Chapter 539 - Crystal Coins, I Need Crystal Coins!!!

“Good dog, good dog.”

Comparing the Mythical secret realms of Stellar Moon to the Divine secret realm he just completed, Lu Ran noticed that the materials dropped from Divine secret realms were missing one Epic-grade item, such as the Transformation Bracelet or the Broken Horn of the Divine Sheep.

On the other hand, there was an extra trait crystal, so overall, the reward level was about the same. As for the resources this time, Lu Ran was quite satisfied.

The Epic amplification card went without saying. Although it could be bought directly from the Admin Store, Lu Ran had checked that one Epic amplification card cost a whopping 1 billion crystal coins, which was downright outrageous.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Even after clearing so many ascension realms and Legendary secret realms with SSS or Perfect scores, the crystal coin rewards still weren’t enough to buy a single Epic amplification card.

However, despite the high price, Epic amplification cards were indeed excellent items. Lu Ran had already decided to establish commercial channels between the Beastmaster Empire and the nations of Blue Planet, rapidly harvesting crystal coins by selling familiars and reincarnation slots.

Once he amassed dozens of Epic amplification cards, even an average familiar could be trained to an extremely high level. Even for Lu Ran’s current team, suitable Epic-grade resources were considered luxury items.

For the Beastmaster Empire, creating top-tier familiars was practically a cost-free business. As for the Epic-grade resource Lunar Core, it was no surprise that it would be fed to Sudden Death King as a snack.

The trait Sun-Moon Fusion left Lu Ran deep in thought. When challenging the Heavenly Dog Secret Realm, he had originally aimed to find a suitable trait for Sudden Death King. However, the Sun-Moon Fusion trait didn’t seem to suit it at all.

Sudden Death King had two attributes, which were the Dragon and Star attributes. These were not mutually exclusive forces.

Lu Ran suddenly froze. “Wait a minute!”

The Dragon attribute was a fusion element, capable of absorbing and merging with any other elemental power. Meanwhile, the Star attribute was also a broad category. Some stars were rich in fire energy, others in water energy, and some were extremely cold.

Thus, the Star attribute could also be considered a special, versatile attribute, with its characteristics changing based on the type of stellar energy the familiar absorbed.

So, it was possible to further cultivate Sudden Death King’s Dragon and Star attributes, adjusting their cores until they became mutually exclusive. At that point, fusing the Sun-Moon Fusion trait could fully integrate the Star and Dragon attributes, making it even stronger.

“Tentative plan,” Lu Ran muttered, then checked the Cosmic Being beastmaster skill.

Come to think of it, he had a peculiar childhood experience. Once, he told his parents he wanted to be a cool swordsman. Doting on him, they sent him to the Rainbow Dojo to train. Later, after growing bored with swordsmanship, he decided he wanted to be a cool gunman. So, his father took him on a trip to Hawaii, where he enrolled Lu Ran in a shooting class.

But after returning home, Lu Ran saw a news report about a successful moon landing and suddenly wanted to be an astronaut. His father promptly gave him a beating. It was an unfulfilled childhood dream. Who would’ve thought that in the end, Daddy Limitless City would come through?

“Right now, I have several decent beastmaster skills like Hunting Instinct, Super Modification, Guardian’s Contract, and Evolution Eye. With Tree Monarch and Manager Ying helping accelerate familiar growth, Hunting Instinct, which was a leveling skill, isn’t necessary.

“I’m not a Mechanical attribute specialist, so Super Modification isn’t needed either. With Six-Path Flower’s Life Link as a Superior Legendary skill, it’s nearly impossible for the entire team to die. Guardian's Contract wouldn’t bring a qualitative change.

“As for Evolution Eye, rather than learning it myself, it’d be better to give it to someone else. If my parents return like Condor Hero did, I’ll save it for them. After all, they’re beastmaster researchers and more suited to it than I am. Compared to those skills, this new Cosmic Being skill feels unexpectedly fitting for me.” Lu Ran rubbed his chin.

With Sudden Death King as a Star Dragon, flying into space wouldn’t be difficult. With this skill, he’d also be suited for activities in the cosmos.

In space, his other beastmaster skills would receive significant boosts, which would greatly benefit his training and familiar cultivation. The cosmos would become an ideal training ground for him.

“Let’s see what Dark Crow and Baby Cloud drop in their Divine secret realms. If nothing more suitable appears, I’ll take this as my level 7 beastmaster skill.” Lu Ran made up his mind.

