King of Beasts

Mingan, outskirts.

After being shocked by Lu Ran’s “great ambition,” Hei Yu still chose to join him.

The sky was dark and overcast.

In the weeds, a plump rat the size of a cat was gnawing on something.

Lu Ran and Hei Yu, both cloaked in black robes, stood some distance away…

It was evident that Lu Ran had chosen this creature as his first test subject.

[Name]: Giant Rat Beast

[Attribute]: Unawakened

[Species Level]: Lower Supernatural

Hmm… pathetically weak.

To deal with such a creature, Lu Ran didn’t even bother to summon General Ha.

Estimating the distance and calculating his strength, Lu Ran picked up a stone and hurled it with force.

Under Hei Yu’s astonished gaze, the stone struck the Giant Rat Beast precisely, knocking it unconscious.

Lu Ran could only say that not using his Crow Feather Bow was already him being merciful.

“Let’s go.”

At Lu Ran’s signal, Hei Yu quickly followed. Soon, Lu Ran stood before the unconscious Giant Rat Beast and pulled out his Soul-Calming Brick.

Smack!

The brick hit the Giant Rat Beast, and a gray soul emerged from its body.

Since the Giant Rat Beast was already unconscious, its soul was now dazed and unclear.

Hei Yu swallowed nervously and asked, “How do you plan to ‘cook’ it?”

“I have a Special Beast Taming Skill. Let’s try barbecuing the soul first.” Lu Ran extended his finger, igniting a flame.

There are countless beast taming skills that grant beastmasters special abilities. Many chefs can manipulate flames themselves. Seeing this, Hei Yu wasn’t particularly surprised, especially since Lu Ran had already declared his identity as a chef.

However, Lu Ran soon encountered a challenge.

The Flame Sprite, which could discern the optimal cooking temperature for “ingredients,” showed no reaction to this particular soul.

It was evident that the Flame Sprite had its limits. Even Yan Sizhen, the emperor who developed it, probably never envisioned someone using it to barbecue souls.

With the Flame Sprite unable to assist, Lu Ran had to rely on his own experience. He kept the flame at its lowest setting and began to roast the soul. But, as expected, a soul couldn’t be barbecued like an ordinary ingredient…

Even though Lu Ran’s flame was extremely weak, the Giant Rat Beast’s soul was even more fragile. In an instant, it was burned into white smoke, its soul scattering into nothingness.

This was commonly referred to as: “soul annihilation.”

The rat’s body also seemed to slip into a more peaceful coma, as if it would never wake up.

“……”

“Looks like this is a bit more difficult,” Lu Ran turned to Hei Yu.

“……” Hei Yu.

“I had a feeling this idea was too far-fetched,” Hei Yu said. “Maybe the intention is good, but if even the great figures of the Holy Church and legendary necromancers haven’t solved this problem… for us, isn’t it…”

“This is just the beginning. Don’t worry,” Lu Ran said, then fell into deep thought.

“Let’s try other cooking methods…”

Currently, Mingan had an abundance of rats, so Lu Ran decisively chose the Giant Rat Beast as his hunting target.

Next, under Hei Yu’s watchful eyes, Lu Ran tried boiling souls and steaming souls… but without exception, the fragile souls were instantly annihilated.

“They’re too weak. The spirits are too fragile and can’t withstand even slightly violent cooking methods.”

“The key is that there aren’t any strong souls nearby for experimentation.”

With Hei Yu silently following, Lu Ran finally found a cooking method that wouldn’t so easily cause the soul to scatter.

By igniting Freshwood to remove the stench, he made a lightly smoked Rat Spirit. The smoke from the wood was indeed absorbed by the Rat Spirit. Before the soul could dissipate, Lu Ran quickly had Hei Yu taste it.

Hei Yu helplessly summoned her pet beast, a necromantic fox. The little fox happily devoured the Rat Spirit, but after it was done, Hei Yu shook her head and said, “There’s no difference from the usual soul consumption.”

“My pet beast still sensed the residual consciousness within the spirit during the consumption process.”

“And the taste?” Lu Ran asked.

“Ugh,” the necromantic fox shook its head. Not tasty, not tasty at all. Directly eating the soul tastes better!

