King of Beasts

Chapter 128: Sudden Death King: Targeting Me!

“Roar!!!”

At this moment, the Sudden Death King, using an energy shell, temporarily transformed into a Thunder Dragon. Its black wings spread wide, dragon claws clenched at its sides, and it raised its head slightly to roar towards the sky!!!

A bolt of red lightning pierced through the clouds.

Inside the Thunder Dragon shell, the Sudden Death King felt as if it were sitting in a cockpit, piloting a massive biological mecha. It could clearly see the outside world, and every movement of its true body was synchronized with the Thunder Dragon shell.

Powerful! Dominant!

Feeling the might of the Thunder Dragon shell, the Sudden Death King’s eyes shone with disbelief.

Is this… the artistic conception of the dragon?

The power of artistic conception allows something shaped by energy to be as real as the genuine article, indistinguishable from reality.

Just like General Ha, who doesn’t inherently possess Frost Force, but through Blizzard Sword Intent, can imbue sword qi with frost attributes.

At this moment, the Sudden Death King had finally achieved something similar. Previously, the monster shadows it created, even an apprentice beastmaster could easily tell they were purely made of energy. But now, with the fusion of the artistic conception of the dragon, it was as if a real Thunder Dragon had been created.

“Roar!!!”

The Sudden Death King couldn’t help but roar. Inside the Thunder Dragon shell, it couldn’t resist touching the solidified shell with its rich experience of taking hits, it came to a shocking conclusion.

The strength of the Thunder Dragon shell now was probably not inferior to its true body.

Its defense had directly achieved a qualitative change of 1+1=2!

From now on, if an enemy wanted to injure it, they would first have to break through the tough Thunder Dragon shell, and then penetrate its original scales. Only then could they cause it harm!

Defense greatly enhanced.

However, the Sudden Death King soon realized that maintaining such a massive Thunder Dragon armor consumed energy at an extremely fast rate…

If not for the recent burst of energy from the conversion of a large amount of nutrients, it wouldn’t have been able to maintain the form for more than ten seconds under normal circumstances before collapsing.

Now, the Sudden Death King felt its stamina depleting at a ridiculous rate.

“Roar!!”

The Sudden Death King quickly restrained the exploding energy, and the giant dragon form, which was over ten meters tall, rapidly shrank to a dragon form of three to four meters high.

Yet, it still retained the energy-shaped black giant wings. As it spread its wings, under the burst of red lightning, it slowly began to fly.

“Wow ka.”

The Sudden Death King was overjoyed, its red pupils looking toward Lu Ran, Manager Ying, and even General Ha.

Anticipating their astonishment…

However, despite causing such a commotion, the Sudden Death King felt that Lu Ran and the others were not focusing on it at all.

“What the heck is this!”

Beside him, Lu Ran exclaimed in surprise.

It turned out that General Ha, who had been rolling around in ecstasy from the delicious food, seemed to have had an epiphany as well.

Manager Ying had generously given an extra piece of roast meat, and Lu Ran, not wanting to hog it all, had shared some with General Ha.

Lu Ran’s intention was to taste it, the Sudden Death King sought to gain strength, but General Ha was simply joining in the fun because Lu Ran couldn’t bear to see it watch them eat alone.

The Sudden Death King gaining strength and finally understanding the artistic conception of the dragon was indeed a cause for celebration, but Lu Ran found it expected.

After all, it was evolving towards a Loong-type species, had been eating Dragon Chef’s Dragon Cuisine for a long time, and had received the artistic conception of the dragon through Lu Ran’s 2.0 reverse ultra beast transmission. Now, having eaten the Barbecue made from the overlord Dragon King Bird, if it still hadn’t grasped the artistic conception of the dragon, Lu Ran would have wanted to zap this idiot to death.

But General Ha’s gain was something Lu Ran hadn’t anticipated at all.

General Ha stood on the ground, howling softly, and suddenly, an energy sword with an appearance that seemed to be wrapped in a tornado-like effect was formed by General Ha.

This Tomado Sword emitted a very special power fluctuation, and feeling this fluctuation, the Sudden Death King was secretly shocked, feeling as if its scales were tingling.

Manager Ying was even more surprised: “A new artistic conception?”

Lu Ran couldn’t help but check General Ha’s contract card.

