King of Beasts

Having learned important information, Lu Ran continued to inquire.

“Where is the actual location of the necromancy secret realm?”

Knowing about the key was useless without knowing the location.

Pan Kai said, “It’s on a small island in South America, that’s where The Other Shore’s headquarters are.”

Lu Ran turned and exchanged glances with Gu Qingyi.

At that moment, Dr. Sean added, “Before we arrived, there was just a coup within The Other Shore.”

“Now, the necromancers who remain at headquarters are all hoping to collaborate with Your Excellency Lu Ran.”

“Only a very small fraction of necromancers, due to various reasons, do not wish for The Other Shore to cooperate with Xia Country, but these individuals are in the minority and have already left The Other Shore under the pressure of the prevailing situation.”

“Of course, I think these are the people we need to be most cautious about; they are not deeply involved in necromancy and have complex backgrounds, tied to various autocratic small nations and multinational corporations, true ambition seekers.”

“I can accept a collaboration,” Lu Ran said in response to Dr. Sean. “However, such collaboration cannot be overt. I can offer protection to The Other Shore, but the method of protection won’t be ‘gentle.’”

“Next, The Other Shore will be ‘smashed,’ and most of its personnel will be ‘captured and arrested.’”

“I understand,” Pan Kai said with no objections. “However, there might be some who won’t accept this. They might be okay with collaborating, but certainly not with having their fates controlled by someone else, or even changing their identities.”

“Then we won’t cooperate with them.”

Lu Ran tossed a spirit-storing ring to Pan Kai, saying, “This ring contains 100 harmless souls that can be used as food, as a token of my sincerity. Whether you can persuade those people is up to you.”

An international crime organization looking to go legitimate is an indispensable step.

When forced to join The Other Shore, those who can be legitimized will be cleaned immediately, just like Lu Ran’s parents, who were also victims.

With some fresh blood on his hands, even a necromancer, who is still human after all, has a moral compass. Most people would find some justification for their actions, especially if it involved leveling up by killing beastmasters. They would likely target corrupt bureaucrats or sin-ridden beastmasters first, labeling their actions as removing a menace to the people, to mitigate their own guilt.

“I’m just killing the bad guys and consuming their souls incidentally.”

Lu Ran found this kind of rationale completely acceptable.

However, he was not willing to collaborate with those utterly devoid of moral standards. Even Lu Ran, whose moral standards weren’t particularly high, recognized that associating with such individuals could only bring risk.

Nevertheless, Lu Ran believed that such people likely lacked the willpower to sustain their undertakings for long; they probably went mad and got dealt with already.

Without surprises, Lu Ran felt that there would be another bout of internal strife within The Other Shore.

“Harmless soul…” In an instant, Pan Kai’s attention was wholly captured by the ring in his hand. He swallowed hard, resisting the urge to immediately send his pet beast to devour the soul.

To stay lucid, he had refrained from sending his pet beast into battle for a long time, worried about excessive exhaustion. But now, he was in desperate need of sustenance!

“Could you tell me more about the specific conditions within the necromancer’s secret realm?” Lu Ran asked.

The specific conditions of the necromancer’s secret realm…

Holding the ring, Pan Kai looked at Lu Ran and replied, “The necromancer’s secret realm has no level restrictions. Anyone can challenge it indefinitely. The realm adapts to the beastmaster’s level, spawning initial enemies accordingly. Upon victory, stronger enemies are refreshed.”

Lu Ran: ?

That sounds awfully familiar.

Wasn’t that what those who bred pandas said?

Could it be that all real-world secret realms operate on this same mechanism?

However, unlike the “relatively safe” conditions described by the Youxiong Clan, Pan Kai continued, “This necromancer’s secret realm is still quite dangerous. The refreshed enemies are all necromancers, and their attacks are mostly soul-based.”

“There are many ways to heal physical injuries and resources for mental healing aren’t lacking, but the capabilities and resources for healing soul damage are almost nonexistent.”

“To recover, one must slowly heal by devouring souls, but this requires the consumption of a large number of souls and can impact one’s mental state.”

“So, attempting this secret realm is very dangerous, and it’s best to meet the minimum clearance standards and then retreat.”

“Do not try to pursue the highest rating.”

“Since no one has ever achieved the highest rating, I’m not even sure what the best rewards it can drop are.”

“However, even an ordinary clearance will at least drop a ‘death revival’ skill card, and if one performs slightly better, a trait crystal ‘soul burn’ might also be obtained.”

“This trait crystal is actually quite mediocre, as it merely intensifies the burning of soul power to achieve greater explosive power, but as I mentioned earlier, since there are currently no means to heal the soul, who would want to use such a trait? Its tactical value is even far less than adding a secondary attribute to a necromantic pet beast.”

“Right-“

Hearing this, Lu Ran also disregarded this trait, even though his pet beast wouldn’t be affected by devouring souls, and even though he could create healing soul cuisine, he simply wasn’t interested in a purely explosive trait.

Why waste a trait slot on fusion traits when he could just as well practice energy compression techniques? Indeed, these repeatedly obtainable traits do have their limitations.

However, after listening to the description, Lu Ran quickly identified another oversight.

“Since the necromantic secret realm is full of dead things, must the aura of death there be very strong?”

