"Sword will..."
Lu Ran nodded.
That was true. Before supernatural events appeared, this level might have been the stuff of legend.
But now, it might not be beyond human reach.
Senior Brother Jiang Man had recorded that sword will seemed to be related to a more advanced application of energy shaping.
He had also mentioned a name Lu Ran knew: Gu Qingyi.
From the look of things, energy shaping might be the key to understanding sword will!
"Understood, Master. I'll definitely master sword will."
"Good! Little Ran, why don't you stay at the dojo for a while?"
"That way, we can spar with our swords more often."
Old Master Jiang Dou tried to persuade him to stay, unwilling to let Lu Ran leave just like that.
"Well... sure." Lu Ran paused. He might as well stay. Green Sea City and Jinling City were very close, after all, and both fell within the geographical range of the Third Infinite City. It wouldn't be much trouble. He could enter Infinite City directly from Jinling, too.
"He Dali!"
"Here, Master," Senior Brother He answered.
"Go prepare a room for your junior brother Lu Ran. Make it a larger one. He has a pet beast with him."
"Of course, of course. I'll get right on it," Senior Brother He said.
After Senior Brother He left, Lu Ran asked Master Jiang Dou, "By the way, Master, besides Senior Brother Jiang Man, has anyone else in the dojo been chosen as a Beast Tamer?"
"No." Jiang Dou shook his head. "The number of Beast Tamers has only started increasing recently."
"Then you could take in more Beast Tamers as disciples in the future. Beast Tamers fall into two schools: one focuses on raising pet beasts, while the other focuses on strengthening themselves. Senior Brother belongs to the latter. There'll probably be plenty of Beast Tamers like him in the future. When that happens, traditional weapons like sabers and swords will definitely flourish again."
"You're right!" Jiang Dou's eyes lit up. With examples like Jiang Man and Lu Ran, he felt that Beast Tamers who had gained access to extraordinary power had an enormous advantage when practicing swordsmanship!
They could even grasp something like sword intent in no time!
Perhaps the ancient martial arts lost in Xia Country would emerge once more.
"Speaking of which, I wonder what combining gunplay with a pet beast's power would be like. If you could put elemental energy into bullets, wouldn't that be cool?" But then Lu Ran's thoughts took another turn.
Jiang Dou: ???
Jiang Dou's brow twitched, and a bad feeling suddenly came over him. Damn it, this brat Lu Ran wasn't going to abandon swordsmanship again and start playing with guns, was he?
Not a second time!
Lu Ran had no idea what Old Master Jiang Dou was thinking. But now that he had decided to stay at the Rainbow Sky Dojo for a while, he wanted to scout out the surrounding area first.
So, under the pretext of "taking the dog on his daily walk and finding General Ha a prime feng shui spot to poop," Lu Ran left the dojo with the grudge-holding General Ha.
"He's a Beast Tamer?"
"He's so handsome!"
When Lu Ran walked out of the dojo, he didn't put General Ha away, instead keeping him by his side.
Seeing the imposing husky following Lu Ran, some of the dojo apprentices stared in surprise.
Beast Tamers were the center of attention wherever they went these days. Lu Ran had already drawn plenty of attention since arriving at the dojo. Now that the apprentices had discovered Senior Brother Lu Ran was also a Beast Tamer, they were even more eager to learn about him.
"No wonder he's so strong..."
Several female apprentices recalled the way Lu Ran's aura had erupted earlier, and their hearts fluttered all the harder.
"If I told you to go out hunting on your own for the next few days, would you be able to find your way back?"
Lu Ran directed the question at Sudden Death King in his pocket.
He hadn't originally planned to stay in Jinling for long, so he hadn't brought much food for Sudden Death King. His spatial backpack couldn't hold living things, after all, and Sudden Death King liked his food fresh. If he wanted to eat his fill over the next few days, he would have to hunt for himself.
As for the extraordinary resources in Infinite City... Lu Ran simply didn't have the money to support two pet beasts right now. Sudden Death King would have to make do with ordinary food for the time being.
The Rainbow Sky Dojo stood at the foot of a mountain, close to the wilderness. The insects all over the mountainside should have been more than enough to keep Sudden Death King fed.
[I have to hunt for myself! So scary! Sudden death!]
Sudden Death King's eyes rolled back, and he fainted in Lu Ran's pocket.
"Sudden death, my ass." Lu Ran snapped, "You're a high extraordinary species. Relax. Those insects can't beat you anymore."
Beside him, General Ha gave Sudden Death King a contemptuous look. Coward.
"Waka..."
Soon, Lu Ran headed up the mountain with General Ha and Sudden Death King.
He took Sudden Death King out of his pocket, set him on the ground, and looked the miniature Red-Eyes Black Dragon in the eye. "You're free to hunt now. General Ha, um... keep an eye on him."
"Woof!" General Ha nodded, becoming a lizard-herding dog.
Meanwhile, Lu Ran took out his phone, planning to check whether there was any news about the beast-taming world today.
"The Beast Tamer Transit Channel has been in trial operation for over three days..."
"Over the past week, pet shops in numerous cities have seen demand outstrip supply..."
"Recently, large numbers of Black Card holders have headed into the countryside to capture wild beasts. Experts urge people not to blindly pursue animals of higher species ranks..."
"At present, Xia Country has established preliminary Beast Taming Towers in thirty-four cities. These towers will serve as the administrative centers for the Beast Tamer profession across the provinces..."
"Shocking! An eight-year-old child has been chosen as a Beast Tamer-and his contracted pet beast is a dinosaur..."
