King of Beasts

Boss Lu spent two days in Green Sea City.

During these two days, he mainly focused on training the dark crow and the black turtle.

He sourced a considerable amount of dark and mental resources from Infinite City for the dark crow.

As for the black turtle, it enjoyed two days of the same meals as the sudden death king—Dragon Cuisine!

The resources in the ocean are far richer than those on land.

The coastal waters of Green Sea City are considered part of Green Sea City’s territory.

Given this, Lu Ran naturally wouldn’t miss out on ocean resources.

He hadn’t bothered with them before because he wasn’t strong enough.

Now, as long as there are no deep sea ferocious beasts at level 40 or 50 in the coastal waters, controlling the area should be easy.

As a Dragon Chef, Lu Ran’s goal is to develop a stable Loong-type evolution path. One evolution case from the sudden death king isn’t enough to prove anything.

He needs a sufficient number of test samples.

When the time comes, the beast taming university, which provides Loong-type resources, will surely send a batch of test subjects.

But as a researcher, Lu Ran naturally has the right to increase the number of test subjects.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense to train the local beasts of Green Sea City during the research process.

In fact, the fire snake would be the best test subject. Being a snake and of the fire type, it’s very suitable for Dragon Cuisine cooked with Flame Dragon Culinary Intent. However, Lu Ran isn’t very familiar with it, so he naturally chose the old turtle, which he knows well and can trust relatively more, for cultivation first.

A few days later, as the new semester was about to start, Lu Ran returned to Sky City.

By this time, the Loong-type research institute dedicated to Lu Ran had already been built at the university. A Loong-type resource library had also been set up next to it, stocked with a large number of advanced and rare Loong-type resources.

There were even exquisite-level resources.

For instance, the Dragon King bird meat slices that Manager Ying had obtained earlier—Dr. Gu and Principal Shi Zhen had jointly provided 50 slices this time for Lu Ran’s preliminary research.

Seeing the room full of Loong-type ingredients, Lu Ran was dazzled. However, he knew that he shouldn’t handle these ingredients casually, like just grilling them.

Although that would technically still count as Dragon Cuisine, it would undoubtedly be the crudest form of Dragon Cuisine.

Now, facing such an abundance of Loong-type ingredients, Lu Ran needed to focus on creating complex dishes that combine multiple ingredients to generate more unique effects.

To research the Loong-type evolution path, this was paramount.

However, unfortunately, on Blue Star, there were no Dragon Chefs, and naturally, no Loong-type recipes. Lu Ran had to research and experiment on his own, making numerous attempts and learning from his mistakes.

Fortunately, with the Flame Sprite skill, Lu Ran could significantly reduce the cost of trial and error.

Additionally, certain recipes could be adapted from others. After returning, Lu Ran started by consulting some nutritional knowledge in the Beast Taming University’s library, studying the nutrition combinations in wind and snow-type cuisines, such as supernatural ice cream, ice jelly, and frozen fruit tea.

“Keep it up!”

“As long as I can evolve the first batch of Loong-types, everything will get easier.”

“By then, the next phase of research should be taken over by breeding researchers—figuring out how to make Loong-type pet beasts mate and produce more purebred Loong-types…”

Just as Lu Ran was waiting for the new semester to begin, a major event occurred in Infinite City!

An event significant enough to shake all nations.

In Xia Country’s Infinite City No. 1 to No. 7, beastmasters of all generations were busy with their own affairs.

Suddenly.

A system announcement echoed in their ears.

[Congratulations to level 3 beastmasters King of Ice, King of Snow, King of Cold, and King of Winter for clearing the level 3 legendary secret realm “Permafrost” and embarking on the path of legends.]

This announcement caused a sensation in Xia Country—no, it caused a global stir.

Unlike the prompts on the divine beast leaderboard, which were broadcast only within the Beastmaster Square of a single Infinite City, this announcement was broadcasted almost globally, with Infinite Cities in various countries receiving the broadcast.

It was similar to the major updates announced when the number of beastmasters reached 100,000 or 1,000,000.

“King of Ice, King of Snow, King of Cold, King of Winter? Who are they?”

In Xia Country, some fourth-generation beastmasters initially thought that a level 3 beastmaster team from their own country had cleared the legendary secret realm. But these four names were unfamiliar; no one recognized them.

“The Four Heavenly Kings of Ice and Snow—they are the top third-generation beastmasters from the Snowfield Federation, not from our country.”

