Chapter 568 - Subduing a Law-Bound Divine Familiar! (Part 1)

Lu Ran crossed his arms while looking at the siblings. “You won’t go back on your word, will you? I paid a huge price to use Limitless City’s resurrection authority.”

“No,” Ice Emperor quickly replied.

Although he knew his sister was strong, Ice Emperor had personally witnessed Lu Ran kill three gods. His sister had fallen in battle against the many elemental gods led by the Ice Goddess, so she definitely couldn’t defeat Lu Ran.

Fearing that Hel might refuse, Ice Emperor quickly said, “Sister, compared to dying again, just donating some blood is a very good deal!”

Hel glanced at him and said, “Then you shouldn’t mind transfusing blood for me when I’m anemic, right?”

Ice Emperor was taken aback. “What kind of talk is that? I’d do it without hesitation.”

“Draw your blood right now, then.”

After berating Ice Emperor, Hel fell into thought. After resurrection, she felt somewhat lost. Times had changed, and she had suddenly lost her purpose.

After some reflection, Hel resigned herself to fate and asked, “After this, I should be able to become a Limitless City beastmaster too, right?”

“What do you want to do?” Lu Ran asked.

“I want to go back to the Elemental Era, just like you.” It seemed Hel still had many unresolved issues.

Lu Ran said, “At your current level, you can’t enter the ascension realms anymore.”

Hel looked at Lu Ran. “That’s not necessarily true. There are many ways to lower one’s level, like reincarnation or destroying one's elemental space and starting over... As long as you can guarantee I become a Limitless City beastmaster, I'll do whatever.”

Lu Ran said, surprised, “As you wish. No one’s probably done this before anyway.”

“In that case, let’s finish this blood transfusion thing quickly.”

Hel was quite familiar with the process, having been through it once already in the ascension realm.

Lu Ran smiled, preparing to be ruthless. “Alright. #18, proceed.”

#18 flew over and took Hel’s hand. “Then let’s go. Sister, your constitution is really good. You bleed a lot, unlike when I drew blood from Manager Ying... It took forever to get even a little.”

***

While Hel and Ice Emperor were taken by #18 for blood drawing, Lu Ran stood where he was, smiling slightly as he waited for the elemental blood to be collected.

Once it had the elemental blood and the cores of the ten elemental rulers, Baby Cloud should be able to truly take off and stand shoulder to shoulder with Captain Doofus and the others. Actually, if Captain Doofus and the others hadn’t made significant progress during this brief time of reprieve, it was possible for Baby Cloud to briefly surpass them.

“Next, I should consider the matter of the law-bound familiar.” Lu Ran looked into the distance, murmuring to himself.

He felt he couldn’t rely solely on Manager Ying’s intelligence network. He needed to find a suitable candidate to fuse with the Surrender trait himself.

“Six-Path Flower, what do you think?” Lu Ran first summoned Six-Path Flower, who possessed the Fate’s Gaze, to hear its thoughts.

It was mainly because the only known law-bound lifeforms were the Four Supreme Divine Dragons, and no beastmaster had ever contracted a law-type lifeform before. There was simply no experience to draw from. In this situation, they could only rely on themselves to figure it out slowly.

Six-Path Flower slowly materialized beside Lu Ran, walked up to a tree, and carved an “X” on the bark.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to see your fate. I can only offer you an approach,” Six-Path Flower said, turning back.

“Go on,” Lu Ran said.

“First, law-bound lifeforms are a completely new form of life, distinct from animals, plants, elemental lifeforms, undead, and mechanical lifeforms. However, law-bound lifeforms are still connected to other lifeforms, such as through attributes.

“If you obtained a Death Law trait that could transform a certain creature into a death law-bound lifeform, like the Death Dragon, which of the following four familiars would you choose if you had to pick one? The Divine Deer, Ghost Mother, Squirrel God, or Manager Ying.”

“These are considered familiars?” Lu Ran was stunned.

You’re even bolder than I am.

“It’s just an example.”

“Then I’d definitely choose Ghost Mother. Trait crystals need to have compatibility with the fusion subject to perfectly unleash their effects. The Divine Deer focuses on life, Squirrel God on spatial power, and Manager Ying is deadweight. Only Ghost Mother focuses on death.”

Six-Path Flower continued, “Yes. So, the familiar that fuses with the Surrender trait must also have extremely high compatibility with the concept of surrendering. If you fuse the Surrender trait with a familiar that has a combative personality, never gives up, and has an incredibly strong will, it would probably have the opposite effect, right?

“Conversely, those useless creatures whose hearts and spirits collapse completely upon encountering the slightest setback or difficulty are the ones perfectly suited to fuse with the Surrender trait.”

“Indeed. However, contracting such a familiar would be mentally grating for me. Its personality has no redeeming qualities at all.” Lu Ran rubbed his chin.

“Redeeming qualities? The familiars I described above are the type that start surrendering only after encountering difficulties and setbacks.

“To more perfectly utilize the Surrender trait, you might need a familiar that, despite having great advantages and the ability to overcome difficulties and setbacks, is still too lazy to face them and surrenders instead. Using your human internet slang, you need a familiar that slacks off, lies around, and is content with the status quo.”

“I know what you mean. You’re recommending Mystic Turtle, right?” Lu Ran fell into thought, a scene appearing in his mind.

***

Qingwu Lake.

