Beastmaster King-Chapter 190 - Soul-Cutting Blade

Ming An City, outskirts.

Even after being shocked by Lu Ran’s great ideals, Black Feather still chose to accompany him. The night was heavy and dark. In the tall grass, a plump, cat-sized giant rat was gnawing on something.

Draped in black robes, Lu Ran and Black Feather stood in the distance. Lu Ran selected this creature as his first experimental target.

[Name: Giant Rat Beast]

[Attribute: Unawakened]

[Species Rank: Low Transcendent]

[Level: 3]

Hmm... Pathetically weak.

Dealing with such a creature, Lu Ran didn’t even bother summoning Captain Doofus. Estimating the distance and calculating his strength, Lu Ran casually picked up a rock and hurled it.

Under Black Feather’s bewildered gaze, the rock struck the giant rat beast squarely, knocking it unconscious. Lu Ran could only think that not using his Crow Feather Bow was already an act of mercy.

“Let’s go.”

At Lu Ran’s signal, Black Feather quickly followed. Soon, Lu Ran arrived in front of the unconscious giant rat beast and pulled out his Soul Calming Brick.

Pa!

The brick struck the giant rat beast, and a gray soul was forcefully extracted.

Since the beast’s consciousness was already faint, the extracted soul was hazy and unclear. Seeing this, Black Feather gulped.

“How do you plan to cook it?”

“I’ve mastered a special beastmaster skill. Let’s start by trying to grill the soul.” Lu Ran extended his finger, summoning flames.

There were countless beastmaster skills that granted practitioners unique abilities. Many chefs could control flames, so Black Feather wasn’t particularly surprised, especially since Lu Ran had already revealed his identity as a chef.

However, Lu Ran soon encountered a challenge. The Flame Spirit, capable of discerning the optimal cooking temperature for ingredients, showed no reaction to the soul.

It was evident that even the Flame Spirit had its limits. Not even its creator, Emperor Flame Quake, could have imagined someone using it to grill souls one day.

Without the Flame Spirit’s assistance, Lu Ran could only rely on his experience. He lowered the flame to its weakest setting and began grilling the soul. As predicted, it didn’t work. Unlike ordinary ingredients, a soul couldn’t be grilled.

Even with Lu Ran’s flames reduced to a bare flicker, the giant rat beast’s soul, being far too fragile, dissipated into white smoke in an instant, its essence obliterated.

In layman’s terms, it was soul annihilation. The beast’s physical body seemed to sink into a deeper, eternal slumber, as if it would never awaken again.

They were speechless.

“It looks like it’s going to be a challenge.” Lu Ran turned to Black Feather.

“I thought this idea was absurd from the beginning,” Black Feather replied.

“Maybe the intention is good, but if even the legendary necromancers of the Cult of Death couldn’t solve this, then for us, isn’t it a bit...”

“This is just the beginning. Don’t panic,” Lu Ran said, falling into deep thought.

“Let’s try other cooking methods...”

At present, Ming An City was overrun with rats, making giant rat beasts the natural hunting target for his experiments. Under Black Feather’s watchful eye, Lu Ran tried boiling, steaming, and even smoking the souls, but the results were the same. The fragile souls dissipated in moments.

“They’re too weak. Their spiritual bodies are far too fragile to endure even the slightest violence. The key is that there aren’t any stronger souls nearby for experimentation.”

After numerous attempts, Lu Ran finally discovered a method that didn’t immediately destroy the soul. By burning refreshing wood, which removed odors, he created a half-cooked, smoky rat soul. The soul inhaled the fragrant smoke, and before it could collapse, Lu Ran quickly asked Black Feather to taste it.

Black Feather reluctantly summoned her familiar, an undead fox. The little fox happily devoured the rat soul, but afterward, Black Feather shook her head.

“It’s no different from devouring a regular soul. My familiar still sensed residual consciousness fragments within the soul.”

“What about the flavor?” Lu Ran asked.

“Wuu~”

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freewebnσvel.cøm.

The fox spirit shook its head vigorously. It sucks! It sucks! It cannot be compared to raw souls.

