Beastmaster King

Lu Ran returned to his private room in a much better state than last time.

The last time he cleared an ascension realm, he shocked the people around him. This time, he wasn't able to shock the people around him. Although it wasn't necessarily by choice, as he was in a rather decrepit state.

—I'm conscious but can only communicate with you guys and Limitless City telepathically,Lu Ran said as he summed up his current situation.

His other familiars appeared one after another from their contract cards and looked at him with concern. Their ability to communicate with him was the only reason they hadn't all panicked.

"The Stellar Moon Republic must have tried to use some method to investigate me after Director Lin En left. How dare they do something like that despite knowing that I am the Six Paths Reincarnation God? They must've been pretty confident that whatever they did would work. Your Time Shield should have been able to shield me from detection, but what they used seemed to outrank you, which in turn caused the skill to backfire. That brings us to right now, where you're in a vegetative state."

—Karma really is a bitch.

Lu Ran really wanted to cry.

Although he was quite active mentally, Captain Doofus and Dark Crow could only see an unfortunate hospital patient lying on the bed in a coma. He couldn't make the slightest movement besides some slight twitching. He was only doing marginally better than a corpse.

"I feel bad seeing you like this. I guess there's not much else left to do. Let's split his stuff and we'll each take our inheritance before going our separate ways," Six-Path Flower suggested.

Lu Ran: O.O?

The other familiars immediately became hostile.

"Hey, the king is not dead yet!" Dark Crow exclaimed.

"I'm just joking! I just want to see if I can scare him awake," Six-Path Flower replied.

—Gee, thanks. I ended up like this because you jinxed me! You said I would turn into a vegetable! It must've ended up coming true because of your luck buff.

—It's ok, guys. Don't worry. I'm still conscious, so at least it's not the worst-case scenario.

"Well, even if it was the worst case scenario, you can upload your mind into a computer or give up your fleshly body to become an android," #18 comforted.

—...Yeah, hold that thought. The Divine Deer should still be on Blue Planet, so let's go find the Divine Turtle again to see if it can heal me.

***

A cloud-shaped creature carried a "corpse" while holding a turtle shell as it shuttled through the air. The God of the Abyss gave Lu Ran the Abyssal Shell to use as a compass, and the Divine Turtle gave him the Divination Shell. No matter where he was in the Stellar Moon World, it would point him in the direction of the Divine Turtle.

Of course, the tortoise shell was not needed at all right now. In such a short time, the divine turtle wouldn't have moved at all.

"Senior Divine Turtle! Senior Divine Turtle!"

Baby Cloud quickly descended and frantically tried to awaken the Divine Turtle. It didn't look like the Divine Turtle was in a deep sleep this time as it responded pretty quickly.

"Huh? It's you again? The cat and the old man just left, and now you're here. I remember the cat saying that you entered an ascension realm that was a part of Limitless City, right?"

—Yes, Senior Divine Turtle. Please help me! I met with an accident in the ascension realm and ended up in this miserable state. Is there any way you can heal me? Lord Divine Deer isn't in Stellar Moon right so you are my only hope!

The Divine Turtle finally poked its head out after hearing Lu Ran's desperate plea.

"Huh? Who did you piss off to end up like that?"

—I...

"But your situation isn't really that bad."

—Really?

Lu Ran was overjoyed.

"Yes, it looks like your mind is simply detached from your body. We just have to reconnect them."

—Ok, how do we do that?

"To keep it short, your mind and body are too weak. You should be able to recover eventually if you can integrate some Legendary-grade power into your body and let it reshape you. You will even build up resistance against suffering similar damage in the future. You know what I mean by integrating, right? For instance, I possess Legendary-grade power, but the power inherently belongs to me. You need something that you can truly call your own for it to heal you."

What the fu...

On his way here, he had experimented with using the Bone Bracelet, but he was still paralyzed after he transformed. It proved that Quasi-Legendary power wasn't enough to reverse the damage. The Divine Turtle said that Legendary power would do the trick, but where was he supposed to go to find some?

"It will be difficult, but you are the messenger of the Divine Deer, so you have plenty of time. You should go ask the Divine Deer to help you," the Divine Turtle lazily continued.

Lu Ran was speechless, but he was comforted to know that he wasn't permanently crippled. Worst case scenario, he could learn the Fusion skill to fuse with Six-Path Flower. Hopefully, that should qualify as integrating a Legendary power.

Wait!

Lu Ran suddenly thought of something.

—Sudden Death King!

At the moment, the dragon was still engulfed in the Flame of Life and lying on the ground in the ruin space to recover from its own injuries. Hearing its name, it opened its eyes and appeared in the outside world.

Roar!

The Divine Turtle cast a sideways glance at it once Sudden Death King appeared. Its eyes widened in surprise when it got a clear sense of the flames cloaking it.

"How did you obtain the Flames of Life?"

The Divine Phoenix has already died. Where could he possibly find its flame? This is something created from its core flame.

—Lord Divine Deer tasked me with the mission of finding Lord Divine Phoenix's inheritance in a secret realm. It wasn't easy, but we were able to obtain this flame. Can it be used to save me?

The Divine Turtle was stunned.

"You had it all this time, but never thought to give it a try? The flame is in your own hand. Haven't you tried it? Honestly, though, I don't think it will work."

