Beastmaster King

The basic recipe for blood tofu consisted of heating animal blood with some salt until it congealed. Before becoming a beastmaster, it was one of Lu Ran's favorite foods, one that he paired with hot sauce and rice.

Even after he became a beastmaster, blood curd remained one of his most cooked dishes, mainly due to how much animal blood he had on his hands. Although he was very proficient with the dish itself, it was his first time making an Epic variation.

To get some practice in, he started with some blood from Fire-attribute creatures instead of starting with what he set aside for Dark Crow. He was going to give himself the first taste. None of his familiars needed Fire-attribute resources, but those resources could be used to further nourish his Flame Spirit. Like they say on airplanes, help yourself first before you help others.

"I'm only level 5, but I'm about to feast on something made from such precious materials. Maybe I shouldn't keep it all to myself. I should record a video of me eating to show my friends," Lu Ran said to himself.

After three days of intense practice, Lu Ran barely felt that any time had passed at all. His Flame Spirit gave him a pleasant surprise. Not only could it make the ingredients fresh again, but it also made cooking a lot easier overall. Lu Ran followed one of Emperor Yan's recipes with a few personal touches. He only made some minor mistakes with the Fire-attribute dishes during his practice runs. By the time he moved on to the Spirit-attribute blood, he was turning them out flawlessly.

While he was busy practicing, Dark Crow was just as busy stuffing its face. It didn't leave behind a single crumb. With some help from Time Acceleration to digest all the food, it only took a brief period of time for it to reach level 60. Lu Ran naturally had his fair share, but he didn't feel like he benefited as much as the bird.

Well, he was just using the Fire-attribute blood to practice anyway, so he didn't have high hopes to begin with. Now that Dark Crow reached level 60, he achieved his main objective.

His only concern was that if the Divine Phoenix was still alive that it would probably hunt him down when it discovered that he used its fire to make blood tofu. It's not that he didn't want the fire to relieve the plight of his common man, but once again, he had to take care of himself first.

Hahaha!

"This feeling is wonderful!"

Dark Crow glowed red as it continued to eat. The glow was a side effect of eating so much spicy food.

"It looks like it's working. Cooking Epic dishes isn't as hard as I thought, so forging equipment should be a piece of cake too."

Lu Ran rummaged through his storage and took a quick inventory. For Legendary resources, he had the Wind God's Heart, Primordial Womb Sea Water, and Flower God's Nectar. His Epic resources included the Imperial Seal, the Broken Horn of the Divine Deer, the Starlight Sword, star iron, Nature's Wrath, Kunpeng Feather, Dog God's corpse, Bone Bracelet, Relic Branch, five Divine Beast Bloods, and crocodile leather.

"Although my bet with the Eagle Federation has lost its meaning now that I've cleared an ascension realm in the Mechanical Era, I promised Fang Lan a good weapon that I haven't started on. I was planning on using the star iron as the base material, but #18 said that the star iron was more suitable for Mechanical equipment. In that case, I should use the crocodile leather to forge a poison whip for her. She can become the 'Whip Saint,'" Lu Ran contemplated.

I'm really hoping I don't hit any snags.

"What did you say about a whip, my king? Are you going to whip Sudden Death King to improve its willpower?"

"I don't think so. Let's go find Ghost Mother. I can't wait to see how far you go in your second evolution. "

"How do you think my evolution will go, my king?"

"I don't think that you'll surpass Six-Path Flower, but with the Legion form, you may be able to rank second on the team. You might even be on par with my transformation."

"I will do you proud, my king!" Dark Crow replied excitedly.

***

Thanks to the Abyssal Shell, Lu Ran quickly arrived before the Ghost Mother.

"It's you again? The cat just left a little earlier. I wasn't expecting to see you so soon since it told me that you were in an ascension realm.

"That's correct. Manager Ying was here too?"

"It left a few days ago after dropping off someone named Shi Zhen. I named her my messenger, but she's too weak. I locked her and her familiar deep within the abyss to train. You should know her already, correct? She might be stronger than you the next time you two meet."

"I would be happy to see that!" Lu Ran smiled.

It seems that after Manager Ying dropped the old president off, it brought principal Shi over to Stellar Moon as well to train under the Ghost Mother. Finally, it picked up the old president and went back to Blue Planet. Principal Shi stayed with the Ghost Mother to practice, while the old president and that cat returned to Blue Planet.

"You are correct, Ghost Mother. I just came out of an ascension realm. After clearing it successfully, Dark Crow reached level 60, and I plan to have it gain the Time attribute for its next evolution. I am here to request your help in helping it integrate its attributes."

"I remember saying that I would simply provide it some guidance. Now you're asking me to take an active hand in the matter?"

"Really? I must've misheard!" Lu Ran laughed. "It's more or less the same thing. With your guidance, how could success be anything but guaranteed?"

"Caw!That's right!"

"Okay, you can cut the flattery. I will uphold my promise. Let's begin."

Ghost Mother didn't want to waste time with him. To be fair, whether the integration of attributes succeeded ultimately came down to the crow's own abilities.

"Thank you!"

