Beastmaster King
Chapter 396 - The Perfect Job

Chapter 396 - The Perfect Job

Lu Ran dismissed the twenty-eight beasts present to conquer the remainder of the rainforest. Although they each already had their own territories, it wasn’t nearly enough. Lu Ran's goal was to occupy the Amazon in its entirety, and there were plenty of beasts that had yet to submit themselves to his rule.

There were too many for him to subjugate one by one, so he put out a mission for his new minions to complete on his behalf. He would expand his influence one step at a time. Once his minions completed their mission, Lu Ran would reward them based on their accomplishments and divide some of the additional territory amongst them.

Lu Ran was beaming with pride. Even though his Beastmaster Empire was more like a Beast Empire, it was at least a step in the right direction. Once everything was situated, he planned to migrate the Lu Village to become the first human populace of his empire. His empire would gradually expand and strengthen.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Lu Ran was still daydreaming on the throne when a voice suddenly brought him back to reality. Six-Path Flower turned and saw the Divine Deer walking out of the forest.

"Lord Divine Deer? I didn’t know that you were still in the rainforest," Lu Ran said awkwardly.

"Are you holding the imperial seal of the Beastmaster Empire?"

"Yes... This is an item I got from an ascension realm. It increases cultivation speed, so I thought that I should rebuild the Beastmaster Empire to maximize its effects."

"This seal does have the effect of increasing cultivation speed, but..."

"But?"

"Do you know how the Beastmaster Empire was founded?"

Lu Ran looked over at Six-Path Flower, who shook its head.

"All I know is that the first emperor, the Hunting God, became the apostle of a Legendary creature and founded the empire with its assistance," Lu Ran answered.

"Correct." The Divine Deer nodded. "The legendary creature that helped the first emperor is called the Wishful-Dream God. It’s a rather innocent being that had a beautiful dream. It was rather fond of humans and loved the stories about humans making contracts with elemental creatures and becoming companions during the Elemental Era.

“Therefore, under its guidance, humans of the Beast God Era acquired the ability to become beastmasters. It then went one step further and proliferated the number of beastmasters as well.

"The Imperial Seal was one of its creations that it gifted to the first emperor, hoping that he would use his abilities as a beastmaster to create a country where humans could coexist with all sorts of creatures. The first emperor similarly promised that he would do his best to realize its dream.

"Later on, the Wishful-Dream God went into hibernation, hoping that the seeds it sowed would one day bear fruit. Unfortunately, reality turned out differently. When it awoke, the citizens of the Beastmaster Empire were living in poverty, and the empire was constantly at war. The so-called equality between all races that the god had hoped for was no longer the main school of thought. Rather, a master-servant style of contracting had become prevalent in its place.

“Familiars were treated as tools, and this greatly disappointed the Wishful-Dream God. As such, it destroyed the Beastmaster Empire with its own hands, having lost faith in humanity. The Imperial Seal was destroyed during the process as well. The Beastmaster Empire, which had endured for thousands of years, finally met its end.

"Once the empire collapsed, none of the surviving clans dared to re-establish the empire. Do you understand what you have done now?"

"Goddammit, how did I end up offending a god?"

"Now you’re worried?" the Divine Deer asked angrily. "Although the Wishful-Dream God is only an Intermediate Legendary, it has survived to the present day. It may not have cared when humans relied on their own strength to build a country in the Mechanical Era, but you will eventually catch its attention for sure since you used the Imperial Seal it created to rebuild the Beastmaster Empire."

Lu Ran was speechless.

"Shit." Manager Ying suddenly said with a horrified look. "Lu Ran, you didn't tell me that founding an empire would draw the ire of a Legendary creature. I don’t think I can be your Head of Intelligence anymore."

The Divine Deer almost laughed out of anger. This was what Lu Ran called being low-key and staying out of trouble? Which unlucky bastard got duped into handing over the Imperial Seal by this brat?

"Um... Will we be ok if we only use the seal on Blue Planet since the Wishful-Dream God is in the Star-Moon World?"

The Divine Deer simply stared at him. Lu Ran was obviously reluctant to part with the Imperial Seal.

"Fine. I have met the Wishful-Dream God on several occasions. Even if it finds out, it should still give you a pass for my sake. But just in case, you should still stay on Blue Planet and refrain from expanding your empire onto the Stellar Moon World."

