King of Beasts

Chapter 153: Bringing a Female Chef Home

At the dormitory, Lu Ran had just hung up the phone with Fang Lan.

In fact, Fang Lan had always been interested in Loong-type species.

She had previously discussed her ideas with Lu Ran: she also wanted to evolve a poison dragon.

However, after learning more, her thoughts changed.

Now, Fang Lan only desired the ultimate poison.

She didn’t want to waste the “trait slot” to fuse poison snake with Loong-type traits to turn it into a dragon.

After all, the Loong-type didn’t particularly enhance poison.

Instead, she wanted to continuously stack different “poison traits” to make her pet beast’s poison even stronger.

As for her ideal poison dragon, she would naturally wait to directly contract with a poison-type Dragon Clan member.

When Lu Ran cultivates a stable Loong-type evolution path and the Dragon Pet attributes flourish, there will naturally be a “poison-type dragon baby” born.

This way, she could skip the basic species cultivation and directly enhance the toxicity on the Loong-type foundation.

Lu Ran thought Fang Lan was becoming more and more extreme; this identity of a poison-type beastmaster was really getting out of hand. On her cultivation path, she didn’t want to mix in any impurities.

It seems that the future title of the world’s number one poison-type master belongs to her; she truly doesn’t want to take any detours.

Soon, Lu Ran had packed up, but just as he was about to leave, he saw Manager Ying yawning and coming back.

“Why are you back again?”

Seeing it looking half-asleep, Lu Ran thought it hadn’t found Principal Shi Zhen and was planning to come back for a nap.

“Here.”

The next moment, Lu Ran saw Manager Ying with a calm expression, tossing him a trait crystal.

“Huh?”

Lu Ran was stunned. He caught the crystal, and the eye of data took a look, and he immediately exclaimed, “No way, this fast?”

“Did you negotiate with Principal Shi Zhen, or did you rob him?”

“Of course, I… never mind, it’s not important.”

“He was particularly fond of this trait crystal, planning to give it to a favored nephew.”

“But he considered my request and chose to make a deal with you instead.”

Manager Ying, with a “you should be grateful” tone, said, “Well, I didn’t ask for your Stone Dragon Egg. Just spend more effort in the future researching a cuisine that can lift curses.”

“When the time comes, you can repay this favor by creating an exquisite cuisine that can lift curses.”

“Dragons are the creatures with the highest curse resistance. You can easily research this while working on Loong-type cuisine. Once you have an idea, you can apply for resources directly from the university.”

“No problem,” Lu Ran nodded.

“Hmph,” Manager Ying said. “I’ll deduct my payment from the proceeds once the Stone Dragon Egg is sold.”

With that, Lu Ran saw Manager Ying, looking rather pleased with itself, walking step by step back to its room.

Seeing its expression, Lu Ran fell into deep thought, feeling that something was off.

Oh well, it didn’t matter. After all, he had the Evil God’s Eye now, and the Stone Dragon Egg along with the Diamond Dragon Blood could be exchanged for other resources. Letting Manager Ying take a cut seemed reasonable.

He looked at the Evil God’s Eye trait in his hand. Unfortunately, it would have to wait until he contracted the dark crow to fuse with it…

This process would take about two months.

Why not start training the dark crow’s vision in advance? They say you are what you eat, so for the next month, he would give it more eyeballs to eat.

…

After packing up, Lu Ran was ready to return to Green Sea City.

However, as soon as he stepped out the door, he saw a girl in a black training suit, holding a phone, seemingly navigating to a specific location.

“Lu…” She stopped in front of a villa and, seeing Lu Ran just coming out of the house, was momentarily stunned. “Lu Ran!”

Lu Ran looked at the short-haired girl in surprise and spoke:

“Summer?”

“Are you looking for me?”

This person was none other than the disciple of Old Gentleman Jiang Dou’s old rival, the new beastmaster who mastered spear intent, Summer.

“Uh-huh…”

“Congratulations on your breakthrough in the Legendary Secret Realm.”

Summer lowered her phone-holding arm, slightly congratulating him, then her cheeks turned red as if she had made a big decision, and said, “I came to ask if you’re still taking students…”

“You said before in the arena that if I learned Culinary from you, it could help my spear intent advance, right?”

