Chapter 251: The Preliminary Round Begins

“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.”

After a short while, Lu Ran and Shi Ze left the Death Forest. Once outside, Shi Ze was quite shocked and said, “Lu-Ge, City Lord Ye actually intends to take you as her disciple. Doesn’t that mean you’re going to the top?”

“Wait, what?” Lu Ran looked at him in confusion.

“Ahem, I almost forgot your background. You’re so calm… could it be that your parents are also legendary powerhouses?” Shi Ze’s mouth twitched.

Child of Legend!

As Shi Ze thought, it seemed possible. No, not just possible-Lu Ran was even more impressive than a Child of Legend. After all, this guy seemed to have had contact with legendary creatures.

“Listen, don’t spread what I just talked about with City Lord Ye. I don’t want others to know I’ve had contact with a legendary creature. I trust you, that’s why I told you directly,” Lu Ran patted Shi Ze on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I won’t even tell my own father! I’ll keep it to myself, or else I’ll be screwed,” Shi Ze assured him.

“But now that you mention it, City Lord Ye was right. With your status, not just any Plantmaster would dare to take you as a disciple. It would be like stealing from the Beast Taming Hall…” Shi Ze pondered.

“City Lord herself doesn’t mind and keeps you as a beastmaster while taking you as a disciple. It might be because she switched to Plantmaster after starting as a beastmaster.”

“Remember I told you there were rumors that City Lord Ye wanted to take a disciple to pass on her family’s beast taming skill? Maybe, she sees potential in your beast taming Talent. The Plantmaster knowledge might just be a bonus.”

“It doesn’t matter. Learning advanced Plantmaster knowledge is enough for me,” Lu Ran said nonchalantly. “Does City Lord have any old rivals? She mentioned inviting a friend’s disciple to compete. She’s not exactly being friendly…”

“Seems like she just wants to see me knock out that disciple…”

“That, I really don’t know…” Shi Ze was taken aback, “But it’s not surprising. City Lord Ye wouldn’t be a legend without facing some formidable rivals along the way. But, a level 3 Plantmaster with an overlord species plant pet? That doesn’t look easy.”

“Six days left, Lu-Ge, can you make a breakthrough to a level 3 beastmaster?”

“No way!” Lu Ran answered firmly.

Infinite City beastmasters have this one issue: breakthroughs are not up to the beastmaster’s own decision.

They are held back by various level restrictions within Infinite City.

The only way to advance to the next realm is by completing tasks assigned by Infinite City.

However, setting aside these shortcomings, it would be unfair to ignore the benefits they offer.

Even though their growth level is restricted, Infinite City provides beastmasters with an alternate path.

Pet beast evolution.

On Star-Moon Continent and Divine Tree Continent, there’s no concept of first-stage evolution at level 30 or second-stage evolution at level 60 for pet beasts.

The methods for pet beast evolution are top-tier beast taming secrets, not accessible to everyone.

But the beastmasters trained by Infinite City are different. Their pet beasts are given evolution opportunities directly by Infinite City through the use of fusion traits.

Even the weakest beastmaster’s pet beast could seize the chance to defy fate through evolution.

“What can we do then?” Shi Ze worried for Lu Ran. He still hoped Lu Ran would become City Lord Ye’s disciple.

After all, Lu Ran was quite close with the Shi Family. If Lu Ran became the City Lord’s disciple, it would bring great benefits to the Shi Family.

“Though I might not be able to break through, I do need to prepare.”

“You could try giving your pet beast some intense training this week. Don’t forget, its abilities somewhat counter plant life, so there’s no need to worry too much,” Lu Ran said. Moreover, he didn’t only have General Ha; he had Sudden Death King too.

Given the size of the Death Forest…

Honestly, if he wasn’t concerned about causing too much chaos and affecting the City Lord’s opinion, Lu Ran would directly have Sudden Death King fly high and jump down, activating Thunder Flame Dragon mode, and crash into the Death Forest.

The entire forest would turn into a crater, and no contestant or ferocious plant would survive.

…

Because of Lu Ran, the Death Forest was quickly cleared. Some contestants who had come to familiarize themselves with the preliminary round trial site had no complaints upon hearing it was an order from the City Lord.

“Can you find out what’s going on today?”

Star-Moon University’s Plantmaster, Liu Man, asked a local from Tree Realm City.

Similar to Lu Ran, Yu Rui and three other beastmasters from another world were quickly identified as extraordinary by the local powerhouses of Tree Realm City and were invited to join them. Since both Yu Rui and Liu Man were Plantmasters, they naturally chose to connect with a Plant Taming Family. Though Jiang Ming was a beastmaster specializing in raising dragons, considering the unusual nature of this breakthrough secret realm, he didn’t dare to separate from them. He abandoned the invitation from the beast taming family and latched onto Yu Rui.