Lu Ran breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't worry, Lord Divine Deer. I don't have any big ambitions. I just want to make use of the cultivation buff from the Imperial Seal to power up quickly and be of more help to you!"

"Good," the Divine Deer said before turning to leave. Lu Ran and Six-Path Flower stayed behind, exchanging glances.

"The Wishful-Dream God is too naive," Six-Path Flower muttered.

While it was acting as a guardian beast of the empire, not a single emperor mentioned the god. It could be in part due to the Wishful-Dream God hoping to stay hidden behind the scenes. Deep down, it believed that the Wishful-Dream God did the right thing. If it didn’t wipe out the empire, then it would forever serve as evidence of a past mistake.

"There was no other way. The beastmasters of the Beastmaster Empire were ultimately too weak," Manager Ying quipped. "Although Wishful-Dream God had beautiful ideals, humans are led astray too easily. They are often seduced by power and inevitably get embroiled in war. Look at the present-day Xia. There is pervasive peace, so people treat their pets as family. People behave differently in times of peace and war.

"Lu Ran, you should listen to the Divine Deer. Don't let the Wishful-Dream God find you. You are definitely a villain. Look at how you’re abusing and torturing your familiars. If the Wishful-Dream God sees you, then it definitely won’t let you off easy?"

Lu Ran: ???

"That’s rubbish. Dark Crow, do I not treat you well?” he asked Dark Crow, who was perched on an arm of the throne.

"Well, if we look at it objectively, Captain Doofus gets its teeth knocked out during training all the time. Sudden Death King is constantly getting beaten till within an inch of death. My diet partially consists of my own eyeballs. But in my opinion, you are a great king, and one day you will for sure start treating us well one day!

"There is no growth without sacrifice. Only after a storm can we appreciate the beauty of a rainbow, after all. I believe in you, my king!" Dark Crow exclaimed.

"Hey!"

"I think we’ve all heard enough." Manager Ying didn’t have anything else to add. The crow was really an idiot sometimes.

“How do I always end up getting involved with psychos?"

Six-Path Flower was glad that it met Lu Ran after it was already decently strong. Otherwise, it couldn’t imagine the kind of hell Lu Ran would put it through. Well, it was a co-conspirator of the horrible training that Captain Doofus, Sudden Death, and Dark Crow went through. It really couldn’t say much.

To be honest, Six-Path Flower’s main job essentially boiled down to babysitting, and it followed Lu Ran around to milk the benefits from Limitless City. It shouldn’t end up like those other three and be forced to go through some crazy training regimen.

"Alright. Since we started it, we might as well finish," Lu Ran said as he stretched. "Our next step is to continue growing our fledgling empire. Dr. Gu and Fang Lan are already aware of your existence, so let's recruit them first.

"Six-Paths Flower, you are now a guardian beast of our empire. Manager Ying, I am appointing you as the head of the Beastmaster Empire’s intelligence agency—Cat’s Eye. As for Dr. Gu and Fang Lan..."

"The harem?" Six-Paths Flower joked. “Based on my many years of experience as the guardian of an empire, the condition of the everyday citizens is critical to the overall strength of the nation. The strength of the royal family, harem, and royal descendants determines the trajectory of the nation, along with the power of the military and civil officials.

"If you want to quickly build an empire and recruit powerful individuals, the easiest place to start is with the royal family."

“...”

"That makes sense!” Dark Crow chirped. "There is also a Silk Tree Albizia in the Death Forest. Why don’t you make that the national tree?"

"That’s an awful idea. My only goal is to speed up my training. Getting married and having kids is a waste of time. Let’s cut the chit chat. I'll go meet the old president. If I can convince him to take up a position in the empire, then I'll let him set up his own department.” Lu Ran smiled as he dialed the old president's number.

"President!"

"Well done, Lu Ran. Please thank the Amazonian Flower God on behalf of Xia and me."

"You're welcome! There's something I want to talk to you about.

"The Amazonian Flower God established an empire in the Amazon rainforest. She invited me to take up an official position within the empire and wants me to recruit you. What do you think? Before you became a beastmaster, weren't you an archaeologist? It’ll give you your own archaeology department!"

The old president remained silent for a moment.

It wants to recruit me? What is it planning?

"Old President, the Flower God has an ability that allows it to increase the lifespan of other living beings."

"I don’t really care about that. Age is just a number. I would rather retire than be young again. What position did you end up getting in this Amazonian empire?"

"I’m the emperor."

Huh?