Lu Ran knew when to quit and immediately went through his storage looking for something.

The Leaf of Time!

[Description: Upon consumption, there is a chance for a familiar to awaken the Time attribute, depending on its compatibility with it.]

Only Epic-grade awakening materials were a guaranteed shot, and he had already used up his Epic amplification card. This meant that he had no other choice but to gamble on the Leaf of Time working. However, Lu Ran was pretty confident in the probability being pretty close to a sure thing since he prepared by having Dark Crow integrate the Foresight trait.

Additionally, it was often put under time dilation in Six Flower's Time Hell. It definitely had more exposure and tolerance to the Time attribute than the average creature. Moreover, when it came to matters of chance, Six-Path Flower had the Lucky Clover trait that gives him another edge.

Finally, he would have the blessing of a Legendary creature. Lu Ran refused to believe that there was a real chance of failure.

The Death and Curse Crows fused back into one and perched on Lu Ran's shoulder.

"Here you go."

Lu Ran handed Dark Crow the Time of Leaf, which it ate in a single bite before flying over to the Ghost Mother. It could feel its heartbeat speeding up and its eyes going dry. Its body began to release ripples of Time energy. The ripples gradually illuminated its entire body and the surrounding area.

The Ghost Mother secreted a purple slime that it submerged the crow into. Dark Crow was just starting its evolution, but the process seemed to be interrupted by the slime that created a seal around its body.

"Senior Ghost Mother, what is that?"

"Don't worry. This is my teaching method. The substance can also improve its soul power, which is my primary blessing for it. During this process, comprehension will be greatly enhanced as well. Its final results will ultimately depend on its own capabilities. I can't pause its evolution for too long, so it only has thirty minutes."

"Can I assist it with a beastmaster skill?"

"What did you have in mind?" the Ghost Mother asked curiously.

"Soul Amplification!" Lu Ran's eyes turned gray as mists of spiritual power poured out of his body.

"It's worth a try."

With the Ghost Mother's permission, he took a deep breath and channeled as much power as he could into the crow.

Buzz!

Dark Crow's soul power was now significantly stronger than when it first started, and its comprehension ability had skyrocketed as well. Dark Crow entered a meditative state, and Lu Ran lost all communication with it. Before Lu Ran could start feeling nervous, Ghost Mother spoke up.

"That's fast. It's already starting to integrate its attributes. This is earlier than I expected. I see, it's integrating its clones first. The two bodies were one to begin with, so even though they have separated, fusing them back together is fairly easy."

"Its clone?" Lu Ran looked at the crow in surprise.

Although he couldn't sense it through their mental connection, through their contract, he quickly caught up with what was happening. During its previous evolution, Dark Crow obtained a twin body, but both bodies kept the same essence.

During this evolution, its first step was to reabsorb its twin to regain control over both powers.

Boom!

Due to the extended evolution process, its species rank shot from Intermediate to Superior Overlord, but it was far from over. Its species talent, Twin Curse, also underwent changes.

[Species Talent: Twin Curse (A familiar with this talent possesses two bodies. Both bodies share consciousness and are equal to the original. Only when both bodies perish will the familiar truly die.)] => [Species Talent: Undying Curse (A familiar with this talent can cast the Undying Curse upon itself. Under the curse, it can consume Curse energy to resurrect an unlimited number of times. The familiar can only die if the curse is broken or its Curse energy is exhausted.)]

"Damn!" Lu Ran exclaimed.

Impressive. It's like the Wind Dog from the Mythical secret realm. Killing it is going to be no easy feat.

Just the first part of its evolution was enough to alarm Lu Ran.

"Its talent is really amazing. Looks like it has chosen a direction."

The Ghost Mother said that it would take about thirty minutes at first, but after just two, it started to reveal its prowess.

"Of course," Lu Ran replied.

Although it started out as a normal crow, it was naturally gifted. Compared to high-level creatures of the Stellar Moon Federation, Dark Crow was only inferior because it came from a long line of ordinary creatures. Even if a few of its ancestors managed to transcend here or there, they wouldn't have been very high ranked.

Stellar Moon creatures, on the other hand, were the direct descendants of King and Overlord species. If creatures from Blue Planet wanted to reach the higher rankings, then they would have to go back in time to arrange some powerful ancestors for themselves.

Coming from such humble beginnings, Dark Crow was considerably gifted since it was able to understand human language. Lu Ran conjectured that since it had found an evolutionary direction so quickly, it had something to do with its talent for speaking.

"Will it retain the Curse attribute?" Lu Ran wondered.

There was a Curse attribute skill called Incantation that allowed the user to cast curses using words or phrases. Since Dark Crow learned how to talk so early on, it wasn't a surprise that it awakened the Curse attribute once it obtained the Dark and Spirit attributes. The only parts that didn't fit the theme were the Time and Undead attributes.

Boom!

Inside the slime, Dark Crow continued to glow brighter. Ghost Mother continued to stare at it in silence without revealing its thoughts.

"What?" Ghost Mother suddenly exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Lu Ran asked in concern.

"I'm detecting an attribute that I have never seen before. It resembles the feeling of incantations, but it's not entirely the same..."