King of Beasts

Location: Infinite City arena, an underground exclusive combat room. The Pig Raiser and the Dog Raiser had just been teleported here.

The room was spacious, resembling an open-air tennis court, with a huge square of gray terrain serving as the battleground. There was also an ample green area around the edges where beastmasters could stand and command.

“Do we have to fight each other?” Lu Ran asked the Pig Raiser after arriving, seemingly eager to try. Watching General Ha fight was one thing, but he had never been interested in beast taming PvP…

“Ah?” The Pig Raiser was momentarily confused.

“There are two schools of beastmasters. The first one uses their own energy to strengthen their pet beasts; the second one uses the power of their pet beasts to strengthen themselves.”

“The former is purely about letting the pet beast fight, protecting oneself, while the latter involves going into battle as well. Which school do you belong to?”

“But you probably don’t have a beast taming skill yet, so you haven’t made a choice. What are the Star Cluster guild’s assessment requirements?”

“Wait, wait! The Star Cluster guild’s assessment seems to be just letting the pet beasts duel… I’d rather not personally get involved,” the Pig Raiser stepped back, waving his hands.

Lu Ran frowned, saying, “You seem to have good reflexes, though.”

The Pig Raiser resisted: “The seniors in the guild say, with the first school, if the pet beast encounters an accident, the beastmaster only suffers a certain backlash, not death. But with the second school, if the beastmaster dies, it’s all over. I heard the casualty rate for beastmasters of the second school is several times higher than the first…”

“Although the beastmaster becomes stronger, the survival rate isn’t improved at all. The seniors warn to never choose the second school, saying only fools would…”

“I mean, you’re not planning to follow the second school in the future, to fight alongside your pet beast, are you?!” The Pig Raiser’s expression changed.

“Uh, no.” Lu Ran scratched his cheek, his revealed beast taming skill just happened to be from the second school, so he had no choice for the moment.

Beastmasters of the second school are stronger but have a higher mortality rate… Interesting. It must be because they overestimate their own strength and court death.

“That’s a relief,” Pig Raiser sighed. “I do admire those ancient warriors who rode their steeds into battle across the sands, but it’s really too dangerous.”

“Most of us come from non-professional backgrounds, lacking formal training. Rushing into combat recklessly, accidents are likely to happen. I feel that the cavalry from the grasslands might be well suited to this kind of side-by-side combat with pet beasts.”

“No, there’s another occupation,” Lu Ran said.

“What?”

“Hunters.” Lu Ran chuckled, holding the contract card, and summoned General Ha.

On the field, a circular summoning circle appeared, bursting with brilliant light.

“Awooo~~~”

A wolf-shaped pet beast descended.

“My ancestors were hunters, often working with hunting dogs to hunt species like wild boars that damage crops.”

Pig Raiser: ??

He also took out a contract card, starting the summoning process for the wild boar.

“This pig of mine is not your average pig!” Pig Raiser said seriously, wiping the sweat off his nose with his arm as he summoned.

Lu Ran had given him considerable pressure, after all, Lu Ran had been on the Divine Beast Leaderboard.

However, if he could win, that would be best. Pig Raiser didn’t want to see himself as inferior.

“Snort!!!” With a burst of light, a two-meter-long wild boar with long tusks and a body covered in earthy brown fur appeared!

A pig and a dog stood in front of the beastmaster, eyeing each other up.

Foes meeting each other, their eyes burned with animosity.

This time, General Ha hadn’t forgotten the grudge from their last encounter.

Seven days before, it had shown a desire to fight this wild boar, which had disdainfully glanced back…

“Errrwooo—” General Ha growled, infuriated.

“Snort!” The wild boar swung its tail, its gaze heavy, seriously fixing its eyes on General Ha, this time without any contempt.

“Aren’t you going to use a sword? When you challenge the secret realm, don’t you use sword-type weapons?” Pig Raiser asked.

Lu Ran: “External forces are unnecessary, fighting normally is fine.”

“Good,” Pig Raiser said.

“Now our problem is, after the rock-type energy overlay is applied to it, its defense is very strong, but when compared to wind-type pet beasts, its speed and attack agility are not advantageous.”

“So, I want to see in a real fight if there is any effective way to counter opponents with high speed,” Pig Raiser said.

“That means I just let my Erha use its speed advantage and battle against you all, right?” Lu Ran added.

“Yep,” nodded Pig Raiser.

“Okay, General Ha, enter the gale state,” Lu Ran snapped his fingers.

“Woof!”

In the next moment, sky-blue energy began to surface on General Ha’s body, and this energy slowly started to flow…

Seeing this, Pig Raiser’s expression instantly turned serious.