[Skill]: Dragon Slayer Sword Intent (A special power gained after facing powerful Dragon Clan creatures without fear and having a certain understanding of Loong-type power, provides a certain damage bonus against Loong-type creatures!)

“Damn, you really learned Dragon Slayer!”

Lu Ran was astonished.

Heaven bears witness, he thought General Ha was joking when it mentioned it.

“What the heck??” Manager Ying was equally baffled, Dragon Slayer?

Lu Ran’s meaning was that this dog had comprehended a skill called Dragon Slayer?

The name sounded like… a skill that countered Loong-type creatures.

What on earth, you just ate a quarter piece of Dragon King Bird roast, and you grasped the power of Dragon Slayer?

Manager Ying couldn’t understand.

“Woof!” General Ha’s gaze was sharp. I have a sword that can slay dragons!

Buzz!

The violent wind force wasn’t directed at anyone, yet it directly caused the Sudden Death King, clad in giant dragon armor, to involuntarily step back a few steps.

The Sudden Death King was dumbfounded: ???

“Roar!” The Sudden Death King looked at General Ha in bewilderment.

Is this for real?

It finally understood that General Ha had always been targeting it!

It’s understandable for an sub-dragon like me to comprehend the artistic conception of the dragon.

But how did a sword-holding dog grasp the Dragon Slayer Sword Intent?!

“I see.” Lu Ran suddenly realized: “Attempts to teach General Ha Flame Dragon Sword Intent and the artistic conception of the dragon didn’t succeed, but after so many days of training, tasting Dragon Cuisine, and now this Dragon King Bird roast, it wasn’t without gains…”

“When breaking through the secret realm, it had been using its will to resist the Dragon Might of the Overlord Dragon Clan. Now, with a certain understanding of the Loong-type artistic conception, although it couldn’t master the artistic conception of the dragon, it learned a method to counter Loong-type creatures!”

“Making its efforts worthwhile.”

“Well done, General Ha!” Lu Ran cheered. Although this sword intent was only useful against specific attributes, from now on, General Ha could be considered a Loong-type killer!

A Dragon Slayer Swordsman!

“Woof!” General Ha boasted.

It began to run around joyfully.

“Ugh…” Only the Sudden Death King, silently distressed on the side, thought that as long as General Ha was around, even if it transformed into a dragon, it seemed it would still be the Sudden Death Dragon…

Using Thor Tactics in the future, it seemed it would hurt even more.

Ah, when would it have the defense to ignore General Ha’s slashes!

“Meow” Finally, Manager Ying couldn’t help but cast a ridiculous look, wondering if this was the legendary “martial idiot” who was wise yet foolish?

Honestly, it was very annoyed.

What if it ate nine pieces of roast meat later and gained nothing?

Wouldn’t that mean it was inferior to a dog?

Not being able to comprehend the artistic conception of the dragon and gaining less than an sub-dragon, it could accept because of the other party’s species advantage.

But Manager Ying couldn’t accept being inferior to a dog. It set a minimum goal for itself: even if it couldn’t comprehend the Loong-type artistic conception, it at least had to grasp the Dragon Slayer Sword Intent.

“By the way, there’s been a bunch of crows outside making a racket since earlier. Go get rid of them,” Manager Ying said, not focusing too much on General Ha.

Instead, it turned to Lu Ran. Those crows must be Lu Ran’s underlings, right?

“The aroma of the fully cooked Dragon King Bird meat couldn’t be contained by my barrier. It seems to have attracted quite a few troublesome creatures. Half of the powerful beings in Green Sea City have probably caught the scent. You should handle it first.”

“Really?”

Lu Ran was curious. He wondered if the roast meat from earlier had reached the minimum quality of exquisite cuisine, making it so aromatic that even Manager Ying’s barrier couldn’t hold it back.

The aroma spread across half of Green Sea City…

That was impressive. Although it wasn’t as powerful as Yan Sizhen’s Flame Dragon Roaming Nine Heavens, which filled the entire Star-Moon Continent with its aroma, Lu Ran already felt this roast was very strong.

Not only did it help the Sudden Death King comprehend the artistic conception of the dragon, but it also enabled General Ha to grasp the Dragon Slayer Sword Intent. Lu Ran himself planned to refine his Flame Dragon Culinary Intent later, hoping to make some progress.

