King of Beasts

Chapter 120: The Replacement of the Seven General Beasts

“What a mess.” Lu Ran sighed, feeling overwhelmed.

“Haha, it’s nothing really. It’s just that four swords are quite a lot. Why don’t you come back tomorrow to pick them up? I’ll polish them nicely for you,” Master Lin chuckled.

“But it’s one thing to ask for an ice sword, and now you want a fire sword too! Is that for your own use? Did you manage to acquire a fire pet beast and also master the skill to control flames?”

“Yes,” Lu Ran replied with a subtle smile. “It would blow your mind; it’s the signature skill of the founding figure of the forging department!”

“Good lad, that’s fast! By the way, what’s your budget this time?”

“Four swords, within twenty thousand crystal coins.”

There’s no need for top-tier quality since they’re just transition weapons for the tournament.

Too low-quality would not suit his status either, like the wind cutter sword that broke after just two uses, which was way too fragile.

Something average would be fine. Plus, after the tournament, the swords wouldn’t go to waste; they could still be used as kitchen knives. One ice and one fire, perfectly matching the two culinary intents he currently mastered.

After discussing with Master Lin, so as not to delay Lu Ran’s preparations for the tournament, Master Lin immediately set out to gather materials for forging.

Meanwhile, after managing his crystal coins adequately, Lu Ran returned to the training secret realm, planning to undergo intensive training in various energy techniques with the Sudden Death King.

Before starting the special training, Lu Ran took out the divine deer pendant and the Spirit Transformation Pot.

The level 1 training secret realm already had a forest environment. Lu Ran hung the divine deer pendant on a tree branch to charge it.

As for the Spirit Transformation Pot, he placed a Sky Tree fruit inside and set it aside to ripen.

The power of the Spirit Transformation Pot does not come out of thin air; its principle is similar to that of the divine deer pendant, both utilizing external natural energy to enhance the quality of ingredients.

For rare resources like the Sky Tree fruit, the ripening process takes quite a while, so Lu Ran had to put it in early to ensure it would be ready by the time General Ha needed to eat.

As for advanced resources like the Dragon Fish, the speed is much quicker. It only needs to be freshened up before eating, with no need for early preparation.

In the evening.

In the training secret realm, Lu Ran grilled a Dragon Fish for the Sudden Death King and fed General Ha a Sky Tree fruit.

The former was grilled using Flame Dragon Culinary Intent, and the latter was sliced with Blizzard Culinary Intent.

Both ate with great relish.

However, after half a day of training, there were no significant gains. As expected, the Sudden Death King couldn’t instantly grasp skills like General Ha. But Lu Ran wasn’t in a hurry; he believed in taking things slow and steady.

That night, instead of returning to Green Sea City, Lu Ran decided to stay in the training secret realm with his two pet beasts.

After a half day of training, Lu Ran was quite exhausted and quickly fell asleep. However, his dreams that night were far from peaceful.

“Hmm?”

“Why am I in Maple Park?”

Lu Ran’s mind felt heavy. He couldn’t remember what he had been doing before this. He opened his eyes and, seeing the familiar surroundings, instinctively walked towards his home.

But before he could take a few steps, a massive spatial rift suddenly appeared in the sky above the city.

A gigantic blue-violet head slowly emerged from the rift, letting out a thunderous roar!!!

“ROAR!!!”

The roar shattered every window and car glass in Green Sea City and stunned many weaker beings. Countless passersby covered their ears, writhing on the ground in agony, while the stronger beings looked up at the gigantic silhouette in the sky with terror.

Soon, the body of the creature emerged fully. It was a colossal dragon-like being, its robust body composed of ice and stone. Its snow-covered wings unfurled over Green Sea City, plunging the entire city into a sudden winter.

[Species]: Frost Sky Giant Dragon

[Attribute]: Dragon

[Species Level]: Upper Overlord

[Growth Level]: Level 76

From a distance in Maple Park, Lu Ran caught a glimpse of it and felt a shockwave of fear. At that moment, the Frost Sky Giant Dragon also glanced at Lu Ran. It opened its massive mouth, and in an instant, a terrifying breath of ice, capable of freezing an entire city, engulfed Lu Ran.

“Ahhhhh!!!”

With a scream, Lu Ran jolted awake from his nightmare.

“Woof!”

“Hiss!”

Beside him, General Ha and the Sudden Death King gathered around, looking worriedly at the panting, trembling Lu Ran.

Another nightmare?

General Ha and the Sudden Death King cautiously inquired.

This was an old issue for Lu Ran. Ever since he gained telepathy, he frequently had nightmares of monsters invading cities.

But after becoming a beastmaster, Lu Ran hadn’t experienced such dreams again. And now, it had reappeared.

