King of Beasts

“Culinary Intent, Sword Intent, and Spear Intent are actually interconnected!”

“Don’t stop me; I’m switching majors. I chose the History Department on a whim, and now that I think about it, studying history has no future. Might as well learn to cook. If I can’t become a beastmaster, I can always go back home and open a restaurant.”

“If you meet a beastmaster from the Culinary Department, marry them. They have so much potential.”

“If Lu Ran switches majors, what will he do? Use a spear to grill skewers? No need to start a fire, just stick the supernatural beings on a spear, and they’ll cook themselves.”

“…”

No one expected that Lu Ran would use the Freshman Tournament as an advertisement. This move caught everyone off guard and left them bent over laughing.

Meanwhile, Summer was still reeling from the impact of General Ha’s Blizzard Sword Intent, her chest heaving, and had yet to respond to Lu Ran.

“Ahem.” On stage, Dean Qin Ming couldn’t help but cough.

Lu Ran, huh? I’ll remember you… poaching students right in front of me, you’ve got some nerve.

At this point, although the match hadn’t concluded, Summer, after being in shock for a while, finally recognized the gap in their abilities and said, “I concede.”

Saying this, she picked up her spear and walked off the arena, ignoring Lu Ran’s invitation.

“Hey” Lu Ran saw this and had no clue what Summer was thinking. He genuinely believed that developing a secondary profession would be beneficial for her.

In fact, as long as one has talent, it doesn’t take much extra effort.

Being a jack-of-all-trades is a problem for ordinary people, but for geniuses, the more they learn, the more proficient they become, and the stronger they get.

For other freshmen in the Culinary Department, Lu Ran could only teach basic knife skills and fire skills, but for a fire talent who has grasped near-spear intent, Lu Ran felt that the Flame Sprite within him, imbued with the flame dragon artistic conception, might be summoned for her to study.

She definitely had the talent. After all, she had only been exposed to beast taming for two months and had already grasped spear intent. Such aptitude was top-notch even on the Star-Moon Continent.

If she really became a Dragon Chef, that would be incredible. Lu Ran could then bring her to Green Sea City to help feed his dragon legion. As a teacher, assigning a bit of practical work wouldn’t be too much, right?

Preparation Room.

A tall young man looked at the scene in the arena, stroked his chin, and said, “Hey, do you think my Panda can learn Culinary skills? A bamboo stick could count as both a weapon and a Cooking Utensil, right? Maybe I could use it as a rolling pin and become a top-level pastry chef.”

“This Lu Ran is really strong.” Youxiong Anlin was considering whether he should switch to studying Culinary, while Du Yuan, a freshman genius from the Space Department, was scratching his head nearby, feeling that he couldn’t even defeat one of Lu Ran’s pet beasts, let alone Lu Ran himself.

Although the Space species was powerful, in the early stages, its techniques were limited. Low-level pet beasts couldn’t develop very powerful skills, and even if they could, they didn’t have much stamina to use them. The real power came in the mid to late stages.

“He is indeed strong. If you think you can’t win, just forfeit.” Youxiong Anlin looked at the genius.

“Forfeit then. Who’s afraid?” Du Yuan sneered. “I can face the gap and directly forfeit. Can you?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

No one expected that two of the favorites to win would arrange their own defeat right in the preparation room. It was indeed Lu Ran’s series of strength displays that made the other freshmen feel powerless.

They were afraid that if they went on stage, they would also become Lu Ran’s playthings. After all, Lu Ran still had one beast taming skill that hadn’t been revealed yet. Who knew how powerful it could be?

“Where’s Lin Yin?” The two estimated that the only one who might still want to fight Lu Ran was the superhuman Lin Yin. After all, this big shot had never shown her full strength, and all her battles had been easy victories.

They started looking for Lin Yin in the preparation room, but soon their expressions changed. Near the window, a tall, fair-skinned girl with short black hair and a delicate face was holding her head as if in great pain.

This person was the superhuman Lin Yin.

“Hey, are you okay?”

As seeded players Youxiong Anlin and Du Yuan noticed Lin Yin’s odd behavior, they immediately called out.

The other contestants in the preparation room also turned to look at Lin Yin upon hearing the commotion. Soon, the room became noisy, and the school’s medical staff quickly arrived on the scene.

…

The sudden and bizarre collapse of seeded player Lin Yin in the preparation room alarmed the entire school. Besides her role as a contestant in the Freshman Tournament, she had another identity that no one could afford to offend.

After Lu Ran’s match ended, he noticed the commotion and soon heard the news about the superhuman Lin Yin’s sudden collapse. He couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

“Are you okay?”

Just as Lu Ran was wondering about the situation, Manager Ying suddenly appeared beside him, inquiring about his condition.

“I’m fine. But did something happen to Lin Yin?” Lu Ran asked.

“Yes, she suddenly collapsed. I was worried it might be a special attack targeting superhumans, so I came to check on you,” Manager Ying said, relieved to see Lu Ran unharmed.

“You don’t know what happened to her either?”

“How would I know? You superhumans are all strange. Don’t you often have strange dreams too?” Lu Ran had shared his frequent dreams of monster invasions with Manager Ying and Dr. Gu.

They couldn’t provide any special explanation for this. After all, superhumans had too many secrets. Abroad, there were even reports of superhumans who dreamt of turning into animals or plants, with dreams even more bizarre.

“Oh.” Lu Ran could only shrug helplessly.

“Wait, her match is coming up soon. If she doesn’t recover in time, won’t she have to forfeit?” Lu Ran suddenly thought of a serious problem.

