This brat is not even worried about his familiar right now, and he’s teasing me?
“You all didn’t notice the nine Stellar Blessings that just descended from the sky?”
Lu Ran’s voice was calm, but to the sharp hearing of the gathered experts, it was crystal clear.
Inside, Lu Ran’s heart was pounding. Through the contract connection, he could vividly feel Sudden Death King’s monumental transformation.
Its bloodline energy surged like a tidal wave. Its mental sea boiled with power. Its Dragon Soul roared with fury and vitality. Each detail pointed to one undeniable fact: this was a legendary metamorphosis.
Even compared to the Diamond Dragon, Sudden Death King stood on an entirely different level.
It seems... I really am about to cultivate a Dragon King. A second Dragon-attribute familiar on the Blue Planet?
Lu Ran scoffed inwardly. Why would he care about something so trivial? He was aiming to become the first beastmaster to cultivate an Overlord.
At that very moment, the white-haired reporter noticed something extraordinary. As the earlier Stellar Blessings descended and merged, the entire starry sky began to glow brilliantly.
The dazzling starlight coalesced, forming the outline of a dragon-shaped constellation. It was as if a single special Stellar Blessing wasn’t enough to elevate the next familiar’s evolutionary potential any further.
The starlight from the dragon-shaped constellation descended like a meteor shower, leaving countless onlookers bewildered and astonished.
Why is this different from before?
“Is it opened?” A startled voice burst from among the observing elites.
In the next instant, the final Stellar Blessing, radiating more brilliance than any prior blessing, descended directly upon Sudden Death King.
A blazing dragon-shaped soul streaked from the sky, merging perfectly with the cocoon of evolutionary light surrounding Sudden Death King.
An ear-shattering dragon roar reverberated through the void, sending shivers down the spines of every beastmaster.
Sudden Death King’s form swelled, expanding in size until it stood over ten meters tall, its aura overwhelming and unmatched.
Professor Haydn, who was hovering in midair, was utterly stunned. His gaze darted around, seeking an explanation. How could an Intermediate-Champion-rank dragon lizard invoke such an unprecedented phenomenon in the Evolution Secret Realm?
Even with their vast amount of Treasure-grade resources and top-tier Trait Crystals, his experiments had never come close to this scale of transformation.
“This is impossible! How is this possible?”
Even the International Beastmaster Alliance reporter was full of curiosity.
Some beastmasters started to speculate with their hearts filled with shock.
Suddenly, realization hit, and it all became clear.
Accompanied by another dragon roar that reverberated through the starry sky, an overwhelming dragon aura swept across the realm like a tidal wave.
The force of its aura was so immense that it seemed to form a sovereign domain, a territory of absolute dominance.
The Primal Rock Dragon, which had just completed its evolution moments earlier, instinctively froze. Its pupils contracted, and its massive body immediately crouched low in submission, trembling under the oppressive pressure.
All around, beastmasters scrambled to calm their familiars. Be it familiars of the first, second, or even third generation, their fear was palable. All eyes soon turned to the source of this unparalleled might.
As the radiant light faded, a colossal figure emerged from the cocoon. It was unlike anything anyone expected.
This wasn’t the form of an ordinary dragon. The silhouette resembled two shields, brought together to form a massive structure of solid rock. No, those weren’t shields. They were wings—shield-shaped wings!
Captain Doofus widened his eyes, feeling as if Sudden Death King was so afraid of Lu Ran using its scales for shields that it had preemptively evolved its wings into shields, leaving Lu Ran no chance.
Now, as the figure unfurled its massive wings, black on the outer side and dark-red within, its full form was revealed.
It had a regal head exuding authority, crimson shoulder guards and knee plates enhancing its imposing frame, and scales with a rocky texture that glimmered with molten red light flowing underneath.
Yet, the most striking feature was its enormous shield-like wings, far larger than its already colossal body. The wings moved slightly, and with even the faintest motion, lightning crackled, and the air vibrated under their sheer power.
Its eyes glimmered with an intensity that struck the hearts of every beastmaster present like thunder.
[Name: Shieldwing Dragon King]
[Attribute: Dragon (Lightning, Rock)]
[Species Rank: Intermediate-Overlord]
[Description: A one-of-a-kind species, the king of all dragons.]
