King of Beasts

No one expected that at this moment, the dark crow suddenly brought intelligence from the Black Turtle General.

Lu Ran put down his chopsticks and looked in astonishment at the dark crow that had just flown in from the balcony.

What did this guy just say?

At this moment, the dark crow had its eyes covered with a black cloth, seemingly to prevent its bleeding eyes from scaring the two beautiful ladies. However, while the cloth covered its eyes, it couldn’t hide its excited heart.

The dark crow gestured animatedly, continuing to ask, “Big king, what should we do?”

“That place doesn’t seem close.”

Lu Ran glanced at Dr. Gu and Manager Ying, who had also paused their meal. Both the person and the cat were lost in thought.

“I fused a new trait into the dark crow; its strength has significantly increased, which also seems to have brought about a transformation in its reconnaissance abilities.”

Lu Ran bit his finger, guessing that the dark crow had used the Evil God’s Eye during its “swarm form” to investigate.

Using the “parts” left by the Black Turtle, finding it was indeed possible and exciting. However, what was the old turtle doing in the Dragon Palace?

Logically, that Black Turtle should be fighting in the Fishman Empire right now, shouldn’t it?

“Your old turtle, with the Dragon’s Bloodline you nurtured, might have been captured by the Dragon Palace during its battle with the Fishman Empire,” Manager Ying sipped some fish soup to calm herself.

“Speaking of which, I suddenly recalled that our predicted scene was the Black Turtle leading tens of thousands of shrimp soldiers and crab generals. But according to recent intelligence, the shrimp soldiers and crab generals are primarily soldiers of the Dragon Palace, not the Fishman Empire.”

Lu Ran: ???

“Damn,” Lu Ran was speechless. “It’s just a turtle; why are the Fishman Empire and the Dragon Palace fighting over it?”

“Maybe it encountered a stroke of luck in the deep sea,” Gu Qingyi suggested. “The number of supernatural resources in the deep sea is several times that of the land.”

“Yes, yes!!” The dark crow suddenly remembered something. “When I caught a glimpse earlier, the Black Turtle General seemed different from before, looking much stronger. The purity of the Dragon’s Bloodline has improved significantly, not much different from the pet beasts in the Jiao Dragon team.”

“It must have had some fortuitous encounter.”

Lu Ran fell silent. With things as they were, what more could he say?

One can only say that the old turtle has a turbulent fate.

“Don’t worry just yet,” Gu Qingyi said. “Manager Ying’s foresight is unlikely to be wrong.”

“Yeah.” Lu Ran nodded.

He then took out the divine deer antler and began to heal the dark crow.

Golden-green healing waves filled the room, and both Gu Qingyi and Manager Ying paused as they looked at the antler in Lu Ran’s hand.

Manager Ying immediately jumped over to Lu Ran’s side to examine the antler.

“Thank you, big king.”

The dark crow, satisfied after its healing, flew away contentedly.

“This…,” Manager Ying exclaimed in disbelief at the sight of the divine deer antler. “Is it a legendary item?”

“No, it’s not a legend, but an epic-level item close to legend quality,” Gu Qingyi remarked.

“Yes, it’s an epic-level heirloom of Lujia Village, the divine deer antler,” Lu Ran explained casually. This was the first time he had shown this item to Manager Ying and Dr. Gu.

“It’s a healing-type epic item, so if you ever suffer severe injuries, just come to me.”

Lu Ran chuckled, feeling that the divine deer antler no longer needed to be kept hidden. His current strength was already on par with the second generation. Once General Ha and the others increased their levels and overcame a breakthrough secret realm, showcasing it for battle wouldn’t be a problem, as they would have enough strength to face any envy or covetousness.

“What a pity, though…” Manager Ying stared at the item in amazement and added, “Ruins space or divine deer antler, it’s always epic resources that can’t be used.”

“One is growth-type, and the other healing-type…”

“Hmm?”

“Oh,” Gu Qingyi chuckled, noticing Manager Ying’s longing look. “Manager Ying is probably thinking that if it were a recovery-type epic resource, borrowing some of its power might awaken her main body.”

“Why is it so troublesome for your main body to awaken? Haven’t many ancient creatures already awakened?” Lu Ran asked, puzzled.

“You don’t understand,” Manager Ying shook her head. “Every creature’s way of sleeping varies depending on the individual. Some creatures can awaken even in a state of hunger, while others need to restore themselves to peak condition before awakening. Overall, if my main body wakes up, its strength might not differ much from its peak state, or it could even be stronger, skipping many stages of power recovery.”

“It wouldn’t be like that giant snake in Africa, which needed to devour a whole country just to regain some strength.”

“Is that so,” Lu Ran replied skeptically, curious about how strong Manager Ying’s peak battle power truly was.

“Let’s just eat,” Manager Ying said, wiping away tears, sighing inwardly.

