Chapter 498 - Everyone has a Promising Future (Part 1)

They really will follow anyone who feeds them!

Lu Ran shook his head when he saw Baby Cloud and #18’s shameless expressions. After seeing Manager Ying’s species talents, he believed that Manager Ying was starting to recover its ability as the Timekeeper. Time Manipulation was definitely a Legendary grade talent that ranked at the top of all Time-related abilities.

Lu Ran was already considered quite powerful with his Time Acceleration skill since it was the perfect support for Baby Cloud, but Manager Ying was in a category of its own. It could accelerate, decelerate, stop, and even reverse time. It could use far more advanced abilities than Lu Ran.

"Manager Ying, is there a way for you to help Baby Cloud get stronger?"

Ever since Zhu Yan knocked Baby Cloud down a peg, he hadn’t asked #18 to build a new mechanical castle. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to. Rather, it was because he no longer had the Kunpeng Feather.

Even if they made another mechanical castle, Baby Cloud couldn’t become a top-tier mount again. Since that was the case, it was better to just leave it in its pistol form.

"What a pity. If this was right after the battle with Zhu Yan, I could have reversed time to restore the mechanical castle and Kunpeng Feather. Too much time has passed since then, so there’s nothing I can do now."

Plip, plip.

Baby Cloud started to cry once it heard what Manager Ying said, and Manager Ying breathed a deep sigh.

"Well, since it evolved using my Illusory Cat's Eye Gem, my power is flowing through its veins. I should be able to strengthen Baby Cloud by improving the energy inside it. The relationship between us is now much like that of the swordgrass and the Void Grass."

Lu Ran was surprised by Manager Ying’s theory.

"Really? What’s the plan? Are you going to help it fuse its attributes? It looks like you fused all of your attributes into the Spirit attribute."

"Correct, but instead of helping it fuse all of its elemental attributes into one, I will help it fuse the Time attribute into each of its other attributes. It is the same principle as Six-Path Flower fusing Time into its Grass attribute.”

"Will that really work?"

"Of course, ye of little faith. Doesn’t it have the Elemental Accumulation talent that allows it to make attacks stronger by charging them for more time?"

"Yes, but it can only use the talent in its Mechanical form."

"That won’t be a problem. I can help it learn how to use the talent even in its current form. I can go one step further and eliminate the charging time! It could instantly unleash its maximum power!

"I’m going to give it another Illusory Cat's Eye Gem so that its elemental attributes acquire the ability to speed up time. This means that it will have its own version of the Time Acceleration skill that stays in effect at all times. It could instantaneously unleash any attack, whether it’s a skill, domain, or any ability.

"Your Time Acceleration will be useless for Baby Cloud going forward, since my blessing will have a much better effect. It should be enough for it to become a Quasi-Legendary."

Manager Ying’s words put a sparkle in Baby Cloud’s eyes.

"Are you serious? What is the Illusory Cat's Eye Gem exactly? How do you make them?"

"I don’t make them. They are dropped when one of my clones dies. I don't know the reason behind it, but it might have something to do with the inherent characteristics of my clones."

"..."

"Or at least that's how it was before. I think I can directly condense them now as part of my Legendary abilities. Don’t overthink it. The gem is only useful for Baby Cloud, who previously evolved using my power. My Time blessing won’t be as effective on your other familiars since they don’t have any relationship to me."

"Alright." Lu Ran didn't know if the cat was being honest, but his only choice was to trust it for now.

"Will you create a Time domain for Captain Doofus and the others to train in, like you promised?"

"

Uhhh...

Fine, but you’ll have to wait until I familiarize myself with my new powers. Although I should be able to help Baby Cloud more immediately."

Time was widely considered the most powerful attribute. Although many Legendary creatures had created their own unique attributes, Time still reigned supreme. Any random Time skill could reach the pinnacle if properly developed. If it were fused with other attributes, it would provide a major power-up.

