Chapter 542 - Double Legendary

Lu Ran opened his storage and pulled out the Cosmic Being skill along with Encouraging Voice and Gluttony. Encouraging Voice didn't fit Lu Ran's style, but Gluttony was exceptionally useful.

Using the Gluttony skill to double the nutritional value of resources allowed him to get much more use out of the same amount of resources. Using it would make eating nine elemental gods as good as eating eighteen! However, despite its incredible potential, Lu Ran didn't learn it immediately for a very simple reason. The more amazing the skill, the higher the energy consumption.

While beastmasters could learn how to use their energy more efficiently, they couldn’t completely eliminate a skill’s energy expenditure. Lu Ran felt that even with his incredible physique, he could only effectively use the skill on Epic-grade resources.

Even with the Happy Beastmaster skill, using Gluttony on Legendary resources would still completely exhaust him. It was better to just go restock in an ascension realm or exploit #18 for free labor and duplicate it manually.

After some careful consideration, he decided to learn the Cosmic Being skill first as a solid foundation. He would kick things up a notch once he was level 8.

Whoosh!

Once he had the skill, Lu Ran rode Sudden Death King up into space, where he intended to let it fuse with the new trait he had prepared. At the same time, he would acquire a cosmic physique for himself.

For a while, Sudden Death King had been eating multiple pieces of the Nine-Colored Meteorite, but still wasn’t able to reach the Legendary rank. The final step was just too difficult.

Lu Ran couldn’t wait to enter his next ascension realm. He wanted to return to when spiritual energy on Blue Planet had just returned. He thought that he would be able to find the Nine-Colored Meteorite before it broke apart and feed Sudden Death King the entire thing.

The only problem was that there would be another version of him in that time period, in addition to a past version of Limitless City. He had never tried crossing the timeline like this before.

Dark Crow and Baby Cloud had similarly plateaued. Dark Crow had eaten too many of his own eyes, while Baby Cloud ate a bunch of Epic calamity cores and awakened the Sprite attribute. Both were also stuck at the Quasi-Legendary rank.

Lu Ran was actually anticipating that they would soon make it past this bottleneck. After giving Sudden Death King the Alien Star and its eighth trait, it had to reach Legendary. If it didn’t, then Lu Ran would instruct it to eat the moon.

Lu Ran wasn’t going to immediately give Sudden Death King the Sun-Moon Fusion trait. The trait required prior training, and Lu Ran didn’t have time to further develop its Dragon and Star attributes. Therefore, he planned to skip that for now to give himself some more time to better prepare Sudden Death King.

The eighth trait Lu Ran set aside for it was actually the Bottomless Stomach trait. After Sudden Death King awakened the Star attribute, Lu Ran learned that it could feed on meteorites and even planets. Meteorites were enough for now, but once Sudden Death King reached the Legendary rank, Lu Ran wouldn’t be able to rely on #18 to help feed it anymore.

Hunting for meteorite fragments was too much work, so Sudden Death King would have to explore outer space to devour extraterrestrial planets. The Bottomless Stomach trait could even help it evolve into a World Eater that was capable of swallowing smaller celestial bodies.

This made Bottomless Stomach vital for Sudden Death King’s growth. There weren’t that many suitable planets surrounding Blue Planet, but there were plenty in the Stellar Moon World.

For Baby Cloud, who needed a big appetite to consume multiple elemental gods, Lu Ran figured that the Taotie’s Stomach would be a better fit. After he used it on Baby Cloud, he could always farm for more of them in the ascension realms if he needed them.

[Species: Cloud Sprite]

[Attribute: Sprite (Integrated with nine elements attributes and the Time attribute)]

[Species Rank: Quasi-Legendary]

[Level: 80]

[Species Talent (New): Sprite of Enlightenment (Allows the user to create elemental lifeforms.)]