"How did some weird clickbait account sneak in here?" Lu Ran felt a headache coming on.
Still, it was undeniably the most eye-catching article among all those headlines...
He couldn't help tapping it.
But after opening it, Lu Ran felt even more like cursing. Sure enough, it was clickbait. The child's father had made a Black Card himself and bought the boy a dinosaur model so he could cosplay as a dragon tamer, then posted it online.
The comments were full of curses...
Fang Lan: [Have you arrived in Jinling?]
Just as Lu Ran casually reported the post, a message from Fang Lan arrived.
Lu Ran let out a breath and replied: [I'm here. By the way, I might stay here for a few days, so I'll be back a few days later.]
Fang Lan: [Suit yourself. I just wanted to tell you that the official beast-taming forum uploaded a lot of basic information today. It's pretty comprehensive. Take a look when you have time.]
Lu Ran: [Okay.]
The beast-taming forum was an online forum created after the official announcement that the age of beast taming had begun. The authorities were probably managing it behind the scenes. Lu Ran had visited a few times before, but it was almost entirely filled with chatter and questions from ordinary people unrelated to beast taming. The handful of guide posts hadn't been much help to him either, so he had stopped checking it.
Now that Fang Lan had mentioned it, he opened the forum again.
This time, he felt that the forum really had become much more useful. Plenty of guides had been added to the featured section, including quite a few walkthroughs for easy-difficulty Novice Secret Realms. Even more of them taught new Beast Tamers how to level up safely.
For example, some of the information in the Basic Beast Taming Manual he had bought could now be found quickly and clearly on the forum.
"Huh?"
After browsing for a while, Lu Ran discovered an interesting guide post.
"Do you know which direction you should take when developing your pet beast?"
That was the post's title.
The content was thoughtfully written, too.
[The author of this post is a Third-Generation Beast Tamer, username Every Opening Counts, from the Observers' Guild. Today, I'll be sharing a little pet beast training tip with you.]
[Have you noticed that after a pet beast is contracted, although it grows stronger in every respect, the vast majority have one particularly prominent attribute-be it strength, defense, or speed-that receives a larger boost?]
[Moreover, this standout attribute wasn't necessarily an advantage of the pet beast's species before.]
[I asked many friends and found that they had all encountered this phenomenon. Then I looked through some experience guides left by First Generation and Second Generation veterans and put together this summary.]
[During the initial evolution and awakening into an extraordinary creature, a pet beast's inner needs can cause certain attributes to receive additional enhancements.]
[Here's an example. Suppose a stray dog often wanders the streets and suffers bullying from other dogs. If it has thought, "If only I could run faster, then I could escape the bullying," and that thought is deeply rooted in its heart, its speed may actually receive an additional boost when it is contracted. This will become a species advantage that sets it apart from other canine pet beasts!]
[Of course, this sort of imagining doesn't occur in every pet beast. There's a strong element of randomness.]
[But there's no doubt that this is a fascinating subject. An animal's desire for a particular attribute can cause that attribute to become more pronounced after evolution.]
[My purpose in making this post is to tell beginners that if you're lost and don't know how to develop your pet beast, you can put more effort into its strongest attributes. Aside from its inherent species advantages, it can also have a second advantage granted by its inner needs at the time of contracting! In short, Beast Tamers should try to gain a deeper understanding of their pet beasts' inner worlds!]
[Follow me to stay on track. One training tip every week!]
"This post... actually has something to it." After reading it, Lu Ran felt a spark of inspiration.
This method seemed to offer a plausible explanation for both General Ha and Sudden Death King.
Take General Ha, for example. Before gaining access to extraordinary power, he had always been taught all sorts of bizarre skills by Lu Ran, such as swordsmanship. His life had been downright miserable. It was perfectly reasonable that he would crave a stronger learning ability to cope with Lu Ran, and so, after evolving, that ability had become more pronounced.
Then there was Sudden Death King. The little guy was timid and afraid of dying. His talent for playing dead was, put simply, a way of disguising himself in dangerous situations... Of course, Lu Ran's particular lizard had experienced sudden death just a tiny bit more often than other Red-Eyed Hawk Lizards... Individual differences, probably.
If asked which of his attributes had become most prominent after he became an extraordinary species, General Ha would definitely have an answer: defense!
General Ha had tested it. Small as this guy was, his defense was practically on par with Pig Farmer's Wild Boar after it coated its body in rock energy.
That was downright terrifying. After all, Sudden Death King hadn't even awakened an element yet, and he should only have been level 1.
Although his species rank was higher, defense like that was still absurd.
After reading the post, Lu Ran felt that Sudden Death King probably fit this exact situation.
First, his species' inherent advantage was defense. Red-Eyed Hawk Lizards were also known as armored lizards, and their scales looked very much like armor. Although they couldn't compare with animals like turtles, their defense was fairly good among small lizards.
Yet even with that advantage, Sudden Death King remained dissatisfied with his defense. His fear of death made him desperately crave even stronger protection. Thus, after eating the Awakening Leaf and undergoing extraordinary evolution, he had gained another unbelievable boost to his defense.
Everything packed into that little body was defense!
He was a textbook case of "putting every talent point into defense because he was afraid of dying."
Lu Ran looked at Sudden Death King cautiously searching for insects in the grass and scratched his head. So, if he raised this guy, should he focus on defense and build on that advantage?
Then he and General Ha could become a sword and shield, providing both damage and tanking.
But Sudden Death King was already afraid of dying. Wasn't making him serve as a meat shield a little inhumane?
Before you continue