“Yes,” Lu Ran said, shivering and clutching his chest. “Another strange dream. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one. I don’t know if this is a coincidence or similar to the previous ones.”

This dream was a bit clearer than the last. In the dream, he had an advanced Eye of Data, allowing him to see the details of the monsters.

Unlike before, when he was clueless and got crushed by the monster.

“What’s going on?” Lu Ran felt a surge of frustration. Anyone would feel miserable being tormented by strange dreams for so long.

Couldn’t he just have the kind of dreams young people are supposed to have?

However, recalling the strange dream, Lu Ran was able to determine that if it were real, then it likely wasn’t an attack by a powerful native creature of Blue Star after the spiritual energy resurgence.

It seemed more like creatures from another world invading Blue Star.

After this strange dream, Lu Ran found it hard to sleep for the rest of the night. He looked at General Ha and the Sudden Death King and said, “Get up, let’s continue training.”

General Ha and the Sudden Death King: ???

…

The next day, Lu Ran and his team continued their training. By the morning, the Sudden Death King finally made some progress.

It learned how to discharge electricity.

It could now stably release thunder energy to the outside, forming a powerful attack.

“Sudden Death King, 100,000 volts… no, discharge.”

Lu Ran almost called out the wrong skill name. Under his command, the three-meter-tall Dragon Lizard, the Sudden Death King, opened its mouth, red lightning glowing within. The next moment, a thick bolt of lightning burst forth from its mouth, forming an irregularly shaped beam that cut through the air, striking a giant tree opposite them!

Boom!!

The giant tree exploded.

Leaving behind a charred, blackened area.

“Not bad, but it’s not sustainable. You need to master the energy flow soon.”

“Ugh.” The Sudden Death King displayed a troubled expression, spitting out a few sparks.

It wasn’t fond of this skill.

Just releasing that bolt of lightning felt like a massive drain on its energy.

That amount of energy, if shaped into a shield, could last it for half a day.

Release-type skills… are still big energy consumers.

However, after Lu Ran’s previous teachings, the Sudden Death King understood that while it didn’t need to specialize in this basic skill, it couldn’t afford to ignore it entirely.

“Keep practicing, but don’t overdo it today,” Lu Ran said, pulling out his phone and checking the time. “I’m going to Master Lin’s place to pick up some weapons. Then I’ll pack up and get ready to head to Jinling. I have an assessment tomorrow.”

“Sudden Death King, you’ll be fighting the examiner’s pet beast tomorrow.”

Sudden Death King: “Roar?”

It froze. It was going to fight again?

General Ha: “Woof!”

Over to the side, General Ha was multitasking, swaying as it controlled two branches with the wind. It shot a resentful look at Lu Ran.

General Ha looked dejected. Why wasn’t it fighting? The Sudden Death King didn’t want to fight, but it did!

Beating up the examiner’s Level 30 pet beast sounded exciting… General Ha gazed at the clueless Sudden Death King with regret, signaling that the task was now in its hands.

Sudden Death King was speechless: …

…

In Infinite City.

After picking up two Blizzard Swords and two Wind Flame Swords from Master Lin, Lu Ran returned to Green Sea.

Upon returning, he called Fang Lan.

“Hey, I need a bit more time. How about we leave in two hours?” Fang Lan said. “Have you booked the train tickets?”

“No need for tickets. I’ll get a big shot to teleport us there. Take your time packing,” Lu Ran replied.

“Huh? Oh, okay,” Fang Lan said. “By the way, Lu Bing and Pig Raiser are already in Jinling. We could meet up in person.”

“Got it,” Lu Ran said.

Pig Raiser had always planned to apply to Beast Taming University for the tournament prize money.

Initially, none of the LuJia Village folks intended to apply to university. However, after the tournament’s rewards were announced, Lu Bing and the others changed their minds.

As a result, four of the more capable fourth-generation beastmasters from LuJia Village were pushed to participate in the tournament and pursue further education at the university.

These four were Lu Bing, Lu Yi, Lu Dingding, and Lu Xiao Wu.

The others stayed in the village, continuing to hunt in Infinite City to earn money.

About a month ago, Lu Ran took Lu Bing and Lu Yi into a secret realm, training them to become skilled fourth-generation beastmasters.

They, in turn, boosted the strength of their former teammates, Lu Dingding and Lu Xiao Wu.

These individuals then began training other clan members, becoming the outstanding youths of LuJia Village. They inherited the most from previous generations of beastmasters, further enhancing their strength. Today, they are the undisputed strongest echelon of LuJia Village.

“I wonder how strong they are now.”

As he waited for Fang Lan, Lu Ran decided to check on his seven general beasts…

Or rather, the six general beasts now.

