Wang Mu swallowed hard again.
His face turned serious as he said, “Prove it to me. Of course, with your abilities, you don’t owe me any proof—this is just to satisfy my own curiosity.”
Unconsciously, his address toward Lu Ran had already shifted to the respectful “you.”*
That’s just how this world worked—only the strong earned genuine respect.
Having said that, Wang Mu stepped back a distance, waiting for Lu Ran’s demonstration.
But then, he received a party invite from Lu Ran.
Huh?
“Just in case of accidental damage—let’s group up first. I’ll keep my skill range contained within this training ground. Otherwise, the entire imperial capital would be caught in the blast,” Lu Ran explained, as if reading Wang Mu’s confusion.
“Alright.” Wang Mu paused for two seconds, then accepted the party invite.
He’d stopped asking questions now. At this point, seeing it with his own eyes would be more convincing than anything else.
In the party, besides himself, there were the four guild leaders. Plus Lu Ran, that made six people total.
Any group over five wasn’t a party anymore—it was a raid.
Inside the raid interface, Wang Mu glanced at Lu Ran’s level and felt his heart skip a beat.
Awakened just over twenty days ago, and already level forty-seven!
What an insane level. What an insane leveling speed!
Next, Lu Ran looked at the training dummies not far away, but honestly, he didn’t really need them for a demonstration anymore.
As for Necrotic Touch, it required enemy targets within range to show any effect—otherwise nothing would happen.
In that case…
“Bone Storm—you should be familiar with that one,” Lu Ran said.
The moment the words left his mouth—
Countless pale-white bones materialized in the surrounding space, then erupted from the ground!
The entire training ground was instantly engulfed in a Bone Storm. Every training dummy in the area was caught within it. And the storm kept stacking upon itself—layer after layer, growing denser and denser until it almost completely blocked out everyone’s vision.
Wang Mu stared, utterly dumbfounded.
Lu Ran was right—as the number one necromancer in Dragon Xia, of course he was familiar with Bone Storm!
But…
No matter how familiar he was, it wasn’t supposed to look like this!
“The density is way too high—this can’t be just one Bone Storm.”
“His skills really do have no cooldown! Infinite stacking! Which means the damage… that’s absolutely terrifying!”
“And the range—it can cover an entire training ground this size?”
“According to what you’ve said, Lu Ran’s casting range and area coverage both exceed a thousand kilometers. That’s…”
“The skill that lets Lu Ran control his area of effect must be that attached ability from the Sea-Calming Trident, right?”
“I used to laugh at that skill and call it useless—but on Lu Ran, it’s a perfect match!”
“I… have no words…”
Wang Mu spoke, his voice shaking with shock.
Then, just as he finished, something else occurred to him.
He asked in surprise, “Wait, Lu Ran—you’re a necromancer, so… what about your summons? Your undead minions—do they also have no cooldown?”
At that, Lu Ran had an idea. He dispelled the Bone Storm.
Once the scene settled down, he began summoning skeleton soldiers directly.
Since this was a skill demonstration, Lu Ran summoned them openly. And he used Legion Guard to bring out ten skeletons at once.
Along with them came ancient golems, banshees…
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Undead creatures kept popping out, one after another, at an incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the surrounding area was densely packed with over a hundred undead minions.
Even Wang Mu, seasoned as he was, had never seen anything like this before.
Staring at the massive, dark horde around him, his breathing grew rapid.
“They really have no cooldown! What the hell—is this even a necromancer anymore?! No wonder… no wonder… this is just too damn overpowered!” Wang Mu was completely losing it—he couldn’t even describe how he felt right now.
But then, his mind immediately started racing.
He said excitedly, “So that means Lu Ran’s skills have a thousand-kilometer range—Necrotic Touch, Bone Storm, all of them? And they have no cooldown?”
“Correct,” Yu Qingcang nodded.
“Then during the Nation War, wouldn’t Lu Ran be able to control everyone from every country? Even if the control gets dispelled, he can just reapply it instantly—but their dispel skills have long cooldowns,” Wang Mu continued.
“Exactly,” Yu Qingcang nodded again.
“And Lu Ran can also drop his summons anywhere—within that thousand-kilometer range, just toss them wherever!” Wang Mu’s thinking was getting bolder.
“Of course,” Yu Qingcang said, a hint of pride creeping onto his face.
“Skeletons can explode—so that means he can drop bombs across the entire Nation War map? Indefinitely? Other countries wouldn’t even be able to move—they’d just be stuck waiting to die! And on top of that, the infinitely stacking Bone Storms can harvest them in massive waves!” Wang Mu grew more and more animated as he spoke.
“That’s exactly what we were getting at. The Nation War is only a few days away. It’s time for Dragon Xia, led by Lu Ran, to shock the entire world.” Yu Qingcang took a deep breath, speaking with satisfaction.
But then, Wang Mu’s expression suddenly turned grim.
His face dark with concern, he said, “Then how on earth did you dare let him participate in the Hundred Cities League? If Lu Ran’s abilities get exposed, do you even realize the consequences? It would trigger assassination attempts from every country in the world! Lu Ran’s power is immense, but he’s still a necromancer! And only in his forties! If he dies, that loss—no one can bear it!”
That worry was completely reasonable.
But Liu Xinxin cut in, “Your concern is valid, but you don’t need to overthink it. Right now, Lu Ran is invincible.”
Invincible?
“What do you mean? How is he invincible? Even if his skills have no cooldown, only defensive skills can be infinitely stacked—and necromancers don’t even have defensive skills. Besides, even if defensive skills could be stacked infinitely, if too many assassins come at him all at once with a focused burst, wouldn’t he still get taken down?” Wang Mu questioned.
“The explanation isn’t really complicated. Lu Ran has many abilities. One of them works like damage redirection—any damage he takes can be fully transferred to his summoned undead minions. In short, as long as his undead minions are still alive, he won’t die,” Liu Xinxin explained.
“Holy crap—it can work like that?” Wang Mu nearly jumped out of his skin.
But immediately, another thought struck him.
He asked, “Wait, no, that’s not right. Lu Ran can’t possibly walk around with undead minions all day, can he? What happens if he gets assassinated when he doesn’t have any summons with him? He wouldn’t even have time to react! And also—unfortunately, while Lu Ran can summon infinitely with no cooldown, the process itself isn’t fast enough. During the Nation War, even if he can dump unlimited summons across a massive area, the effect might not be as direct as just using Bone Storm.”
Ye Hongyi perked up with interest at this point.
She called out to Lu Ran, “Little brother, come on—show him your stockpile!”
Uh…
Lu Ran glanced around at the surroundings. “Right here?”
This training ground was way too small!
“Yeah, right here. You don’t have to show everything—just a portion of it,” Ye Hongyi urged.
“Alright then. I’ll just pull out a part of it,” Lu Ran nodded.
