King of Beasts

Chapter 21: Siblings Reunite

“Um…”

At this moment, a group of police officers are staring at the bizarre scene, somewhat bewildered.

What in the world!

Luo Shang is stunned, and so is the police dog beside him!

He had thought that a beastmaster capable of subduing a supernatural Manchurian Tiger would have a fierce beast like a bear under contract.

But what did he see instead?

Erha?

These dogs, known for their poor obedience and weak aggression, struggle to become police canines. How did one manage to make a ferocious tiger as docile as a cat?

“Police officers, you’re finally here.”

Seeing a group of people approaching, Lu Ran suddenly realizes that special departments, like the military or police, must have broadly become aware of the existence of the black card.

With the number of beastmasters still low, it would be too troublesome if they had to deal with everything personally.

In the Donghuang Beastmaster Alliance of Xia Country, there must be no shortage of ordinary people!

“May I ask if there’s anything else I need to assist with? Something urgent has come up for me.” Lu Ran speaks up.

He is indeed in a hurry now.

Because Fang Lan has finally returned.

The two had just spoken on the phone, but since Lu Ran couldn’t leave the scene, he had to wait.

Now, he’d rather go to Fang Lan to check on her situation than stay here.

“I’m Luo Shang, thank you for your help! You’re Lu Ran, right? We can take it from here… You can go ahead with your urgent matter, and we will personally come to express our gratitude when you have time,” Luo Shang says.

Luo Shang doesn’t dare to neglect someone like Lu Ran, who is a “master” of his craft.

Even if Lu Ran appears to be just a student on the surface, Luo Shang knows that some powerful beastmasters could easily hold important positions within the Donghuang Alliance, enjoying high status.

If Lu Ran is also an official member, with his strength… his position might even be higher than Luo Shang’s!

Until Luo Shang can figure out Lu Ran’s true identity, he can only follow Lu Ran’s lead.

“No need to thank me, it’s the least I could do!” Lu Ran, hearing that he can leave directly, is very pleased. He glances at General Ha and says, “Then let’s go.”

“We’ve removed the big cat’s teeth and claws, and one of its legs is broken, so it shouldn’t pose much danger anymore… It’s all yours now…”

The Manchurian Tiger roars in anger.

“You call that a cat? Your whole family must be cats.”

The police officers exchanged glances, unsure of what to say next.

Soon, Lu Ran and General Ha left the scene. Before they departed, General Ha cast a majestic glance at the Manchurian Chinchilla and the huge police dog. Neither the Manchurian Tiger nor the police dog dared to make a sound.

Finally, as they watched Lu Ran and his companion walk away, the Manchurian Tiger curled at the foot of the mountain breathed a sigh of relief. It felt like a weight had been lifted—the two demons had finally left…

But then, it caught sight of several black gun barrels aimed at it and fell back into contemplation.

…

In Green Sea City, within a room in the Li Jiang Community, Fang Lan lay on the sofa in her pajamas, a facial mask adhering to her skin, trying to relieve the tension in her spirit.

*Sigh*…

She was finally back.

After returning, what annoyed Fang Lan the most was that rascal Lu Ran.

She picked up her phone again and looked at the reply from Lu Ran, so exasperated her facial mask was about to fall off.

Lu Ran: !!!

Lu Ran: You… you were chosen too?

Lu Ran: I’m not ignoring you, I was just chosen two hours before you… When you messaged, I was already in the secret realm.

Lu Ran: Have you come back?

“I’ll give you a big ghost head in reply.” She had wanted to talk to Lu Ran about this incident as soon as it happened, but it turned out he knew before she did and didn’t tell her. It was infuriating.

She had already called Lu Ran.

She wanted to have a proper face-to-face conversation with Lu Ran about this matter.

Ding-dong…

Shortly after, the doorbell rang. Lu Ran, who had come to apologize, waited cautiously outside the door.

This place… was where Fang Lan kept her pets and also her residence.