“The Permafrost secret realm isn’t our secret realm.”

“Damn! Foreign beast taming teams have already cleared a legendary secret realm???”

Since the emergence of legendary secret realms, countries have been observing and some have started their own attempts to clear them.

However, it’s been nearly a week, and no word has come out about anyone successfully clearing a legendary secret realm.

Now, news has finally broken about a successful clearance, but what frustrates most countries is that the successful team isn’t from their own nation!

Especially for the Eagle Federation, this was a tough pill to swallow. Not only did Infinite City make such a high-profile global announcement about the first team to clear a legendary secret realm, but it turned out to be their old rivals.

After being repeatedly annoyed by Lu Ran and the Four Heavenly Kings of Snowfield, the top brass of the Eagle Federation were collectively fuming.

Outside.

Not long after this event came to light, Lu Ran paused his work and paid close attention, deeply surprised.

Although he didn’t know how difficult the Snowfield Federation’s level 3 legendary secret realm was, the level 3 legendary secret realm in Xia Country’s Infinite City had a BOSS that was a middle overlord species.

The opposing secret realm likely wasn’t any weaker.

This Ice and Snow Winter team was truly impressive.

These four were third-generation beastmasters from the Snowfield Federation?

In comparison, Lu Ran felt that Xia Country’s third-generation beastmasters were somewhat underwhelming.

No wonder the internet often said that the only strong generation in Xia Country was the First Generation.

The second and third generations of beastmasters in Xia Country were often considered unremarkable.

Unlike Xia Country’s situation of a generational gap, other nations might not have had a particularly strong First Generation, but their second and third generations were filled with powerful individuals.

This is also why Xia Country places greater emphasis on cultivating fourth-generation beastmasters and even established the Beast Taming University. If the fourth generation doesn’t step up, the beast taming field in Xia Country might face a significant gap.

The third-generation beastmasters of the Snowfield Federation were quite strong. Some of their powerful third-generation beastmasters could already outperform second-generation beastmasters from other countries.

Now, with the third-generation beastmaster team from the Snowfield Federation being the first to clear a legendary secret realm, regardless of the battle details, the methods they used, the effort they put in, or the costs they incurred, as the first team to achieve this, they were bound to gain worldwide recognition.

[Big News! I have a friend in the Snowfield Federation…]

While Lu Ran was following this news, he quickly noticed a trending post with over two thousand curated replies.

Original Poster Spicy Rabbit Head: [Hey everyone, big news! I have a friend studying in the Snowfield Federation. He’s become a beastmaster over there, and guess what he discovered in Infinite City No. 1???]

[It’s not about the Four Heavenly Kings making it onto the Sovereign Divine Beast Leaderboard!! That’s not the point!]

[He heard in the beastmaster square that the “Permafrost secret realm” has disappeared from the pillar platform!!]

[After the “Permafrost secret realm” was cleared, it vanished, and a brand-new “level 3 legendary secret realm” appeared in its place. People there are already speculating that legendary secret realms are single-use, with only one clearance reward per realm!]

Top Comment 1: [Is this for real??? OP, you better not be lying!!! Imagine the teams that almost cleared it but didn’t they’d be devastated.]

Top Comment 2: [No surprise there. If you aren’t strong enough, you miss out. It’s only fair that high difficulty secret realms have better first-clear rewards.]

As Lu Ran read through the post, he frowned. Just then, Manager Ying called.

“Lu Ran!!”

“Did you see the news?”

“Yes, I saw it,” Lu Ran replied. “I also saw a post claiming that legendary secret realms might be single-use only.”

Manager Ying: “That’s correct. Xia Country just communicated with the Snowfield Federation and bought the first-hand intelligence.”

“I’ve got the details and wanted to update you.”

“Legendary secret realms are indeed one-time challenges. Once cleared, the secret realm will disappear and be replaced by a new legendary secret realm. However, this new secret realm will only be available to beastmasters who haven’t cleared a legendary secret realm before. Teams that have already cleared one can’t challenge the new one.”

“In other words, each person can only clear a corresponding level legendary secret realm once.”

“I see,” Lu Ran was taken aback.

“There’s another crucial piece of intelligence. Although they didn’t reveal what the clearance reward for the legendary secret realm was, they described it with terms like ‘unique,’ ‘astonishingly good,’ and ‘everything you could want.’”

