Chapter 475 - Manager Ying’s Past and Present Lives? (Part 1)

Ascension realms had always been set in the Stellar Moon World. Although there had been many different time periods, Lu Ran was certain that the unfamiliar trial background of Blue Planet’s ancient era was appearing for the first time.

After listening to the era’s introduction, Lu Ran fell silent. Based on the information he could access, this shouldn’t be the complete world setting of the ancient Blue Planet. He pondered and slowly realized what was going on.

In the ancient era of Blue Planet, many transcendent creatures born from absorbing the essence of heaven and earth existed, capable of overturning rivers and seas. At some point, the God of Expansion, a void kin from the Stellar Moon World, discovered Blue Planet. The God of Expansion shared the coordinates of Blue Planet with other kin.

Countless years later, a disaster capable of destroying the world occurred in the Stellar Moon World. By then, the Four Supreme Divine Dragons had long gone missing, and even the dragon kin were powerless against the disaster.

Since they couldn’t resolve the disaster, they decided to preserve the embers. As long as the embers of the Stellar Moon World remained, there would still be a chance for revival even if the world was truly destroyed. The coordinates of various worlds found by the God of Expansion came into play, and the embers were sent to different worlds.

Among them, Blue Planet received a large number of human embers. Judging by the world’s strength, although Blue Planet was inferior to Stellar Moon, it was still an advanced world capable of nurturing Legendary divine beasts. With complete rules, abundant resources, and rich spiritual energy, it was a perfect place to recuperate after Stellar Moon’s destruction.

Subsequently, countless ancient apes began evolving into humans after fusing with the human embers of Stellar Moon. Later, with the assistance of the dragon kin, the humans of Blue Planet developed rapidly. They resisted the monsters of the wilderness by forming tribes and by borrowing the help of totem guardian gods, fully integrating into Blue Planet.

Most of the guardian gods protecting human tribes were Superior-Transcendent creatures that had followed from Stellar Moon, as well as powerful local subordinates subdued by the Divine Deer and others on Blue Planet.

During this time period, although these humans hadn’t evolved the ability to open beastmaster spaces, their uniqueness allowed them to provide unique resources, such as faith energy. Among ordinary lifeforms, humans could offer the purest and highest-quality faith energy.

Additionally, despite lacking beastmaster abilities, the totem guardian gods were immensely powerful and would grant some tribal members extraordinary powers, such as psychic abilities.

These were the ancestors of the psychics in Blue Planet’s later generations. As described by Limitless City, the humans of Blue Planet continued to survive in this manner.

However, Limitless City suddenly descended one day. Even the Divine Deer and others were unaware of its origins. Limitless City appeared in the world for the first time on Blue Planet. Many humans were selected to enter Limitless City, awakening the beastmaster powers granted by it and embarking on the path of beastmasters.

However, just as the Divine Deer and others sought to investigate Limitless City, Blue Planet soon encountered an anomaly. It seemed as if the spiritual energy had been sucked dry by Limitless City. Blue Planet’s transcendent attributes faded, and it entered into an era of decline.

The dragon kin and high-level lifeforms of Stellar Moon, who had intended to use Blue Planet as their final refuge, were left in dismay. They had no choice but to return to Stellar Moon.

With Blue Planet’s transcendent attributes gone, the more powerful the lifeform, the greater the danger of remaining. Even Blue Planet’s local divine beasts began seeking refuge. Some fled into space, leaving the planet, while others went into deep slumber, gambling on survival.

After this, without extraordinary powers, Blue Planet’s history unfolded as described in textbooks until the modern era, when Limitless City descended again, and spiritual energy revived.

“The era I’m about to enter should be the ancient Blue Planet before Limitless City first appeared. Otherwise, entering an era with Limitless City would be too abstract. A Limitless City within Limitless City?

“However, this era is still quite dangerous. The Kunpeng, the owner of the Kunpeng Feather that the old president had, and the master of the Flame Phoenix secret realm, which appeared on Blue Planet, were likely active during this time. Manager Ying was also a creature from Blue Planet’s ancient era...”

Lu Ran’s lips twitched as he recalled his wish upon entering the secret realm.

Would Limitless City craft a projection of the ancient Blue Planet with Manager Ying’s existence just because of my wish?

Probably not, right...? It must be a coincidence! How can it be so coincidental? Besides, why would there definitely be an opportunity for Manager Ying to break through to Legendary on ancient Blue Planet?

While Lu Ran was caught in a daze, he was transported to the target world. As soon as he regained consciousness, the scent of blood assaulted his nose, and his vision was filled with flames.

He pushed aside the corpse lying on top of him and, through the light, he could see that he was in some kind of tribe. Within the tribe, thousands of people had been reduced to dismembered limbs by an unknown skill, while a group of lions feasted on the flesh.

Lu Ran also spotted a massive figure, which was a white lion dozens of meters tall. It was outside the tribe, gnawing on a giraffe-like giant creature.

[Species: White Gale Lion King]

[Attributes: Wind, Water]

[Species Rank: Low Overlord]

[Level: 69]

At this scene, Lu Ran couldn’t help but mutter about the city’s treachery. “Damn, Limitless City, you’re really screwing me over.”

Limitless City had transported him to a human tribe annihilated by a beast horde. The options for the participants were clear. The first was to find a way to escape. Facing a level 69 Low-Overlord lion king, weaker participants would find escape nearly impossible.

The second was to directly eliminate the lion pack. For beastmasters with some strength, this wasn’t a bad choice. It was like receiving a gift right at the start, and completing the mission early sounded great. However, the catch was that the mission required hunting a beast over level 70, and this lion was conveniently stuck at level 69 to spite everyone.