Wind-type basic skill, gale?!

In just seven short days, had Passerby A and the others learned a new skill???

At this stage, pet beasts below level 10 actually didn’t possess many skills.

Even among the 70 divine beasts on the divine beast leaderboard across the seven infinite cities of Xia Country, more than half had yet to master basic skills.

Those that made it onto the leaderboard primarily relied on ordinary energy overlays on their bodies, and then, leveraging their species’s strong attributes, they would overwhelm their opponents.

Shaping, release, flow, compression—mastering each branch of advanced techniques was not easy. The experience summarized by veterans was that even with decent talent in the corresponding areas, it would take about half a month to a month of targeted training to get started and master a basic skill.

That’s precisely why it was so incredible that General Ha managed to learn sword qi in just two days and quickly climbed the leaderboard.

Pig Raiser’s own pet beast hadn’t mastered even a single skill yet; it could only perform a basic rock-type energy overlay…

Now, seeing that Lu Ran and his group had mastered gale, he was very surprised…

But what surprised him even more was yet to come.

“Let’s begin then,” Lu Ran said. As he spoke, the energy that had been flowing slowly over General Ha’s body like a stream suddenly surged like a flood, causing its form to blur!!

“What?” “Snort!” Both man and boar were taken aback.

“Woof!!”

Face the gale!

With a glint in its eye, General Ha looked vengefully at the wild boar with a solemn expression across from it—see the power now? In the next instant, it charged forward, stirring up dust where it trod, moving so fast it truly resembled a gale!

“How can it be so fast…” Pig Raiser was puzzled. Without needing his reminder, the wild boar had already covered itself with a dull yellow rock-type energy overlay, staring intently at General Ha.

Pig Raiser’s strategy for dealing with wind-type pet beasts was clear: if it came to close combat, rely first on its defensive advantage for a head-on collision. If it couldn’t react in time, then brace for one hit, quickly recover, and counterattack!

However, as good as the plan was, in the boar’s view, General Ha, whose speed resembled afterimages, had vanished.

“To the side!” Pig Raiser, with a broader perspective, immediately warned.

Even at this speed, General Ha could still change its trajectory. In an instant, it moved from facing the wild boar to its side and struck with full force.

“Oof!” The wild boar felt troubled. As it realized the situation, a sky-blue afterimage collided with it, causing immense pain on its side. Even the rock-type energy that wrapped around its body became distorted.

Despite the rock-type energy protection, the impact made the wild boar let out a scream akin to a pig being slaughtered, and before it could react to counterattack, its hefty body was sent flying meters away, airborne!

“Ow!!!”

With a loud thud, the wild boar hit the ground and continued to roll.

Pig Raiser stood there, stunned.

Meanwhile, General Ha had exited its frenzied gale state, looking triumphant as if it had avenged a great wrong, showing a smug expression.

But then, it paused, seeing the wild boar rolling back to its feet, glaring fiercely at it.

“The defense is indeed good; such an impact only caused minor injuries?” Lu Ran said, “It seems that with normal means, breaking your defense is quite difficult.”

Pig Raiser: ???

What kind of joke is this, an Erha sending a wild boar flying meters away, and you call that a normal method? What was that just now… Basic gale isn’t that strong, is it!

“Da Huang, this won’t do, you need to move too! It can’t break your defense, so don’t be afraid.” Pig Raiser waved his arm, sensing the threat from General Ha, and decided not to sit idly by. He then directed the wild boar to charge straight at General Ha.

“Snort!!” The wild boar charged fiercely. Although not as fast as General Ha, it was still quick, and its striking process looked even more intimidating.

Seeing this, General Ha did not torment its opponent with speed this time. Instead, it opened its mouth.

“Roar!!!”

A gust of white wind gathered in General Ha’s mouth, and with its roar, it blew towards the wild boar, giving it enormous resistance and making it nearly impossible for the wild boar to advance on the field.

“This is…” Pig Raiser was shocked once again.

Skill: Roar of the Wind

Introduction: A basic skill formed by the release of wind-type energy gathered within the body through the mouth!

Well… for now, a move that has almost no lethality, it can only interfere with the enemy’s movement. Having learned sword qi and by analogy, it was not difficult for General Ha to comprehend this skill; it was just a breath, even simpler than the release type skills like sword qi. Because of its weak effect, even though General Ha had learned it long ago, Lu Ran didn’t count it as a training achievement.

“Snort!!!” At this moment, the wild boar cried, struggling to charge, but it couldn’t move.

What kind of monster was this Erha that Pig Raiser had previously looked down upon? It felt even harder to fight than the bosses they teamed up against before.