—But, Senior, you just told me that all I needed was a Legendary power! This Flame of Life should be a Legendary power! I have the Flame Spirit, which can evolve by absorbing different kinds of fires. The Flame of Life outranks my Flame Spirit quite a bit, but shouldn't I have a chance of refining it to take my Flame Spirit to the next level? If it works, then I should technically have my own Legendary power. This should be a viable treatment for my condition.

"You want to refine and fuse with the Flame of Life from the Divine Phoenix?" Lu Ran's idea was so crazy that even the Divine Turtle was scared for him.

The Divine Deer's messenger is so funny.

–-Yes!

This Flame of Life could be applied externally or fused with the Flame Spirit. Either way, if it worked, it worked.

If I refine it, then I can not only recover, but also become impervious to disease. It's a great idea! All I need is the ability to refine the flame.

To be fair, Lu Ran wasn't 100% confident. It was a Legendary flame after all. Emperor Yan Sizhen, who developed the Flame Spirit skill, was only an Epic-Legendary beastmaster.

"You want to die?" The Divine Turtle didn't hold back in the slightest. "You are a puny level 5 beastmaster, but you want to try refining a Legendary flame?"

Lu Ran opened and closed his mouth like a fish for a bit.

I knew it was too good to be true.

"Well, it depends on how lucky you are," the Divine Turtle added as it dazedly looked at Sudden Death King.

"There is a non-zero chance of it working. In theory, the flame should contain a trace of the Divine Phoenix's will. As long as it is willing to acknowledge you, it should willingly let you refine it. This is the only way to make it work. Let me give it a shot. It's an old friend of mine, so maybe my words will hold some weight."

While it spoke, a mysterious wave of energy radiated from the turtle's body, and it turned to face Sudden Death King.

"My old friend..."

Time and space began to fluctuate as the Divine Turtle's consciousness entered a crimson-tinted space. It looked up at the sky and saw a phoenix hovering in the air. It clearly wasn't its true form. Rather, it was simply a wisp of its will left behind to prevent its power from falling into the wrong hands. It was essentially a fancy security system.

However, the Divine Turtle's eyes still turned a bit hazy when it saw the familiar silhouette. It had lived for a vast amount of time, and it had thought that it was above sentimentality, but seeing the Divine Phoenix's residual will, its mind couldn't help but falter. The old turtle shed an invisible tear as memories flooded back.

"You have already passed away, so I ask that you make one final contribution. The Divine Deer's messenger proved to be quite capable by finding this tiny piece of inheritance you left behind. It will not shame you to allow him to use your power. I don't even know if you can understand me..."

Lu Ran and Sudden Death King stared at the Divine Turtle, which had closed its eyes. They had no idea what was happening.

After a long wait, something happened that caught the pair off guard. The Flame of Life suddenly became more active and flickered as if it had a mind of its own. A heat inside of Lu Ran resonated with the flame and leapt out of his body.

The Flame Spirit left Lu Ran's body as the Flame of Life exited Sudden Death King's. The two flames swirled in the air before the Flame Spirit finally absorbed a third type of flame.

Its power far outstripped the previous two flames. It completely wiped clean the traces of the Flame Dragon King and the Tiger King's power, replacing them both. The Flame Spirit began to transform into a tail feather that swayed to and fro. Although Lu Ran was still in a very miserable state, he could feel his vitality surging and becoming several times greater than before. The transformation didn't improve the Flame Spirit's destructive capabilities, but it gained impressive healing abilities.

The Divine Turtle slowly opened its eyes and watched the changes that the Flame Spirit and Flame of Life were undergoing.

Sigh. Limitless City...

Although the Flame of Life was created in a historical projection, it contained a true trace of the Divine Phoenix's will.

"I've done all that I can for you. Once you merge with the flame, your strength will increase, but ultimately, you won't be able to reveal its true power. You're just too weak right now, but it will still be a powerful trump card. Of the three of us back then, the Divine Phoenix was definitely the most powerful. You must live up to its name."

The feather-shaped flame slowly descended and melted into Lu Ran's body. The moment it disappeared, flames erupted from his entire body. The sight left Baby Cloud very confused.

Isn't it too early to cremate him?

Lu Ran's condition rapidly improved under the Flame of Life's nourishment. Although he hadn't regained full control of his body, he could at least wiggle his fingers and talk a little now.

"I will," Lu Ran solemnly agreed.

Lu Ran was on the path to recovery, but Sudden Death King was kind of in a lurch. Stinging pain racked its body once more.

But I had it first!

However, Sudden Death King knew that Lu Ran's situation was more urgent, and it had already recovered a bit on the journey. Once Lu Ran added the healing effects of the Broken Horn of the Divine Deer, he would be up and about in no time. He focused on sensing the flame energy inside him to occupy his mind since he wasn't sure how long he was going to be bedridden.

At some point, he fell asleep, and when he woke up again, there was an orange glow in his eyes. His skin also became paler, making him even more handsome. His overall aura shifted as well. He slowly sat up and smiled at having regained full control of his body.

"We are lucky to have found the Flame of Life this time. The backlash didn't do me in."

"If you didn't get greedy after getting hold of the Chaos Dragon God's blood, then you wouldn't have ended up like this in the first place," Six-Path Flower commented.

"Heh. Greed pushes people to grow while complacency makes people tread water."

"What? You dare to try that again?"

Roar!

Plip, plip!

Seeing that Lu Ran woke up, Sudden Death King and Baby Cloud were both greatly relieved. The Divine Turtle had already fully healed Sudden Death King's wounds by this point, so it no longer needed any help from Lu Ran.