Fang Lan owned several properties because it was inconvenient to live with her parents due to the many crawling pets she kept. Therefore, she moved out quite early to live on her own.

So now, she was living separately from her parents.

“Lu Ran!”

The door opened, and Fang Lan, looking at Lu Ran, who hadn’t even changed his clothes and was in a sorry state, had a lot to say. But when it came time to speak, she didn’t know what to say. Never mind.

“Come in first.”

“Ah.” Lu Ran patted his chest, took a deep breath, and entered the room.

In the living room, Fang Lan and Lu Ran faced each other. Fang Lan was the first to break the silence, saying, “I won’t pursue why you didn’t tell me when something happened.”

“Because I guessed what you would say.”

“You were afraid I’d worry, that I wouldn’t believe you, that I wouldn’t let you try, right?”

“Ha… ha…” Lu Ran replied, awkwardly.

“Regardless, in the future, you must share dangerous situations with family.”

“The main thing is, I didn’t expect that the black card would be a mass descent,” Lu Ran said. “We were chosen one after the other… I was planning to tell you after coming out, and besides, you didn’t tell mom and dad either.”

“You’re talking back! Cough, so you contracted your family’s Erha, right?” Fang Lan stood up just after sitting down, her hands pressed on the table, looking seriously at Lu Ran.

“What was the rating?”

Perhaps because of the tacit understanding between relatives, both believed that the other would surely pass the novice secret realm with ease.

“Not bad, S-level. General Ha is very strong now, I might team up with you later to conquer secret realms.” Lu Ran didn’t hide the rating from Fang Lan.

But sometimes, the more you tell the truth, the less others are inclined to believe it.

As expected, Fang Lan was stunned and somewhat disbelievingly said, “What did you say, S-level? How is that possible…”

“Is your General Ha a commander species???”

“No, just middle supernatural.”

“Then how can you be S-level? My Xiaolan is from an upper supernatural species, and I only got B-level!”

Fang Lan was clearly confused because Senior Gu had told her she was one in a hundred talents, and the compatibility with her spider pet beast was extremely high, so the initial species level was comparable to that of a lion or tiger.

If Lu Ran’s General Ha were also from a high-level species, she could understand Lu Ran getting a high rating, but middle supernatural… it was puzzling how he achieved such a high rating.

“Species level doesn’t represent everything. There is something that is not included within the species level, and that is the capacity to learn.” Lu Ran sat on the sofa, crossed his legs, picked up a cup, poured himself some water, and while drinking, he continued:

“My General Ha has an extremely high aptitude. After just a few battles, it easily grasped energy overlay. Through the tempering of combat, it has reached the skill level where it can easily wrap and cover objects with energy.”

“In terms of its mastery of energy, General Ha can be said to crush those wild beasts. We fought all day long, so achieving an S rating is not surprising. Didn’t I tell you a while ago that General Ha has an extremely high combat ability? Now you believe me, right?”

“It seems you don’t know much about Infinite City and beastmasters. Well, if there’s anything you don’t understand, I’ll explain it to you,” Lu Ran said with a smile, eager to apply his newfound knowledge.

Fang Lan, seeing Lu Ran flexing his Versailles

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 syndrome again, expressed her dissatisfaction directly:

“No need! I just hadn’t adapted to the secret realm at first…”

“When we’re free, let’s go to the arena in Infinite City and have a match between your General Ha and my Xiaolan.”

“Sure.” Lu Ran immediately agreed. He was also curious to see how formidable the upper supernatural species Daxia wolf spider really was.

Fang Lan’s pet beast was from an upper supernatural species, which honestly surprised Lu Ran, yet it also made sense to him. Fang Lan had grown up interacting with these creatures, so a high compatibility was only natural.

The Basic Beast Taming Handbook records that the beastmasters chosen by the black card are typically individuals who have a lot of interactions with animals, either through their occupations or by having pets at home.

