King of Beasts

Deep within the Flame and Thunder Ruins.

“Roar!!!”

A colossal berserk bear, cloaked in red lightning, was relentlessly launching attacks forward.

Boom!

Colliding with it was Erha, gripping a large sword.

Erha planted its four paws firmly on the ground, resolutely biting onto the sword and using it to block the berserk bear’s ferocious thunderous paw.

Every clash between the sword and the bear’s paw made the berserk bear feel as if its paw was about to be sliced open and frozen.

“Roar!!” the berserk bear roared again in frustration, baffled by the strength of this dog.

“That’s enough, General Ha, stop practicing,” Lu Ran commanded. With a flash of determination in its eyes, General Ha unleashed its full power, executing a tenfold Storm Slash—

Under the berserk bear’s incredulous gaze, which was now grasping Red Lightning, its body was instantly split in two, with a layer of frost forming on the cut.

Lu Ran observed and pondered slightly. A dog wielding a sword… It’s hard to say.

If it doesn’t evolve into a humanoid form, its close combat skills remain crude and singular.

There wasn’t much Lu Ran could do; after all, swords weren’t meant for dogs.

Therefore, to elevate General Ha’s swordsmanship,

Aside from the mental realm of sword intent, it seems mastering the Gale Sword Control Technique quickly is necessary.

An advanced technique of energy release control…

With it, using wind to control the sword, General Ha will be able to perform various high-difficulty sword techniques…

“Woof!” General Ha, having defeated its opponent, turned back with a cheeky grin.

This time, despite using the tenfold Storm Slash, its teeth… surprisingly didn’t fall out.

The dog was extremely satisfied with its current physical strength; it could now perfectly handle tenfold energy compression!

Of course, this wasn’t only due to its physical strength but also its repeated usage experiences. Constant injuries and practice had made it adept at controlling energy swiftly, which was a significant advantage over other pet beasts.

After all, most pet beasts would need a long time to recover after getting injured, making it hard to quickly grow new teeth.

“So, the energy compression technique must be upgraded to an advanced level, developing twentyfold, thirtyfold, or even a hundredfold compression… Otherwise, how could new teeth be used to forge weapons!” Lu Ran muttered.

He also sighed.

Because the rewards for this secret realm challenge were too disappointing.

[Congratulations on completing the secret realm challenge.]

[Rating: SSS-level!]

[Congratulations, you have received 1000 crystal coins.]

[Congratulations, you have received advanced resources: Thunderstruck Wood.]

[Congratulations, you have received advanced resources: Mutant Bear Paw.]

[Congratulations, you have received special resources: Upgrade Card.]

No Red Lightning trait crystal, no thunder enhancement beast taming skills, and no rare materials!

The two advanced materials obtained were valuable, but incomparable to 50,000 crystal coins.

The only noteworthy reward was an upgrade card, but of course… Lu Ran would use it himself and definitely wouldn’t sell it.

Once he gathers nine more of these, he could upgrade General Ha’s contract card again…

“Damn, I have a bad feeling… Luck is conserved. We got the trait crystal last time, who knows how many times we’ll need to try next time!” In the ruins forest, Lu Ran suddenly scratched his head.

Beside him, General Ha sighed helplessly, seeing that once again, Lu Ran’s luck had turned for the worse…

…

After each secret realm challenge, Lu Ran and General Ha would return to their designated room to rest.

This time, struck by terrible luck, Lu Ran found himself deep in existential contemplation.

He felt his efficiency in solo secret realm runs was too low.

It wasn’t about the speed of defeating monsters, but rather the efficiency of earning money!

“Maybe I should find three teammates to team up with?” Lu Ran mused.

The advantage of a four-person team was that the clearance reward would be multiplied by four.

If four teammates of similar skill level teamed up, each would get their own reward.

But if a big shot were to lead three rookies through the secret realm, wouldn’t it be fair for the three rookies to submit any rare materials they obtained, keeping only their basic crystal coins?

Lu Ran’s mind raced with such thoughts.

Of course, the three teammates couldn’t be too burdensome and should also be protected.

“If I carry three people, each challenge would yield the equivalent of four rewards.”

“Efficiency multiplied by four…”

Lu Ran’s mind continued whirling with ideas.

Moreover, after defeating the boss, four people collecting the other resources in the secret realm would be far more efficient than one person slowly gathering them.

“Now, even without using the divine deer pendant, relying solely on General Ha and the Ice Sky Greatsword, I can consistently clear abyssal difficulty novice secret realms. Bringing along three people shouldn’t be a problem, and this way, whether it’s trait crystals or beast taming skills, the probabilities of obtaining them would be much higher…”

Lu Ran thought about it and felt more convinced as he went on.

As for teammates, the first person Lu Ran thought of was Fang Lan.

Though she would likely be deeply engrossed with her work as the Green Sea Poison Queen lately… She surely wouldn’t refuse if he invited her to tackle a secret realm together.

Folks from LuJia Village were also an option. After all, their levels were pretty similar.

This approach, Lu Ran realized, had another benefit—it would also help the beastmasters he brought along to grow more quickly.