An old turtle at the forefront of evolution, originally possessing great potential and being capable of evolving towards the pinnacle of life, had instead been sitting at the bottom of the lake, all because it wanted to laze around and retire. It was choosing to surrender in this great era of evolution.

Even though its strength had been forced to become considerable, it showed no interest in anything and avoided things whenever possible. It might not say “I surrender” outright, but its actions were always tinged with surrendering.

The type Six-Path Flower initially described only surrendered unwillingly due to circumstances. If they had the ability to crush setbacks and difficulties, they would still be unwilling to surrender. However, with Mystic Turtle, it had the desire to surrender in the face of anything, too lazy to act even when capable.

“Manager Ying’s recommendation does make sense, but...” Six-Path Flower fell silent, then said, “Let’s just go with it. At least you’re already familiar with it, and its mentality of retreating from both major and minor matters has been deeply ingrained for decades. If you hadn’t forcibly dragged it out to work, it would have long been happily lazing around in Green Sea.

“If you think its foundation is too weak, before contracting it, I can just send it for reincarnation. Then, during reincarnation, I can weave and strengthen its retirement mentality of surrendering whenever things happen. This can both strengthen its species foundation and make it more compatible with the Surrender trait.”

After listening, Lu Ran let out a long sigh. “Actually, the weak foundation was just my excuse. It’s finally retired now. Dragging it out again to challenge the Four Supreme Divine Dragons feels somewhat shitty of me. It would make me, the great king, break faith with a former general.”

“Well then, let’s find another one,” Six-Path Flower said helplessly.

“Forget it. Since you all say so, I’ll swallow my pride and formally invite General Mystic Turtle back into service. As long as it fights this last battle, it can retire for good. I doubt it will be too resistant.”

***

Green Sea City was like a dazzling emerald inlaid on the sparkling coastline. The sky was a clear blue, and the city was peaceful. As white clouds rolled across the sky, Lu Ran returned to Blue Planet, flying back to Green Sea.

Although beast invasions of cities happened from time to time, a place like Green Sea would definitely be heavily guarded by both Xia and Lu Ran himself. The security here was even stronger than in the capital.

Unless a Mythical secret realm boss suddenly descended, even a Legendary secret realm boss would be instantly killed upon appearing here. This level of security had bothered the Mystic Turtle for a while, but it soon shook it off and returned to a peaceful, retired life.

At the bottom of Qingwu Lake, Mystic Turtle slept comfortably, savoring the meaning of a turtle’s life and the beauty of the world. Having to come into contact with human society these past few years, it saw things even more clearly.

Many young people lived on dreams painted by others. They studied desperately for approval, only to earn meager salaries and take on decades of mortgage debt. Then came marriage and children, and the cycle repeated again—for their children’s jobs, houses, cars, and marriages. It was simply terrifying.

If it were these humans, it definitely wouldn’t work itself so hard. It would just laze around, control its various desires, and live freely and comfortably. There was no difference between those Transcendent creatures constantly pursuing evolution, reproductive desires, and territory, and these humans. It didn’t want to be like that.

Although it had been helplessly exploited by Lu Ran for a period, things were finally better now. This current life was what it pursued.

“This is so comfortable!”

Mystic Turtle rolled over, but the next moment, it felt itself being pulled into the sky, completely unable to resist. When it opened its eyes, it saw Lu Ran standing on a patch of auspicious clouds, smiling at it.

—A ghost!

Mystic Turtle was startled.

“Ghost my foot, I’m not dead.” Lu Ran’s face darkened.

—Wh-what’s going on? Why do you have time to come back to Green Sea? Everything is fine here... There’s no need to worry.

“I came back specifically to see you.” Lu Ran shook his head.

Mystic Turtle also shook its head.

—See me? What’s there to see about me? You should keep yourself busy with your own things.

“Just passing by for a look. So, are you satisfied with your life now? I didn’t lie to you, did I?” Lu Ran asked with a smile.

—

Heh...

I’m satisfied. It’s the retirement life I dreamed of. It’s just that because my strength has increased quite a bit and my vitality is more active, some energy has returned. But it’s okay, I can suppress it.

In Mystic Turtle’s view, those who could restrain all kinds of desires were the true strong ones. Frankly, although it thought Lu Ran’s ambitions were a bit excessive, the fact that Lu Ran could restrain his desires also earned Mystic Turtle’s respect. He was already this strong; he could easily find partners. Perhaps this was also why Lu Ran could succeed.

Lu Ran then said, “I’m glad you’re satisfied. As long as you’re doing well. If you lack anything in the future, just tell me directly. You’ve worked so hard for me for so long; it’s time to rest properly. I can’t treat you poorly.”

Mystic Turtle was taken aback, surprised that Lu Ran had so much kindness.

When I was weak, he would exploit me. After becoming strong, he’s finally willing to let me go.

—Where are these words coming from? It was all my duty. As long as you give the order, my king, I can still charge into battle for you. It’s just that now you are the strongest across both worlds, the Beastmaster King, and I, a mere old turtle, can only peacefully guard Green Sea.

It spoke wistfully, secretly laughing. Now that Lu Ran had a bunch of quasi-Legendaries under him, there were plenty of familiars to exploit. Mystic Turtle felt incredibly fortunate because being weak had its advantages, too.

However, Lu Ran acted shocked and said, “What are you saying! I didn’t expect you to be so hot-blooded! Since you said so, even if it means exhausting resources, I must let you shine again. I am indeed facing some difficulties now. Among all the lives I know, perhaps only you can help.”

Huh?