"Ok, we’ll be there! By the way, chief, I heard you’re having a class tomorrow, and all of us signed up for it. Will you be there?"
It seemed that news about his class had spread pretty far and had attracted the attention of many fourth-generation beastmasters.
"Yes," Lu Ran answered.
The two chatted a little further before finally hanging up.
Previously, the Flood Dragon Squad had contracted snake familiars that Dr. Gu provided.
Lu Ran then supplied them with a large quantity of dragon dishes, but those dishes didn’t have a long shelf life. The dragon dishes infused with dragon artistic conception have a short shelf life and are not durable. In a show of support, the government provided specialized equipment similar to the Spirit-Converting Pot to help preserve the food.
This way, Lu Ran didn’t need to continue resupplying the squad every couple of days. As long as he blocked off some time, he could cook a big batch of dragon dishes that was enough to last the entire group for a decent amount of time.
Those baby snakes started off around level 10 when Dr. Gu handed them over but have since reached level 20 under the care of their beastmasters and the constant supply of Rare-grade Dragon resources.
Lu Bing's report gave Lu Ran a good gauge of the Flood Dragon Squad’s current status. The members’ snake familiars were all Low Champions and fused with their first trait. The traits they fused with were specifically chosen to fit each familiar’s individual strengths instead of just random Dragon-attribute traits.
For their second trait, Lu Ran had already planned to have the entire squad fuse with the Dragon Blood trait to start the first stage of their transformation.
As for auxiliary resources, Lu Ran had the Dragon King Blood he had previously bottled. Lu Ran planned to boil the blood with the Dragon Flame Spirit to make soup for the snakes and have them soak in it to alter their bloodlines.
The precious Dragon King Blood Body Tempering would allow the snakes to perfectly fuse with the Dragon Blood trait.
Once this was all completed, the Flood Dragon Squad would have undergone a complete rebirth and met the requirements for clearing a Legendary secret realm.
Lu Ran longed for the day when the squad would be capable of farming valuable resources for him.
Since he had to teach class the next morning, Lu Ran woke up Manager Ying to take him to the university ahead of time. His location didn’t have any direct impact on his immediate plans.
Soon, Lu Ran’s class became a hot topic on the forums as many students were excited to attend. A litany of posts cropped up, including some shady ones.
“Selling my seat for Professor Lu’s lecture. Will provide a fake student ID to get through security. DM for prices.”
With Lu Ran's fame, he outclassed many so-called prodigies to the point that many of his students doubted whether his class would actually be free. Not to mention the public, many of Lu Ran’s friends and acquaintances were planning to attend as well.
As soon as he arrived at his dorm, he received a message from Fang Lan.
“Are you going to teach class tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I just got to the dorms.”
“Ok, Xia Ri and I are going too. We’re looking forward to it!”
Huh? Even those two are coming?
“What about Lin Yin?”
“She entered an ascension realm after we cleared the Legendary secret realm.”
Lu Ran was actually looking forward to tomorrow's class more than anyone else. Lu Ran, Xiong Anlin, Du Yuan, and a few others were already on the brink of reaching level 3.
The girls, on the other hand, were still stuck at level 1. After passing the Legendary Secret Realm, they didn’t seem to be in any hurry to catch up.
How very zen of them.
Lu Ran got tired of typing, so he decided to call her.
“When are you going to challenge the ascension realm?"
"Um... I’m going to wait a few more days. Aren’t you going to be challenging an ascension realm soon too?”
"Yeah, I’ll go if nothing comes up after Captain Doofus’ evolution," Lu Ran replied.
"Okay! If you enter an ascension realm with plant familiars, then do what you did in the last two ascension realms. Use your overpowered self to help me collect some toxic plants!" Fang Lan begged.
"Of course.” Lu Ran smiled.
"If I end up somewhere with plant familiars then I will definitely bring back an Overlord-rank plant for you."
The problem is—I can’t choose ascension realms.
Fang Lan’s team made substantial gains in the Legendary secret realm, Gourd Mountain, but they weren’t lucky enough to pull a King-species egg.
Still, the reward included unique traits and skills as well as other valuable resources. For example, Fang Lan's biggest gain was the trait, Toxic Plant Control.
The effect is that it can allow a poisonous pet to transform plants into poisonous plants and control them.
Most people wouldn’t think much of it, but it was very useful for Fang Lan. In fact, she wouldn’t even trade it for a Low-King-rank familiar.
Although there were a multitude of poisonous plants, they didn’t make up a significant portion of the entire population.