Take Dark Crow, for example. It used the Time attribute to manipulate the future and manifest its prophecies. #18, on the other hand, used Time to access the past and summon ancient powerhouses. Finally, Baby Cloud was about to acquire the ability to accelerate time so that it could instantly deploy high-level abilities, which would effectively turn it into a turret.

"If this works out, then it will be a major power-up for Baby Cloud," Six-Path Flower commented as it watched Manager Ying drag Baby Cloud off to the side.

Manager Ying’s Time attribute went beyond the simple fusion of the Time and Grass attributes, like what the Four Season Goddess accomplished. The Goddess’ main ability wasn’t controlling the seasons; rather, it was infusing other plants with its power to induce them to undergo seasonal changes.

Six-Path Flower achieved something similar, so it wasn’t particularly interested in the Goddess’ residual soul. This was not to mention that its powers focused on the cycle of reincarnation. Through the power of reincarnation, it mastered the power of life and death, which were the domain of two of the four Supreme Dragons.

In spite of its mastery over a unique power, Six-Path still felt that it couldn’t measure up to Manager Ying’s potential since the cat could nullify other Time abilities. It was worthy of its title as the Timekeeper.

"Yeah." Lu Ran nodded in agreement.

Looks like those resources didn’t go to waste.

Seeing that it was left behind, #18 began to cry.

"Master, Manager Ying doesn’t care about me anymore. It didn’t donate any blood to me!"

"...You’ll need to work that out on your own." Lu Ran didn’t have a solution, so he just deflected the issue.

After it evolved, #18 acquired a new species talent.

[Blood Energy: The user can utilize blood as an energy source and amplify its other abilities.]

#18 started out as a normal robot that ran on electricity. After he reforged its parts using soul forging, it could power itself by consuming souls. Now, it was even more out of hand. It needed blood to work. Was it turning into a vampire? As time went on, his familiars were getting weirder and weirder.

Since Lu Ran didn’t offer any help, #18 could only chase after Manager Ying and Baby Cloud, leaving behind Lu Ran and Six-Path Flower. Turning to face Six-Path Flower, Lu Ran tossed the Imperial Seal at it.

“Now that you’re an Intermediate Legendary and Manager Ying reached Low Legendary, the seal has reached the threshold of Legendary grade. The only thing missing is the Dream God’s consciousness to act as an item spirit.

“For now, I’ll need you to bind yourself to the empire’s national destiny. Bai Ze mentioned that it could do it, so you should be able to do the same.”

It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption since Bai Ze and the Dream God were both Intermediate Legendaries as well.

"Alright. Have you been using the seal?”

"Yes. I used it to buff Dr. Gu and Shi Zhen’s cultivation speed, but I didn’t tell them about it. They might be confused by why they’re getting stronger so much faster. Maybe they’ll think that they achieved enlightenment or something. I’ll let them dream for a little longer."

"You’re an ass, but there shouldn’t be any problems since the empire is within the range of my domain. On top of that, my Mortal Path is also related to comprehension. Give me some time, and I should be able to grasp the principles of the Imperial Seal like Bai Ze did."

"Okay. Then I'll leave you to it."

Lu Ran glanced at the black moon symbol on the back of his hand and sighed.

"I didn't dare to tell the Divine Deer about this in case it got upset and changed its mind about helping you. Now that you have what you need, I’m ready to come clean, but the Divine Deer left to rest. Ah, whatever...

"You’re only 30 levels below the Dream God right now. If it really does come after me, then I will capture it to use as a stud horse. I’ll be counting on your help when that happens."

Six-Path Flower rolled its eyes.

"Why are you constantly thinking about breeding? 30 levels is a big difference."

"Breeding is a scientific pursuit. There are rumors that the Chaos Dragon God is the offspring born from a high-level Light dragon and a Dark dragon. It is the pinnacle of selective breeding!

"Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Before you get started on the jade seal, I need your help. I promised to help some people create beastmaster spaces like what the Divine Deer did for me. I’ll need your power to do it."