82: Chapter 82 I Want to Become an Apprentice!
Grilling meat and having hotpot in the Extreme Cold Land was truly a divine existence.
Chu Ran, who hadn't had a proper meal for the past two days, began to feast heartily...
Watching him eat with such gusto, the tense nerves of the International Alliance members suddenly relaxed.
It made sense... whether they worried or relaxed, it was impossible for a god to appear on the Tianxuan Continent within a mere thirty days anyway...
They might as well enjoy these final moments...
What if this Kaiyang Divine Palace turned out to be a righteous force...
...
Looking up at the sky full of stars, Chu Ran suddenly realized the insignificance of the Tianxuan Continent, and recognized his own insignificance as well.
At that moment, Lu Xiu from the International Alliance sat down beside Chu Ran with a smile.
"Master, what is your secret to staying so young?" Lu Xiu asked with a curious smile.
Chu Ran was taken aback.
What did he mean by 'staying young'? He had never been old in the first place...
"How old do you think I should be?" Chu Ran asked with a faint smile. The young man before him didn't look much older than himself...
"At least forty... no, probably fifty..." Lu Xiu began to guess, but the smile on Chu Ran's face made him unsure: "Maybe over sixty..."
Chu Ran nearly laughed himself silly as he made a hand gesture:
"I just turned eighteen."
Lu Xiu instantly jumped up, tilting his head to stare at Chu Ran with a serious expression.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Lu Xiu's face was filled with doubt—or rather, it was more like horror!
Eighteen years old... with two top-tier Saint Spirit Level beasts!?
How could that be possible?!
Chu Ran didn't explain, keeping only a faint smile on his face.
After a while, Lu Xiu finally accepted this unbelievable reality...
His expression turned incredibly sour: "Grandpa Meng Feier said yesterday that I was the most talented person in all of Tianxuan. I didn't expect to run into you today..."
After some conversation, Chu Ran learned about this young man's background.
Starting as an orphan, he showed astonishing Light Element abilities in the orphanage. Discovered by Alliance Leader Meng Feier of the International Alliance, he became the youngest Peak Eighth Turn powerhouse in one fell swoop... he had even vaguely sensed a sliver of the Law of Light...
What was even more terrifying was that he was only twenty-two!
With this level of strength, let alone the Dragon Country, even among the geniuses of the Desert trials, no one could compare to him...
Chu Ran was also shocked by the talent of the youth before him...
The Light Element was a class that grew stronger the further one progressed...
At First Turn or Second Turn, one might only be useful as a lightbulb, but once they stepped into the Seventh Turn, it was a qualitative transformation. It was the class with the strongest single-target damage, bar none!
In terms of single-target damage, even the Thunder and Fire elements couldn't hold a candle to the Light Element!
...
Meng Feier watched Lu Xiu's shouting from a distance, and his expression darkened.
Lu Xiu was a good kid in every way, except he talked too much no matter the occasion, chirping away like a parrot...
"Lu Xiu, don't disturb the Master's meal..."
Meng Feier was just about to stop Lu Xiu's behavior when he heard what the boy said, causing him to freeze on the spot...
"How about you join our International Alliance? I'll take you as my master," Lu Xiu said, putting an arm around Chu Ran's shoulder.
Meng Feier's eyes widened into circles.
This wretched brat really dared to say anything... Setting aside that there were no benefits to joining the International Alliance so the Master definitely wouldn't join... isn't it a bit too forward to ask to be a disciple right off the bat...
What would a Light Element class user learn from a Beast Taming Master?
The optimal incubation temperature for beasts?!
"Master, please don't mind him. The boy is just being immature and joking around," Meng Feier stepped forward, grabbing Lu Xiu by the ear as he explained to Chu Ran.
Even though he had reached the Ninth Revolution, he still didn't dare act as an elder when facing the Master who possessed a Peak Saint Spirit beast...
He couldn't even handle one of the opponent's beasts. If they fought, he would likely end up like the Wolf Emperor... perhaps even worse.
"It's fine. I'll join," Chu Ran said calmly.
Not just Meng Feier and Lu Xiu, but even the others in the distance were stunned upon hearing this, staring at Chu Ran with bewildered eyes.
"Huh?"
"Since the International Alliance doesn't even have a formal structure, whether I join or not doesn't really matter, right?" Chu Ran said indifferently.
The International Alliance wasn't even a proper organization; it was a spontaneous gathering. As long as they shared the same ideals, joining or not didn't really matter...
Chu Ran only joined because he wanted to get first-hand information regarding the extraterrestrial forces, and...
"You said you've set foot in almost every corner of the Tianxuan Continent..."
Lu Xiu nodded repeatedly.
"How much do you know about the Abyss?" Chu Ran asked succinctly.
The Wolf Emperor's monster core didn't match the Thunder Flood Dragon. The only place he could think of where a Saint Spirit Grade Demonic Beast might exist was that last death zone...
"Uh..."
Hearing this, everyone's expressions immediately darkened.
"We do know a bit about the Abyss and its specific location, but that was in the past..." Lu Xiu said with a troubled look. "Before we came to support Hanfeng Country, we originally planned to explore the Abyss once, but for some reason, the aura of the Abyss has become several times more violent than before! The pressure is so strong that we don't dare approach lightly..."
"If extraterrestrial forces really exist on the Tianxuan Continent, the most likely hiding place would be the Abyss!" Meng Feier said seriously. "It is now the most dangerous place in Tianxuan! Bar none! I don't recommend going there right now."
It seemed the Abyss had always been the most dangerous place in all of Tianxuan...
"Before coming to Hanfeng Country, we also received calls for help from Sakura Sun Country and Nanxiu Country. But strangely, the crises were resolved before we arrived, and the casualties were very low... Even more bizarrely, the overlords of the Endless Sea Region and the Desert are dead..." Meng Feier suddenly recalled these events. "Perhaps this is related to the Abyss's unrest..."
Chu Ran said with absolute certainty, "It definitely has nothing to do with it."
"Why?"
"Because I was the one who solved them," Chu Ran said calmly.
Everyone was stunned, speechless with shock...
"Don't you guys check surveillance when you do investigations..." Chu Ran complained.
Meng Feier's old face instantly turned red. They had originally intended to gather information, but they received the plea for help from Hanfeng Country, so they hadn't looked into it closely for the sake of speed...
"In other words... the overlords of the three major death zones, excluding the Abyss, have all died at your hands?" a powerhouse from the International Alliance asked in disbelief.
Chu Ran nodded.
"You just said you wanted to go to the Abyss, right..." Lu Xiu reached out in a gesture of invitation and said excitedly:
"Master, I'll lead the way for you right now!"
...