King of Beasts

Knowing that the Black Turtle was safe and even growing stronger with the resources from the Fishman Empire, Lu Ran felt relieved.

His only concern was whether the Black Turtle might betray them in the future.

In his eyes, there was no Green Sea King anymore, only the Fishman King.

However, Lu Ran could accept this, as long as the Black Turtle was safe. It didn’t matter where it was.

As the Green Sea King, his main approach was to respect the wishes of his subordinates. As long as they weren’t against him, there was no problem.

When the time came, and he had the strength to seek out the Black Turtle, if it wished to retire and return, he would bring it back.

If it didn’t want to, then so be it. Considering their old acquaintance, he might even sponsor the Black Turtle with more resources to help it live better in the Fishman Empire.

Rising under the Fishman King, above all fish, step by step, reaching the top… becoming the influential Turtle Prime Minister, Lu Ran was supportive of that.

Having a familiar beast in the ocean would make things more convenient.

But knowing the Black Turtle, it probably still preferred a peaceful life.

Becoming a general of the empire might have been due to various reasons, perhaps out of desperation.

“Ah, what a sin.”

“It’s like I’ve planted an undercover agent in the Fishman Empire…” Lu Ran shook his head.

“You got a bargain and still act coy,” Manager Ying said. “Having an ocean empire maintain a general for you, what more could you want…”

“That’s not the point…” Lu Ran replied. “By the way, how is Lujia Village doing?”

Lu Ran’s thoughts turned to the situation in Lujia Village.

The matter with the Black Turtle made it clear that his own power was still too weak.

Not just his personal combat power.

But his power in general.

This time it was fine with the Fishman Empire, as they were only interested in the Black Turtle’s potential to switch sides.

But if in the future, enemies targeted his people or beasts… Lu Ran wasn’t a god, he couldn’t cover everything perfectly.

This time, Manager Ying had gone out with him, giving the Fishman Empire an opportunity to exploit.

However, if by this time the Crow army had already formed its combat power, with thousands of crows gathering to execute a legion skill, even without the Dark Crow itself here, a mere Fishman couldn’t stir up any trouble.

Strengthening his power was urgent.

“Not bad,” Manager Ying nodded.

Over time, Lujia Village has risen remarkably fast.

There are now nine level 1 beastmasters and 241 apprentice beastmasters.

Among the apprentices, three teams can now team up to tackle the abyssal difficulty in the novice secret realm. Those capable of challenging more difficult realms are even more numerous, nearly everyone else can participate.

Even some major guilds do not possess such a foundation of newcomers.

Achieving this was not solely due to the resources invested by Lu Ran.

A significant factor is that Lujia Village is a joint venture between Lu Ran and Manager Ying.

Many special pieces of intelligence from the cat-eared maid café have been made freely available to Lujia Village.

This prior experience and strategies for conquering secret realms are why Lujia Village has been able to rise so quickly.

“Indeed, not bad at all,” Lu Ran murmured.

Relying solely on new blood, this level of strength, though perhaps not on par with established guilds, is not far behind.

Of course, besides intelligence and resources, the real key is the innate talent of the people in Lujia Village.

Most are born hunters.

For such individuals, becoming beastmasters is as natural as fish taking to water.

Without talent, it’s impossible to convert resources into strength.

However, more than their strength, Lu Ran is concerned about their faith. Only by gathering enough Power of Faith can he find the divine deer.

Of course, strength is also crucial; after all, the more powerful they are, the more Power of Faith they can offer at the same level of devotion.

“I’ll contact those nine level 1 beastmasters next; they haven’t formed a contract with a second pet beast yet,” Lu Ran said.

“It’s time to establish the planned Jiao Dragon team.”

“The abyssal difficulty of the secret realm is not their ultimate goal; they should pursue the Legendary Secret Realm!”

“I don’t know, you contact them yourself,” Manager Ying said. “If that’s all, then I’ll go ahead…”

“Hey, wait!”

Lu Ran quickly stopped it.

“If there’s any intelligence from the necromancy side, remember to contact me.”

Lujia Village, Green Sea, and the Department of Necromancy.

These three are among the few forces directly under Lu Ran, and he plans to focus on developing them quickly.

Lujia Village is responsible for the strategy of conquering Infinite City.

Ordinary villagers handle the strategy for dungeons ranging from ordinary to abyssal difficulty, harvesting common resources.

The Jiao Dragon team handles the strategy for dungeons of legendary difficulty, obtaining legendary resources.

As for the generals of the Green Sea, they are responsible for matters on Blue Star.

In the future, they will be reserved for expanding territory and exploring unknown lands.

As for the Department of Necromancy…

Lu Ran feels it could be merged with Lujia Village.

