King of Beasts

Chapter 42: Maxing Out Defense Due to Fear of Death

“Sword intent…”

Lu Ran nodded.

Indeed, before the emergence of supernatural events, this state might have been considered a legend.

But now, it might not be beyond human reach.

Senior Brother Jiang Man’s records suggest that sword intent seems to be connected with more advanced techniques of energy shaping.

And he also mentioned a name familiar to Lu Ran, Gu Qingyi.

It appears, then, that shaping skills might be key to understanding sword intent!

“I understand, Master. I will definitely grasp sword intent.”

“Good! Lu Ran, why not stay at the dojo then?”

Master Jiang Dou insisted, not wanting Lu Ran to leave just yet.

“Um… okay.” Lu Ran hesitated for a moment, then agreed. After all, Green Sea City was very close to Jinling, both within the bounds of Infinite City No.3. It wouldn’t be a problem, as he could directly access Infinite City from Jinling.

“He Dali!”

“Master, I’m here,” Senior Brother He responded.

“Go and prepare a larger room for your junior brother Lu Ran, he also has a pet beast.”

“Right away!” Senior Brother He said as he left.

As Senior Brother He departed, Lu Ran asked Master Jiang Dou, “By the way, Master, besides Senior Brother Jiang Man, are there others in the dojo who have been chosen to become beastmasters?”

“No, not anymore,” Master Jiang Dou shook his head. “The number of beastmasters has only recently started to increase.”

“In that case, perhaps in the future we could recruit more beastmasters as disciples. Beastmasters are divided into two schools: one focuses on nurturing pet beasts, the other on strengthening oneself. Senior Brother belongs to the latter. In the future, there will likely be many of this kind of beastmaster, and that will surely revive the use of bladed weapons like swords.”

“You’re right!” Master Jiang Dou’s eyes lit up. With examples like Jiang Man and Lu Ran, he felt that beastmasters who accessed supernatural powers to practice swordsmanship had a tremendous advantage!

Sword momentum, for instance, could be quickly understood!

Perhaps, those ancient martial arts that had been lost in Xia Country could be revived.

“Speaking of which, I wonder what it would be like to combine gun techniques with the power of a pet beast. If you could infuse bullets with attribute energy, that would be so cool.” However, Lu Ran soon fell into deep thought.

Jiang Dou: ??

Jiang Dou’s eyebrows twitched, suddenly having a bad feeling. Damn, is Lu Ran, this kid, going to abandon swordsmanship and play with guns in the future?

Not again?!

…

Lu Ran didn’t know what old man Jiang Dou was thinking, but after deciding to stay at Rainbow Heaven Dojo for a while, he wanted to scout the area around first.

So, under the pretext of “taking General Ha for a daily walk to find a feng shui treasure land for it to poop,” Lu Ran left the dojo with the grudge-holding General Ha.

“Is he a beastmaster?”

“So handsome!”

When Lu Ran walked out of the dojo, he didn’t put General Ha away, but kept it by his side.

Seeing Lu Ran accompanied by a majestic husky, some of the dojo apprentices were taken aback.

The occupation of beastmaster is now the center of attention everywhere. Since Lu Ran arrived at the dojo, he has been the focus of attention, and now that these dojo apprentices realized that Senior Brother Lu Ran also had the identity of a beastmaster, they were even more eager to learn about him.

“No wonder he’s so powerful…”

A few female apprentices, recalling Lu Ran’s explosive demeanor when he first arrived, felt their hearts flutter even more.

“If I say, go hunting by yourself these days, can you bring something back?”

Lu Ran asked the Sudden Death King in his pocket.

He hadn’t planned to stay in Jinling long, so he hadn’t brought much food for Sudden Death King, especially since a space backpack can’t hold living things, and Sudden Death King prefers fresh food. So if Sudden Death King wants to eat well in the coming days, it will have to hunt on its own.

As for the supernatural resources of Infinite City… Lu Ran said he really couldn’t afford to feed two pet beasts right now, so he’ll let Sudden Death King eat ordinary food for now.

Rainbow Heaven Dojo is located at the foot of the mountains, close to the wilderness, and the insects swarming over the hills should be enough for Sudden Death King to feast on.

Hunt on its own! How scary! Sudden death!

Sudden Death King’s eyes rolled back, and it fainted in the pocket.

“Damn.” Lu Ran exclaimed, “You’re an upper supernatural species, relax, those insects can’t beat you.”

Beside him, General Ha gave Sudden Death King a disdainful look, calling it a coward.

“Wow ka…”

Soon, Lu Ran, along with General Ha and Sudden Death King, headed up the mountain.

He took Sudden Death King out of his pocket, placed it on the ground, and looked at it, saying, “Next up is your free hunting time. General Ha, um… keep an eye on it.”

“Woof!” General Ha nodded.

Meanwhile, Lu Ran took out his phone, planning to check if there were any new updates in the beast taming field.

Beastmaster-specific transportation channels have been operational for over three days…

In the past week, many city pet stores have experienced shortages…

Recently, a large number of black card holders have gone to rural areas attempting to capture wild beasts, experts caution against blindly pursuing high species level animals…

Currently, Xia Country has initially established Beast Taming Edifices in 34 cities, these edifices will serve as the administrative centers for the occupation of beastmasters in each province…

Shocking! An eight-year-old child was chosen to be a beastmaster, and his contracted pet beast turned out to be a dinosaur…

“How did a strange marketing gimmick get mixed in here?” Lu Ran was exasperated.

