King of Beasts

Stone Buddha Domain?

Is that the name of Principal Shi Zhen’s Domain Skill?

Lu Ran was surprised.

“Principal, do you believe in Buddhism?”

Shi Zhen glanced at Lu Ran and said, “No.”

“But the breakthrough secret realm rewarded some related resources.”

“To absorb the resources, I had my pet beast believe in it.”

“If worshipping Buddha could lift my curse, I might as well believe in it.”

“…” Lu Ran was speechless.

“Let’s not talk about this.” Principal Shi Zhen said, “Let’s go to the ‘giant beast nest’.”

“Alright.”

Giant Beast Nest.

A public secret realm.

Beastmasters of all levels can enter.

Though it’s called a nest, it’s actually a vast land with an extremely harsh environment.

It gets its name because most of the ferocious beasts inside are enormous.

Under Principal Shi Zhen’s lead, Lu Ran headed to the teleportation zone of the public secret realm.

Spending a certain amount of crystal coins, the two teamed up and entered the secret realm together.

…

“Chirp-“

When they entered, the place where they appeared was relatively safe, but as they ventured a bit further, they quickly encountered a creature foraging in the tall grass.

“This place… is really absurd.”

Lu Ran swallowed hard, looking at the several meters high “weeds” and the ostrich-like creature with strong legs, a long neck, and thick green wings standing over ten meters tall. He shook his head.

[Name]: Terror Bird

[Attribute]: Grass

[Species Level]: Lower Sovereign

[Growth Level]: Level 48

Lu Ran: “…”

“Terror Bird, huh? Looks like this is its territory.” Shi Zhen saw it and smiled slightly, “Do you want to try challenging it?”

“Me?” Lu Ran was stunned and said, “Alright.”

After all, there’s an expert beside me.

Between the fingers of Lu Ran’s right hand, a contract card appeared, and with a flash of light, General Ha, shaking its head, appeared on the ground.

“What, it didn’t turn into a bone hound? The news was indeed fake.” Seeing General Ha, Shi Zhen muttered.

Lu Ran: “…”

Don’t worry, once I forge Fang Blade-Thousand Blades, General Ha can wear a suit of sharp spiked armor.

“General Ha.”

“See that big guy over there? Go get it!”

“But be careful.”

Hiding behind a large rock, Lu Ran glanced at the distant bird, cautiously giving orders to General Ha.

“Woo!!” General Ha had a confident look, signaling for its weapon.

“It’s grass type. Are you planning to give it your sword grass?”

Hearing this, General Ha was taken aback. In that case…

Boom!

Two Sword of Wind were magically compressed, one held in its mouth and the other wrapped around its tail. In Dual Sword school form, its eyes sharpened and its fur flowed as it rode the wind, charging towards the terror bird.

“Your pet beast is indeed handsome,” Shi Zhen commented. “And quite brave too, going head-to-head with a ferocious beast of a much higher level without hesitation.”

“That’s not a good habit.”

Lu Ran replied, “It’s okay, only this one acts like that. The other one is much more cautious.”

As he spoke, General Ha had already risen to the same height as the bird’s head.

General Ha’s appearance naturally caught the terror bird’s attention.

Its emerald green eyes glanced over, and it instinctively leaned forward, intending to eat General Ha as if it were a bug.

“Awoo!!!” The wind sword on General Ha’s tail immediately launched, and sword control technique activated, aiming straight for the bird’s eye.

Boom!!!

However, just as the attack was about to land, the terror bird tilted its head, catching the wind sword in its beak in an instant. “Boom!” The wind sword shattered in its mouth, with the raging airflow giving the bird a refreshing coolness. It then looked back at General Ha, expressionless.

General Ha: ???

“Woof?” General Ha’s battle-ready gaze gradually turned wise, then thoughtful-a little more analyzing…

Swish!

Divine Speed activated, and it turned around to run.

“Woof woof!!!” Running back, General Ha barked, indicating it needed the sudden death king to tank the damage and attract the fire.

