King of Beasts

As the outside world buzzed with excitement over Pluto and Lu Ran’s appearance on the leaderboard, Lu Ran was still attentively listening to Gu Qingyi’s careful guidance.

“Phew.”

“Alright, that’s all I have to say.”

“Any other questions?”

“Otherwise, you’ll end up spending unnecessary money on some intelligence dealer.”

Lu Ran had reason to suspect she was referring to a certain cat store manager.

“Yes, actually there is one.” Lu Ran asked curiously, “Dr. Gu, I heard you’re the only beastmaster in the world who has successfully bred a Loong-type pet beast. Is that true?”

Gu Qingyi pondered, “I suppose that’s true.”

“However, my case is somewhat unique and difficult for others to replicate.”

“Currently, I’m also researching how to stably evolve pet beasts into Loong-types.”

Lu Ran chuckled, “Actually, regarding the second pet beast we just talked about, I already have an idea. It’s the lizard that has been following me.”

“That lizard, I actually plan to evolve it in the direction of a Loong-type.”

“My beast taming skill, super beast mimicry, allows a beastmaster to acquire the powers of their contracted pet beasts. I didn’t have a choice for my first pet beast and ended up contracting with an Erha, so for my second pet beast, I want one from a strong species to maximize the advantages of my beast taming skill.”

“The Loong-type is the species with the highest overall attributes, so you also want to breed a Loong-type?” Gu Qingyi inquired.

During their conversation, General Ha was taken aback. What does he mean by “didn’t have a choice for the first pet beast and ended up contracting an Erha”? Is the Loong-type so great???

Damn that sudden death king. I won’t forget this grudge!

“Yes.” Lu Ran nodded, “So I wanted to ask you, Dr. Gu, for some knowledge about Loong-types.”

“Hmm.” Gu Qingyi rubbed her temples in discomfort, and said:

“Why do you always choose the difficult path?”

“I know it’s tough…” Lu Ran smiled wryly, considering there’s only one Loong-type pet beast in the world right now.

Countries are researching how to stably produce Loong-types. Trying to evolve the sudden death king into a Loong—this is indeed a supremely difficult choice, likely as challenging as having General Ha master weapon mastery traits.

A pure Loong-type… even the weakest ones belong to the sovereign species.

“Right now, my only advice to you is this: For the first and second traits, do not fuse any traits related to dragons.”

Gu Qingyi thought for a moment and then said, “For the first and second traits, choose normally based on the characteristics of your pet beast. During this period, frequently use resources dropped from sub-Loong creatures to enhance its compatibility with Loong-type traits. When you reach the third trait, then choose a dragon-related trait. This way, the probability of perfectly fusing and awakening the species talent is maximized.”

“However, even though the probability of awakening the species talent is the highest, it doesn’t mean that after one stage of evolution, the pet beast will immediately gain Loong-type attributes and become a purebred Loong.”

“Perhaps, for the fourth trait, fifth trait, and sixth trait, you may also need to perfectly fuse dragon-related traits. Only after the second stage of evolution might a Loong-type be added. But that’s a long way off; the highest level the first-generation beastmaster’s pet beasts have reached is still not level 60, and no one has undergone a second stage of evolution, so no judgments can be made yet.”

“I understand,” Lu Ran said. “So before the pet beast has an absolute compatibility with dragon traits, I absolutely shouldn’t fuse any dragon traits, right?”

“Exactly. Otherwise, an imperfect fusion will affect the subsequent species evolution,” Gu Qingyi replied. “Now, tell me about your lizard. What’s its situation? I can recommend some transitional traits for you.”

“My lizard is a red-eyed eagle lizard, and its personality is timid and afraid of death. Because of this desire, it has an exceptionally strong talent in defense after its supernatural awakening. Also, it awakened to the thunder attribute.”

“Not bad,” Gu Qingyi said, somewhat surprised. “Pet beasts that gain a corresponding talent after a supernatural awakening due to their mind’s desires are top-notch. If you nurture it well, it’ll have great potential in the future. Thunder is also quite good. Let me think…”

“Suitable traits…”

“Based on its talents and attributes, I recommend three transitional traits. You can choose one or two from them.”

“Which three?” Lu Ran asked.

“First, the Overlord Body trait. A pet beast with this trait will possess damage reduction abilities. Any attack that lands on it will have its damage reduced by half.”

“It already has strong defense. Coupled with the Overlord Body, even if it evolves into a Loong-type in the future, there won’t be any conflict. Instead, it will be like adding wings to a tiger.”

Lu Ran’s eyes brightened. That was indeed a solid trait.

“Second, the Hyper Healing trait. A pet beast with this trait can quickly heal from even the most severe injuries. Combined with its strong defense, this would be quite effective and suitable for mastering energy compression techniques.”

“It would be powerful for both offense and defense.”

“Third, the Red Lightning trait. This trait allows the pet beast’s normal lightning energy to transform into red lightning. The effect of red lightning is similar to thunder tempering, allowing the wielder to continuously enhance their body through lightning strikes, thereby bolstering their defensive advantage. With proficiency, it can even help other beings temper their bodies with lightning, and its power is stronger than ordinary lightning.”

“These three traits each have their own pros and cons. However, the Overlord Body and Hyper Healing traits can only be found in high-level abyss secret realms. If you want to acquire them early on, you’ll have to purchase them. The Red Lightning trait, on the other hand, you can farm yourself.”