“It can be said that clearing a legendary secret realm and obtaining a legendary reward is akin to starting on the path of legends, giving one the potential to become a legendary beastmaster. Perhaps the purpose of the legendary secret realms is to select and accelerate the development of outstanding beastmasters.”

“Additionally, the scoring system for legendary secret realms is different from ordinary secret realms and breakthrough secret realms. It only has four levels: ordinary, good, excellent, and perfect.”

“According to the Four Heavenly Kings of the Snowfield Federation, the grading of these four levels is determined not by the performance during the challenge but by the number of participants. If four people enter the secret realm and clear it, it’s an ordinary rating. If two people enter and clear it, it’s an excellent rating. If one person enters and clears it, it’s a perfect rating. They speculate that the rewards should increase progressively with the rating.”

“This mechanism… is so harsh?” Lu Ran couldn’t help but say, “What’s the progress on Xia Country’s attempts to clear the legendary secret realm?”

Manager Ying: “The second and third generations have no hope. Just looking at it could make them explode. The First Generation has split into two teams and started taking turns to challenge it. But unless they are willing to pay a heavy price with significant casualties, there’s no way they can clear it. And that price is something the First Generation cannot bear, so they remain stuck there, ready to retreat at the slightest sign of trouble.”

“In short, I don’t think we can count on our second and third generations. The only hope lies with your Fourth Generation.”

“I’m telling you this so you can start paying attention to the challenge of the Dragon King’s Nest. Don’t rush to break through. Once you reach level 2, you won’t be able to challenge level 1 legendary secret realms anymore. Since the rewards are unique, they must be astonishingly good. It would be a shame to miss out.”

“If you find the Dragon King’s Nest too difficult, you can also check out the Public Infinite City to see if there’s an opportunity with other legendary secret realms. Currently, the legendary secret realms in various regions and countries are still somewhat different.”

“I predict that countries will soon actively collaborate and send ‘exchange envoys’ to swap secret realm challenges. After all, depending on the BOSS attributes and species, there will always be a secret realm that’s easier for a particular beastmaster to challenge.”

“No, the Dragon King’s Nest secret realm is perfect. Since the BOSS is Loong-type, it will definitely drop Loong-type resources, which could be very helpful for researching Loong-type evolution,” Lu Ran said, deciding not to choose any other level 1 secret realms from different regions. He felt the Diamond Dragon was just fine.

Of course, the current problem was that he couldn’t defeat it.

With some more special training and gathering the four most powerful Fourth Generation beastmasters of Xia Country, there might be hope…

But upon hearing that the final rating was related to the number of challengers, Lu Ran hesitated again.

The rewards for a perfect rating must be much better than for an ordinary rating, right?

In any case, delaying the time to enter the breakthrough secret realm seemed necessary. Breaking through without clearing a level 1 legendary secret realm would indeed be a huge loss.

Compared to the First Generation, Second Generation, and Third Generation beastmasters, this Fourth Generation had a significant advantage. After all, the first three generations couldn’t challenge low-level legendary secret realms anymore. But the Fourth Generation, mostly at the apprentice or level 1 stage, could tackle everything from low-level to advanced legendary secret realms, gaining several unique first-clear rewards along the way…

Originally, Lu Ran had planned to enter the breakthrough secret realm in a month, just in time to hatch a pet beast egg and contract his Third Pet. But thinking it over, it didn’t seem that necessary. Even if he didn’t time it perfectly, contracting later would be fine…

Having a newly hatched pet beast, still in its most innocent and adorable stage, immediately contracted and thrust into life-and-death secret realm challenges seemed a bit inhumane. Delaying it might be better…

“Manager Ying, could you help apply for those 50 pieces of exquisite roast meat? I’ll give some to General Ha as well.”

“You know, it was after eating just a quarter piece of roast meat that it comprehended the Dragon Slayer Sword Intent. Giving it more will definitely speed up its level improvement, causing more damage to the Diamond Dragon.”

“And once I clear the Dragon King’s Nest secret realm, the rewards inside might significantly benefit future research.”

“That makes sense,” Manager Ying nodded after listening. “Use them as you like; no need to apply. It’s all Qingyi’s stuff anyway…”

“We should still follow the procedures and explain everything clearly…” Lu Ran said shyly.

After all, these resources were meant for researching Loong-type evolution paths. With everyone watching, starting the research with all the resources already fed to a dog wouldn’t leave a good impression…

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