If a pet beast of a beastmaster from Lujia Village dies in battle, the beastmaster can directly change classes to become a necromancer.

In this way, each pet beast essentially has two lives. Who can compete with that?

The foundational advantage of Lujia Village will snowball, growing ever larger.

Of course, apart from that, some of the powerful beastmasters of Xia Country whose pet beasts die will certainly rely on necromancy.

Relying on necromancy is essentially relying on him.

With interests intertwined, loyalty can be sufficiently ensured. Through these powerful individuals, he seems to be able to quickly rally a significant force in terms of high-end combat capabilities.

However, the First Generation, Second Generation, and Third Generation that have survived up to now are all extremely cautious.

Since Gu Qingyi obtained a batch of death revival skill cards, the biggest reason she hasn’t yet established a Department of Necromancy, aside from not being able to control necromancy well, is that there hasn’t been a death of a pet beast belonging to a beastmaster with extraordinary potential.

The death revival skill cards remain unused.

Among the Fourth Generation beastmasters, instances of pet beast deaths are frequent, but the number of death revival skill cards is limited.

Unless it involves a Fourth Generation with exceptional talent, no one is willing to act charitably by distributing these rare skill cards to the mediocre.

Of course, there are some important conditions for changing class to a necromancer.

One is that the individual still has the opportunity to learn beast taming skills. If they no longer have a skill bar, that’s unfortunate.

Additionally, the pet beast’s corpse must still be present, and the death must have been recent.

Typically, a pet beast’s soul remains within its body for 3 to 7 days after death.

During this period, it is possible to revive them using death revival.

If this time is exceeded, even a skill card cannot bring them back.

Of course, if the soul of a pet beast is directly slain, such as being killed by General Ha’s Soul-Cleaving Sword Intent, or if its body is obliterated without a trace, blown to nothingness, it is highly unlikely to be revived.

These conditions together are undoubtedly very strict and not something that can be achieved casually.

“I understand,” Manager Ying nodded after listening.

“That reminds me,” she added.

“Did you see the news last night?”

“What happened?”

“Look.”

Lu Ran grimaced, pulled out his smartphone, and began scrolling.

“Search for ‘Four Saints Guild’.”

Lu Ran murmured a “huh?” and started searching.

Moments later, Lu Ran’s expression froze.

[“Leader Bai Qi of the Four Saints Guild encounters a Level 52 Space public BOSS-four combat pets killed!”]

[“One of the Four Major Guilds in Infinite City No.5, the Four Saints Guild, falls?!”]

[“Reviewing the brilliant achievements and the top five combat pets of second-generation beastmaster Bai Qi…”]

“What’s going on here?” Lu Ran delved deeper.

It turns out that the guild team from the Four Saints Guild was gathering materials in a public secret realm when a Level 52 Space species BOSS suddenly appeared.

Although there were five members in this team, even the strongest among them, leader Bai Qi, was only a level 4 beastmaster, with none of his combat pets reaching level 50.

As one can imagine, faced with a sovereign species Space BOSS, the fate of this team was sealed.

In a desperate bid for escape, leader Bai Qi, at the cost of the lives of his four combat pets, managed to momentarily repel the BOSS and break free from the spatial constraints, allowing the entire team to teleport to safety.

Aside from Bai Qi, other guild elites also lost their combat pets, but these individuals were not as renowned, so they were mentioned less.

“That’s some bad luck…” Lu Ran shook his head.

Encountering a randomly spawned public BOSS, it’s hard to tell if it’s good or bad luck.

“What do you mean?”

“This leader Bai Qi of the Four Saints Guild should meet the prerequisites to become a necromancer, according to my intelligence. He has currently developed and specialized in three beast taming skills only.”

“The others, unfortunately, have a full set of more varied skills.”

“I’m not sure if Gu Qingyi will reach out to him, since the Four Saints Guild isn’t part of the official strategy team and is more of a grassroots guild. Plus, there’s some controversy surrounding the origins of the Four Saints Guild…”

“So, you’re saying I could approach him?” Lu Ran asked, puzzled.

Manager Ying’s lips curled into a smile, saying, “Aren’t you in dire need of your own exclusive power? Although Bai Qi’s family background isn’t clean, it doesn’t really concern him; it was all his parents’ generation.”

“And, timely enough, he’s been whitewashed

1

.”

“Moreover, Bai Qi’s character is acceptable. He had the opportunity to use guild members as bait to escape, yet he chose to confront the boss head-on. I’ve also checked his past reputation, and it’s satisfactory.”

“However, with the recent massive deaths of his main pet beasts, he’s in a tough spot. Without his core combat power, the decline of the Four Saints Guild isn’t far off. In the business world, as the Four Saints Guild falls, it’s likely to be swallowed up by competing groups soon.”

“Now, if you could lend him a hand, you might just gain a powerful general.”