“I don’t know,” Manager Ying replied. “But it doesn’t really concern you. With your strength, winning first place shouldn’t be a problem. Whether she competes or not, it makes no difference.”

“You’re even more confident than I am,” Lu Ran said, puzzled.

“Hehe, I have much more intelligence on her than you do. Want to buy it? I can include information about her younger sister as well.”

“No need.”

Since he wasn’t familiar with Lin Yin, Lu Ran didn’t dwell on the matter any further. After his match, he returned to his dormitory.

As for Fang Lan’s match, Lu Ran chose to watch the live stream on his phone. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, but lying comfortably in the dormitory was simply more appealing.

However.

Just as Lu Ran was comfortably waiting for the next round of the tournament…

A series of phone calls from the tournament organizers made Lu Ran’s expression gradually turn strange.

“Lu Ran… Professor Lu, your next opponent, ‘Du Yuan,’ has chosen to forfeit. You won’t need to come for the match.”

“Oh, okay.”

Even the genius from the Space species was afraid of him. Lu Ran hadn’t expected that at all!

And then…

“Professor Lu, your next opponent, ‘Youxiong Anlin,’ has chosen to forfeit as well. You won’t need to come for that match either.”

“What??” Lu Ran, who had been lounging in his dormitory for nearly a day, began to sink into deep thought.

“Lu Ran…”

…

“Damn it, give me my money back!!!”

As the Freshman Tournament progressed, it wasn’t just Lu Ran who was dumbfounded—so were the vast number of spectators.

According to the official announcement from the beast taming university, seeded player Lin Yin had to withdraw from the tournament due to illness, disappointing many who had hoped to see her in action. This alone was hard enough to accept.

But then, in the matches that were supposed to feature the highly anticipated Lu Ran, one contestant after another forfeited, driving the audience to the brink of frustration.

The first to forfeit against Lu Ran, a beastmaster named Yuan Ye, who was previously hailed as the “most promising” and “most dignified,” faced a collective boycott. He was accused of setting a bad precedent and was metaphorically pinned to the pillar of shame for his forfeit.

“Give us our money back!!”

“Oh, watching the livestream is free? Never mind then.”

On the various forums, many beastmasters expressed their dissatisfaction with Lu Ran being handed the victory without having to fight in the later stages of the Freshman Tournament. Before the tournament began, no one had anticipated such an outcome.

“Damn, it’s because Passerby A is too strong. Even though he’s a fourth-generation beastmaster, he’s like a monster,” one user commented.

“There’s no helping it. He easily crushed the most elite fourth-generation beastmasters from the Eagle Federation. It’s normal for other freshmen to avoid fighting him,” another replied.

“In that case, Summer is still brave. Although he lost badly, at least he dared to fight. What’s up with Youxiong Anlin and Du Yuan? They didn’t even dare to compete!” someone else added.

“You don’t understand. Didn’t you see Lu Ran’s matches? Against Summer, Lu Ran just disarmed him and let it go. But when he fought Zhou Mo and Gong Kaixin, he nearly crippled their pet beasts, and their subsequent performances in the tournament were significantly worse…” another user explained.

“…So Lu Ran is that kind of person. I misjudged him,” came a disappointed remark.

At this moment, all eyes were on Lu Ran, who had easily clinched the Freshman Tournament championship in such an absurd manner. However, no one questioned the value of his victory; they were merely frustrated that they hadn’t seen enough exciting matches.

Lu Ran is now universally recognized as the strongest fourth-generation beastmaster in Xia Country. No one thinks he doesn’t deserve the title of Rookie King.

It’s understandable that the freshmen didn’t want to be thrashed by Lu Ran and chose to forfeit. This also signifies their awareness that they’re no match for him, further highlighting Lu Ran’s formidable strength to the entire world.

It won’t be long before Lu Ran catches up with the third-generation and even the second-generation beastmasters.

However, while the Freshman Tournament might be an absolute hot topic for ordinary people, second-generation, and third-generation beastmasters in Xia Country, the initial-generation beastmasters had their attention entirely elsewhere.

Headquarters of the Beast Taming Alliance in Xia Country.

Inside a conference room.

Thirteen figures had gathered.

An elder, leading the meeting, looked at a petite girl seated at one of the chairs and spoke, “Lin Nian, tell us about your sister’s situation.”

“Understood, Guild Leader.” The petite girl stood up and scanned the many Level 5 beastmasters present before continuing:

“After Lin Yin fainted in Sky City, I came to check on her immediately.”

“I used my mental awareness to invade her mental domain, following the mental waves into her dream. To my astonishment…”

“She, like many superhumans, was having some strange, recurring dreams.”

“After Lin Yin’s awakening, she initially didn’t have these strange dreams. I thought her situation was unique, but it turned out she was just a bit delayed.”

“What was she dreaming about?” asked Shi Zhen, the still-male principal of the beast taming university. Although Lin Yin would likely apply for graduation and leave with her rewards after the Freshman Tournament, he was very concerned since the issue had arisen during the tournament phase.

“She dreamt of a fox claiming to be the reincarnation of a legendary creature, currently sleeping in an alternate dimension. It said that placing an epic-level mental resource at a designated spot would rescue it, and in return, it promised to grant her wealth, honor, and powerful abilities.”

All the First Generation members: …

Damn it, this sounds just like me, Qin Shi Huang. Send money!

“Could this fox be one of the many ancient creatures Manager Ying is searching for?” Gu Qingyi, one of the First Generation members, pondered. Even if it was true, the cost of awakening it seemed too high, and besides, the creature didn’t appear to be near death…

It wasn’t suitable to be turned into a necromancy pet beast at all.

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