Moreover, the higher the compatibility between the beastmaster and their pet, the more potential the pet can unleash after the initial contract.

“Do I have something on my face?” Lu Ran had already agreed to the duel, but seeing Fang Lan still biting her lip and staring at him, he felt a bit guilty.

“You’re S-rated… I thought my rating was high.” It turned out that Fang Lan was still dwelling on that matter.

She had always been ahead of Lu Ran in every aspect since they were kids. Now that Lu Ran had surpassed her, she probably had mixed feelings about it.

“Hehe,” Lu Ran said, “Don’t worry, the initial rating doesn’t determine everything. If there’s such a thing as the strongest king in the beastmaster occupation, you’ll definitely become one.”

“You do know how to talk!”

“By the way, have you been approached by an official from Infinite City?” Lu Ran suddenly asked.

“Yes!”

“Did you accept?”

“I did…” Fang Lan said. “Why wouldn’t I accept? Didn’t you?”

“Uh, not yet,” Lu Ran replied.

At the mention of this, Fang Lan became excited and said energetically, “Guess who I met in Infinite City.”

“Dr. Gu! Gu Qingyi, so she’s also been chosen as a beast tamer.”

“You certainly don’t know as much as I do. She told me a lot, and I accepted her invitation. As for what exactly I’ll be doing, she said she’ll contact me in reality to discuss it…”

“Gu Qingyi? Who’s that?” Lu Ran felt the name sounded familiar but couldn’t recall who it was.

“A young and beautiful doctoral student from Shanghai University. Forget it, you only have eyes for Erha, bugs, and such, beauties are not in your league,” Fang Lan said disdainfully.

Several of her female classmates had secretly inquired about Lu Ran, but none had sparked his interest.

That was just as well. She felt many girls were only after Lu Ran’s family fortune!

“Nonsense! I do like beauties,” Lu Ran objected, not wanting to hear it. Indeed, during his adolescence, he should have been dating, but with his family’s turmoil and the acquisition of his superpower, he hadn’t pursued that path, which was understandable.

“Is Dr. Gu reliable?” Lu Ran asked again, worried about Fang Lan being used by others.

“Of course, she is a first-generation beastmaster. She entered Infinite City three years ago and is very powerful! Her novice secret realm rating reached SS, even higher than yours!”

Lu Ran found it hard to believe.

“A first-generation beastmaster, really?”

“I guess so… that’s what she said.”

Lu Ran’s mouth fell open slightly. A first-generation beastmaster with an SS novice rating?

Xiaobailong had said that there were only 13 active first-generation beastmasters left, right?

Could Dr. Gu be one of those 13?

Lu Ran looked incredulously at Fang Lan, who was also eagerly looking back at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just feeling a bit emotional. Why is it that you enter Infinite City and meet a first-generation big shot, while I only meet a… well, a pretty good person too.”

“I can introduce you to Dr. Gu. I’m just a B-level, and she called me a rare genius. With your S rating, you’d definitely get even more attention!”

“Then the two of us will be her top lieutenants, a perfect combination!”

“As far as I know, the alliance seems to place a lot of importance on cultivating fourth-generation beast tamers…”

“Us, the SB

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 combination?” Lu Ran said sarcastically.

With her cheeks puffed in annoyance, Fang Lan shot back, “Shut up, or I’ll lock you in the dark room and have you spend the night with the crawling pets.”

Footnote:

1. Versailles (凡尔赛):

   It is used to describe those actions that are intentionally showy yet pretend to be casual. This usage originates from people posting photos or experiences related to the Palace of Versailles and then pretending to share them humbly, when in fact they are showing off their travel, lifestyle, or social status.

2. SB(傻逼):

   “SB” is an acronym for the pinyin initials of the Chinese term “傻逼,” which is commonly used in online contexts as an insulting term. The literal meaning of this phrase refers to someone who is foolish or behaves stupidly, but its actual use carries a strong derogatory connotation.