“Exactly… The background of this necromantic secret realm is said to be a legendary battlefield, so it’s filled with the aura of death everywhere.”

Lu Ran: “!!!”

Lu Ran was surprised and pleased to hear this.

He knew that to nurture an artifact spirit, he needed to find places with a high concentration of the aura of death, especially those where many supernatural beings had died.

On Blue Star, such places are rare, and Lu Ran had been quite perplexed about where to choose.

After much consideration, Lu Ran realized that only the various secret realms in Infinite City resembled the places he needed. However, choosing a realm for nurturing artifact spirits posed a significant challenge, as it required frequent entry and exit, which was quite exhausting.

Unlike the external world where one could simply leave their weapon and walk away, perhaps leaving a security guard to watch over it.

Now, this real-world secret realm presented Lu Ran with another option.

Nurturing artifact spirit site +1.

Though still a secret realm type and exhausting, this legendary battlefield, bustling with necromancy creatures, seemed quite suitable due to the quality of its death breath, which might significantly reduce the nurturing time.

This, in turn, provided another compelling reason to take over The Other Shore headquarters.

At this moment, The Other Shore’s exclusive secret realm, aside from being a prime spot for acquiring death skill books, had also become a nurturing site for artifact spirits in Lu Ran’s eyes.

“Say… can I try this out?” Pan Kai couldn’t help but ask, holding the ring, just as desperate as he had described over the phone.

Lu Ran remained silent for a moment before saying, “Alright, let’s leave it at that, we’ll meet in person.”

With that, he glanced at Dr. Gu and the cat. In an instant, the cat teleported them away from there.

Inside the cat-eared maid café.

Manager Ying smacked her lips and said, “So next…”

“Leave the next steps to me,” Gu Qingyi interjected. “Lu Ran will wait in Green Sea City while I lead a group of the First Generation to South America to secure our territory. Once things are stable there, you can look for an opportunity to join us.”

“Okay,” Lu Ran nodded.

“I’ll stay in Green Sea for now and forge weapons for General Ha,” he continued.

“Then, continue to deal with more ferocious beast souls and forge more spirit-storing rings.”

“Yes,” Gu Qingyi nodded.

After all, the next step was to take over The Other Shore. These people, likely joining Lu Ran mostly for the harmless souls, would need some incentive to willingly work for him.

As for the ferocious beasts themselves and the materials for forging the spirit-storing rings, most would be provided by Xia Country.

Reliance solely on Lu Ran’s own resources and Bai Qi of the Netherworld Department’s hunting speed was far from sufficient.

This process would also allow Lu Ran to further refine his mind sword intent and Soul Forging technique.

The matter concerning The Other Shore was now fully entrusted to Dr. Gu, while Lu Ran returned to the Green Sea.

Upon his return to the Green Sea, Lu Ran had intended to continue his Soul Forging practice; however, a sudden thought prompted him to ask Manager Ying’s clone, who was overseeing a weather elf:

“Has the queen ant egg not been traded yet?”

“The queen ant egg has been traded, but I haven’t found the right resources for you yet,” Manager Ying looked up.

Lu Ran: ???

“What did they exchange for the queen ant egg?”

“Nutritional supplements for my main body,” Manager Ying said eagerly. “When I find the right resources for you, I’ll buy them with money. Haven’t I already given you two exquisite minerals as a deposit?”

After a moment of silence, Lu Ran said, “Forget it.”

“Who was the queen ant egg traded to then?”

“Lin Nian.”

“Her??”

“She’s a superhuman. She doesn’t need mental or pet beasts but instead wants metal and rock species queen ant eggs. It seems superhumans can command a legion more easily than ordinary beastmasters.”

“To be precise, Lin Nian wanted it for her older sister, Lin Yin,” Manager Ying shrugged. “You know, Lin Yin has started challenging the Legendary Secret Realm. She only had one pet beast, but now with another sovereign species pet beast, it’ll be a lot easier for her.”

“Damn it-“

“What are you cursing about?” Manager Ying asked, puzzled.

Lu Ran looked at her: “Fang Lan teamed up with Lin Yin, and if she sees the queen ant egg I found going to Lin Yin, how awkward would that be… Summer was already upset when she came to the Green Sea… Why did you sell it to Lin Nian?”

Manager Ying looked disdainfully at Lu Ran and said, “You have good things and don’t think of your own sister first, letting me sell them off, and now you come complaining to me!”

“Fang Lan’s contract slot is full right now, giving her the queen ant egg is useless… Once she reaches level 2, I’ll find a poison species sovereign hatchling for her,” Lu Ran retorted.

“Forget it, I’m off to forge-“

At this time.

There were 5 days until the next Evolution Secret Realm opened.

There were 16 days until the fourth Evolution Secret Realm opened.

Lu Ran felt that General Ha should skip evolving in the third Evolution Secret Realm since 5 days was too short a time, and it probably wouldn’t make much progress.

He decided it was better to catch the last call for the Evolution Secret Realm and take General Ha to evolve in the upcoming last Evolution Secret Realm.

Half a month later, after General Ha had evolved, Lu Ran was also ready to enter the level 2 Breakthrough Secret Realm to become a level 3 beastmaster.