Chapter 474 - The Upcoming World War (Part 2)

Soon, in the Slumbering Forest, Underground Ruins. Squirrel God opened its eyes upon sensing someone’s arrival and was startled to see Lu Ran, who had left a few days prior.

“Weren’t you going to train in the void?”

“Already finished.” Lu Ran said nonchalantly.

Squirrel God was taken aback. “

Huh?

”

That’s so fast!

“I’m returning to Blue Planet now, Lord Squirrel God. Don’t worry. I’ll bring you a suitable messenger candidate next time I come to Stellar Moon. They won’t disappoint! I’m not familiar with Stellar Moon’s powerhouses, so I’ll scout Blue Planet first.”

For the God of Sealing’s messenger, Lu Ran preferred to search on Blue Planet.

***

Less than half a month after leaving, Lu Ran returned to Blue Planet. Although the trip was short, he had fully evolved both Sudden Death King and Captain Doofus and acquired another Legendary resource. However, Six-Path Flower hadn’t yet decided which ability to enhance with it.

Limit Breaker was a Legendary ability, so the Divine Faith Fruit couldn’t strengthen it. Aside from that, it had the lucky power and dominion power. Compared to the elusive concept of luck, Six-Path Flower preferred to enhance dominion power.

It estimated that developing dominion power to Legendary level would allow it to envelop the entire Amazon Rainforest within its domain.

Of course, it could also save the fruit for future abilities, since its fourth, fifth, and sixth traits hadn’t been fused yet. Expanding its territory wasn’t particularly urgent. Six-Path Flower planned to make a decision before its second-stage evolution.

Back in the Beastmaster Empire’s territory, Lu Ran grumbled.

“It’s all because Six-Path Flower is too strong and balanced. It’s hard to find suitable traits for it.”

Manager Ying materialized and said, “With just its Six-Path Talent and alignment power, its potential is already on par with the Divine Tree’s potential. Any other abilities it learns are just icing on the cake. They won’t bring a qualitative change. Speaking of which, when are you entering the ascension realm?”

“Like right now. This will probably be the last ascension realm before the World War.” Lu Ran calculated the time.

“Not planning to push for Legendary? Stellar Moon already has Epic-Legendaries,” Manager Ying said.

“Time is too tight, so I’ll just stay at level 6. The World War is in just over three months. This ascension realm will take one month, leaving two months. In two months, unless this ascension realm yields a pile of Legendary and Epic resources like last time, it’ll be tough to get Captain Doofus and the others to level 70.

“Even if it’s possible, gaining one extra level isn’t that meaningful. After all, there’s no major qualitative leap for familiars between level 70 and 90. The real milestone is level 90.”

At level 90, familiars could undergo a third-stage evolution. For familiars, the level wasn’t as crucial. The difference between a level 69 and a level 70 familiar wasn’t big in terms of base stats. Levels provided steady attribute improvements, with noticeable gaps only over larger ranges. What truly determined combat power was species rank.

A small rank difference could allow a familiar to fight several levels above its weight. A major rank difference could bridge a 10-level gap effortlessly. Thus, after his familiars’ second-stage evolutions, Lu Ran’s team would be far ahead of most.

Even if he improved further, the best he could do was get his familiars to level 70 and fuse one more trait. As for attempting two ascension realms and reaching level 80 before the war, there simply wasn’t enough time.

Although the Stellar Moon Federation already had Epic-Legendary beastmasters with familiars capped at level 90, Lu Ran doubted their familiars would reach level 85 before the war. At this point, Lu Ran had long abandoned the idea of competing with Stellar Moon’s top beastmasters in levels.

He planned to rely on his familiars’ species ranks to overpower them. As for the gap between level 6 and level 7 beastmasters, the latter could develop exclusive beastmaster skills and utilize their beastmaster space more effectively.

However, even though Lu Ran was at a lower level, his skills were nothing to scoff at. Not to mention exclusive skills, even his Legendary Flame Spirit surpassed what most Legendary beastmasters could muster.

“Regardless, we must hurry. I wonder what this ascension realm will be like.” Lu Ran mused.

“Oh, right. Summon your main body. I have a bunch of things for you.”

Lu Ran handed over Dragon Amplification, Reincarnation, Purifying Hand, Flourishing Vitality, Armor Fusion, Undead Resurrection, Damage Transfer, Plantmaster King, and three traits, which were Human Transformation, Demonic Transformation, and Super Hibernation, to Manager Ying.

Among these, Dragon Amplification, Armor Fusion, Undead Resurrection, Human Transformation, and Super Hibernation were shitty skills and traits that had been gathering dust in his storage space. Now, he was clearing them out.

However, Purifying Hand, Reincarnation, Flourishing Vitality, and Demonic Transformation were rare drops from ascension realms and Legendary secret realms after getting an SSS or perfect rating. Then, there was Plantmaster King, which was a drop from a Mythical secret realm.

Rare as they were, Lu Ran had no use for them. Purifying Hand paired with Demonic Transformation could be used for a berserk-tactics build, but this strategy was now obsolete for Lu Ran. Flourishing Vitality was a healing-type beastmaster skill, but Lu Ran had the superior Flame of Life. Reincarnation was once rare, but with Six-Path Flower around, it was redundant.