Fighting alone might be a bit dangerous.

“Hahaha.” Watching how Lu Ran’s dog wasn’t actually silly, Shi Zhen laughed.

Lu Ran stood off to the side, speechless, and said, “Principal Shi Zhen, are you trying to show us the gap between us?”

“Honestly, it’s not necessary. We already know we can’t win against it.”

A level 48 lower sovereign was equivalent to a level 38 lower overlord. Right now, they didn’t even dare to challenge a level 30 lower overlord BOSS, let alone one of this high level.

“Well, not exactly. I just wanted to take a closer look at your pet beast. Why did you only summon one?”

“Mainly for it to observe and learn the domain. As for the other two…” Lu Ran explained, “There’s no hurry to see them. One at a time.”

After all, with his soul (comprehension) enhancement, he could only focus on one pet beast at a time.

“Alright~” Shi Zhen shrugged. At this moment, the giant terror bird also started moving its long legs, chasing after General Ha.

In the wild, the higher the level of the ferocious beast, the less willing it was to waste energy. Facing such a weak, food-grade creature like General Ha, using skills would be equivalent to hunting for nothing.

The purpose of hunting is to replenish nutrition and energy. If the energy expended is greater than the gains every time, it will eventually die in the wild, no matter how strong it is.

“Leave it to me.” A fragrant breeze blew by. Lu Ran noticed that Shi Zhen even wore perfume. Stepping forward, Principal Shi Zhen quickly summoned a tall gray ape, standing like a human, right in front of himself.

The ape was enormous, with skin like stone and hair like rock, exuding a majestic aura. Its eyes were calm and indifferent.

[Name]: Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign

[Attribute]: Rock

[Species Level]: Upper Sovereign

[Growth Level]: Level 56

“Monkey, activate the domain,” Shi Zhen commanded.

“Yes, use 0.5x speed.”

In the next instant, Lu Ran watched as the Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign performed a one-handed Buddhist salute. Even with Lu Ran’s perception, he could only barely catch a glimpse of how the domain was deployed.

It was likely the massive energy fluctuations emanating from the Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign that led to this. These energy fluctuations flowed rapidly in the external environment and in an instant, formed a domain that seemed like an energy shield.

Of course, that was just the surface effect. By the time Lu Ran realized what was happening and General Ha returned to his side, it felt as though the entire world around him had changed.

The huge patches of wild grass and the ground had all disappeared.

Instead of some energy shield, Lu Ran found himself standing on an endless, rocky terrain that didn’t seem like “stone ground” but rather a “hand.”

Beyond the hand beneath his feet, everything around him was murky gray, completely obscuring the outside world. The internal terrain, with every blade of grass and tree, had been altered by the domain.

“Woof!” General Ha looked around in astonishment.

“Shriek-” The giant terror bird also looked around in surprise before glaring angrily at the suspected culprit, the Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign.

After deploying its domain, the Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign hadn’t vanished; like Lu Ran and the others, it too stood within the stone-hand space.

“What did you see?” Shi Zhen asked.

Lu Ran responded, “The Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign rapidly released energy to construct a domain that encompassed itself and the enemy.”

“But forming a domain shouldn’t be that simple, right?”

“You’re correct. The first step in constructing a domain is to release a large amount of energy, shaping it into a space that encompasses both the self and the enemy. This process requires a very fast energy flow; otherwise, it could be easily interrupted. Just now, it deliberately cast it in slow motion. Normally, it would deploy the domain in an instant.”

“And merely shaping energy into a barrier doesn’t truly constitute a domain.”

“The critical step in forming a domain, in addition to energy shaping, is making the energy resonate with space. Only this way can the domain isolate and shield space. Notice how you can’t teleport out now?”

“And to achieve this, there are currently two shortcuts: one is the Space attribute, and the other is energy compression.”