However, this indeed was the most eye-catching piece of news among the lot…

He couldn’t help but click on it.

After clicking, Lu Ran wanted to curse even more; as expected, it was a marketing gimmick. It turned out that the child’s father had made a black card and bought a dinosaur model for the child, letting him cosplay as a beastmaster, and then posted it online.

A chorus of criticisms followed…

Fang Lan: Have you arrived in Jinling yet?

Just as Lu Ran finished reporting the post, he received a message from Fang Lan.

Lu Ran sighed, replying: Arrived. By the way, I might stay here for a few days and will be back later than planned.

Fang Lan: Whatever suits you, I just wanted to let you know that today, the official beast taming forum uploaded a lot of basic beast taming intelligence, it’s quite comprehensive, you might want to check it out when you’re free.

Lu Ran: Okay.

The beast taming forum is an online platform established after the advent of the beast taming era, presumably managed by the authorities. Lu Ran had visited it a few times before; it was mostly filled with irrelevant posts from ordinary people, questions, and only a few strategy posts which were not much help to him, so he had stopped paying attention.

Now, hearing what Fang Lan said, he reopened the forum.

Upon reopening the forum, Lu Ran found its content significantly more valuable than before. The essence section had been updated with numerous strategies, including several for novice secret realms with simple difficulty, but mostly, there were guides on how to safely level up for new beastmasters.

For instance, some of the content from the basic beast taming handbook Lu Ran had purchased was quickly and clearly available on the forum.

“Huh?”

As Lu Ran browsed through, he stumbled upon an interesting strategy post.

Do you know in which direction you should develop your pet beast?

That was the title of the post.

The content was well thought out.

The author of the post, a third-generation beastmaster with the ID Jianfeng Chazhen from the Observer’s Guild, shared a tip on nurturing pet beasts today.

Have you noticed that after contracting a pet beast, although the beast becomes stronger in all aspects, most pet beasts will have one attribute—be it strength, defense, or speed—that becomes particularly prominent, showing a much larger enhancement?

Moreover, this prominent attribute might not necessarily be the species advantage attribute of the pet beast originally.

I’ve asked many friends and noticed this phenomenon is common, so I reviewed some strategies left by first and second-generation big shots and compiled this summary.

During the initial evolution and awakening into supernatural beings, pet beasts might enhance certain attributes based on their inner needs.

Let me give you an example. Consider a stray dog that often roams the streets and is frequently bullied by its peers. If it harbors a deep-seated wish that it could run faster to escape the bullying, then once contracted, its speed might indeed receive an extra boost, distinguishing it from other canine pet beasts in terms of species advantage!

Of course, this isn’t the case with every pet beast as there’s a strong element of randomness.

But undoubtedly, this is a fascinating subject. Due to an animal’s longing for a particular attribute, that attribute becomes more pronounced after its evolution.

The purpose of this post is to advise novice friends that if you’re unsure how to nurture your pet beast, it’s worthwhile to focus more on enhancing its advantageous attributes. In addition to its inherent species advantage, there’s a secondary advantage that stems from its inner needs during the contracting process. Beastmasters should really delve into understanding their pet beasts’ inner desires!

Follow me for weekly nurturing tips and never lose your way!

“This post… makes sense.” Lu Ran felt a lightbulb moment after reading it.

Using this method to explain the cases of General Ha and Sudden Death King seems quite plausible.

For instance, before encountering supernatural power, General Ha was constantly taught various unique skills by Lu Ran, such as swordsmanship, which was quite challenging. Thus, it’s perfectly logical for it to desire improved learning ability to cope with Lu Ran, which indeed became more pronounced after evolution.

Then there’s Sudden Death King, a timid creature prone to playing dead—a natural defense mechanism against danger. Of course, the one at Lu Ran’s home dies suddenly more often than other red-eyed eagle lizards… probably just individual variation.

If asked which attribute became most prominent after becoming a supernatural species, General Ha definitely has an opinion: defense!

General Ha tested it, and despite its small size, its defensive power is comparable to that of Pig Raiser’s wild boar when it uses rock-type energy overlay.

This is quite alarming, especially considering that Sudden Death King hasn’t even awakened yet and is probably just level 1.

Although its species level is higher, such defensive power is rather extraordinary.

After reading the post, Lu Ran felt that Sudden Death King probably fit this scenario.

Firstly, its inherent species advantage is defense. Known as the red-eyed eagle lizard or the armored lizard, its scales resemble armor. While it can’t compare to creatures like turtles, its defense is still notable among smaller lizards.

In this case, Sudden Death King still wasn’t satisfied with its own defensive capabilities. Driven by its fear of death, it greatly desired stronger defense. Therefore, after consuming an awakening leaf and undergoing supernatural evolution, it gained an unexpectedly significant boost in defense.

Its body became a condensed fortress of defense!

It could be said that because of its fear of dying, it inherently focused all its talents on defense.

Lu Ran looked over at Sudden Death King, which was cautiously hunting insects in the bushes, and scratched his head. So, should he focus on enhancing its defense further to maximize its advantage?

Eventually, with General Ha and Sudden Death King together, one as the sword and the other as the shield, he would have both offense and defense covered.

However, considering that Sudden Death King is naturally fearful, making it serve as a frontline shield might seem a bit inconsiderate.