After finishing the meal, Lu Ran originally planned to continue preparing food for his pet beasts. However, an update from Infinite City interrupted him mid-preparation.

“Breaking news! Major updates are coming to the Infinite City arenas worldwide…”

[A brand-new battle mode update-it’s the dawn of an era where the strong become even stronger!]

[This update, I’d call it the biggest perk before the world battle!]

Honestly, Infinite City’s facilities received updates every month. What started as basic infrastructures gradually evolved to include arenas, guild buildings, shop rentals, and teleportation circles. People like Gu Qingyi, part of the First Generation, could truly appreciate the changes over the past three years.

However, not every upgrade in Infinite City stirred such intense discussion. The last time it was this lively was during special updates like the divine beast leaderboard, the Legendary Secret Realm, and the Evolution Secret Realm.

With constant TV broadcasts and phone news alerts, Lu Ran and the others immediately caught the headlines.

“I knew Infinite City wouldn’t just let Blue Star walk into a death trap,” Manager Ying remarked, staring at her phone screen.

“This update is indeed something,” Gu Qingyi said, mildly surprised.

“With this, the gap between Blue Star and the Star Moon Federation should close significantly in the short term.”

“It’s a great thing,” Lu Ran agreed, brightening up.

[Peak Arena]

This was the new mode just rolled out in the arenas.

The arena, ever since it was introduced, has been somewhat lackluster. It merely offered a stage for beastmasters to spar, without any special rewards. The format relied primarily on beastmasters placing “crystal coin bets” to make matches more interesting. As a result, top-tier players seldom engaged there, preferring to conquer frontline secret realms instead. After all, few would willingly give away free crystal coins to strong beastmasters. Comparatively, the rewards for tackling secret realms were far more substantial.

However, with the introduction of the Peak Arena, everything changed. Although the Peak Mode doesn’t offer crystal coins or resources as rewards, it provides something equally valuable: growth experience!

In the Peak Arena, opponents are randomly matched based on the beastmaster’s level. The winning side’s combat pet receives special rewards similar to those in the novice trial secret realm, allowing direct gains in growth experience and an increase in growth level. Conversely, the losing side faces penalties, with their pet’s growth experience decreasing. If the experience drops too low, their growth level will decline.

Upon this update, beastmasters quickly recognized the arena as Infinite City’s new tool for Blue Star’s beastmasters to level up. Currently, the Star Moon Federation’s strongest echelon of beastmasters stands at level 7 legends, while Blue Star’s top beastmasters are still struggling at level 5 breakthrough secret realms, not yet reaching level 6.

As pets reach higher growth levels, advancing becomes increasingly difficult. Without special mechanisms, it’s challenging for Blue Star’s beastmasters to catch up quickly with the Star Moon Federation.

This disparity in levels made Blue Star doubtful of their chances in the world battle. But now, the emergence of the Peak Arena has sparked a glimmer of hope among Blue Star’s beastmasters.

“With this, as long as I keep winning, my other pets might reach level 60 sooner than expected,” Gu Qingyi remarked, surprised by the news.

“This update came just in time,” Lu Ran commented. “Had it been delayed even a day, I would have used the enhancement card to boost upgrading-type resources for my pets’ growth levels.”

“Now, I can rely on the arena for growth level increases directly,” he continued. “As for resources, I can save upgrading-type resources to purchase other types, like Comprehension Enhancement resources.”

Gu Qingyi and Lu Ran exchanged a glance, nodded in agreement, and headed straight into Infinite City to try out the Peak Arena. At that moment, there were surely plenty of people queuing up for matches in the arena.

In no time, the room was left with just a puzzled cat on the couch, clutching a phone and wearing a bewildered expression. “Why are you two in such a hurry?!”

…

Infinite City No. 3.

After teleporting in, Lu Ran left his private room and made his way to the arena area. It was indeed packed with beastmasters, and the air was filled with the hum of discussions.

“Wow, so you can gain experience by winning matches? If I keep winning and there’s no bottleneck in leveling up my pet, could I, a Fourth Generation, stand shoulder to shoulder with the First Generation and even have a shot at the world battle?” one beastmaster exclaimed.

“You’re daydreaming! You can’t win every match,” another retorted.

“Someone just came out of a battle and said that the experience gained from a win isn’t much; you need a lot of victories to see noticeable improvement. When you really think about it, it still consumes resources, especially healing supplies.”

Lu Ran casually found an automatic registration pillar platform and began operating it like a touchscreen tablet.

[Welcome to the Beast Taming Arena.]

[Please select a battle mode.]

①: Normal Battle (includes scheduled room battles, plaza random battles)

②: Peak Battle (includes regular peak battle, extreme peak battle)

Lu Ran opted for number ②.

“Let’s see how effective this is. If I can quickly level General Ha up to level 40 here, it’ll save me a lot of hassle.”