“So, smoking the soul does change its flavor. However, refreshing wood fails to remove the impurities in the soul, making it unsuitable for undead consumption.” Lu Ran was pleased with this insight.

At least it proved that the flavor of souls could be altered. If their flavor could change, then finding the right seasonings might purify the soul’s impurities.

“That’s enough for today. Thank you for your help, Miss Black Feather,” Lu Ran said.

“Alright.” Black Feather nodded.

She sincerely wished for Lu Ran’s success but couldn’t help feeling his chances were slim. Still, Lu Ran was incredibly earnest. She glanced at the bag of unconscious giant rat beasts Lu Ran carried and fell silent.

If Master Gao Li inquired later, how should I explain this...

Even Gao Li, a seasoned necromancer, might find Lu Ran’s endeavors borderline insane.

***

Back at the courtyard, Lu Ran immersed himself in his pursuit of cooking rat souls. His experiments became even more unconventional after his return.

For example, he attempted to dissect the rat souls, dividing them into segments to study their structure. Unfortunately, the moment he made any movement, the soul dissipated entirely, leaving no room for dissection.

“Souls contain the consciousness of their former lives, which could be called soul memories. Those so-called soul searches in cultivation novels must refer to extracting them.

“A soul is, in essence, a cluster of energy—a necessary nutrient for undead familiars to sustain their existence. Souls are not inherently toxic as the harmful elements lie within the consciousness embedded in them.

“The accumulation of such conscious fragments pollutes the minds of undead familiars and necromancers alike, driving them to madness and irrationality.

“If I can deodorize the soul like removing the fishiness from food, and separate the consciousness from the spiritual body, it might work. However, this is extremely challenging, similar to creating an entirely new recipe.

“Even if I had access to all the ingredients across the Stellar Moon Continent, I wouldn’t know how long it would take to find the right combination. It’s not something that can be forced. But beyond that, theoretically, there must be another way to remove the impurities within a soul.

“If we treat the soul as a kind of ingredient with undesirable elements, the simplest and most direct approach would be to cut them away. However, common beastmaster kitchenware lacks the ability to cut through souls.”

Lu Ran stared at the rat soul, which disintegrated upon contact with his kitchen knife, deep in thought. Common utensils merely passed through the spiritual body without causing harm, while ones used by beastmasters deformed the soul upon contact, leading to collapse. Cutting souls was impossible.

“Perhaps common beastmaster kitchenware simply lacks the nature to cut souls. If I forged specialized tools using soul-related minerals, could they potentially slice through spiritual bodies?”

His gaze shifted to the Soul Calming Stone.

Could this be forged into a blade?

No matter what, Lu Ran resolved to gather more pieces of this material in the secret realm. He needed a Soul-Cutting Blade, a tool capable of smoothly slicing through souls!

However, even if such a blade were forged, Lu Ran wasn’t entirely confident that his knife skills could separate the spiritual body from the embedded consciousness.

The concept was so abstract that even Emperor Flame Quake would likely need time to ponder this problem. Solving this would require a profound understanding and expertise in soul-related phenomena.

“Soul-type Sword Intent. If I could master Soul-type Sword Intent, I might not even need a Soul-Cutting Blade. Any weapon infused with it could inflict slicing damage on spiritual bodies.”

Before long, Lu Ran began considering another direction for his research. But again, the concept of Soul-type Sword Intent was deeply abstract. Faced with this daunting problem, Lu Ran decided to pass the responsibility along.

“Captain Doofus, aren’t you always boasting about your capabilities? Take the Soul Calming Stone and go play with it. Figure out how to comprehend Soul-Cutting Sword Intent. Oh, and remember. No eating the rats!”

Moments later, a bewildered Captain Doofus was summoned. After letting out a few disgruntled howls at Lu Ran’s shamelessness, it became intrigued by the Soul Calming Stone and the spiritual bodies, running off to experiment.

Of course, Lu Ran didn’t actually expect Captain Doofus to succeed. If Captain Doofus possessed the Absolute Comprehension Trait or was an Undead-attribute familiar, Lu Ran might have harbored some hope. As things stood, he merely wanted it to familiarize itself with the materials.

