federation was the true successor of the Stellar Moon Republic. There was no reason for them to lag behind. And with a three-level difference, the gap was substantial.

Lu Ran refreshed the comments.

└Another powerhouse! If the ‘Beastmaster King’ and the ‘First General Under the King’ join the World War, Blue Planet won’t stand a chance. However, the problem is, with less than a hundred days left, why hasn’t the Beastmaster King shown any interest in qualifying? So mysterious.

└I wonder how Pedestrian A will react when he learns our Mechanical Leader has also bred a quasi-Legendary Mechanical familiar, and is three levels higher. Also, I heard the Science Academy is already gathering intel on elemental ruins, probably to counter him...

└The Divine Throne has also broken through to Epic-Legendary, and the Sprite Queen is said to have entered an ascension realm. If she succeeds, that’ll make three Epic-Legendaries.

“Such competition. Good thing I’ve hidden a few Legendaries, or I might really be outmatched.”

Lu Ran sighed and left a few cryptic comments like “Stellar Moon will surely win,” stirring up the discussion. Soon, the comment section was buzzing with cheerful banter.