King of Beasts

Afterwards, Lu Ran stayed at the Shi Family’s residence, where he was well-treated with excellent food and accommodations.

The Shi Family took Lu Ran’s matters very seriously. That same day, the Second Elder of the Shi Family drove to the Plant Taming Family, the Teng Family, in Tree Realm City to inquire about the awakening of sword grass for Lu Ran.

Simultaneously, the Third Elder of the Shi Family went to the City Lord’s Mansion to apply for early access to the Death Forest for Lu Ran.

That night.

The Shi Family hosted a banquet to welcome Lu Ran. At the banquet, Lu Ran met more of the younger generation of the Shi Family, including the cousin mentioned by Shi Ze…

However, despite the Shi Family’s matchmaking efforts, this wild and spirited woman paid little attention to Lu Ran, unlike the fawning elders of the Shi Family. She left immediately after finishing her meal.

In fact, not everyone tries to curry favor with beastmasters who have influential backgrounds. Lu Ran quite appreciated such people because he himself lacked this admirable quality.

At this moment, while eating, Lu Ran’s thoughts drifted to apprenticing under the legendary Plantmaster.

To quickly master the cultivation of plant life, apprenticing under a legendary expert was undoubtedly the fastest method. Just like when he apprenticed under a legendary necromancer and became the Holy Son of the Holy Church, it instantly advanced his understanding of necromancy far beyond anything on the blue star.

The same principle applied now; if he could apprentice under the City Lord, his exploration of this world would progress significantly.

“Lu-Ge, my cousin is just like that, don’t mind her. By the way, your pet beast is dual-element with wind and ice, right? I’ll send its food over to you later,” Shi Ze said, holding a wine glass and trying to clink it with Lu Ran’s glass of orange juice.

“Bottoms up.” Lu Ran drank the orange juice in one go.

…

In a secluded courtyard of the Shi Family.

After Lu Ran returned, the Second Elder of the Shi Family, accompanied by Shi Ze, visited him.

First, they brought some rare meats and vegetables suitable for wind and ice canine beasts. Second, they brought important intelligence for Lu Ran.

The thin, Second Elder of the Shi Family sat on a chair, looking at Lu Ran sitting nearby, and said, “I’ve found out for you!”

“What is it?” Lu Ran’s eyes lit up.

Beside him, Shi Ze also listened attentively.

“There’s a legend that far to the west, on the vast green plains, there’s a super city similar to Tree Realm City called Myriad Leaf City.”

“In Myriad Leaf City, there’s a Plant Taming family known as the Ji Family.”

“The members of this family mainly contract sword grass!”

“If you want to know the method for sword grass awakening, they might have some knowledge.”

“How far is Myriad Leaf City from Tree Realm City?” Lu Ran asked.

“If you ride a wind-element flying pet beast and travel day and night, you can reach it in less than half a month,” the Second Elder said.

Lu Ran: ????

Forget it.

I don’t have enough time!

“Besides this information, the Teng Family also gave me a hypothesis.”

“That is, to awaken a plant, it needs an excellent growth environment, and secondly, its characteristics must be honed to the extreme!”

“What do you mean?” Lu Ran asked.

“For example, your sword grass was pulled directly by you… Even though you have preservation methods, it’s very difficult for it to develop sapience after being removed from its original growth environment.”

“Moreover, each plant has its own characteristics. For example, the Dragon Blood Willow’s characteristic is that it grows quickly and robustly by absorbing dragon blood.”

“So, for the Dragon Blood Willow to develop sapience, it absolutely needs a large amount of dragon blood.”

“Similarly, for sword grass, its characteristic is its sharpness, cutting through everything.”

“Therefore, the Teng Family suspects that to awaken the sword grass’s sapience, it needs to cut through a significant number of living creatures, or perhaps, cut through something specific.”

Lu Ran fell into deep thought. This theory should be a continuation of the second awakening method mentioned earlier by the Shi Family.

Different plants have different awakening conditions.

