Beastmaster King-Chapter 161 - Lu Ran: My Good Little One

Inside the villa, Lu Ran was mentally exhausted after three days of challenges in the Beginner Trial Secret Realm. Returning home, he was about to get a good sleep when, unexpectedly, Dark Crow whom he had just driven away started banging on the glass outside again.

“Your Majesty, open the door!” Dark Crow kept flapping its wings against the glass, squawking at the window.

“Hey, what’s your deal?” Lu Ran groaned, climbing off the bed and opening the window.

What was with this crow? Why couldn’t it just finish speaking earlier? You’re really failing as a subordinate. If it were any other king, you’d have been dragged out and executed by now.

As Lu Ran opened the window, Dark Crow, brimming with excitement, flew inside and perched on the railing.

“Your Majesty, I think I’ve awakened a remarkable ability.”

“It’s related to the Spirit attribute, isn’t it? Didn’t I already tell you? Focus on researching it properly. If the Spirit attribute is fully developed, it offers many abilities, like illusions.”

Just like how the Fire attribute manifests as burning and the Ice attribute as freezing, the Spirit attribute has the characteristic of causing hallucinations in enemies upon attack.

“It’s not that!”

Dark Crow found it too troublesome to explain in words. Seeing is believing.

It turned to Lu Ran and said, “How about this, Your Majesty, call out Lightning Dragon. I’ll use it to test my new ability.”

Considering Lightning Dragon’s thick skin and easygoing personality, Dark Crow figured it wouldn’t mind a bit of “interaction” with its teacher.

“You’re being so mysterious about it,” Lu Ran said.

“It’s in the living room next door, watching TV with Captain Doofus. Go ahead.”

Lu Ran opened his bedroom door and led Dark Crow to the living room.

At the moment, Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King were lying on the couch, watching Tom and Jerry. They laughed hysterically as the antics unfolded on the screen. How can the cat be so dumb?

“Woof, woof!”

“Wawawa!”

When Lu Ran and Dark Crow approached, Lu Ran turned the volume down, drawing the two familiars’ attention.

“Sudden Death King, come here. Dark Crow wants to test its new ability on you.”

Sudden Death King was dumbfounded.

“Rawr???”

Sudden Death King was bewildered. It pouted, furrowed its brows, and leaned back in protest, glaring at General Dark Crow with disdain.

Why do all the bad things have to happen to me?

It wanted to inscribe the words “ultimate victim” across its chest.

“Do we need to go to the courtyard?” Lu Ran asked.

“No need! The new ability isn’t very powerful,” replied the Dark Crow.

It focused its red crow eyes on the standing Sudden Death King, solemnly and seriously.

“Standing must be tiring. Don’t wear yourself out, and just lie down...” Dark Crow took a deep breath and said.

In the next moment, its beak-shaped dark red characters dissolved into the void. Instantly, Sudden Death King’s expression shifted. It felt a sudden force of gravity and pressure, forcing it to lie down again.

Buzz.

A sensation of losing control over its body started to spread.

“Rawr!!!”

However, how could Dark Crow’s strength compare to that of Sudden Death King? With a tremor of its scales, Sudden Death King forcibly broke free, shaking off the strange feeling. It then glared sharply at Dark Crow.

What on earth was that!?

Sudden Death King was startled.

“What is this?”

Nearby, both Lu Ran and Captain Doofus widened their eyes in surprise. Lu Ran rubbed his eyes to confirm he hadn’t seen incorrectly. Just now, Dark Crow’s speech seemed to transform into special characters made of energy, dissolving into the void.

Immediately after Dark Crow finished speaking, Sudden Death King appeared to stagger as if something had forced its body down. It nearly collapsed from its standing posture, as though an invisible hand were pressing it down.

Yet, in reality, apart from Dark Crow speaking, no one had interacted with Sudden Death King.

“I have no idea,” the Dark Crow said, scratching its head with a wing in confusion.