Ever since she acquired the trait, Fang Lan wished that all plants were poisonous. This way, she could vastly expand her arsenal.
She had been very envious of the scorpion in the Legendary secret realm that attacked them using a giant gourd. In her opinion, the trait was on par with Captain Doofus’ Sword Sovereign. It had massive potential.
Sword Sovereign’s power was determined by the sword the user equipped, while her trait’s power was determined by how powerful the plant her familiar controlled was.
If it was just some run-of-the-mill weed, the attack power would be pretty abysmal. But if something as powerful as the Longleaf Swordgrass was poisonous, the trait’s ability combined with its natural attack power would make her undefeatable.
The Longleaf Swordgrass was a plant with the potential of becoming a Superior-Overlord-rank familiar.
If Fang Lan had a Superior Overlord then she could conquer the world! Luckily, plants of the same rank were more common than animals.
Such plants were bound to be another game changer.
"Thank you!" Fang Lan chirped.
"If I encounter a special secret realm, then I will also try to get some magic swords for you!"
"You’ll help me?" Lu Ran questioned.
This tone kind of ticked off Fang Lan.
He’s really looking down on me, huh?
"I had a dream a few days ago that I entered a world with mechanical familiars and lightsabers.”
"Lightsabers are cool, but I would rather you bring me a mecha," Lu Ran joked. "Let me drop off some things for the Flood Dragon Squad. I’ll catch up with you later."
Lu Ran cut their conversation short and teleported to Limitless City #7.
Lu Bing established a small, no-named guild called the Pedestrian Guild. She rented a building in Limitless City #3 and #7 to use as a guildhall. It served as a base of operation for the Lu villagers.
After receiving Lu Ran's summons, the nine members of the Flood Dragon Squad and Pig Farmer waited for him there.
Lu Ran walked in wearing a black and white windbreaker, and the team stood up to greet him. Lu Bing had teamed up with Lu Ran in the early days so they were well acquainted but the four newer members were both nervous and excited to meet the village chief.
"Hello, everyone." Lu Ran waved with a smile.
"Wow! God Lu, it’s been so long since we last met!"
Pig Farmer tried to hug Lu Ran, but Lu Ran summoned the Flame Spirit to make him back off.
Pig Farmer smiled awkwardly and stopped getting closer.
"Not a hugger I see."
"Hmph, you’re even worse than Pig God," Lu Ran responded.
He previously disliked Pig God a bit for being weak and not letting him take Lin Nian, but when compared to Pig Farmer, Lu Ran suddenly found Pig God a lot more reliable.
The first generation was still leagues ahead.
Pig Farmer’s mouth twitched as he replied, "How can you compare me to him? He is one of the Zodiacs, and I am just a normal farmer. Although, I am working hard to one day inherit his mantle!"
Pig Farmer was a member of the Flood Dragon Squad, but pigs were still his passion.
"Let me give you some advice. You can try evolving your pig into a Dragon Pig. Pig God has been researching the subject lately as well. This could be something the two of you have in common one day."
"Really?" Pig Farmer was elated.
When he started daydreaming, Lu Ran turned to the others.
“I’m in a hurry so once we evolve everyone’s familiar, we’ll call it a day. Are y’all ready?"
"We’re ready, village chief!" the squad shouted in unison.
Everyone looked at Lu Ran in confusion as he took out a huge cauldron.
"This is soul kitchenware. I refined it in an ascension realm. I will use it to boil a pot of Foundation-Building Soup. Once it’s ready, bring out your familiars and have them soak in it.”
Lu Ran turned his Flame Spirit into wings and flew into the air as he poured the bottles of Dragon King's Blood into the cauldron. He added some miscellaneous materials before landing again.
With a wave of his hand, a dragon-shaped Flame Spirit flew under the cauldron and spewed out fire to heat it.
Soon, the blood inside the cauldron reached a rolling boil.
Lu Ran signaled the Flood Dragon Squad.
“Although it will look like we’re stewing the snakes alive, this is an alternative take on dragon cuisine. It provides more benefits as the familiars absorb it directly into their bodies, so let your familiars get into the cauldron and soak. When the cauldron is boiled dry, they can fuse with the Dragon Blood trait and evolve."
The squad members all trusted Lu Ran and did as they were told.
Unlike the tempting food of the past, the powerful dragon aura emitting from the boiling blood scared the snakes. They hesitated to get into the cauldron.
Admittedly the process will be a little painful, Lu Ran thought to himself as he saw the familiars’ hesitation.
Come on, experience the suffering of Sudden Death King!