For the awakening of sword grass, outsiders speculate that it involves cutting!

However, the key seems to be what it needs to cut.

Just like the Dragon Blood Willow needs dragon blood, pig blood or dog blood would be completely ineffective.

Just as the corpse dog needed to keep killing souls to speed up the nurturance of a spirit; if it hacked at stones and trees, it wouldn’t speed up at all.

In that case, for sword grass to awaken, does it need to cut specific things too?

What could those be?

Animals, plants, souls, metal elements?

Although it’s unclear what exactly needs to be cut to accelerate the sword grass’s development of a spirit, and it’s uncertain whether this method is correct, at least the Shi Family provided Lu Ran with a line of thought.

Next, he could try letting the sword grass cut various unusual things, expanding its range of activities.

As for the sword grass’s growth environment, Lu Ran thought the Spirit Transformation Pot was quite suitable. After being in it for a few months, the sword grass hadn’t withered; instead, it became even sharper.

It really became a Sword Nourishing Pot.

This had resulted in Lu Ran not using the Spirit Transformation Pot to enhance his meals for a long time.

Of course, this was also because Lu Ran had become more affluent and could directly buy fresh food, reducing his need for the Spirit Transformation Pot.

After thanking the Second Elder of the Shi Family for the information, the Second Elder left Lu Ran’s place. However, Shi Ze didn’t leave immediately and instead smiled while looking at Lu Ran.

“Lu-Ge, do you think the food is enough?”

“I’ve never fed an overlord species pet beast before, so I’m not sure about its appetite…”

Shi Ze pointed to the boxes of rare dog food brought into the courtyard and said, “If it’s not enough, I can get more delivered.”

“It’s enough; I still have a lot of food here,” Lu Ran smiled and wasn’t particularly concerned about such minor matters.

Shi Ze sighed and said, “Lu-Ge, raising an overlord species pet beast surely isn’t cheap, right?”

The higher the species level and growth level of a pet beast, the greater its nutritional needs for each meal.

Ordinary people really can’t afford it.

If the diet is inadequate, the pet beast’s growth level won’t increase, and it might be too weak to fight in battles due to hunger.

In this case, plant life, which can survive by rooting in fertile soil and absorbing sunlight and water, indeed has a considerable advantage over animal life.

“It’s manageable,” Lu Ran said. “As long as you’re strong enough, earning resources is quite fast.”

“Exactly.” Shi Ze nodded and then asked, “Lu-Ge, I heard that overlord species pet beasts can remodel their bodies and optimize their bloodline. Is that true???”

Clearly, Shi Ze’s interest in Lu Ran stemmed from wanting to learn more about overlord species from him.

“Hm… yes, that’s correct. However, the corresponding abilities need to be developed by the pet beast itself.”

“For example, my canine beast is still young, so it hasn’t learned these abilities yet.”

“It’s true then!” Shi Ze’s eyes lit up.

The unique aspect of a sovereign species is its inherent ability to exert a tangible deterrent effect. Its sovereign aura can easily crush the spirits of weaker creatures.

On the other hand, the special aspect of an overlord species is not just its high control over attribute energies, but also its exceptional control over its own body.

Overlord species are incredibly adaptive. If they need to fly, they will quickly evolve true wings. If they need to resist cold, their bodies will rapidly evolve extremely cold-resistant fur. They can be considered perfect creatures in nature.

Furthermore, if they want to conserve energy and life force, they can enter a “hibernation state” at any time, similar to hibernation, reducing energy consumption. They can survive for a very long time, with any random overlord species being able to sleep for centuries without issues.

The ancient creatures of Blue Star that have survived to the present day are mostly overlord species, thanks to this ability.

As for Lu Ran, his sudden death king, dark crow, and General Ha have just evolved and haven’t even fully mastered their energy techniques. Therefore, Lu Ran hasn’t rushed to have them develop the true abilities of overlord species, such as body control.

He plans to do so in the future.