“Sudden Death King, you go and drive away the dark crows.”

“Roar!” The Sudden Death King, clad in its giant dragon armor, nodded and attempted to fly out of the barrier with its Thunder Dragon Wing.

After that, Lu Ran began to rest, preparing to resume roasting meat for Manager Ying once he was refreshed.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. With the experience from last time, Lu Ran felt that he would be even more adept at roasting the next piece.

Two days later…

Lu Ran boarded a plane from Green Sea City, heading to the academic city Sky City.

At this time, the preliminary assessment had already concluded. A total of over 900 new students had passed the preliminaries.

Among these 900+ new students, excluding some seeded players, additional qualifiers were chosen from various competitions.

Including several dozen seeded players, there would be a total of 128 participants in the final ranking battles at the main campus of Beast Taming University.

These 128 participants included various beastmasters from Infinite City who were on the supernatural divine beast leaderboard, those close to the divine beast leaderboard, and even those who had transcended the supernatural divine beast leaderboard.

Both Lu Ran and Fang Lan were directly admitted as seeded players, while Pig Raiser and a few others were not as fortunate.

In the main tournament, besides Pig Raiser and Lu Yi winning one match each, the others were eliminated in the first round.

It was evident that apart from Lu Ran and Fang Lan, who had experienced the breakthrough secret realm, the combat level of the others was roughly within the top thousand among the fourth-generation beastmasters in Xia Country.

Though they weren’t weak, there was still a gap compared to top-level experts.

After being eliminated early, apart from waiting to watch Lu Ran and Fang Lan’s matches, the group returned to Infinite City to farm resources in the novice secret realm.

“Ladies and gentlemen:

The plane has landed at Gao Tian Airport. The outside temperature is…”

After several transfers, the plane finally reached its destination and began its descent. Once it was time to disembark, Lu Ran removed Erha’s blindfold and followed a group of passengers off the plane.

Leaving the airport, Lu Ran headed straight to the dormitory.

In fact, many freshmen had already moved into the school dormitories half a month earlier. A large number of new students did not sign up for the Freshman Tournament. For them, arriving early to experience the new life at Beast Taming University and to make new friends was more exciting.

Lu Ran was in the forging department.

The forging department was not in the main campus.

The main campus had only one department, which was the combat department, the most populated one.

When he arrived at the forging college, he found that there were already quite a few students. There were even dog couples appearing in the streets and alleys.

The official start of the school year was one week after the Freshman Tournament ended. During these days, students in Sky City were free to move around, so it was the most leisurely time for this group.

“Building No. 3, Unit 1, Room 202…”

Checking the information on the Beast Taming University app, Lu Ran finally found his dormitory. Each dormitory here was a single room, equipped with a bedroom, a bathroom, and a study room. As for food, it was uniformly provided in the school cafeteria.

Arriving downstairs, Lu Ran scanned his face to enter and sighed slightly when he saw his room.

“As expected, it’s quite small.”

“Small… not very comfortable.”

After getting used to living in a large villa at home, Lu Ran found it difficult to adjust to such a small space. After all, during his free time, he liked to release Sudden Death King and General Ha to chat with them.

However, the school dormitory clearly did not support students releasing their pet beasts inside for interaction.

At this moment, Lu Ran took out his phone and dialed a number. Soon, the other side picked up.

“Hello?? Passerby A??”

“Master Lin, I’ve arrived at the forging college.”

“I wanted to ask, are all student dormitories like this? Is there any independent accommodation? Preferably villa-type dormitories with a yard and training ground.”

Master Lin: “What are you thinking?”

“That would be quite a project.”

“But if you find the dorm too small, how about this: you can come stay at my place. What you described is usually reserved for professors. I don’t have many classes, and I’m mostly in Infinite City, so my dorm is empty most of the time. You can stay there, and it would be convenient for me to give you special tutoring and private lessons.”

Lu Ran: …

“Is that so? The professors have nice accommodations? That sounds good.”

“Who is in charge of this area? Give me a contact. Before my tournament starts, I’ll apply to be a Culinary professor.”

Lu Ran originally planned to discuss this after the tournament. After all, it would be inappropriate for a school professor to compete in the Freshman Tournament and beat up freshmen…