“Erghhhhh!!!” The wild boar tried to burst forth with greater power.

But at this time, General Ha was just starting to exert more force. It accelerated the energy flow, and in an instant, the gusts from its mouth became more ferocious and sustained. Accompanied by a loud “howl,” the wild boar that wanted to charge was once again lifted off its feet and blown over, crashing heavily onto the ground with a squeal.

Large beads of sweat rolled down Pig Raiser’s forehead once again.

“Woof woof woof.” Moreover, at this time, General Ha also looked towards Pig Raiser, as if dissatisfied with his claim that it couldn’t break through the wild boar’s defenses.

“Awoo~~” It opened its mouth, and this time, it wasn’t the Roar of the Wind. Instead, a storm gathered in its mouth, shaping a tangible white Sword of Wind, which it held in its jaws!

Energy shaping, skill, Sword of Wind!

Even without any external objects, General Ha had shaped a wind sword with extremely strong cutting properties!

This scene once again stunned Pig Raiser. What was this, energy shaping?

Energy flow, energy release, energy shaping… What’s going on with this Erha?!

“Huh.” It wasn’t just Pig Raiser who was surprised; even Lu Ran was looking at General Ha with an unexpected expression. Good dog, no one asked you to start learning energy shaping, and you’ve learned it by yourself?

That’s right, as the wind-type energy often passed through the Wind Meteor Sword, it might have become very familiar with the sword’s structure. Plus, it had good comprehension and energy control, so it made sense that it learned energy shaping on its own after being prompted by Pig Raiser… Unbelievable!

In less than 10 days, it was close to mastering the four advanced techniques! This dog… was too monstrously talented.

“General Ha, disperse it, no sword fighting allowed,” said Lu Ran, not wanting to harm the opponent. Since it was a sparring session, maintaining a state where it was difficult to break through the opponent’s defense was good enough.

“Woof…” General Ha obediently listened and once again turned its attention to the wild boar, which was getting up with somewhat wobbly legs.

“I…” Pig Raiser fell silent.

He realized his mistake; from the beginning, he shouldn’t have held onto the hope of possibly winning. Those that could enter the divine beast leaderboard… were all monsters. Could it be that Lu Ran was pushed down because he hadn’t challenged the secret realm again in these past seven days?!

…

That evening.

Lu Ran and Pig Raiser parted ways.

Pig Raiser gained the experience of being fancily beaten up by a wind-type pet beast, while Lu Ran took the awakening leaf as his sparring fee without any courtesy.

Five Poisons Cult Holy Maiden: You haven’t been back for so long, my parents are worried about you, when will you come back for a meal?

After returning to his private room, Lu Ran first replied to Fang Lan’s message as usual.

Okay, I’ll come back today.

Boss Lu thought about it and realized it had indeed been a long time since he had been home. School was about to start, wasn’t it? Maybe it was time to contact Xiaobailong and sort out the school matters along the way.

As for challenging the Forest of the Demon Cat again, there was no rush. He would deal with it after returning home.

Having made up his mind, Lu Ran reluctantly spent 5 crystal coins to teleport home.

Once home, he took a shower, changed into fresh clothes, and was about to call Fang Lan to arrange a meal.

However, just at that moment, a dark figure suddenly appeared in front of Lu Ran, climbed onto the TV, and stared at him with red eyes.

This was a small lizard, sporting a deep brown color on its back and a yellowish-brown belly, resembling a mini giant dragon. It was incredibly majestic, and its most striking feature was the pair of eyes encased in orange-red irises.

“What’s up? Didn’t I leave enough food and water for you before I left?” Lu Ran looked at it; this red-eyed eagle lizard was the birthday gift Fang Lan had given him.

Lu Ran liked to call it the True Red-Eyed Black Dragon.

He also liked to call it the Sudden Death King.

Through telepathy, sometimes Lu Ran could understand its inner thoughts.

There are no grasshoppers I like today, I want to die suddenly!

It’s so dark and scary, I want to die suddenly!

That dog is so frightening, I want to die suddenly!

The poop scooper is so ugly, I want to die suddenly!

For some reason, just want to die suddenly!

Hmm… At the slightest disagreement, it would ‘die suddenly’ – of course, most of these were just playing dead, mainly because the little guy was also quite timid. Lu Ran felt it was quite an achievement that he hadn’t actually caused it to die for real.

“Ah, that’s right.” Seeing the True Red-Eyed Black Dragon suddenly making its presence known, Lu Ran’s eyes lit up. He took out the recently acquired awakening leaf and said, “Sudden Death King, come here, I’ve got something good for you to eat. Let’s check out your potential.”