“So, smoky necromantic food does indeed change the flavor, but Freshwood as a seasoning can’t remove the impurities in the soul! It’s not suitable for necromantic pets.” Lu Ran was pleased to reach this conclusion.

This at least proved that the taste of the soul could be altered. Since the flavor could change, finding a special seasoning might purify the soul’s impurities.

“Alright, Ms. Hei Yu, thank you very much. Let’s call it a day.” Lu Ran said.

“Okay,” Hei Yu nodded. Though she hoped Lu Ran would succeed, she felt his chances were slim.

However, Lu Ran was very earnest…

She glanced at the bag of unconscious giant rat beasts Lu Ran carried and fell silent.

If Lord Gory asked about this later, how would she respond?

She felt that even Gory, the missionary, would think Lu Ran was crazy.

…

Back at the secluded courtyard.

After returning, Lu Ran continued to immerse himself in cooking Rat Spirits.

His bizarre methods only increased upon his return.

For instance, he attempted to dissect the Rat Spirit, breaking it into pieces to study its structure.

But unfortunately, even the slightest movement caused the spirit to disperse.

Dissection was impossible.

“Souls contain the pre-death consciousness of living beings, which can also be considered soul memories.”

“In those Xianxia novels

1

, the so-called ‘soul searching’ must be about this.”

“Essentially, a soul is an energy body, a necessary nutrient for necromantic pet beasts to sustain life. The soul itself is non-toxic. The harmful part is the consciousness within the soul.”

“The aggregation of these consciousnesses can pollute the minds of necromantic pet beasts and necromancers, causing them to lose reason and fall into madness.”

“Attempting to ‘remove the odor’ of soul consciousness from a spirit, similar to purifying a fish, should be feasible. However, it’s extremely difficult, akin to creating an entirely new recipe. Even if I had access to all the ingredients on the Star-Moon Continent, it would take an indeterminate amount of time to experiment and find the right combination. This process can’t be forced; it depends on chance.”

“But aside from that, theoretically, there should be another method to remove impurities from a soul.”

“If we consider the spirit as an ingredient with unwanted parts, then a straightforward approach would be to cut them off.”

“However, ordinary supernatural cooking utensils lack the ability to cut through a soul.”

Lu Ran looked at the Rat Spirit, which dissipated into nothingness upon contact with his cleaver, and fell into deep thought.

Using ordinary utensils simply passes through the spirit without causing harm, while supernatural utensils distort the spirit upon contact, causing the soul to collapse but not slice it.

“Ordinary supernatural utensils don’t have the properties to cut a soul. But if I forge special utensils from soul-related ores, could they potentially ‘cut’ the spirit?”

Lu Ran glanced at the Soul-Calming Stone, wondering if it could be forged into a blade.

Regardless, during this trip to the secret realm, he had to find more of these stones.

He needed a soul-reaping Blade!

A blade that could seamlessly slice through a soul!

However, even if a soul-reaping Blade could be forged, Lu Ran wasn’t confident that his “knife skills” would effectively separate the spirit from its consciousness.

This concept was too abstract. Even if Yan Sizhen were reincarnated, he would likely have to ponder this challenge deeply.

This would require a profound understanding and recognition of the soul itself.

“Soul-type sword intent.”

“To achieve this, I need soul-type sword intent. If I master soul-type sword intent, I might not even need a soul-reaping Blade to inflict slicing damage on a spirit.”

Soon, Lu Ran, deep in his research, thought of a new approach.

But again, soul-type sword intent is an extremely abstract ability.

For this research direction, Lu Ran decided to pass the buck.

“General Ha, you think you’re pretty tough, don’t you? Take the Soul-Calming Stone and play with it, and I’ll give you a few rats. Try to comprehend some soul-reaping sword intent, and remember, don’t eat the rats.”

Next, General Ha was summoned by Lu Ran, looking bewildered. Despite General Ha’s initial protests, he was quite interested in the Soul-Calming Stone and the spirits, and quickly ran off to experiment.

Of course, Lu Ran didn’t actually expect General Ha to succeed.

If General Ha had already fused with the Ultimate Perception Trait, or if General Ha was a necromancy-type pet beast, Lu Ran might have held some hope. But for now… he just wanted it to get familiar with the process.

Lu Ran understood that solving the necromancy issue wouldn’t be quick; it was a long-term project.

“Huh???” Just after sending General Ha away, Lu Ran thought of another possible method for cutting through the soul and consciousness.

