Chapter 496: Chapter 496

While Manager Ying continued observing the newly hatched Time Worm, Lu Ran stood next to it.

"Shh! The egg just hatched, and it has the Time attribute! Keep your voice down so you don't scare it."

"It hatched? Good thing we got the Time Worm like we were hoping for," Lu Ran said as he looked at the worm in the incubator.

Since it was just a baby worm, it just wiggled around randomly as its mind hadn’t fully developed. It would take a while before it could form a cocoon to evolve into a time butterfly.

"I know you’re busy. Yes, I'll take care of it," Manager Ying cut him off.

When did Manager Ying become so helpful? Well, since they both have the Time attribute, it does make sense. That should make things easier. Six-Path Flower hasn’t shown any signs of wanting to take in the soon-to-be Time Butterfly, so there’s nothing else I can do.

The best choice I have is to leave it with the Beastmaster Empire to be raised along with Lu Yao and the others, if Manager Ying wants to volunteer, even better.

"Since it’s such a unique species, its evolutionary direction is very important," Manager Ying murmured.

Its eyes gleamed with excitement as it got what it was after. It could evolve this worm into the broodmother like it was dreaming about. Once that happened, it could pawn off its job of guarding the timeline on the little ones and retire on a beach somewhere.

"Let’s get back on topic. The four ancient beastmasters have decided to join the Beastmaster Empire and will arrive shortly. You will need to disseminate the information to various countries and gather the various guardian beasts to the palace."

The empire housed several Quasi-Legendary creatures, including the old cow, the con-artist fox, the clam and octopus, and the child of the Divine Deer. Lu Ran wanted to give the ancient beastmasters a glimpse of his true capabilities.

"Huh? You recruited them that fast?"

Although Manager Ying was running around all the time, it still had a good read on everything happening around the world.

Facing the cat’s puzzled expression, Lu Ran replied, “Yes, but right now it’s still shaky. They joined because they have nothing to lose by saying yes, and there’s also the fact that I’m stronger than they are. It’s probably impossible to ensure their absolute loyalty.

“It doesn’t matter if the Quasi-Legendary creatures are loyal since I just need them to improve our overall strength, but these beastmasters are a different matter. They actually have access to Limitless City. That gives them the qualifications to join the World War and have privileges in Limitless City once we win.

"If they betray me after getting those privileges, they will be a lot more difficult to handle."

"Do they harbor any ill intent?" Manager Ying asked.

Lu Ran shook his head.

"The Alignment Perception didn’t pick anything bad up, but they weren’t thinking anything good about me either. Not to mention that people can change at any time.

"I don't mind them becoming representatives of Blue Planet since Xia now holds five out of the ten positions. If they can grab some of the foreign seats, then we’ll have even less competition in the future. Even with my help, other than Fang Lan, there’s no one else from Xia who could reach the level of the Ten Kings. The four of them will have to do."

"Then let's take it one step at a time. As long as you stay stronger than them, they can’t stir up any kind of real trouble. Just show them the carrot. There’s no real reason for the stick. Don't push them too far and give them some benefits.

"Six-Path’s reincarnation ability is quite attractive. Life is short, and after surviving so long, they must value their lives more than anyone else. If they have a chance at eternal life, I think they will definitely bite.

"If you think about it, you have multiple ways of drawing them in. For example, you can offer to open beastmaster spaces for them,” Manager Ying suggested.

"Yeah, they seem to have only saved one of their familiars, and I don’t know if they have spare contract cards. If they don’t, then beastmaster spaces would allow them to contract more familiars. That should put them deeply in my debt," Lu Ran contemplated.

The Divine Deer previously opened a beastmaster space for Lu Ran, and after some careful research of his own, he was confident that he could do the same for other inhabitants of Blue Planet. It was indeed a great way to entice those ancient beastmasters. They would be more interested than even the beastmasters from Xia. Thɪs chapter is updated by novelFirｅ.net

A while later, following the directions Lu Ran gave them, the four beastmasters finally arrived in the Amazon.

"This is it. Based on our intel, Lu Ran befriended the mysterious God of the Amazon, which is also why the Divine Nation of the Amazon was able to form close diplomatic ties with Xia."

"Lu Ran's so-called empire is actually built somewhere ?"

When they arrived, they were surprised, just like Lin Nian and the others, by the sweatshop environment. The living conditions were cruel, to say the least. They didn’t see Lu Ran until they arrived at the palace. At his side, there was the level 90 Quasi-Legendary Lu Yao along with a lineup of Quasi-Legendaries over level 70, consisting of a cow, a fox, a clam, and an octopus.

Although Lu Ran was the one sitting on the highest throne, Lu Yao had an equally noble air about it. It had its own throne, just like Lu Ran and Manager Ying, a clear indication of its status. The other four creatures sat below them. This group was the foundation of the Beastmaster Empire, which was quite shocking to the ancient beastmasters.

The four level 70s creatures were about equal in power to themselves, while the level 90 humanoid deer obviously surpassed them. They were confused about why Lu Ran had so many monsters gathered around him. The fact that none of these creatures were contracted made the situation even more bewildering.