“Yes,” Lu Ran recalled. “You left right after that, so I thought you weren’t interested.”

It’s been a month since then…

“I did talk to the school about changing my major, but they said your class is an advanced course and isn’t available right now. They told me to contact you privately,” Summer explained seriously.

“But during that time, I was working with the school’s mentor to select a second pet, so this matter got delayed.”

“Another reason is… at first, I thought I could do it on my own.”

“But today, after seeing you single-handedly conquer the Legendary Secret Realm…”

A capable person can be a teacher. She didn’t mind that Lu Ran was younger than her. As long as she could learn something valuable, she was willing to learn cooking from Lu Ran.

As long as it could make her stronger…

“You want to learn how to use spear intent personally, without relying on your pet beast’s power, right?” Lu Ran asked.

This was something Lu Ran had already studied.

After all, he himself had mastered this technique.

Though he learned it through super beast mimicry, once mastered, the sword intent became his own.

Additionally, Lu Ran had a certain talent for it.

Combining the development of his brain and precise control of his body’s strength with the Inch-perfect blade technique, Lu Ran quickly gained a deep understanding of how he learned and mastered sword intent.

It wasn’t just about “knowing” the technique; he understood how he, as a human, learned it.

In fact, Lu Ran was even attempting to “create martial arts,” aiming to develop a swordsmanship technique similar to the Inch-perfect blade technique that could help ordinary people master sword intent.

His research into this was, of course, for the Old Gentleman Jiang Dou. Lu Ran wanted to surprise him.

After all, the Old Gentleman had pursued sword intent his entire life. If he missed the opportunity just because he couldn’t become a beastmaster, it would be too regrettable.

So, having already started researching “self-created skills,” Lu Ran was naturally qualified to guide Summer.

The Old Gentleman Jiang Dou had praised Lu Ran as a once-in-a-decade swordsmanship genius, and it was not without reason.

General Ha was able to comprehend sword intent so easily mainly because it received feedback from Lu Ran’s weapon talent through reverse super beast mimicry.

Otherwise, what it comprehended would likely be called ordinary artistic conception, not sword intent.

“Yes,” Summer felt that she had reached a limit. Challenging an abyssal difficulty secret realm of the same level might be possible, but challenging the Legendary Secret Realm was still far beyond her reach.

She clearly also wanted to challenge the Legendary Secret Realm… and, like Lu Ran, solo clear it.

“In addition to that, there’s also Dark Spear Intent,” Summer added.

“This spear intent, I also want to use without relying on my pet beast.”

“Hmm? What spear intent?” Lu Ran was puzzled. “What is Dark Spear Intent?”

Summer explained, “My second pet beast is a Black Panther. It has excellent comprehension, and through my training, it has mastered the artistic conception of darkness shaping. It can completely devour the sunlight in an area, creating a region as dark as night.”

“It can also attack to deprive the opponent of the light in front of them.”

“After merging with it, I also gained a similar ability of Dark Spear Intent. It’s the opposite of Fire Plundering Spear Intent. However, I can’t use either Fire Plundering Spear Intent or Dark Spear Intent on my own.”

“I feel that if I want to further improve my strength, I need the ability to use artistic conception power independently.”

“Another one? It seems like artistic conception shaping is as common as dirt with you,” Lu Ran couldn’t help but remark.

“Hmm? Isn’t it the same with you?” Summer retorted.

Lu Ran: “…”

“It might also be related to my beast taming skills. My first beast taming skill is fusion, and another one I obtained from a breakthrough secret realm is Comprehension Enhancement, which can improve my pet beast’s comprehension ability.”

“I see.”

Even so, it was still impressive.

Comprehension Enhancement… another unique beast taming skill that he hadn’t heard of before.

Lu Ran pondered.

No wonder she ranked fourth among the freshmen.

In the absence of superhuman Lin Yin, Summer, with her simple background, managed to reach fourth place, defeating many second-generation beastmasters like Pluto and the Dog King. There had to be a reason for it.

She must have mastered spear intent early on and performed well in the breakthrough secret realm with it.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have obtained such a rare skill.

