King of Beasts

Chapter 157: The Divine Deer’s Dream

Having determined General Ha’s evolution trait, Lu Ran felt quite relieved.

General Ha, Ultimate Perception Trait.

Sudden Death King, Dragon King Trait.

After they both broke through to level 2, their evolution paths were no longer a concern.

Now, only the Dark Crow’s evolution trait remained undetermined.

For the Dark Crow, its level 10 “fusion slot” had awakened the curse power after consuming attribute awakening resources. For the level 20 “fusion slot,” Lu Ran planned to fuse the Evil God’s Eye trait, but it required a contract before the fusion could be completed.

In other words, it still needed one more evolution trait to be prepared.

As for this, Lu Ran had no better options for the time being. He still planned to ask Manager Ying to help him search worldwide for a unique trait that would be suitable.

“Alright, these aren’t urgent matters. Let’s investigate LuJia Village first,” Lu Ran said, tapping the locust tree.

“Go yourself.”

“I can’t see anything. I’m off,” Manager Ying chose to continue slacking off, yawning as it did.

To be honest, it hated this village.

Too many dogs here!

…

“Keep a low profile.”

Next, Lu Ran continued his investigation in LuJia Village.

To avoid being disturbed, he even wore a mask.

Although this made him look more suspicious, it was better than being recognized and dragged into the homes of enthusiastic villagers for a meal.

For this small village, it didn’t take Lu Ran long to walk around. Apart from the villagers’ homes, he had explored almost everywhere.

Then, to his dismay, he discovered that there were at least dozens of sika deer wandering around various parts of LuJia Village.

“Damn.”

“Why did Lu Bing and the others have to enter the breakthrough secret realm?”

Lu Ran felt quite resentful. If they were still in LuJia Village, it would have been great.

Lu Ran was sure that if he told them about this, they would definitely be too scared to sleep in the village.

A herd of ghost-like deer shadows wandered around the village, unseen by anyone. It was quite absurd.

After a day of running around, Lu Ran hadn’t uncovered anything.

He even waved the divine deer antler in front of the deer shadows, but they remained unresponsive.

Finally, night fell.

Lu Ran decided to do something thrilling.

He planned to find a place with many deer shadows, set up camp, and sleep there.

LuJia Village wasn’t a tourist spot, so there were no inns.

Even if there were, Lu Ran would still choose the most eerie place to sleep in order to investigate the divine deer.

After all, if superpowers were truly related to the divine deer, then his strange dream might also be connected to it.

Referring to Lin Yin’s situation, these ancient creatures might, for some reason, only be able to connect with superhumans through dreams.

However, Lu Ran was still a bit scared.

Before sleeping in the park woods, he called Sudden Death King, General Ha, and Dark Crow to his side. He also summoned Manager Ying to keep watch over him while he slept.

However.

Lying down, Lu Ran stared at the sky with wide eyes.

He couldn’t sleep, not at all.

Finally, Manager Ying had enough. It used a hypnosis technique and sent Lu Ran straight to sleep.

…

“Ouch.”

“My head hurts.”

“This cat’s hypnosis technique is terrible. My brain feels like it’s about to explode…”

“But this time, I didn’t dream. Investigating clues through dreams failed!”

Lu Ran groggily opened his eyes.

But soon, his expression changed, and he looked around in surprise.

He was no longer in the park woods, and General Ha and the others were not beside him.

Lu Ran called out, but there was no response.

“Am I in a dream?”

The reason he thought he wasn’t dreaming initially was because he had never been so conscious in his dreams before.

In past dreams, he couldn’t even realize he was dreaming.

But at this moment, Lu Ran’s mind was clear, and he could vividly recall the experience of falling asleep.

A lucid dream?

“Where is this…” Lu Ran looked around.

This sudden arrival in a new place felt more like entering a secret realm than a dream.

Lu Ran quickly climbed up from under the tree and started walking, finding himself still in a village. However, it didn’t look like a modern village; it looked more like an ancient one.

“What exactly is going on?”

