Beastmaster King

Mystic Turtle was startled as it watched a powerful black dragon charge in, despite the obstruction of its shrimp soldiers and crab generals.

"Holy shit, the black dragon has resurrected!" Mystic Turtle was terrified. "Oh, my eyes must be failing me. It's just Sudden Death King."

Sudden Death King immediately communicated with Mystic Turtle using telepathy.

—Old turtle, I'm here to help you expand the ocean. I heard you've hit a bottleneck!

Mystic Turtle was dumbfounded.

—No such thing. Get lost!

"Roar!"

—Don't be shy. From now on, we'll team up with you to find Nine-Colored Meteorite fragments.

As soon as Sudden Death King finished speaking, a giant whale that had been sightseeing along the way also swam in. It was Baby Cloud in its kun form.

Mystic Turtle was even more baffled.

"Are you serious? There are many monsters in the deep sea now. My advice is not to act recklessly. Competing with them for the Nine-Colored Meteorite fragments could easily lead to sudden death, right?" Mystic Turtle advised in a way Sudden Death King could accept.

Sudden Death King's eyes gleamed ominously.

"Roar..."

There was no helping it. Fighting the ancient Overlords of Blue Planet for meteorite fragments was definitely 10,000 times less dangerous than fusing with the Dragon God's blood. To avoid sudden death during the fusion of divine blood, it had no choice but to do this.

"Roar!"

—No problem, I'll handle it.

Sudden Death King gave a thumbs-up to encourage Mystic Turtle.

"Drip, drip, drip, drip!"

—I'm stronger in the sea than Uncle Dragon!

Baby Cloud chimed in, but its words displeased Sudden Death King.

How did Manager Ying raise this kid? I'll remember this grudge...

Mystic Turtle was baffled.

Damn it, why has even Sudden Death King, who used to understand me best, become like this now? And what's up with this chubby-headed whale? Who is this again?

***

Green Sea Secret Realm.

Fang Lan, having just finished watching the matches, was quite pleased. She checked the time and it had been a few days. It was time to give the Crow Legion its scheduled poison bath. It was a necessary training step for Poison-attribute familiars. However, upon returning to the Green Sea Secret Realm, she froze completely.

"Huh?" She stood in place, utterly dumbfounded.

Everywhere she looked—across the ground, in the air—there were baby crows swarming. In the trees and on the ground, crows were actively mating. All around the secret realm, Silk Tree Albizia was stoking the fire.

Fang Lan's mind went blank.

It's only been a few days. What the hell happened here?

As Lu Ran trained, the second day slowly arrived. Throughout the entire day, all of Blue Planet was abuzz over Lu Ran's battle. Lu Ran's entire strategy had been laid bare. All of his capabilities were thoroughly analyzed.

A high-proficiency Time-attribute beastmaster skill, a Superior-Overlord elemental lifeform, and a Mechanical temporary evolution device. This combination was an absolute top-tier setup to the public. They believed it was Lu Ran's final trump card developed during the Mechanical Era.

After all, no matter how strong Captain Doofus, Sudden Death King, or Dark Crow were, they were all familiars from the Beastmaster Era. There was no way they could compare to the peak fusion of the Elemental and Mechanical Eras.

Besides, the charge-up nature of the Calamity Pistol paired perfectly with Time Acceleration. Although it likely drained stamina and couldn't be used for sustained combat, it was undoubtedly a devastating trump card for fighting above one's level.

Experts like Oub were already hard at work analyzing ways to counter this tactic.

"A Time-attribute beastmaster skill,huh...?"

The Snow Federation's King stood within Limitless City, gazing calmly at the arena. He specialized in the Ice attribute which had the power to freeze time, and even possessed Time-enhancing beastmaster skills. His understanding of time clearly surpassed Lu Ran's. As such, Lu Ran's time acceleration would be ineffective against him.

The Calamity Pistol's threat level was significantly reduced in his case. He was one of the more composed kings.

"However, compared to Lu Ran, Shi Zhen's rise is the most baffling of all."

As the Snow King was preparing to teleport to the King's Domain to watch the next match, he reviewed Shi Zhen's profile, and frowned in thought. He was certainly familiar with Shi Zhen of Xia's Twelve Zodiac, but not his Superior-Overlord trump card.

When he challenged the Road to Kingship, his familiar's data had already entered the Heavenly Familiar Ranking. The fact that his main familiar had reached Superior Overlord shocked everyone.

After all, no one had seen Shi Zhen enter a second stage Evolution secret realm. This meant that he had raised a Superior Overlord without relying on evolution realm blessings. No one knew what exactly had happened.

At the same time, people were puzzled as to why Lu Ran's familiars hadn't appeared on the Overlord rankings, even after clearing the level 5 Legendary secret realm and the Road to Kingship. No one wanted to believe that Lu Ran had contracted a familiar beyond the Overlord species.

Theories from experts across the world suggested that Lu Ran had relied on some kind of mechanical weapon brought back from the Mechanical Era—tech tools that allowed him to clear the realms without deploying a familiar. That would explain why the rankings hadn't updated.

It was a very plausible theory. The Mechanical Era contained countless tech weapons that required no beastmaster strength, yet were powerful enough to slay even Legendary divine beasts.

As the first-place winner of the invention competition and the disciple of a Legendary mechanic, Lu Ran retrieving a batch of outrageous black-tech weapons made perfect sense. Compared to believing he had contracted a quasi-Legendary familiar, the theory that he relied on mechanical weaponry gained much broader acceptance.

"Maybe that's true. I gotta ask Lu Ran if I can borrow that gun someday."

It wasn't just foreign experts who bought into this theory. Even some of Xia's own Twelve Zodiac members, those unaware of Lu Ran's deeper secrets, found the explanation more convincing. But none of that was the day's real highlight.

The spotlight was on the battle between Witch Shi Zhen of Xia and Zhen Dai of Japan. That fight completely rewrote the worldview of all Blue Planet beastmasters. No one knew what Shi Zhen had gone through, but his strength had become terrifying.

Even as Zhen Dai shouted cringeworthy lines like "Don't underestimate our bond!" and "I'll never give up!", he was still utterly wrecked by Shi Zhen.

After a whole round of combat, Shi Zhen lost his patience.

"You're so damn annoying!"

This guy's at least twenty, right? Why's he acting like a protagonist from a hot-blooded anime? Is this a joke? This is Japan's strongest? The Japanese politicians are probably suffering secondhand embarrassment.

"I... I won't give up..."

Zhen Dai clung on like a cockroach. In the end, thoroughly exasperated, Shi Zhen grabbed him by the throat with one hand, lifted him into the air, and with the other, pulled out a bottle of milky-white liquid.

He poured it directly into his mouth. Moments later, under the stunned gazes of the crowd, Zhen Dai started transforming. His hair grew longer, and his body began to curve into a very feminine shape.

Zhen Dai's pupils shrank. "W-wait! I surrender! Okay? Can't we talk this out? I'm still a virgin! How can you just—"

At last, Zhen Dai passed out cold.

"Sorry, that was a poor-quality witch's potion. No enhancements, no cure, and no way to turn back," Shi Zhen muttered, tossing him aside.

Indeed, his happiness stemmed from others' suffering. So much for bonds, bonds, bonds. In the face of overwhelming power, bonds were worth nothing. Meanwhile, every Japanese beastmaster who had watched the fight stood frozen in stunned silence.