“Is this a power you awakened after unlocking the Spirit attribute?” Lu Ran asked.

“Yes! I feel that after awakening the Spirit attribute, my vocal cords seem capable of fusing Dark energy with Spiritual energy. This newly fused power gives me the sense that my vocal organ can now act as an offensive weapon, just like my claws and beak. So, I tested it, and it works!”

After finishing its explanation, Dark Crow looked expectantly at Lu Ran as fell into deep thought. Clearly, this was a power resembling the concept of “words becoming reality.”

Of course, after glancing at Sudden Death King and connecting through telepathy, Lu Ran realized that the ability wasn’t as exaggerated as it seemed.

Sudden Death King revealed that it had felt its spirit being eroded and influenced, resulting in the temporary loss of control over its body. This wasn’t a rule-type ability as the core of the power still lay in influencing the target’s spiritual state.

“You’re defying the heavens here.”

Lu Ran couldn’t help but look at Dark Crow. Even so, this ability was still outrageously powerful. Lu Ran now had a general understanding of Dark Crow’s condition. Most likely, Dark Crow’s organs had undergone a mutation during its evolution, resulting in what resembled a species talent.

Such occurrences weren’t rare. Lu Ran recalled a conversation he had in the preparation room with Zhou Mo, the master of the Two-Headed Hellhound.

Zhou Mo explained that his Two-Headed Hellhound was the offspring of two extraordinary canine species. It had undergone species mutation upon birth, resulting in two heads, completely different from its parents.

Even before the revival of spiritual energy, bizarre mutant species were not uncommon. Hence, Lu Ran deduced that Dark Crow’s vocal organ must have mutated during its evolutionary process.

This also explained why, immediately after its extraordinary awakening, Dark Crow demonstrated exceptional language talent. Not only fluently speaking human language but also rapidly learning other species’ tongues. This was pure talent!

Previously, due to its weak power and reliance solely on the Dark attribute, Dark Crow couldn’t fully exploit this mutation advantage. It wasn’t until today, when it awakened the Spirit attribute, that its vocal cords revealed their unique ability.

Fusing Dark energy with Spiritual energy to create powers resembling word spirits or curses. Lu Ran felt this ability was undeniably powerful.

Its strength wasn’t solely because it could influence an opponent through speech but because neither Lu Ran, Captain Doofus, nor Sudden Death King had detected the attack process.

The attack landed on Sudden Death King without any warning. This sense of defenselessness was the scariest part of the ability. It was more bizarre than most Spirit attribute attacks!

It was practically a curse, capable of striking someone from thousands of miles away, unseen and undetected. The eerie nature of the ability rivaled those of Time and Space attributes.

“Let’s test it again. This time, use it on me. I want to experience it firsthand,” Lu Ran instructed.

He retrieved a piece of beast meat from his storage, igniting a flame in one hand to roast it. Dark Crow froze for a moment, but then whispered cautiously, “Be careful... don’t burn it.”

The moment it spoke, Lu Ran lost focus. His concentration wavered, causing him to lose control over the Flame Spirit. In an instant, the fire surged, and the meat was burnt to a crisp with a loud sizzle!

Quickly regaining his composure, Lu Ran controlled the Flame Spirit to prevent a fire.

“Can you try saying something positive next time?”

Lu Ran was both shocked and intrigued by the potential of this ability. Suddenly, an idea struck him.

If this curse-like ability can influence a target negatively, could it also be used positively?

“Let’s try again. This time, I’m going to attempt to form the flame into an extremely complicated structure.

“With my current level of flame control, this is impossible to achieve. But try saying something like, ‘I believe you can succeed’ to influence my spiritual state and enhance my energy control.”

“Huh?” The Dark Crow blinked in confusion.

It can be used like that?

After Lu Ran finished speaking, he began summoning flames, attempting to form the fire into a detailed form in his palm. He envisioned creating a female warrior wielding a spear and riding a warhorse.