“I’ll try to find out. Today’s events indeed seem unusual,” replied a mature lady in a floral dress, contemplating the situation.

From Liu Man and the others’ perspective, this breakthrough secret realm was truly baffling and hard to grasp.

…

Shi Family.

Lu Ran returned and immediately requested a training ground from the Shi Family. He began intense training with General Ha, instructing the Shi Family members not to disturb him.

Although Shi Ze wanted to assist Lu Ran, he knew that the Shi Family’s capabilities were not on par with the Beast Taming Hall, so he refrained from offering any unhelpful aid.

However, Lu Ran understood the importance of social connections. To give the Shi Family a chance to contribute, he asked Shi Ze to find some special ferocious plants for Dark Crow to research.

Hence, General Ha trained in the Ferocious Plant Domain, Sudden Death King adapted to Thunder Flame mode, and Dark Crow researched new types of curses. Lu Ran and his team began preparing rigorously for the upcoming Plant Beast Championship.

Lu Ran was confident in achieving good results in the normal tournament. However, given the involvement of becoming a disciple of a legendary top-level side quest, he didn’t dare to be careless and started impromptu training to ensure a 100% success rate.

At the same time, Yu Rui and others were searching for the source of anomalous energy they sensed in the Death Forest, in hopes of uncovering a hidden side quest. Unfortunately, Shi Ze remained tight-lipped, and since City Lord Ye wasn’t someone easily accessible, their investigations yielded little.

Simultaneously, City Lord Ye’s figure arrived at another super city with a legendary powerhouse in residence.

“What are you doing here?”

An elderly woman with a similar aura to City Lord Ye stepped out of the main city.

“Senior Sister.” If anyone from Tree Realm City were present, they would be extremely surprised. There had never been any rumors suggesting that City Lord Ye had a senior sister.

“I’ve found a promising young beastmaster and I’m considering taking him as a disciple. However, skills should not be imparted lightly, so I intend to give him a challenge,” City Lord Ye said. “I’d like to borrow your disciple to participate in the Plant Beast Championship in Tree Realm City to put some pressure on him.”

“Uh???” The red-haired elderly woman spoke, surprised. “Who is this person who has caught your interest enough to consider taking a disciple?”

“But… beastmaster? What are you trying to achieve? Isn’t beast taming a relic of the past? The Divine Tree Continent no longer has land that can support beastmasters.”



“While that’s true, it’s still somewhat regretful. I struggled with this myself back then. Why couldn’t beast taming surpass plant taming? I see a glimmer of hope in him,” City Lord Ye replied. Coming from a beast taming family and having been around beasts from a young age, she naturally loved it. However, the reality was that beast taming had fallen behind plant taming. In the end, she chose reality over dreams.

The reason for organizing the Plant Beast Championship was her hope to see if one day, beastmasters could overshadow Plantmasters, even if only in the small confines of Tree Realm City. But, alas, not once had a beastmaster claimed the championship title to date.

“So, you’re saying this young beastmaster has incredible potential?” asked Legend Ye’s senior sister.

“Even your prized disciple might not necessarily defeat him,” Legend Ye chuckled, considering Lu Ran’s background in the Beast Taming Hall and his pet beast being an overlord with encounters with legendary creatures.

“Ha.” Legend Ye’s senior sister dismissively shook her head. “Fine, as long as it makes you happy. I’ll let her make the trip. But if your chosen one loses and gets discouraged, don’t hold it against me.”

“Of course.”

After finishing the invitation, Legend Ye returned to Tree Realm City, satisfied. Meanwhile, a nearly twenty-year-old genius Plantmaster, at her master’s request, set off for Tree Realm City to participate in the Plant Beast Championship.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

Soon, it was the day of the preliminary round of the Plant Beast Championship.

Given that this preliminary round was to be held in a forest, naturally, there weren’t many spectators.

On the day of the preliminary round, only a few hundred geniuses from nearby cities and examiners from the nine major families gathered around and within the Death Forest.

“Lu-Ge, you really have endurance; you’ve been practicing intensely for several days without a break,” Shi Ze remarked with admiration as he and Lu Ran waited outside the Death Forest.

“Are you running out of compliments?” Lu Ran retorted bluntly. “Isn’t this just basic stuff?”

“Absolutely not! After two days of secluded training, I start feeling like ants are crawling all over me. I have to watch a Flower Princess dance to calm down and continue training,” Shi Ze explained. “Oh, I even forgot to take you to see the Flower Princess dance in Tree Realm City. My bad, my bad. How about we go after the tournament?”