Soon, Lu Ran heard some sounds and found himself near a special building. It seemed like the entire village had gathered there.

They were dressed in rough linen clothes, and Lu Ran couldn’t tell which era they were from. At this moment, these people were all kneeling on the ground, praying devoutly to a giant wooden statue.

This is…

Lu Ran frowned as he looked at the deer-shaped statue. He was slightly startled. Were they worshiping the divine deer? And were these people ancient villagers of LuJia Village?

Moments later, the villagers seemed to have finished their worship. They stood up and began to disperse. Some of them walked right past Lu Ran, treating him as if he were invisible.

After everyone had left, Lu Ran couldn’t resist moving closer to the divine deer statue to observe it more closely.

However, before he could examine it in detail, he felt water splashed on his face… and it was quite cold.

It felt as if he had been licked by the Blizzard Sword Intent.

Lu Ran blinked his eyes, and everything in the dream disappeared, replaced by General Ha’s big face.

“Hey, are you alright?” General Ha, Manager Ying, and Sudden Death King surrounded Lu Ran, looking worried.

“What the heck is going on?”

“Blah blah blah, next time just lick me without the magical attack,” Lu Ran said, getting up and locking his arms around General Ha’s neck.

“Woof!”

General Ha was furious. Even if I licked you directly, you wouldn’t wake up.

Next time, I’ll let Sudden Death King zap you awake.

“Your pet beasts saw your pained expression while you were sleeping and thought you were having a nightmare again,” Manager Ying said, shrugging its shoulders and looking at General Ha.

“This time I wasn’t…” Lu Ran pondered. “Did I look very distressed?”

“Yes,” Manager Ying replied. “It wasn’t physical pain but more like the agony of heartbreak, a kind of emotional pain that makes you twitch. But you probably haven’t experienced that, so it’s hard to explain.”

“So, what did you dream about?”

Lu Ran sighed, “Thanks for the description…”

“Indeed, I did have a dream, but I don’t know if it was influenced by some unknown power or if it was just a case of thinking about something during the day and dreaming about it at night.”

“And the dream was quite simple.”

“I dreamed of what LuJia Village looked like in ancient times. I saw many villagers worshiping the divine deer together.”

“Hmm?” Hearing Lu Ran’s words, Manager Ying showed a subtle expression.

“Turns out sleeping was a good idea. I feel like I’m close to solving the mystery, but you might need to sleep a few more nights to confirm it.”

“What’s going on?” Lu Ran looked at Manager Ying in confusion.

Manager Ying grinned, “I’ll give you this piece of intelligence for free, no need to thank me!”

“If your dream was indeed influenced by something, I have a rough guess.”

“Firstly, the divine deer worshiped by LuJia Village in ancient times, whether it died, reincarnated, or fell into a deep sleep, was in a much worse state than that fox that bewitched Lin Yin.”

“The dream you just had didn’t convey much information, but there were still some clues.”

“You saw many villagers worshiping the divine deer, right? On the Star-Moon Continent and in ancient Blue Star, there was actually a power system known as the Power of Faith.”

“Some powerful supernatural beings protected the weak for a reason-they sought the Power of Faith from living creatures.”

“This phenomenon was especially common when supernatural beings faded away in ancient Blue Star. To avoid losing their powers, many powerful beings tried to use the Power of Faith to counteract the retreat of spiritual energy, thereby retaining their supernatural abilities.”

“But clearly, they all failed.”

“So I have a hypothesis. With the current revival of spiritual energy, the dream you had might be trying to convey that the villagers of LuJia Village should rekindle their faith to provide the divine deer with the Power of Faith.”

“In this way, the divine deer, which is in a very poor state, might be able to revive through strong faith.”

“Of course, that’s the ideal situation,” Manager Ying said.

“And what’s the less ideal situation?” Lu Ran’s heart raced, feeling close to the truth. Manager Ying was indeed capable; having it around made many things suddenly become clear.

“The less ideal situation is that the divine deer is truly gone, and providing the Power of Faith won’t help,” Manager Ying said. “I have a hypothesis: the deer shadows you saw in LuJia Village are spirits of faith formed from the remaining faith in the divine deer.”