[Species: Oracle Crow]

[Attribute: Spiritual Speech]

[Species Rank: Quasi-Legendary]

[Level: 80]

[Species Talent (New): War Dimension (A dimensional pocket that can store War Soldiers. Fallen War Soldiers can be revived within the dimension by consuming the user’s stamina.)]

[Species: Star Vortex Dragon]

[Attribute: Star, Dragon]

[Species Rank: Quasi-Legendary]

[Level: 80]

"This time, Sudden Death King will definitely advance to Low Legendary. Once Dark Crow eats the Parrot's tongue and acquires the Sonic attribute, it shouldn’t be far off either.

"Plus, the cosmic physique will significantly enhance the effectiveness of my other skills. With Soul Amplification, I should be able to help it take the final step.

"As for Baby Cloud, since we don’t have any elemental gods readily available, it’s still a bit early to give the Taotie’s Stomach. Our lineup against the three Beast Gods will be Captain Doofus, Six-Path Flower, Sudden Death King, and Dark Crow. Baby Cloud can sit out until we have a chance to go back to the Elemental Era."

Sudden Death King soon left the Blue Planet’s atmosphere. As a Star Vortex Dragon, it thrived amongst the stars. Since Lu Ran now possessed the cosmic physique, he also felt quite comfortable in outer space. In fact, he felt as if he was back in his own element.

Standing on Sudden Death King’s back, Lu Ran gazed back at Blue Planet floating in space. He spread out his arms and basked in the emptiness of space with his beastmaster skill in full effect.

He felt every aspect of his being rapidly improving and couldn’t help but smile.

"I feel like I destroy the entire planet with a single punch, but that’s a bit delusional. I can level a city at best."

Lu Ran looked down at Sudden Death King. "Let’s go and fly to the moon."

“Roar!”

Sudden Death King nodded and shot forward. They reached their destination shortly, and Sudden Death King looked up at Lu Ran expectantly. Lu Ran hopped off its back and floated in space. He looked around and pulled out the Cosmic Being and Bottomless Stomach traits again before tossing them to Sudden Death King. After the traits landed on its body, he also fed it the Alien Star.

The trait crystals melted into the dragon’s body while the Alien Star was rapidly digested. A unique and previously unknown power rapidly emanated from Sudden Death King’s body. Once he saw the first step was complete, Lu Ran bit his finger and summoned #18.

"Blood, blood!" #18's lit up with fervor.

It had one simple task: to purify Lu Ran's blood. Once it refined its cosmic bloodline, his blood would become another suitable resource for Sudden Death King. He would then put the finishing touches on it with an Epic amplification card.

Time Acceleration allowed #18 to complete its work in the blink of an eye. Sudden Death King’s Bloodline Dominance trait allowed it to flawlessly fuse with any bloodline. It already had the Chaos Dragon God bloodline, but the addition of Lu Ran’s cosmic bloodline would allow them to share a closer bond.

The added bonus was that the two bloodlines were inherently highly compatible. Feeding his familiar with his own blood was setting foot on a dark path, but there was no turning back now.

The power that Sudden Death King released continued to intensify. It was finally strong enough to break through to the Legendary rank!

"Roar!"

Amidst the endless starlight, Sudden Death King's size started to grow as the surrounding celestial bodies emitted light that gathered into its body. It was pure, unfiltered Star energy.

While this was happening, the golden toad and the rabbit residing on the moon fully reawakened once they sensed something sapping the moon’s energy. After a brief moment of confusion, they left the Moon Palace and headed for the source of the disturbance.

As they flew, they openly revealed their hostility. The two of them were encased in a ball of light and resembled shooting stars as they flew. They exchanged glances before turning to look at Sudden Death King in unison.

By now, Sudden Death King had already completed its evolution.

[Species: Great Astral Dragon]

[Attributes: Star, Dragon]

[Species Rank: Low Legendary]

[Level: 80]

[Legendary Species Talent (New): Star Behemoth (Consuming Star power can increase the user’s size indefinitely.)]