“Similarly, instead of fusing traits, you could choose to awaken a second attribute. If well-matched, it might not be worse than fusing traits.”

As Gu Qingyi explained, Lu Ran’s mind was racing.

Firstly, he eliminated the Hyper Healing trait. After all, he had the divine deer pendant.

Epic-level items were few even in the entire country.

Exquisite, epic, and legend…

Exquisite meant that it was very precious and rare even across the current world.

Epic meant that throughout world history, it was an extremely rare treasure.

Therefore, the divine deer pendant would suffice for a long time. It would be better to fuse other abilities first.

Secondly, he also dismissed awakening new attributes. Unless it was something powerful like space or time attributes, he preferred his pet beast to specialize in one attribute and then continuously enhance itself around that attribute.

For other attributes, he could capture a new pet beast with the corresponding attribute.

Lu Ran was torn between the Overlord Body and Red Lightning traits. However, considering that he could farm the Red Lightning trait himself and it could potentially be used to help his sudden death king and general ha to strengthen their bodies, Lu Ran decided, “I’ll go farm the Red Lightning trait next!”

“This trait is similar to the ‘Golden Lightning’ fused by Pluto’s pet beast in the star cluster guild, right?” Lu Ran asked.

“Yes, it is,” Gu Qingyi confirmed. “Golden Lightning is not only powerful but has the unique effect of allowing pet beasts to quickly grow by feeding on lightning. It helps rapidly increase a pet beast’s growth level and is a trait that allows newer generation beastmasters to quickly catch up with the previous generation. It’s definitely a good choice.”

“Overall, the difficulty of perfectly fusing traits like these is not high. As long as the pet beast’s attributes are compatible, it should be manageable. The fusion difficulty is much lower compared to traits like weapon mastery,” Gu Qingyi explained.

“Got it… Dr. Gu, is there any resource you need me to farm for you?” Lu Ran asked. “I still owe you…”

“Not at the moment!” Gu Qingyi said with a slight smile. “Consider the debt on hold for now. I’m not in a rush.”

I’m the one in a rush! Lu Ran thought to himself. Never mind, for now, he would focus on repaying old Lin first over the next ten days.

…

Teleportation Plaza.

Wearing a mask and equipped with a presence-reducing item, Lu Ran and Gu Qingyi left Tranquil Island together.

Since she had other matters to attend to, Gu Qingyi didn’t stay long. She left, satisfied after seeing that general ha had perfectly fused the weapon mastery trait.

“Being able to achieve this means you are also a pioneer,” Gu Qingyi said before leaving. “If in the future you encounter beastmasters who also teach their pet beasts to use weapons, you should try guiding them.”

“If they can also perfectly integrate the weapon mastery trait, this evolutionary chain might make you famous, turning you into a founding figure of a new school of beast taming. Your name could be prominently featured in textbooks for decades to come!”

As Gu Qingyi departed, she left those words behind.

Walking down the street, Lu Ran kept mulling over the idea. Establishing a pet beast evolutionary school was akin to founding a martial arts sect in wuxia novels, but on a larger scale, it could indeed be monumental.

On the other hand, if this approach could be widely promoted, old master jiang dou would probably be overjoyed. After all, his long-cherished wish was to witness the resurgence of the swordsmanship era.

“If any apprentice at the rainbow heaven dojo becomes a beastmaster and indeed has ideas similar to Eagle Hero senior brother and myself, I could offer some guidance to avoid them taking the wrong path.”

Although Lu Ran felt that people with the same mindset as the Eagle Hero senior brother and himself were probably rare, he couldn’t deny that he and general ha were now superstars in infinite city.

Given the fame effect, who knows if someone might think this method of training is cool and try to imitate them.

Please don’t copy us! He and general ha had lucked out in every possible way, making it difficult to replicate their success.

Lu Ran felt that as a “semi-public figure” now, he should find an opportunity to make a post on the beast taming forum, detailing the challenges of their evolution path.

This is to prevent others from being misled.

Even though getting other people’s pet beasts to practice swordsmanship wasn’t his intention, if such actions led to beastmasters getting stuck in secret realms, he would feel guilty.

“Lu… Lu… Lu…”

As Lu Ran walked back, he suddenly heard someone stammering from a distance.

By all rights, not many people should recognize him.

Especially since he was wearing a mask, the chances of being recognized were slim.

But it so happened that the group in front of him had seen his masked face before.

“Is it you guys, fellow villagers?” Lu Ran’s eyes lit up as he looked at the group stammering “Lu Lu Lu”.

He walked over and said, “Last time something came up suddenly and I had to leave in a hurry, totally forgot to add you as friends.”

Lu Yi, Lu Bing, Lu Dingding, and Little Wu all smiled wryly.

“We’ve been searching for you high and low. When the divine beast leaderboard updated, we immediately came to Teleportation Plaza to find you. We finally did,” Lu Bing said, patting her chest.

“Who could have imagined, you’re the infamous Passerby A!” Lu Dingding said, barely containing his excitement, covering his mouth and speaking in a hushed tone, “So awesome, so powerful!”

Lu Yi still wore a wry smile, “I asked my old man about it, and he said that village chief Lu Hai was incredibly brave in his youth. It turns out, a tiger grandpa has no lame grandsons.”

Lu Ran: ?

Is that proverb even used correctly, and besides, the creature I’ve contracted is a dog!

Little Wu said, “Big shot fellow villager! Last time you mentioned being interested in our village’s history. When we got back, we asked around, and guess what? We made a major discovery from the elders!”