Lu Ran understood that resolving the drawbacks of undead familiars would be a long-term endeavor, not something achievable in the short term.

“Hmm?” Just as he dismissed Captain Doofus, Lu Ran had a sudden flash of inspiration for another method to separate soul and consciousness.

“I must really be a genius!”

Lu Ran retrieved the swordgrass from his Sword-Nurturing Pot and stared at it thoughtfully.

“Does the swordgrass have a soul? If it does, whether conscious or unconscious, what would happen if I used the Soul Calming Stone to extract it? Could it yield a soul swordgrass? Wouldn’t that be a natural Soul-Cutting Blade?”

“Woof! Woof! Woof!”

At that moment, Lu Ran snatched back the Soul Calming Stone from Captain Doofus. Under its shocked gaze, he began pounding the treasured weapon with the stone. As predicted, it wasn’t as simple as Lu Ran had hoped.

The swordgrass, not yet a transcendent lifeform, was essentially no different from a regular plant. Perhaps, after becoming a transcendent entity, it might transform into an undead plant and develop a soul. But for now, it didn’t possess one.

Frustrated, Lu Ran also tried using the swordgrass to directly cut through a soul, but that, too, failed.

“This is so difficult. No wonder even the Cult of Death and The Other Shore couldn’t solve this problem,” Lu Ran muttered, rubbing his temples.

For now, the closest solution seemed to be mastering Soul-type Sword Intent.

Lu Ran decided to focus on exploring Soul-Cutting Sword Intent with Captain Doofus. As for his current mission, Lu Ran wasn’t worried. His task was to defend the city. Even if all the Cult of Death’s forces were eliminated, as long as he single-handedly defeated the enemies, it would still count as victory!

It was the attacking side that needed to feel the urgency. Lacking their intelligence, Lu Ran couldn’t blindly go hunting for them in the dark. He would wait for them to make a move before responding.

At that moment, he deeply appreciated the value of the Eye of the Evil God Trait. If he had already contracted Captain Crow and it possessed the Eye of the Evil God, he could simply curse the enemy forces to death from a distance. There would be no need for this waiting game.

***

Meanwhile, Black Feather was summoned by Gao Li to report on Lu Ran’s situation.

“What??? Grilling souls? Steaming souls? Boiling souls? Smoking souls?”

Gao Li, a veteran necromancer whose meals were never without soul-based ingredients, was utterly shocked. Hearing Black Feather’s account made his stomach churn uncomfortably. However, after a moment’s thought, he smiled.

“Let him be. This time, we’ve truly stumbled upon a gem.”

Seeing Sudden Death King so devoted to studying the undead attribute, and even striving to resolve the inherent flaws of necromancy, Gao Li was ecstatic. It wasn’t uncommon for a missionary to find a talented newcomer.

But discovering someone with both outstanding talent and such lofty ideals? That was as rare as ascending to heaven. If the higher-ups in the Cult of Death were to learn about this, they wouldn’t just groom Lu Ran as a core member; he might even be treated as a Holy Son-level candidate.

Of course, if Lu Ran somehow defied all odds and succeeded in his research, the implications would be of an entirely different magnitude.

A multitude of divine emissaries might clamor to endorse Sudden Death King as the next leader of the cult.

Gao Li scoffed at his own imagination, dismissing it as far-fetched. Such a thing was clearly impossible.

“Keep a close eye on him,” he instructed.

“Yes, sir.” Black Feather nodded.

Black Feather was feeling satisfied as she observed Master Gao Li’s shocked expression. It seemed even this experienced necromancer found Lu Ran’s experiments absurdly bold.

***

On the other side.

Nine participants from Blue Planet gathered once more. The Knight of Moonlight from the Golden Generation spoke.

“I’ve gathered some information. Currently, Ming An City is controlled by a necromancer named Gao Li, a missionary of the Cult of Death.

“He commands three Champion undead familiars, all at level 30. He’s just a level 2 necromancer. Within Ming An City, he’s likely the strongest opponent we’ll face. Although he has many subordinates, they don’t seem particularly formidable.

“If we can persuade the remnants of the imperial army to join forces with us in attacking the city, taking Ming An City shouldn’t be too difficult!”