However, Lu Ran was quickly drenched in sweat. It was clear that such a high-difficulty operation was still far beyond his current ability. Not to mention him, even Captain Doofus and Sudden Death King couldn’t achieve it.

Typically, forming commonly used items like swords or crafting armor suited to a familiar’s body size was considered standard practice.

Of course, difficult didn’t mean impossible. For example, in Limitless City, the creators could forge secret realms so lifelike they seemed indistinguishable from reality. That was the pinnacle of energy formation, the highest form of mastery.

“I believe in you, Your Majesty!!”

Dark Crow exclaimed, immediately offering encouragement. Its words carried a spell, which dissolved into the void. In the next moment, Lu Ran indeed felt his spirit being subtly affected, though it didn’t cause any noticeable ripples in his concentration.

“Boom!”

The formation attempt still failed. The flames in Lu Ran’s palm twisted and distorted, refusing to conform to the complicated shape he envisioned.

“Damn.” Lu Ran couldn’t help but feel a little dejected.

“You really are a jinx. When you say something won’t work, it always does. When you say it will, it doesn’t. But I suppose that makes sense. Destruction is always easier than creation.”

“Caw—”

Dark Crow feigned an innocent expression, as if to say, How is this my fault?

Although it didn’t succeed, Lu Ran was convinced this was only because Dark Crow wasn’t yet fully proficient in using this ability. As it became more skilled, there was a real possibility of harnessing spells for positive effects.

For instance, using the power of words to influence a living being’s spiritual state such as boosting morale, reducing pain perception, and similar applications. Thinking along these lines, Lu Ran began to see this ability as something that could turn Dark Crow into a legion commander.

The plan for an army of dark crows had unexpectedly made significant progress.

“Speaking of which, are there any other abilities similar to this kind of spell?”

Lu Ran pulled out his phone and began searching the beastmaster forum. After searching for a while, he found nothing. Lu Ran initially thought that even if no creature in nature had awakened a curse ability, Limitless City would likely include a curse-like trait in its systems.

But his search results showed otherwise! There was no such trait, just as there were no legion-type traits. These abilities, so commonly depicted in film and television, hadn’t yet been included in Limitless City’s premium trait packages.

However, Lu Ran firmly believed that on Stellar Moon Continent, creatures capable of wielding curse powers must exist. After all, how else could Principal Shi Zhen have been afflicted by a witch’s curse?

Reflecting carefully, everything seemed to make sense now. Since Blue Planet’s development of beastmaster power had been relatively short, there was no fully developed curse system yet.

This explained why, after being cursed, Principal Shi Zhen couldn’t find an effective way to lift it and was instead forced to face early retirement.

Perhaps curse-related traits would emerge in level 6, 7, or 8 secret realms. But for now, with nothing available, Principal Shi Zhen could only research the matter on his own. What Lu Ran hadn’t expected, however, was that his own Dark Crow had awakened such an ability.

In the future, would its spells evolve from merely influencing the spirit to also affecting the physical body? Could it one day utter a single phrase and cause someone to undergo... a gender transformation?

Pondering this possibility, Lu Ran glanced at the Dark Crow with admiration. This ability was incredible. It would be a waste to let Dark Crow idle away its potential. He needed to think of ways to maximize its resources and training, perhaps even subjecting it to some intense demonic training.

“No wonder you’re my trusted lieutenant.”

Later that same day at Beastmaster University in the principal’s office. the first-generation beastmaster, Principal Shi Zhen, sneezed with a loud “achoo.”

Immediately, his hair began to grow longer, his chest swelled, his hips became more pronounced, and his skin turned dewy and radiant.

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The once-handsome Shi Zhen, whose appearance never quite matched the ruggedness of his name, transformed into a woman. Holding his now-voluminous chest, Shi Zhen’s expression turned furious.

“Not again! Damn that witch and her curse!”