The most mind-blowing one of the group was the level 70 Superior-Overlord cat. What about it gave it the qualification to sit on the same level as those other powerhouses? It definitely had a high status.

"Welcome." Lu Ran’s voice boomed as he gazed down on the visitors. “Welcome to my kingdom. Allow me to introduce you to the guardian beasts that protect this empire. This is Lu Yao. The others are the Bull God, Fox God, Clam God, and Octopus God. On this side is Ying, the head of the intelligence division from our empire’s Six Paths and Eight Divisions. From this day forth, you all shall be colleagues."

The guardian beasts closely observed the four beastmasters standing before them. Although three of them didn’t join willingly and didn’t enjoy a high status initially, their feelings changed as time went on.

Once they accepted their new reality, built up some merits, and Six-Path Flower confirmed that they didn’t have any ill intent, Lu Ran treated them generously, giving them some authority over the empire. Lu Ran wasn’t overly obsessed with power, and the right amount of decentralization could motivate these powerful creatures to put more effort into helping build the empire.

They were all very strong, so it would be a waste to turn them all into puppets. Not only would they lose their intelligence and ability to grow, Six-Path Flower would have to spend energy and effort to control them. It would benefit all parties involved if they contributed willingly.

Demon King was about to speak up when the Bull King interrupted him.

"How dare you speak the king’s name?” it roared.

This made Manager Ying and Lu Yao cast a sideways glance at it. It had a rebellious attitude when it first arrived, but was now acting like a Dark Crow 2.0. It clearly went through plenty of hardships. It was a clear example of how getting beaten up built character.

"Your Highness," the Demon King corrected himself. Since he decided to join Lu Ran’s empire, he could only play by the rules.

Standing there, the four believed in what Lu Ran told them even more. #18 really could be his weakest familiar. From what they gathered, he got #18 during a Mechanical ascension realm. He couldn’t have had it for long.

The Beastmaster Empire looked like it had been around much longer in comparison. He must have built it before he acquired the Zhu Yan corpse. Without sufficient force, how could he possibly rein in this group of Quasi-Legendaries without contract cards? Perhaps, with Lu Ran at the helm, they could easily sweep the Stellar Moon team and obtain authority in Limitless City.

People from modern times might feel put off by the idea of a king, but these four came from a time when kings were much more common.

"May I ask what our responsibilities will be once we join the empire?" Demon King inquired.

When Lu Ran first proposed the bet, they naturally didn't consider what they would be doing in the country they joined. Now that they were faced with a greater power, they knew they didn’t get invited to sit around all day.

Lu Ran is supposed to be a high school student. What are his intentions in forming an empire? Does he want to rule the world?

Looking at the power he displayed, they felt that Lu Ran was strong enough to steamroll all the global powers and conquer the planet, but Lu Ran didn’t show any indication of doing so.

"I command the four of you to become generals in the Asura Legion of the Asura Path. You all will not be in charge of leading troops. Rather, you will be high-level individual combatants responsible for carrying out special missions. Presently, you are to improve your individual power so that you can join the Blue Planet team in the World War.

"Once you’ve completed this mission, I will arrange positions of power for you to reflect the amount of authority you acquired in Limitless City. In addition, now that you have joined my empire, I will treat you the same as any of my other subjects. I will grant you a gift to help better prepare you for the upcoming battle."

"A gift?" Their eyes lit up in unison.

They were a lot more open to listening to Lu Ran now that he had properly demonstrated his power and made it clear that he would be the leader of the Blue Planet team for the World War. Throughout history, countries have always been a collective of various interest groups. Whoever could bring the most benefits would be crowned the king.

Now, in addition to the long-term interest of obtaining authority in Limitless City, Lu Ran even offered a more immediate benefit. After his latest ascension realm and killing the Zhu Yan, Lu Ran must have been brimming with valuables.

"Before we get to that, I have a few questions.

"Each of you only has a single powerful familiar that survived with you. Do you have any extra contract cards to make up for the vacancies?"

The four people were caught off guard by the question.

Medusa Queen shook her head.

“No, and we’re all in the same situation. We each have only one familiar and no way to contract more. Our plan is to use the month we have left to reach level 8 to obtain a contract card before evolving our Quasi-Legendary familiars to Low Legendary. This way, we can at least put up a fight with 2v3. Even if Stellar Moon’s team is tough, we’ll at least have some semblance of hope."

"Your mind’s in the right place, but it’s no easy task."

The four nodded in agreement. Whether it was reaching level 8 or evolving a Low Legendary familiar, it was one thing to say it, but a whole other thing to accomplish it. But what other choice did they have? However, now that they had Lu Ran to carry them, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

"I think your plan is overly ambitious." Lu Ran smiled. "I'll give you a helping hand. I can create a beastmaster space for each of you, allowing you to contract multiple familiars. As long as you can find a suitable, fully developed familiar, you won’t have any problems with the 3v3.

"What do you think about this gift? Isn’t it much better than what you all came up with?"

The four of them were floored by the offer.