“This would explain why only you, a superhuman from LuJia Village, can see them, while I, an outsider, cannot. There’s no way I could see spirits of faith generated from the collective spiritual beliefs of your species.”

“Even within your species, it’s likely that only a unique superhuman like you can perceive them.”

“Generally, after the Power of Faith is generated, it automatically converges into the body of the one being worshiped. If this Power of Faith is wandering outside, it usually means the worshiped entity is either dead or unable to absorb the faith.”

“Of course, there’s another possibility-the spirits of faith are too weak to find the main body.”

Lu Ran fell into deep thought. After a long pause, he spoke, “So my next step in investigating the divine deer should be to strengthen these spirits of faith, right?”

“As long as these spirits of faith become stronger, they might be able to find the divine deer’s traces on their own and restore its state.”

“Exactly.” Manager Ying nodded. “This is the most reasonable hypothesis considering your dream and the deer spirits.”

“Since entering the modern era, many villages have indeed moved away from superstitious practices and no longer worship totems, which naturally weakened the Power of Faith.”

“Although this explanation makes sense, it’s still just a hypothesis that needs more verification. You need to have a few more dreams. If the content of these dreams is consistent, then it’s highly likely that these faith spirits are guiding you to help the divine deer gain a more substantial Power of Faith.”

“Why wait for more nights? Just hypnotize me now so I can keep dreaming!” Lu Ran couldn’t help but say.

Manager Ying responded, “Sure.”

In the next second, it delivered a kitty punch to Lu Ran’s face, knocking him down again.

After repeating this process several times…

Lu Ran, looking exhausted, sat on the ground.

“I had several identical dreams.”

“The dreams are indeed guiding me to help increase the faith in the divine deer.”

“That settles it. There’s no way you could coincidentally have the same dream so many times,” Manager Ying said playfully. “This dream-based persuasion seems much more reliable than that fox’s dream scam. It only requires a small amount of the Power of Faith, while the fox demanded epic-level spiritual resources. Who would be willing to give it that?”

“But the Power of Faith is different. As long as there are benefits, even those who aren’t from LuJia Village would be somewhat willing to believe in it.”

“So, are you willing to help the divine deer, whose fate is still unknown, gain faith?”

Lu Ran’s mouth twitched. Of course he would. If it weren’t for the divine deer antler, he wouldn’t be where he is today.

To repay the divine deer antler, he had to help out. Besides, Manager Ying probably didn’t know this piece of intelligence-the divine deer was a legendary retainer of the life dragon, one of the Four Great Creator Divine Dragons of the Star-Moon Continent.

Currently, Lu Ran was also tasked with investigating the death dragon and obtaining The Stone of the Other Shore, a legendary item. If he could find the divine deer, he might find clues about the Creator Divine Dragons.

So, there was no reason for Lu Ran to abandon the task of helping the divine deer gain more faith.

Additionally, this reminded Lu Ran of something. When he faced the Flame Dragon King, he had claimed to be the “divine deer’s envoy.” Damn, now his bluffing had become reality.

It seemed he really had to take on the role of the divine deer’s envoy.

Considering the divine deer antler, he already had plans to support LuJia Village. Now, with the divine deer’s dream, he had no choice but to support LuJia Village.

After all, getting the people of LuJia Village to believe again was much easier than going to big cities like Shanghai or the imperial capital and telling a bunch of social elites to “believe in the divine deer.”

Moreover, the Power of Faith must be related not only to the number of believers but also to the strength of the believers. The stronger the believers, the more substantial the Power of Faith they could provide!

“Do you think if I actually manage to awaken General Deer, it wouldn’t be as stingy as that fox?”

“Would it reward me with something?” Lu Ran pondered.

Manager Ying: ???

“What are you thinking? Do you want a little deer to raise?”

“Hmph.” Lu Ran pouted. “You don’t understand the true value of the divine deer. Never mind, I’ll go talk to the village chief about changing the village chief.”