As Lu Ran sighed, a young lion suddenly bit down on his head from behind. Unfortunately for the lion, Lu Ran’s head was too tough, and its teeth shattered instantly, leaving it bewildered.

After shaking the lion off, Lu Ran stood up and immediately drew the attention of the entire pack. Even the lion king, which had just finished off the tribe’s totemic beast, turned its gaze toward him.

However, before the lions could react, a pinwheel-like dark red pattern spun in Lu Ran’s pupils, freezing them all in place. Then, they raised their claws and began digging into their own chests.

“It’s quite useful.”

As Lu Ran murmured, Manager Ying’s clone requested to appear.

It materialized beside him, exclaiming in disbelief, “Hey, hey, hey. Is this place...?”

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Lu Ran glanced at it. “That’s right. Blue Planet’s ancient era.”

Manager Ying was stunned. “Holy fuck! Ascension realms can take us to the ancient Blue Planet? What’s the mission?”

Like Lu Ran, it was very shocked.

Lu Ran said, “Hunt a beast or totemic beast with at least a King species rank that’s over level 70. The stronger the target, the higher the final rating. Only the highest-scoring person can break through to level 6 and become a level 6 beastmaster.

“It seems simple enough, but aiming for a high score means we can’t just meet the minimum requirements. Settling for the lowest threshold would probably net me an F-score at best. To chase an SSS-score, I’d need to hunt at least a quasi-Legendary lifeform over level 70. Actually, no. Even a level 70 quasi-Legendary might not be safe. Basically, the stronger the prey, the better.”

Manager Ying said, “Speaking of which, isn’t the Divine Deer on Blue Planet during this period? If you go and kill it, your score would skyrocket. It’s just a phantom anyway, and it’s a healer. It can’t borrow the Divine Life Dragon’s power.”

Lu Ran was flustered. “Are you out of your mind? How about I find your projection and kill you instead?”

Manager Ying was taken aback. “Hey, what’s your problem? I’m so weak.”

“Aren’t you looking for a chance to break through to Legendary? I just thought of a method, though I’m not sure if it’ll work.” Lu Ran’s gaze turned profound.

“What is it?”

“Killing you.”

“What’s the point of killing me? At best, I’d drop an Epic-grade resource. No way it could push me to Legendary.”

“Of course, I’m not planning to use your resources to strengthen you. Did you think you were Dark Crow? Even Dark Crow can only boost basic stats by eating itself. It can’t advance its species rank. However, it could work for Baby Cloud!” Lu Ran said.

“Even a vicious tiger wouldn’t eat its own kin!” Manager Ying fumed.

Manager Ying’s pupils trembled with a terrible premonition.

Also, Dark Crow? Is this kid planning to find my ancient projection, dig out its nine-system hearts to strengthen Baby Cloud, then heal its projection and repeat the process indefinitely?

“You forgot. Squirrel God mentioned that your identity is unique. You’re suspected to be a reincarnated species.”

“So what?”

“Aren’t you curious about what species you were in your past life? With such an incredible cloning technique, you couldn’t have been some nobody. It’s highly possible that the Nine-Tailed Cat’s predecessor was an ancient divine beast of Blue Planet, maybe a Legendary big shot.

“What do you plan to do?” Manager Ying was baffled.

“First, Dark Crow could use prophetic spiritual speech to forcibly restore your past-life memories. Although Dark Crow’s spiritual speech can be unpredictable, since the target is a historical projection, it doesn’t matter even if the process goes wrong and you die. In short, if it succeeds, we might find clues to breaking through to Legendary through the memories.

“Second, if you really do die, it’s still a win-win. First, we’ll have Six-Path Flower plant a reincarnation mark on your historical projection, letting it pull your soul into the Hell Path.

“Within its Hell Path, based on its cultivation achievements, it has the authority to examine the past and present lives of any being marked by it. We might also use this method to see what you were in your past life, though your historical projection would still have to die.”

Manager Ying was speechless. “So, no matter what, I have to die? Fine, death it is! Historical projections are just like clones. They don’t count, I guess.”

For the sake of its true self’s breakthrough, Manager Ying reluctantly agreed.

“Then you’ll need to provide the locations of where you were active in ancient times.” Lu Ran grinned.

“My issue can wait. You should focus on your mission first,” Manager Ying said.

Lu Ran pondered. “Mine isn’t urgent... The hunting scores won’t be compared until 14 days later. Since I promised you, let’s find your historical projection first. Besides, we can’t just hunt the Divine Deer. While searching for your projection, we can also look for suitable targets along the way. The two don’t conflict.”

“Fine.”

With Lu Ran’s assurance, Manager Ying stopped hesitating and even began to look forward to it.

I’ll kill myself!

***

Next, Lu Ran summoned Baby Cloud and set off. They were likely on the African continent right now. According to Manager Ying, it mentioned that its earliest active location in ancient times was Europe, which was where it was born. It was technically a foreigner.

However, from birth, Manager Ying had never seen its parents and grew up solely by relying on its strong innate foundation. Due to its high base species rank, even as a newborn, it could easily hunt weak Transcendent species around level 10 through instinctive feeding.

Along the way, despite their meticulous planning, Lu Ran and Manager Ying had one major concern, which was whether Manager Ying had even been born yet in this era. If it hadn’t been born yet, all their scheming would be for nothing.

“It’s entirely possible. Since I’ve also entered the ascension realm, to prevent two versions of me from existing, the timeline might be set before my birth.”

Lu Ran summoned Dark Crow, and together with Manager Ying, they used two cat hairs and foresight to predict whether another Manager Ying existed in the ascension realm.

The results relieved them. The vision was clear, indicating that the projected Manager Ying was very weak, as it was likely just born.