During its transformation, Sudden Death King's size underwent a drastic change. Although the two moon animals were also Legendaries and were twenty levels higher than Sudden Death King, they were still deeply shocked.

The dragon was now over eight thousand meters tall while its appearance remained mostly unchanged. The color of its wings shimmered like galaxies and gave off intimidating auras. It even surpassed its previous self while wielding its shield kin.

Unlike the Size Shifting trait that required its user to expend huge amounts of energy to achieve an enormous size, Sudden Death King’s current size was its normal state. It was still tiny when compared to a real star, but it was humongous compared to other creatures of Blue Planet.

If Sudden Death King also had the Size Shifting trait and grew a hundred times larger, then the damage it could inflict with a single strike would be unimaginable.

"Cool!" Lu Ran exclaimed as he stood on Sudden Death King's head. He was excited by Sudden Death King’s evolution. He couldn’t help but picture this dragon actually becoming the size of a planet.

Star Behemoth can allow it to eat stars!

"Wait, isn’t Comical Shield too small for it now? I'll need to have #18 give it the Size Shifting trait later," Lu Ran muttered when he noticed Sudden Death King staring toward the Moon Palace.

Lu Ran followed its gaze and saw the two Legendary creatures floating silently in space. Due to the distance and their small size, they were nearly undetectable. Lu Ran suddenly remembered something when he saw the pair.

"The transcendent creatures on the moon!"

Back on Blue Star, there had been rumors of transcendent creatures being detected on the moon. Lu Ran had long yearned to plant the Beastmaster Empire's flag on the moon, but didn’t previously have the opportunity.

Lu Ran stared at the Golden Toad and Moon Rabbit from afar and didn’t approach them right away. Instead, he decided to summon Dark Crow.

Just two Low Legendaries. I have more important things right now.

"Caw!"

"I'm also a space creature!"

As soon as Dark Crow emerged, it felt the surroundings were uninhabitable. Compared to a Mechanical lifeform #18, Dark Crow was a bird, so it couldn’t naturally survive in space. However, it changed that with a single sentence. Gold runes appeared on its body and adapted its body to the surrounding environment.

"Here."

Lu Ran fed it the Parrot's Tongue, which he roasted earlier. Since Lu Ran wasn't very proficient in making Legendary dishes yet, he drizzled some Magical Sauce on it to enhance the flavor.

"Caw!"

Dark Crow swallowed it in a single gulp. Another one of Lu Ran's familiars began to awaken and integrate its new powers. Lu Ran’s black robe fluttered as spiritual energy gathered around him.

Lu Ran cast Soul Amplification on Dark Crow, which began its evolution.

Bzzz!

A powerful force surged through Dark Crow, and a voice echoed through the void, as if it were a whisper from God.

"I am Legendary!"

Dark Crow's eyes lit up as the three simple words resonated throughout space.

Golden Toad and Moon Rabbit couldn't help but cover their ears.

"What's going on? Are both of those creatures from our home planet?"

The consecutive occurrences shocked the Golden Toad and Lunar Rabbit, who couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

Have we been gone from Blue Planet so long that a new generation of Quasi-Legendaries is vying for godhood?

Soon, Dark Crow started to radiate the aura of a Legendary rank. It effortlessly awakened the Sonic attribute system and integrated it with its existing Spiritual Speech attribute. The new attribute helped it achieve an entirely new level.

[Species: Oracle Crow]

[Attribute: Spiritual Speech]

[Species Rank: Low Legendary]

[Level: 80]

[Legendary Species Talent (New): Sound Conjuration (Can give physical form to sounds and have them fight in battle. At its full potential, this skill can create a new race of sound-based lifeforms!)]

"Ca-caw!"

Dark Crow had finally reached Legendary, and a cheeky grin spread across its face. Lu Ran was also elated to have obtained a another Legendary familiar. He turned to face the Golden Toad and Lunar Rabbit that were watching from the side this whole time.

"This is great! Looks like we're having stewed frog legs and roasted rabbit tonight!"