At that moment, the Blue Planet’s first Overlord was born! And it wasn’t a Low-Overlord. With just one phase of evolution, it had transcended two entire species ranks, achieving the incredible status of an Intermediate-Overlord!
Lu Ran stood beside the Shieldwing Dragon King, his expression calm and collected. It had inherited Dragon King-level spiritual deterrence from the Flame Dragon King and Dragon King-level bloodline power from the Diamond Dragon King.
After devouring countless Overlord Dragon Souls, it had cultivated a perfect Dragon Soul.
Now, all those investments had paid off. In the Evolution Secret Realm, Sudden Death King had soared to the heavens in one leap with its unique advantages.
Not only had its species greatly enhanced, but it had also followed its instincts and developed a second attribute, completing the ultimate evolution that gave it unparalleled defensive power!
In addition to this...
[Species Talent: Dragon King’s Shield (When activated, the familiar enters the Dragon King’s Shield form, doubling its resistance to all types of damage and converting part of the damage absorbed into energy and life force.)]
So, the Dragon King’s Shield must have been the double-winged shield form it had just displayed!
As Lu Ran sensed Sudden Death King’s newly awakened abilities, the beastmasters across the Evolution Secret Realm felt as though their hearts had been struck by an asteroid crashing into the planet’s surface upon observing its species rank!
Forget the foreign beastmasters—even Gu Qingyi, Shi Zhen, and Zhu Kaixin, who were standing nearby, stared at Sudden Death King’s newly evolved form in utter disbelief.
Wait a minute. Intermediate... Overlord?
“Hmm, not bad,” Lu Ran said, maintaining a facade of calm composure.
But this appearance of nonchalance only caused countless first-generation beastmasters to completely lose it.
“What the hell? An Intermediate-Overlord-rank familiar?”
“My God, this can’t be real!”
“When I saw the scale of those blessings, I already knew it had to be an Overlord. But... Intermediate-Overlord? Are you kidding me?”
“Even the first generation hasn’t managed to cultivate an Overlord-rank familiar, yet a fourth-generation beastmaster has done it in just one evolutionary phase?”
“Not only that, but it leaped across two entire ranks from Intermediate-Champion...”
“Impossible. Absolutely impossible!!!”
At this moment, Professor Haydn, who had believed that evolving the Primal Rock Dragon would guarantee him victory and restore his dignity, stared at the information about Lu Ran’s familiar. His face turned red, his eyes glistening, and his breathing erratic.
The shock he experienced at this moment exceeded anything anyone else was feeling. His heartbeat echoed in his ears like the crash of thunder.
One by one, the dinosaur researchers beside him looked up in disbelief at the materialized dragon aura dense enough to manifest into tangible lightning.
They looked at the Primal Rock Dragon, which was still bowing on the ground with its massive body trembling. Their hearts were shaken to the core.
The evolution specialist from the Eagle Federation, who had just been rejoicing over their Primal Rock Dragon moments ago, now wore a look of confusion and despair.
What kind of monster had that Xia boy cultivated?
They had pulled out all the stops. From resources to processes, it was maxed out to perfection. So how could this be the result? The entire Evolution Secret Realm fell silent.
What should have been an epic scene for every evolution blessed by the stars now seemed dim in comparison. Even those creatures that had received Stellar Blessings found their brilliance utterly overshadowed by the Shieldwing Dragon King’s presence.
“So this is what he meant by ‘second’ and ‘first,’” someone murmured as they recalled Lu Ran’s earlier words.
Suddenly, they found the boy terrifying, as if he had been in control of everything from the very beginning.
“Yeah, the birth of the second Dragon-attribute familiar isn’t much of a headline. After all, it’s only the second. But the birth of the first Overlord-rank familiar on the planet... Now that’s real news!”
The reporter’s pupils dilated as she stared with uneven breathing. She glanced at her peers, who were still hovering in the air, dumbfounded. Without hesitation, she exited the Evolution Secret Realm to break the story first.
She understood now that this boy hadn’t merely crushed the fourth-generation beastmasters. He had become the leader of a new era.
It was the Overlord Species Era!