“It’s possible. Techniques are interconnected. Once you comprehend one, the others will follow naturally. If you had come earlier, I might not have had the time, but I happen to be free for the next month,” Lu Ran said. “Come back to Green Sea City with me. By the way, Green Sea City is where my family lives.”

Lu Ran maintained a calm expression, feeling quite pleased inside.

Having Summer return with him meant that her “Fire Plundering Spear Intent,” which could also be called “Sun Culinary Intent,” could be used to cook meals for him, allowing his Flame Sprite to absorb new energy and grow.

Additionally, he could guide her to use Dark Culinary Intent to create Dark Cuisine for the Dark Crow.

Originally, Lu Ran was troubled that the food he prepared wasn’t suitable for the Dark Crow.

After all, his Blizzard Culinary Intent and Dragon Culinary Intent were suitable for General Ha and the Sudden Death King, respectively.

He didn’t have any culinary intent related to darkness, spirit, or curses that could benefit the Dark Crow.

Now, a talented female chef had come along.

She could cook dishes as she trained her culinary intent, and these could be rewards for his beasts.

This unexpected arrival of a chef apprentice was a delightful surprise for Lu Ran.

He had to bring her back to Green Sea City to become the Dark Crow’s temporary cultivator!

Of course, Lu Ran wouldn’t take advantage of her. He would try to teach her his experiences and techniques for using sword intent and culinary intent independently, and even top-level techniques like Dragon Culinary Intent.

“Alright.” Summer had no objections to going to Green Sea City.

“Then let’s go. Buy a ticket to Jinling now, and we’ll transfer from there,” Lu Ran said.

“So soon?” Summer was startled.

“Time is money.”

…

Green Sea City!

After taking leave from the combat department, Summer followed Lu Ran directly to Green Sea City.

For accommodation, Lu Ran’s house was big, and he planned to find her an empty room.

The two had just taken a taxi from the airport to the Starlight Villa Community and got out of the car.

Suddenly, Summer saw a black bird flying rapidly in the sky.

It was a giant crow!

“Enemy attack!” Summer’s eyebrows furrowed as she pulled out her spear, startling Lu Ran who quickly intervened.

“Friendly,” Lu Ran said swiftly.

The approaching figure was naturally the Dark Crow. It ignored Summer and looked straight at Lu Ran.

“Big King, I was busy practicing sniping and didn’t notice you had returned,” it said, flying towards Lu Ran under Summer’s bewildered gaze.

Of course, Lu Ran pushed it away without hesitation.

“A talking crow!”

“Wait, what is sniping?” Summer remained confused.

“And why does it call you Big King?”

“Ah, that’s a long story. Anyway, welcome to Green Sea City.”

“It’s my prospective Third Pet.”

“Dark Crow, this is a chef apprentice who came with me. She should be quite skilled at barbecue and Dark Cuisine,” Lu Ran said with a smile, stroking his chin. “For the time being, you will be responsible for tasting her Dark Cuisine.”

“Huh?” Summer was taken aback. Barbecue? Dark Cuisine?

Quickly, she composed herself. Whatever Lu Ran said was fine, as long as it could make her stronger…

“Understood!” The Dark Crow scrutinized Summer and said, “You scared me. I thought it was the queen, but it’s just a chef.”

Lu Ran: ???

Summer: ???

“You might want to keep quiet,” Lu Ran said, his face darkening. He felt the Dark Crow was getting cheeky again, so he took out a pet beast egg. “Go hatch this egg.”

Dark Crow: ???

Hatch, hatch an egg??? Big King! I am a subject, not a consort.

Nearby, Summer also felt a bit faint. Could this be the pet beast egg of the Freshman Tournament champion?

Isn’t this a special species? Given to a crow to hatch?

Green Sea City is strange, both its people and its supernatural beings!

“It’s just to watch over it,” Lu Ran explained. He wanted the Dark Crow to get acquainted with the egg, as he planned to enter a breakthrough secret realm soon. He would rely on Manager Ying and the Dark Crow to help take care of the baby. Since it was a future teammate, the Dark Crow needed to get used to it first.