“A pet beast with the Space attribute can grasp domains more easily than those without it, but compressing energy to a certain extent can also cause spatial vibrations, thereby increasing the likelihood of forming a domain.”

“Of course, even after achieving this, it only counts as forming the outer shell of a domain. At this stage, the domain has no offensive capabilities and can be breached very easily.”

“And what truly allows a domain to take form is the ‘domain core.’ This refers to several key skills of the pet beast, which become connected to the outer shell of the domain, acting as its support and framework. Once this integration is achieved, unless the enemy can break your Domain Skill, the domain space remains unbreakable.”

“And when the Domain Skill and domain space become unified, the power of the domain skill is enhanced by the power of space!”

“Even if the pet beast doesn’t have the Space attribute, it can still affect space to some extent!”

“For example, look!”

At that moment, the terror bird was immobilized by the immense aura exuded by the Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign. Both sides were at a stalemate, with the terror bird gradually realizing the daunting power of its enemy, and signs of retreat were evident.

However, once it was inside the domain, its fate was no longer in its own hands. The Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign thrust one of its hands into the air, and a massive stone Buddha statue materialized. Lu Ran and General Ha looked back in shock, realizing they were indeed standing on the hand of this Buddha statue.

As the Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign moved, the other hand of the Buddha statue slowly descended. Even before the hand landed, the space around it began to collapse, causing spatial vibration and fractures. Countless spatial shockwaves instantly engulfed the terror bird!

Boom!

In the next moment, the terror bird turned into minced meat, and the vibrating space almost made it impossible for Lu Ran and General Ha to stand firm.

“This.”

“So, what do you think?” Shi Zhen said. “In the outside world, even if the Sacred Stone Ape Sovereign were 20 or 30 levels higher, it wouldn’t be able to shatter space and use the force of spatial breakage as an attack.”

“But, because it’s within the domain, where this space is under its control, it can easily leverage the ‘vibration trait’ to shatter the space, causing incredibly strong damage!”

“Yes, the core of this Stone Buddha Domain is the stone Buddha, which the ape shapes with the artistic conception of Buddha, along with several traits it has mastered and fused to arm the stone Buddha.”

“Stone Buddha Domain, the Buddha’s palm, shatters the space!”

“Is this really something a pet beast at level 50-plus can do?” Lu Ran’s mouth twitched with disbelief. “So, just how powerful are those level 80 Flame Dragon Kings?”

Seeing the astonishment on the faces of the Strongest Fourth Generation and Erha in front of him, Shi Zhen couldn’t help but smile triumphantly. Showing off his knowledge felt incredibly satisfying.

“Well, it’s actually just a domain prototype,” Shi Zhen explained. “It’s said that a fully developed domain can modify the rules within it. For example, it can make all creatures within the domain unaffected by planetary gravity or unable to use natural energy. It would truly isolate them from the external world’s rules.”

“In fact, the powers mastered by those creator divine beasts in the Myth and Legend of the Star-Moon Continent are, in essence, a form of domain. The only difference is that their domain encompasses the entire world,” Shi Zhen continued.

“Of course, this sounds simple when I describe it, but whether a pet beast can master a domain still depends on its Talent. For instance, the resonance between energy and space, or making skills become the framework of the domain-these mystical feelings are impossible to achieve without innate talent.”

“Among my group of pet beasts, only the Ape Sovereign can master a domain. Even internationally, experts who are proficient in domains only have a few pet beasts that can grasp Domain Skills. It’s not something every pet beast can learn.”

“Woof!” General Ha looked thoughtfully at the giant Buddha, subconsciously imagining the Buddha’s head replaced with its own dog head.

So cool! It wants to learn a domain!

“So, did you gain anything from this? If you did, shall we move on to study the pig transformation curse?” Shi Zhen seemed quite interested in this topic.

“Ah-” Lu Ran was momentarily taken aback and said, “I just realized I forgot to take the pills that increase Comprehension for myself and my pet beasts… Can we go through it one more time?”

Shi Zhen: ???