After all, if they handed over rare materials, Lu Ran wouldn’t be stingy and give them nothing in return.

Later, he could help them acquire fitting beast taming skills and suitable trait crystals, thereby boosting their strength.

Take Fang Lan, for instance; she currently hadn’t learned any beast taming skills and wasn’t prepared with a daxia wolf spider’s trait crystal.

Without a big shot leading the way, it would take her a long time to obtain these on her own.

But with Lu Ran’s help, the efficiency would be much higher.

Most of the big guilds operated this way too—veterans carrying newcomers to rapidly build a solid foundation.

Lu Ran figured he could adopt this strategy as well. After all, he could wreak havoc in the novice secret realms at this stage.

If he could form an elite team, they could also compete in the Freshman Tournament at beast taming university.

Imagine bagging several spots in the top 100, top 64, or even top 32—wouldn’t the rewards be substantial?

Thinking carefully, it was indeed better than going solo.

“Didn’t expect to be forming a team so soon,” Lu Ran chuckled, recalling how he initially planned to only assemble a dedicated secret realm team once he had sufficient strength.

The original goal was to seek help in conquering the abyss secret realms alone.

Who would have thought, that in a flash, the purpose would shift to optimizing for more efficient farming with four people…

Lu Ran shook his head with a smile—plans really couldn’t keep up with changes.

With this thought, Lu Ran logged off, intending to check in with Fang Lan first.

Green Sea City, Starlight Villa Community.

Lu Ran and General Ha appeared in the living room.

Just stepping out, Lu Ran adeptly picked up his fully charged phone.

“So many missed calls?”

Lu Ran was taken aback, noticing he had several missed calls.

Taking a closer look, they were all from Jinling… The caller, Zhao Chen!

Xiaobailong’s former boss… Wonder what’s up. Lu Ran redialed the number.

“Lu Ran?” Soon enough, Zhao Chen’s excited voice came through.

“Uncle Zhao, what’s going on? I was in Infinite City.” Lu Ran replied.

“Yeah, I know, I saw stuff about you online. Congrats.”

“I called you for something else.”

“Did you get the news?”

“What news?” Lu Ran asked.

“Besides the dozens of provincial capital cities, due to the revival of spiritual energy, we urgently need to consolidate the strength of beastmasters. The Alliance is initiating the establishment of Beast Taming Edifices in second-tier cities, to form associations and unify the civilian beastmasters.”

“Isn’t that great?” Lu Ran said.

Currently, aside from the big cities, the beast taming power in second-tier cities like Green Sea City is too scattered… With official management, things indeed would get a lot better.

“Do you know how the Beast Taming Association is structured? For example, the Jinling Beast Taming Edifice has a chairman and ten directors serving as co-administrators. I’m one of the directors in the Jinling Association, and the guild leader of the Star Cluster Guild, Xingchen, is another director.”

“I heard that Dr. Gu applied for special permission to let you manage supernatural affairs in Green Sea City, right?”

“Yes.” Lu Ran confirmed.

“This experimental zone arrangement is actually significant. Dr. Gu made the decision alone, and not everyone at the higher levels of the Alliance may be satisfied.”

“Therefore, it’s highly likely that Green Sea City will also establish a Beast Taming Association. The Alliance will probably send a former-generation beastmaster as the chairman to supervise and check on you, to prevent you from making mistakes.”

“It’s not just highly likely; it’s almost certain. Theoretically, you should be appointed as the chairman of the Green Sea Association. However, in the end, some people are just not comfortable with a 17-year-old managing a major city.”

Lu Ran frowned. He knew that getting involved with the authorities would inevitably lead to a lot of complications. So, being the King of Green Sea wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought, especially with a superior overseeing him. How could he reign comfortably under such conditions?

However, Lu Ran sighed. He could understand. After all, he did lack management experience. Having an experienced beastmaster who had seen other beast taming civilizations come to assist could indeed benefit the entire city.

Lu Ran wasn’t unreasonable. All he could do for now was take it one step at a time. Who knows, the person appointed might turn out to be great.

“Any idea who it is?” Lu Ran asked.

“To be honest, I do have some inside information. But promise me, you won’t report to Dr. Gu to give this person a hard time, suppress, or ostracize them, okay?”

Lu Ran was taken aback. “How could I? If it’s someone we can communicate with reasonably, Green Sea would welcome them.”

“But if they want to meddle in everything, then they can manage it all themselves.”

In that case, he would just return to LuJia Village and run for village chief. The future looked bright regardless.

Lu Ran just hoped that the new person wouldn’t treat him like a subordinate to be ordered around. At heart, he still wanted some freedom.

“Well… that person… is actually me. I don’t know what the higher-ups were thinking, but they assigned me as the chairman for Green Sea!” Zhao Chen complained. “Lu Ran, you know me. Rest assured, I won’t be bossing you around. Do whatever you want, as long as you don’t stir up major news. I’ll just be a mascot—a toolman.”

Zhao Chen felt exasperated, being transferred from Shanghai to Jinling, and now from Jinling to Green Sea. Although he felt optimistic about it, the constant relocations were quite taxing.

Lu Ran: ???

No wonder there was all this lead-up. So it’s you!