For example, the sudden death king currently has a massive body.

This results in high energy consumption, even for simple activities like sitting down to watch a movie.

If not for Lu Ran and Infinite City providing sustenance, finding food on Blue Star would be difficult for them, and they’d likely spend most of their time in hibernation.

Therefore, Lu Ran hopes that when the time comes, they can develop an ability similar to the “amplification trait” through body control.

This would allow them to shrink their bodies a bit.

In daily activities, they could stay in their shrunken state to conserve energy.

Then, during battles, they could return to their main body to unleash their full power.

This way, their range of activities could be greatly expanded.

The advantage of the overlord species lies here: as long as you are willing to develop your body control abilities, it’s like getting a “miniaturization trait” for free.

“It’s really amazing,” Shi Ze sighed. “I wish my Moon Swallowing Dog could evolve into an overlord species someday!”

“I really want it to evolve three heads.”

Lu Ran: ?

“Didn’t you say your canine beast has the bloodline of the legendary creature ‘Moon Swallower’? Why are you aiming for it to evolve into a three-headed dog?”

Shi Ze chuckled, “There’s no way it has the Moon Swallower bloodline. It’s probably just our ancestors boasting about their pet beasts. The offspring of legendary creatures are generally Pseudo-legendary species, and even with a diluted bloodline, they’re likely overlords.”

“Our family’s canine beasts were bred from the supernatural species. If they were descended from legends, they wouldn’t be doing so poorly.”

“As for the three-headed dog, it just looks so cool. We beastmasters are supposed to make our pet beasts more unique and powerful than anyone else’s.”

“Well, that’s one way to put it…” Lu Ran’s mouth twitched slightly. Most creatures evolve with a purpose, like dogs evolving into werewolves to better use weapons. But you want it to evolve three heads just for the sake of being special.

Previously, he hadn’t noticed, but now it seemed Shi Ze might just be another spoiled son of a wealthy family.

“Enough said, Lu-Ge. I also found the books you wanted. It’s getting late, so you should rest!”

Not long after, Shi Ze bid farewell to Lu Ran. Lu Ran lay down on his bed, yawning and starting to read.

More specifically, he was looking at a plant encyclopedia.

Having arrived at the Divine Tree Continent, he definitely needed to cram some knowledge quickly.

Although he had some prior understanding, it was too limited.

Different times and places require understanding things that aren’t universally the same.

“These ferocious plants have abilities that are much more complex than those of animals.”

Lu Ran flipped through the pages with curiosity.

For instance, he came across a ferocious plant called the “parasitic mushroom.”

When any living organism comes into contact with it, mushrooms start to grow on the body. These mushrooms then absorb the life force of the organism to grow.

He also discovered a ferocious plant known as the “bone-melting grass.”

It’s a deadly weapon against bones; if ingested accidentally, the creature’s skeleton will quickly dissolve. Even creatures with the hardest bones can’t easily resist its power.

These bizarre ferocious plants, if they were to evolve into living creatures, would have nearly indefensible abilities, which explains why animals can end up as prey.

“Wait a minute!” Lu Ran suddenly stopped flipping through the pages.

“The abilities of these ferocious plants are almost as strange as curses.”

“Is it possible to extract their core abilities and turn them into real curses?”

As Lu Ran continued reading, a thought struck him.

Since the dark crow can analyze soul bones and awaken the pig transformation curse, could it also analyze these ferocious plants and convert their bizarre abilities into its own curses?

At the moment, compared to General Ha’s extreme output and the sudden death king’s extreme defense, the dark crow, although it has superior reconnaissance, has somewhat limited offensive methods, to be honest.

If it could have a variety of peculiar curses, even if its raw strength is not as great as its opponent’s, it could still potentially use the strangeness of its abilities to torment its enemies.

“This secret realm is really something,” Lu Ran mused. “I’ll look for some special ferocious plants for the dark crow to study.”

“I think the Ultimate Perception Trait would suit the dark crow quite well too…”