As for the Legendary evolution resource, Alien Star, despite its power, Lu Ran couldn’t help but complain that one light-year was too short. Within one light-year of Blue Planet, the only energy-rich celestial body was the sun. No wonder the Heavenly Dog only left behind legends of devouring the sun and moon.

However, Blue Planet itself now contained abundant energy. Standing on its surface and directly absorbing its power was a viable option. Alternatively, he could go to Stellar Moon and absorb its energy.

In short, Lu Ran felt these resources were all quite suitable for Sudden Death King. At least the day of beatings wasn’t in vain. After giving Sudden Death King a thumbs-up, Lu Ran teleported back to Blue Planet amid its excited roars.

***

The moment Lu Ran returned, he saw Peanut standing quietly in the palace, waiting for him.

“You’re back. Are you finished with the Beginner Trial Secret Realm? You must’ve gotten an SSS score, right?”

Tree Monarch nodded.

“Still not better than me. I got SSSS back then.” Lu Ran teased.

Tree Monarch looked at Lu Ran and said, “I encountered a supernatural incident.”

After seeing Tree Monarch’s serious expression, Lu Ran was stunned. “What happened?”

Tree Monarch then recounted everything. The Final Secret Realm, which only Mythical beastmasters could challenge, and the bizarre notification from Limitless City stating that she had already challenged it.

After listening, Lu Ran also stood frozen, sinking into deep thought.

What is going on...?

Historically, Peanut had died during the Ten Thousand Year Agreement. This wasn’t just a legend, as it had been confirmed by Divine Deer and the other kin. Limitless City shouldn’t have appeared in ancient Stellar Moon.

How could she have challenged its Final Secret Realm? It makes no sense.

Tree Monarch said, “Unless... I have a theory.”

“What theory?”

“Unless this isn’t the first time I’ve been resurrected. Limitless City is already strange, but one thing is certain. It seems to be training human beastmasters. If Limitless City has the ability to resurrect historical projections, is it possible that, before fully manifesting, it attempted to resurrect powerful beastmasters from history and have them undergo its final trial?

“I might have been one of them, but I failed. Others might have failed, too. After losing confidence in the already established powerful beastmasters of history, Limitless City chose to descend into the world, planning to spend time nurturing a more suitable candidate.”

Lu Ran nodded. “That’s possible. This would also explain why it says you’ve challenged it, but there are no rumors of Limitless City in ancient Stellar Moon. Even if it appeared back then, it would’ve only involved a few of the strongest beastmasters, not the public like now. #18 probably hasn’t recovered that memory. No matter how powerful the timekeeper is, they can’t surpass Limitless City.”

“If you get the chance, try resurrecting Hel, the Mythical elementalist, Jiyuan, the Mythical beastmaster, and Godslayer, the Mythical mechanic. See if they also have records of challenging the Final Secret Realm. If they do, my theory is correct,” Tree Monarch said.

“Got it. So, after reaching level 9, there’s actually something like this.” Lu Ran’s eyes gleamed.

This was perfect. There had been no leads on exploring Limitless City, but now, with the appearance of the Final Secret Realm, it seemed like the shortcut to uncovering its secrets. However, if even Peanut failed, the difficulty of this Final Secret Realm must be absurdly high.

At her peak, with all her familiars and beastmaster skills, Peanut could be considered as strong as a Superior-Legendary beast without question. If even a Superior Legendary failed, the Final Secret Realm’s strength was likely at least Primary-Divine level.

Without the power to defeat a Primary Divine, attempting the Final Secret Realm would be a death wish. Even though Lu Ran was itching to uncover Limitless City’s secrets, he knew that even if he rushed to Mythical now, his true strength wouldn’t reach the level of a max-level Primary Divine.

His current strongest combatant, Six-Path Flower, was only a level 80 Superior Legendary, and it wasn’t even combat-oriented. Historically, the one closest to Primary-Divine combat power was probably the Mythical mechanic, since he was the core creator of the Mecha God. Unfortunately, the Mecha God rebelled.

“Senior Tree Monarch...”

“What?”

“Help me out. Use your Time Acceleration Domain to train my familiars to level 80. After that, we’re going after the three beast gods under the Chaos Dragon God. If I’m stronger, it’ll be safer for both of us.”