The skill only allowed his familiars to reincarnate after death, whereas Six-Path Flower could reincarnate both familiars and Lu Ran himself. Most importantly, he couldn’t learn them all because he didn’t have enough skill slots.

Even if more slots opened later, the ones Lu Ran reserved for himself, which were Super Modification, Happy Beastmaster, and Guardian Contract, would take until level 8 to fully learn. By then, who knew how many new skills he’d have acquired?

For now, Lu Ran needed to find the most suitable build for himself. Figuring out the best skill combinations was part of Limitless City’s test for every beastmaster, he suspected. Different skill combinations could create beastmasters of different styles. As for the unusable skills, handing them to Manager Ying to distribute to suitable learners was their best fate.

“You’re even willing to part with Plantmaster King?”

The other skills were whatever, but Manager Ying was stunned by this one because it was a Mythical secret realm drop.

“What’s the point of a Mythical secret realm drop if it doesn’t suit me? The Happy Beastmaster from the monkey is way better. Halving beastmaster skill consumption is true happiness,” Lu Ran said eagerly.

"Then who gets Plantmaster King? Gu Qingyi or Fang Lan?” Manager Ying licked its lips.

Lu Ran rolled his eyes. “Do you even need to ask? Use your brain.”

Dr. Gu specialized in dragons; what would she do with Plantmaster King? Although Fang Lan focused on poison, not plants, the two were closely related. With this skill, Lu Ran estimated Fang Lan could reach at least Epic-Legendary as a plantmaster.

After handing over the resources, Lu Ran said, “That’s all. You don’t have to give them to the current imperial beastmasters. You can invest in promising newcomers, too. Most importantly, don’t pocket them. Report back to me.”

“What kind of being do you take me for? I’m helping you out, and I’m still getting slandered! When have I ever skimmed much off your requests before?” Manager Ying protested innocently as it stuffed the resources into its bag.

***

After delegating the chores, Lu Ran prepared to enter the ascension realm. Upon eating the Fantasy Fruit, Lu Ran immediately awakened a new eye technique, but its effect left him speechless.

[Skill: Evil God’s True Eye]

[Effect: The pupils possess the ability to bewitch souls, trapping all life in illusions.]

“Because I’ve used Super Beast Mimicry on Dark Crow’s Evil God’s Eye for so long, the Fantasy Fruit merged with the half-baked eye power I mimicked...”

He picked up a mirror and stared at his dark red pupils, sighing. Fortunately, he could control the appearance. Otherwise, he’d look like an edgy kid wearing colored contacts. With everything settled, Lu Ran stood in his private room under Manager Ying’s supervision and shouted the words he had promised to say before, feeling completely ridiculous.

“Daddy Limitless City, for this ascension realm, please arrange a resource that can evolve a Superior-Overlord Nine-Tailed Cat into a Legendary species!”

After finishing shouting, he entered the ascension realm.

[Secret Realm Level: 5]

[Difficulty: Unknown]

[Entry Fee: 0]

[Introduction: You will enter an unknown world and undergo an ascension mission.]

“How could a wish like this possibly work...?” Lu Ran muttered as he entered.

“Shut up!” Manager Ying waited eagerly within the beastmaster space.

Still, Lu Ran felt that whether it was the Elemental Era, the Beastmaster Era, the Plant Era, or the Mechanical Era, none had any connection to Manager Ying. If he absolutely had to pick one, then it’d have to be during the peak of the Plant Era, so he could cling to the Divine Tree’s legs. He might as well just turn Manager Ying into a plant cat.

[Matching you to a suitable ascension realm...]

[Ascension realm matching in progress...]

[Please wait...]

[Match successful.]

[Secret Realm Type: Multiplayer, Cross-World (You have been matched with beastmasters from other world’s Limitless Cities.)]

[Teleportation countdown: 10...9...8...0!]

[Destination: Blue Planet (Ancient Era)]

Lu Ran was taken aback. “

Huh?

”

[Era Introduction: Blue Planet, a mysterious planet beyond the Stellar Moon World. In ancient times, Blue Planet teemed with countless powerful creatures. They absorbed the essence of the sun, moon, and plants, evolving endlessly. They were no different from the Transcendent beings of the Stellar Moon World.

[Among these creatures, some preyed on humans and were known as ferocious beasts, while others pitied and protected humans, becoming guardian beasts. The mightiest of the guardian beasts were revered as totemic guardian beasts.

[Thus, humans who were unable to cultivate survived in the cracks between these powerful beings, clinging to the protection of the totemic guardian beasts. Ferocious beasts slaughtered totemic beasts and devoured human settlements. Totemic beasts repelled ferocious beasts and safeguarded their lands. This cycle persisted until the transcendence faded...]

[Mission: Hunt a ferocious beast or totemic beast above level 70 with a species rank no lower than King.]

[Tip 1: Mission rating is directly proportional to the target’s strength.]

[Tip 2: Only one can break through. The highest-rated hunter succeeds.]

[Tip 3: ...]

“No, no, no! This isn’t right!”

As the prompts kept coming, Lu Ran’s mind went blank.

Since when could Blue Planet’s ancient era be an ascension realm location? Limitless City, what are you playing at?