“Of course, that’s not the main reason.”

“It’s because his younger sister, ‘Bai Ling’, is quite pretty, and she’s been through the same breakthrough secret realm as you. I was worried you might miss this news and lose the chance to offer timely help, which might lead to a potential girlfriend for you later on.” Manager Ying grinned mischievously.

“Scram.” Lu Ran glared, knowing full well Manager Ying had a mischievous side.

He wasn’t at all familiar with Bai Ling.

Like Pluto, Bai Ling was a second-generation beastmaster who performed well in the Freshman Tournament-decent, but not outstanding. Now, without any backing, her resources would likely dwindle.

…Besides, even if he were looking for a girlfriend, he wouldn’t choose a daughter of the underworld.

He preferred women much stronger than himself, ideally surpassing him in every aspect of talent and strength.

Yet Lu Ran narcissistically thought that such women would be hard to find.

And even if he did find one, she probably wouldn’t be interested in him.

“Do you really think he’s a good fit?” Lu Ran asked.

“Why not predict his future interactions with necromancy?”

Manager Ying: ?

“Scram!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll discuss it with Dr. Gu. If she thinks it’s fine, I’ll reach out to Bai Ling…”

To recruit the first necromancer and establish The Other Shore in Xia Country!

“Hmm?” Lu Ran and Gu Qingyi had just parted ways not long ago.

Gu Qingyi was previously part of the team escorting Lu Ran.

Now, receiving a call from Lu Ran, Gu Qingyi was slightly surprised. However, as Lu Ran explained the matter regarding “Bai Qi,” Gu Qingyi quickly understood and said:

“Oh, I also obtained that intelligence.”

“But at the time, I was abroad and didn’t have the opportunity to follow up. I had planned to investigate after returning.”

“The main reason, actually, is that I’m not very familiar with this Bai Qi. You know, necromancy is a sensitive issue, and we can’t just choose anyone for it.”

“But since Manager Ying said there shouldn’t be any major issues with him, then there probably aren’t, right?” Gu Qingyi said. “So, are you going to contact him to see?”

“If you’re going, I can provide you with a tool.”

“What tool?” Lu Ran asked.

“An exquisite-level tool-the Heart-Seeking Stone. It was acquired by a First Generation who ended up as an examiner while recruiting new disciples. He took the Heart-Seeking Stone from the forces of a colossal beast taming entity in the breakthrough secret realm before he left. It’s a bit less potent than you, but still very… impressive.”

“The Heart-Seeking Stone has always been a national treasure-level tool used officially for interrogating special personnel. If you need it, I can get it for you to use, so you can see if Bai Qi is suitable for recruitment.”

“OK, I need it,” Lu Ran said.

“Alright, I’ll send it over to you.”

Lu Ran: ????

Gu Qingyi: “Cat Ears Express, guaranteed delivery.”

Let Manager Ying’s clone do the delivery, then!

…

That same day.

The Heart-Seeking Stone was delivered into Lu Ran’s hands.

Holding the stone, Lu Ran found it quite novel.

The principle of the stone was simple, similar to a lie detector. If it detected that the target was lying, it would change temperature and vibrate.

To be honest, it seemed a bit underwhelming for something of exquisite-level.

Lu Ran had a hundred ways to lie while telling the truth.

However, this is only useful if you know someone is trying to probe with questions. If you’re unaware, it still holds some utility.

After Manager Ying’s explanation, Lu Ran realized that its high level wasn’t due to its functions, but because it could detect targets regardless of their level.

“Manager Ying, am I excellent?” Lu Ran asked, playing with the Heart-Seeking Stone that resembled a pebble, just as Manager Ying was about to leave.

Manager Ying: ?

“Average.”

The next moment, the stone felt cold and shivered.

“You’re lying.”

“That’s enough.” Manager Ying, with a fierce look, had never seen such a shameless person before, huffily turned to leave.

“Cloud baby, am I handsome??”

Lu Ran then asked the weather elf lying in the ice cream.

“Pitter-patter?” The weather elf looked up blankly, then nodded.

The stone remained unchanged.

A great item, sadly, it belongs to the state; otherwise, he would want one too…

“What should I wear to meet Bai Qi?” At this moment, Lu Ran, having acquired an important item, rifled through his clothes and paused upon seeing the necromancy robe. He coughed, deciding that while it matched the vibe, it was too likely to attract police attention.

He opted for the harmless Erha T-shirt instead, to avoid scaring Bai Qi and prompting a police call.

Footnote:

1. Whitewashed(洗白):

   In Chinese, the term ‘洗白’ (xǐ bái) is akin to the English term ‘whitewashed.’ It means to clean up or cover up one’s past misdeeds or illegal activities to appear legitimate or respectable.