Tree Monarch fell silent for a long time before saying, “Level 70 to 80... At least it’s not 90 to 100. Fine, I’ll help you this once. However, accelerated growth requires you to provide your familiars with sufficient nutrients. Time acceleration alone won’t instantly bring them to level 80.”

“I know. Give me two days, and I’ll prepare plenty of high-quality food for them,” Lu Ran said.

With that, Lu Ran began a frantic search for food. For Captain Doofus, Lu Ran prepared the Sword Tiger Bone Meat and Soul Cleansing Fruit. The Sword Tiger was an extraordinary creature that had gone extinct during Stellar Moon’s Elemental Era, unable to survive the harsh environment. It never even made it to the Beastmaster Era.

Resembling Blue Planet’s saber-tooth tiger, its abilities were similar to later-era Void Grass and swordgrass. It was a creature naturally suited for comprehending sword intent.

After Lu Ran and Captain Doofus pioneered the dog-wielding sword trend, the nutritional effects of the Sword Tiger Bone Meat were discovered. It could effectively enhance sword intent abilities. Unfortunately, the Sword Tiger Bone Meat was only Rare-grade, which was far from sufficient for Captain Doofus’ current needs.

However, Lu Ran had an endless supply of Treasure-grade amplification cards, and even Epic-grade ones. With those, the Sword Tiger Bone Meat could easily become Captain Doofus’ optimal diet.

This resource dropped from a newly added level 5 secret realm a few months ago. Paired with Soul Cleansing Fruit, a balanced diet of meat and greens, Captain Doofus’ nutritional needs would be fully met.

For Sudden Death King, Lu Ran planned to continue feeding it the Nine-Colored Meteorite Fragments. Although they were running low, this was where #18’s Replication talent came in handy. With Tree Monarch creating a Legendary-grade acceleration field, #18 could replicate food more easily.

As for Dark Crow, Lu Ran had nothing to say. It could keep eating its own eyeballs. While other familiars might hesitate to consume their own body parts, Dark Crow had no such taboos. Tree Monarch also knew healing. She could double as a healer, making Dark Crow the easiest to manage. The only one suffering would be the Tree Monarch.

For Baby Cloud, Lu Ran didn’t need to worry about food. As an elemental lifeform, it was the easiest to raise in his team. He could simply take it into secret realms with harsh natural environments of different attributes and let it feast on natural disaster energy.

Now that Lu Ran had super admin privileges, he didn’t even need to pay entry fees. Once Baby Cloud was full, it could return to the Time Acceleration Domain for Tree Monarch to help it digest quickly. Rinse and repeat, and reaching level 80 wouldn’t be hard.

As for poor #18, Lu Ran could only say that since it wasn’t a combat familiar, and now that Tree Monarch’s Heroic Spirit was gone, it wasn’t expected to contribute to hunting the three beast gods. Its leveling could wait. For now, replicating food for Sudden Death King and the others was more important.

Once the three beast gods were dealt with, Lu Ran could extract some protection fees from Stellar Moon, bringing back a wealth of Mechanical Era technology. That would be #18’s time to shine.

With the familiars’ diets settled, what Lu Ran needed most now was to harvest crystal coins and buy as many Epic amplification cards as possible to enhance food quality and speed up their leveling. Thus, Lu Ran sought out Manager Ying again.

Manager Ying had been lounging in its office, but as Lu Ran entered, it sprang up, eyeing him with suspicion and anticipation. “What do you want now? Wait... you just cleared a Divine secret realm. Did it drop anything that suits me?”

Lu Ran shook his head. “Nope, but if you’re interested in the Surrender trait I got from the World War, I can give it to you later...”

The method was simple. First, contract it with his beastmaster space, fuse the trait, then release the contract.

Manager Ying was baffled. “Fuck you! I’m not the same Nine-Tailed Cat as before. Spit it out.”

It slumped back into its chair.

“I need crystal coins. A lot of them. Preferably tens of billions. There are plenty of beastmasters on Blue Planet now. If each of them gave me 100 crystal coins, it’d be a huge sum. It’s time to sell high-quality familiar hatchlings to the world.”

Manager Ying choked. “That sounds great in theory, but most beastmasters on Blue Planet are still broke newbies. How many can afford top-tier hatchlings? And we can’t provide such a massive quantity all at once.

“Actually... Wait... Are you saying we take deposits first, deliver the hatchlings later in a pre-order system, and offer installment plans with interest for qualified beastmasters?