“Could it be that I’m a genius?”

Lu Ran took out the sword grass from his backpack and extracted it from the Sword Nourishing Pot. He looked at the sword grass and fell into contemplation.

“I wonder if sword grass has a soul. If it does, whether it’s conscious or not, could using a Soul-Calming Stone on it potentially create a soul sword grass?”

“Wouldn’t that be a natural soul-reaping Blade?”

“Woof woof woof woof!!” The next moment, Lu Ran snatched back the Soul-Calming Stone from General Ha and, under General Ha’s astonished gaze, started using the stone on its beloved weapon.

The result, of course, was not as easy as Lu Ran had imagined.

Sword grass that hadn’t become a supernatural life form was no different from ordinary plants.

Perhaps after becoming a supernatural life form, sword grass could transform into a plant spirit, but in its current state, sword grass didn’t have a soul.

None of the methods worked. Feeling frustrated, Lu Ran tried cutting a spirit directly with the sword grass, but that didn’t work either.

“It’s really tough. No wonder so many beastmasters from the Death Holy Church and The Other Shore haven’t been able to solve this problem,” Lu Ran thought, feeling a headache coming on.

For now, the closest direction seemed to be comprehending soul-type sword intent.

Lu Ran decided to first research soul-reaping sword intent with General Ha. As for the breakthrough task, Lu Ran wasn’t in a hurry. His task was to defend the city. Even if all the members of the Death Holy Church were eliminated, as long as he alone could hold the line and defeat the enemies, it would still be a victory!

The ones who should be anxious were the attackers.

He also didn’t have any intelligence on the enemy and couldn’t just blindly go out to solo them.

Even if there was going to be a fight, he would wait until the enemy showed themselves before attacking. The enemy, eager to complete their task, wouldn’t stay hidden forever.

At this moment, Lu Ran fully appreciated the value of the “Evil God’s Eye Trait.” If he had already contracted with General Crow and it had mastered the Evil God’s Eye, Lu Ran could curse and cause sudden death to the entire opposing faction from a distance, instead of being so passive.

Meanwhile…

Hei Yu was summoned by Missionary Gory to inquire about Lu Ran’s situation.

“What???”

“Barbecue Soul, Steamed Soul, Boiled Soul, Smoked Soul?”

Missionary Gory was shocked. As an experienced necromancer who couldn’t go a day without souls in his meals, he was nauseated by Hei Yu’s report.

But then he smiled and said, “Never mind, let him be. We’ve truly found a treasure this time.”

Seeing the “Sudden Death King” eager to study necromancy to help necromancers overcome their limitations, Gory felt a surge of excitement. It’s common for a missionary to find a talented newcomer, but finding one with such a grand ideal was extremely rare.

He believed that if the headquarters learned about Lu Ran’s situation, Lu Ran would be cultivated as a core member, if not outright as a “Holy Son level” talent.

Of course, if Lu Ran somehow miraculously succeeded in his research, it would be on another level entirely. The divine envoys might even rally around the “Sudden Death King” as the heir to the sect leader. Gory smirked at his own fanciful thoughts, thinking it impossible.

“Keep a close watch on him.”

“Yes,” Hei Yu nodded. Seeing the missionary lord’s shocked expression, she felt satisfied. Even the experienced necromancer found the Sudden Death King too crazy.

…

On the other side…

Nine challengers from various countries on Blue Star gathered once again.

The Moonlight Knight from the Golden Generation said, “I’ve found out that the one occupying Mingan City is a necromantic cult missionary named Gory. He has three level 30 necromantic pet beasts, all of commander species, and he’s just a level 2 necromancer.”

“Within Mingan City, he should be the strongest enemy.”

“Although he has many subordinates, they shouldn’t be particularly formidable.”

“If we can persuade the remaining imperial troops to join us in attacking Mingan City, it shouldn’t be too difficult to take it!”

Footnote:

1. Xianxia novels(仙侠小说):

   A genre of Chinese fantasy literature that blends martial arts, Taoist philosophy, and mythology. “Xianxia” (仙侠) means “immortal hero” and typically involves characters striving for immortality through spiritual and physical cultivation. These stories are set in fantastical worlds with supernatural abilities, epic battles, and a focus on personal growth and adventure.

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