Lu Ran paused, nearly forgetting that beastmasters on the Divine Tree Continent also needed to train themselves, often through focused meditation.

Comparatively, beastmasters here had a more monotonous training routine-it was perfectly normal for them to struggle to maintain focus for two days. Unlike Lu Ran, who didn’t need much personal meditation and could just guide his pet beast in training. His own training included honing his beast taming skills, which was far more engaging than mere meditation.

Whether it was synchronizing with his pet beast or cooking with the Flame Sprite, each session brought fresh excitement.

Currently, Lu Ran was also exploring the sword domain, seeing if he could learn sword techniques from General Ha. When absorbed in practice, time flew by without a hint of monotony.

“The preliminary round is about to begin!!!”

“Contestants, please get ready!!” Searᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

As Shi Ze and Lu Ran conversed, an examiner with a Devourer Flower by his side announced loudly, signaling the start of the preliminary round. The hundreds of contestants promptly adopted serious and focused expressions.

“I will now describe the preliminary round. You will depart from here, and your assessment goal is to traverse the entire forest and reach the opposite edge. Those who succeed will advance to the next round, the main tournament.”

“During the journey, you’re allowed to interfere with and eliminate your competitors; the rules do not restrict life or death.”

“So, please confirm once more whether you wish to participate in this tournament!!”

No restrictions on life or death!

Many beastmasters took a deep breath, but the high rewards made them willing to risk it.

Participating in this tournament was still safer than venturing into the wild to gather resources.

“Stay alert, the preliminary round is more dangerous than the main tournament. We’ll team up and move together; don’t lose track of me,” warned Yu Rui, eyeing Liu Man and Jiang Ming with a touch of sympathy. They were fellow beastmasters from the same place, and in this breakneck secret realm without a death immunity mechanism, he couldn’t just turn a blind eye to them.

“Thank you, thank you,” Liu Man and Jiang Ming both expressed their gratitude to Yu Rui.

As they spoke, the three of them turned their gaze towards Lu Ran.

A concern loomed in their minds.

As challengers from different worlds, they were uncertain about Lu Ran’s stance. If Lu Ran considered them enemies, a conflict was inevitable among them.

However, the silver lining was that Lu Ran was alone, while they had three people.

Considering Yu Rui’s strength, Liu Man and Jiang Ming felt slightly reassured.

Even if a conflict arose, surely, it would be Lu Ran who would be defeated.

“Alright then, the preliminary round begins now-” shouted the examiner once more. Though conflicts were permitted during the preliminary round, skirmishes typically occurred among the nine major families. Eliminating contestants from other families meant increasing one’s own family’s potential gain.

That said, initial stages rarely saw fierce fighting; early skirmishes would only make one a target for others, benefiting opportunists instead.

Buzz!!!

As the preliminary round commenced, beastmasters and Plantmasters began summoning their pet beasts and plant pets, swiftly entering the Death Forest.

Just then, as three individuals summoned their pets, the entire forest entrance suddenly fell silent.

Boom!!!

Right at the start, Yu Rui summoned his gigantic War Ancient Tree, standing several meters tall. This was a legion-type plant pet, with various fruits and leaves dangling from it, each bearing a face, akin to a squad of soldiers.

“Overlord!!” Upon sensing the War Ancient Tree’s breath, many contestants’ expressions changed. With an overlord like this leading the way, traversing the Death Forest would be a breeze for Yu Rui.

Not only him, but among the contestants there was another striking woman who summoned an overlord plant pet. It was a Flower Demon Emperor, an anthropomorphic figure with deep green leaves for arms and its lower body wrapped in light-colored tulip-like petals, resembling a skirt. It held its flower-covered head high with an air of arrogance, causing the surrounding plant pets to bow in submission to its breath.

“A lower overlord, the Flower Demon Emperor!”

In an instant, the appearance of two overlord pet beasts left countless contestants taken aback, perplexed about what this year’s championship was becoming.

The beastmasters, in particular, felt even more troubled by this development.

But fortunately, the last overlord to appear wasn’t a plant pet this time.

“Woof-” A majestic General Ha appeared amidst wind and snow, its eyes radiating a keen sword intent that sent a piercing mental strain to those who dared to gaze at it!

[Species]: Sword Domain Dog



[Attribute]: Wind, Ice

[Species Level]: Lower Overlord!

General Ha’s details flashed in Yu Rui’s mind, making his expression change as he looked at Lu Ran and said, “An overlord???”

“This guy is definitely not simple.”

“What, he has an overlord too?” Liu Man and Jiang Ming were equally shocked. And it wasn’t just that NPC woman; how could this beastmaster from another world have an overlord at level 2 as well? Was this person unique like Yu Rui, or were all beastmasters from another world equipped like this?