After all, the Sudden Death King had been promoted to the king’s personal guard…

“King’s six general beasts. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. Let’s see if there’s a suitable candidate to fill the vacancy.”

Soon, Lu Ran communicated through his crow minions, quickly summoning the Dark Crow to his window.

“King!!!” the Dark Crow exclaimed as it landed outside, startled and excited. “Long time no see!!!”

[Species]: Black Crow

[Attribute]: Dark

[Species Level]: Upper Supernatural

[Growth Level]: Level 17

With his advanced Eye of Data, Lu Ran could now clearly see the levels and details of the Dark Crow and others.

The level isn’t very high.

The Dark Crow was probably the strongest among the seven general beasts, aside from the Sudden Death King.

The other five didn’t have much of a strength gap between them.

Lu Ran estimated they were all around Level 15.

This won’t do; they’re too weak. At this level, how could they protect Green Sea City?

Is there a way to better nurture the seven general beasts? Lu Ran pondered.

Being confined to a small place like Green Sea City really limits the growth of supernatural beings.

In places like the deep sea and the Amazon rainforest, the first echelon of ferocious beasts had already reached levels above 40, comparable to the main pet beasts of second-generation beastmasters. Their growth and evolution speed are unimaginable. These areas are truly cradles of resources.

Currently, countries are starting to worry that these ferocious beasts are growing too fast, potentially causing humans to lose their position as the overlords of Blue Star.

While he pondered, Lu Ran asked aloud, “Is there a suitable beast to replace the Sudden Death King’s position among the seven general beasts?”

“Thunder Dragon General… met a sudden death?!” The Dark Crow was taken aback.

“No, I contracted it,” Lu Ran explained. “Now, besides you six, which is the strongest supernatural being in Green Sea City?”

“It’s the Queen Bee!” the Dark Crow replied. “Its strength is comparable to ours.”

“So, it’s the Queen Bee. That makes sense,” Lu Ran nodded. Supernatural honey was one of his favorite resources, so he had granted the Green Sea bee clan a special privilege: they had priority access to the supernatural plants in Green Sea City for honey collection.

This privilege had significantly bolstered the bee clan. Lu Ran recalled that the most talented Queen Bee in Green Sea City was a Grass-type supernatural being. Although its initial evolution was not as rapid as some others, it was still among the top at Level 10 and was considered an upper supernatural species.

Now, after nearly two months of development, it seemed to have caught up with its peers.

“Then pass down the order: the Queen Bee is to become the new member of the King’s Seven Beast Generals, with the codename ‘Queen Bee.’”

“And… let the Queen Bee know that I’d like some honey,” Lu Ran added, feeling this was starting to resemble a power transaction. But that wasn’t his intention. He genuinely aimed to nurture the King’s Seven Beast Generals. He was merely in the process of selecting the best candidates.

“Caw.”

…

After the Dark Crow left, Lu Ran decided to nurture some non-mainstream pet beasts as well.

If his strange dream became a reality, Lu Ran felt that relying solely on General Ha and the others wouldn’t be entirely safe.

“Legion.”

“Let’s form a Pet Beast Legion!” Lu Ran quickly made up his mind.

In the early stages of the spiritual energy revival, countries faced a tricky situation: many mutated beasts lived in colonies.

They moved in groups of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands.

Sometimes, beastmasters would rather face a powerful individual beast than a massive beast tide.

In North America, there was an incident where a swarm of supernatural seagulls rioted. Over a thousand Wind-type and Water-type seagulls launched their skills simultaneously, creating a terrifying storm and tsunami that submerged a human-inhabited island the size of a Level 2 city.

Investigations revealed that the average level of these seagulls was no more than Level 10.

However, this group of seagulls, even though they were no more than level 10, managed to produce a qualitative change through their collective release of power.

Even higher-level creatures would find it challenging to achieve what they did.

Though some experts suggested that the seagulls might have simply predicted the weather and acted in accordance with the forces of nature, it’s undeniable that an organized and cooperative supernatural beings legion can, to some extent, engage in cross-level combat.

Lu Ran felt that he should now use the advantage of telepathy to form such a supernatural beings legion. After all, the conditions were already in place. As the King of Green Sea, relying solely on the Dark Crow and others to maintain order and act as spies was a waste.

“The Dark Crow has high intelligence and has become the leader of thousands of crows, continuously recruiting more from outside… Why not use the crow flock as a pilot group?”

“Compared to other animals, crows have better intelligence and are easier to train.”

“Moreover, many crows are Wind-type, making it easier to combine Wind-type skills into a legion skill.”

“First, train a crow legion that can use legion skills. If it works, then expand to create other legions.” At that point, these supernatural beings legions could not only help protect the city but, once they reached a certain scale, could also venture beyond human territories to expand domains and gather resources. The Dark Crow had this ambition from the start…

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